As much as I love Lawnparties, I believe that the USG spends far too much money on them by bringing a big-name act to campus. Now, I know that my position is not a popular one. Please, before you follow that kneejerk impulse to go to The Daily Princetonian’s online comment page and call me names, hear me out.
Last fall, when the USG did not hold a Lawnparties concert, it was able to redirect $60,000 to civic engagement activities run by the Pace Center. The Pace Center used the funds to give more Princeton students the opportunity to serve their community throughout the 2009-10 academic year. For instance, the Pace Center started Send Hunger Packing, a Student Volunteers Council weekly project that delivered healthy meals to underprivileged kids in local primary schools; it created Inter-Action, an Intersession community service program through which almost 200 Princetonians had the opportunity to volunteer at nonprofit organizations in Trenton; and it funded the construction of a playground (built by Princeton students, of course!) near campus.
As a student who is actively involved in the Pace Center, I admittedly benefitted from the USG funds. The Pace Council for Civic Values, which I co-chair, had $15,000 more to distribute to innovative student civic engagement projects. For example the students who went on the Breakout trip I coordinated to address economic development in Buffalo, N.Y., did not have to pay a dime for our adventure during spring break.
However, I am not writing this column in an effort to win more money for the Pace Center. There are many excellent ways in which Princeton could use $60,000. My point is to ask why we spend tens of thousands of dollars every semester on an hour’s entertainment for students who have — let’s be honest — spent the morning guzzling champagne at other concerts.
I posed this question to several of my peers this week. Some shook their heads. My editor made the I’m-clearly-being-punished-for-blitzing-Haley-with-two-columns-in-one-week face. A few have responded with arguments in favor of the USG concert.
One of my friends told me that the USG concert is important because it is a unifying experience for the Princeton undergraduate student body: Everyone comes together in Quadrangle Club’s backyard and dances. I am not sure that I agree with my friend’s interpretation of the concert. I know many students who do not attend because they do not like to be among drunk people on the Street, even when the festivities are sponsored by the University. Furthermore, I am not convinced that we need another unifying experience — the Princeton calendar is already filled with them. Between athletic events, the Pre-Rade and Reunions, we have more than most other schools.
But for the sake of argument, let’s pretend that my friend is right, that we do need a concert to bring us together. Does that still mean that the USG ought to spend tens of thousands of dollars on a big-name band? I think not. We could have a fantastic unifying experience with a less expensive cover band. In fact, we might even know the cover band’s songs better. I doubt that I am the only person who had to be told that B.o.B is that “Airplanes” guy.
Another argument I have heard in favor of the USG concert is that other schools bring big-name bands to campus, and we are hardworking Princeton students, so we clearly deserve to have someone famous come sing for us, too. I don’t think that I can dispatch with the issue of deserts without sounding preachy, so I won’t try. Instead I’d like to highlight an idea that Joey Cheek ’11 brought up at this year’s “Reflections on Service” panel that the Pace Center sponsored: We belong to the fraction of a percent of the world’s population that has the resources to realize their potential. Sure, we can use those resources to emulate peer institutions by bringing a famous act to campus on a day when we already have nine other concerts — a surefire sign of Ivy League abundance. But why not be the student body that sets itself apart by bringing a less expensive band to campus or not having a USG concert at all? Yes, it’s fun to be able to namedrop B.o.B, Lupe Fiasco and The Roots to friends at other schools. But aren’t there better ways to blow $60,000?
Haley White is a Wilson School major from Chatham, N.J. She can be reached at hewhite@princeton.edu.
Read More
$56,000 in debt at graduation is not the financial aid Princeton advertises
Avi CheslerTake my story as an example — despite repeated evidence, both before and after taking out loans, that I would be unable to pay what Princeton asked of me — the University never set a cost that I could truly meet loan-free.
In the Garden State’s service and the service of humanity
Olivia Ragan, Lauren Aung, and Madison LintonIt is important to cultivate in students interest in local and state level change, because it is the most direct way to give back to the New Jersey community that sustains the University.
Why do two-thirds of your summer research wages go to Princeton, anyway?
Isaac BarsoumThe income that students earn from employment is not “miscellaneous.” So Princeton must decide: Does it want its students — all of them, not only those who can afford it — to be able to work on the important research happening at Princeton, or be forced to go home?
The income that students earn from employment is not “miscellaneous.” So Princeton must decide: Does it want its students — all of them, not only those who can afford it — to be able to work on the important research happening at Princeton, or be forced to go home?