On Monday, I left class a little early to get in line at the MSC Box Office to get a ticket to see Arnold Schwarzenegger. Getting there at 11:05, five minutes after tickets were supposed to go on sale, I was told that they were already sold out. Apparently, people had camped out Sunday night to get tickets. I have no problem with this. Good for them.
What I am appalled by is the fact that the box office managed to give out 1,000 tickets in a period of five minutes. This is exceptionally remarkable considering the fact that it takes a student who is already in the system at least one minute to get a ticket to one of the Friday night movies. Since they can give two tickets per student, this means that with a minimum of two windows open, the box office had to process a person per second. The fact of the matter is that the box office opened early and started giving out tickets before 11:00, when they are supposed to open.
When I called the box office later and explained my simple logic that there was no way they could have sold out that quickly, I was told that “it just happened.” More tickets should be released for this event, and the box office needs to be held accountable for its huge error.