A year after the postponement of the planned Ludacris concert, which was to be the culmination of a bigger and better Springfest week, the Council for University Programs (CUP) has begun to once again brainstorm programming and concert acts in an effort to redeem the reputation of Springfest.
Members of the CUP executive board went before the Budget Review Committee (BRC) Tuesday night and put in a request for the amount of money they believe they will need to book a major concert act. They will find out on Friday if their request has been approved, said CUP President Allyson Savin.
“We kind of ask for how much you think you might need, and if there’s extra, there’s extra, and you can come back and put it back in,” Savin said.
CUP members then begin discussions with students as well as administration regarding what type of act they would like to bring to campus. Savin said they are currently considering rock acts, but it is always subject to change according to people’s opinions.
“A rock act tends to be the overwhelming feedback we’ve gotten; if people say it’s got to be like country folk music or something, it’s open to change,” she said.
Once the Budget Review Committee (BRC) approves a request by CUP for the necessary funds for the major concert, CUP will begin discussions with their middle man agent, who will then contact acts about their availability and subsequently put out bids to bring them to campus.
After the disastrous Feb. 1 Super Bowl riots, President Richard Freeland postponed the then upcoming concert in Matthews Arena with scheduled headliner, award-winning rap artist Ludacris, and opener Jurassic 5. The decision prompted protests from hundreds of members of the student body at the President’s Mardi Gras Breakfast in Levine Marketplace the next night.
“Disbelief is always the first reaction, followed by anger and then, probably, nine times out of 10, followed by more disbelief,” said former Student Government Association (SGA) President Michael Romano in a Feb. 25 issue of The News.
Savin experienced the intense disappointment of losing the concert firsthand as SGA vice president for student affairs. When she took over as CUP president this year, she also took on the task of bringing a fall concert to campus in lieu of the postponed show.
This fall, CUP scored a triumph in scheduling hip-hop artists Wyclef Jean and Busta Rhymes for a Sept. 18 concert in Matthews Arena. However, two weeks before the concert was to take place, Wyclef backed out in favor of a reunion on the Dave Chapelle Show with his former band, The Fugees. The concert went off without a hitch, with a substitution of Method Man, but failed to fill Matthews Arena to full capacity.
Before the 2003-04 academic year, SGA passed a motion to raise the mandatory Student Activities Fee to $100 per student in order to build a larger fund to be used for programming on campus, including bringing big-name artists to campus for the annual Springfest concert. Last year’s booking of Ludacris was the first attempt to bring a Top 40 artist to campus.
To pay for this year’s concert, CUP will request money from the newly-created “Major Concert Fund.” The funding for last year’s proposed concert came out of the “Major Event Fund,” which sat at $250,000 and served the same purpose as the concert fund will this year. The Major Event Fund will now act as an empty account that groups can request funds be put into to pay for large-scale activities.
Savin said there was about $110,000 that was put back into the Major Concert Fund after the first concert, which will be available if the BRC approves their request.
Savin said she feels it is important to bring a big-name act to campus because the Student Activity Fee was initially raised with that idea in mind, and students should be receiving what they are paying for.
“We don’t take lightly the responsibility that comes with [receiving a large amount of money for programming]. We’re going to bring someone that resonates with as many students as possible.”
