Tickets to see chief justice sell out in minutes

Students arrive early to grab limited spots for address in Hendricks

By: Melissa Daniels

Posted: 9/13/07

Students flocked to the Schine Student Center Wednesday morning, wishing and hoping for a chance to get a ticket for Chief Justice John Robert's keynote speech in Hendricks Chapel on Sept. 19.

But most of the students who were hoping to get a spot at the event, which marks the dedication of Newhouse III, left the Schine Box Office empty-handed, as the tickets were gone within mere minutes.

Junior Adam Hecht said he "rushed out of class" at about 11:30 a.m. to purchase tickets at the box office for the speech, only to find a mass of disappointed students staring at a sign that read: "John Roberts tickets sold out"

"I knew there would be a line or something, but I didn't think it'd be sold out so quickly," Hecht said. "They said something about 150 tickets total."

Samina Noorani, a junior who works at the box office, said when she arrived at 10:30 a.m. - half an hour before the office opened - the line was out the door of Schine's main entrance.

"They sold out within five or six minutes," she said.

"I think it's a testimony to the popularity of our guest speaker that the tickets went so quickly," SU spokesman Kevin Morrow said.

Morrow said Hendricks seemed like the ideal location for the campus to host a speaker of such magnitude, despite the seating limitations of the venue.

"Hendricks is a facility that is at the center of our campus," Morrow said. "It has hosted many historic events and really prominent speakers."

S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications Dean David Rubin echoed the sentiment for the chosen location.

"It was Hendricks or Goldstein Auditorium, and the university felt that Hendricks is a bit more majestic and serious as a location," Rubin said.

Rubin said the seating number was traded for the "majesty of the occasion."

After the venue was chosen, each college within SU was asked for an estimated number of tickets they would like to have for the speech.

"We didn't make any promises, but we wanted to get a sense of how many tickets we thought each school and college could use," Rubin said. "Every school and college got a reasonable number of tickets for students and faculty."

Tickets were also set aside for the media, the Newhouse family and various donors who are coming to town to see Roberts, Rubin said.

Newhouse faculty also received reserved seating, as well as a pre-determined amount for Newhouse students.

Rubin asked three of his deputies to allocate the tickets to the Newhouse student body. Dean Rosanna Grassi was in charge of undergraduates, Joel Kaplan was in charge of master's students and Carol Liebler was in charge of doctoral students.

Grassi gave out the tickets to undergrads based on student involvement. Tickets were reserved for Newhouse peer advisers, as well as Newhouse ambassadors who assist with student recruitment.

Senior Jessie Fish, a Newhouse peer adviser, said she feels privileged to be able to attend Roberts' speech.

"Dean Grassi e-mailed all of us Sunday to tell us that tickets had been set aside." Fish said. "There weren't enough for all of the peer advisers. I e-mailed her right after that, and she said I was number 16."

Fish said she feels bad that more students cannot attend the event in person.

"Maybe they'll learn something from it and use a bigger venue next time like Goldstein or the Landmark," she said. "I was told by Dean Grassi to get there at 1:30 - a half-hour before the speech starts," Fish said. "I guess there's a lot of security."

The event will be aired live in Goldstein Auditorium for those who do not have tickets, as well as all campus television sets via the Orange Television Network, Morrow said.

SU students will also get the opportunity to see Roberts at the Newhouse III dedication which follows his speech in Hendricks, taking place mid-afternoon in front of the new building.

The dedication on the Newhouse plaza is open to the entire campus community.