Former Associated Student Government President Neal Sales-Griffin is buying himself a pass to Six Flags this Senior Week.
When Sales-Griffin logged on to the Norris University Center Box Office’s online ticketing system last Wednesday to purchase tickets to a number of the events hosted for NU’s graduating class, the computer would not accept his Net ID.
“I felt shafted,” Sales-Griffin said.
He called the box office and was told to come in person to get his tickets.
Tickets went on sale online at 8 a.m. on May 13 – some events sold out within hours, said Senior Week Committee co-Chairwoman Katherine O’Koniewski.
“We sold thousands of tickets the first day, ” the Communication senior said. “I think people were surprised to see things sell out so quickly.”
The Senior Week Committee was glad to see the events sell out, said Maggie Connors, a Senior Week Committee co-chairwoman. Connors added that they were quick to “turn feedback around” from students who couldn’t get tickets.
“We met the next day to talk about opening up more spaces for more events,” she said.
Certain events like the Cubs game or architectural boat tour have a finite number of spots, but the committee is looking into adding more events to the week to accommodate more students, O’Koniewski said.
Selling out is a financial necessity for the Senior Week Committee, Connors said.
“Senior Week is designed to sell out,” she said. “We picked the number of tickets this year based on last year’s sales. We can’t cover costs because we don’t have anyone backing us if the tickets don’t go.”
This is the first year the box office has offered ticket sales for events online, said Frank Zambrano, the cash operations coordinator who oversees the Norris Box Office.
Norris’s online box office relies upon the NU Information Technology codes assigned to students’ Net IDs that determine whether or not they are eligible to purchase tickets restricted to a certain class year, Zambrano said.
The problem comes, however, in cases where students’ university standings don’t match their year in school, such as fifth year seniors or students who graduated in the Fall or Winter Quarter, Zambrano said.
Connors said the committee only heard from a couple of students whose statuses prevented them from buying tickets online and added that those situations were remedied when students went to the box office in person.
Sales-Griffin said he has heard of some students planning alternative activities for Senior Week but added that most people won’t know what they are doing until the last minute.
“We’ve been here the last four years,” he said. “We are creative people who can figure this out.”
Sales-Griffin said he still wants to buy a ticket to the last lecture, which will be delivered by Prof. Joan Zielinski, but is still deciding whether he wants to attend Senior Formal at the Aragon Ballroom.
“We really went above and beyond to open up as many events as possible to students,” O’Koniewski said. “We really want to bring together the senior class and make sure they have a great last week at Northwestern, and I think we have done a good job with that.”
