Can I sell my spare graduation tickets?

• Author: Cohen, Randy
• Position: THE ETHICIST - Brief article

My college gives each student six tickets for graduation. I won't need all six and want to sell the extras. My roommate says that's unethical, but I think if people want to bring more than their allotted guests, I'm free to sell them tickets. Am I?

Bing Luke, Waltham, Massachusetts

ASSUMING YOUR SCHOOL HAS NO RULE against doing so, selling those tickets would not be unethical. But it would fall short of ideal behavior. Sometimes ethics offer guidelines for what's acceptable but not for what's admirable. Indeed, to profit from this occasion would violate the spirit of the day and of the place.

There's something unseemly about turning a buck from an event to which you contributed nothing. That's as true for the off-campus scalping of concert or sports tickets as it is for a college graduation.

If I were running the...