Each year, we’re lucky enough to have access to a buzz-worthy lineup of speakers. Last week, we welcomed back one of our most esteemed alumni: President Bill Clinton (SFS ’68). For students interested in seeing Clinton speak, the university utilized an online lottery system to narrow down the list of ticket holders who would be permitted entry.
This setup, while intended to be a fair way to allocate seats, failed to reward the students most invested in hearing from the speaker at hand. Requiring students to enter a lottery by asking them to head to a pre-determined location on campus would more effectively filter prospective attendees. It would deter those with a passing interest in the day’s agenda who would otherwise sign up online, while rewarding those with enough commitment and wherewithal to venture to the ticket line far in advance.
As we saw in Clinton’s speech, it’s too easy to sign up. Students with uncertain Friday schedules or those only intrigued by the president’s celebrity status threw their hats in the ring anyway, precluding those seriously interested in attending the speech from this rare opportunity. When all students can enter with the click of a mouse, the chances of a genuinely interested student listening to a venerable speaker drop significantly.
Last week, the system fumbled, as organizers scrambled at the last minute to fill up lottery winners’ vacant seats in Gaston. On Facebook, statuses alerted of the open seats, and many students leaving their classrooms in White-Gravenor were approached with a rushed offer to see Clinton speak. Though the students who responded in time should have been elated about the opportunity, the process was unfair to the students who were not fortunate enough to have won the lottery in the first place, not to mention those students who weren’t plugged into social media or leaving a White-Gravenor classroom Friday morning.
Of course, waiting in long lines is not ideal, as shown in the lead-up to past visits from Gen. DavidPetraeus, Bradley Cooper, Hillary Clinton and President Obama. The president’s address, given in McDonough Arena last year, tempted too many students to skip classes just to stand in line, while other less-patient event-goers simply cut the queue, depriving those who had been waiting for hours of any chance to nab a ticket.
President Obama’s second speech did offer another model, in which students in specific academic programs, relevant to the speech topic, were given first privilege. This approach penalized students for their majors, however, undermining our intellectually open-minded campus.
No matter the system, vying for a spot at a top-notch speaker event will always be a stress-ridden ordeal atop students’ regular load of commitments. But in planning for high-profile visits in the future, event organizers should provide access to those students most committed to attending; requiring they line up at a particular location to register for a lottery would be a wise first step. Those who persevere would have a greater likelihood of seeing results, while those with a mild curiosity may just give the trek a skip.
