After originally requesting $56,153 for a spring concert featureing headlining DJ RJD2, the ASUO Senate compromised with the Executive branch by approving a budget of $24,163 at Wed. night’s ASUO senate meeting.
The concert will employ about 300 students, doing anything from stage setup or video production to preforming in the concert.
“Usually I wouldn’t support concerts, but this specific concert is such a unique opportunity for students to be involved in and to put on a student’s resume,” Sen. Nick Hughes said. “If this was able to be pulled off and made for an annual event, this would be a fantastic opportunity for so many students.”
Much like Mallard Madness — the Macklemore concert that was approved by Senate last year — this concert would become self-funding due to ticket sales after the first initial year, meaning that Senate would only be paying for the concert once. But the $56,000 price tag was too high for many senators to approve.
“I’m hesitant because of the price point,” Sen. Amy Jones said. “I would want to fund the student discounted tickets before funding anything else.”
The venue would also be off campus at the Hult Center. The representatives for the spring concert said that the Matthew Knight Arena is much larger than the Hult Center, and they wanted to test the event out at a smaller venue in the first year instead of running the risk of producing a big concert without enough ticket sales.
“The reason I was so excited for this is because I think this really speaks to the essence of what we do as a student government,” ASUO President Sam Dotters-Katz said. “It gives back to the community as well as bringing more arts and culture to the community.”
Dotters-Katz was the Executive representative that stood with the students and producers of the upcoming spring concert event.
Due to some concerns from the concert producers that they would not be able to reserve RJD2 as a headliner for the event without any money for another week, Senate was willing to approve the request at Wednesday night’s meeting — but not without cutting out some expenses.
“Originially I was kind of hesitant, and I still am, but at the end of the day I echo Sen. Hughes’ remarks,” Sen. Josh Losner said. “If they’re able to make this sustainable for every year, then I’m in support for this event.”
After discussing for an hour what could possibly be cut from the price, Senate voted to approve the Executive’s request for $24,163.