Adding Up an Entertainment Fee

Year In and year out there have been underwhelming activities or entertainment for the students here at Concord University. Gone are the days when a generational act such as Vanilla Ice would grace the campus beautiful with their fame and talent (depending on who you talk to, but still). In recent years, the headline entertainment for Concord has been Badfish, a Sublime cover band, a Beetles cover band, and a Led Zepplin cover band. That has been respectable but unsatisfying and a solution may be on the way.  

Last Wednesday in SGA it was announced that CUSAC would be proposing to the Board of Governors a fee that could be called a “concert fee.” Ryan Lilly, the SGA Vice President, is also on the committee and said that they had discussed adding a fee of $50-75 that each student would be charged each year and would go to bringing in “decent entertainment” as Lilly said. Hypothetically speaking, if this fee were instituted and Concord’s enrollment was around the 2500 that it is this year, $175,000 would be generated.  

There is a fee inserted into each student’s bill for student activities and Andrew Sulgit, the Director of Student Activities, stated that to his knowledge the fee is around $25. Sulgit said that this year he received a little over $20,000 to work with. According to Sulgit, it's not much to work with because he has to spread it over nine months, “whatever the number is I just try to work with, I know it's something I can't really fight, I can't say I don't like this number, give me more if there isn't more to give,” said Sulgit. 

Sulgit declared he is in favor of the fee and believes if anybody can push this, it is CUSAC and the students. CUSAC is, in Sulgit’s words “the body organized through SGA that has faculty, staff, and student representatives that brings up issues near and dear to students, talks about them, votes on them, and make recommendations, and present them to people to try and make a change.” Sulgit went on to list some of the things CUSAC was able to accomplish, including the new open visitation policy that was instilled this year.  

While there may be some disdain from students who aren't fond of concerts or entertainment, the propped fee could solve several problems the University faces, including enrollment and student involvement. Earlier this year at an event the Concordian covered, less than 20 people showed up to see a weeknight comedian and that is a red flag. While some activities are hit and miss, on a campus where over 1,000 students reside, a turnout of 20 is deemed horrendous.  

Issues such as this could also be a factor in the drop in enrollment at Concord. With rising tuition costs of over five percent the last two years, outside of academics there isn't much that draws students to Concord when it comes to activities. College is a time where most students are on their own for the first time and often find out more about themselves then they could've possibly imagined. Students are humans as well and need relief as well as incentives to look forward to. Presuming that enrollment will go up because entertainment on the Campus Beautiful isn't a sure fire scenario, however it adds good publicity to the University. Some students may see the fee as way of the University nickel and diming students, but putting it into perspective, the fee isn't an outrageous amount, to put it into perspective it would be less than $10 a month over the school year. The proposal is being brought up to the Board of Governors at a meeting on November 17 for the board. For any student interested in showing support you can contact Andrew Sulgit at sulgit@concord.edu or attend an SGA meeting on Wednesdays at 4 in the Stateroom to stay updated on the progress.