From hip-hop confusion to bouncy-slide wage disputes, the Undergraduate Council has run into a series of snags as they plan their first Springfest with co-sponsorship by the Office of the President.

A misunderstanding about the exclusion of hip-hop choices from the council’s list of bands started after Sunday’s council meeting, when the comments of President Sujean S. Lee ’03 on the selection of the Springfest headlining band left some people thinking that President Lawrence H. Summers and his office had something against hip-hop.

“I think what Sujean seem to say in the meeting is that [President’s office] didn’t [like hip-hop], but immediately after she corrected herself,” said council member John F. Bash ’03.

Lee said the belief that Summers does not want a hip-hop act headlining Springfest is unfounded.

“President Summers has not been at all expressed any sentiments about the band nor is he involved in the selection process,” Lee said.

Lee said that this year Springfest planners wanted music suitable for all ages and so didn’t favor hip-hop. But they didn’t exclude hip-hop altogether. In fact, they included Jurassic 5 as their top choice.

Jurassic 5 was excluded only because they already booked and too expensive—$10,000 over the Springfest’s $15,000 budget for bands.

“We would have made a bid on them if they had been cheaper and available,” Lee said. “It wasn’t that we ruled out hip-hop.”

Brandon A. Gayle ’03, president of the Black Students’ Association, e-mailed Lee after the meeting because he was concerned about the claims that hip-hop was categorically excluded from Springfest.

“I would certainly hope that a single type of music wasn’t sectioned off,” Gayle said in an interview yesterday. “I e-mailed Sujean [Lee] and asked her and she said that wasn’t the case.”

Without any further evidence that President Summers singled out hip-hop Gayle said he believes Lee’s statement was misconstrued.

The remaining bands being considered as headliners are Semisonic, Nine Days, Vanessa Carlton, Ben Kweller and Verve Pipe.

The council hopes to make a bid on Semisonic, of “Closing Time” fame, by the end of this week, after settling on the amount of the bid with the president’s office, and obtaining approval from the Dean of the College’s Office.

“That [the bid] will probably be between $10,000 and $15,000,” Lee said.

Two years ago, the last time Springfest had a prominent band, the Council paid Big Bad Voodoo Daddy $15,000—a sum then considered a bargain compared to the $23,000 paid for Violent Femmes in 1999.