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Prime
minister tickets still up for grabs, at a cost When free tickets to see former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto became available, Kristin VandenBelt rushed to the Student Center information desk to get one. “Given the limited number of tickets available and the caliber of the speaker, I expected the tickets to run out quickly,” said VandenBelt, a sophomore political science major. Within a few days, the 250 free tickets offered to TCU ID holders were gone before tickets went on sale, said Margaret Kelly, director of special projects in marketing and communications. Now anyone who didn’t get a free ticket must pay $15 to attend the lecture, she said. Even though she already has a ticket, VandenBelt said that she would have paid $15 if she hadn’t been able to get one free. “I feel that this speaker has an important message that is well worth $15,” VandenBelt said. Alan Daniel, a senior psychology major, said he was extremely excited when he heard that Bhutto would be coming to campus because of her different cultural perspective of the world. However, Daniel said he was disappointed when he went to the information desk and all the free tickets were gone. “I am not planning to pay for a ticket because the cost is a bit high for a college student,” Daniel said. “If there were student discounts that reduced the price considerably, I might be able to go.” While the $15 ticket fee may be expensive for some people, it is actually a very moderate price, said Larry Lauer, vice chancellor for marketing and communications. “It was a fair price given the level of speaker and the impact of the event,” Lauer said. “If you look at events and what they cost elsewhere — what students pay when they go to rock concerts and other kinds of events — it’s not really a huge cost.” The cost of having Bhutto come to TCU includes a flat speaker fee of $20,000, said Larry Adams, associate provost for academic affairs. He said the money to pay this fee was made possible by a grant from a philanthropic organization called the Frost Foundation. “We went to them with a proposal that they fund a lectureship series on issues pertaining to global affairs and global awareness,” Adams said. “With many of these speakers, the cost of doing that simply can’t be borne entirely by the university, even with the grant.” While the lecture is covered by the grant, the revenue from the tickets will still be needed to pay for the costs of Bhutto’s visit, Kelly said. “We have advertising costs, we have travel costs and the accommodation costs,” Kelly said. “Initially that $15 ticket fee will go to pay for these things. You can imagine that airfare from Pakistan is not cheap.” Adams said he didn’t ask any on-campus student organizations, like Programming Council, to help with the costs of the lecture because he knows they generally have limited funds. Programming Council vice president Stephanie Zimmer said she didn’t hear about the ticket fee until it was already in place, so Programming Council never considered getting involved in an already planned event by helping with the cost of tickets. “If (Adams) were to come to us and say they needed help funding, that would have been a possibility,” Zimmer said. “Without him asking for support, it’s kind of impossible for us to contribute to the tickets.” However, there still is some hope for those people who want to attend the lecture but can’t afford a ticket, Kelly said. “There’s no way of predicting how many tickets we’ll sell and how much revenue there will be,” Kelly said. “If the community and campus community has not bought all the tickets that are available, then what tickets are remaining we can then release.” Adams said inviting speakers like Bhutto to lecture will enable students to become aware of global issues and be global citizens. “The prime minister, through her experience and good insights, can speak to a number of issues dealing with what is currently a hot spot of the globe,” Adams said. “She is a world leader who happens to be a woman in a region of the world that has not given much attention to women.” Bhutto will speak at 7:30 p.m. April 18 in Ed Landreth Auditorium. About 800 tickets went on sale March 20 and can be purchased online at (www.ticketweb.com). Laura
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