The Big Show committee accumulated nearly $40,000 in debt and is asking for a $12,000 transfer from Student Production and Campus Entertainment (SPACE) to help relieve them. The leftover debt will be settled by taking funds from other event programming committees. No money has been requested from unallocated reserves, although possibility still looms, said administrators.
‘That’s where we go into other A.S. accounts, but we are tight everywhere. There might be a chance that we will be going back to unallocated reserves,’ said Audrey Younna, SPACE executive director. ‘We aren’t proud of it, but it is something we did try to prevent. This is the first time this has ever happened.’
According to the annual budget, A.S. has $28,514 in unallocated reserves offered to help clubs and organizations with student funding.
Big Show had the highest turnout since the first Big Show eight years ago with 6,219 attendees, about 800 of whom were not CSUN students
‘We upped the (ticket) price thinking it would be worth it. Based on our own hunches and estimates, Ludacris was a bigger artist. We didn’t know why we didn’t get the ticket sales. It was a big shock to us. It is a bad economy. The students pay for this. This is a gift back for them.’
The number of ticket sales expected from non-CSUN students were not high enough to make the forecasted $60,000, despite the $10,000 spent on advertising. Outside sources generated about $20,000.
When asked about using money from unallocated reserves, Senate Representative Andrew Collard of the Finance Committee said, ‘If they (SPACE) come they will have to come up with a good argument.’ I am strongly against unallocated. Students pay for it all.
‘It’s unfair to take out money from comedy and lectures. They didn’t have a back up plan. It is kind of irresponsible. They should have other ways to pay for it. I don’t want a SPACE bailout,’ said Conor Lansdale, a Senator Lower Division I.
‘I did like it, but if we are struggling then I think that it’s unnecessary,’ said Brandi Beard, a 19-year-old sociology major, who attended the Ludacris concert. ‘ I don’t think that they should take the money from unallocated reserves.’
