Voiding previously sold tickets correct

I commend the athletics department and Jim Earle for making the only fair decision and voiding… I commend the athletics department and Jim Earle for making the only fair decision and voiding the ticket sales from this weekend and postponing the sale until Oct. 17.

After the mess last year, I was uncertain the athletics department would do the right thing and feared they would let the early sales stand “to avoid further inconvenience to those students” — the same justification used last year when some students were able to purchase tickets in person at the Petersen Events Center and over the phone, while others were unaware these options were available and were unfairly denied an opportunity to purchase tickets.

I am still rather upset about the lack of information provided by the athletics department regarding the sales, though. They “promise” us the server and system will work this year. But we had the same promise last year.

What if, on Sunday, the server crashes again, or if students can only get the annoying 60-second countdown screen and never gain access to the page to purchase tickets? Are there any backup plans? Will students be able to purchase over the phone instead, or walk to the Pete to purchase tickets?

If these plans aren’t clearly stated to the students, the same confusion from last year will surely ensue. If all the students aren’t aware of all the options available, we get into the same “lack of fairness” questions from last year. Students obviously take this very seriously, and we all need to have full information instead of the smoke and mirrors of the past.

Zach Zarnoch

First-year student

Pitt Law School