By: Sarah Madden, Senior Writer
Fall concert was recently canceled after multiple scheduling and budgeting conflicts, says senior and Wofford Live committee member Taylor Cullen.
There were difficulties choosing potential dates to hold the concert and scheduling conflicts with the band. “We also couldn’t come to an agreement on the price of the band we wanted,” he says.
Financially, Cullen says it made more sense to cancel fall concert: “The concert was quickly eating into our overall budget and I made the decision to save our money for spring concert, which is more widely attended anyways.”
Last year was the first year fall concert was held, and according to Cullen, attendance was poor, among other issues.
Amidst growing concerns over the implications of a spring rush this year, including increased alcohol violations, Cullen says he’s not worried that canceling this fall social event will prove detrimental to the college culture.
“Spring rush comes with many, many issues that the school is now having to face, but I don’t think the absence of a fall concert will magnify those issues at all,” he says. “Canceling fall concert was a difficult [decision], but one that will benefit the greater good of the Wofford Live committee and the student population. We have been in contact with some awesome bands for spring concert that would have been out of our budget had we spent a large sum on fall concert.”
Natalee Oldham, director of student affairs, says that the lack of a fall concert is “unfortunate,” but she also does not see any correlation between a lack of fall concert and the problems with spring rush: “I don’t see the absence of fall concert affecting the higher number of alcohol violations or the possible accounts of ‘dirty rushing.’ Yes, I agree… there should be college-wide planned events throughout the year, and specifically the in the fall, for students to get involved in.”
Oldham points to the success of the First54 initiative, which provides opportunities for students to get involved on campus within the first 54 days of the school year.
“Wofford Activities Council (WAC) has done a great job this year putting on events as well as partnering with other groups on campus to have involvement opportunities for all students. WAC has tried to host at least one or so events throughout each week to help keep students engaged,” she says. “For homecoming week, there was an organized event every night of the week. There are a lot of other groups on campus, too, that help put on campus-wide activities for students to be engaged in.”
While Cullen declined to disclose budget information, he says the spring concert budget has increased by “a large sum” with the cancelation of fall concert and will now include “awesome” bands. Spring concert 2016 included bands Simplified and Stoplight Observations.
Photo caption: Cullen says that fall concert was poorly attended last year, and this significantly influenced the Wofford Live committee’s decision to cancel the event.
