In this second episode of yourCCSC TV, the Communications committee catches up with University Senator Kenny Durell to talk about his investigation into the debt incurred by Bacchanal after last year’s spring concert. Kenny explains the complex issue in a few short minutes, so hopefully you walk away with a real idea of what’s going on.  Just incase, though, here’s a short recap of Bacchanal’s situation and how the councils got involved.

On October 9th, 2011,  Bacchanal President Dan Weinstein gave a presentation at the CCSC meeting asking for 18,000 dollars from the councils to address a deficit in Bacchanal’s budget which he believed stemmed from unexpected and exorbitant charges by Public Safety and Facilities for the previous academic year’s concert.  Because of the large sum of money requested, and because of the university-wide nature of these claims, a University Senator was tasked with assessing the viability of these claims and whether student life fees from the student councils should in fact subsidize this deficit.  Here are some of the facts that Kenny lays out in the video:

Although Bacchanal officially signed Snoop Dogg in early January and Das Racist in March, they did not have an official event review with Public Safety, SDA, facilities, and University Event Management until April 12th, about 15 days before the actual event.  Although Bacchanal followed much of the same protocol they had in previous years, they were informed that the concert would have to be moved from Low Plaza and the steps to the lawns because of a “double-booking” involving set-up for University Commencement in May.  Because of this switch, the group incurred additional charges which are listed below.

They were charged $20,000 by Public Safety ($8,000 the year before), $12,000 by Facilities ($500 in 2010) and $11,000 by the professional set-up crew ($6,300 in 2010) of which $5,000 was directly related to the increased difficulty of setting up the stage on grass as opposed Low Plaza.

Although Bacchanal is only requesting $18,000 dollars to make up their current deficit, one can see that their total debt after the concert was actually $32,000. This is because an additional $14,000 of additional security costs was covered by a surplus from the Securities and Facilities fund, which comes out of your student-life fees.

Kenny Durell is currently looking into when exactly Bacchanal was informed of the change in location and why they were forced to bear the burden of the additional costs.  He is meeting with representatives from Public Safety and UEM alike to determine what the council’s next course of action should be.  Hope this video helps explain some of the issue, and as always, you can direct all questions and comments to ccsc@columbia.edu