The Clemson student body has won, at least this first round anyway.

Clemson assistant athletic director Joe Galbraith, who is in charge of the athletic communications staff, told The Clemson Insider on Thursday Clemson students will not be asked for a donation to secure football tickets this upcoming season.

If you recall back in April, there were serious discussions regarding a possible student donation to secure one of the 9,000 lower bowl seats to Memorial Stadium. But after some backlash from the students, the alumni, IPTAY donors and the Clemson Board of Trustees, Clemson informed its students in an email last week that football tickets will continue to be free.

In April, Clemson considered asking students to donate $225 as part of their IPTAY donations, the Collegiate Club, to secure one of the 9,000 seats. Athletic director Dan Radakovich told TCI, at the time, if Clemson is to ask its students to donate $225 to secure a ticket, then it will have to get the approval of the board of trustees.

“That changed for the better. When you have circumstance where you have never done something, then sometimes processes don’t exist. With this there was no real functional process to go about doing this. I give our board credit,” Radakovich said.

“I really looked at this as a real positive step.”

Back in April, more than 9,000 students signed a petition to stop the athletic department from holding their tickets, which have always been free. The students and the athletic department met on April 13 to better discuss a proposal.

“It went very well,” said 2015-’16 Student Body President Shannon Kay at the time. “It was one of the first times we have kind of really engaged both sides and laid out a plan to work together to meet the needs of athletics and to meet the designs of the students.

“I guess from a student’s perspective, I think it was pretty clear from social media and the petition, getting the number of signatures that it did, that students do not want to have to pay for tickets right now. I think that is something we are really trying to work through, but obviously, we need to generate the revenue that selling tickets would generate.”

The Clemson athletic department and the student body plan to meet again next month when the Board of Trustees gets together for its July meetings. The discussions will be to finalize how this year’s tickets will distributed and things of that nature.

According to Galbraith, right now there are no plans on the books to discuss a student donation in the future.

The news of a no student ticket fee for football can’t come at a better time for Clemson after the university’s trustees set tuition and fee increases for the 2016-17 academic year earlier in the day. There will a 3.14 percent, or $218, increase per semester, for undergraduate students from South Carolina and a 4.27 percent, or $700, increase per semester, for undergraduate students from out of state.

TCI’s Clemson preseason magazine is now available.  Order your copy of Unfinished Business – An Insider Look at Clemson’s 2016 season today.