Ohio State students still in the campus area may be searching for things to do this summer in Columbus. The Information Center in the Ohio Union offers a cheaper solution.

D-Tix, an OSU program, offers tickets to local events and attractions and restaurant gift cards to OSU students at a discounted price.

The discount tickets are funded by the student activity fee and are available to OSU undergraduate, graduate and professional students, D-Tix coordinator Katie Sprague said in an email.

“We buy the tickets to be distributed to students and use the activity fee money to subsidize the cost, allowing us to offer those tickets at a steep discount over published prices,” Sprague said.

For the more popular tickets, however, some students have to pay in a different way: with time and patience.

Mikayla Moore, a first-year in business, said she doesn’t like the D-Tix system of having students wait in line for ticket releases.

“It’s kind of a pain that we have to wait so long for them,” Moore said.

Moore said she’s most worried about the wait time interfering with her class schedule.

“I guess you would just skip classes,” Moore said. “It’s kind of difficult in that area, but I mean it’s worth it in the end if you’re going to save so much money.”

Sprague said that D-Tix has restrictions in place that could help cut down on students skipping class.

“Lines are not permitted before 2 p.m. in order to reduce the amount of time students must be in line,” Sprague said.

Some students find waiting in line for D-Tix to be a good time.

“It was actually really fun waiting in line,” said Hannah Guttman, a second-year in pre-occupational therapy.

Guttman said there were people bringing around snacks and staff members monitoring the line to ensure that other students wouldn’t cut the line in front of others when she waited with a group of friends last year for tickets to a Drake concert.

“You could tell a bunch of people wanted to get in line with their friends because it took so long to wait,” Guttman said.

Guttman said she and her friends were prepared to wait for a long time when they got in line.

Sprague, though, said that the D-Tix staff does not typically hand out food.

“D-tix does not usually give out snacks, and solicitors cannot hand out free food to those in line. We have however on occasion set up a popcorn machine,” Sprague said.

Helen Chen, a fourth-year in biology, said she likes getting tickets cheaper so she can get off of campus and discover Columbus.

“There are some awesome places,” Chen said.

Chen also encouraged other students to do the same.

“If there are kids who aren’t doing anything during the summer time, take that opportunity and go somewhere and experience life beyond this little campus bubble,” Chen said.

Some of the concert tickets yet to be released this summer include Of Monsters and Men and Relient K. Tickets to some more popular concerts, such as Bruno Mars, Kenny Chesney and Fun., were already released and are now out of stock.

Students can also get discounted tickets to sporting events such as Columbus Clippers and Columbus Crew games and to Columbus attractions such as the Columbus Zoo and the Columbus Museum of Art. D-Tix are even available for places further from Columbus, such as Cedar Point and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

Sprague said that this summer, D-Tix is also offering vouchers to “a number of food tours including Taco Truck Tours and Short North Food Tours.”

Students are able to get two tickets per BuckID for most events. Restaurant gift cards are not available for purchase during the summer.

 

 

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: May 15, 2013

An earlier version of this story stated that Katie Sprague, D-Tix coordinator, did not respond to The Lantern’s requests for comment. In fact, Sprague did respond, and her comments have been added.