After much deliberation, Student Association President Bob Tahara and SA Treasurer Joe Martello now believe UB should hold Spring Fest rather than cancel it.
"We basically had two choices concerning Spring Fest: cancel, or incur a $30,000 debt. We decided to (do the latter), but it will appear normal to students," said Tahara.
Despite this decision, a far greater problem still looms on the horizon concerning the future of the Fests at UB, according to Martello, who believes the dilemma stems from a history of underbudgeting the Fests and then using line transfers to pay for the overruns.
"Forty thousand dollars was allocated in last year's budget for both Fests," Martello said. "But, the real cost of the Fests will be upwards of $120,000."
He continued, "We inherited a problem of no money and bands already booked to play."
Tahara and Martello were faced with the difficult choice of cancelling Spring Fest or incurring the debt. Instead of acting unilaterally, they decided to seek the advice of the Senate on the problem.
Senate input
"We wanted to include the voice of the students in the decision-making process, even though it was not required," Martello said.
In an unofficial opinion poll, the Senate supported the idea of having Spring Fest and incurring the debt.
"To have cancelled the event would have incurred the legal expense of breaking the bands' contracts, and paying damages to the bands as well. The results of such lawsuits would have run from $20,000 to as high as $60,000," Martello said.
"The damage to UB's reputation and integrity would have hurt the chance of drawing big-name acts in the future," Tahara added.
In an effort to eliminate such overruns in the future, a proposal for an increase in the mandatory student activities fee will be put to referendum the first week of May.
"The first part of the proposal will have (as a goal) a balance of close to $100,000. The proposal will also free up money currently in the Fest line to go back into general revenue to pay bills," Tahara said.
"You can't keep running deficits and having new students pay for the past year's mistakes," Martello said.
Tahara warned, "If the referendum fails, the debt will be paid from the Fest line, with no Fest scheduled, or there will be one Fest and up to a 12 percent across-the-board (budget) cut."
