Beginning Saturday, all undergraduate and graduate students will be entitled to free admission to regular season sporting events and tickets to Hopkins Center events will be greatly reduced, the College announced yesterday.
The decision, which arrives amid campus-wide discussions on the future of social and residential life at the College, originated from College President James Wright's campaign to improve social life options for students, according to Dean of the College James Larimore.
"We hope to encourage more students to participate and support Dartmouth athletics and athletes, and to remove price barriers for attendance at the Hop," Larimore said.
Hop performance tickets will be partially subsidized by the College. At the new subsidized rate, students will pay $3 to view student performances, or $5 to attend visiting artists' concerts or venues. Past prices were often double or triple the new rate.
"This is a clear win-win situation financially, where President Wright supports a proposal that the College pay more for ticket subsidies," Larimore said.
The free and reduced ticket prices are being subsidized by the profits the College is making on its new contract with Coca-Cola, which took effect this year.
The new subsidy is targeted specifically at Hopkins-sponsored events and does not affect artists brought to campus by other groups, such as the Programming Board.
Larimore said the Student Assembly was a prominent player in determining how the ticket subsidy could be approached.
"It's exciting to start out the year by having free tickets," Student Assembly President Dean Krishna '01 said. "The Assembly specifically asked for this in one of its resolutions last year, and it's good to see [the Administration] is responding to us."
According to Larimore, while the decision was reached after a period of consideration, Larimore and College Treasurer Win Johnson worked out the details over the previous months.
While valid College identification will qualify students for free or discounted tickets, for "high-demand events," such as sell-out games, only a section of free seats will be reserved for students, available on a first-come, first-serve basis.
Larimore's letter also hints at the College's addressing other student life issues, such as cable television in residence halls and fines and fees sometime this Fall term.
These newly instituted policies and those that will be forthcoming are explained in letter from Larimore that will be distributed to Hinman Boxes in the next few days.
