By LAUREN DOMINIQUE
Contributing Writer
On Saturday, February 8th at 8:00pm, the Gator Activities Programming (GAP) and the Major Events Committee (MEC) is hosting their Major Concert of 2014, at which Canadian indie-rock duo, Tegan and Sara, is scheduled to perform. The decision to bring Tegan and Sara to Allegheny was a surprise to many Allegheny students, as they were not on the ballot for the final vote.
This past November, MEC sent out a set of e-mails to all students that contained a survey that was aimed to enable MEC to bring one of the most-wanted musicians to our campus for this major concert, which only happens every two years.
“MEC sent out the first survey of 30 artists that included Tegan and Sara,” said Nancy Chen, President of GAP.
After the first survey had been completed, a second survey was sent out with the six artists that had the highest amount of student votes. Assuming that one of the top six artists would be the selected to come to our campus, students were incredibly shocked to hear that Tegan and Sara – a group not included in the second survey – was selected to perform here at Allegheny this semester.
Chen cited scheduling conflicts as a reason for the choice.
“Due to scheduling issues and various reasons such as being out of the country, our top choices were unavailable,” Chen explained. “So from there, we selected an artist that ranked highly in the alternative genre. We thought it was important to contract with an artist that belonged to the top selected genre from the survey.”
Thus, even though MEC and GAP were unable to contract with an artist that ranked highly in the first and second rounds of the survey, the members of these organizations continued to work to do their best to please the student body.
Chen remains optimistic about their choice.
“The main challenge was to make a selection based purely off of the survey results. Once we had exhausted our options from the second survey, it was difficult to make selections. We believe that Tegan and Sara will perform well and have gotten great feedback from a large portion of the student body,” Chen said.
While many students remain excited about the concert, some students are angered by the choice in performer.
“I’m a little pissed that it’s the only major concert I’ll be able to attend while at Allegheny and that it wasn’t someone that I was really interested in seeing, but you can’t please everyone and satisfy everyone’s wants, so I understand that none of my top choices were selected. Now I just really don’t have an interest to go,” said Annie Zinn, ’15.
Another student, Autumn Vogel, ’15, is excited about the choice, and its implications for the diversity initiatives on this campus.
“Yeah, I’m really looking forward to this concert. Allegheny hasn’t had a major concert featuring a female artist or female group, and I’m really glad that it’s happening now,” said Vogel.
Vogel said that she was pleased with Allegheny’s efforts to create an atmosphere accepting of diversity, and is happy that they are finally inviting a talented musician who encourages diversity. Tegan and Sara are two sisters who identify as lesbians.
“I was really disappointed when the top six artists featured in the second survey were all male artists, and I was really pleased with MEC for choosing a group that consists of all females when none of the top choices were available,” Vogel said.
Tickets are currently on sale for this concert, both for the students and general public, and can be purchased online at alleghenymajorevent.ticketleap.com/tegan-and-sara-concert/. Student tickets cost $10 and tickets for the general public are 20. For more information about the concert, check out the Facebook event, titled “Tegan and Sara”, or contact any of the MEC and GAP members. For more information on the band, also check out teganandsara.com.
