It is my senior year at Florida A&M University and I wanted to show my school spirit by attending as many football games as possible.
I don’t even care for football that much, but I just wanted to be there to support my school one last time.
This year, like every other year, FAMU attempted a new system to distribute football tickets. Students could pick up all of their home game tickets from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from Oct. 12 to Oct.14, the week before the first game.
I don’t spend much time on campus because like many students at this school, I have a part-time job.
However, I did eventually make it to the stadium to pick up my tickets on the last day, only to find out they were out of student tickets. I voiced my complaint to student body President Virgil Miller and was assured that I would be able to obtain tickets to the home football games the Friday before the Saturday game. I was not told of any exceptions.
Thursday before the homecoming game I went to the gym to make sure I would be able to get my ticket Friday. I was told that I would not be able to obtain a ticket to the homecoming game.
Now, I know that part of our tuition goes towards athletic funding. With this, all of our home game tickets should already be paid for.
I was also told that there were only 6,000 student tickets printed. We have 13,005 students. So, wouldn’t it make more sense to print 13,005 tickets?
It is pathetic that I’m the one who had to miss out, even though I followed proper procedure to obtain my football tickets.
The university’s irresponsibility and oversight of not having enough tickets is deplorable.
Rather than the University trying to cater to its alumni and make sure that they have seats, this school needs to worry about who is currently paying their bills.
It’s funny how quickly FAMU will attempt to kick you out of a class because you may owe money for tuition.
Or when a certain office accidentally sends out 500 duplicate checks, FAMU is quick to reclaim their money. But now FAMU owes over 8,000 students about $35, and no one is saying anything?
I was unable to experience the joy and pride of seeing Rattlers in various combinations of orange and green at the homecoming football game.
But I was completely sickened by the color of money that was definitely present this year.
Stephanie Lambert is a magazine production student from Panama City. Contact her at Lambert21@hotmail.com.