You are paying for the Lil Yachty concert this April — that is, if you enrolled in a class at Colorado Mesa University last year.
Even if you do not attend, do not like the Programming Activities Council’s (PAC) selection or do not wish for the concert to happen at all, you have paid for this concert.
This concert choice and the surrounding discourse represents a larger issue on this campus: whether students are engaged with how their money is being spent, and if it is being spent well.
For every credit hour you have signed up for (most classes are three credit hours each), you pay $29.04 in student fees. These pay for nearly every student organization: The Criterion, the Outdoor Program (OP) and PAC’s concert.
It doesn’t matter if you don’t read the newspaper, go on any OP trips or see Lil Yachty in concert, the money you give the university will be distributed across campus — and it may be spent on things you don’t approve of.
This “free” concert, if you enrolled in 15 credit hours each semester last year, will probably cost you $13.50. PAC is given $87,694 of its yearly $204,443 budget by the student government’s Fee Allocation Committee to put on this yearly concert.
Complaining to PAC about this concert choice — and the money spent on it — is a moot act. If you don’t think PAC should have as much money as it does, or The Criterion or The Outdoor Program, you have the tools and the voice to enact that change.
Last year, a small minority of this student body enjoyed a concert that the majority paid for; is that right?
PAC’s American Authors concert in the fall of 2016 garnered 1,262 students in attendance — 13 percent of the student body.
Next year, the Associated Student Government will be redistributing the following years’ budgets during the biennial budgeting process.
This blandly-named governmental process will enact immense change; a student organization may be downsized, expanded or stripped of their funding entirely by people that are not elected by the student body.
Through interest groups that range from media organizations to the OP to the student government itself, these individuals on the Fee Allocation Committee (FAC) will shape your campus.
They will also affect your pocketbook. During last year’s biennial process, student fees had to be increased. With the rising costs of tuition for higher education in this country, every penny counts.
The Criterion is not advocating for a different concert choice or for any particular budget change, we are advocating for better understanding of what is done with your money.
The timing is perfect as well. In a few weeks — April 11-13 — you will be able to voice your opinion in the student government elections.
Find a candidate that fits your stance, whether it is a senatorial candidate or presidential candidate. Ask questions, get involved and don’t forget you’re not powerless.
