Last fall, Student Government Association Sen. Kevin Ho, Jordan Sloan and Madeline Bell introduced the Vol Veterans Student Tickets Bill. The Daily Beacon reported on the bill when it was first introduced in November, but this semester, SGA student body president Dante Grayson vetoed the bill.
The bill’s goal was to ensure veteran students have access to sporting tickets, as stated in the bill’s summary.
“The Veterans ticket accessibility bill aims to provide our student veterans with easier access to the sporting events held at our University,” the bill said. “Our objective is to ensure that veterans can obtain these tickets through the Veteran Success Center, guaranteeing their availability to these high-impact events and creating a strong sense of school spirit for our Student Veterans.”
The bill would’ve taken 500 tickets from the general student fund and reserved them through the Veteran Success Center for each football game. From there, they would have been distributed to veteran students who requested one, and any extra would have been put back in the general fund.
The bill’s aim was simple — give respect and give back to the UT students who have sacrificed for our nation’s safety and security. Bill sponsor Sen. Ho is a veteran himself and cited his own experience — of seeing other veterans not getting access to tickets — as what inspired him to work on the bill.
“What we’re trying to do is to create school spirit,” Ho said. “As far as a welcoming environment for veterans to come to UT and experience, you know, these high impact events like the football games or any sporting events. So that’s ideally what our goal was.”
Currently, student football game tickets are distributed through the T-credit lottery system. Students earn T-credits by attending other UT sporting events, such as soccer or volleyball. Then, a lottery period opens up for each football game, and those with more tickets are likely to receive them.
The bill passed through the Senate with a 97% approval rate, showing its popularity among the legislative body. However, Grayson used his executive power to veto the bill, essentially killing it. Grayson spoke about his veto during an SGA session.
“I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude for the Vols Veterans Student Ticketing bill and the bill sponsors’ hard work and dedication in this creation of bill 24-5,” Grayson said. “Whereas, this veto does not diminish my commitment to supporting veteran students. Whereas, I remain steadfast in working alongside the Veteran Success Center and other campus partners to enhance the student veteran experience through meaningful measures.”
Grayson explained that he believed the statistics did not support the bill’s outlined need. Grayson cited that of 681 veteran students, 239 requested tickets to football games at least once last semester. Grayson said only 52 of those requests were unsuccessful in the lottery. Finally, Grayson cited the statistic that all 36 students who entered every football ticket lottery last semester successfully got at least one ticket.
Grayson’s justification for the veto boiled down to the fact that he didn’t think there was enough evidence that veteran students could not get tickets, which was an issue. Despite this, the bill sponsors are not done fighting yet.
“So we will be reworking the bill to try to make some adjustments, of course, to heed what the administration is saying,” Sloan said. “But we still are, you know, fighting for the veterans, not for administration. We’re both pretty adamant about that. … Vetoes are not the bottom line. A veto can be overridden.”
A possible compromise mentioned is a T-credit bonus to veteran students instead of reserving seats from the general lottery.
While the bill might’ve been vetoed for now, Sloan and Ho are adamant about continuing work on their Vol Veterans Student Tickets bill.
“We’re still going to fight for the veterans and make sure that, you know, we get some sort of solution figured out,” Sloan said.
