Duke ticket lottery omits graduating chemistry PhD students

Seniors weren’t the only ones angry this year with the UNC-Duke basketball ticket lottery.

Graduating chemistry Ph.D. students were among the many who were disappointed when they didn’t win the ticket lottery.

But when they discovered that they hadn’t even been given priority as graduating students, they said they were outraged.

Brian Matthew, one of the students, said he first realized something was wrong when the ticket distribution emails were sent out and not a single student in his department won the lottery.

“We were confused why everybody kept losing the lottery, especially since we know people who don’t have priority that got (tickets),” he said.

Matthew said that for undergraduate and master’s students, priority for the ticket lottery is based on credit hours.

But since Ph.D. students don’t have a credit-hour system, they have to inform the ticket office when it’s their last basketball season before graduating, said Clint Gwaltney, associate athletic director in the ticket office.

Andrew Stuart, a graduating student in the chemistry Ph.D. program, said their student services specialist, Donnyell Batts, handled sending the names of graduating students to the ticket office.

“He asked who was graduating and said he was going to put us on the list and send the list to the ticket office,” Stuart said.

Batts said he was contacted on Jan. 19 to send in a list of his department’s graduating students, and that he sent the list on Jan. 27.

Batts and Gwaltney both confirmed there was no deadline specified in the original email.

“I actually read (the email) three times to make sure there was no date in it,” Batts said.

But on Jan. 24, the chemistry students received an email saying that they were not listed as graduating and therefore would not receive priority status.

The email said they would need to give the ticket office a printout of their graduation status from ConnectCarolina.

“Which is not possible to do because registration for graduation is not available yet for August graduation,” Matthew said.

The chemistry students assumed that the list Batts sent to the ticket office would fix the mistake. Batts said when he sent the list in, he wasn’t told that it was past the deadline.

Gwaltney said the students should have just come to the office to fix the problem.

“We rectify these situations on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

“Those students got an email that said that they are not graduating and they did not come down and change that.”

Stuart said he is upset that he has paid athletic fees for five years and has never gotten a Duke ticket.

“The fact that I wasn’t put on the list even though I am graduating makes me feel like money has been stolen from me.”

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