Class Council budget takes hit from forgeries, vandalism

The forged tickets and broken bus window at the Senior Pub Night on Nov. 13 will affect the prices of future Senior Class Council events, including Senior Week, and may strain the University's relationship with the bar involved.

The Senior Class Council has a budgeted gross expenditure of $171,788. Its income from event ticket sales is budgeted at $134,300, leaving approximately $37,488 to be subsidized by the Tufts Community Union (TCU).

Because of the broken bus window, the Council has already been forced to dip into its TCU subsidy in order to pay the $500 in damages. To make up the difference, future events, including Senior Week, will come at a higher price to students.

TCU Treasurer Josh Belkin explained the dilemma. "They have already spent a portion of [the subsidy] unexpectedly. Seniors do not pay the real cost at Senior Week and now the amount of subsidies is less," he said.

Senior Week, sponsored by the Senior Class Council the week after final exams in the spring semester, involves trips and other events for seniors prior to Commencement. It is typically the largest expense of the Class Council, and a lower budget would result in fewer or lower quality events during the week.

According to Assistant Director of Student Activities Ed Cabellon, "more pub nights may not be financially possible if we want affordable Senior Week tickets."

The first issue that arose at pub night, which was held at the Hong Kong Restaurant and Bar in Harvard Square, involved 60-80 falsified tickets. Cabellon said that door managers continued to let people in even after the problem was recognized. This led to an overcrowding of the bar and eventually officials at the Hong Kong became angry with the group, Cabellon said.

The Hong Kong can accommodate 375 people, and Cabellon added that tickets were oversold. At 12:30 a.m., once everyone had entered the bar, an informal count revealed that there were between 60 and 80 forged tickets.

The Hong Kong is part of a chain that Tufts frequents, and Cabellon said he is concerned about the school's reputation following the incidents.

Class Council member Courtney Benson said that "many people who forged tickets have been determined already and appropriate action is being taken against them."

According to Cabellon, the sophisticated ticket machine that was unavailable for the last pub night has since been fixed.

Though many students have called for larger venues for future events, Cabellon said that this would come at a price. Many larger bars require a room rental fee, which can approach $10,000. Other smaller venues, however, only require a bar guarantee, where the sponsor guarantees the pub will make a certain amount, and if not, the organization covers the gap. This guarantee is generally around $5,000.

In addition, many of the larger bars, such as Sophia's near Fenway Park, have expensive drinks, which caused many complaints at a previous pub night.

After the Sophia's pub night earlier this semester, Cabellon said he advised the students to choose the Hong Kong for future events. He thought the Hong Kong might be better for students because there, "they would sacrifice the number of people for the cost of drinks."

The second incident involved a student allegedly putting a fist or an arm through one of the windows in a Vocell company bus. Because of the incident the company is now asking for security deposits when the University requests to use the buses.

Vocell is a company used by many student organizations for transportation to and from events off campus, and Cabellon was concerned how this would affect Tufts' image with respect to local businesses.

However, Vocell CEO Paul Goodman said, "We absolutely love Tufts. This is an isolated incident that I haven't seen [before] in my 20-year relationship with the University." He added that the drivers continue to respect Tufts and that the incident will have no effect on continued business.

Goodman said that typical protocol for an incident such as this is to fine the organization $500 because "the window was pretty mangled." The Senior Class Council has received the bill for the damages.

Class Council member Caroline Postel said the perpetrator has not been determined, but "at this point we're just trying to move on from it."