Senior Doug Sinski, president of Geneseo's Student Association, confirmed that the Activities Commission will not present a fall concert this year.
"There's a disconnect between what the students want and what it costs," Sinski said. SA's budget, approved by the outgoing executive board last year, only allotted enough money for one major concert for the 2010-2011 school year.
"[A fall concert] simply was not built into the budget," said junior Nicholas Spengler, SA Director of Student Programming.
SA made the decision to appropriate funds as such so that a single but larger act could be considered. This means that instead of two smaller concerts - one each semester - Geneseo will have one large concert in the spring.
"The budget is $85,000," Sinski said, explaining that the mission of the Activities Commission is to have the greatest turnout of students for the concert. He said the goal is to sell out Geneseo's concert venue, Kuhl Gym, which can hold over 2,500 students.
In the recent past, smaller acts have been unsuccessful in drawing a full house. Last fall, ticket sales for Gym Class Heroes and Asher Roth were so low that SA decided to make the concert free rather than spend money on a poorly attended show.
That decision wiped out AC's concert budget for the year, leaving the fate of the spring concert up in the air. Ultimately, the SA executive board decided to cancel the spring concert rather than pay for it out of reserves. Former president Haleema Murtaza cast the deciding vote in a tiebreaker.
"By bringing one large act," Sinski said, "we can hope to have a show that students will actually attend."
Sinski noted a disparity in musical opinion among students as something that SA has certainly noticed and recognized. He said that last semester a solution was to hold smaller concerts every few weeks at the KnightSpot or on the Union Patio. These acts included bands like Surfer Blood and The Terror Pigeon Dance Revolt.
"In the end the Student Association's mission is to appeal to the greatest number of students possible," said Sinski. He explained that bringing in multiple smaller acts of many different genres over the course of both semesters would not "maximize the dollars spent per student."
The announcement came as a surprise to some students. "I'm surprised no one told us," said sophomore Rachel Myers. "A decision like this should be made known and students should be able to take part in the decision-making."
SA plans on discussing the spring concert plans - and possibility of increasing the budget for the event - at next week's business meeting, which takes place at 6:15 p.m. on Wednesday. Sinski encouraged all students to attend and contribute their opinions.