The student body spoke and Student Activities listened. Together they want to bring a live concert to campus during the Student Government Association’s Spring Weekend.
Students have voiced their desire for a concert in surveys over the last few years. Director of Student Activities Darcy Brodmerkel said now is the time to face the music.
Brodmerkel teamed up with Pat McKamy, Coordinator of Student Activities, and the two came up with a plan to make it possible.
Brodmerkel said she knew that if the concert were to take place during SGA Spring Weekend, she would need an SGA member to follow through.
McKamy took the plans to SGA whose members have developed a step-by-step process that they hope will let the music play.
Junior Speech Language Pathology major Caitlin Vitale, who serves as SGA Commuter Coordinator was the first volunteer.
Organizers then held an open meeting fin October, and students expressed support for the plan, although Vitale hoped for more.
“I was expecting a bigger crowd of people to show up,” said Vitale. “We could always use more students’ opinions and interactions to make this request become a reality.”
Vitale said about 15 students attended the meeting.
Vitale forged ahead and created three sub-committees – hospitality, security and publicity.
Hospitality is responsible for making sure campus is ready for the influx of people expected to attend the show. Members are responsible for booking hotel accommodations and making the musicians as comfortable as possible.
Security committee members will reach out to local police departments to make traffic flow and ensure the event runs smoothly, and publicity will promote the concert on campus and locally.
Junior communications major Gabriella Lengyel serves as assistant station manager of Cougar Radio, and she has helped promote music for the station’s annual Beats for a Benefit Concert. She was one of the 15 students to show interest at the introductory meeting.
“I thought the meeting was informative,” said Lengyel. “It was a lot more organized than I had expected. You can tell they did their research and had worked hard to make a schedule for everything.” She hopes to work with Brod- merkel and Vitale to have the Beats for a Benefit concert artists serve as opening act for the Spring Weekend concert.
She has signed up to be part of the publicity sub-committee.
“I feel what I have learned in communications can help with the process,” says Lengyel. “I want to do this kind of stuff for a living and look forward to being part of a group of students who want the same goals for the school.”
Everyone involved said more student help is necessary. Lengyel, Vitale and Brodmerkel agree that without student support and interest, there might not be a concert.
“We are looking for more than just the people in the sub-com- mittees to help out,” said Vitale. “We need people to help out with every aspect of putting together this concert. Without the interest, we would find it incredibly hard to make it possible.”
Brodmerkel is working with Eric Nelson, Vice President of Finance and Administration, during the planning process. Committee members will then go about finding musicians that fit the budget range as well a student preferences.
Students will receive surveys to help organizers know which music genres students want.
“The concert is still tentative and could still get shut down, but we are optimistic enough to be putting the board together,” said Vitale.
Interested students should contact Brodmerkel at dbrodmer@ misericordia.edu or Vitale at [email protected].