University of Iowa students will not have to buy Hawkeye football season tickets to be part of the newly revised tuition-giveaway program from the Athletics Department.
Five UI students could win $8,000 to be applied to their tuition or other education expenses for the fall 2014 and spring 2015 semesters with a new drawing promotion that officials announced on Monday.
Students who purchase seven-game or six-game student season tickets, as well as other students who choose not to purchase season tickets but notify the Athletics Department about their interest in the promotion, will be eligible for the drawing.
Both groups of students will have until 5 p.m. today to either purchase season tickets or notify the Athletics Department of their interest in the drawing.
“We are pleased the Johnson County county attorney and the Office of the Attorney General have approved our revised plan,” said Rick Klatt, the associate athletics director for external relations, in a statement on Monday.
On July 28, the Athletics Department introduced a raffle promotion in which students could win free tuition, gift cards, or a watch party if they purchased season tickets before the Aug. 1 deadline.
The promotion aimed to help increase student ticket sales. The department historically sold 10,000 tickets for students. However, last year, only 7,300 student tickets were sold.
Two days after the initial program was announced, UI officials suspended the program because of legal questions.
David Werning, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals, previously told The Daily Iowan that some of issues the university faced with the previous program included payments being made online, the varying ticket prices, as well as it not being specific whether participants were required to present to win the prizes.
Athletics Director Gary Barta suspended the program July 30 after learning about the concerns.
The new drawing was announced on Monday after approval from the county attorney, as well as the Office of the Attorney General.
With the new promotion, the winners of the prizes will be randomly selected from the collection of students who either purchased the seven-game or six-game student season tickets and the students who expressed interest in the drawing.
Students who bought the ticket for the initial raffle can still receive a refund.
On Aug. 1, the department started offering refunds to students who purchased tickets in response to the raffle.
As of Monday, there has only been one request for such a refund.
The Aug. 1 deadline, which would have opened student tickets to the general public, was moved to accommodate any inconveniences experienced by UI students.
Students who purchased tickets between the times the program was introduced to the time it was suspended could still request a refund until 5 p.m. Friday.