As homecoming week closes in, Student Government Association officials are continuing to work hard to provide students with the best homecoming, despite budget cuts. This year SGA President Stanley White and cabinet had only a $90,000 budget to cover the cost of events for both homecoming and spring fest. To avoid having to cancel either event, the budget was split into two even amounts.
“They spent $100,000 plus for homecoming last year, and for spring fest we spent $65,000 on Jeezy alone and I have $45,000 to produce an entire show. This year we have to literally make something out of nothing, we don’t have that much money so we have to produce a show on a budget.” explains White.
Despite budget cuts, Southern University is one of the only, along side Grambling State University and Howard University, HBCU’s to sponsor a homecoming week due to budget crisis. At the start of the process of planning homecoming week SGA members thought they were going to have to abandon tradition, and provide student‘s with only a concert and not a comedy show. Luckily they were able to find a co-sponsor for the comedy show, which left a small amount of money in the budget to go toward planning the concert.
“We don’t have a lot of money to work with, so the artist we have scheduled are able to work with our prices”, explained Miranda Nixon, Activities Coordinator.
Headlining this year’s concert is R&B singer Monica, whose latest album release was her 2006 album, “Makings of Me.” Also scheduled to perform is Mouse of Trill Entertainment, rapper Gorilla Zoe and rap newcomer Dorrough. The comedy show will include performances from Lavar Walker, Lil Duvall and an unknown guest who’s to accompany Duvall. A few additions and moderations have been made to the homecoming schedule. An addition to the festivities of homecoming week includes the Student Choice Awards, which are to be held in Seymour Gymnasium on Tuesday, October 13 at 7 p.m.
“The award show is something we talked about as an executive board and something we wanted to implement on campus. We have a red carpet because we really want to make it a big event instead of having just a concert and comedy show, we wanted to give students more options,” said Nixon. “As of right now we are one of the only colleges sponsoring both a comedy show and concert that are both free to students.” added Nixon.
Awards will be given to winners in the following categories, Who’s Who among each perspective class, Best Athlete, and Best Car. Voting took place at noon on Wednesday in the lobby of Smith Brown Memorial Union. Results will be read at the program on Tuesday. Student’s nominated those they felt were deserving of the opportunity, and the final nominations were made by a committee consisting of members of the student body and two SGA officials. Also, as reflected in last year’s program scheduling the Miss Southern Coronation will be held on Wednesday, October 14, as a homecoming week program.
“I hope everyone appreciates that there is still going to be a homecoming week this year,” exclaimed White.
Despite budget issues, SGA officials were able to keep the tradition of homecoming week, with a few moderations to event dates. Nixon is asking the students of the university to come out to support every event, and stay positive.
Homecoming concert suffers cutbacks
Published: Friday, October 9, 2009
Updated: Friday, October 9, 2009
 "Photo: Norman J. Dotson Jr./DIGEST")
Norman J. Dotson Jr./DIGEST
R & B singer Trey Songz entertains the SU student body during last year’s homecoming concert. This year’s homecoming concert. SGA officials are working with a $45,000 budget for this year’s annual show, less than half of what was spent on entertainment this time last year.
5 comments