While preparing for Spring Fest on Sunday, many students did not anticipate the possibility of being turned away at the door. When it happened, some became volatile and infused with the sense of profound injustice with the kind of ferocity that comes after the third beer. For some, this intensity escalated the incident to the point of their own arrest.
In the wake of this episode, numerous students have expressed disdain for the occurrence. The question remains now: Who is at fault and how should this situation be dealt with in the future?
Alumni Arena can only hold so many people. For the Bob Dylan concert, 4,500 tickets were reserved for students and 2,000 for the general audience; for Spring Fest, 5,000 were reserved for students and 1,500 for everyone else. So, 6,500 people are able to fill the venue for a concert.
One remedy you may be thinking of to this limitation is to hold the concert at UB Stadium. It can fit more people and no one would run the risk of having to pack it up before they walk through the entrance. This seems feasible, but we are all aware of Buffalo's sketchy weather patterns. To book a concert at the stadium does run the risk of having to deal with inclement weather and possible ramifications such as cancellation. They could schedule the event for a later date toward the very end of April or beginning of May to try and aim for a greater likelihood for appropriate weather for an outdoor concert.
Other than that, there isn't much else that SA or any event planner can do.
What we expect them to do in the future, however, is to plan for this event better and inform the student body with more tools for preparation. There should have been an opportunity for students to stop in the SA office during the week before the concert to pick up a ticket.
Many people enter the concert using other UB students' IDs and alumni are using their old IDs to get in. There is no scanning at fests and it results in many students losing student seats to non-students.
There needs to be a process that ensures students have first access to the tickets that are allocated for students and there is no reason anyone shouldn't be able to pick them up in advance.
While it is common knowledge many students show up to the anticipated event late, drunk and possibly wounded, there are many who had to come late from work and just wanted to catch the concert provided for them.
Also, SA should give students more advance notice that it is anticipating the event filling to capacity. The biggest issue for students who didn't get in is that it was a complete surprise to them.
The truth of the situation cannot be neglected - nobody is going to be expanding Alumni Arena any time soon. So, we shouldn't expect more students to be allowed in. There are fire codes and state laws to consider - letting more people in is simply not an option.
Though what we can expect is better planning.
For next year, we want to see a more organized process for preparing students for the events and for SA to plan ahead, considering the issues that surfaced this year.
What this issue really boils down to is preparation and communication. Students are responsible for making sure they show up early enough and plan ahead - but the issue for SA is making sure students understand they must plan ahead.
Email: editorial@ubspectrum.com
