At Thursday night’s SGA Senate meeting, a second special allocation for this year’s Homecoming concert passed in a 35-5 vote.
The Homecoming Committee, which includes members of both the SGA and the Student Union Board, requested additional funds to cover unforeseen costs of hosting Timeflies Nov. 8. Junior Dylan Brock, the music chair for SUB, said Timesflies requested a stage large enough to support a video wall that is typically part of its performance.
In order to meet the duo’s request, Brock said the committee would have to spend about $10,450 to obtain and furnish 40-by-40 stage. To fully cover the cost, SUB requested $8,025 from the SGA.
“The video wall comes with them, and they say it’s essential for their show,” he said. “It essentially creates two separate shows.”
Brock presented a less expensive option to the Senate, as well. He said Timeflies could forego the video wall and perform on a 32-by-40 stage, which would cost about $5,875 to obtain and require a $3,450 allocation from the SGA.
The Homecoming Committee’s original concert budget included an estimated $10,000 for the stage, lights, and sound, but after engaging in negotiations with Timeflies last month, the committee realized it would need more money to meet the artists’ requests. The exact costs of production had not been determined when the contract was finalized in August.
“We did plan for production costs, but we based the number on past artists like Mac Miller,” said senior James Davies, president of SUB. “It’s hard to predict the costs of production, and they threw a big number at us.”
To secure the talent, security, lights and sound, the committee paid more than $60,000. The special allocation required to obtain a larger stage bumped the total cost of the concert to more than $75,000.
Senior Lauren Reiman, SGA executive secretary, said the Homecoming Committee had done its best to scale back other homecoming costs to decrease the amount of additional funding needed from the SGA.
Some senators fully supported the more expensive option. Sophomore John Crowder, representative of the College of Arts and Sciences, said the SGA shouldn’t skimp on an allocation that could set a precedent for the quality of future concerts.
“Let’s stop counting pennies and think about the long-term investments,” he said.
But Patrick Brown, senior class treasurer, encouraged the Senate to regard the allocation like it would a request from any given student organization.
“Let’s pretend we’re talking about smaller numbers,” he said. “If I was representing a student organization, would I be able to get a second special allocation? Looking at precedents, if someone said we need more money than our original budget, we would say no. We would tell them to fundraise and go to other sources.”
The Senate then moved into voting procedures. Senators could vote for the more expensive option, the less expensive option, or vote to deny any additional funding. Five senators voted to deny additional funding, while the remaining 35 voted to fund the $8,025 allocation.