[media-credit name=’UW Athletic Communications’ align=’alignnone’ width=’648′][/media-credit]The 2004-05 men's basketball student ticket lottery was suspended Friday afternoon after University of Wisconsin athletic department officials learned that 625 students who submitted electronic applications were not included in the selection process.

A town-hall style meeting, which will allow students and athletic department officials to discuss new developments with the ticketing process, will be held today at 4:30 p.m. in the Kohl Center. Students are to enter at Gate B.

"Students are welcome to attend [the meeting to share] ideas to resolve the situation," associate athletic director Steve Malchow said.

In an e-mail sent Friday afternoon to students who signed up for the lottery, department officials said they only learned about the unrecorded orders after several students inquired.

This marks the second obstacle in a week the basketball ticketing process has faced.

Friday morning, before the ticketing process was suspended, UW Athletics released a statement where athletic officials apologized for a problem in confirmation e-mails, which were to be sent simultaneously to more than 3,000 lottery participants informing them whether or not they received tickets.

The problem was caused by a "campus technology breakdown that stalled a number of confirmation e-mails," the release said. The release did not mention the missed applications.

"From a customer relations standpoint, these problems have created an inconvenience for some of our students … [and] some students … may have lost confidence in the overall lottery system," the release said.

The lottery process was "successfully completed as planned," according to the release.

UW senior Dan Ginsberg, who was supposed to be guaranteed tickets, was one of the students who had his application lost.

Ginsberg said the only sensible solution to the problem is to hold a completely new lottery.

"I can't think of anything else they would do," Ginsberg said. "The problem is there are so many people whose [applications were] lost."

UW junior Adam White received an e-mail Friday that told him he was one of the students picked to receive tickets.

"I think the only fair thing is to redo the lottery," White said, although a new lottery would risk his chances of retaining his tickets.

Ginsberg said he has mixed feelings towards how the athletic department has handled the situation.

"My main complaint is it took them too long to realize they had a problem. I was originally accused of lying — they defected blame from themselves at first," he said, adding that since Friday, however, the department's reaction has been appropriate for the situation.