A few weeks ago, the Programming Activities Council (PAC) conducted a survey to see what kind of music that students would prefer for the Spring Concert.  The first survey had the choices of rap, country, rock, and electric dance music (EDM). As of Sept. 18, rap had 241 votes, country had 242 votes, rock had 108 votes and EDM had a total of 89 votes.  After the survey had already been up for only a couple of weeks, it was changed. The new choices only included country and hip-hop/R&B.  As of Friday Oct. 6, there were only a total of 287 votes submitted for this new poll. Country had 132 votes while Hip-Hop/R&B had 155.

These are what the two polls looked like:

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Some students feel the poll is rigged. They feel that their vote doesn’t even count at this point.

However this is not the time to feel that way! We must get the word out to all of our fellow students to vote. But, to be fair, PAC should change it back to the original survey. It should not have been changed. This is why people have begun to feel that it is rigged.

Marissa Hill, a senior, stated that she didn’t know about the concert poll this year, but had seen news about it in previous years. She didn’t vote, mainly because she never intended on attending the concert because of the large crowds and generally prefers to stay in and watch a movie whenever the annual concert is held.

What is truly the reason behind such a low number of students voting? Some didn’t even know about the poll. After speaking to a member of PAC, I was told that the information was released in various social media areas. What about those of us who don’t always use social media? I, for one, do use Facebook, but that is about it. I never seen anything posted in any of the Facebook pages that I am a member of with Colorado Mesa University.

Brandon VanDenBosch, a senior, said, “I didn’t know about the poll from PAC and wish I could’ve voted! If the poll was sent through email I must’ve missed it because I check it every day and try to respond to things like that. If it was sent through email and I still missed it, I’d suggest doing things like personal SMS texts if students submit their phone number for school announcements. A lot of people check their text inboxes more often than email. I’d like to hear a rap concert this spring.”

So what links were they posted on? Could there have been an email sent out to all students? Could there have been a text message sent out to students who have their numbers linked for school alerts? Could posters have been hung around campus?

There are so many ways that students could have been informed. But then, we also must ask ourselves, would that have mattered? It is really hard to say at this point.