Students get posh seating

While the majority of first-year students were dodging marshmallows on Section 30 benches in Michigan Stadium on Saturday, nine lucky students looked on from high above, munching on fruit and comfortably sitting on cushioned seats.

That is because Athletic Director Tom Goss and University President Lee Bollinger invited a group of first-year students to the luxury boxes for the Michigan-Colorado football game, giving the students a birds-eye view of the action on the field.

The gesture from the administration came only weeks after undergraduate, graduate, and transfer students, who ordered student football tickets for the first time, learned they would not receive tickets to all home games. Instead, the students were g Goss, who took over as athletic director just one week ago, said he wanted to mitigate the split-season package problem as one of his first orders of business. More than 1,500 incoming students were left outside the gates since Colorado was not part of their split-season package.

"I became a little bit upset," Goss said. "If you are the coach, you want the students in the stands. I was a player. That's who I wanted to get in the stands."

So on Saturday, the nine first-year students, who received split-season packages without the Colorado game, sat in the president's and athletic director's boxes instead of in front of the TV at home. The Athletic Department called the students Thursday and Friday to invite them to the game.

"I can't even explain it," said LSA first-year student Dana Linnane, as she witnessed her first home Michigan game, from Goss's box. "Before this, it was like, 'Yeah, I'm going to Michigan.' Now I feel like such a part of everything. I bought this Michigan shirt before I came here and I am going to call my parents tonight."

Linnane heard the news from her roommate Friday morning. Her roommate, who also was invited, didn't accept the offer, so Linnane's best friend, Kristina Wheaton from hometown Rochester Hills, attended instead.

"It is such a wonderful opportunity," said Wheaton, an Engineering first-year student. "Everybody is so nice. People who we don't even know were talking to us. Everybody is cheering really loud ... and there is free food."

Wheaton and the other students didn't need to venture out to the concession stands to buy hot dogs or the individual Pizza Hut pizzas.

Instead, a large assortment of food, which included reuben sandwiches, hot dogs and fruit, was provided for the students in the boxes.

Also, the students did not have to worry about being tossed around and squeezed into packed rows. When they wanted to sit down, movie-theatre-like seats were there for the taking.

Goss said there will be no such thing as split-season tickets next year.

"Let me guarantee you one thing," Goss said. "In football, we won't make this decision next year."

Goss said he had other solutions in mind besides the split-season package, but the tickets already had been sent out. Before inviting students to his box, he originally thought he would make room for members of the visiting teams or the media.

"There's always a few spots," Goss said. "My commitment was to not use those spots if there are some freshmen available to come to these games because I wanted them here."

LSA first-year student Emily Kidle said she was extremely happy to be there. The Ann Arbor native, who received a phone call Friday morning, attended her second home football game Saturday. But it was quite different than her first experience. Kidle, like everyone else in Goss's box, had the opportunity to meet Bollinger and the athletic director.

Kidle told her friends about her golden opportunity, but she did not tell one important person.

"I didn't tell my brother because I know he would be a little jealous," Kidle said, pointing to the stands below. "He'll be down there somewhere."

Bollinger said he is upset that many students who wanted full-season tickets were unable to get them.

"It's something that should not happen again," Bollinger said. "Since first-year students could not get tickets to all the games, I thought I would invite five of them to sit with me."

First-year students will continue to be chosen at random to sit in the boxes during the remaining six home games, said Chacona Johnson, Bollinger's chief of staff.

"We are going to do this every game," Johnson said, adding that the amount of students invited "will depend game to game."

"Next week is (Bollinger's) inauguration and there will be a lot of out-of-town guests," she said. "But we will try to invite as many students as we can - at least four a game."

09-15-97