PDF
Written by: Dan Caponetti
A musical artist that the “vast majority” of students would recognize almost performed at Bentley this weekend. The Campus Activities Board (CAB) recently saw months of work towards a fall concert go to waste because of contractual disagreements between the two parties.
The identity of the artist would not be revealed by CAB or the Office of Student Activities. Two major problems contributed to the falling through.
The first disagreement between the two sides involved a radius clause in the school’s contract. The clause states that the artist cannot perform publicly somewhere else within 48 hours before the show as well as 24 hours after without the University’s consent.
They would also need permission to perform within 90 miles of Waltham in the three weeks before the show.
Jessica Kenerson, advisor to CAB, claimed this clause was necessary because, “Bentley students might go to that (public show) without realizing that we are having them on campus. So, it would affect our turn out.”
Secondly, the artist requested that no student labor be used to set up the show. CAB revised this part of the contract, but to no avail. At that point, with both sides refusing to budge, CAB had no choice but to cancel. Kenerson said that, “We couldn’t afford to hire the amount of stagehands we would need to build the stage, do the sound, and do the lighting. Usually we have 40 or 50 students helping out to build that stuff.”
With no student labor, CAB would have paid an enormous expense in hiring professional help. This proved to be an unreasonable expectation for an organization with a contracting budget.
Kenerson also stressed that this is not a reflection of CAB. She says that student organizers put in a lot of hard work plan the show and that the unfortunate circumstances were beyond their control. In the end, no money went to waste; CAB returned all of the funding allotted to them for this event to Student Activities.
There is hope, however, that this artist will be coming back to Bentley. According to Kenerson, there is a “50/50 chance” that they could play at an event like Spring Day. For now, CAB will be hosting the original opener for the show, Andrew Belle, on Saturday, November 7 in the Blue Line Pub.
Comments on this entry are closed.