New box office location creates hassle for students, theater department
The relocation of the Central Box Office to the new Events Center has inconvenienced not only students, but some faculty as well.
Virginia Beauchamp said box office location has become a hassle for her because she is required to attend productions at the Bush Theatre for classes.
“When it was a centralized location it was easier to stop by and now it's so out of the way,” the Iron River senior said.
Beauchamp said it takes her an extra trip now, but because of classes she can’t get there before 5 p.m.
Romulus sophomore De’Shawna Hill said she feels similar, saying the Bovee University Center location of the box office was better because more students gather in there.
“The new location is still a far walk from the Towers,” Hill said. “They could have kept them both open.”
Director of University Theatre Steve Berglund said the timing of the move was bad, but he trusts that it will work out in the long run.
“I wish they would have had a conversation with us prior to the change so we could’ve made the necessary changes,” Berglund said.
“We were given no notice and so we had to change the publicity mid-season,” he added.
Bob Ebner, director of University Events, said the change of location creates convenience because there is only one place to go.
“The goal has always been to combine the two box offices,” Ebner said. “We designed a larger ticket system right into the Events Center.”
Beauchamp said she is only by the Events Center for football games, but she is at the Bovee University Center at least twice a week because of the CMU Bookstore and Independent Bank.
“Multiple locations could be a fix and create more jobs,” Beauchamp said.
Beauchamp said that if she didn’t have to go see productions for her classes she would probably buy fewer tickets.
“It makes me angry to have to go buy tickets now,” she said.
Hill said that if she didn’t have a car she would just end up buying tickets at the door instead.
Ebner said it doesn’t look like they will open the location back up at the Bovee U.C.
Currently, tickets can be bought online, but costs an extra $4. The cost of tickets being bought online are being worked out, Ebner said.
“I just thought the location that it was at was prime,” Beauchamp said.
