USG-funded concerts to resume at spring Lawnparties

The USG will sponsor a spring Lawnparties concert at Quadrangle Club, after having donated its fall social budget to the Pace Center, USG social chair John Wetenhall ’11 said at the USG’s first meeting of the semester Sunday afternoon.

Wetenhall said in an e-mail that planning for the Lawnparties concert has taken place over the past few months.

“I have been meeting with [Associate Dean of Undergraduate Students Thomas] Dunne and some of the officers of Quad to come to an agreement for the spring concert,” Wetenhall said. “We are all really excited to renew our partnership with Quad and to present another great show during Lawnparties. As in the past, we plan to bring in a major artist to perform.”

Yaroshefsky said he was enthusiastic about the planned concert.

"Like a lot of other students on campus, I am very excited for the upcoming USG-sponsored Lawnparties concert,” he said in an e-mail. “I am anxious to find out who we will have as our artist!”

Quad president Eric Salazar ’11 said in an e-mail that the club is “excited to be hosting the spring concert once again.”

“We’ve had a good relationship with the USG over the years and are glad to be continuing this Princeton tradition,” Salazar added.

Last spring, Gym Class Heroes headlined the 100th Lawnparites. The USG brought New Found Glory to campus in the spring of 2008.

This will be the year’s first USG-sponsored concert. Last spring, the student body voted in a referendum to donate funds for the fall concert to the Pace Center.

Student reactions to news of the spring concert were mixed.

Stephany Xu ’12 welcomed the idea of the Lawnparties concert, since she disagreed with the results of the referendum.

“I think it was a really stupid move,” she said of the Pace Center donation last year. “The administration keeps trying to break down traditions. It’s upsetting.”

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Brendan Barrett ’12, by contrast, did not champion the concert as readily.

“I felt good,” he said of the Pace Center donation. “We have a responsibility to use our money well.”

Rather than continuing to donate concert funds to the Pace Center, Yaroshefsky said the USG intends to demonstrate its civic commitment in new ways.

One initiative of his administration will be a focus on ongoing service activities, aided by a partnership with the Pace Center, he said. The center will also have a visible presence at USG meetings, with Haley White ’12 acting as its liaison.

Yaroshefsky noted that he does not intend to advocate for a referendum similar to the one last spring unless it is supported by a significant number of students.

“The sacrifice we made by donating our social budget to the Pace center during an economic crisis made a statement that Princetonians not only see but also feel what is going on beyond our orange bubble,” Yaroshefsky said. “That is why we are excited about the partnership we are forming with Pace regarding monthly event sponsorships. These ongoing partnerships will promote an environment of campus engagement that the donation last year symbolized.”