Ticket Line Procedures

[Jim Hyla]

Mike Pandolfini said:[Q]So please don't make assumptions if you don't know the whole story.[/Q] But aren't you the reporter? So, if we don't know the whole story, why didn't you write it? Don't get mad at us for writing about what you wrote, and not knowing what you didn't write.

[grumpy]

Give these silly sun writers the volonnino treatment.  My services are hereby volunteered for such a mission.  Awaiting orders.

[jeh25]

Post Edited (09-17-03 06:29)

[Will]

Give these silly sun writers the volonnino treatment. My services are hereby volunteered for such a mission. Awaiting orders.

Heh...as I've said before, I'm tempted.  But at least these guys had the balls to answer their accusers (namely, us) on this Forum, thereby saving me the trouble of having to write out a full letter to the editor.  Let's save our efforts for writers of other schools' publications who don't give Cornell the respect it deserves.  The order is NOT given, I repeat, NOT given. :-)

[jy3]

just wanted to point u guys to a new article. pretty amusing
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/9081/

[Will]

jy3 wrote:

just wanted to point u guys to a new article. pretty amusing
http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/9081/

Yeah, that was great. Dripping with sarcasm, and it was quite evident from the beginning.

And don't forget to mention who I suspect is our own Jason N. '95's letter to the editor: http://www.cornelldailysun.com/articles/9086/

[ugarte]

Don't know if it will be published, but I sent this to the Sun.  On reflection, the closing line is awful and hackneyed.  But I have already hit "send":

I have been amazed at the lack of serious coverage given to the ticket line by the Cornell Daily Sun.  There has been no examination of (1) whether the University acted reasonably (Were the rules accurately announced? Fairly enforced? Was adequate staff on hand?); (2) the students behaved appropriately (Did students cut? Push? Otherwise cheat?); and whether the process can be improved in the future.  If you are going to put out a newspaper, put out a serious newspaper.  

The ethos of the student opinion column is generally "smart ass," and that isn't necessarily a bad thing, but the collection of "humor" pieces (ranging from the appalling to the merely lame) did nothing to explain if or how the ticket line worked as intended.   The writers and editors had the  opportunity to really examine the school around them and offer criticism and suggestions for change by doing some actual reporting of events beyond merely reciting the 5 w's. And they chose not to.  

Smart ass can be good, but you should really aim for more "smart" and less "ass".

Charles D. Star
ILR '92 CIPA '94



Post Edited (09-17-03 10:33)

[Ninian]

All good points.  U of M is almost twice as large as Cornell, the town is larger, and it's near a large metropolitan area.  But there's more to it than that.  I go back a long way, was an undergrad at Cornell, grad at Michigan and arrived in Ann Arbor in 72, when Cornell still was in the post-Harkness afterglow and Michigan was simply awful.  They played at a rink smaller than Lynah, had an all-American goalie but limited talent at other positions, and a small, loyal, and long-suffering base of fans.  The university decided that they needed to make a commitment to the program, hired a young, gifted coach (Dan Farrell) and renovated an old field house that was vacant due to the departure of basketball to larger, more modern quarters.  The university took a risk by committing these kinds of resources to a struggling program.  It took about one season before the place was packed and jumping.  No one really expected this kind of result, particularly at a place where two other major sports had overshadowed hockey.

This is kind of a long-winded way to make the "Build it and they will come" argument.  Except for the more limited population, everything at Cornell is more favorable than it was at Michigan at the time Yost opened.  Bigger fan base among students and townsfolk, which current capacity can't satisfy, less competition from other sports, much stronger program with a great future.   Yost capacity has varied between 6-7K over the years.  New or expanded rink would not need to be that large and probably shouldn't be.  Bottom line is that there isn't anything more exciting to do in Ithaca on a Friday or Saturday night.  I think the odds that a larger rink would be successful are very favorable.

[jason]

Yeah, that's my letter. Upon reflection, it comes across a little too dramatic particularly in its condensed form (I told the editors that they could do that, so I have no complaints). I think what disappoints me the most is that people --from the same community and with the same interests even-- cannot be entrusted with treating each other fairly and must be policed.  Maybe there's a little romanticizing involved, but when the older posters describe the camp outs for tickets its sounds like civility and fairness generally prevailed.



Post Edited (09-17-03 10:57)

[Al DeFlorio]

My reaction exactly, Charles.   Well said.  I think the question is:  Is the Sun supposed to be a newspaper or some kind of lame humor mag?

I'd guess it's a lot easier for those (in this case, the writers) who came away from the fiasco with tickets to treat the situation as some kind of lark.

[nyc94]

There was a long discussion during last season about the merits of replacing or significantly renovating Lynah.  The discussion ultimately settled around whether such a rink would have the same atmosphere because of its size - not just from adding seats but from bringing it up to current fire code.  Imagine rows further apart and at a less steep pitch.  Adding rows means a much higher roof.

I've never been to Yost so perhaps so I don't know how it scores on the intimacy (noise) scale or what the fire code in Michigan was like in the 1970s.

[jeh25]

big red apple wrote:

more "smart" and less "ass".

I dunno, I think the world would be a better place if everyone got a little more ass...

*rimshot*

[atb9]

double entendre with the "rimshot"

*rimshot*  

I just caught up with this thread...lordy, glad I missed it.  The Special Olympics thing...classic...not PC...  ::twak::  but classic

[God]

Oh Me,

I thought locusts and boils were bad enough, but you fellows want to subscribe people to pornographic email. Truly you are on the same plane as I, or surely would like to think so.

Oh, but I see you will spare these poor souls because they give Cornell the respect it deserves... or more appropriately the respect you think you deserve.

You get one guy to egg you on, and you think you're the friggin Lord. Once again, it's apparent to anyone not embroilled in this nonsense -- a pointless pissing contest that will be forgotten until next year. Again.

And from now on, stop playing with yourself.

[Will]

^ ::rolleyes::

In case you hadn't noticed, I'm not doing it now.  And as for the future, if I choose to do it, then I'll do it alone if need be.  It may be a pointless pissing contest, but it'll be my pointless pissing contest.