“I have not heard of the MFA’s promotion to provide Harvard students with a deal to enter the museum,” Matthew W. Barone, head of public relations for Harvard University Art Museums, wrote in an e-mail.

Visual and Environmental Studies (VES) 100r, “Currents: Contemporary Art from 1960 to Yesterday,” took at field trip to see the Koons exhibit last week before it closed on Sunday—and the University covered the reduced fee of $5.00 for each student.

“We had a special arrangement with the MFA to have all of our students attend the show for $5,” said Sarah Rotman, a teaching fellow for the class.

Beth R. Hochman ’03, who had to write a paper on the show for the class, saw it three times but never paid the full $20 rate.

The first time, she went alone thinking she could get in for free with her ID. When she tried to enter the exhibit, though, a guard stopped her. She told him that, since she is a Harvard student, she could get in without a ticket, and the guard took her word for it.

“I didn’t know I was supposed to pay,” she said, “and clearly neither did the ticket guy.”

She went back with the class and then a third time, when she had to pay $5.

“If I had had to pay $20 for each visit, I would have been mighty pissed,” Hochman said. “Cranking up prices only serves to drive students away.”

“For infrequent student patrons, showing up on the belief that the exhibit is free and then being forced to cough up $20 upon getting there will totally turn them off altogether,” she said.