550 students receive tickets to attend Clinton's address

Some 550 students plowing through their e-mail inboxes yesterday discovered they are the lucky recipients of a golden ticket to President Clinton's address to be held this Thursday.

Winners of the lottery were notified after uncertainties about the number of seats available for students, staff and faculty pushed back the notification deadline, which the University originally slated for last Friday.

Clinton will deliver the keynote address at Richardson Auditorium on Thursday at 2 p.m. for the two-day conference on the progressive era titled "The Progressive Tradition: Politics, Culture and History."

According to event organizers, 250 undergraduate and 150 graduate students were selected through a computerized lottery. In addition, 75 seats were set aside for students in the American studies program. Wilson School undergraduates, graduate students, faculty and staff participated in a separate lottery for another 75 seats allocated specifically for that department.

Seats for faculty and staff in the other departments are also being distributed through a lottery, and the remainder of Richardson Auditorium's 891 seats will be given to security, members of the press and VIPs.

In addition, Vice President for Public Affairs Bob Durkee '69 said yesterday that there will be a randomly selected student waiting list for additional seats that become available. He noted that students on the waiting list will be encouraged to keep checking their e-mail to see if they will have the opportunity to obtain tickets.

"[The University's] goal is to get as many people as possible to attend," Durkee said. "We'll keep working probably until two minutes before [Clinton's speech] to make sure that every seat is filled."

More than 3,800 undergraduates and graduate students entered the drawing, according to George Fleming, a senior technical staff member for CIT who supervised the Web-based lottery.

"We programmed the lottery to facilitate people signing up online," Fleming said, adding that the program required users to enter their Net ID for security purposes.

Winners were randomly selected by a computer program Fleming designed that is used throughout the University.

Durkee said officials are still considering plans for a "rope line" where those who are unable to attend the speech will have a chance to shake hands with Clinton.

He added that the final arrangements for the visit will depend on scheduling and security issues that the University hopes to work out during the next few days.

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"Presidential visits are always complicated," Durkee noted. "There's a lot of refining of plans that gets done over the three to four days before the visit."

But so far organizers say they are pleased with the way plans for the President's visit — including the lottery for tickets — have progressed.

"The lottery went very smoothly," Fleming said. "The CIT help desk received no complaints."