Student ticket uproar, this time at Michigan

Naturally, since I'm a supporter of UPAC's proposed changes to Penn State student season ticket packages--giving priority to certain students, like seniors and those at University Park--I absolutely love that this could become precedent in the near future. The higher ups at Michigan have adopted their own changes to that university's student ticket policies. Of course, their satellite campuses are raging.

From MLive.com via MichiganSportsCenter.com:

"This is the first time I'm aware of that an official policy has made a distinction between UM students," said Wade Merrill, 29, a UM-Flint graduate student and president of the university's athletic association.

"Incoming freshmen at Ann Arbor now have more rights to see games up close than someone who has been at UM-Flint for four years. It doesn't make any sense."

Under a longtime policy, class standing determined who received the most desirable seats when purchasing UM football tickets, without regard to which UM branch the student attended.

The new policy gives top priority to Ann Arbor students, based on credit hours."

This is very similar to PSU's problem with student tickets. The only problem with Michigan's policies, is that they're ALREADY LAW. How much lower can UM get these days? Penn State only proposed the changes, not go out and make the decision behind closed doors.

"UM-Ann Arbor freshman Matt McGuffie, 18, said the new policy is fair.

"I don't know anybody from Flint or Dearborn who comes down for the games," he said. "In just talking around, the students are from Ann Arbor."

Johnson responded: "That's not true. All of my friends at UM (Flint) buy tickets and go to games every week."

Merrill, who spearheaded the protest, said a larger issue than sporting event tickets is at stake.

"It's about football, but it's also about access to university resources for all Michigan students," said Merrill, an assistant single sales copy manager at The Flint Journal."

Sound familiar? At least PSU can watch this situation closely, to get a heads up on what not-to do.

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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.

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State College's finest at it again

When one Penn State student was issued a jaywalking ticket this week, it must have been like getting hit by a b-- er, ooh, wait.

Not that I want to inundate the Web with this story, but I feel this is just so outrageous, I can't let it go. You've most likely read about the Penn State student who was hit by a vehicle while trying to catch a CATA bus on W. College Ave. Then, while in the hospital, the officer who responded to the scene issued her a jaywalking citation. What a royal jackass.

I promise, this won't take long. If there were a small-town equivalent to the Bush-Cheney administration, it would be the State College Police department. It's almost as if their sole mission is to generate as much revenue as possible from tickets and citations, mainly given to college students--students who are the singular force behind the central Pennsylvania economic structure, and keeping these low lives employed. I can't tell you how many times I was ticketed less than five minutes after a College/Beaver Ave meter expired.

Here's another great one from the SCPD: I was driving down W. College Ave, and got to the intersection with Blue Course Drive. While waiting at the light, a maroon Dodge minivan traveling Southbound on Blue Course proceeded to make a U-turn at the intersection. A police cruiser was DIRECTLY BEHIND THIS VAN. Remember that, it's important later in this story.

So my girlfriend and I were kind of laughing that the cop didn't even notice this person making an illegal U-turn (a moving violation). Just as the van finished the turn, our light turned green. We made the right onto Blue Course, not too far from the van. Then, the cop actually makes the same U-turn as the van, and started to speed up. Obviously, he was going to finally make the traffic stop and nab the van's driver. NO! He pulled me over, and in a condescending tone asked me if I knew U-turns were illegal. I was ready to flip a shit on this guy, but I simply told him that the van that was right in front of his eyes made the turn, and that it's probably too far gone to do anything now. Thankfully, he believed us. To this day, I don't know what that cop was looking at. All I know is that if the rest of the SCPD is as alert as this winner, we're all in trouble.

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