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News Program Implemented Limits Performances to OU Students
< < Back toThe Ohio University Campus Involvement Center has done away with a program that featured an abundance of musicians from all over Ohio, and even some from as far as New York.
The Emerging Artists Program, which used to be held on Thursdays at 6 p.m., was not bringing in the crowd that the Involvement Center had hoped for. In an attempt to boost student attendance, it has been replaced with the new Acoustic Café program.
Blair Crombie, the graduate assistant for the Campus Involvement Center, organized the program and hopes that the change from 6 p.m. to 12:30 p.m. will bring in a larger crowd. “Now we feel like we reach more students,” Crombie said, “because it’s during lunch time.”
Ben Leeson, a junior at Ohio University, was a performer at the first Acoustic Café performance last Thursday. Leeson said the turn out was good, but he is unsure if switching the times will boost student attendance. “It’s kind of at an odd time,” Leeson said, “ it’s at at 12:30 which is kind of and odd time for people with class.”
On the contrary, Front Room employee Sara Beckwith thinks the time switch was crucial if attendance wanted to be increased.
“At first it brought in quite a crowd,” Beckwith said enthusiastically, “but as the [program] went on the attendance rate went down and down and down, and it just wasn’t as much as we thought it would be.”
Another difference between two programs is, now, the performances are limited to just Ohio University students. At the Emerging Artists program events, “there were bands coming from all over,” explains Crombie. “We had people from New York, Kentucky, just all over.”
Crombie is confident that the time switch and focus on Ohio University talent only will draw in more students, and help make the program more successful than its predecessor.