Some alumni have expressed disappointment that they weren't allowed to attend former President Bill Clinton's speech last Monday.The event was only open to Brandeis undergraduate students, graduate students, staff and faculty members. Alumni, however, have expressed that they too belong to this community. The main area of the gymnasium can hold up to 5,800 people University Spokeswoman Lorna Miles told the Justice last month.

"I think that the alumni should have been invited," graduate student Leah Abrams '06 wrote in an e-mail to the Justice. "I understand that there may not be enough room, but I also do not know the entire reason for us not being invited."

Abrams said there was a lack of communication about the speech between the administration and alumni. "I wasn't notified that he was speaking at all," she wrote, noting that she only found out about the visit accidentally when she had a meeting on the Brandeis campus.

Another alum who commented on the Justice Web site expressed dissatisfaction with the rationing on the part of the administration.

According Miles, the main reason the administration didn't invite alumni stemmed from the impact that a former President's visit has on the town of Waltham, particularly traffic on South Street. It was decided that alumni would not be invited "when the President's staff told us that he was coming on a weekday," Miles wrote in an e-mail to the Justice.

"[Alumni have been invited to past events] only if the event occurred on the weekend," Miles wrote. "Such as the visit of His Holiness Dalai Llama, which was held on a Saturday."

"Traffic flow is no excuse," one reader identified as "Brandeis 2006 Alum" commented on the Justice Web site. "I can hardly imagine that providing a bus from the nearest T station . would not be worth the good will it would potentially gain from alums."

Director of Public Safety Ed Callahan explained that a shortage of parking spaces on campus also limits the amount of people the University can allow at campus events.

"We have no place to park people," Callahan said. "We encourage people to walk and use the Squire bridge. The University just does not have the parking structures or facilities to invite hundreds of people from off campus."

Callahan cited similar precautions and planning for traffic flow and attendance for last January's visit by former President Jimmy Carter.

"We all took the plan that was in place for the Carter event and magnified it due to the scope of the venue, and we wanted to incorporate the current community, which I think is something special to do," he said.

"By opening it to community members, we are maintaining a limited number of additional cars, and our agreement with the city to respect the traffic flow," Miles wrote. "The University has a very strong and positive relationship with the city of Waltham and we cannot mount events that bring in many more cars to campus during the workweek because we will clog the city's traffic arteries."

Students obtained tickets by entering an online lottery, and then picking up their ticket in person in the Shapiro Campus Center.

Callahan also noted that alumni weren't the only ones excluded from the event.

"It's not discriminatory to alumni per se, but all members of the extraneous members of the community," Callahan said. "I don't think we should just single out alumni . it's a hard decision.