Taylor University Silent Night FAQ

Being a Taylor University student, I feel it important to answer some questions regarding Taylor University's Silent Night that have emerged in the wave of national attention it has received.

They weren’t completely silent. Doesn’t this make it a fail?
To clear up the misunderstanding, the Taylor Men's Basketball Team itself cheers every year for the whole game (as does the opposing team and opposing team’s fans of course), and is not expected to do otherwise; only the Taylor fans are. On a dunk this year (it was not the one in the video; it was this one), though, some Taylor students couldn't restrain themselves from cheering (one student basically communicated he had to give him props after a stern look from us). This year was probably the worst at keeping the silence that I have been here. Keeping 1,500 people that quiet for that long (which is the approximate Silent Night attendance) is an accomplishment regardless of whether it is “perfect” or not. Based on the video alone, this is not a fail, unless you apply an extreme view of the word "silent". There is a video of the 2009 Silent Night on the Taylor website that shows the Taylor fans stay silent during the event.

That has got to really creep out the opposing team. Am I right?
As far as the players, it does seem to rattle them. Given the 112-67 win for Taylor this year, it definitely seemed to work. It seems the opponents fans don't really know what to make of it. They mostly have a deer in the headlights look during the times I have looked over at them. Many of their fans seem to secretly enjoy the craziness including the four OSU Marion cheerleaders that came, which participated in a dance-off at half time in which two Taylor students did backflips simultaneously (which was not included in the video along with distracting tactics we used when OSU Marion was shooting free throws, which there is a picture of here).

What is with the dudes with toilet paper on them?
A lot of the paper seen in the video is paper shards from a sign they made that parodied the replacement of paper towels in the restrooms with Xcelerator air dryers and the addition of woodchip paths on campus. It said "Taylor University uses high speed, obnoxiously loud, energy efficient blowers to save money for the ever-expanding woodchip path project...Xcelerator". They ripped it to shreds when the 10th point was scored. The other paper is paper towels and there is some toilet paper (even though it is not directly related) used as part of this "Revenge of the Paper Towel". BroHo (3rd floor of Samuel Morris Hall) in past years has also parodied an Echo article (the school newspaper) referring to their dorm as the "lost boys" by dressing up in Peter Pan regalia, created a giant gingerbread house (not made out of gingerbread of course), and created a full nativity scene (in order from most recent to older). They hide until the 10th point is scored as mentioned in the Silent Night Yahoo article and then erupt in cheering like the rest of the fans.

Alcohol and drugs must have played at least a small part in the event, right?

Since Taylor is a Christian college where students agree to uphold the University's no alcohol use for all undergraduates rule (not just those under 21) and narcotics are illegal, they would be breaking University policy (and the law depending), which is codified in the Life Together Covenant (LTC), if those were involved (not that that keeps all students from doing it). Despite that, life in the dorms often resembles Greek life at public colleges with Penthouse (4th floor of Samuel Morris Hall) going around campus having people do root beer keg stands on Cinco de Mayo in toga outfits to name an example.