Members of student government on Wednesday voted to pay $16,000 to bring an Afro-Latin band to campus in the fall; many said the band would help make freshmen and minority students more comfortable here.
The vote came after a veto by the new ASUO president last week that forced the Student Senate to reconsider the $20,000 it originally decided to pay.
Members of student government say the Grammy Award-winning band Ozomatli would bring people together and connect students with the resources they’ll need to survive feelings of isolation at the University, said journalism student Trevor Atkins, who lobbied the ASUO for the concert.
ASUO President Jared Axelrod vetoed the original request because he wanted senators to consider selling tickets to the concert to cover costs, he said, and to ensure the concert wouldn’t overlap with other Week of Welcome events.
On Wednesday, Atkins said he would pursue community sponsors for some of the costs. He and several senators said selling tickets would take away from the event’s purpose, which is to promote a community-like atmosphere.
In a 10-5 vote, most of the new senators, who were attending their first meeting, and several returning Student Senators decided to pay $16,000 for the concert, but not without a heated debate. The money came from a fund designated for emergency purposes.
Many of the new senators debated with returning senators that the concert serves an emergency need by promoting diversity, involving new students with student unions and to addressing freshman students’ feelings of disconnect.
While some said the lack of diversity on campus isolates new and minority students, constituting an emergency, others, mostly Senate veterans, said that the emergency fund should be used as a last resort and that sponsorships and fundraising should be used first.
This year, Senate has used large amounts of money from that
account to replace stolen equipment and cover childcare expenses and for one-time expenses, such as equipment upgrades.
Atkins said an unknown amount of students have left the University because they were discriminated against or felt disconnected in some way. At least one student left at the beginning of this year because of discrimination in the residence halls, he said.
Senator Wally Hicks said last week’s allocation of $20,000 for the Child Care Subsidy program to cover a calculation error that would have left 165 students without childcare for their children is a more realistic example of an emergency.
“I wonder if anybody at this table would feel good about that,” Hicks said Wednesday. “I wonder if even the presenters (of the Ozomatli concert) would feel good about that.”
“This is an emergency to a lot of us,” Atkins said in response, drawing the support of several senators.
The Cultural Forum, the group receiving the money, has not yet set a price for the band, but members expect the concert to be held on Sept. 23 during the Week of Welcome.
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