On April 23, UB will be graced by the presence of three below-average bands: Hoobastank, Ima Robot and Lostprophets. The three bands are part of MTV's Campus Invasion Tour and collectively will be paid between $23,000 and $37,000 - a sharp contrast from the $100,000 paid for Godsmack alone in the fall. After last year's conflict with Sub-Board I Inc., the Student Association promised improved entertainment for students. That promise has been broken.
Last year, the University Union Activity Board, funded mostly by SA, managed the festivals. This year, the SA executive board pulled the funds for concerts out of Sub-Board Inc. and UUAB, insisting that allowing SA to control the concert series would result in higher profile and better acts. With Hoobastank as the headliner for Spring Fest - the lowest-profile headliner in years - that promise clearly remains unfulfilled.
Fall Fest cost SA 75 percent of its concert budget. While it would make sense to plan an even split between that two big events, SA decided to put all their eggs in one basket. Not only did they break the fests down poorly, but also they completely overspent for the caliber of band they got at Fall Fest.
The plus side of having the MTV tour is that it comes with the Choose or Lose 2004 campaign, a voter registration drive that offers literature. Unfortunately, since the bands are terrible, not that many students will show up to make a difference. If voter registration were promoted with higher-profile names, it would have more success.
SA also floated the idea of having students pay at the door for future festivals. If this were the case, SA would have to provide bands that students actually wanted to see. Students already pay for the fests and expect that money to be well spent on bands. The mandatory student activity fee is $69.75, and asking students pay more to maintain the fest quality they have seen in years past is unreasonable.
It is a shame that the graduating seniors will have a sour memory of their last Spring Fest, and hopefully next year's graduates will not have to suffer the same fate. By having more student involvement than a survey on a Web site polling students' favorite bands, those problems could be avoided. If students could vote on possible available packages in the later stages of planning, it could alleviate some of those problems.
Now that we have seen the results, SA's promise to do fests better than UUAB is wholly unfulfilled. Their mismanagement and irresponsibility exacerbates their problem of being out of touch with the desires of students. The spring festival is supposed to be an exciting time to celebrate good music and the end of classes, but half of that goal is ruined, and must be fixed in the future.
