The Student Finance Board (SFB) voted 12-3 to deny a College Union Board (CUB) request of $69,326 for a fall concert featuring O.A.R. and Saves the Day. CUB expected 1,300 students to attend the event, which was to be held at the Student Recreation Center. Tickets would have cost $15 for students and $20 for non-students.
"I just think it's too much money for one concert that we don't even know the outcome of," Jennifer Mosesku, representative-at-Large, said.
There was debate about how costly the ticket prices should be, and whether two expensive acts should be booked for the same concert.
"They're essentially asking for $70,000 for a genre we had before. This semester might not be the time to do it," Leonardo Acevedo, executive director, said.
SFB members said a big concert should take place in the spring semester instead.
SFB voted unanimously to fund a Unión Latina (UL) request of $1,573.99 for its annual Explosion Latina festival. The money requested would be covering the costs for food and the DJ. UL was expecting around 150 people to attend.
"They did a good job of cutting costs of some parts of the event," Matt McCann, senior representative, said.
Maya Wadya, assistant financial director, agreed. "It comes out to $10 a person so I think that's very reasonable for such a popular event."
The first request SFB dealt with was from Catholic Campus Ministries, which sought to bring together the College's Catholic community for a night of faith building and worship. They asked for $200 for dinner. Everyone voted to pass this request. "Because it's on campus it can pull in about 70 people," Bill Fenimore, administrative director, said.
The Progressive Student Alliance (PSA) asked for a bus to New York City for the National Antiwar Protest. They expect 50 people to come. PSA was anticipating a full bus, and was publicizing this by working with organizations like Amnesty International to promote this event. PSA requested $600, which 14 SFB members voted in favor of granting.
PRISM requested funding for a viewing of the film "The Laramie Project" on the anniversary of Matthew Shepard's death.
"I went to it last year, and it was a really good turnout with good discussion afterwards," Mosesku said. PRISM requested $342 to cover the movie rights and refreshments. SFB unanimously decided to pass this request.
INK requested $150 for publicity. The organization said they have three times as many members as last year and that they need the money for posters, copying and advertisements. SFB members pointed out that there was no breakdown of how much each aspect cost.
"They're asking us for money, but they can't even make an effort to tell us what they want," Sheil Naik, Student Government Association assistant representative, said.
The board decided to table the request, with three people voting to give INK $70 for copies for a full year, and the others voting to table.
