On Thursday, Jan. 28, 133 University of Nebraska-Lincoln students and 93 non-students paid $5 each to see Seattle-based hip-hop duo Blue Scholars perform at the Bourbon Theatre.
On that same day, roughly 18,500 UNL undergraduate students allocated 50 cents each so the aforementioned 226 people could attend the aforementioned concert.
The majority of the student body, however, was not aware Blue Scholars was performing at the Bourbon Theatre, due to little promotion done for the event.
The University Programs Council of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln is the student organization that arranged the concert.
According to Karen Wills, UPC program coordinator, it spent $9,404.44 in total expenses bringing Blue Scholars to Lincoln, all of which was funded by a portion of the University Program and Facilities Fees paid by most of the UNL student body.
UPC’s main goal, as set forth in their mission statement, is to bring interesting and stimulating diversions to the UNL student body.
Sometimes these programs are wildly successful, like the recent pornography debate between Ron Jeremy and Susan G. Cole, at which over 1,000 attended according to Hans Larsen, UPC entertainment chair.
Other times, these events go mostly unattended, like the Blue Scholars concert.
But, regardless, it has never been UPC’s goal to turn a profit.
They simply promise to bring the entertainment discussed on their Web site.
With a $9,404.44 price tag, Blue Scholars brought in $1,490.65 in total revenue, meaning a net loss of $7,913.79.
The $1,490.65 was not even sufficient enough to cover the base cost of renting the main room arranged for full capacity at the Bourbon Theatre, according to the venue’s records.
The Bourbon Theatre can hold more than three times the number of students who were in attendance.
But, this is nothing new for UPC.
In 2007, the organization spent approximately $30,000 bringing the band Guster to the Pershing Center and caused a controversy when there were only 981 people in attendance.
All of that money was taken from university program and facilities fees known as UPFF, allocated to UPC for bringing entertainment to the entire student body.
The Blue Scholars and Guster shows differ from events like the pornography debate or last year’s marijuana legalization debate because the concerts charge for admittance, whereas the debates are free to students, as each department of UPC has their own budget allocated by the Association of Students of the University of Nebraska.
“We have a certain budget for each department,” said Larsen.
“Once we use up those funds, we have to dip into the contingency fund. When we have to use the contingency fund, we charge admission to try and make that money back.”
As the records clearly show, UPC did not make that money back for the Blue Scholars show, and yet the contingency fund will be refilled next year by more fees from student tuition.
Regardless of financial success, UPC is still promised UPFF money to fund further events.
This fact, though understandable within the idea of school-sponsored entertainment, is not universal among peer organizations.
In 2006, Oklahoma State University brought Alan Jackson to their campus for a concert.
According to an article published in the Daily O’Collegian, the event cost the university $500,000, and it was able to get 19,000 people to attend, thereby making back all of that money.
The lack of promotion for UPC events by the organization may be the cause of low attendance.
Out of the $9,404.44 spent on Blue Scholars, only $96.75 was spent on promotion in the form of 125 posters.
Very little else, save for a Facebook event and a radio announcement, was done to promote the event.
“If there is going to be an event that requires more promotion, we have to have a meeting to directly discuss allocating more PR funds,” said UPC financial chair Lauren Jewell, citing that there are no regularly scheduled meetings to discuss promotion expenses.
The weather and no opening act could have added to the low attendance, said Larsen, but the meager budget for advertising prevented more students from knowing the event was happening at all.
“I don’t know if a lot of students are really aware of UPC,” Larsen said.
Regardless of how big or expensive an event is, not much is done differently to promote any of them.
“We just have one, overall PR budget,” said Jewell, commenting that each event is treated the same as far as promotion is concerned.
UPC, like many campus groups, relies mostly on word-of-mouth and the aid of other media outlets to promote their events, although, unlike many campus groups, UPC’s mission is to provide accessible entertainment to as much of the university as possible.
In the case of a nearly $10,000 concert event, this promotion style was not sufficient in delivering the crowd to pay for such an event.
Because of this promised funding, UPC does not need to sustain itself financially in order to continue scheduling events.
A proposal has actually been made to increase UPC’s budget by 20 percent, according to Larsen.
When asked about their budget, neither Larsen nor Jewell acknowledged the fact that their budget is completely composed of student-acquired UPF fees, which seems incommensurate with UPC’s mission statement.
When only 133 students attend a $10,000 event that 18,500 people paid for without express knowledge of the event, some students might question where their money is actually going.
When it comes to promotion, Larsen said that online marketing might be a strategy to inform students of upcoming events.
“I think in the future, we want more hits on our Web site.”
caseywelsch@dailynebraskan.com
7 comments
I worked to pay my way through school at UNL and made sure to attend UPC events as I knew that is what some of my money went towards. It is not only about the UPC but it is also the students responsibility to know what is going on if they want to participate. There are people who would rather watch a movie, go workout, drink, party, play games, etc. so it is not a fair comparison to expect that every program that UPC, or any other group for that matter, puts on will make its money back or be well attended.
So, if you want that small number of black students to have a hip hop artist come out and put on a concert, I guess you had better make sure that you make all the money back so that you have a leg to stand on when you say that you need the funding from the students who come back and tell you that "they would rather keep the change in their pocket because it all adds up."
. Maybe some members of the small number of
of black students who attend UNL might like hip hop but let's face facts, UNL is primarily caucasian in
ethnicity and taste so why did UPC spend so much hard-earned STUDENT money on a poor bet of even breaking even? If I still went
to UNL, I'd be angry at UPC's poor judgement with how it used funds.Not much bang for the buck, and
such things nickel and dime us to death, or at least diminishes the value of services that students, many of whom are working their way thru school, pay for. When I was a student, I'd have much sooner kept that "change" in my pocket (it all adds up) and spent it as I saw fit. I didn't need the university to take my money and then have a small group of out-of-touch students and advisors tell me how I should entertain myself.If the students don't raise hell and abolish UPC, they need to rein it in. If they decide to keep it, UPC could accomodate various tastes, ethnic or otherwise, but do so within reason and with a close eye on value. Otherwise, expect to pay even more money on student fees and have little choice as to what you get for that money.Why must I always have to remind people that money does not grow on trees?Al Koenig, UNO