On Oct. 25, students hoping to obtain tickets at the Union ticket office for one of the buses traveling downstate for Thanksgiving break were disappointed when they were unable to complete their purchases.
The ticket office planned on selling the tickets on the scheduled date, but was delayed was due to the pandemonium that ensued upon opening. The tickets were eventually sold on Nov. 1.
Freshman Sarah Cantatore said that on Oct. 25, the Union was "an angry mob scene with plenty of screaming and expletives. It was ridiculous."
"While we posted signs ahead of time to separate sales of bus tickets from other ticket sales, when the office opened at its scheduled time, the lines meshed," said Student Association service manager Dianne Krenzer. "This created a situation that made it impossible to try to reorganize the lines to continue with sales and therefore we had to shut down."
Junior Brianna Iervese said that despite having purchased bus tickets several times in the past, she had, "never seen anything like [it … Krenzer] told everyone to go to the other side of the hallway, which was illogical," she said. "Everyone left their spots and got angry. There was just a lack of common sense."
Iervese also added that selling the tickets on Parent's Weekend was a poor idea. "Angry parents and angry students don't mix well," she said.
The second attempt this past Saturday went without incident. Students were required to pre-purchase tickets in order to stand in line for a chance at the actual bus tickets. According to Krenzer, over two hundred seats were sold. Although some of the buses were sold out, there are still seats available on others.
Cantatore agreed that fixing the Oct. 25 situation would have been "impossible," but she said she was disappointed by the students' response. "People who just got to the Union went to the front of the line as people who were waiting for hours were stuck in the back," she said. "If people had been honest we could have avoided the mob scene."
Krenzer said that the office is considering making tickets available online to cut down on the rush for window sales.
"The Student Association recognizes the value of this service and we are looking into how to streamline ticket sales to make the process easier for everyone," she said.