This year marks the 30th anniversary of Tiger Tunes, a fundraiser to raise scholarships for students in need.
Student Paige Cate, the Ouachita Student Foundation’s special events coordinator, has high expectations for this year.
“This is the 30th year of Tiger Tunes, making this year a big deal with more alumni coming back to watch,” Cate said.
“We will have a more detailed and better prepared program compared to years past.”
For Tiger Tunes, social clubs and Campus Ministries will perform shows with song and dance. Changes have been made to this year’s performance line-ups.
“After doing some research, we noticed the majority of winners have been shows performed in the second half of Tunes,” said Justin Harper, staff coordinator for Tiger Tunes, “making many clubs believe that drawing the first half performance times would be certain defeat.”
Times have already been drawn by the groups.
“This gives a more fair and unbiased performing opportunity for every club, along with a more competitive edge,” Cate said.
Along with changes in the performance schedule, more experienced judges have been selected.
“We’ve tried to get judges that have a great ear for theme and lyric and a good eye for choreography,” Harper said, “instead of just some random people that don’t have any experience.”
Winners will be based on an average of scores, given by the panel of 32 judges.
“In total, there are 32 judges, which is two per category and eight per night,” Harper said. “Each club is ranked on a scale from 1-10, when the numbers are added together and averaged to see which club had the highest score.”
Executive staff director Kirt Thomas anticipates a more competitive spirit in this year’s Tiger Tunes.
“We are all anxious to see which club will become this year’s Tiger Tunes champion,” Thomas said. “The themes this year seem unique, and the combination of it being Tiger Tunes’ 30th anniversary, along with a more fair performance schedule leaves the competitiveness even higher.”
Apart from increased competition, Harper also expects Tiger Tunes to bring in more scholarship money than previous years.
“Last year, we raised around $50,000 for student scholarships, and I think it will bring even more revenue this year,” Harper said.
Past year’s profits were limited due to other costs.
“An expense that we incurred last year was a new ticketing system that took a little bit out of the budget,” Harper said, “but this year we have fully paid for it bringing the estimated revenue for student scholarships hopefully even higher than last year.”
Tiger Tunes helps makes it possible for students to graduate from Ouachita who otherwise may not have been able.
“Students you pass every day in the hall, and you think they’re fine, but so many of them send in scholarship requests in hope for aid to finish school,” Cate said. “For every aunt and uncle that comes, they’re coming to see students perform, but they don’t realize how impacting their ticket purchase is. The ticket money is not put back in pockets, but into students’ college educations.”
