Spring Break
Lupe Fiasco concert cost students $110,000
Madeline Novey
Issue date: 9/16/08 Section: News
With an approximate $110,000 price tag, $70,000 coming from student fees, the concert is not free.
The Dough
Last spring, Taylor Smoot, president of Associated Students for CSU, and Quinn Girrens, ASCSU vice president, heavily incorporated the Homecoming concert as a basis for their campaign platform.
"I want this to be the start of a long-standing Homecoming tradition," Smoot said. "I see this as an opportunity for campus unity."
"In the future, I hope that the concert will foster competition between artists so that students will continue to see big names on campus," he added. After clenching the victory last spring, Smoot brought the 2008-2009 budget to the table and lobbied the Student Fee Review Board for an increase in student fees to pay for the concert.
The fee increase was initially presented as part of an increase to the ASCSU budget when the responsibility of campus-event planning rests on the shoulders of Associations for Student Activity Programming. Because ASAP did not initiate this request, qualms formed in the minds of SFRB members.
"Most simply, the conflict the board saw was that ASCSU was doing what ASAP should," said Seth Walter, former SFRB member.
A week later, the money was re-named as a request from ASAP, and this was determined acceptable by the board. After the SFRB and CSU System Board of Governors approved this change, a student fee increase of $1.56 a student went to the Lory Student Center student fee area and was allocated accordingly.
ASAP, a branch of the LSC, is taking $40,000 from their annual budget of approximately $350,000 to pay for construction of the performance stage, production and marketing costs.
The Planning
Bringing the artists to campus began with a selection process in late April, after Smoot and Quinn won the election.
Because of time constraints, ASAP said the office was unable to survey students as they initially hoped. Instead, a 20-member committee, made up of three current and six past ASAP members, six students at large and five ASCSU members, deliberated over the artist selection for six hours.
"The only adequate way to represent the students is to send out a survey to 5,000," said Mary Branton-Housley, assistant director of Campus Activities and advisor to ASAP. "If I had to put 20 people in a room to make this decision ,though, [the 20] are the best representation I could find."
"Everyone was given a round-a-bout budget, but we were told to just focus on the artists," said Ben Schrader, a student member of the committee. "We put up a list of really diverse groups that represented all genres, and from there we narrowed it down to our top 15 and then our top five."Jack Johnson, the number-one pick, was unavailable. Lupe Fiasco and Three 6 Mafia together were number two.
Once decided, Branton-Housley made calls to the artists' agents and booked them for the concert.
Moby Arena will open Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. and the show is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.
ASCSU beat writer Madeline Novey can be reached at news@collegian.com.
The Dough
Last spring, Taylor Smoot, president of Associated Students for CSU, and Quinn Girrens, ASCSU vice president, heavily incorporated the Homecoming concert as a basis for their campaign platform.
"I want this to be the start of a long-standing Homecoming tradition," Smoot said. "I see this as an opportunity for campus unity."
"In the future, I hope that the concert will foster competition between artists so that students will continue to see big names on campus," he added. After clenching the victory last spring, Smoot brought the 2008-2009 budget to the table and lobbied the Student Fee Review Board for an increase in student fees to pay for the concert.
The fee increase was initially presented as part of an increase to the ASCSU budget when the responsibility of campus-event planning rests on the shoulders of Associations for Student Activity Programming. Because ASAP did not initiate this request, qualms formed in the minds of SFRB members.
"Most simply, the conflict the board saw was that ASCSU was doing what ASAP should," said Seth Walter, former SFRB member.
A week later, the money was re-named as a request from ASAP, and this was determined acceptable by the board. After the SFRB and CSU System Board of Governors approved this change, a student fee increase of $1.56 a student went to the Lory Student Center student fee area and was allocated accordingly.
ASAP, a branch of the LSC, is taking $40,000 from their annual budget of approximately $350,000 to pay for construction of the performance stage, production and marketing costs.
The Planning
Bringing the artists to campus began with a selection process in late April, after Smoot and Quinn won the election.
Because of time constraints, ASAP said the office was unable to survey students as they initially hoped. Instead, a 20-member committee, made up of three current and six past ASAP members, six students at large and five ASCSU members, deliberated over the artist selection for six hours.
"The only adequate way to represent the students is to send out a survey to 5,000," said Mary Branton-Housley, assistant director of Campus Activities and advisor to ASAP. "If I had to put 20 people in a room to make this decision ,though, [the 20] are the best representation I could find."
"Everyone was given a round-a-bout budget, but we were told to just focus on the artists," said Ben Schrader, a student member of the committee. "We put up a list of really diverse groups that represented all genres, and from there we narrowed it down to our top 15 and then our top five."Jack Johnson, the number-one pick, was unavailable. Lupe Fiasco and Three 6 Mafia together were number two.
Once decided, Branton-Housley made calls to the artists' agents and booked them for the concert.
Moby Arena will open Oct. 5 at 6 p.m. and the show is scheduled to start at 8 p.m.
ASCSU beat writer Madeline Novey can be reached at news@collegian.com.
Viewing Comments 1 - 1 of 1
Shelby Wood
posted 9/16/08 @ 8:56 AM MST
As an alum of ASCSU, i am so proud that ASAP and ASCSU were able to pull a concert of this size off. When i was a senior we brought Common and that was huge. (Continued…)
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