Students slam Kickoff 2000 as confusing, time consuming
By ANNE MARIE MATTINGLY
News Editor
This year's football ticket distribution procedure proved complicated and cumbersome, students said Tuesday after senior class ticket sales.
The system featured a student picnic at Stepan Center Monday where University ushers handed out lottery stickers on students' ticket applications. At the conclusion of the picnic, a number was drawn to determine which student would be able to buy the first ticket. Sales proceeded numerically from the chosen number, with numbers from one to that number lining up after the higher numbers. Students without stickers will be last in line.
"I really disliked it," said senior Zack Bray. "There's got to be a way they can do it without making you show up at three different places at three different times. They should make it clear exactly what you have to do."
Senior John Osborn expressed confusion about the reasoning behind the lottery tickets or even seat assignments.
"All they should do is designate one section of the stadium for each class," he said. "You can sit with your friends and get good seats if you get there early."
Freshmen in particular found the system confusing.
"I thought it could have been more organized," said first-year student Brita Hellige. "We had to be there for a long time."
Katie Twidwell agreed
"The info sheet was helpful, but not helpful enough," she said.
Christina Maher, also a first-year student, explained that many of the freshmen did not understand the procedure until they arrived at the picnic.
Several students attended the picnic just to receive their stickers and did not stay for the events planned by the Office of Student Activities and student government.
"I stood in line, got my sticker and left," said sophomore Kris Forcier. "By the time we got through the line, we were ready to go because it was such a long wait."
Despite the short stay of some students, student body president Brian O'Donoghue was pleased with the turnout.
"I think the student body showed up en masse and I have nothing but the utmost respect for the Notre Dame student body and the spirit they have shown," he said. O'Donoghue did note the length of the lines, as well as the absence of a convenient system for off-campus students to get their applications, as among the problems he believes need to be corrected.
One other difficulty with the system was a flaw in the lottery drawing that left some law and graduate students frustrated. Because there were fewer of them than undergraduates, there were not enough stickers issued to reach the "magic" number of 1098. Instead of conducting a second drawing to determine the starting number for those students, organizers began law and grad ticket sales with number one.
"It meant that it wasn't a lottery and standing in line was futile," said biology graduate student Brandi Hackett, who is collecting signatures to request an apology from the administration. "That is not random and that's not how you would do a randomization."
Hackett has contacted a number of University officials to determine if anything can be done, but said that officials have told her that there will be no change for this season.
"I've had absolutely no luck trying to do anything about it for this year," she said. Hackett noted that a number of people have suggested that this system is just as random as if the number drawn had been one, but she disagreed.
"If they pick number 88 and I have number 87 and I'm last in line, that's the luck of the draw, but this isn't at all that case," she said.
Ultimately, few seniors were present at 7 a.m. when ticket sales began, so all lottery numbers quickly received their tickets and then tickets were sold to students in the order they arrived, said senior Mark Donahey.
"I thought [the lottery system] was a complete waste of time," he said. "The people that showed up at seven o'clock got [the best tickets], regardless of the lottery. We had numbers, but you might as well have camped out."
O'Donoghue said he could not speculate about additional changes next year, but he did say that the Student Union will play a smaller role in planning the procedure.
Instead, future planning will be conducted jointly by Campus Security, the athletic department, the ticket office and Student Activities.
All News Stories for Wednesday, August 23, 2000
