No more lines, no more missed classes and no more cash is what Student Activities is trying to achieve through its new online ticket purchasing system.
What they called the biggest announcement of the year on their social media accounts has been a longtime effort that, after years of work with the IT department, Student Life and the Controllers Office, has finally become a reality.
“We’ve been looking for this since the Internet first came,” John Bennett, director of Student Activities, said. “There [have] been different issues along the way, but we are so happy to finally provide this.”
The first event sold through this platform will be the trip to Six Flags, and it will be held right after Columbus Day weekend.
For ticket sales of popular events, it is not uncommon to see a line of dozens of students forming outside of the Office of Student Activities with the hopes of snatching a ticket to a Yankee game or a hit Broadway show. With this system, these lines can be avoided altogether.
Tickets will go on sale at night, outside of class hours, giving students an equal chance to get the tickets online.
“This makes it better, because you can get tickets even when you’re in class,” said Gabriella Girgis, sophomore student. “It promotes laziness, but in a convenient way.”
With a Manhattan College email address, a student can access the ticket website. After being admitted to the site, the student can purchase the ticket with a credit or debit card. A confirmation email will be sent to the purchaser, and this will guarantee their ticket to the event.
Although Bennett has not finalized all the minor details, he is expecting to offer students an opportunity to get tickets for seats near their friends. Instead of selling tickets only from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., now purchases can be made at any time after the tickets are made available online.
“It sounds like it would be better to do this sort of things online,” junior Mark Angioli said. “It’s just easier to not have to leave your room, and get into a big line; you jut have to log in and buy it over the Internet.”
Student Activities is expecting a rise in the number of tickets sold from their office due to this new convenience.
“It’s so much easier. Everybody is at home, on their phones, on their laptops, where it used to be out of the way to come to the office,” Bennett said. “Now we may be flooded with people that want to purchase tickets.”
This would not only help students, but also the department, where sometimes a surplus of tickets is bought.
Although the transition from a physical to electronic platform promises benefits, Bennett is aware that some logistical obstacles may arise.
“I don’t know when the school started doing class registration online, but I’m sure the first time there were countless issues, and I’m sure we are going to have the same,” he said.
A number of contingency plans have been thought to prevent and solve the different complications that the process might present.
“We will be learning together. We are just believing in the process and knowing that we are doing this to help the students because they asked us to,” Bennett said.