The announcement of University Union’s Block Party 2012 headliners, DJ and electronic artist Kaskade and indie-rock band Cold War Kids, prompted some students to take to social media platforms to voice their strong disapproval of the choice of talent for the show.

Some of the most common criticisms that have been voiced have been that UU is out of touch with the student body and is not bringing performers students want to see. Students have also voiced concern about UU spending the Student Association’s allocated $1.4 million on this show.

In response to these criticisms, UU’s goal is to bring diverse programming to campus, selecting artists for our shows from a variety of genres to please as many students as we can. Based on this year’s survey results, the electronic genre came in second place, and Kaskade was one of the top-voted artists within this genre. Thus far, ticket sales for Block Party have been on par with previous years.

SA also did not award University Union $1.4 million. SA voted to allocate UU slightly more than $1 million. Only half of this amount was given to UU in the fall, with the other half not to be disbursed until January 2013. No UU event has ever cost upwards of $1 million; this year’s Block Party is no exception.

In a greater effort to respond to student criticisms and questions concerning Block Party and UU, we will be holding an open forum discussion this week where members of UU’s Board of Directors will discuss in detail how the organization works, what the organization’s main goals and tasks are, and the many factors that go into how we book our shows and choose talent. Students will be invited to pose any questions they have concerning UU during a Q-and-A session at the end of the forum. Students who cannot attend are encouraged to send any questions to uuquestions@gmail.com or our Twitter handle, @UUInsider, using the hashtag #AskUU. More details with the date and time of the forum will be released in the coming days.

As a student organization run entirely by undergraduate students, our mission always will be to serve the student body to the best of our ability. We hope through next week’s open forum discussion and the above-mentioned venues through which students can contact us to voice their questions and concerns, UU can provide students with more clarity concerning how the organization operates.

Regards,

University Union Board of Directors  

Published on April 1, 2012 at 12:00 pm