SGA members slam block seats program

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As the football season approaches, two members of the SGA and College of Arts and Sciences Senator John Dodd are questioning the fairness of the block seating program.

Block seats allow student organizations to request a block or a few rows of designated seats for their members during home games. These seats can only be filled by members of organizations who are allocated a block for the season. The blocks are located behind the end zone at the south end of Bryant-Denny Stadium, in sections S1-S7.

SGA members Garrett Burnett and Sarah Shield analyzed the demographics of student organizations that received bulk seats in 2019. Burnett and Shield concluded that the college’s bulk seating system is discriminatory and unfair . They said block seats should be eliminated immediately.

In a perfect world, block sieges are gone and everyone has the same opportunity, Shield said.

Block seats will return in the fall after a one-season absence. Stadium capacity was reduced to 20% last season to follow COVID-19 guidelines. Last year, students with tickets to home games filled the stadium on a first-come, first-served basis while adhering to social distancing guidelines.

However, Burnett and Shield claim that the block seats do not benefit the majority of the campus community and instead are aimed at members of Greek organizations. By studying the seating plans of the blocs, they said that it is easy to recognize the inequalities within the system.

Shield said the cards revealed gender and financial disparities and favored Greek organizations. They gathered data from the most recent 2019 block seat table and found that 76% of the blocks allocated were from Greek literary organizations.

That year, the largest block was reserved for student-athletes, who occupied rows 31 to 46 of section S3. Greek literary organizations represented 175 rows of the block seating section, or 72% of available seats. The fraternities occupied more than half of the ranks.

One bloc, equivalent to 2% of the bloc’s seats, was occupied by Alpha Phi Alpha of the Pan-Hellenic National Council, which includes eight historically black fraternities and sororities. Alpha Phi Alpha is the only NPHC chapter that received a block.

The data also revealed financial inequalities. Since Greek organizations hold 72% of the blocks, Shield and Burnett said the high cost of joining a Greek organization limits the access of other students to block seats.

According to Shield and Burnett, the average cost to be a member of the Greek Block is $ 3,386.42 per season. The average cost of a student ticket in 2020 was $ 20.

Shield and Burnett said every student should have equal access to a good seat during the season, and removing seats in bulk is the best way to achieve this. They proposed that the first come, first served system used last year would work just as well in the seasons to come.

Removing the seats en bloc is the only way to ensure this kind of equal experience for everyone. I don’t think anyone loses by being taken out because you still have the option to sit in the exact same seats, Shield said. But on the other hand, if we remove it, a lot of students stand to gain from this decision.

Shield and Burnetts’ analysis criticized the scoring rubric used to assign block seats. Organizations can get up to 1.5 times more seats than the total number of GPAs they submit with their nominations. Organizations with more members have more GPAs to choose from.

This allows organizations to submit the highest GPAs among their members and receive enough seats for the organization.

The scoring grid, provided by the SGA and the Office of Student Affairs, includes three categories that are weighted for assessment. Professionalism is 30% of the score, the GPA is 50% and a package demonstrating leadership, diversity, education, community service and philanthropy is 20%.

The Board of Governors, which is made up of students selected through a separate SGA application process, judges the application. Board responsibilities include reviewing nominations, scoring submissions, and assigning sections to organizations.

Due to the demographics of the overwhelming majority of predominantly white Greek organizations that sit at the very front of the seat bloc… it’s just hard to see it as fair or equal, Dodd said.

He pointed out that the irony of diversity has been listed as a valuation factor as so many blocks are given to homogeneous groups on campus.

I just don’t think there’s anything different about the Kappa Alpha Order at the University of Alabama, Dodd said.

Steven Hood, senior associate vice president for student life, said student organization seats are open to all SOURCE-registered groups on campus and can be requested using a multi-step system.

For organizations wishing to secure student organization seats, organization representatives should review the process that is sent by electronic communication and posted on the website, Hood said. Representatives of the organization must then complete a Qualtrics survey to enroll in the process and recognize the rules of the upcoming process.

As a result of the Qualtrics investigation, groups complete a contract and submit an application package blindly, which Hood says allows for objective reviews. Student organizations are then invited to participate in interviews conducted by the Board of Governors in August.

Hood said block seats are a great way for students involved in SOURCE-registered organizations to sit together during the games.

The Division of Student Life strives to support the SGA by facilitating a fair and consistent process for the headquarters of student organizations, Hood said. We encourage all students who are interested in this process to share their thoughts on how best to improve the process.

Burnett and Shield expressed disappointment with the SGA and UA administration for not acknowledging their findings. Their attempts to share their work with administrators were frustrated. They said they felt like they had to explain the seats en bloc to the admins, even though those admins definitely worked on [block seating] before and made changes.

Their hope for this year is that the SGA and UA administrations show an interest in remedying the situation rather than sweeping it under the rug.

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