Dennis Michael Busch - Official Website
By Dennis Busch, collective opinion of the
University Journal Editorial Board
EDITORIAL: Event plans must focus on students
SUU values the individual student, and Homecoming events are designed to involve the entire student body.
This last Homecoming was successful in promoting involvement, attracting large crowds at many of the events.
However, many students and alumni were disappointed when they were turned away from mentalist Craig Karges' performance.
The event, which was held in the Randall L. Jones Theatre, wound up with an estimated 200 students and a few ticket holders being turned away for lack of seats.
The Randall Theatre, which has a capacity of 769, is the second largest indoor venue on campus.
The largest, the Centrum Arena, which could hold more than double the Randall Theatre, was unavailable for this event due to the men's basketball team practice.
With that issue, the decision was collectively made to hold the performance in the Randall Theatre with additional support from the administration to cover additional costs.
The University Journal Editorial Board applauds the efforts of SUUSA, centralized scheduling, and the vice president for student services to make this event possible in the Randall Theatre.
However, this event was sponsored by SUUSA with student fee money, and to turn away ticket holders and students (who paid for the event with fees) is unacceptable when more cooperation and communication could happen between campus entities to avoid this problem.
We fully accept that the basketball team has priority in the Centrum during their season, and this helps the players perform better in games played there.
The basketball team receives roughly one request per week to relocate so that other events can be located in the Centrum, and they honor many requests including the upcoming Howl.
In previous years, Craig Karges performances have taken place in smaller venues, such as the Sharwan Smith Center Ballroom, without selling out.
As a replacement for a Homecoming concert, however, this performance garnered a larger-than-average audience.
Estimating potential attendance is difficult, however it could have been predicted that Karges would have a larger turnout than basketball practice.
As our campus grows, leaders from all parts of SUU must examine what areas will be available for events of this nature.
Events should be scheduled with enough time and notice for the basketball team, and this performance was in the works months ago.
Annual events that involve the entire student body, as well as alumni, faculty, staff and community members, should take some presidence over a team practice.
To do otherwise would be inconsistent with the values that SUU leaders continually promote and embody.
Perhaps this event only underscores the pressing need for a larger performance space that can hold a significant portion of the student body.
While that is not yet a reality on our campus, better collaboration on large-scale events can ensure that all students get a seat.
The Journal urges campus and SUUSA leaders to take a look at this particular case to avoid similar situations in the future.
This last Homecoming was successful in promoting involvement, attracting large crowds at many of the events.
However, many students and alumni were disappointed when they were turned away from mentalist Craig Karges' performance.
The event, which was held in the Randall L. Jones Theatre, wound up with an estimated 200 students and a few ticket holders being turned away for lack of seats.
The Randall Theatre, which has a capacity of 769, is the second largest indoor venue on campus.
The largest, the Centrum Arena, which could hold more than double the Randall Theatre, was unavailable for this event due to the men's basketball team practice.
With that issue, the decision was collectively made to hold the performance in the Randall Theatre with additional support from the administration to cover additional costs.
The University Journal Editorial Board applauds the efforts of SUUSA, centralized scheduling, and the vice president for student services to make this event possible in the Randall Theatre.
However, this event was sponsored by SUUSA with student fee money, and to turn away ticket holders and students (who paid for the event with fees) is unacceptable when more cooperation and communication could happen between campus entities to avoid this problem.
We fully accept that the basketball team has priority in the Centrum during their season, and this helps the players perform better in games played there.
The basketball team receives roughly one request per week to relocate so that other events can be located in the Centrum, and they honor many requests including the upcoming Howl.
In previous years, Craig Karges performances have taken place in smaller venues, such as the Sharwan Smith Center Ballroom, without selling out.
As a replacement for a Homecoming concert, however, this performance garnered a larger-than-average audience.
Estimating potential attendance is difficult, however it could have been predicted that Karges would have a larger turnout than basketball practice.
As our campus grows, leaders from all parts of SUU must examine what areas will be available for events of this nature.
Events should be scheduled with enough time and notice for the basketball team, and this performance was in the works months ago.
Annual events that involve the entire student body, as well as alumni, faculty, staff and community members, should take some presidence over a team practice.
To do otherwise would be inconsistent with the values that SUU leaders continually promote and embody.
Perhaps this event only underscores the pressing need for a larger performance space that can hold a significant portion of the student body.
While that is not yet a reality on our campus, better collaboration on large-scale events can ensure that all students get a seat.
The Journal urges campus and SUUSA leaders to take a look at this particular case to avoid similar situations in the future.
© 2009 Dennis Busch, University Journal
