Members of the University of Michigan community line up in front of the Michigan Union Ticket Office Thursday morning for tickets to this year's commencement The line dwindled significantly after an early morning rush.

Erica Hobbs | AnnArbor.com

A line with as many as 3,500 people circled the Michigan Union this morning as members of the University of Michigan community queued up to get free tickets for President Barack Obama’s commencement speech Saturday.

Heather Gray, the manager of the Michigan Union Ticket Office, said people started lining up outside the union’s north entrance as early as 2 a.m., though tickets weren't distributed until 9 a.m.

At its 8:30 a.m. peak, Gray said the line wrapped around the block, starting from the union’s south entrance to East Madison Street, then east to South State Street, north to East William Street, and west to Maynard Street before reaching the union’s north entrance.

“I would say, we’ve probably gone through at least 6,000 tickets,” Gray said.

As of 10:30 a.m., however, the line was no more. While ticket distribution remained steady, people entered the union’s basement quickly, grabbed a couple fliers with commencement information and went right up to the counter without much delay.

Gray said the ticket office had triple the number of staff working today, including three to four people at the counter distributing tickets. She said the ticket office also had help from other departments at the Michigan Union, with people working crowd control and line management. She said things went smoothly for the most part, with the longest wait time lasting about an hour.

Today's ticket allotment followed three days of student ticket distribution, where about 8,700 people were estimated to have picked up tickets.

Tickets will be distributed to members of the university community until 5 p.m. today. University affiliates must show their MCard and will receive two tickets.

On Friday, remaining tickets will be made available to the general public starting at 9 a.m. at the Michigan Union Ticket Office.

Gray said it was hard to estimate how many tickets remain, but said the ticket office will post signs and information on its website when the tickets run out.

She said it's hard to predict how the rest of the week will go.

“I think it’s just going to be a steady stream (of people),” she said. “If we don’t have tickets tomorrow, it’ll just be a lot of ‘sorrys’.”

Erica Hobbs is a reporter for AnnArbor.com. Reach her at 734-623-2537 or via e-mail at ericahobbs@annarbor.com.