On January 25, the Student Government Association representatives made the motion to raise tuition and fees for every Concord University student by adding an entertainment fee. Junior Sarah Fancher, Vice-President of SGA, explained that if the entertainment fee is passed by the Board of Governors, administration will raise tuition and fees. “The goal for this fee is to provide students [with] more popular, exciting entertainers during the school year. Representatives have brought up the fee for nearly five years in order to voice their opinions,” Fancher said. “There was a time in the past that Concord was known for the events it had on campus, and by implementing this fee we hope to re-establish this reputation for Concord in southern West Virginia, especially in a time that we have so much competition from other institutions. Beyond that, some other goals of this fee would be to draw students in, retain more students, and strengthen [our] relationship with the community.”
`The notion was something the Student Government and the Student Activities Committee (CUSAC) have been bringing up. Until this past semester, it has remained in the preliminary stages. When Fancher became Vice-President, she became interested in the idea and wanted to expand with the potential fee. “When I got in to the position of Vice-President, this entertainment fee was something I had heard talked about in my first two years at Concord and I was really interested in taking it to the next level. At the beginning of Fall 2016, CUSAC did a survey where we asked students, faculty, and staff what they thought the biggest problem on campus was. Lack of student activities was high on the list at number five. This entertainment fee was our solution to this problem,” said Fancher. After this, a survey was sent out to the students on campus in hopes of getting an understanding as to whether or not this fee was something students truly wanted, but most importantly, willing to pay for. The data showed ten percent of students responding while seventy-nine percent of them are willing to pay for some level of a fee.
After a CUSAC meeting with Chuck Becker, Fancher set up a meeting with Dr. Boggess, Becker, herself, and the president of SGA, Ronni Wood. During the meeting, they discussed that the fee needs to be passed by the cabinet and then taken to the Board of Governors when tuition and fees for the 2017-2018 school year is voted on. Dr. Boggess then told Fancher and Wood to come up with a specific number that the students would want to pay. “I took it back to the SGA, and we had an official vote on the fee. “What we eventually settled on was to ‘recommend a $50 entertainment fee per student per semester to the board on behalf of the student body which will apply to on-campus, commuter, and Beckley students.’ This was passed by unanimous vote in the senate,” said Fancher. For entertainment, the initial plan is to get a variety of entertainers that can accommodate to all likes, and styles. In hopes to have country one year, pop, rock and roll, along with more common comedians and magicians.
In SGA it was also brought up to bring the choice to the students to encourage them to get involved. Students would have first priority to all tickets, which will be free to them, because of fee raise. “We debated whether this fee should or could be implemented for Beckley students, but the conclusion we finally came up with was that if they did not pay the fee then they would have to pay to come to these events as the community would. We really felt like Beckley students would be more upset about paying or not being able to come to these events than they would be with paying this entertainment fee,” said Fancher.
With this fee, Fancher believes this could help when it comes to enrollment numbers. “Andrew Sulgit, who has worked very closely with me on this has told me stories about how students used to say their reason for coming here was because of these big events that they had attended on Concord’s campus with their mom, dad, sister, or brother, and how these experiences are what made them fall in love with Concord,” said Fancher. “We want to bring that back. We want to show perspective students that while this school has all the benefits of being in a small town, we also have amazing events.” The additional fee of $50f was made because of the roughly 2000 students who are enrolled. With each student paying $50, this would allow a leeway of $100,000 a semester to pay someone commonly known to perform. The proposed entertainment fee is still in the process of being approved. All students are encouraged to participate in voicing their opinions and differences on the issue.