Photo courtesy of Adam Kmeck
Student Activities Board (SAB) travel events have gotten off to a strong start. The increased student interest in the $5 events has already led to a sold out rafting trip and Yankees game. Tickets are currently on sale for the Enrique Iglesias and Pitbull concert taking place Sept. 25 at Madison Square Garden.
Ticket sales have doubled this year and are selling out within minutes, even with multiple sale times throughout the week.
The best way to keep these types of events happening is by expressing interest and attending them, organizers said. SAB event interest is determined by student responses on its surveys, participation on its committees and the amount of tickets sold for its event.
“Twice a year SAB does a survey for the general student body and from that we gather statistics on what type of trips to do,” SAB Vice President Jamie McIlvaine said.
For concerts, SAB decides which genres to focus in on based on student feedback on the survey, McIlvaine said.
Travel Chair Shannon Alexander said the survey helps determine interest in sports events, Broadway trips and other travel ideas, but they also look at ticket sales. Also, getting involved or reaching out to SAB members impacts travel decisions.
Meldrick Umahon, Concert Chair, said that although he has the ability to make the decisions on his own, or with his advisor, Mariel Pagan, he really wants to have input from his committee and other students.
“It’s our decision, not just my decision,” Umahon said. “If people hate our decisions we’re opening it up to everyone else to join us to make the decisions.”
To give everyone a fair chance, this year SAB is selling tickets on various days and times.
“In previous years we only had one time and we sold all the tickets, but then getting student feedback and seeing that it was unfair to people who had class or were driving while ticket sales were going on, we wanted to cater to more of a range of people and give more of an opportunity for people to have tickets,” McIlvaine said. “So then we started opening up different time slots where there are an equal amount of tickets given out at each time slot.”
Because tickets have been selling out fast, SAB President Chris Gbogi says to always use the wait list.
“Even if it sells out and there’s a wait list, add yourself to the wait list,” Gbogi said. “9 times out of 10— actually, 9.9 times out of 10—we’ll end up calling them.”
Samantha Giedris can be reached at samantha.giedris@student.shu.edu.
