At the first Board of Trustees meeting of the fall semester, the College Union Board (CUB) was successful in its bid requests for musical artist Rihanna and comedians Demetri Martin and Wanda Sykes.
The $126,387.30 request for Rihanna will be officially placed as soon as dates in the Student Recreation Center are secured. An opening act has not been discussed yet.
According to College policy, the Board must approve any expediture over $28,000.
In an e-mail interview, Katerina Gkionis, CUB director, spoke about the student body's general reaction to the Rihanna bid.
"For years, students have been complaining that the concerts did not feature popular artists or that the show was not diverse," Gkionis said. "We believe that Rihanna is a great artist that will reach out to many different groups on campus. We believe that it will turn out to be a large, successful and diverse concert."
A recent increase in the Student Activities Fund has given the Student Finance Board (SFB) the authority to award more money to campus groups to produce larger events. Gkionis said she understands CUB, like all groups on campus, will not satisfy everybody, but is confident the event will be a success.
"We knew that some students of the campus community would be disappointed with the SFB appropriation," she said. "In the long run, however, we are confident that students will appreciate the College's ability to bring this performer, who is one of the biggest names in the music business right now."
CUB will also place a $45,000 bid for Sykes and a $35,000 bid for Martin. If the bids are accepted, the duo will headline CUB's Spring Comedy Show.
The Board of Trustees discontinued the Master of Arts in Applied Spanish Studies at the meeting as well. Members of the Board felt the program "is less integral to the core mission than are undergraduate residential programs and graduate programs that offer teacher certification," and "there are other M.A. programs in Spanish available to students in the state of New Jersey."
