“It doesn’t feel fulfilling when you don’t have all of the main loved ones in your life that were supporting you through college not even be able to show up; it dampens the whole experience, mentally and emotionally for sure,” said Gray Krikl, a graduating theater student at San Francisco State University, describing the impact of limited commencement tickets.

For years, SFSU’s commencement ticket distribution system has been fundamentally broken. The current approach — giving each graduating student a flat seven tickets — ignores the needs of the student body and has created a desperate scramble that forces students to either exclude family members or pay exorbitant prices for additional tickets.

This system is a slap in the face to students from large families, for which seven tickets simply aren’t enough. 

“I have an immediate family of 11,” said Michelle Martinez, an English literature student. “I already knew people were gonna have to get cut from that list.”

This limitation forces students into difficult choices about which family members can witness their achievement — a gut-wrenching decision, especially for first-generation college students. 

“It’s kind of like robbing some people in my family who need the example to look up to and actually be able to experience it,” said Martinez.

The university’s failure to create a flexible system has spawned an underground economy where students pay shocking prices for tickets that should be freely available.

“Just for two tickets, someone tried to charge me $125,” Martinez said. “That just made me really upset because the school could have just had us all select how much we need and then go from there, versus seven everyone. Then you have people charging hundreds of dollars for them.”

Daniella Magana, another student, said her roommate bought tickets from one of the sellers.

“She paid $100 for two tickets for commencement, for her family,” Magana said.

Vanessa Hardin, a geography graduate student, admitted to selling tickets.

“I sold two for $10, and I sold two for $40 each as they got higher in demand,” said Hardin, noting that she did feel guilty. “Everyone else charges. So, I was like, well, ‘if I can make a little money as a broke college student.’”

This isn’t a new problem, according to Hardin, who graduated with her undergraduate degree from SFSU. 

“It’s a common thing every year,” Hardin said. “I’ve had friends who have graduated various years as well, and every year it’s like a scramble to try and find extra tickets for folks.”

A quick glance at SFSU’s recent Instagram post reveals over 150 comments from students, with most asking for extra tickets, many “willing to pay.” Perhaps most troubling is the revelation that while students were struggling to find tickets, the university was quietly giving away extra tickets at the Cesar Chavez Student Center.

Even Krikl, who works in the student center, had absolutely no clue that tickets were available. 

“It’s a bummer that they can’t just send even an email,” Krikl said.

I only found out about this through another person on staff at Golden Gate Xpress who has a roommate who works in the building. When I confirmed that this was actually happening, I created an Instagram reel immediately because it shouldn’t have been done quietly. This secretive approach creates an inequitable system where access to additional tickets depends on insider knowledge.

When confronted with these issues, the university offered an explanation but no solutions. 

“We completely understand students’ frustrations,” said Nicole Lange, who plans commencement. “While it would be ideal to offer more tickets, the number of tickets is based on the inventory of seats with unobstructed views at Oracle Park, the max capacity of the venue and the number of graduating students who have historically taken part in the commencement ceremony.”

This response fails to address why the university hasn’t implemented a more flexible reservation system that would allow students to request the number of tickets they actually need. If some students need fewer than seven tickets while others need more, why not create a system that accommodates these differences?

“What a lot of other universities do — that I hear from my friends and stuff — is that they’re allowed to register for more tickets than what they already have,” Magana said. “So, the university probably could have done something like giving us the seven and then, if we needed more, we could register for more.”

This approach would better serve students with large families while ensuring venue capacity isn’t exceeded. It would also eliminate the exploitative secondary market where students profit from their peers’ desperation.

After years of the same broken system, it’s time for the university to acknowledge that its approach to commencement tickets has failed and to fix it for future students. Graduating students deserve better than a system that forces them to exclude family members, pay exorbitant prices, or have the necessary connections to hear about tickets being given away.

A university that truly values its students would create a sensible system that recognizes the diversity of family compositions and allows all students to fully celebrate their achievements with the people who matter most to them.