Council Votes $35K Budget for Concert

After several unsuccessful attempts to secure an on-campus concert this year, the undergraduate Council last night authorized the council's executive committee to spend up to $35,000 for a performance.

The "blank check" was approved by a 30-18 roll call vote, after a council amendment lowered the budget allowance from $50,000 to $35,000.

Supporters of the resolution said that the move will give the committee the flexibility it needs to negotiate with concert promoters. But opponents, including the council's treasurer and the chair of the finance committee, said that $35,000 was too much money to leave to the discretion of the executive committee.

The blank check strategy for negotiating concert appearances was used by last year's council to sponsor performances by reggae artist Jimmy Cliff and folk star Suzanne Vega. But many council members blame the strategy for the $20,000 the council lost on the poorly-attended Vega show.

The B-52s, whom the council had hoped to bring to Harvard, this week backed out of a potential deal for a spring concert. The council had allotted $25,000 for a concert by the new wave group.

Eugene S. Kim '92, who chairs the social committee, said the council lost a chance to bid for a concert by the pop group Squeeze earlier this year because it did not have a "blank check." Squeeze accepted another offer before the council had a chance to meet.

Kim, who said he is considering performances by reggae artist Ziggy Marley and local folk singer Tracy Chapman, said the committee cannot respond to concert offers quickly enough if the council has to approve every step in the negotiations.

"For the past four to five weeks we've been working with some very greedy concert promoters," Kim said, explaining his difficulties attracting the B-52s. "The concert business changes on a daily basis."

Vocal Opposition

But opponents of the resolution said that $35,000 was too much money to gamble on such a proposition. "If we're going to throw around money like this, we might as well play the stock market," Finance Committee Chair David A. Battat '91 said of the original proposal to allot $50,000 for a concert.

"Winter sets in and Ken Lee disease seems to set in," Battat said in an interview after the meeting, referring to former council Chair Kenneth E. Lee '89, who negotiated the Vega appearance.

A vocal opposition, including Battat and former Treasurer Michael R. Kelsen '90, criticized the council for the short length of time it spent discussing such a large expenditure. The council spends more than four hours alloting its $40,000 grants budget, but "we spent 10 minutes discussing the [concert] issue, and we threw out $35,000," Battat said.

The measure's supporters, however, said they expected to recoup some, if not all, of the $35,000 from ticket proceeds.

"It's not authorizing the executive board to lose $50,000," said Council Chair Guhan Subramanian '91-92. "This is money we fully expect to get back," he said. Subramanian did not vote on the measure.