Circulating among students is a rumor that the Student Program Board has not planned a concert or a large-scale trip for Oakland University students.

The “no concert, no trip” rumor is false.

Due to the recent changes in the travel policy, SPB will not be planning a big trip this fall semester.

However, according to travel director Michael Larue, the board is working on bringing the students more trips, including the trip to Art Prize, Grand Rapids in September, the trip to Cedar Point in October and a larger trip during the winter semester.

The trip to Art Prize, Grand Rapids, is taking place Sept. 23 and it costs $10 for OU students. The trip to Cedar Point, Ohio, is scheduled to take place Oct. 21. It costs $40 for transportation and admission.

The trips and their occurrence “depend on the year, the budget and the travel director,” said Larue. All future trips are going through event proposals and voting processes.

In the academic year of 2015-16, the SPB planned a trip to Washington D.C. in the fall semester and a trip to Disney World in the winter semester.

And in the academic year of 2016-17, the planned SPB trips were to New York in the fall and to Niagara Falls, Toronto in the winter.

Larue said he is pretty sure that every trip but the one to Washington D.C., sold out.

Regarding SPB’s annual concert, plans are being made to bring an artist in the winter semester for OU students.

According to annual events director Mackenzie Hill, an artist is being chosen for the Meadow Brook winter concert.

Unlike SPB trips, not all past SPB concerts met with great success. After all, no one can forget the Andy Grammar concert that got cancelled back in April of 2016.

“Due to lack of student interest and ticket sales,” Larue said, the concert got cancelled and was therefore deemed forever unsuccessful.

There were, however, many other concerts that were successful, such as Stephen Neal’s concert at OU’s campus, which was part of SPB’s Hoedown event in October 2016 and before that, Iggy Azelea’s 2014 Meadowbrook winter concert that thrilled the Auburn Hills community.

The Hoedown event was “overall a good event,” Larue said. Vitality Dance performed during the event and it was free of cost.

Even though there will be no major fall-semester trip planned by the SPB, there are smaller trips planned to compensate for it.

Lastly, SPB is working on creating both a large trip and a concert for the winter semester. SPB can be contacted at [email protected] with any questions or concerns.