Student Ticket Uproar

Every year, we hear thousands of complaints that the student ticket process is broken, scalping is rampant, and seniors who got tickets the three previous years are getting screwed out of seeing their final season because some punk-ass branch campus freshman wants to make a killing off of the season tickets he got over that senior. Now that Penn State actually wants to do something about it, those branch campusers are crying foul. Nuha. I’m calling shenanigans on this.

There’s a healthy debate going on over at RUTS, which I’ve taken part. Since the branch campusers don’t really have an argument to stand behind, they’ve resorted to “we will not be treated as second-class students” even though, they are! Instead of paraphrasing my points against them, I’ll just give it to you straight.

Here’s ZN’s official (as official as blogging can get) argument from RUTS:

“There’s a gigantic hole in the “what, so UP students are better?” argument. Listen, if priority were given to seniors, then juniors, etc., most of the branch campus kids wouldn’t be eligible anyway! So, yes, since most of the seniors and juniors (I think pretty much all are at UP) are at UP, they ARE MORE IMPORTANT. And I don’t have an interest in supporting UP students, either. Yes, I was at UP, but I was in the Blue Band all four years, so I never had to get tickets. But I did, however, fall victim to scalpers every time I wanted to let my folks see a game. (No, contrary to popular belief, Blue Band members DON’T get comp tickets for even their own parents to see them) So don’t give us that crap argument about branch campus kids being “less important,” because you’re most likely a frosh or sophomore… AND NOT IMPORTANT!”

The truth hurts. Especially when you’re on the wrong side of it. As a matter of fact, I just thought of one more thing to poke yet another hole in the opposition’s argument. Some of the LTEs (Letters to the editor) argued that Penn State is correct in this newly proposed policy because branch campus students are less likely to attend every game. I didn’t like that argument at first, but now I realize why it’s valid.

It took me four years to figure this out, but there’s a little known (relatively) ticket window on the east side of the stadium, across from the visitor center. On game days, four hours prior to kickoff, they actually sell tickets to the general public! No, not just at Youngstown State or Florida International games. My senior season—2005—in Blue Band, senior day was against No. 12 Wisconsin. My parents didn’t have tickets, but were going to try their luck with the scalpers, but my dad soon saw a line by that side of the stadium. He asked what it was, and the half-dozen people there said “we’re buying tickets.” He figured that it was pre-order only, but no, he just bought four tickets for face value. Why can’t branch campus students just get to the game four hours early, and get tickets that way? Don’t tell me they can’t leave that early, because I live in northern Virginia, and I left for the FIU game last season at 4:30 a.m.

Go State! Stand up (Finally) for your senior class!

Collegian article on tying student tix to ID cards.