Kansas University officials came within one question Tuesday of deciding how to distribute next year’s supply of men’s basketball season tickets among faculty, staff and retirees.

“We’re almost there,” said Ray Davis, president of the university’s Faculty Executive Committee, also known as SenEx.

Earlier, SenEx members agreed to adopt a two-pool system that would allow more than 1,600 current season ticket holders to keep their tickets while, at the same time, using a lottery to allocate roughly 250 additional tickets being set aside for faculty, staff and retirees.

Within both pools, seniority will determine who gets the best seats.

SenEx members could not agree on whether to merge the two pools or to seat them in separate but comparable sections of Allen Fieldhouse.

The question is complicated by a stipulation that makes lottery winners eligible for tickets good for only four games while current ticket holders will have the option of buying 16-, eight- or four-game packages.

If the two groups are merged, only the most senior would sit in the same seats because seniority would vary from game to game.

Some members said they weren’t bothered by separating the two pools. Others said they were.

To break the deadlock, the group will meet Tuesday with a representative of the KU athletic department who will handle the actual distribution process.

Once the question is resolved, SenEx members expect to present the plan Feb. 12 to the University Council, a group that’s open to all faculty and staff. Afterward, SenEx will have the option of modifying the proposal or forwarding it to the athletic department.

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Though the process is unfinished, it drew the praise of Davis, who noted that few universities allowed their faculties to decide their seating policies.

“As best as I can tell, this is almost unique — if anyone else has done this, I’ve not heard about it,” Davis said.

He added, “I think this speaks well both to the strength of faculty governance at KU and to the willingness of the athletic department to write us in.”

The SenEx seating plan applies only to university faculty, staff and retirees, and is separate from the priority point system being developed by the athletic department.

Agreed-upon components of the SenEx plan include:

• Next year, faculty, staff and retirees will be limited to no more than two tickets — those with four would be expected to give up two.
• Current tickets holders will be allowed to renew their tickets every year.
• Lottery tickets will be good for two years, after which there will be another lottery.
• When a current ticket holder’s spouse dies, the survivor — assuming the survivor is not a university employee or retiree — will be allowed to buy two eight-game tickets for three more years.
• A lottery system will decide who gets to sit in 12 seats behind and to the side of the visitors’ bench for each game. Winners will be divided equally among all faculty, unclassified staff and classified staff.

Each winner will be allowed to buy up to two tickets. The tickets will be good for one game.

• Faculty and staff’s 20 percent discount on ticket prices would remain in place.

According to SenEx members, the plan strikes a compromise between protecting the interests of longtime ticket holders and accommodating those who have not had access to tickets in the past.