It’s beginning to look a lot like — Spring Fling?

While most Yale students have been preparing for finals, the Yale College Council has been planning for the 2003 bash that will hopefully turn out better than last year’s rained-out Guster show. So let the precipitation have its fun now because in six months, one of twelve musical artists will be playing, come rain or shine.

The YCC narrowed down the list of potential Spring Fling acts to 12 from the bands students suggested in an online October poll. The elected artists are Ani DiFranco, Avril Lavigne, Ben Folds, the Dashboard Confessional, Dispatch, Jimmy Eat World, Ludacris, Missy Elliott, Outkast, the Strokes, Tenacious D and Wilco.

Students will be able to vote online at Yale Station until 11:59 p.m. this Sunday — a piece of information that came as a shock to many freshmen who did not participate in the October poll.

YCC President Andrew Allison ’04 said the YCC selected the artists based on availability, affordability and variety.

After the survey results come in, Allison said the YCC will pursue the bands in the order they finish in the survey.

To prevent a recurrence of last year’s Spring Fling fiasco, Allison said the YCC would be exploring a number of options, including an insurance policy to recoup expenses in case of another wash-out.

But Allison said last year’s makeshift Battell Chapel concert was an appropriate substitute, and a similar show would be planned in the event of bad weather.

Lucas Meyer ’05 said he thought the smaller indoor event was an adequate, if flawed, plan.

“If you’re looking for a good concert, [the small setting] would be sufficient,” Meyer said. “But it wouldn’t appeal to the masses.”

Meyer added that he would like to see Tenacious D or Wilco.

But Scott Peachman ’06 disagreed.

“Jimmy Eat World, of course, everyone’s going to want Jimmy Eat World,” he said.

But Peachman said he did not vote in the online survey in October because he did not know about it. In fact, he did not know what Spring Fling was and did not think many freshmen knew about the event or had voted in the survey.

“I didn’t hear at all [about Spring Fling],” he said.

Freshman College Council representative Emerson Davis ’06, one of the few freshmen who had heard about Spring Fling, said he was surprised more freshmen did not know about the first poll. Davis said the FCC would have better advertised the initial poll if the YCC had told them to do so.

“The FCC was never asked to get the word out,” Davis said.

Allison said he did not know why so many freshmen were unaware of Spring Fling and the online polling system.

“I sent an e-mail to the entire college about it,” Allison said. “I can’t explain their not participating in it, except not wanting to.”

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