Voting for the fall 2016 SOLO performance opened to students Aug. 8, with an announcement made via the SGA’s official Facebook page.
With factors including SOLO concert budget, delayed contract renewal and performance space availability, SGA had no choice but to hold SOLO concert voting later than usual, according to Student Activities Advisor Kelsey Jozwik.
SOLO concert voting typically occurs the semester prior to the one the performance is held and only remains open for a single day. This time, the vote was held just weeks before the fall semester began. According to Jozwik and SGA President Alex Martin, because of the unusual circumstances, the voting time frame was extended an extra two days and ended Aug. 10.
When asked why the SGA only notified students by the SGA Facebook page, Martin explained that he had no access to the student mailing list.
Martin explained that the lack of access led him to make the executive decision of posting the announcement on Facebook, which was shared among students and their friends. Otherwise, he said, he would have properly notified students.
Also new this semester, students were only given the opportunity to select a single candidate as opposed to the previous two-choice options, which is the result of a new voting system implemented by IT services, according to Martin.
“I was disappointed in the choices we had to vote for,” said art major Dustin Jackson.
“Why wasn’t there a fill-in option? Why wasn’t there a female comedian option? I’m definitely not angry with it, just extremely disappointed.”
The SOLO performance candidates included comedians Nick Cannon, Damon Wayans Jr., John Mulaney, Nick Kroll, Mike Epps and Craig Robinson.
Despite the unconventional circumstances, the results of the voting were surprising with nearly 1,000 votes cast. The concert is also going to be earlier in the semester than the typical October date.
“Students are usually busier and have a lot of things going on later in the semester,” Martin said about the earlier performance date. “We wanted to do it earlier so more students could attend.”
The results of the voting and the selected date will be announced within the next few weeks.
