WILD is a long-standing tradition at Washington University. Since 1973, this biannual concert has been bringing recording artists of the students’ choosing to campus. Before the beginning of last semester, when everyone was still enjoying their summers, we received an email—it was time to vote for the fall semester W.I.L.D artist as well as the fall semester comedian. But the survey that the Student Programming Board sent had something extra. Not only did it ask for students’ opinions on who we wanted to headline, but it also asked us what we thought about the number of concerts held. Did the University student body want one big spring WILD and a small fall concert, or the traditional two WILDs?

Under Student Union’s recently announced plan, WILD will take place twice each academic year, once around halfway through the fall semester with a smaller budget and artist selection and once in the spring at the end of classes with a larger budget.

With this change comes more responsibility. If all of the funding allocated to a WILD ends up not being used on booking the artist, we would ask that the leftover be shifted to making production of the event better or added to the next semester’s WILD budget.

It is true that with this new change, juniors going abroad in the spring and seniors graduating early in December will miss out on their opportunity to relax and see a larger artist at the Spring WILD. However, the opportunity for them to partake in the 50-year-old tradition still stands with the maintenance of two WILDs. And besides, the purpose of WILD is to spend time with friends in a stress-free environment ahead of finals, not to see the number one artist on the charts.

However, if SPB brought a throwback artist to campus like T-Pain, someone everyone knows and loves, it might make for a more cohesive experience. At least everyone will be able to sing along to their favorite songs from their younger years. In recent years, the University has had the All-American Rejects, Jason Derulo, Carly Rae Jepson (and almost T-Pain) perform at Beaumont Pavilion on Brookings Quad. SPB has even added a student opener to the lineup, with this past semester’s being sophomore Gosha Guppy.

We are open to and inviting of this change, however, we hope to see that having one big artist is worthwhile. We hope that SPB continues to stay in the know of what students want in order to continue to improve the WILD experience.