Editor's note: The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
In 1993, 29 years ago, WMLU (formally known as WLCX) started the Friday night tradition of Bandfest during Spring Weekend. This one-day concert event took place during the Thursday through Sunday weekend-long celebration. As the tradition grew, large headliners including the Fray and Lovely the Band performed on our campus bringing Longwood students together in their shared love of music. Although COVID-19 seemed to end many of Longwood’s long-standing traditions, WMLU had amazing success hosting a drive-in concert that became one of the only major campus traditions held during that time. Despite the success of this event and love for this campus tradition, Bandfest is dying.
For the 2022-2023 academic year, WMLU Radio was allocated zero dollars from SGA for Bandfest. ZERO DOLLARS. Rather than being given funds for our Friday event, we have essentially been told to ask the organizing group for the Saturday event to take pity on us and allow our station to have some input into their event. This is not fair to our organization and it is not fair to the Saturday organization to be pressured to let us join in with them.
Throughout the past week I have been given countless reasons from the powers that be as to why it was WMLU who lost their sacred tradition and not any of the other organizations that host concerts.
I have been told Bandfest is not in WMLU’s mission statement when it actually is plastered all over our LancerLink page, Constitution, and social media. I’ve been told the station doesn't market enough when in actuality our flyers are in almost every building on campus, on the televisions in Upchurch, and we share content almost every single day on social media. Not to mention, we tabled three days in the last week alone. Aside from marketing, apparently, WMLU does not fundraise despite hosting trivia and bingo at 3 Roads Brewery every week along with selling items at Oktoberfest like countless other organizations on campus. Contrary to popular belief, Spirit Nights at Bandidos are NOT the only way to fundraise. The icing on the cake is the suggestion that the station does not work well with others despite us offering free DJing services to every organization on campus and working large events such as New Lancer Day Tailgate, Oktoberfest reveal, and Late Night Breakfast, just to name a few.
Finally, we have been told that WMLU is not a programming organization and thus doesn’t need to do a concert as the other two concert organizations do. If an organization has to be a programming focused group, I have to ask, “Is Mortar Board a programming organization or are they an honor society?” Searching their LancerLink page to find out their classification, I noticed they do not have a constitution listed as required in the SFC bylaws which state in Article three, Section three “A RSO (Registered Student Organization) must have an SGA approved Constitution submitted on Lancer Link before submitting their budget packet.”
Not only has WMLU been subjected to unfair expectations for our organization to live up to in order to gain respect, but I was also told that WMLU is entitled and it is wrong for our organization to assume we would gain funding for our campus tradition. To that I have to ask, Is it wrong for the other organizations who host concerts to assume they would get concert funding? Or is it just wrong for WMLU, as our call sign states “We are the music of Longwood University,” to assume we would get concert funding?
Nothing about this situation is fair. It is unfair to WMLU that the station is being held back. It is unfair that other organizations get to still have their concert. It is unfair that WMLU’s Bandfest history is being misrepresented as small bands only and just something we started, not something we need that adds to the lives of all of those on campus. It is unfair that just this past week alone Bandfest was forgotten three times for promotion but the Saturday event was showcased in a Residential and Commuter Life email, Longwood’s Calendar of Events, and GreekSync presentation, despite the weekend being two days. It is unfair that communication studies students who join the station for event planning and social media experience to include on internship applications will now have to find this practice elsewhere. It is even more unfair to the student body which is losing a valuable tradition. Now Spring Weekend might as well be called Spring Saturday. I know from my view, as a person who chose Longwood for its amazing traditions, this is something that will impact my perception of this university for a long time because the promise of valid traditions is not being upheld.
I want to acknowledge that having three major concert events funded by SGA on campus is a huge deal and I am so thankful that we have these event experiences as students but the argument that this never could have been fair is invalid. In order to force collaboration with the Saturday organization as SGA is wanting, the band comp budget for Spring Weekend should have been split in half between the organizations. This would have offered each organization a fair split in planning the next Spring Weekend.
This is not the end of Bandfest. This is just the last one as we know it. For all we know, WMLU could fundraise $50,000 as we have been told is possible. However, anyone who has ever fundraised on this campus knows it would be extremely difficult to reach that number or anything close and successfully save this campus tradition on their own.
WMLU is not done fighting for the recognition this organization deserves. We are more than radio shows and deserve our concert back. No other campus organizations are to blame for this either. Enrollment is low, and money is tight, but it is unfair that WMLU and our tradition are treated as disposable.
Longwood has 175+ clubs and organizations to choose from and they encourage everyone to find their passion and a community to share it with. The question is how many of these do they truly support? All campus leaders should feel confident to stand up for their organization without fear. Fight for your groups. Stand up to SGA and administration.
