Student Government has raised the number of available Founders' Day Ball tickets from 600 to 880 in response to an Undergraduate Senate bill passed Sunday.
"Be it further enacted that the Undergraduate Senate directs the Office of the Vice President to invite the maximum amount of students possible to Founder's Day," the legislation said.
The bill, co-sponsored by Class of 2009 Sen. Jeff Hanley and Class of 2010 Sen. Colin Meiselman, passed 18-2, The Eagle previously reported.
"I realize the bill is probably more intense than what the Senate is used to dealing with," Hanley said in a subsequent interview. "A resolution would probably have been a kinder, a less dictatorial way ... but we laid it out in the most direct way possible to say this is what needs to happen."
The legislation lacked adequate information, said SG Events Director Ben Schorr.
"The bill's sponsors were ill-informed as to costs at the Mellon Auditorium, tickets available, which is discussed here in the bill, about how many people are left on the wait list [and] that tickets were supposed to be sold until Feb. 9, but sold in under two hours," he said.
As a result of the bill's passage, between 200 and 250 additional tickets would likely be released in the coming days, 177 of which from the wait list, bringing the total number of tickets allotted for the event to 880, said SG Vice President Andrew Woods.
"We need to accommodate [students who want tickets]," he said. "That's our job. But of course there comes a time when there is only so many tickets we can sell."
SG-restricted funds and surplus student activity fees from the freshman class are funding the additional tickets. Without the extra freshmen fees, additional tickets could not have been sold, Woods said.
The initial number of tickets allotted was determined by the budget and past attendance numbers of around 400 to 500 students, he said.
"I think this year we were expecting a larger crowd," Woods said. "We took that into account, we were expecting a wait list, but we were operating on a budget that was not expecting that."
SG sent students a survey last fall to ask if they preferred the event to be at the Katzen Arts Center or a nicer venue off campus, according to Woods.
"Founders' Day has always traditionally been in a very nice venue" he said. "They wanted to see us do our best to do what we've always done, which is set it in a traditional spot."
Hanley said he originally questioned the venue choice of the Andrew W. Mellon Auditorium due to its expense.
"At the start of the semester, when I heard that they had chosen the Andrew Mellon auditorium, I guess I was a little surprised," he said. "The event venue is extremely nice. It's beautiful, it's gorgeous, but it's very, very, very expensive, and I know the variable cost of the event is very high."
Schorr said he received less funding for the ball than he had originally asked for.
"I went to the senate last year, asked for a lot more money than I got, I got what I got [and] had to plan the event according to my budget," he said.
The event planners are trying to serve as many people as possible, Schorr said. He added that it is hard to please every interest group.
"It's impossible," Schorr said. "So I wrote an e-mail to the senate this weekend telling them that and that I'm very sorry that this bill ever happened."
Assistant Vice President of Campus Life and Dean of Students Robert Hradsky said he agreed that raising the number of tickets available for the ball was a good decision.
He forwarded an e-mail to SG President Seth Cutter from a student who was concerned about ticket sales. Hradsky said he also encouraged Cutter to see if there was a way for SG to sell more tickets to the event.
"It's one of these events where we really hope that the community embraces, that students want to be a part of," he said in a subsequent interview. "And clearly, given the demand we know that that's the case ... So I think as much as the facility can accommodate additional attendees and as much as they [SG] have the staff to help organize the event, that they should release as many tickets as they can."
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