For many graduating students, the commencement ceremony is an exciting time to spend with family and friends. However, with limited tickets available, students have been forced to find additional tickets for their guests through other methods.
According to the San Diego State Commencement website, the number of tickets available to each student is contingent on the number of students graduating from individual SDSU colleges. This year’s ticket availability by college includes eight for Health and Human Services, seven for Business Administration and Sciences, six for Professional Studies and Fine Arts and Arts and Letters, and 12 for Education and Undergraduate Studies and Engineering.
Public relations graduating senior David Rozul said because of the limited amount of tickets available to each student, it’s a selling frenzy among peers within the individual colleges to obtain more. While Rozul understands the university’s need to must limit the amount of tickets each student receives, he suggests future graduations be moved to other locations such as the Aztec Bowl or Qualcomm Stadium.
“Despite how hard it is to get tickets, I understand why the university does it,” Rozul said. “Viejas Arena can only hold so many people, and this gives everyone in their respective college the equal opportunity to bring their family members and friends.”
While some students struggle to find more tickets, others have looked to get rid of theirs. Communications senior Alexa Johnson sold her six tickets for the PSFA commencement ceremony for $140. Johnson said at one point she had seven people interested in buying her tickets and while she could have sold them for more, she didn’t want the stress of waiting until the last minute.
“Overall I’m very happy with my decision to sell my tickets. Instead of spending money on graduation, I’ve made money,” Johnson said. “I’ll be using that money toward my trip to Europe.”
Computer science senior Saif Alsharifi used SDSU’s “Class of 2013” Facebook page to find extra tickets for the College of Sciences commencement ceremony and noted in his post that he was willing to pay. While he was able to purchase extra tickets, he said many people have overcharged their tickets, which made it difficult.
“There are plenty of extra tickets being sold on Craigslist, the only problem I have experienced is sellers overpricing their tickets,” Alsharifi said. “I was able to find almost all the tickets I needed for a reasonable price.”
The first college commencement ceremony will take place Friday, May 17 at the Viejas Area with the College of Health and Human Services. For a complete list of commencement ceremony dates and times visit go.sdsu.edu/commencement.
