Everything Comes With a Price

The Student Events Fund is an outstanding program. It allows students who are on financial aid to buy tickets to campus events that they otherwise could not afford and brings the Harvard community closer together by allowing all a chance to spend time together regardless of financial means. The new SEF website, much simpler to navigate, now makes it even easier for students to participate.

However, one glitch in the process remains—instead of going to the box office like everyone else, students using SEF must visit a separate table at the door of the event to pick up their tickets. While trivial at first sight, this pickup procedure reinforces socioeconomic divisions on campus by singling out some of the poorest students at Harvard.

Who wants to get in a separate line labeled exclusively for students who can’t afford to be in the other line? Receiving financial aid is nothing to be ashamed of, but not all students are comfortable with broadcasting their family’s wealth. If Harvard is going to have a program to help students attend all of the impressive events this community has to offer, then it should do it in a way that keeps students’ financial statuses private.

There are a number of instances when it would be reasonable for students to want to conceal that they are getting a ticket through SEF. Tickets to some couples events like formals can be purchased through the program, for example. To have to leave one’s date to go to the SEF table while everyone else is flashing their tickets to enter creates an awkward situation for everyone involved. A similar situation occurs when someone attends an event with a group of friends. While all their pals wait in the main line, they must make their way over to the SEF table to get the ticket they could not afford to buy, setting them apart from the group.

I have spoken to many people who find this humiliating, comparing it to a walk of shame. But, faced with the prices of these events, they must continue to rely on SEF’s services. The stigma created by the current set-up works against SEF’s goals to even the playing field; a student’s financial means are a private and confidential matter, and the SEF should keep them that way.

Luckily, the problem seems to be easily fixable. Students should be given the option to pick up their tickets at the box office in the Holyoke Center instead of at the SEF table. This way, the SEF ticket would be a private matter. Students would simply go to the box office, display their SEF credentials, and receive their ticket. At the door of the actual event, they would be welcomed in just like everyone else.

Some may argue that the SEF table is necessary to ensure that Harvard students actually attend the events that SEF is financing. Understandably, the organization has a real interest in making sure they are not funding unused tickets. But there are more subtle ways of doing this. One possible work-around would be to have students hold onto a program, sign it, and turn it into the SEF Office. Other ways to prove attendance at an event are also possible. The objection is merely logistical and should not outweigh the feelings some have when they are singled out in front of their peers.

Once again, SEF is a wonderful program that immensely improves the college experience of many financial-aid students. This suggestion is merely intended to smooth a kink that exists in the SEF procedure. With a simple fix, I think it is possible for everyone to win.


George J.J. Hayward ’11, a Crimson editorial editor, is a government concentrator in Currier House. He is the political action chair of the Black Students Association and a member of the Undergraduate Council.