THE Volume 93, Issue 3
Q
UADRANGLE A Student Publication of Manhattan College Since 1924
Feb. 9, 2016
Students Denied from Knicks Game After Online Ticket Fiasco
Duplicate tickets kept 15 students from entering the Knicks game on January 31. Jared Boyles/ Courtesy
Anthony Capote Editor
On Jan. 23, the New York Knicks were handed a crushing 95-116 loss at the hands of the now 46-4 Golden State Warriors. What didn’t make the headlines, though, were the roughly 15 or so Manhattan College students who were denied entrance for having voided tickets, purchased through the Student Activities office. “We had 100 tickets to the game, that I bought a year ago,” John Bennet, vice president for student activities said. “I went in [to the office] the next day with Michael Steele to look at the list of students [who bought tickets] and there was no list.” Upon calling IT Services, Bennet found out that they had failed to set a limit on the number of tickets sold on PayPal to students, and that students were still buying tickets online, eventually selling 297 tickets, almost 200 more than the original number. “[ITS’] answer to this was to email the students who bought extra and refund them and just tell them it was a technical glitch,” Bennett said. “Honestly I said ‘no way, we’re not doing that.’” Instead, Student Activities received permission to purchase the extra tickets on StubHub, so that every student who paid could attend the game. “The students didn’t do anything wrong, they innocently went online to buy tickets
to a game that they’re excited about,” he said. “I didn’t think it was right or fair to punish students for doing that…I spent all last week with multiple credit cards—from the Dean’s office, the VP for student life, the multicultural center—buying tickets on StubHub to buy 170 tickets, we spent $50,000 over our budget to try to take care of students.” When students arrived at the game, however, they found that some of those tickets from StubHub were fraud and, therefore weren’t allowed entry to the game. Senior Jared Boyles was one of those students and he emailed The Quadrangle his story. “We got to MSG and went through security fine, and got in line to enter the arena. My girlfriend, whose ticket I had purchased, came up as having already been used to enter the stadium when she gave it to the attendant,” he said in the email. “We went to the ticket window and when the guy asked where we’d purchased the ticket, we told him Manhattan College. He said he expected that, and that apparently numerous tickets from MC were being sent to him as duplicated.” Boyles said he saw other groups of students also leaving the arena, like Louis Lippolis a junior, who said he and four of his six friends had been denied entrance. “I asked if he could try the ticket again, then I asked the people at MSG if they could do anything, they couldn’t do any-
thing,” Lippolis said. “A couple of us tried to email Student Activities, but I just went in on Monday.” Bennett said he was furious when he found out about the mix up. “I would be so angry as well, [students] didn’t do anything wrong, to think you bought tickets to the game, I would be devastated,” he said. “If you didn’t get in, come in, you’ll get a full refund for the money that you spent, we’ll also refund the subway, and we will also get you two tickets to a game for you, plus a guest for free.” Bennet also said that he was trying to reach StubHub to find out what the problem was or which batch of tickets were duplicates. He also told The Quadrangle the Student Activities would suspend all online ticket sales until further notice. “We were just trying to help, and we didn’t think the correct answer was to refund students,” he said. “I just feel bad because we ended up looking bad for something that wasn’t our fault.” Students, though, say they are pleased with the work Student Activities has done since the mishap and understand that the office was not at fault. “It is disappointing that we won’t be able to see the 2016 Warriors play, which was a huge reason for wanting to see that game in particular,” Boyles said. “Student Activities did a great job of handling what might have been a PR nightmare. I can’t complain with how they responded.”
www.mcquad.org
President’s Report Michelle DePinho Senior Writer
Manhattan College no longer publishes a yearbook, but it issues a President’s Report, and that’s pretty close. This year’s President’s Report conveys the institution’s progress on its strategic plan and total assets and expenditures, making it the most comprehensive public report on the status of the college. The report confirms that the college is in good financial standing, with $315 million in assets and $130.4 million in annual revenue. “We are growing,” President Brennan O’Donnell said. “We’re growing strategically, and that’s a good place to be particularly in the current environment where a lot of places are cutting back.” This growth, especially in enrollment, has sparked numerous initiatives on campus that are highlighted in the report and are each tied back to one of the key goals of the college: learning heritage, learning environment and learning dynamic. The range of the work of community members in the report is wide. Some of the year’s highlights are the racial justice teach-in held on campus, a lecture from the president of Albania, diversified study abroad opportunities and NSF grants for engineering education research. The report pairs this narrative with the numbers and gives real meaning to the campus’s strategic direction. Last year 900 freshmen began their studies at the college, which according to the report is 20 percent bigger than the previous freshmen class. The college also grew its part time graduate student body by over 100 students in the last year, for a total of 453 graduate students enrolled in either full or part time programs. More students means more expenditures to keep the college running. The report states that this fiscal year’s budget was 9 percent higher than the previous year’s, but revenue consequently also increased by 6 percent this year. Roughly two-thirds of the college’s revenue -$79 million- comes directly from student tuition and fees. The rest is a combination of auxiliary enterprises, contributions, investment income from the college’s endowment and other sources. “We are just under $80 million in our total endowment,” CFO Matthew McManness said. He said that the revenue from the endowment typically funds scholarships for students. Even with an increase in the spending budget, various campus initiatives and physical plant upgrades can put a strain on finances at the college. “It’s the constant pressure on institutions like Manhattan College is how are you going to….to be able to fund everything that you want to fund,” O’Donnell said. “Because when you have this kind of excitement about the project in the community, people have good ideas, and you want to be able to say yes go and let’s do that.” But the financial information provided in the document is not total. It categorizes college spending into six overarching groups, offering a broad overview of its finances rather than a detailed breakout of
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