UT's dean of students will use a lottery system to distribute invitations to students, faculty and staff to attend or volunteer at the Democratic debate on campus, officials said Thursday.
The office will determine how many students versus faculty and staff will receive tickets in the near future, said Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly.
Whoever receives the invitation will be notified via e-mail.
"All this information is unfolding as we speak," Reagins-Lilly said.
The Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs will receive roughly 40 tickets to distribute to its students, officials said.
"The LBJ school was instrumental in bringing the debate here, so when we were talking to folks about this, we felt it was important to have our students be involved," said LBJ School Dean James Steinberg.
The tickets will be distributed using a fair method - like a random number generator, Steinberg said.
Steinberg said the goal is to maximize student participation and get as many tickets in the hands of UT students.
"We're very optimistic that a significant portion of people at the debate will be students," he said.
Once it was made apparent after Super Tuesday that Texas - for the first time in a decade - would play an important role in determining the outcome of the primaries, officials at the LBJ school discussed the possibility of hosting a debate on campus.
"We worked with the LBJ Foundation to develop a proposal to present to the campaigns," Steinberg said. "This campus is the perfect place for something like this."
Students invited will be screened by the Secret Service prior to the debate, said UT spokesperson Don Hale.
Hale warned against purchasing your way into the debate, since tickets will not be made available to the public.
The Texas Democratic Party is taking names for a drawing of 100 tickets for the debate. Names must be submitted by 5 p.m. Monday.
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