The Geneseo Activities Commission has historic news for music fans across campus. For the first time ever, AC has decided to host two seasonal concerts this year as opposed to just one in the spring, with artists performing in both November 2014 and April 2015. The reasoning behind this change, according to AC concerts coordinator senior Juli Grygier was cuts to the concert budget last year. The $85,000 budget for a large concert was sliced to $50,000, leaving AC with two options: either sell more expensive tickets to make up for the loss of funding or completely remodel the concert series. The final decision was to have two less expensive bands visit Geneseo throughout the year.
“The only way to meet the income line for a larger concert would be to charge students approximately $25 per ticket, which is unreasonable,” Grygier said. “It is a lot cheaper to have two concerts with two bands of different genres. Tickets will be about $13 for students.”
Student Association Director of Business Affairs and head of the Budget Committee senior William Fagan explained that the budget cuts made to this program and all others across campus are necessary.
“Every year, fixed costs like insurance and minimum wage increase throughout New York, leaving constraints on our budget,” he said. “Due to ticket sales not doing extremely well in the past, we just had to cut the concert funds. It wasn’t really conducive to our school.”
Fagan explained that his committee plans to advocate for a higher activity fee per student each semester, which could account for the fixed costs lowering budgets across campus. Student tuition currently includes a $100 activity fee, which supplies the Student Association with the ability to distribute funds across campus to everything from AC to interest clubs and club sports.
“It would be put to a campus vote, but any little increase could help,” Fagan said. “Those extra funds would go to things like one large spring concert.”
Despite these cuts, Grygier and the rest of AC are eager to reveal the visiting fall band on Sept. 22. She expressed excitement––even shock––over the band’s cooperation and willingness to play here.
The band, which was the first choice on the concert series list of potential performers, will be taking the stage on Nov. 16 in the College Union Ballroom. With a capacity of approximately 700, it will provide a close-up experience for both the audience and the performers.
“The artist we picked for the fall deals with genres that always come up as popular in the spring, such as indie pop,” Grygier said. “I’m really excited about this artist. They aren’t touring again until the spring, so we’re only one of four shows they will perform at this fall.”