Dean's List

I don’t know this for sure, but I assume the term “scalping,” as in selling tickets for profit, developed because the sellers take a little off the top… Get a little somethin’ for themselves.

Scalping season is upon us, so the community needs to brace itself. This dirty little secret, this blight on the otherwise shining veneer of our campus, is an annual event we have learned to associate with commencement tickets.

Commencement is the hottest ticket on campus all year, as it should be. Students and families have invested a great deal of time, energy, and money into the Trinity education and all should be able to be on hand to celebrate the accomplishments of our seniors as they march out into the world.

The problems with Laurie Auditorium seating limits have been well-documented. The facility is probably a couple hundred seats too small for everyone who wishes to attend. Off campus options are unattractive because other venues are either too big or too small. The idea of our students graduating away from campus is unappealing. Splitting commencements into BA and BS ceremonies means breaking up the class. Outdoors in May is… Well, you get the idea.

So, a crowded Laurie remains the best alternative. Though there are overflow rooms to watch the ceremony in Stieren Theater (which I have done – and it’s not bad!). Sometime in the coming weeks students will be invited to pick up their complimentary allotment of four tickets, though they are asked to just take what they need. Shortly after this, the black market kicks in with students posting signs offering to sell tickets for $50, $75, or more.

Few students see a problem with this. It might be a generational issue, because most staff, faculty, and parents are appalled. Perhaps our Economics Department appreciates the real-life supply and demand free enterprise lesson. Students claim this is nothing but American ingenuity. Mostly it looks like greed.

The broader lesson that the University hopes students take from Trinity is that people shouldn’t always pursue their self interest simply because they can. Unfortunately, the world is full of people like that – they started in college and never looked back. Students should leave here with a broader sense of doing the right thing: Does bilking one’s classmates qualify?

Partly it depends on how people view ownership. Are the tickets the property of those who can pick up the full four tickets? Aren’t they community property, to be shared as needed? The four ticket limit is a distribution model, not necessarily an entitlement model.

Another issue that arises is the “have and have not” element of the scalping. Do those with means have any more right to tickets than those without? Do they have any fewer family members or friends?

In a perfect world, students will take what they need, return what they don’t, or share freely with others. This senior class can start a new era by making it unfashionable to sell and buy commencement tickets. Let’s hope they buy-in.