Letter to the Editor: Former editors speak out on change of day for fall concert

We commend the Student Entertainment Council (SEC) for all of the entertainment it brought to Rider during our years there. In prior years, the acts weren’t the most popular with the entire student community, but we know SEC did its best with student polls.

Last year, there was an overwhelming response to Sean Kingston coming to campus and it’s great to see SEC have another popular act come to Rider with headliner Jason Derülo.

However, as former executive editor and co-news editor of The Rider News, we are upset and annoyed because for years we had been told that the concerts had to be held on Thursday nights, for many different reasons.

Thursday nights at The Rider News are the evenings the paper is put to bed, which ultimately means members of the editorial staff could never attend a show. For years, many staff members have complained to SEC that Thursday nights were a bad time and we were always told concerts could never be held on weekends.

Although we could not attend a majority of the events, not just the concerts, we still continually worked with SEC to cover its events. In time we learned to accept that, unfortunately, we would not be able to attend SEC events on Thursdays. This is why finding out the fall concert is being held on a Friday night the year after we graduated is so upsetting.

We also feel for all of the students who had night classes on Thursday nights and also had to miss the concerts. We, as former staff members of The Rider News, did not just complain about us missing the concerts but those other students also. SEC puts on events for the whole student body and it is unfair that it would plan such a large event on Thursday nights when it would be impossible for a large amount of students to attend.

We think it’s great that SEC finally switched the concert to a weekend but what happened to all of those reasons and issues they gave us not to hold a concert on a weekend in the past?

We missed out on a lot of SEC events that we really wish we could have attended, and we recommend keeping big events, such as the fall concert, on Friday nights.

Granted, a lot of students go home on the weekend. But this would give them a reason to stay, and maybe help rid Rider of the suitcase school image. Holding events on a Friday night allows students to stay on campus and still have the option to go home on Saturday if they need to.

Again, as alumni of Rider it’s great to know that the university has so many great things for students. Unfortunately, we were unable to partake in so many events because of the evening they were held. But if SEC continues holding large events on Friday nights, alumni can look back on their fun times at Rider, rather than wishing they could have been there.

– Kristie Kahl and Amber Cox

Class of 2010