Ticket Policy Disclosed

Ticket Office Director Clint Gwaltney said recent accusations that Pruitt gets 40 to 60 tickets per basketball game are false.

"There's a lot of things out there that you need to inquire about before you go off half-cocked," Gwaltney said.

"(Pruitt would) have to boldly walk up after the tickets are taken out of the vault, take a stack off the top and tell us, 'See you later, I'm going outside.'"

Fred Hill, vice chairman of the Board of Elections, testified Tuesday before the Student Affairs Committee of Student Congress that Pruitt has offered extra basketball tickets to many individuals both in and out of the CAA.

The CAA receives 128 tickets per game, said Kim Jones, the ticket office employee who physically gives the tickets to CAA Ticket Distribution Director Kerry Slatkoff.

Fifty tickets are earmarked for the CAA Cabinet, which had 23 members until five were either fired or resigned in February and March. Two tickets were distributed per member, leaving four per game unaccounted for prior to February.

Pruitt said Thursday that he received two tickets as a Cabinet member and also retained control over any excess tickets earmarked for Cabinet.

Fifty-four tickets are reserved for the 25 workers in the ticket distribution committee, leaving four extra tickets -- which Slatkoff said she hands out or keeps.

The 14 members of the sports marketing committee receive 14 tickets, and the 10 members of the External Relations Committee receive seven tickets, which External Relations Chairwoman Rachel Goodman said are distributed based on merit.

Based on the above numbers -- ticket totals given by Jones and committee staff breakdowns by Pruitt -- eight of the 128 tickets earmarked for CAA members were unaccounted for prior to February.

Gwaltney acknowledged that he would not know if members of the ticket distribution committee skimmed tickets during student distributions.

Hill stuck by his claims Thursday that Pruitt received more tickets than the ticket office numbers indicate.

"It wouldn't surprise me if members of the CAA have control of more than 128 tickets," Hill said, pointing to former CAA officials who had described misconduct as evidence.

Despite a discrepancy between the ticket office's numbers and figures he gave The Daily Tar Heel on Wednesday, Pruitt said he was not surprised by the Ticket Office's information.

"We've already seen that Student Congress doesn't care what we have to say because they never gave us the opportunity to tell our side of the story in the (Student Affairs) Committee last week," he said.

"They hear what they want to hear."

The University Editor can be reached at udesk@unc.edu.