Making a Good CU Arts Better

The Arts Initiative at Columbia University has already had a popular semester, but long lines of students at its Lerner Hall box office last week dampened its success. The program, which sells cheap tickets to events on- and off-campus, should be commended for its significant strides forward, but last week’s delays show that the program still has room for improvement. To keep their initiative in students’ good graces, CU Arts should permit greater flexibility in purchasing tickets and more publicly explain the surcharges it incurs.

Since last semester, CU Arts has grown dramatically. Between Jan. 28 and May 31 of this year, the program sold 40,940 tickets, four times as many as anticipated. According to the box office, technical issues with a ticketing-company affiliate slowed operations last week, but CU Arts promises that such delays won’t be a trend this semester. Even so, outside companies that sell tickets through CU Arts often restrict purchases to two seats or fewer per UNI, particularly at high-demand events. Other online ticketing agencies often also limit the number of tickets one can purchase, but that cap is usually more reasonable than a meager two. This is especially problematic for students who want to reserve a block of contiguous seats, or for those attending events with friends outside the University. CU Arts should accommodate students’ requests to reserve seats together.

Furthermore, the CU Arts Web site fails to explain surcharges applied to ticket purchases and the reasons they are levied. These surcharges cover reasonable fees for on- and off-campus tickets, such as Telecharge, handling, and credit-card fees, and the initiative should make this clear to its clients. Though it makes sense for CU Arts to impose a surcharge, a breakdown of its charges, listed online and at the box office, would convince students they are not paying more than necessary. To mitigate the frustration of purchasing tickets for a large group of people, CU Arts should set up an online system that would allow students to reserve contiguous seats at events, although such a system might require that students log in to CU Arts’ Web site and authorize one person to buy tickets for all of them.

Any well-run business seeks total customer satisfaction with its services. Transparency in pricing and adjustments to its online system may allow CU Arts to achieve just that. Indeed, such changes will no doubt draw even more students to the variety of on- and off-campus happenings to which CU Arts can facilitate access.