Last week, Student Government voted 27-3-0 to allot $190,000 to the Student Union Board for an outdoor concert to be held during the spring semester. 

This money is being pulled from Student Government’s special projects account and is being combined with $60,000 from the Student Union Board’s personal funds. 

The last time money in this amount was taken from the Senate’s special projects fund was in 2015 for the recyclable trash cans which still remain on campus, cost $144,000 and have impacted the entire university.

During the meeting, Vice Speaker Cody Woodruff argued against approving the funds, “I don’t see this as a benefit to the students. I don’t see it as a benefit to the university.”

As an editorial board, we agree with Woodruff in part. 

If this concert is to become a tradition at Iowa State and positively impact the university as a whole, then it needs to appeal to the majority of students on campus. Meaning the performer selected for the spring show needs to be someone who many students want to see and/or have multiple performers who will appeal to different music genres. 

Woodruff also referred to the concert during the debate as a potential “faux Veishea.” We don’t believe this concert would come close to a replacement of Veishea as it is only one aspect of the old celebration’s traditions.

Since the cancelling of the tradition, efforts have been made to start new traditions or even keep parts of Veishea alive. These efforts must be combined with this concert to make this a celebration that will have a real impact on our community.

Veishea was a celebration which brought all of the colleges on campus together through not only live music, but many other traditions as well such as the parade and the selling of cherry pies on campus. The traditions weren’t only enjoyed by students and faculty, but also by Ames community members and alumni. The concert should be tied into this philosophy.

Although this concert may become a tradition on campus if all goes well, in itself, it wouldn’t be the same level of tradition as Veishea had been from 1922 to 2014.

Tickets will be another issue important to this concert. At the time of the meeting last week, the Student Union Board estimated student ticket pricing around $25. This cost should remain as low as possible for affordability purposes and non-students should pay a higher rate, as is typical with other SUB events.

The ISD Editorial Board would like to stress to those planning the event the importance of making this concert worthwhile and having enough impact on students to justify the price tag. 

Editor’s note: A clarification has been provided to state that the last time money in this amount was taken from the Senate’s special projects fund was in 2015 for the recyclable trash cans, not the last time Student Government used money from this account.