Author: Michael Darling
On April 24, the Office of Student Life and Programming Board will hold an end of the year concert in the Greek Bowl. Hip-hop artists Blu and People Under the Stairs are scheduled to perform with another act being considered. This concert will be the first major event held in the hillside Greek Bowl this semester. It will be a free show open only to Occidental students, as per artist request. A pre-show barbeque will be held before the event.
When asked about the poor reception to last year’s concert by Lupe Fiasco, Director of Student Life Tamara Rice said that she would make sure that the artists fulfilled their contract. At last year’s concert, Fiasco performed three and a half songs before exiting the stage, leaving some in attendance disappointed by the performance. Although she did not work at Occidental last year, Rice said that she and those working on the concert have thought about the problems of the Fiasco concert and have stated that the concert occurring this year will go according to plan. “If they stop short, I’ll be right there with the contract,” Rice said. In addition to the forty-minute set that each act will perform, there will be a lunchtime question and answer hour with the performers in the quad on the afternoon of the concert.
According to Rice, the cost of bringing the two performers to campus will be approximately $10,000. By comparison, the Lupe Fiasco concert cost $30,000. Additionally, there have been discussions in ASOC Senate meetings about bringing Mos Def to headline the concert. As of press time, the school is still working on a contract with Mos Def, but there is optimism that he will be a part of the concert.
However, the concert has already caused some controversy. The evening of the 24th was previously slated as the night for the annual senior film comps. Since word got out about the concert, the film department has elected to postpone the senior comps one day, placing it on April 25. Some have said that having film comps on April 25 will lead to greater costs for the film department. “The only problem with switching to Saturday is that it may place us into an overtime situation with increased costs for using the space and labor. You would think that either the school or the student organizations making us move would help defray any such hikes,” Cindy Tang (senior) said. As the event is required to use campus dining bartenders for the pre-show wine and cheese reception, Tang said the film department will have to pay overtime hours. Additionally, Tang said that this rescheduling will force student-filmmakers’ families to rearrange their schedules.
“It was as surprising to me as it was to the students to hear only three weeks away from the day that [Comps] were to be placed in direct competition with a major recording artist’s performance on campus. Invites had been sent to industry professionals in Los Angeles, and parents had already arranged to travel from distances, taking Friday off of work to do so,” Assistant Professor of Art History and the Visual Arts Brody Fox said. Fox assists in the production of Film Comps.
Rice said that the choice of April 24 was mostly one of the artists’ availability. “I’m sorry film comps felt they had to change the date,” Rice said. She also said there were plans to meet with members of the film department and others to discuss future planning. There has been some sentiment that the film students were being treated with little respect in favor of a celebrity performance.
“Senior Film Comps is one of the most prominent annual student-initiated and attended events in Oxy Culture, yet I can’t help but to feel underappreciated as a film major at Oxy,” Tang said. In response to comments such as Fox’s, Rice has said that the concern is legitimate. “My intent was not to say student events were more important than academics,” Rice said. She also said that it would have been unfortunate if students had to choose between two major events. “In the future I would make sure these conflicts don’t happen again.”
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