After heated debate, Student Association and University Union leaders were working late into Monday night and early Tuesday morning to secure funding for a concert of unprecedented caliber to benefit Hurricane Katrina victims.

UU Concerts Chair Adam Gorode appeared at Monday’s SA meeting to express his frustration with funding processes that may have caused UU to lose yet another major artist, he said.

After the Finance Board realization that the $176,000 loan from the SA was implausible, the two groups will join forces today in meetings with various administrators to try and get the loan in any way possible.

The entire Oct. 25 event for the Carrier Dome has been organized in less than two weeks after conflicts regarding dates and the artists’ last-minute availability in between regular touring dates.

‘My frustration has just boiled over,’ Gorode said at the meeting Monday night. ‘We’re not just missing an opportunity to rebuild (New Orleans), but we’re missing an opportunity to rebuild a city that had a lot of internal issues.’

The concert could bring in as much as $100,000 to be donated to The Red Cross, Gorode said.

The Daily Orange has agreed not to release the name of the artist, as contracts are still pending.

Andrew Urankar, SA comptroller, and Finance Board members met Sunday to discuss options for funding the concert.

The Finance Board would have recommended funding the event in the form of a loan that would be repaid after the concert, but there is not enough money in the rollover funds to cover the cost, Urankar said.

In addition to the $126,000 in rollover funds, UU would also have to dip into next semester’s funding, which is not allowed by SA’s finance codes, Urankar said.

SA president Travis Mason also explained that UU could not use the approximately $200,000 in reserve funds due to university finance rules that lock the funds. Accessing the reserve funds is not an SA decision, Mason said.

‘You’re preaching to the choir,’ Mason said in response to Gorode’s argument that finance codes need to change if UU is to be funded in the most efficient manner in the future.

UU had approached SA last semester about a temporary solution that would give UU its funding for the entire year, during which time, SA worked on revising finance codes and its constitution.

‘We are frustrated also, and we’re trying to fix it,’ Mason said. ‘We will not, in my administration, put a Band-Aid solution where I have the talent right here to put a long-term solution.’

Currently, SA and the Finance Board are working to rewrite the finance codes and the organization’s constitution to rework many aspects of SA. The changes will go to the student body in a referendum vote, and, if passed, will go into effect for the 2006-2007 academic year.

Newly elected Assistant Vice President for Operations Patrick Tomeny also expressed aversion to a temporary solution.

‘Changing codes on a whim defeats the purpose of having codes,’ he said. ‘It undermines the entire system.’

Gorode expressed massive angst with SA’s efforts and lack of expedience in resolving these funding issues.

‘It’s ridiculous that in a full year, SA, the defenders of the students, is the obstacle for us to put on this major program,’ Gorode said, with flushed cheeks and emotional gestures. ‘Priorities are way out of whack. If we made (funding improvements) a top priority we could have fixed it.’

Since Mason’s term began in January, Gorode said SA has worked only to develop the OrangeSeeds program and had students vote to name the student section in the Carrier Dome the Juicebox.

‘If you ask students on campus what SA has done for them, and ask what UU has done it will be an entirely different story,’ said UU Vice President Wayne Horton.

Gorode also said UU funding problems have existed since he started working at UU three years ago.

‘If (SA) wants to fix it, if they really want to fix, they could fix it,’ he said later Monday evening. ‘It’s a matter of how badly they want to do it. Obviously not as bad as us.’

Regardless of whether UU can book this particular event, there will be a fall concert, but not of the same caliber, UU President Dennis Jacobs said.

Arguments escalated between Gorode and Mason during the meeting about the efforts of both organizations, ending in SA Vice President Eric Crites and various SA Assembly members interjecting, telling the two to control their tempers.

‘At the end of the day, the codes are the codes,’ Gorode said. ‘Here we are again, not learning our lessons. We are all failing at our jobs.’

 

Published on September 19, 2005 at 12:00 pm