News

Zut alors! Quebec tickets still on sale

ROC sales below expectations, low value of the dollar, confusion over passports blamed

By Sam G. Cohen

Posted on Dec. 13, 2007, at 12:00 a.m.

Anyone passing through the Union on Monday night was greeted by a throng of more than 100 students waiting in line for tickets to the Quebec trip, but compared to past years, tickets sold at a slower pace, with almost half still available as of Tuesday.

The annual trip, sponsored by Residents on Campus (ROC), sold around 130 tickets.

“We turned away between fifty and a hundred people last year and those were just people in line, not counting the people who saw the line and decided to leave,” Matt Nichols, ROC vice president of Financial Affairs said.

Sean O’Mara, ROC vice president of programming, expected to sell all of the 250 available tickets on Monday, “though we sold quite a few, we still have a lot of tickets left, which was surprising.”

Almost none of the international students signed up, due to new laws requiring them to obtain a Canadian visa. They are typically one of the largest groups to sign up for the trip, according to O’Mara.

He also attributed the low ticket sales to the First Year Residential Experience isolating first-years so they did not hear about the trip from upperclassmen. O’Mara also cited the strong Canadian dollar, confusion on passport laws and ROC’s inability to promote the event on all of the folders on FirstClass for diminished interest.

O’Mara does not believe the low turnout will cause any problems. “There is no danger of canceling the trip for lack of interest. We have almost three buses filled, so that is certainly enough to merit continuing the trip,” he said.

The trip provides students with the opportunity to visit Quebec for the weekend of Friday, Feb. 8 through Sunday, Feb. 10 during Quebec’s Winter Carnival. The weekend falls on the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec.

Winter Carnival-the largest in the world, according to its official Web site-is host to attractions such as an ice palace, an ice sculpture contest, toboggan rides and sled races.

Four students are assigned to each hotel room and students are allowed to select roommates. Usually five buses take the students to Quebec and back but ROC may cancel a bus if tickets remain unsold, according to O’Mara.

In the past, there have been issues with students getting left at the border. It is Canadian policy that anyone charged with a DUI or OUI will not be allowed to enter the country. Students left at the border are responsible for getting themselves back to campus, as the buses will continue on without them. Students will still be able to cross the border as long as they have their original birth certificate and driver’s license or a passport.

There have also been problems in the past with buses breaking down. A bus has broken down two of the last three years and ROC has sorted out a plan to load students onto the other buses immediately to avoid too much delay.

Justin Labonte, President of ROC, said he knows why students go on the trip. “They get a chance to get a cultural experience and it’s incredibly cheap,” he said. He visited the popular Ch�teau Frontenac, the Old City and Astral – a rotating restaurant – when he went last year.

Some students are going for different reasons. “I want to go to Quebec to drink some booze,” Drew Chase said, a sophomore Biology major who got in line at 2 p.m.-seven hours before tickets went on sale. “I’ve been before, several times, so it’s more about drinking than wanting to see the sights.”

First in line, Eulan Patterson, sophomore mechanical engineering major, arrived at noon. “The line went down to the arcade last time,” he said. “I figured I need to study anyway.”

Chase and Patterson like the low price of the trip. “It’s awesome. It cost me almost $600 to go for a weekend and that was just for the hotel,” Chase said.

Tickets for the trip cost $75 for on-campus students and $85 for off-campus students.

Ticket sales provide more than half of the funding for the trip. Ticket sales normally account for close to $20,000 of the $37,000 total budget allocated by ROC. Room and board fees and Student Government provide the rest of the funding. Six dollars from every student’s room and board fee is given to ROC, which is why off-campus students pay $10 extra.

Tickets last year were $65 for on-campus students. O’Mara contributes the increase to the rise in gas prices and the continued drop of the value of the dollar. “We paid $7,500 last year for the buses and this year they are $13,000. Overall, the trip costs $10,000 more than last year,” he said.

ROC will sell remaining tickets this Friday, Dec. 14 from noon to 5:00 p.m. in the Union.

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