UC Creates TKTS Raffle Program

Yesterday the Undergraduate Council voted unanimously to approve TKTS, a program through which the UC will raffle off free tickets every week to campus and local events.

Last week the UC ran a trial run of the program and raffled off 32 tickets to both Cultural Rhythms and the Black Students Association’s Renaissance Ball. Nearly 200 students applied for tickets, according to Kia J. McLeod ’10, UC vice-president.

“I feel like we are finding alternative ways to help social life without doing what we used to do in the past with the party fund. [We’re] just being creative,” McLeod said.

UC President Andrea R. Flores ’10 said she thought the TKTS program was one of the most interesting ideas she advocated for while running for the presidency.

“Out of many of my campaign issues, this is one of the most exciting,” she said.

Next week the UC will be raffling off tickets for the Harvard-Radcliffe Orchestra and Ghungroo, 58 and 16 tickets respectively.

The program has been advertised over House e-mail lists. Students apply for the tickets by emailing uc.tkts@gmail.com, an account setup by the committee.

The requests are allocated by lottery and the recipients are notified by the Thursday before the event. The initiative and the recipients in the test run were announced over UC Weekly, a newsletter sent out by the Council.

McLeod said she saw TKTS as a way to touch “many people across a wide spectrum.”

The program, McLeod said, both encourages students to attend Harvard events and helps to fill seats that would otherwise remain vacant.

The program’s name is a reference to a discount Broadway ticket service in New York City with the same name.

Favia C. Merritt ’09 used a raffled-off ticket to attend the Renaissance Ball Friday night.

“I think it’s an amazing program because I’ll go to more events if I can raffle for free tickets,” she said.

Merritt said she would have attended the event even if the raffle did not exist.

The UC also passed legislation at yesterday’s meeting allocating $500 toward the purchase of speakers. The speakers will replace an older system that is no longer functional. The speakers will be rented out to student groups.

At the meeting the Council allocated more than $23,000 to 48 projects from the grants fund. More than $6,000 was allocated to five projects through the Student Life Fund.