The Winston-Salem State student accused of selling more than 50 counterfeit tickets for the homecoming pre-dawn party did not appear for his on-campus judicial hearing Oct. 12.

Cedric Watkins, a junior business administration student, admitted to selling the tickets when confronted by Campus Police, Sept. 25.

Almost 50 students reported being sold counterfeit tickets.

Deona Cureton, director of student conduct, said that the reported price range of the tickets sold were from $5 to $15.

"I just think that it was unfortunate that [that] student made the decision to be dishonest like that," said Ebony Ramsey, student activities director.

Hours before the event, the counterfeit tickets began to surface.

"I was talking to some students, and one student informed me that she purchased a ticket today (Sept. 25), and I asked to see it," said Zuo Reeves, a member of Campus Activities Board and Campus Life Marketing Committee. "I actually didn't say anything to the student about it (the ticket) being fake or not.”

The pre-dawn party sold out two weeks prior to the event.

The homecoming committee and security were notified of the possibility of counterfeit tickets, but were unaware of the actual number of tickets or severity of the situation.

"We had to have a lot more officers outside of the event because of the tickets," said Reeves, who also worked as front-door security for the event.

"It caused chaos,” Reeves said. “There was a student leader that was threatened by a student because they could not get into the pre-dawn.”

In the Oct. 3 interview with The News Argus, Chancellor Donald Reaves said, "If we catch students with counterfeit tickets, we are going to put them into the judicial system, and they will be subject to the harshest discipline."

The hearing was held in Watkins' absence, said Deona Cureton, Student Conduct director.

Watkins is required to pay $345 in restitution to the University, Cureton said.

Victoria Staples writes for the News Argus, the Winston-Salem State University student newspaper, which originally published this article.