By Glenn Yoder

By a unanimous vote, the Budget Review Committee approved the allocation of $195,000 to the Council for University Programs to fund the annual Springfest concert after a public forum held Tuesday night.

In past years, SGA members have heard students complain of mediocre acts coming to NU’s campus, while student groups complained of inadequate funding. The governing body responded by launching a campaign to raise the Student Activity Fee, selling students on the fact that with more money, the university would be able to attract bigger names. The referendum passed via student votes and the administration’s approval.

“Now that we have more money, we are capable of reaching for the stars,” said BRC Chair Michael Benson.

After last year’s Springfest, which featured The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, students again stressed the need for a more well-known act to take the stage at 2004’s Springfest. With the larger pool of funds available from the fee increase, a big name is now more of a reality than ever before.

CUP is the first student group to take advantage of the larger budget and submit a proposal for moneys from the Major Events Fund.

“If there’s one idea to all of this, it’s bigger acts, bigger concerts,” said CUP Concert Chair Joshua Pratt. “Students want bigger names and bigger bands. However, there’s one big difference that separates Dave Matthews Band from The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, and that’s $225,000.”

In order to find out if students were really in favor of granting a large portion of the money to CUP, Benson called for a public forum Tuesday.

The forum provided students the opportunity to question members of CUP and the BRC about the methods with which the concert would be staged and funded.

“This is simply, do we want to take $200,000, that’s four-fifths of the Major Events Fund, and put it towards one event,” said Monique Lav-

ender, the vice chair of the BRC.

CUP asked the BRC for the nearly $200,000 figure based on the prospective costs of big-name acts, security and marketing expenses.

“We can give you an educated answer [as to what a concert would cost],” said Brooke Tempesta, the assistant director of student activities and the advisor to CUP. “We can follow-up with the reality after the show.”

Tempesta said some acts, like Coldplay, refuse to play college venues either because they are too big or have had bad experiences at colleges. In order to land a large performer, the timing is imperative and varies from case-to-case, she said.

“The process for an artist starts in the bars and ends up in some place like the FleetCenter, while a college campus is somewhere in between those two,” she said. “It is either a step to the top or on the way down.”

After the turnout of about 1,000 people at the CUP sponsored G. Love and Special Sauce and Rat Dog concert last fall, concerns were raised as to who selects the bands.

“We were working on getting the Counting Crows and everything was looking good, but then they got an offer to open for The Who and, in the entertainment world, that’s much more prestigious than playing at Northeastern,” said CUP President Tom Kneafsey. “One person booked Rat Dog and G. Love. I can tell you that will never happen at CUP this year. There are group decisions now.”

CUP members stressed that they want other clubs to participate in the event in order to widen the scope of student interests.

“CUP is the Counsel for University Programs. We have no interest in promoting CUP. All we want to do is put on a concert,” Kneafsey said.

Kneafsey said CUP is more than willing to co-sponsor the event with other student groups.

“We want this money to be a collaborative unit and have everyone satisfied,” said Jessica Peterson, the co-chair for Springfest.

Students present at the forum also expressed worry that past events put on by CUP have not been advertised enough and that the upcoming Springfest concert could follow that trend.

“A big name’s great but you can’t count on just a big name,” said Peter Antonellis, the SGA vice president for academic affairs. “A big name won’t do it on its own. Bill Maher proved that.”

Benson said he feels the forum gave the BRC a better idea of students’ thoughts.

“I definitely think it had a bearing [on the decision to allocate the money],” Benson said. “Two hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money. It’s a lot of your money and it’s a lot of our money.”

-Staff writers Steve Babcock and Stephanie Vosk and news correspondent Sarah Metcalf contributed to this report.