University officials will meet this week to discuss restructuring student ticket policies for men’s basketball games, said Robert Chernak, senior vice president for Student and Academic Support Services.

Chernak said administrators will meet to consider altering the ticket policy and early entry privileges of the Colonial Army, a 1,000-person student spirit organization that has early admittance to the Smith Center for basketball games.

“There are a variety of constituencies on campus who have a variety of needs,” Chernak said. “As we anticipate interest in basketball going up, it raises the question of ‘is it okay the way we’ve been doing it, or should we take a look at all the issues?’ I really think it’s a good time to just kind of sort out all the issues, look at the pros and cons at how we could do things. ”

Junior Frank Dale, co-president of the four-year-old Colonial Army, said he is not opposed to the University changing its seating policy, but he does not believe his club has adversely affected student turnout.

“Army members only filled up the first five rows,” Dale said.

Last year, new members of the Colonial Army paid $15 for the season, while returning members paid $10. Along with early entry, the members received a Buff-colored Colonial Army t-shirt, a wristband and access to road trips.

The administration is wary of the idea of making students pay to get premier seats and forcing those who do not pay to camp out and potentially miss class, Chernak said.

“If you want to expand the fan base, which is what we want to do, we want to introduce new people to the ambience and excitement of games and not just accommodate people who shell out money for special privileges,” Chernak said.

The University is looking to address other issues, including alumni using inactive GWorld cards to gain entrance to the Smith Center on game days.

Dale said he has been in discussions with the University about having the Colonial Army potentially buy out the lower section of the student seating area at near-face value, which would result in Army membership fees of at least $25.

“We understand that what it has been at our school compared to other schools has been very cheap,” Dale said. “We just thought that increasing it by a large amount sends a bad message. We’ve always tried to do what’s the best for the students; I thought we did a decent job last year. I thought we had earned the respect of the people that we deal with.”

He added, “As long as there are people in the Smith Center, then we’re happy. Unifying support for the basketball team is our No. 1 goal. It’s hard because you want everyone to be exposed to it, but you want to reward people who go the extra mile.”

Chernak said the Colonial Army has “been terrific in terms of helping us develop spirit and tradition.”

Dale said he has been frustrated with not knowing the University’s course of action with the Colonial Army. He added that he did not know until recently who was going to decide the Army’s fate.

For now, Dale and other Colonial Army organizers are unable to prepare for the upcoming year without knowing what their funds or privileges will be. Without the early admittance policy, Dale said the group would be a spirit organization without the seating advantages.

“I hope there can be some kind of compromise; that’s all we want,” Dale said. “We’re all really excited for the season, and we just want to get going. We’re just waiting to find out what happens. “