UC Votes To Grant $30K for Concert

While many of their peers were still perfecting their tans on the beach, Undergraduate Council (UC) members spent the weeks preceding the start of school making preparations for a fall concert, set for Nov. 6.

On Aug. 23, UC President Matthew J. Glazer ’06 called an emergency council session, conducted through e-mail, to introduce legislation that would allocate funds to a fall concert sponsored by the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC).

Though some UC representatives initially expressed discontent with the manner of the debate and the vote, the bill was passed with an unusually high participation rate, guaranteeing the HCC $30,000 toward securing an artist for a fall show.

Among the 21 potential artists listed in the bill were Nas, Beck, OAR, The Killers, Ludacris, and John Mayer. Glazer said he hoped to have an artist selected within the next two weeks.

The bill also gave the HCC maximum flexibility in its artist choice by including a clause allowing it to negotiate with artists as it saw fit.

According to Glazer, the HCC has already submitted bids to select artists and is in negotiation with a “handful” of artists’ agents.

The question of artist selection provoked responses from some UC representatives who were worried that the artist chosen to perform might not suit the tastes of all students.

UC representative Edward Y. Lee ’08 wrote in an e-mail to the UC’s open list that once the allocation was complete he worried the UC would lose the ability to veto artists.

But Glazer stood behind the HCC. “[HCC members] are selected because they have expertise in these areas and they can put on successful shows,” Glazer said yesterday.

He also pointed out that there were precautions in the rules and bylaws in place to check the HCC in its selection, including the ability of the executive board to remove officers from the HCC. Glazer also noted that the UC had oversight of the HCC’s selection because their bodies are intertwined.

Several UC representatives voiced confidence in HCC’s decision-making.

“I have faith—faith that HCC has earned by successfully bringing a diverse group of popular acts to Harvard in the past—that even if I personally don’t like the performer HCC chooses, that performer will nonetheless appeal to a large number of other people,” UC representative Sam Teller ’08, who is also a Crimson editor, wrote in an e-mail to the UC open list in August.

Besides providing a list of potential artists, the bill also included a budget for the concert that detailed estimated revenues—$114,500, including ticket sales—and offered a $30,000 allocation from the UC budget to offset some of the estimated cost of $124,266.

According to the budget, the HCC could spend up to $81,400 on an artist and associated expenses, but after the collected revenue for the entire concert is calculated, the UC is looking to spend no more than $30,000 on an artist. The budget also projected that the HCC would sell 1,600 student tickets at a price of $25 each.

VOTING CONTROVERSY

While this was the first time an emergency session was conducted by e-mail, the session Glazer called in August was not the first of its kind.

Last year, the UC held several emergency sessions, including one in the fall to pass that fall’s concert allocation bill, and one in the spring to debate and pass the UC reform package.

But an e-mail vote on this fall’s concert funding was deemed necessary in order to secure support faster, since the vast majority of UC members were not on campus to participate in person, according to UC Vice President Clay T. Capp ’06.

But some expressed discontent with the online format.

“It really is an ineffective and inaccurate way to conduct our business,” wrote Maurice S. Chen ’06 in an e-mail to the UC’s open list.

The voting system required representatives to e-mail their votes and then reply to a confirmation e-mail.

“I think people might not be used to something like this but it was necessary,” Glazer said.

“Of course I would want future councils to do as much as they can in session but there are some circumstances where it would be a shame not to take advantage of the technology that we have and wait until October,” Glazer added.

HCC Chair Jack P. McCambridge ’06 pointed out the immediate need of the funding.

“For us to negotiate in good faith with an artist, we must have money backing up that bid,” McCambridge wrote in an e-mail to the UC’s open list, noting that artists’ availability is difficult to guarantee on short notice.

“My biggest concern is that come next year, this exact situation will happen again,” UC Representative Meghan M. Tieu ’07 wrote to the UC e-mail list.

McCambridge recognized this concern. “I think both the HCC and the UC recognize that the process of the summer allocation is not ideal and the hope is that this will be changed,” McCambridge wrote in an e-mail. “We had more substantive debate about this allocation than we ever had about a concert allocation in the past, although obviously and admittedly different from a full council meeting.”

Ultimately, the bill passed 30-3-3, with more representatives casting votes than in typical UC meetings, Glazer said.

—Staff writer Alexander H. Greeley can be reached at agreeley@fas.harvard.edu.