Recently, a friend of mine seeking spare tickets to Tisch Salute — the Tisch graduation ceremony — inquired after a post in a Facebook group. The price she was given was $850. By all indications, the seller was serious. Valuing $850 for a ticket that the school offers to students for free is an egregious case of extortion. But what if you’re quoting a more reasonable price, or you find a buyer happy to pay whatever you’re charging — is it really so wrong to try to turn a quick profit?

For NYU’s part, tickets are distributed fairly. Due to space constraints, each student is allotted three guest tickets each, though there is a tenuous honor system in the ordering process, with a note asking students to only claim as many tickets as they need. Extras are available on a first-come, first-serve basis at ticket pick-up and again on a date closer to the ceremonies. In theory, the system is equitable.

The trouble is that the practice of ticket scalping distorts the system. When commencement tickets are sold at increasingly exorbitant prices, the determining factor in who is able to bring friends and family to their graduation ceremonies becomes their socioeconomic status.

The cruel irony is that for students from lower-income backgrounds, graduation tends to be a much bigger deal. At an institution like NYU, where low-income students are infamously underserved by inadequacies in financial aid and affordable housing, adding an economic strain to commencement is to add insult to injury.

This is not a new problem, nor is it unique to our university. This problem may never disappear entirely. NYU mentions during ticket distribution — both verbally and in pamphlets included with the tickets — that scalping is illegal, but appears to take little to no action against scalpers who break the rules. Their action is ultimately what is needed to quash the problem on a larger scale.

However, it is important to remember that our actions do not take place in a vacuum. The system is unlikely to change, but that does not mean that an individual must feed into the injustice. Giving tickets away to those in need, or even returning them to NYU, restores just a little bit of equity. It is not an act of charity to do so, but rather an act of justice. To suggest that it constitutes a charitable action upholds the mentality that students are entitled to profit from tickets that were handed to them for free. They are not. And while an individual cannot fix a system, you can know that your ticket will make a very big difference to a friend, an acquaintance or a peer at no cost. That should be enough.

Opinions expressed on the editorial pages are not necessarily those of WSN, and our publication of opinions is not an endorsement of them. A version of this article appeared in the Monday, May 1 print edition.

Email Mollie Gillespie at [email protected]