The recent announcement that Andy Grammer will be headlining this year’s spring concert has churned up a less than enthusiastic response from the student body. Both insults and questions as to why our programming board could ever possibly pick someone like Grammer have been thrown around.
Given the diverse demographic of the University of Massachusetts Boston, Grammer may not be the ideal choice of entertainment for everyone. Some have complained that they didn’t vote for him (a survey with possible options for who the spring concert would be circulated last semester in October), while other’s have said that they didn’t fill out the survey at all, but still would’ve preferred someone other than Grammer as the performer. Others have said that they didn’t even see this survey. 
That’s the problem with the surveys; there is a chance that not everyone within a university, which has 12,000+ undergraduate students, will see it, and there is an even greater chance that the options offered will not interest every single student at the university. The biggest problem, however, is that on the contractual level, these kinds of surveys offer a general idea of who would be a possibility to perform, and who the student body would most like to see, but offer no guarantee that who is on the list is a definite and viable option. 
Each artist, at the time the survey is first sent out, is still tentative in both availability and pricing. Even then, if an artist who stay true to those kinds of promises, no negotiations will be set in stone until dates and prices are confirmed and contracts are signed.
In reality, there’s no way to have an exact and accurate survey; just because you voted for Fetty Wap or Nick Jonas doesn’t mean that either of those two acts will automatically be the headliner for the spring concert. 
With that being said, the artist with the highest number of votes, who was available to tour at the time of UMass Boston’s spring concert and who could also fit into the Student Arts and Events Council’s budget, did go to Andy Grammer. Nick Jonas, one of the options on the survey and the artist who received the second highest amount of votes, canceled his tour and wasn’t available. Okay, no problem, right? Big Sean and Fetty Wap, the first and third desired options based on number of votes, were unbelievably over-priced.
Now, before anyone complains about how dumb of a reason that may seem, just remember that the more money spent on the act for the spring concert, the higher the price for tickets being sold to students. And, let’s be honest, if you’re willing to spend more than $50 on a concert ticket to go see Fetty, you might as well wait until he makes his way to the House of Blues or the Garden. The point of the spring concert, of spring week in general, is that UMass Boston students can have fun, destress, and relax affordably before finals start.
Even if Grammer is not the artist that you had hoped to see, he has an interesting repertoire of upbeat, feel-good music and is known for putting on a wonderful concert. In January, he performed an a capella version of the National Anthem at the AFC Championship football game in Denver, and his best known single “Honey, I’m Good” peaked at number 9 on Billboard’s Top 100. Grammer will be performing what is sure to be, despite some pessimistic comments circulating around the university, a fun and energetic show on May 5 in the Clark Athletic Center.