Is a policy that holds 1,000 USC tickets for students who aren’t on campus unfair?
A few law school students think so.
Student Bar Association President Ed Wilson said student government was unfair to law school students when it implemented a policy that held 1,000 of the total 5,700 student tickets until Thursday before the game, giving students who return after the tickets are available a chance to snag one.
The policy is new this year, ASUO Finance Coordinator Nick Hudson said, and was created because student government wanted to ensure that all student tickets, which are paid with incidental fees, are picked up.
But the policy is another example of the ASUO’s lack of consideration for the law school, some students say. The ASUO Executive also eliminated a policy that gave free football and men’s basketball tickets to students’ spouses.
Associate Dean Marian Friestad said graduate students, which includes law school students, are more likely to be married and would therefore be more likely to take advantage of the former ticket policy.
“My concern is that the ASUO consider the law school students because with the spousal equivalency policy we were overlooked,” Wilson said.
The current ASUO Executive administration is not responsible for creating the staggered ticket policy because it was negotiated last year. ASUO President Adam Walsh said he could choose not to sign the contract if he disagrees with parts of it. In general, the Executive cannot reverse a policy without the approval of the Athletic Department Finance Committee Senators, who negotiate the ticket contract with the Athletics Department.
“This is not anything different from last year,” Walsh said. “This, in the past, has been a provision that students wanted. The fact that some (tickets) are held until Thursday doesn’t stop people from getting them.”
He said law school students are not the only ones affected by the policy and that all students registered for classes in the fall can get tickets.
It should be easier for law school students, who started school Aug. 23, to get tickets because they are already on campus, Walsh said.
Second-year law student Mackenzie Hogan said he sees validity in the policy but questioned whether 1,000 tickets is a reasonable number considering the number of freshmen and the decrease in the total number of student tickets available from last year.
He and SBA Vice President Marisa Balderas proposed a lottery or pre-order system in the future that could better serve law school students’ needs.
“If we have class at 8:30 a.m. or 9 a.m. and the ticket office opens at 9 a.m., what are we supposed to do?” Hogan asked.
An athletic ticket information brochure tells students about the staggering ticket sales, but Walsh said in the future it might be good to put up signs about the policy the week before the distribution date so law school students and others can plan ahead.
Rob Craig, the Student Senate’s law school representative, said he has no problem with the staggered ticket sales because it is students’ faults if they miss out.
“I personally (and stupidly) waited in line for almost three hours and skipped a class to get mine,” Craig wrote in an e-mail. “Since there are about 20,000 undergrads who will be on campus for the USC game, it seems that withholding 1,000 tickets for them is a pretty reasonable and fair thing to do.”

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