Staff editorial: More time was needed to advertise Homecoming Concert

Waka Flocka Flame will take the stage at Lynn Eusan Park on Thursday as the highlight event for this year’s homecoming week.

The problem is, students had only three days’ notice as to who the headline performer was going to be. That makes it tough for students to plan to attend or even simply drum up interest that a major artist is coming to campus to perform a free concert.

Before a major event like this can be advertised, the University has to sign off on everything and give approval.

Normal events put on by various departments within the University usually have several weeks of advertising, while a well-known artist being paid tens of thousands of dollars gets only three days. That doesn’t seem right.

These concerts help build tradition at the University and get students to come together before everyone’s finals come around and many go home for winter break.

There was no Homecoming Concert last year because the Student Fees Advisory Committee, which funds these events and organizations like The Cougar, chose not to allocate funding, citing low attendance.

But this isn’t fair to the organizations responsible for upping attendance numbers. It’s on the University to get these performances finalized sooner so the student organizations that plan these events can do their job getting as many people to attend as possible.

Come post-Homecoming, if the concert doesn’t have many attendees, that’s on the University. It won’t be the failure of the student organization hosting these events. There needed to be more time to get the word out that Flame was coming.

Getting these major deals worked out does take time, but big money is going into these concerts, and the University should hustle to get everything figured out.

As for students, we encourage you to consider staying late on Thursday to check out Flame. His show is said to be fun for students.

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