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The Rice Thresher
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by Matt Cuddihy Thresher staff Unless a monetary miracle occurs, George Clinton and the P-Funk All-Stars won't be grooving at Rice any time soon. Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho recently denied university funding for the event, which would have cost $43,000. Jones College sophomores Gerald Maa and Vasco Bridges led the effort to have Clinton and the P-Funk make an appearance at Rice. Bridges said he and Maa decided they would like to see a large-scale concert here, and after careful deliberation they decided that George Clinton would have the necessary "pull" to get people to attend the concert. Bridges and Maa talked with booking agents for Clinton and had set the date of April 6 for the concert. The cost of the concert led Maa and Bridges to speak with Camacho about obtaining university funding. Bridges said the concert would have been held in Autry Court, a venue that could hold enough people to recoup costs. Maa said Camacho was unsure that enough people would attend, so Maa and Bridges conducted an online survey. 903 people voted that they would go to the concert, 127 voted "I'll go if my friends go" and 60 people voted no. Bridges said the poll had some initial technical difficulties, and up to a hundred votes could be missing from the tally. Nevertheless, Bridges said when he and Maa approached Camacho with the survey results, Camacho still didn't feel there was sufficient student interest to warrant funding for the event. Camacho said a minimum of 3,000 people would need to attend the concert in order to recoup the full cost, and even if every Rice student who voted "yes" on the poll attended the concert, there would still need to be 2,000 non-Rice people in the audience. "I don't want to risk losing tens of thousands of dollars that will primarily benefit people other than Rice students," Camacho said. "This is extremely important, since any money lost on the event will consume resources that will otherwise be spent by Student Affairs on many other student activities and programs. Since avoiding this loss is dependent on the uncertainty of thousands of ticket sales to people outside of Rice, I decided not to underwrite the event." Bridges said, "He was going off strict numbers, assuming only people inside Rice would come. That's not very cool." Bridges said he and Maa have looked elsewhere for funding, such as the President's Programming Fund, but have not come up with any money. Monica Garcia, a Sid Richardson College freshman, said she didn't participate in the poll, but that she wishes George Clinton and the P-Funk were coming. "I think the administration is worried about Rice, that outside people might come in and mess up the place," she said. Phil Fung, a Sid senior, said he wasn't crushed that the P-Funk aren't coming. "I voted, 'I'll go if my friends go', although it would be nice to see more concerts in the future." Maa said Rice is not as fun as it could be. "Rice is really into the intellectual thing, and if they can afford to bring all those dignitaries here to speak, they can afford a concert once a year." Camacho said, "These students have carried the idea of a concert further than any previous student group. ... Nearly every year since I've been at Rice, a group of students approach me about the possibility of a concert in the spring. "In previous years, it's been an idea that hasn't really moved this far, so I'm hoping that [these] students, who did a superb job, set the foundation for helping me [bring a concert to campus]," Camacho said. "We're not promoters, so it's scary for me. But it helps me understand what it takes and it helps us move forward for the future." Bridges said he and Maa haven't completely given up the George Clinton fight. "We're still looking for our final hope of outside funding - it's out of the university's hands," Bridges said. "Now, it would just be a concert at Rice, not at all affiliated with it."
ERRATUM
Last week's Thresher article about bringing George Clinton to campus, "Concert hinges on student support," misstated the possible source of funds for the concert. It said Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho was considering using private funds from investors. In fact, he was considering using university funding. Camacho was unavailable for comment in time for last week's issue. The Thresher regrets the error.
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