When gameday rolls around, student ushers are part of the glue that holds Beaver Stadium together.

While most students would obviously choose to catch a game from the student section, working as a student usher is a great way to get into the game if you came up empty after this year’s ticket sales.

As a student usher myself, I arrived at the employee entrance between Gate E and F hours before kickoff against Auburn in the White Out. Donning that horrid red vest, I was allowed in three hours before kickoff and was assigned to one of the sections in the student section. Once I was there, my job was to tell students where to go once the gates open.

Naturally, of course, Nittanyville is up first. And boy, do those folks come in with full force. The rest of the crowd soon starts to trickle in behind Nittanyville.

In my experience, I’ve found that the crowd that enters closer to when the gates open is calmer and definitely soberer. Still, though, most of the time dealing with the massive crowd actually isn’t that bad. As a matter of fact, someone even offered me their pulled pork sandwich to let them lean on the railings — an offer I, unfortunately, needed to turn down. For that poor soul, they would have needed to camp out all week to get that prized Nittanyville wristband to get that close to the field.

During the White Out specifically, I found that the influx of students into the student section was so massive that it was actually hard for me to move and do my job. In my opinion, I felt like too many tickets were handed out for some sections, so students flooded into the aisles and had nowhere to sit. A lack of accommodating space should never be a student’s concern if they actually purchased a ticket, and it’s definitely a problem that needs to be addressed for everyone’s safety. Lucky for me though, as a student usher, that’s far above my pay grade.

Student ushers are typically released no later than the end of the first quarter. Against Ball State, I was released at the end of the first quarter, but the next weekend against Auburn, I was free before the Blue Band conducted its pregame show. 

After I’m discharged, I get to cash in on fifteen or sixteen meal points and a student ticket that’s typically way up in WBU. Since I volunteer, I don’t need to pay a dime to watch a game from the best student section in the country.

Being a student usher, although a difficult job sometimes, is absolutely worth it. At the end of the day, I would do anything to get inside that student section — even if it means turning down a pulled pork sandwich from an incredibly drunk group of folks just trying to push their way through.