Congress seeks to alter ticket policy

Just days before the first ticket distribution for the 2004-05 men's basketball season, a majority of Student Congress representatives voted against the current ticket distribution policy before shifting their views and reversing the decision.

For a brief moment at Tuesday night's meeting, Saturday's ticket distribution was nearly eliminated - and Congress almost left UNC without a ticket distribution policy.

Carolina Athletic Association President Lindsay Strunk presented this year's men's basketball ticket distribution process before the body for its seemingly noncontroversial approval.

But after she explained the current system and answered questions, Congress members voted down the process.

The body quickly realized that if it did not reconsider, there would be no alternative plan to distribute the 4,000 to 6,000 tickets to UNC students for home basketball games.

"In the meantime, this is all we've got. We should vote for it and try to work towards something better for years to come," said Trey Winslett, chairman of the Committee on Athletics, who made a motion to reconsider the vote and implement the current distribution procedure for the time being.

Congress members had expressed their concern about the way tickets are distributed, claiming that constituents have problems with the current policy.

Ethics Committee Chairman Parker Wiseman stated his dissatisfaction with the way ticket distributions are handled.

He pointed to the current procedure's failure to consider graduate students with families. He also said that while the current process is suited to undergraduates, he believes that it does not serve graduate students well.

"Other universities who have ticket distributions as competitive and more competitive than ours, namely Duke, have done an exceptional job at realizing that students want to attend a game with their peer group," he said.

Wiseman noted that he does not expect nonstudents to receive free tickets, but that a peer group for a graduate student could be a spouse or a child.

Currently, every student who attends a home basketball game with a student ticket must display a UNC ONE Card.

Despite these concerns, Strunk said that changing the ticket distribution policy would take a lot of effort and demand more time than the CAA actually has.

Strunk said she supports the system because it has been an effective way to distribute tickets to such a large student body.

After the policy was approved, Speaker Charlie Anderson said that members were trying to encourage more student input for the procedure.

Winslett said he is working with the Committee on Athletics to propose legislation by the end of the semester.

The athletics committee also has plans to propose the creation of a ticket committee that would operate separately from Student Congress to address specific problems about the way tickets are distributed.

Winslett said students complain about the distribution policy often yet always say there is no alternative.

He said the athletics committee must accomplish its goal: "To find that alternative, create a more efficient system and think outside the box."

Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.