DISGRUNTLED students who missed out on getting to see President Obama speak at the University have complained about the ticket allocation process — with one even starting a satirical petition online.

UQ Student Ashley Chandler took the social media grumblings to the next level when she organised a tongue-in-cheek change.org petition which has already gathered over 170 likes about the ticket allocation process of the White House official event.

“This seems to me to be a scandal that would rank somewhere between Watergate and the 2011 Greenfield incident,” Chandler writes.

“There are many, many students who have contributed much to the UQ community who should have been offered the opportunity to attend, some even more deserving than me (maybe).

“How about UQ Ambassadors who whore themselves out at Open Days and every other weekend to spruik the benefits of UQ to young, naive high school students who don’t realise that they’re about to enrol in an elitist, nepotistic university with little regard for its students or the practical skills they need to develop in order to thrive in their chosen career?

“With countless deserving and sensible-choice students excluded from the list, it leaves us in a position where we are unable to do anything but assume there must be some ulterior motive at play, some great conspiracy or discrimination. I’m inclined to think it is probably misogyny. After all, I am a woman and I was not invited and we all know that correlation is always causation”

MORE: Read the full petition here

Chandler created the petition after genuinely disgruntled students took to the University’s Facebook page to vent their frustration.

St Leo’s College student Sam Moyle, who did manage to get a ticket, said there had been a “conflict” between those who did and didn’t get selected as the ticket allocation seemed to favour those who lived on campus.

Federico Cicchelli wrote the University should have made their selection process public, while Benjamin Low said “UQ management welcomes Obama, while the students are left out in the cold.”

Shimon de Valenciasaid the secret selection process shouldn’t be a surprise.

“Of the 9 or so US scholars at UQU, not one received an invite let alone was accepted. Am sure law students will be well represented in this cohort. This has turned into a Kwango laden exercise in Qld style Bjelkieism at its best.”

While Warren Rerden described it as a “waste of money and resources.”

“Next time just stream him from The White House; it’s cheaper, safer, and less disruptive for everyone. I hate to be “that person” but really, it is pretty silly to lock down the campus then have the audacity to say it’s a historic occasion for the students!“

One staff member who didn’t want to be named also voiced suspicions about how staff members were cherrypicked for the event.

“The communication came out to say nobody should come and it seems like they have sent selected people invites. I can’t say what could have been the criteria for that. Maybe they picked some great academics and professors, maybe, but there’s a lot of academics and professors who have also not been invited so that may also not be the reason,” he said.

The University said selection had been organised by US mission on “behalf of the White House” and tickets were allocated to schools and unis for students, with some based on logistics for the tight deadlines.

University Vice Chancellor Peter Hoj said the speech is an excellent opportunity for UQ and said tickets were based on practicality.

“All I can say to you is that these things come up at very short notice. We had 24 hours to find lots of students and the first thing that people have to realise is that no one in the senior management group has any family members present

“We have tried to make sure there are as many students here as possible because that’s the desire of the White House and it’s their event.”

“Tickets were allocated based on practicalities based on being able to get a cross section of student who are here so a lot of tickets have gone to College students, but not exclusively.”

More: The students who did get in

The White House has also been contacted for comment.