The Michigan Times

Issue date: 4/7/08 Section: Campus

Media Credit: Tim Jagielo Wade Merrill, president of the newly formed UM-Flint Athletic Association, updates his Facebook page protesting U-M's new football ticket policy. The policy gives priority to Ann Arbor freshmen over UM-Flint and U-M Dearborn.

Media Credit: John McKay UM-Flint Vice Chancellor of Student Services and Enrollment Management Mary Jo Sekelsky issues a statement to The Michigan Times regarding U-M Athletic Department's new policy that gives Flint and Dearborn students lower seating priority.

University of Michigan students at Flint and Dearborn will get lower priority for football tickets than students in Ann Arbor, under a new U-M athletic policy.

UM-Flint students, and at least one administrator, are protesting the change to discriminate between students of the three campuses.

Wade Merrill, President of the UM-Flint Athletic Association, has created a group on peer networking site Facebook.com entitled "Restore Football Seating Priorities for ALL Michigan Students" in an attempt to mobilize students of U-M's Flint and Dearborn campuses to challenge the new policy.

Since organizing the Facebook group April 1, Merrill has seen its base grow, boasting ore than 400 members at press time. The group encourages users to write e-mails to U-M Director of Athletics Bill Martin and Associate Athletic Director for Ticketing Services Marty Bodnar. A form letter is provided on the page for participants.

The recent policy change negates class standing when obtaining student tickets to Michigan football games. Instead, the policy automatically places the satellite campuses at a lower priority than incoming freshmen at the University's main campus in Ann Arbor. The changes also eliminate partner tickets, which could be given to spouses, children or domestic partners.

Bodnar cites an increase in demand for the new policy.

"Our student demand has increased 43 percent the past six seasons," he said. "We've gone from 16,000 up to almost 24,000 and enrollment is apparently part of it."

Last season 3,000 students had to sit outside the student section, according to Bodnar.

"As we wrestle with the student demand increasing 43 percent, we are experiencing a decrease in tickets and moving forward, we are going to lose 2500 seats to help out the disabled, to provide wheelchair-accessible seating on the east side of the stadium," he said.

Bodnar said there was initially talk of limiting Dearborn and Flint campuses to 400 tickets, before settling on changing the priorities of the Dearborn and Flint students and removing partner tickets.

"They're all freshmen who are sitting outside the student section. They're outside the student section while someone else is sitting with a spouse or child inside the student section," said Bodnar. "We just felt that that was not really fair, so that's one of the reasons we eliminated the partner tickets. So this idea of placing freshman [in] - I call it 'No Man's Land' - it's not a very welcoming experience."

He mentioned that a student advisory committee will convene in the near future with 12 students, including representation from the Flint and Dearborn campuses.

"We wanted two students from Dearborn, two students from Flint, and convene this committee amongst a cross-section of all students and they can give us a diagnosis of how to deal with this issue going forward of increasing demand," he said.

In a statement to The Michigan Times, UM-Flint Vice Chancellor of Student Services and Enrollment Management Mary Jo Sekelsky said, "Acknowledging there is an increase in student demand for season tickets and fewer available seats, I am nonetheless concerned that Flint students receive equitable treatment in the ticket distribution process."

She noted that the policy is unlikely to be reversed in time for this season.

"While decisions impacting the seating priority policy for Fall 2008 are not likely to change, we will seek to restore equity in the ticket distribution process for Fall 2009 and beyond," she said.

Merrill says the change smacks of discrimination. "The problem with [this change] is that we've always been told and treated that all Michigan students are the same. We have the same privileges in the libraries in Ann Arbor, any other facilities at Dearborn or anything like that," said Merrill. "This is the first time that I'm aware of that they've segregated the students at the University of Michigan."

Shortly after speaking with The Michigan Times, Bodnar issued an e-mail response to students who were part of the Facebook campaign, stating, "A freshman student is excited about attending football games at Michigan Stadium, but their excitement quickly wanes when they end up sitting by themselves. This is not a positive way to welcome them to campus."

Merrill published the message on his Facebook group along with a response stating, "I think we all know that part of being a freshman anywhere is working your way through the system, and things get better every year. This policy means that those benefits will NEVER come to Flint and Dearborn Michigan students as they move through the system and that it is viewed as acceptable for students from those campuses to have their excitement 'wane.' Unfortunately this response does not address our concerns and I encourage everyone to continue the effort."

Tickets go on sale for Flint and Dearborn students Monday, April 7 at 9:00 a.m. at MGoBlue.com.

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