Some eight months ago, the Student Senate quietly passed a rule entitling students to free tickets to all incidental fee-funded events. Since then, though, most people in the campus community have remained largely unaware of the rule — documented in the Green Tape Notebook, Rules of the University of Oregon Student Senate, 13.7 — including not only students who shell out funds for those events, but also students who organize and advertise events, and even ticket distributors.
ASUO Controller Persis Pohowalla has said the ticket office and student groups should be aware of the rule change. But Mary Barrios, director of ticketing services, said that nobody in student government informed the EMU Ticket Office — which provides tickets for many student group events — of the change. Either way, no student has ever requested a free ticket from the student office, so none have been given out.
Even some members of the Student Senate seem to be unfamiliar with these ticketing rules. Students of the Indian Subcontinent, which recently hosted the fee-funded and ticketed Utsav celebration Jan. 30, was told by a student senator that the group was allowed to sell tickets with a mandatory charge for the event, given that the dinner portion was only a “suggested donation,” SIS co-Director Edwin Prasad said.
So, this is a simple, open-and-shut case of widespread ignorance of a rule. Unfortunately, until recently, no one seems to have told the ticket office or student groups about this rule.
Moreover, the Green Tape Notebook offers little incentive for groups to inform students that fee-funded event tickets technically carry a suggested donation, not a mandatory fee. As written, there’s no rule requiring student groups selling event tickets to make the distinction, ASUO Accounting Coordinator Jennifer Creighton-Neiwert said, calling the debacle “one area where the Senate needs to do more clarification to help the groups out.”
And so they should. To their credit, Student Senate Ombudsman Mike Sherman told the Emerald he would personally inform the ticket office about the rule. And this is a good start, but students deserve to be wholly informed about their options: After all, requiring students to pay for tickets to fee-sponsored events is tantamount to double-charging usually cash-strapped members of the University community.
So the Student Senate should amend the Green Tape Notebook to include a provision that requires groups to mention that ticket prices are indeed suggested donations on all advertisements, including advertisements at the ticket office. As a show of good faith, student groups should do this voluntarily in the interim.
Finally, the Student Senate should draft a memo to all student groups that could hold ticketed events, informing them of this seemingly little-known rule.