By Joergen Ostensen

Every year, the ticket line for Residence Halls Association’s (RHA) Under the Tent (UTT) event stretches well past the doors of McGinley, with some students waiting for hours to purchase tickets. This year, RHA debuted an online pre-sale opportunity in an effort to make the line shorter and more convenient for students, according to Sara Chesnos, FCRH ’18, executive president of the RHA.

Annina Saccomano, GSB ’18, the Executive Programer of RHA said 300 tickets were made available online prior to the usual day of ticket sales. They sold out in two minutes.

Saccomano said the goal was to give more people the opportunity to get tickets, even if they were unable to wait in the line.

“We want to give people the most opportunities to get tickets,” she said.
Chesnos said the online sales were also effective in shortening the line. According to her the line went by in record time this year.

“It definitely cut down the line a lot,” she said.

Students who wait in the line for UTT tickets can wait for several hours. Olivia Dixon, FCRH ’20, said she and her friends waited in shifts for three hours on this year’s ticket sale day. She said she thought it was worth it but the system could be improved.

“I think there’s definitely a better way to do it, without people waiting outside for hours,” she said.

Victoria Becker, FCRH ‘20, arrived at the line at 9:30 a.m. despite the fact that the sale began at noon.

She said being in line with friends helped to pass the time.

“If you’re with friends, talking, it’s not too bad,” she said. “A lot of people brought chairs and were doing homework.”

Saccomano said there were some complaints about the line being too long in previous years, which was part of the reason they implemented the online sales.
Chesnos said concerns that the system would crash kept them from selling more tickets online. She said a goal for the future is for the tickets to be more accessible to students.

“We’re just working to find a system that will hopefully support a mass [amount] of online ticket sales at once,” she said.

Chesnos said they are working on that system in conjunction with the Office of Student Involvement, which is experiencing similar issues with Senior Week ticket sales.

In addition to the limited number of presale tickets that were available, students had the option to pay members of ROTC to wait in line for them, according to Saccomano. She said that and the presale indicate that the tickets are available to those who are unable to wait in the line.

“Overall I think there are opportunities for getting tickets even if you’re unable to wait on line,” she said.
Saccomano said that the new RHA board next year may make changes in an effort to improve the system of ticket sales. However, she said the system worked fine this year.

“I believe this method worked for what our needs were,” she said.

Despite the perennially long line, students are willing to wait for tickets every year. Some said the wait is ultimately not that bad, and UTT is worth the trouble.
Becker said she did not mind waiting and was prepared to spend her time on the line.

“I wanted to go, and I had time to wait,” she said.

Even though it was a little cold on Wednesday, she said it did not deter her from waiting.

“If you dressed warm enough, you were okay to sit there for awhile,” she said.

Patrick Infurna, FCRH ’20, waited on the line for three hours, but he said UTT is worth the wait.

“It’ll definitely be worth it; last year UTT was a lot of fun,” he said.