By Marta Malinowski
After the dangerous stampede for homecoming tickets Sept. 17 and 18, ticket purchasing to the senior Oktoberfest was changed to an online lottery, sparking mixed reactions.
Oktoberfest is the fall event where current seniors gather in the school Memorial Garden to eat food, listen to music, compete in competitions like apple bobbing, face painting, and pumpkin decorating.
In past years, getting tickets for Oktoberfest went the same way as getting Homecoming tickets. Students lined up during their lunch period and purchased tickets on a first come, first served basis. This year, though, changes have been made to this process.
“After the way Homecoming happened this year with students hitting and getting hurt, we decided it was best to do an online lottery,” said Mrs. Hanly, assistant principal.
There will be two sessions held for Oktoberfest (periods 3-4 for those with 4th period lunch and 5-6 for those with 5th or 6th period lunch). Each session had 300 tickets available.
“We are using the lottery so that students who do not have easy Internet access, will be able to have an equal chance of getting a ticket,” Hanly said.
As the seniors first received this information, a lot of them were angry and upset.
“I was little peeved about it because in the email Hanley sent, it said eligibility would be based off of having service hours and not having a certain amount of demerits,” Nayelli Duran, Div. 477, said. “In the years before, I was under the impression that it was always based off of GPA, ACT scores and service hours. It seemed appropriate that the best seniors were the ones who could take part in Oktoberfest, and the changes to only hours and demerits made it seem like they were lowering the standards.”
Hanly sent out another email to the seniors explaining some of the misunderstandings seniors had, thinking they will not be able to go to Oktoberfest. After that, Duran understood the circumstance that brought the administration to the point of making these changes. And though Oktoberfest has never sold out before, she now agrees that it is a good solution.
“I’ve never known there to be a stampede like there was for Homecoming tickets, which is the only reason we’re having an online raffle,” Duran said.
Other students still feel that the changes were not at all necessary.
“I understand that the administration is trying to avoid what happened with the sale of homecoming tickets and trying to make the way of getting a ticket fair, but never has Oktoberfest sold out before, so I see the process of ruffling off tickets as how can I say, an interesting but unusual change to our senior year,” said Francisco Alcantar, Div. 452, the second Vice President of Student Council.
Alcantar recognizes the circumstances of the situation, but as many seniors will not be happy with the changes, he prefers the tickets to be given out just as they were the years past.
“If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it,” Alcantar said.
Initially, a lot of seniors were confused as to what was going on and felt as if the administration was taking something away from the senior class, but in the end the administration actually gave more. Only 250 tickets were sold last year and 200 the year prior. The reason so few tickets were sold and Oktoberfest has never sold out before is that a large number of students still failed to finish their service hours and have the requirements fulfilled by their due date. With the 2013-2014 senior class’ greater involvement in student activities, the number of available tickets was raised. There was still a large amount of seniors who did not meet the service hour and demerit requirements so many of the students who met the requirements, received their ticket.
After this first online ticket raffle and Oktoberfest, it has been decided that the new changes will be permanent for the upcoming years.
