Editorial: Concert date gets student support

It is time for a fall concert once again, and, as everyone already knows, the main act is Jason Derülo, an R&B/hip-hop artist whose singles “Ridin’ Solo” and “In My Head” skyrocketed him to stardom.

This year, we have lucked out and get to see Derülo perform on a Friday night, instead of the Thursday night we’ve come to expect. This is the first concert to be held on a weekend since Gym Class Heroes performed on a Saturday in spring 2008. While the upcoming event has many students excited, it makes us wonder why the Student Entertainment Council (SEC) hasn’t held the concert on a weekend before. Through surveys done last spring, SEC established that a weekend concert is what most students prefer, and they worked hard to ensure that a popular performer would headline this year’s fall concert. It is a lot more convenient for students in more ways than one.

While many factors go in to planning a concert of such magnitude — availability of venues on campus, the performer’s schedule and student preference — SEC should continue to push for weekend programming whenever possible. As it turns out, Derülo was already scheduled to perform somewhere else on Thursday, the night on which students would have expected the show to be. But this works out better for us. Students won’t have to worry about being up late at a concert when they have an early class the next day. With the concert now on a Friday, they can come back from the show and sleep as late as they want to the next morning.

Also, fewer students will feel the need to go home, helping combat our “suitcase school” reputation. Before, anyone could go to the concert and then leave at any time on Friday. But now, there won’t be a point in going home for just a day and a half if students who plan on going to the concert will be here all day Friday.

Holding the concert on a different day means that anyone with a Thursday night class can still attend. In the past, students with that night class had to choose between sitting in class and going to a concert, and they usually picked the first option. Professors don’t accept “I would have come to class, but I had to go to this awesome concert” as a valid excuse.

We are definitely pleased with SEC for listening to students’ wishes for a Friday night performance, as well as getting Derülo and his opening acts, Super Mash Bros and Auburn. The tickets have completely sold out, so the students have spoken for whom they want to see and what night they want to see the acts. This is something that SEC needs to continue in order to give the students the entertainment that they want.

This weekly editorial expresses the majority opinion of The Rider News. This week’s editorial was written by the Opinion Editor, Angelique Lee.