DCU Students’ Union President, Aaron Clogher, has expressed his disappointment at the reaction of the student body to the long queues for tickets to this year’s Summer Ball.
Ticket sales for the annual Summer Ball were hampered by long queues and confusion over the purchasing system on Wednesday.
Clogher said that there were factors that led to the “unforeseen” size of the queues.
“Anybody who went through the queue yesterday and today knows that for people who were registered on the system and had exact change, they’re transaction was done in 20 seconds” he said.
“It was the many people who were never previously at an SU Event and/or needed change that slowed down the process considerably.”
Upwards of 800 students waited for a ticket on Wednesday as the queue spiralled from the Student’s Union Helpdesk as far down as the Terence Larkin building. Clogher felt that the high demand for tickets has made it a huge success.
“There has been a very negative slant put on the coverage so far. I would rather see some positive comment around the fact that so many people are engaged and want to attend an SU Event, which caused the scenes we saw across campus yesterday,” he said.
Clogher was quick to praise the SU staff for their response to such unprecedented demand for tickets.
“Every single person who stayed in that queue on Wednesday was served, long after our official opening hours had passed, by staff who worked hours they were neither demanded nor expected to,” he said.
This view was contradicted by many students who reported being turned away after more than three hours queuing.A poll conducted by The College View this week states that 79 per cent of students who queued were unhappy with how the Student’s Union dealt with the queue.
According to the poll, 70 per cent of students who queued on Wednesday were left waiting for two hours or more with 26% of students waiting for more than four hours, with some only to be turned away.
“I started queuing at half twelve and I was still queuing at four when I was told that no more tickets would be on sale and I would have to come back tomorrow,” said first year student Jordan Kavanagh.
“This was despite the SU president informing everyone in the queue that they were guaranteed to receive a ticket that day,” he continued.
There was also confusion over the documentation required to purchase tickets with the SU making a last minute demand that a valid student card be presented for each ticket purchased. This meant that many students who planned on purchasing tickets for friends using a student number were prevented from doing so.
Many students on INTRA or placement were unable to purchase tickets due to them not being on campus at the time of sale. Despite this flaw in the system, Clogher believes that until online bookings are made available the current system is the most feasible.
“We will always have groups who are disenfranchised by this process and this is very much regrettable, as I know that people who are on INTRA or nurses and teachers on placements off campus are not going to be able to queue,” he said.
“Until we have a system that can manage online ticket bookings, which is not far down the line, there is not a fairer way to distribute the tickets than how we currently do so.”
The summer ball takes place on 1st of May in The Hub. Tickets are now sold out.
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