Originally published on March 24, 2015

Games at the rallies seem to be rigged in favor of the seniors. Have you noticed? It’s not exactly subtle. I remember booing loudly at my first rally as the announcer claimed the seniors had won. I was pretty sure they hadn’t.

During my junior year, I took photos at a rally for the first time and saw everything up-close and before my eyes. It went like this: when the seniors were defeated in a game, the match was called a tie, and then there was a redo. Sometimes the seniors wouldn’t win the redo. Mostly, they would.

At our most recent rally on March 6 it happened again. I’ll give you the eyewitness account — the juniors won the noodle-game against the seniors. If you’re right there it’s not hard to see. The junior whacked the senior with a bright green noodle and the match was called a tie.

All right. Well, who cares who won the noodle-game?

That’s really the question I ask myself. What is so important about winning the noodle-game that there has to be cheating just so the seniors can win it? Are our senior egos so fragile that we will be shattered by losing the noodle-game?

Student Body Council and Lowell Student Association, who run the rallies, deny that the games are rigged. Senior Rajan Dumbhalia, as a spokesperson, said, “It comes off as them [LSA] rigging it, but that’s not it — it’s just all these different factors come into it.” He pointed out that seniors this year have done terribly at the games, only winning one this spring.

Student Body Council and Lowell Student Association, who run the rallies, deny that the games are rigged.

Yes, and you can still lose a coin toss when you have a second flip, but once that second chance has been given, the coin toss is no longer fair.

Dumbhalia, who joined the board this year, said that to his knowledge all past rallies have been honest and all future rallies will continue to be.

Maybe all the incidents of the past have been really bad calls by the students who judge the games. Personally, I don’t think so. But whether the games are intentionally rigged is not actually the problem because, let’s face it, nobody does care who won the noodle game.

It’s not about who won or who lost. It’s that the games seem unfair.

Lowell is, in general, gloriously free of the normal lower and upper-class splits. Yes, there’s mumbling about “the Freshman,” but when I entered Lowell I was warned about “Freshman Fridays” and potential harassment — none of which ever occurred. So rigged games for the seniors — even the appearance of rigged games — are out of place. They only poison relationships between the grades and breed resentment. In my mind, that’s the antithesis of the school spirit rallies are supposed to represent.

So let me say this to next year’s seniors. Remember how loudly you booed at the rally? This cheating is a cycle, and it can stop with you.