Student Government sent out a wait-list for unused Founders’ Day Ball tickets on Feb. 16 so students will have another opportunity to get tickets if they missed the Founders’ Day tabling sessions outside the Campus Bookstore.
The wait-list was created for students unable to make the times on Feb. 4 thru Feb 15., when SG distributed tickets to the first 100 students.
About 400 students are currently on the wait-list, which is divided into two separate lists for undergraduate and graduate Founders’ Day tickets, according to Student Activities Director Karen Gerlach.
The list is first-come-first-serve and does not guarantee tickets to all students on the list, according to an email to all students from SG Vice President Palak Gosar. Students who have tickets but cannot attend Founders’ Day must give their unused tickets back to SG and not to other students, according to the email.
“There historically have been students that could no longer attend the event who had a pass and thus they surrender their pass, which would go to the first person on the wait-list,” Director of Founders’ Week Abigail Finn said.
SG gave away all their tickets each day, but the lines got longer, Finn said.
Puja Gujarathi, a senior in the Kogod School of Business, waited in line for 2 1/2 hours to get a ticket and thought the ticket distribution was unfair, she said.
“I do think that a lot of seniors were upset about not getting tickets,” Gujarathi said. “Most seniors don’t have time to wait in line for hours in the middle of the day. And even after waiting, they weren’t given a ticket because students were cutting in line.”
Finn said SG tries to improve the ticket distribution process each year, but SG did not anticipate how early students would line up.
“While next year’s Founder’s Day team will surely make improvements next year just like we did this year,” she said, “we made this event as big, fair and accessible as possible for all AU students.”
kschneck@theeagleonline.com
