The decision not to give Program Council Evening Programs Initiatives Contributions (EPIC) funding for the upcoming Ke$ha concert, we feel, was a large mistake on the part of the funding committee.
Based on the rules of the committee, which provides funding to events taking place on a weekend night that do not involve drinking, this concert should have been a shoe-in.
Instead, the committee based their decision not to fund it on supposed negative externalities over which the Program Council has absolutely no control.
The idea that a concert could encourage people to go out and drink is not off base.
But then, we are college students. Basically everything is an excuse to go out and drink.
Funding should not be based on what students may or may not be encouraged to do after leaving the event.
Additionally, the argument that Ke$ha’s lyrics are against the ideals of EPIC funding because they frequently deal with drinking and partying is equally as poorly thought out. College students will go out and drink regardless of whether Ke$ha tells them to do so.
The decision by the committee sets a poor precedent for funding events. It tells organizations that they’ll fund the massive events they are putting on, just so long as the artist they’ve gotten does not mention drinking, advocate partying or perhaps cause the audience to have so much fun that they might want to take the party to a bar afterwards.
So basically, Program Council should probably just stick with indie-rock bands and musical artists that are just as unlikely to get people on campus to attend as the lecture the anthropology department put on last Tuesday.
Isn’t one of the administration’s main complaints that students don’t spend enough time on campus? Isn’t that why we are spending millions of dollars on things like mandatory sophomore housing and epic (excuse the pun) failures like the constantly empty “M-Lounge”?
If there was ever a chance to use funds to attract students to campus, this was it.
The school spends thousands on gimmicks to attract students to go to football games, and sends out an e-mail every single day advocating that we attend “Lunch with Coach Doh.” And people still leave at halftime, and very few (if any) have attended the lunch. This was an opportunity to use school funds to actually attract students back to campus.
Why not use our money towards actually doing what EPIC was intended to do? Keeping kids on campus and keeping them out of bars—at least for the time they are at the concert. The school cannot feasibly control the actions of their of-age students after they leave campus, and the fact that they can’t do that shouldn’t be a reason to deny Program Council funding for this event.
The Daily Campus’ Editorial Board urges EPIC to consider the ramifications of their denial of funding, the inadequate logic on which it based the decision, and also to reconsider their ultimate decision.
