Students hoping for tickets to see former president William J. Clinton speak at UB filled the Center for the Arts atrium Wednesday, spilling into the building's basement and the hallway connecting CFA to Alumni Arena.
Tickets for the April 10 speech went on sale at noon. By 1:45 p.m. Thursday, all of the approximately 7,000 free student tickets had been given out.
"We're absolutely elated," said Student Association President Christian Oliver, who selected Clinton as the first Student Choice speaker. "It validated our stance all along that Clinton is the biggest, best speaker SA could have brought." Oliver estimated that SA gave away around 3,000 tickets to students when former president George Bush spoke at UB in the spring of 2000.
"I think it took about 25 minutes to get through each row once we made it upstairs," said John Ross, a freshman biochemistry major. Students picking up tickets waited as long as three hours in line.
