Written by Lauren Simmons // Photo by Lauren Simmons
Campus Life hosted pop artist Jordy Searcy Nov. 28 for the annual fall concert. Students were a large part of the decision-making process to bring Searcy to campus, as they tagged Campus Life on Instagram over the summer when Searcy posted that he would come to college campuses on his tour.
Director of Campus Life Jane Chandler said the Campus Life Instagram account was tagged around 200 times when Searcy’s first post was made June 21. Chandler was hired days after the post was created and said the first thing she saw was the hundreds of notifications on her phone.
“Since that was all happening, being tagged and everything, before I even started … my decision was made for me,” Chandler said.
Junior Lexi Earnhart, the marketing director for Campus Life, said she was excited to see Searcy’s post and see if he would perform on campus.
“I have a lot of friends who are very big Jordy Searcy fans,” Earnhart said. “So when he originally posted for college schools to reach out to him, my Instagram and messages were full of people tagging me and our Campus Life Instagram.”
Senior Brinley Colbert saw Searcy’s post and immediately texted Chandler to ask if she had seen the comments on his post and if Searcy could perform at Harding. Chandler said she asked Colbert if she needed a campus job and recruited Colbert to work for Campus Life.
“I was actually one of the students who tagged Campus Life in the post before knowing I was going to work for Campus Life,” Colbert said. “I’ve been a fan of Jordy Searcy for years now, and after seeing him in concert with Ben Rector and Stephen Day in the spring, it was really cool to see some of the people that were also at the concert begin to tag him as well.”
Earnhart said she is excited for the future of Campus Life and viewed Searcy’s concert as a sign that Chandler is willing to listen to the student body.
“Our whole purpose as Campus Life is to provide the students with fun activities and events that they actually want and enjoy,” Earnhart said. “I can speak from personal experience that Jane and my fellow coworkers at Campus Life truly have the students in mind when it comes to every decision.”
Students should expect another concert announcement for the spring to arrive in the upcoming weeks, according to Chandler, as Campus Life is looking to expand the genres of artists that perform on campus.
“I think in the past couple years we’ve had this very Harding-core, folksy, singer-songwriter artist,” Chandler said. “But [we are] wanting to branch into some more country or pop or just having some other artist come in and fill out our repertoire a bit more.”
Chandler said she encouraged all students to attend all of the concerts because Harding has hosted many artists in the past that gained popularity later in their careers, such as Pentatonix and Taylor Swift.
“How many artists have come here and will come here that this is their stop on the way to some huge destination,” Chandler said. “You want to be able to say you were a part of that. Who knows where Jordy’s career is going? … Take advantage of stuff being here at your doorstep.”
