TICKET TO NOWHERE

To the Editors of the CRIMSON:

Each Thursday at 5:00, a representative is supposed to pick up the football tickets for his House from the H.A.A. Last Thursday at 5:30, the H.A.A. finally handed out to these people such tickets as they had at that time finished processing. The representatives, after alphabetizing the envelopes, finally reached the dining halls at 6:00. A student fortunate enough not only to have had his tickets processed but also to have been at supper between 6 and 7, received his tickets. On Friday the representatives returned to the H.A.A. and again picked up such tickets as the H.A.A. has finished processing. That night the fortunate could again pick up their tickets. In some Houses tickets were also available Friday noon.

Unhappily, this still left a large number of students whose meal hours had not coincided with the representatives, or whose envelopes had not yet come to the top of the pile in the H.A.A. The six of this group of dissatisfied students was clearly evident from the length of the line that remained outside the H.A.A. from 9:00 Saturday until 12:15. At this time a somewhat hysterical Frank Lunden began frantically slamming the door in students' faces, among them mine.

At 1:45 my date and I, victims of this snafu, went to the Stadium in hopes that our tickets might be found there. All we found was Mr. Lunden sitting in a booth. When I told him I hadn't been able to get my tickets, he said with a dry laugh, "You're only one out of about 2000 students who haven't." To do him justice, he seemed upset by the picture of 2000 ticketless students, but not upset enough to have brought their tickets to the Stadium. Nor was he upset enough to let my date and me into the Stadium unless I paid $5.00.

On Monday I finally got my tickets to the U. Mass. game. But by that time I was interested in getting not my tickets, but my $2.50. This the H.A.A. could not give men, because, said Mr. Lunden, "The money's in the bank now. It's out of my hands. There's nothing I can do." Having paid by check, I could do something--I stopped payment. But those students who paid by cash are evidently out of luck. Robert M. Neer, Jr. '57