The Undergraduate Council (UC) voted to form a commission to
investigate the factors leading to the cancellation of the Wyclef Jean
concert that would have been held last night.
Also at yesterday’s meeting, UC Vice President Clay T. Capp
’06 announced that the Rules Committee will present legislation within
the next few weeks that will recommend creating a social programming
board and reorganizing the Campus Life Committee (CLC).
The Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) announced on Tuesday that
the Wyclef Jean concert had to be cancelled due to insufficient ticket
sales, leading to a loss of between $25,000 and $30,000, according to
HCC Chair Jack P. McCambridge ’06.
The Fall 2005 Concert Inquiry Commission created last night
will allow the UC to “find out what went wrong,” said Ryan A. Petersen
’08, one of the bill’s sponsors.
“We need to look at not just what the hell happened, but what
the hell we can do about it,” said Matthew R. Greenfield ’08, the other
sponsor of the bill. “We would like to have an inquiry within the UC.
The money that was lost wasn’t the HCC’s money, but the UC’s money, and
our constituents’ money.”
McCambridge said after last night’s meeting that the HCC has already begun its own internal evaluation.
“We’ve sat down twice and run through everything,” McCambridge
said. “We are going through an internal examination of what happened.”
The new commission, made up of six UC members, will look at
the structure of the HCC and the concert planning process as a whole
before offering a set of recommendations.
Although unaware of the specifics of the new commission, McCambridge said he was receptive to input from the council.
“I think any effort on the UC’s part to help the Concert Commission in improving itself is certainly welcome,” McCambridge said.
FOCUS ON SOCIAL LIFE
While specific legislation has not yet been drafted for the
proposed social programming board, Capp said at last night’s meeting
that one possible option would be to dissolve CLC and the First-Year
Social Committee in favor of the new board “that would be able to
function more or less independently from the UC...on a day-to-day
basis.”
UC President Matthew J. Glazer ’06 said the timing of Capp’s announcement was not related to the HCC’s failed concert.
At last week’s council meeting, Dean of the College Benedict H. Gross ’71 questioned the UC’s role in social event planning.
“I think the UC should give some consideration as to whether it should be in the campus life business,” said Gross.
Capp was adamant last night that the UC should maintain at
least a supervisory role in any future programming board. He cited the
ongoing efforts by the Office of the Dean to address social life among
undergraduates, emphasizing that the council needs to remain involved.
“Other commissions are being formed by University Hall,” said
Capp. “As student representatives, I think this is our biggest
strategic initiative. We need to demonstrate how serious we are about
this topic.”
—Staff writer Alexander D. Blankfein can be reached at ablankf@fas.harvard.edu.
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