CAB Fall Concert Open Forum

“We obviously knew there was going to be backlash. I wasn’t expecting it to be as bad as it was,” said Kevin Wozniak, fourth year New Media Marketing major and the director of the College Activities Board (CAB).

After CAB announced the cancellation of this year’s fall concert on their Facebook page September 19, the post was bombarded with negative feedback from students. Reddit launched 65 comments at the topic as well which had a similar tone.

“I was hoping that students would understand and know that we have their best interests in mind, and we’re not just taking it away from them and not doing anything to make up for it. We will have a bigger and better spring concert, but I don’t think that message was conveyed to them in the right way,” responded Wozniak.

Following the fall concert announcement, in order to better convey their plans and to hear additional student feedback, CAB scheduled an open forum for Wednesday, October 1 from 12 to 2 p.m. Following a Paw Prints petition that achieved 27 signatures,  the date was changed to accommodate students attending the Career Fair. CAB scheduled an additional open forum for Friday, October 3 from 3 to 4 p.m.

No one attended either of the forums.

“It was a little upsetting. I was really hoping that with these forums, CAB would be able to educate the student body on the whole process and really let everyone know that we’re not just taking this away from you; we’re just trying to make things better,” said Wosniak.

With the recent conversion to semesters, it has been difficult for CAB to continue funding both a fall and spring concert. More weeks of class in a row have meant more weekly events on their calendar. “[O]ur budget didn’t increase when the conversion happened, so the money for the other events we need to program is coming from other budgets within CAB,” said Wosniak. “We had to take away from our major concerts budget to put towards the other divisions that program weekly events.”

The year of the semester conversion was not the only one without a budget increase, either. Wosniak estimated that CAB’s budget has not increased in the past five to 10 years. “The cost of entertainment is going up, and our budget isn’t.”

Even with only one concert, CAB hopes to find an artist for spring that most students will enjoy. “We understand that we aren’t going to be able to please everyone with an artist. We wish we could, but we don’t have the money for that,” said Wosniak. For instance, some students’ requests for Beyonce still don’t fit the budget.  

“We are always open to input from students,” said Wosniak, although they do not usually hear much.

The suggestions Wosniak and others have received have been taken into consideration, but this open forum was meant to serve as a space to hear even more student voice, and would have succeeded if the students had attended. “It is a little upsetting. Hopefully students won’t complain anymore, because we gave them the opportunity, and they didn’t show up,” he said.

With the lack of response from students in person, Wosniak seems prepared to drop the topic. “I don’t think we will drag it on anymore. I think it shows if students were really that upset about it, I think we would have had more participation in these forums.”

 If any student wishes to provide additional feedback, CAB invites the student to email them at cab@rit.edu.