The Council of Representatives discussed a variety of possible solutions to issues stemming from the recent men's basketball ticket sale at Monday's meeting.Student body president Adam Istvan opened debate by establishing that after hundreds of students were left without basketball tickets after last year's sale, he, student body vice president Karla Bell and Siegfried senator James Leito met with director of ticketing and marketing James Fraleigh to discuss concerns with the process. "[The athletic department's] primary concern is the fact that only an average of 2,000 of the 3,000 students who buy tickets attend the games," Istvan said. "So they want to know why they should expand the section if students don't come as it is."Istvan noted, however, that the Athletic Department instituted the new policy of allowing students to use individual tickets from other booklets and their own IDs to get into games in hopes of increasing attendance.Leito - not a COR member, but invited to sit in on discussion because of his involvement in the matter - said that there were two major problems with the ticket distribution process. One was that the 200 tickets allotted to Saint Mary's and Holy Cross students should be going to those Notre Dame students not able to secure tickets, and the second, that the University sells general tickets to individual games first, so those students not able to get season tickets do not have the chance to try for even a single game.Leito also said the number of IDs a student can bring the morning of distribution should be limited to two or three to cut down on the number of "casual fans" - less likely to attend all the games - with tickets, and suggested if students had better seats, they would be more likely to attend. J.R. Garcia, representative of the Club Coordination Council, suggested the creation of a centralized ticket distribution method for students to exchange individual game tickets. The idea was later expanded by other members, who agreed that an exchange system within individual dorms was the best approach.Addressing the issue of poor student attendance, representatives discussed the idea of letting students without tickets who line up before the game fill the seats still open after tip-off."Most students are there by tip-off, so it's feasible to let people in late," Leito said. "It's the easiest way to get the student section filled every game."Istvan said that the University dictates athletic department policy about allotting Saint Mary's and Holy Cross tickets, and the Big East dictates when individual game tickets can be sold. Student government can, however, begin discussions and work on other solutions discussed at the meeting."Creating a central ticket collection could happen this season," Istvan said.
In other COR news:u SUB manager Jimmy Flaherty presented Caitlin Burns as the choice to take over as SUB Chief Controller when current Chief Controller John McCarthy graduates early in December. Burns is a sophomore business major who has served as SUB marketing assistant since April and has also been involved in Hall Council, women's boxing and the Folk Choir."After a campus-wide search, Caitlin was far and away the best candidate," Flaherty said.COR suspended the rules and approved Burns, rather than wait until next Monday's meeting as procedure called for.u Class of 2005 president Darrell Scott introduced a proposal to be voted on next week that would add a representative from the Intercultural Center as a non-voting member of COR. "It would be wise to add a student from the Intercultural Center to add a diversity viewpoint to the Council of Representatives," Scott said. "It's a no-brainer."A non-voting member from the CSC's student advisory board, VOICE, was added earlier in the year.
