Cornell’s biggest political event in the run-up to the November’s election, the debate between former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (R) and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean (D), is set to take place on the grand stage of Bailey in less than two weeks.
But you can’t get tickets.
Tickets went on sale (well, not really – they were free) last Friday in Willard Straight, but the 400-ticket supply only lasted for two hours. Alex Pruce ’13, First Vice-Chair of the CU Republicans, declared the mad ticket rush a “Political Avicii”, referring to the near-instantaneous sellout of Cornell’s homecoming concert.
While Bailey Hall seats over one thousand people, many tickets have been reserved for classes and various student organizations, some of which are co-sponsoring the event and/or requiring students to attend, according to Cornell College Republicans president Jess Reif ’14. This included a $10,000 contribution from the College of Human Ecology, spearheaded by the PAM department, which is preparing many details of the debate set-up. An introductory speech will be given by PAM Professer Rosemary Avery, and the debate will be moderated by ILR Professor Sam Nelson.
However, this left less than half the auditorium available for the general student body, and now that politics are coming to the front of every student’s mind, many are sure to be left out in the cold, and like the Avicii concert, this is surely positively absolutely irrefutably unquestionably guaranteed to lead to a huge black market trade in the precious golden tickets.
I wonder how much a Dean/Santorum ticket goes for on Craigslist…
Hey, I just wanted to clarify —- the PAM department is co-sponsoring the event, but they are not moderating. Professor Sam Nelson, the Director of the Forensic Society (which is in ILR) is moderating the debate.