Posted on 11/10/2002 9:33:18 PM PST by let freedom sing
From the looks of the UC Davis Mondavi Center plaza Wednesday morning, you'd have thought 'N Sync or U2 were coming to town.
More than 300 students bundled up in heavy coats and sleeping bags camped outside the center's ticket office Tuesday night in the hopes of getting tickets to former President Bill Clinton's Nov. 17 talk when they became available at 10 a.m.
"I got here about 5 a.m.," said UCD student Jason Hansen, as he stood at about mid-point in the line of 313 people at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday. "I just really want to see him. I've heard he's a good speaker and you don't get to see a president every day."
Mondavi Center officials held 153 tickets for students, who could purchase one each at half-price -- $27.50, $32.50 or $37.50. It took about an hour to sell the 153 tickets. Each student was required to show a student ID and was allowed to purchase only one ticket.
But officials didn't turn away the remaining 160 students in line. Those students will be offered the 150 tickets that were made available this morning.
Approximately 350 university, student, community and government officials who were initially invited to purchase tickets have made their reservations. Two hundred of those people purchased tickets, leaving 150. The extra 10 students will be accommodated as well, Paul Dorn of the Mondavi Center said this morning.
"Everybody who came and stood in line yesterday and wanted tickets will get them," Dorn said.
Lisa Chu was near the end of the line and wasn't too hopeful that she'd make it to the front. She remembers voting for Clinton in a mock election in her sixth-grade class.
"I know a lot of people totally hate him, but I think he did a lot of good stuff, too," she said.
"I was surprised that students would wait in line as long as they did," said Maril Stratton, UCD assistant vice chancellor for public communications. "I understand the first fellow came at noon (Monday)."
Stratton was on her way to work in Mrak Hall Tuesday morning when she saw the huge crowd outside the Mondavi Center.
She turned her car around and headed for Safeway, where she purchased six dozen doughnuts for the weary group.
"If that was me out there, I'd want somebody to do the same for me," she said later.
University officials are also trying to accommodate students who couldn't get tickets. Stratton said a live feed of the former president's talk will be shown in Freeborn Hall. Students will be admitted to the hall free of charge.
Mondavi Center officials have received some criticism recently from those who believe students should have been given priority in ticket purchases.
The California Aggie, UCD's student newspaper, printed an editorial in its Nov. 5 edition under the heading, "Clinton's UCD visit, Leaving students out."
"Students have the right to feel cheated," it stated. "The lack of student ticket availability portends a worrisome trend. Is the center serving the UCD campus as equitably as it is serving the community, specifically its monetary benefactors?"
Tickets for the event, which will be in the 1,800-seat Jackson Hall, were offered first to charter members of the Mondavi Center, licensed seat holders and Distinguished Speakers Series subscribers.
-- Reach Crystal Ross O'Hara at cohara@davisenterprise.net
speech by X42, $100K
PUBBIE Congressional Victory, priceless
Angela "Black Panther" Davis is a UC Santa Cruz professor.
if she thought any harder, she'd never think of anything.
One of my favorite Clinton-era party tricks, when I's hear his name mentioned in a positive light, was "Name a Clinton Program"
Amazing that for people who worship 'programs' they were unable to name one from their hero...
hmmmm.... was that a Clinton program?
"Name a Clinton Program"
hmmmm.... was that a Clinton program?
"Palestine for the Palestinians"
"Amnesty for bin Laden"
The 1996 White House Intern Program
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