Students in Need Get Free Tix Through Fund

Hidden on page 15 of the Harvard Financial Aid Initiative’s flashy booklet, “$hoestring $trategies for Life @ Harvard,” is a paragraph on the Student Events Fund (SEF). Easily skipped over in favor of the next section. “Finance & Romance: 11 Inexpensive Date Ideas,” that paltry paragraph nonetheless holds to key to one of Harvard’s most overlooked arts programs.

Offered to an ever-increasing number of students on significant financial aid, the SEF provides free tickets to any student-produced event sold through the Harvard Box Office (HBO).

Founded in 2002 by former Undergraduate Council (UC) Presidents Paul A. Gusmorino ’02 and Rohit Chopra ’04, and M. Kate Richey ’03, the SEF came out of a student-led initiative to ensure that all Harvard students could attend Arts events, as well as House formals, without undue financial stress.

Funded by grants from the Office of the Dean of the College and the Office of Financial Aid totaling $20,000, the program originally selected 500 students to receive the free tickets. Almost five years later, the program remains a little-known success. The number of students on the fund has increased by 110-115 percent, according to Harvard’s Financial Aid Office, and feedback continues to be positive.

But despite its demonstrated success, problems still remain in the program, including a hard-to-find website, difficulties with the Harvard Box Office, and constant funding woes.

“DON’T DELETE IT, IT COULD BE YOUR FREE TICKET!”

According to Michael S. Hussey, a senior admissions and financial aid officer, students are made aware that they have been selected to be on the SEF through an e-mail sent out in mid-September.

The e-mail directs students to a website that was created by the original founders of the program. The website allows students to anonymously request tickets to events at least 48 hours in advance of the event they want to attend. The tickets are then given to the producers of the event as will-call tickets to be picked up right before the show.

Yet, as the paragraph in the Financial Aid Initiative brochure notes, the e-mail must be saved in order to reach the website, since it has a complicated URL.

Nicholas B. Batter ’08, who is on the SEF, remarks that he had originally ignored the e-mail letting him know that he was on the fund, only to open it a month later and be pleasantly surprised.

“You get this e-mail that gives you a link to a very obscure website that you cannot find unless you get the e-mail,” says Batter, who is also a Crimson editorial cartoonist. “It’s kind of shrouded in secrecy…I’m sure there’s people who have it and aren’t even aware they have it—they just saw another e-mail from the Financial Aid Office and ignored it.”

Director of Financial Aid Sally C. Donahue acknowledges the difficulties. “It’s a challenge for us to really figure out how to communicate effectively with students,” she says.

Yet once something as enticing as a free Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra or Dunster House Opera ticket is dangled in front of students, many seem eager to reap the benefits. Hussey chuckles as he tells how eager students often worriedly question the Financial Aid Office when they haven’t been told of their renewed eligibility status.

“It’s clear that returning students take advantage of it each year,” says Hussey.

NO SUCH THING AS FREE LUNCH

Despite the joy the SEF brings to those who are on it, the program can sometimes be a burden to those on the other side—the producers of events.

UC presidential hopeful Amadi P. Anene ’08 participated in a meeting earlier in the semester on “Hidden Costs” that Harvard’s low income students face as part of his current Course-Cost Assistance Program (C-CAP).

Representatives from student arts groups were at the meeting and voiced complaints about the necessity of selling tickets through the HBO in order to make tickets available to low-income students.

“I often hear from groups that for them there often seems to be a tradeoff between making your events available at the box office and ‘losing money’ because students are going to get tickets for free,” says Anene.

Naabia G. Ofosu-Amaah ’07, president and former business manager of Kuumba Singers of Harvard College, says that while the group decides to use the HBO for reasons of ease, many student groups decide to eschew the bureaucracy involved with the HBO.

The HBO charges fees for the printing of tickets, payments via credit cards, and their online ticketing service. The unpredictability of the number of students who will choose to use SEF tickets also frustrates many arts groups, says Ofosu-Amaah.

Hussey stresses that “confidentiality is the key,” but oftentimes the producers of events are given their will-call tickets in packets that clearly separate the reserved tickets from the SEF tickets—potentially putting their confidentiality in jeopardy.

But students are quick to identify themselves as recipients of the SEF anyway, so confidentiality tends to be somewhat of a non-issue, according to Ofosu-Amaah.

“Usually students are up front about saying, ‘I’m on SEF,’” she says.

DOLLA DOLLA BILLZ YA’LL

Even if the website is tricky and the HBO is expensive, the fact remains that the SEF is a remarkable success.

“I think it’s magical, the way it works,” says Donahue. “It was really initially a student-initiated program, which I think is one of the reasons it’s one of my favorite programs.”

Batter says he used the SEF to go to at least three events last semester, including the Dunster House Opera.

“It’s pretty much [the case that], if I want to go to something and I know that I want to go to it for awhile and it’s expensive, I’ll do it,” says Batter. “I’ll do it for things that have like $20-30 ticket prices, so it can save you a lot of money.”

As the Financial Aid Initiative has brought more low-income students to Harvard, the number of students on the SEF has grown—but so has the cost.

Hussey estimates that the cost of the program has increased by around 140 percent since its inception. The SEF is independent of the Financial Aid office’s scholarship budget and still remains funded through the generosity of the Dean’s Office and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Originally, it was assumed that the success of the program would hopefully lead to a wealthy donor who would permanently establish a fund. Yet, perhaps because of the relative obscurity of the program, a donor has yet to be found.

“It’s something that we’re happy to do but it’s something certainly that we watch,” says Donahue. Wealthy arts-loving alums, take note.

—Staff writer Kimberly E. Gittleson can be reached at gittles@fas.harvard.edu.