The Jewish Student Union will request $40,000 from the ASUO Senate surplus tonight to fund a concert they expect will attract University students and community members.
The ASUO and the Jewish Student Union and have been working all term on an event planned for May 6-7, 2011.
They planned the event to coincide with the end of the ASUO Street Faire, which happens yearly for a week in fall term and spring term.
The JSU and ASUO, at this point, simply need to find funding for a headliner, which ASUO Outreach Coordinator Brian Allen said could run from $40,000 to $60,000.
The surplus money they are requesting from Senate is primarily going toward the headliner. Other event components will be funded by separate campus groups.
Any ASUO-recognized program can go to Senate to ask for money from the surplus fund left over from the student incidental fee after the four finance committees are funded. Additionally, groups can return money to the ASUO, which goes into the surplus fund.
Currently there is $164,048.54 in the ASUO surplus. Surplus money is excess money from the previous year’s incidental fee after the finance committees get their money.
Though $40,000 is a sizable portion of the remaining funds, Allen and JSU Director Noah Wolf-Prusan have gone to several ASUO senators and they are fairly confident it will pass.
Allen said the ASUO isn’t the only organization the JSU has requested money from. The group secured $6,000 from the Residence Hall Association and sought other funds from the Division of Student Affairs.
The JSU has yet to name a specific artist to fund because it doesn’t know the exact amount of money it will have. There’s a tentative list, though, of artists that will attract a lot of student attention, according to JSU research. This headliner will play along with other artists at the Willamette Valley Music Festival.
“We want someone who has a good standing with publicity as well as someone who’s going to give us a really good show for the money,” Allen said.
The weekend will feature a number of other campus activities.
In addition to the week-long street faire, KWVA will be holding a concert on Friday, student programs will have tables on the Memorial Quad Lawn Saturday, and all campus art museums will be open longer hours with free admissions Saturday as well.
The event began as an attempt by the JSU to work with the Muslim Student Association to bring those groups together.
Wolf-Prusan said they wanted to make the event more than that.
“Then I realized, there isn’t actually that big of a gap or a tension between those communities right now in Eugene,” Wolf-Prusan said. “What if we did this for everyone, instead of just Jewish Student Union, what about all the unions — making something for not just two religious communities, but really all the community?”
At the moment, the group does not have a name for the event.
Wolf-Prusan said it became necessary to change the name from the original “Duckstock” when the coordinators learned of a similar event at Lane Community College called “Lanestock.”
In order to incorporate the larger community, Wolf-Prusan wanted to involve the Executive in this event.
Around week two or three of fall term, Allen started working with Wolf-Prusan.
Allen wants to unify students in a sort of a celebration at the end of the year.
“We looked at football games as a unifying event, but it seemed to come out of aggression, like ‘let’s beat the other team,’” Allen said.
Residence Hall Association President Teresa Chan said the residence halls’ support of the event had to do with helping freshmen get more involved on campus.
“It’s something to showcase the University nationally and internationally through diversity, art and culture,” Chan said. “I’m definitely in support of the event being so close to students living on campus.”
Wolf-Prusan said that they now have money and support from the RHA, they are planning to go back to the groups who fund them starting in January.
“The freshmen are going to be the ones who are the largest population that can benefit from this concert, and we want to make sure that we have their best interests in mind when we do it,” he said.
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