Long lines, expensive tickets, and paltry offerings: Those complaints, rather than excitement, have dominated the response from seniors to the Senior Week events that lead up to their impending graduation.
Most confusing for students has been the seemingly exorbitant and unexplained ticket prices. While Boston College's three events that require tickets cost a total of $150, tickets for eight events at BU cost a combined $188, and the four events at Northeastern cost $102.
Though Assistant Dean Jean Yoder, the administrator in charge of Senior Week, said in an e-mail that "it is University policy not to release detailed financial information," she did note that the bill for food and security at last year's Commencement Ball totaled $151,272 - the reason BC charges $90 per person for the event. This compares to BU's Senior Ball at the Hyatt Regency in Cambridge, for which students are charged $30. (Only 1,000 BU students are admitted to this event, while BC guarantees that all seniors are allowed to attend Commencement Ball.)
Yoder declined a phone interview with The Heights. She did answer several questions via e-mail, but was unwilling to disclose information on many aspects of Senior Week.
Though the ticket sales and approximate costs appear to coincide with the Commencement Ball, finances for the Dance Through the Decades appear murkier. A manager at the Roxy, the event's host, said that the club does not charge BC its usual facility rental fee for the event, making BC responsible for only the costs of food, security, decorations, and, the biggest cost, transportation.
Though BC declined to provide any specific information, one source at BU said the school spent $5,000 to provide food for one of its two events at the Roxy. A representative for AA Transportation, the bus company in charge of transportation for the event, said that the average price to rent a 50-person school bus is $55 per hour. The approximately 30 buses required to transport the 1,400 students would thus cost in the neighborhood of $13,000 - an estimated cost far below the $70,000 in ticket sales revenue.
While BC seniors were charged $25 for the earlier "100 Days" event at the Roxy and $50 for the Dance Through the Decades, BU seniors were admitted free to both of the school's events at the Roxy (BU does not provide transportation).
Yoder declined to comment on the specific finances of the Roxy event, only noting in an e-mail that "the Senior Week Program and its finances are run in a professional manner, and that we don't take advantage of the senior class." She also did not respond to a question about why the second senior event at the Roxy cost twice as much as the first.
Yoder did say that any excess revenue from events is used to try new events, such as this year's Block Party, but did not provide information on the cost of that event, for which students are charged $10. Alan Fioravanti, coordinator of programs at Boston University, said BU employs a similar strategy, charging more for some events to defray the costs of other events. Both schools say the program's entire cost is covered by ticket sales, with no subsidization.
Another complaint centers on BC's meager event offering compared to senior weeks at other local schools. Boston University offers nine events, including a trip to Martha's Vineyard, a tour of Fenway Park, and an event at Waterworks in Quincy. Northeastern University offers $12 Red Sox tickets and a trip to Six Flags among its seven events. Both schools offer a Boston Harbor cruise and a trip to Mohegan Sun.
"The events pretty much run themselves," Fioravanti said. "Everything we've done is exactly what we've done in the past."
He noted that the Mohegan Sun event was "definitely the easiest event to do," saying the bus company sets up the event, which costs $20 and includes round-trip transportation, a dinner voucher, and $20 gambling voucher.
Yoder said in an e-mail that BC looked into the possibility of a Red Sox game and a trip to Six Flags. She said the Red Sox game was nixed because BC could only get 100-200 tickets, and Six Flags was not offered because it was deemed too expensive (Northeastern charges students $30; Yoder declined to say how much BC was quoted.) An event at Jillian's from last year was scrapped this year in favor of a cheaper on-campus "Block Party."
Because the events are chosen during the summer, the student-led Senior Week Committee, selected in October, has no say in which events are chosen. It also does not determine the prices of tickets.
Another complaint involved changes to the ticketing system that resulted in significant lines. BU and Northeastern both used online ticket sales, while some BC students claimed to have waited in line for close to three hours. Yoder said the Office of the Dean for Student Development had planned for several years to move the ticket sales to Robsham from the much larger Conte Forum ticket office, though several members of the Senior Week committee were given a different explanation: that ticket sales were moved to Robsham because the athletic department would not allow the sales to be made there.
Yoder noted in an e-mail that BC hopes to move the ticket sales online "within the next few years."
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