Save Tickets For Students

To the editors:

While I congratulate the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) on the success of their concert this past Monday, I was a bit dismayed by the sentiments expressed by two HCC members regarding the sale of tickets to non-Harvard students (News, “Dispatch Performs in Sanders,” Oct. 23). Given the show’s quick sellout and the limited number of seats in Sanders Theater, it is quite likely that many interested Harvard students were unable to obtain tickets to the show.

That problem was compounded by the fact that when tickets were put on sale, they were available to Harvard students and the general public alike. According to the estimates of HCC member Luke R. Long ’03, approximately 10 percent of ticket sales went to non-Harvard students. Given the Undergraduate Council’s $5,000 allocation to help fund the Dispatch concert, that works out to approximately $500 of termbill revenue being spent on subsidizing ticket purchases for non-Harvard students.

While Long and HCC co-chair and council Vice President Sujean S. Lee ’03 seemed to feel that this distribution was appropriate, I have a problem with the Harvard student government allocating money that goes to benefit non-Harvard students at the expense of Harvard students who could have otherwise enjoyed it. Thus, I would suggest that for future concerts subsidized by the council, there should be a period of time during which ticket sales are restricted to Harvard students, in order to maximize the number of Harvard undergraduates who have the opportunity to benefit from the use of their own termbill money.

Adam M. Johnson ’02

Oct. 23, 2001

The writer is a member of the Undergraduate Council.