By Ashlyn Beck | News Editor
A potential glitch in gameday ticket scanning left many students with an unwarranted warning email in their inbox earlier this week.
Many students reported receiving an email from the Waco Hall Ticket Office Sunday. The email warned that because the student bought tickets for one of the first three home football games and didn’t attend, one more occurrence would delay them in purchasing tickets for the Homecoming game Nov. 1.
Associate Director of Student Activities and Waco Hall Director Joshua Gilliam said that this policy has existed for years and been publicly available on the Baylor Gameday website, but the policy hasn’t been widely enforced until this year.
“This year, now that we have the staffing capacity to manage enforcement, we’ve begun to actively apply the policy to ensure that as many students as possible have the opportunity to attend home games,” Gilliam said.
Gilliam emphasized that the email was simply a warning — students will not yet be penalized, but will be placed on a “restricted listing” for future games. If students reserve a ticket for this week’s game and fail to attend, they will be delayed one day in reserving tickets for the Homecoming game. Most students reserve tickets when they drop Monday at 4 p.m.; restricted students will be barred until Tuesday at 4 p.m.
But several students reported receiving an email Sunday, though they attended all the games for which they had reserved tickets.
Katy sophomore Lauren Gray reserved tickets for one of the first three home games and attended the game. But Gray said she still received the warning email from the Waco Hall Ticketing Office.
“That was very upsetting to me because I’ve only been to one game, because for the other games, I was working,” Gray said. “So I knew for a fact that the one ticket I got, I definitely used.”
After receiving the email, Gray went online to investigate. Gray contacted the ticketing office, which said she would be taken off the list if she provided proof of attendance at the game.
Tyler senior Annabelle Prosperi had the same problem. She reserved tickets for the first three home games and attended all three, but still received the warning email. Prosperi’s sister had the same issue and emailed back with her complaint.
“Essentially, when she emailed, they just asked for proof of her being there,” Prosperi said. “I’m going to do the same thing.”
After receiving a plethora of emails from confused students, Gilliam said Student Activities and Baylor Athletics are working to identify problems with scanning tickets.
“It’s possible there were issues with the scanning equipment or process,” Gilliam said. “In the meantime, we are not placing any restrictions on accounts based on past attendance for this week’s ticket pull.”
Gilliam emphasized that no restrictions have been enforced yet. Emails simply warned students that they would be restricted from reserving Homecoming tickets if they reserve a ticket for an upcoming game and do not attend. To avoid penalization, students can return their tickets online by noon on the Thursday before the game.
“This is just a proactive communication to encourage proper ticket return or use going forward,” Gilliam said.
Students who received the warning by mistake can email the Waco Hall Ticketing Office at WHTickets@baylor.edu.
