Efforts underway to bring concerts to NU

By Marshall Lee
Norwich Guidon Staff Writer

The appearance of the Mighty Mighty Boss Tones in 1995 at Norwich University could have been a good thing for the school, but the lack of interest shown by the student body in that concert six years ago may be the reason why there hasn't been a concert on campus since.

Chan Stowell, director of student activities at Norwich, remembers the failure of the last concert.

"We just didn't get a good turnout," Stowell said. "We did everything we possibly could to promote it, but it's just one of those things that didn't work out."

On Sunday, Nov. 4, the leaders of the NU student senate met with Stowell in Kreitzburg Arena, along with the VP for Student Affairs, the Dean of Students, and University President Richard Schneider, to discuss plans to bring concerts back to Norwich.

One of the people responsible for the initiative to bring new forms of entertainment to the campus is Dave Maxwell, the new marketing manager at Kreitzburg arena. According to Maxwell, his new top priority once hockey season is over is to make more non-ice events happen at the arena.

"This arena can hold up to 5,000 people for a concert," Maxwell said. "One of the main reasons why they hired me was to make sure there was other events, as well as concerts, for the students, as well as for the general public."

Also behind the idea of bringing concerts to the Northfield campus is the NU student senate, which is headed by Student Senate President Josh Creighton, 19, a communications major from Scituate, Mass.

"Members of student senate, along with myself, came up with the idea of putting something together that would bring the school together," Creighton said. "We wanted to find a way to bring both sides of the school, civilian and corps, together and have something worthwhile and enjoyable for everybody."

Jason Chizmar, 21 biology major from Springfield, Vt., who is a member of Norwich's student senate, said he believes it is important to look into getting a band that has a "decent sized name, but a local band, so that people from the surrounding area will come out to the show as well as students."

"There will probably be only 600 members of the student body out," Chizmar said. "When the arena can hold 5,000, you need to have the surrounding area come out."

Chizmar said that the senate had so far suggested the Dispatch and Orr, because of their local popularity.

The committee will, however, be polling the students at Norwich to find out who they want to see at the next N.U. concert.

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