After Bowdoin students received an Ivies survey from the E-Board last fall, questions buzzed around campus, but there was one left echoing louder than the rest: Would Ivies continue to be free?
On Monday, the buzzing came to a halt, when students received another email about Ivies, this time from Allen Delong, director of student life. The message stated that while Ivies will remain free for students, guests will be charged a $20 entrance fee. The fee will provide admission at the gate to both the concert and dinner on Saturday, April 28.
The decision was a choice made by Randy Nichols, director of safety and security; Ken Cardone, associate director of dining services; Nate Hintze, associate director of student activities, and Delong.
Delong and Hintze wrote the policy, which was edited by Nichols before being approved by senior administrators. Hintze presented the policy to the E-Board who also endorsed the idea before sending it out on Monday afternoon.
Hintze explained that the admission fee was for the most part a response to flaws with last year's concert.
"I worked at the gate last year and watched guests who didn't have a host kind of mill around to wait for a student to vouch for them. Once in the concert, they'd part ways," he said.
It was often these guests who caused problems with campus security at the concert, Hintze said.
"Randy had some incidents with guests from other colleges, and we had never tracked whose guests they were. We wanted to make sure there are real legitimate guests instead of people just showing up for a free concert."
Hintze also said that implementing a stricter guest policy will force students to understand the risk of sneaking in random visitors, as students will be held accountable for the actions of their guests, especially for violations of Bowdoin's social code.
The funds from each ticket will be used to offset dining expenses, which, upon Cardone's recommendation, will allow all concert-goers to eat. The final portion will go into the E-Board's account to cover extraneous expenses for the day and future events.
While Hintze said that student activities has never considered charging Bowdoin students for Ivies tickets, E-Board co-chair Ruiqi Li '13 noted that E-Board members considered it, but only for the sake of getting bigger names for the concert.
The idea was dropped when members realized that even then, the difference between attainable and desired acts would still be too great.
"It would be hard to gauge because we don't know how much we can get from students. We're not going to get Adele, but maybe one step up. That's the sort of hope behind getting more money on the E-Board side of things," said Li, who said she supports the school's decision to charge guests.
"Twenty dollars doesn't really make that much of a difference, but will deter the people who really shouldn't be there anyway," she said.
Li, who read over students' surveys responses from the beginning of the year, confirms that most Bowdoin students are on the same page regarding Ivies costs.
"Most people said they would never pay for Ivies because it's a tradition. However, in regards to guests, they were much more agreeable," said Li.
Of the 1,166 students who responded to the survey, 90 percent of respondents checked that guests should pay. Sixty-seven percent agreed that $20 was a reasonable price.
"It's kind of fair economically, because we pay an activities fee in our tuition," said Katie Stewart '12 in response to the decision. "It's a good idea and we still get in for free, right? If guests are willing to pay to get here, they would be willing to pay a little more."
While sophomore Jack Mensik believes that the price is "a little steep" and not really necessary, he said that he understands "why this is something the school has to look into."
Even first years, who had nothing to compare the policy with, were amenable to the decision.
"That seems reasonable," said Quincy Koster '15. "You're seeing three bands plus food. I'd say that's fine."
If there is any real strong opposition out there, Hintze has yet to hear it.
"The only response to Allen's email was a student in complete support of it. Once students think about it, they think 'Oh, that makes total sense,'" he said.
The new policy will be put to the test in two short weeks. Students will register their guests in Smith Union on the day of the show, starting at 11 a.m. Everyone will receive a bracelet—which will be required throughout the duration of the show—in order to enter, leave and eat.
To test its success, the E-Board will include the policy in next year's Ivies survey, but Hintze believes that it will be obvious the day of if the guest policy works well.
"It hasn't caused too many headaches yet, so hopefully that will play a role into how it all plays out," he said.