---

BY ALLISON GANTT

In print | Published February 4, 2010

Due to a 40 percent cut to its budget, the Large Scale Event Committee will not be hosting a spring semester concert, making Worthstock in May the next event organized, though not fully funded, by the committee.

While there was also was no spring LSE performance two years ago, this is the first year that the LSE budget has been significantly cut since former President Al Bloom increased it to $100,000 in 2005.
The Dean’s Office collectively decided last summer to reduce LSE funding by $40,000 to help meet a budget cut quota set by the President’s Office.

“We decided that we … could part with that money,” said Myrt Westphal, associate dean for student life. “I think that students understand the reality of financial times.”

She added that not everyone on the campus comes to the LSE concerts.

Typically, the LSE Committee puts roughly half of its budget toward one event in the fall and the other half toward an event in the spring. With the 40 percent reduction in its budget, however, the committee decided that it would be best to have only one concert in the fall.

“The decision was made to consolidate [the] two events in the year … into one event in the fall so that we could have a bigger-name artist with our limited funds,” Henry Linder, a member of the LSE Committee, said.

The committee brought Girl Talk, a popular mash-up artist, as the fall semester’s LSE in November.
Assistant Coordinator of Student Activities Paury Flowers, who oversees the LSE Committee, echoed Linder.

“It occurred to a lot of us that there is a lot of over-programming that goes on in the spring,” Flowers said. “We think [the LSE] is a great way to ring in the fall semester, so we wanted to keep that intact.”
According to Reid Wilkening ’10, last year’s LSE coordinator, approximately 500 people typically attend the LSE event each semester. Flowers said that between 600 and 700 people went to see Girl Talk.

The LSE Committee’s allotted budget fully funds the fall semester and spring semester events, which are typically concerts. The budget cuts, then, aren’t expected to affect funding for Worthstock because most of it comes from the Student Budget Committee. Worthstock is an all-day event at the end of the spring semester that brings together a variety of bands on the courtyard outside of Worth Hall.

SBC Manager Simon Zhu ’11 said that the SBC “definitely” has available money for Worthstock. The SBC typically provides between $15,000 and $20,000 for the event, Zhu said. The LSE Committee has to write up a proposal to submit to the SBC to apply for funding of the Worthstock concert, which is the team’s next task.

“We have a great relationship with SBC, so we think that they’ll … give us enough money to really do a great event, and they know how much the students are looking forward to it, but it’s always sort of undetermined until we get the proposal put forward,” Flowers said.

Zhu said that once the Worthstock proposal is submitted, it will be evaluated and voted upon by the SBC. After a negotiation, revision and approval process, the SBC manages the finances.

In addition to the new challenge of budget cuts, the LSE Committee also lacks a coordinator and has three vacancies. The previous coordinator, Sarah Kroll ’11, left Swarthmore just before Girl Talk’s performance.

Flowers said, however, that the committee might be hiring a coordinator later in the week.
“One committee member stepped forward, and we’re also advertising it to the larger student body,” she said.

Flowers, however, said that most of the fall LSE was “already set up” by the time of Kroll’s departure and that the committee “made out just fine” without a coordinator.

Wilkening said that, based on his experience, the coordinator position is “pretty essential.”

“You really need somebody to be the … contact person,” Wilkening said. “Getting an event like this put together is really more time-consuming than you can expect from a volunteer.”

The LSE Coordinator is the only paid position available on the committee. The other eight to 10 members work strictly as volunteers.

After leaving her position, Kroll said that she thinks the committee will be able to effectively organize Worthstock.

“I have an enormous amount of faith in the students that are on the committee, and I’m sure they’re going to put together a fantastic show for Worthstock,” Kroll said. “[The LSE Committee members] do everything they can to put on the best events possible.”

Linder also said that the committee will have time to collect itself and organize the Worthstock concert, which is only in the brainstorming stages at this point. Flowers agreed.

“Worthstock is in May, so we’ll be totally in full swing by then,” Flowers said.

Linder added that most of the current LSE members have had at least one semester of experience.
As a student-led committee, the LSE Committee is responsible not only for brainstorming the event but also for contacting, booking, producing, setting up for and cleaning up after each show. The committee works in direct coordination with the Social Affairs Committee, Public Safety and Lang Performing Arts Center. Flowers typically works on the price and contract negotiations.

“[With] Worthstock we definitely get more bang for our buck,” Wilkening said. “That show costs only a fraction of the bigger productions and I think a lot of the student body … comes by.”

---

« RETURN TO NEWS

« PREV ARTICLE | NEXT ARTICLE »