Concerts discussed at USG Senate meeting
The Undergraduate Student Government Senate convened Tuesday night at the Ronald Tutor Campus Center to discuss the status of on-campus concerts this semester. The meeting included presentations by USG assemblies and committees that explored past and future events.
The Concerts Committee is in charge of organizing signature concerts such as the annual Welcome Back, Conquest and Spring Fest. Tuesday’s Senate meeting recapped Concert Committee’s fall semester events. Some of these events included hosting several music industry mixers, bringing BMG Publishing Group for a talk and giving away concert tickets to students through scavenger hunts around campus. The committee also delineated this semester’s upcoming events: an Anti-Gun Violence Concert, four Noontime Shows with bands such as Moons on Mars, Meets and Greets through Def Jam, as well as several music industry panels.
During the meeting, directors from the Concerts Committee expressed the upcoming challenges for Spring Fest, such as obtaining funding for larger acts.
“I think it would take a lot of effort to raise awareness in the student body that we do not have funding for these huge artists,” said Abigail Harris, assistant director of Concerts Committee. “A lot of people assume that USC has a lot of money, but a lot of it doesn’t go to concerts. But that’s the administration’s policy.”
Kirsten Lee, assistant director of Concerts Committee discussed plausible decreases in budget for spring concert events.
“I think that the next step to increase our working budget would probably be to charge for guest tickets,” Lee said. “Through the budget we get in student fees, we won’t have large acts anytime soon.”
“I actually think that over the past couple of years, the acts have become better than they have been in the past,” said Ryan Hamilton, director of Concerts Committee. “Long ago we were more reliant on booking acts that we thought would blow up at some point and a lot of times we were successful in doing so but students didn’t necessarily know these artists at the time. Over the past three years, we’ve been able to bring a lot more acts that students want to see, but we still have a long way to go in terms of getting the really big names,” Hamilton said.
Lee discussed difficulties in coordinating a diverse music performance.
“It’s a hard fight because there are so many students at this school, and everyone’s got a different music taste,” Lee said. “It’s really hard to appease everyone. In the end, it comes down to what we think is right. Sometimes we have to choose to piece certain groups at some shows and certain groups at others. We’re never going to able to make everyone happy.”
Various student organizations also presented at the USG Senate meeting. The Political Student Assembly discussed their desire to bring Beau Willimon, creative director of House of Cards, for a talk on campus. Trojan Pride also shared ideas for future activities they envision. These include broomball, bubble bowl and wheelchair basketball.
Furthermore, Latino Student Assembly Executive Director Eric Ochoa recapped 15 events that occurred during the fall semester. Ochoa outlined upcoming Latino Student Assembly events, which include a performance discussing hyper-masculinity in society, a speaker event analyzing the negative side effects of a culture of accomplishment found in elite universities and an event for genocide awareness month in April.
“We’re hoping to get survivors from different genocides to raise awareness about these things happening in the world,” Ochoa said. “As everyone knows, human rights are a big issue around the world.”