With graduation less than two weeks away, some students at Cal Poly in San Luis Obispo are frantic to get more tickets so their family and friends can watch them walk across the stage on their big day.
Seven electronic tickets were given to every graduating senior for the class of 2019.
According to Cal Poly’s Director of Media Relations, Matt Lazier, three additional tickets could be requested but that deadline has come and gone.
Some students are scrambling, as they do often wait until the last minute, to check things off their list of stuff to do.
Many are now willing to pay up to $40 for additional tickets and some students see this as an opportunity to make some extra cash.
“College students are broke and we need extra money, so it doesn’t hurt to charge $10 to $15 for tickets,” said Connor McCarthy, Cal Poly senior.
McCarthy sold five tickets for $15 each on the Cal Poly 2019 Class Facebook page.
There’s demand for even more tickets and the prices vary.
“I posted in a Facebook page and someone actually gave them to me for free,” said Monica Pedroca, Cal Poly senior.
The university is discouraging the sale of commencement tickets and has been quoted in “Mustang News” saying tickets could be invalidated at the door.
As for how this would be monitored, Cal Poly could not comment, so we’ll have to wait and see come graduation day.
Ticket re-sales happen every year but there is a little more hype this year due to some changes.
The number of tickets distributed to each student decreased. Students were given seven as opposed to ten in years past.
There are also two evening commencement ceremonies instead of three daytime ceremonies this year in order to get people out of the midday heat.
Graduation is June 15 and 16 at 5 p.m. at the traditional venue, Spanos Stadium.
Roughly 5,600 students are eligible to graduate at spring commencement.
