To the Editor:
In response to Ray Hood, Jr.'s letter to the editor regarding student tickets at the Hopkins Center (Sept. 26, "A Hop Divided"), in which he refers "to the large difference in the cost of a ticket for a college student versus the general public": I would like to note that the gap to which he refers between what students pay and what student prices "should" cost is easy to account for. It comes not out of his wallet via lofty ticket prices but out of funding provided for the Student Life Initiative by the Board of Trustees. I would even suggest that tickets for Hop performances (esp. those of student groups) should be less expensive or free, as are student tickets to College football games.
I'm sure an even more drastic discount would help Mr. Hood to remember that the Hop is here because the College is here, and the College is here because the students are here, and because alumni continue to support the College's mission of educating well-rounded leaders, inside and outside the classroom. Students come from the world over to get that education, not to be a collective magnet for events so every time Mr. Hood wants to see a show, he doesn't have to drive to Boston or New York (as he acknowledged), where I assure you members of the general public pay much more to see an act than they do here with the Trustees and alumni subsidizing student prices.
