Powell tickets gone in hours

University did not anticipate student and community interest in Colin Powell’s lecture

by Kellie Benn

Tickets for retired U.S. Gen. General Colin Powell’s lecture were completely distributed within three hours of being made available on March 7 at 10 a.m. This occurred mainly because Trinity did not predict how popular the lecturer would be, according to Sharon Jones Schweitzer, assistant vice president of university communications.

Because tickets for Condoleezza Rice’s 2010 lecture took a week to be fully distributed, the university did not see a specific need to set aside a certain amount for students or faculty.

“We had anticipated that there would still be a supply within a couple of days. They just went incredibly fast,� Schweitzer said. “We want students to be able to come. It wasn’t planned so that it would be a barrier for students. It was just an unanticipated rush for the tickets.�

“General Powell is just an incredibly popular and in demand kind of speaker,� Schweitzer said. “I recall when he came here the first time right after he left the Joints Chiefs (of staff) we did not do tickets, and we had the most enormous crowd I had ever seen in my whole life.�

Schweitzer explained that a certain number of tickets were set aside for donors and for Trinity alumni, but the majority were available to students, faculty and the San Antonio community at large.

Many students arrived later in the day, expecting to get tickets, but left Laurie Auditorium box office empty handed. Some students expressed frustration at the way ticket distribution was handled.

“I, along with many other students, am very upset that Trinity has allowed most of the Colin Powell tickets to go to the San Antonio community. Powell was not only brought here for the San Antonio community, but also brought here for the students,� said Evin White, junior, in an e-mail interview. “We are the ones that are paying to go here and yet we do not get to see the political figures that Trinity brings in to speak to its students.�

Some students were shocked by the number of people that had gathered outside of the box office the morning that tickets were made available.

Aaron Gruber, junior, was running an errand to retrieve mail that day, which took him by Laurie Auditorium.

“I was astounded to see a mass of people flocking towards and coming from Laurie en masse. Confused, I walked down to the mail center trying to figure out what the hubbub was about,� Gruber wrote in an e-mail interview.

Gruber was one of the lucky ones who did manage to get two tickets, but he was surprised that the box office worker wasn’t requiring student IDs to be shown to receive tickets.

“She handed me my tickets so quickly without asking me for my Tiger Card that I was caught off guard and had to abruptly juggle my card and my phone to take the tickets,� Gruber said.

Although the quicker-than-anticipated distribution of tickets left many students ticketless, there are still opportunities for students to hear Powell speak. On March 10, a waiting list was made available for Trinity students who had not received tickets to sign up, in the event that tickets were returned to the pool for redistribution. Schweitzer said only 33 students put their names on the waiting list, and all 33 students will be receiving a ticket to the lecture.

In addition, a limited number of tickets was made available to students on a first-come, first-served basis.

On the same day that the waiting list sign-up was announced, a different opportunity for students was also made available.

Powell will be meeting with students for an informal question-and-answer session from 3:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on March 29 in the Ruth Taylor Concert Hall. One hundred and fifty students may participate in this session on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“We asked the general’s agent if we could expand the student meeting to 150 students, because normally, we have to cap it at about 50 students,� Schweitzer said.

In addition, Powell’s speech will be broadcast on closed-circuit television in the Ruth Taylor Concert Hall on the night of the lecture for those students who are still not able to get tickets or participate in the question and answer session.

In the future, Schweitzer said Trinity will likely take a look at the ticket distribution protocol for high-profile speakers such as Powell.

“We may re-examine our protocol depending upon how the lectures roll out for next year,� Schweitzer said.

White has her own ideas for how ticket distribution should be handled in the future, including designating the first day of distribution for Trinity students only, limiting the community to only two tickets per person and having a designated number of tickets available for students.

Powell will be the featured speaker for the 2011 Flora Cameron lecture on Politics and Public Affairs, which is being funded by donors. His topic for the lecture will be “Diplomacy: Persuasion, Trust and Values.�

The lecture will take place in Laurie Auditorium on March 29. The university decided to distribute tickets in anticipation of a full house with limited seating, and in order to manage the crowd and expectations, according to Schweitzer.