University Union concerts may be making good on an initiative to bring big-name artists to Syracuse University thanks to a Student Association vote Monday night.

At Monday’s SA meeting, UU Concerts secured $60,000 in special programming funds to bid for artists such as Lloyd Banks, Black Eyed Peas, Incubus, Kanye West or Greenday, among others.

‘There is clear and overwhelming support for these events from students,’ said Adam Gorode, co-chair of UU Concerts. ‘The reality is the student activity fee is the one place the students have a direct say in where the money goes.’

Gorode said Monday night a Lloyd Banks concert had previously been in the works, but fell through due to the delays in the Finance Board process. When negotiating with agents, UU Concerts cannot plan anything concrete without funds to support the potential event, Gorode said.

‘Agents are taking it more seriously when we have money in the bank,’ Gorode said.

Gorode said after his first class tomorrow morning he will be on the phone with agents negotiating bids to potentially bring an artist of high caliber to SU. By the end of the week, Gorode said, he should have the bids out to the agents and from there, agents have one week to reject or not respond to the bid.

‘It’s got to be pretty soon,’ Gorode said of how long it will be before UU Concerts knows for sure which artist they are booking for sometime in April. Gorode said in order to be more flexible with the dates, UU Concerts is looking at potentially holding this event off-campus at the Landmark Theatre.

There was some debate among SA assembly members over allocating these funds from the special programming accounts.

Annie Dean, vice president of civic engagement, said she was in support of allocating the funds to UU Concerts.

‘One way to get students involved is to get big pop culture icons on campus,’ Dean said. ‘This is an opportunity we are not in the position to pass up.’

SA parliamentarian Joan Gabel said she was against funding an event such as any of the ones in the works.

‘This is a horrible use of money,’ Gabel said. ‘We need to bring people here who can teach us stuff we don’t already know.’

Gorode said funding this event is important because there is a high demand for this type of programming from students and at this late stage in the budgeting process, UU Concerts would not be taking away money that could be allocated to other organizations.

Comptroller Andrew Urankar said student groups have until March 15 to submit a request for special programming funds. There is still $82,000 in the fund after passing the six special programming bills Monday night, including the one for $60,000 for UU Concerts, he said.

‘I don’t want to see this event get funded,’ Gabel said. ‘I don’t care about any of that stuff.’

Published on February 28, 2005 at 12:00 pm