The Slippery Rock Student Government Association passed the motion to grant the wind ensemble club $10,000 Monday night to bring in a series of four musicians with headlining tubaist, Roger Bobo, during the spring semester.
Junior music education major and treasurer of the wind ensemble club Emily Brumbaugh said that the money would bring in Bobo, Tucker Jolly, Travis Scott and Ed Zadrozny, and would cover the collective fees, transportation and lodging for the artists. She said that all of the artists would offer a combination of recitals, concerts, guest lectures and master classes to students during the spring semester. She said each concert will be open to the community and possibly ticketed to offset the costs.
She said Bobo is an internationally known tubist and head of brass pedagogy, who has taught in Japan, Italy, Switzerland, England and many other locations around the world.
“Have we all seen Star Wars?” she asked. “Indiana Jones? Superman one and two? Frankenstein? Roger Bobo is basically John Williams on-call tubist, so having his name here at Slippery Rock would just be such a major [piece] for our students and our campus.”
Brumbaugh added that Bobo has collaborated with many artists like Frank Sinatra and Tony Bennett.
Michael Farrah, Vice President of Financial Affairs, explained the breakdown of what each artist will be charging.
“Roger Bobo will be requesting $4,000, Travis Scott is requesting $2,000, and Tucker Jolly and Ed Zadrozny are requesting $1,000,” Farah said. “$8,000 out of the $10,000 is going to the honorariums.”
He said within the finance policies that SGA does provide funding for lodging and transportation of guest speakers and artists as well, as all four artists are requesting a collective total of $2,000 for transportation and lodging.
“I think we should fund the entire thing,” Farrah said. “Art programs, especially band programs, there has been lot of funding cuts throughout the year, especially within the past five to 10 years and it’s starting to hurt the culture of the United States and I think this is one chance that we as a senate could say that ‘Hey, we want to stick up with the band and bring in these top artists’ and these are really good deals on their own, so I think that $10,000 is going to be well worth the investment.”
Director of bands and assistant professor of music Jonathan Helmick said Bobo is offering a discounted price to SRU. He said Bobo alone could easily charge $8,000-$10,000 to appear at the event.
Jessica Johnson, Vice President of Student Affairs, said bringing these four artists to SRU would be a great advertising mechanism for the university.
Johnson also advised all members of SGA, as well as students, to attend the Tuesday night Slippery Rock Township meeting at 6:45 p.m.
“So essentially the township has created this ordinance that in my opinion targeting college students specifically and this was created to combat large parties and so they made this ordinance about noise and disturbances and how to go about solving this problem,” Johnson said. “They are going to charging people for public nuisance at a gathering, and a gathering by their standards is 10 or more people.”
Johnson said if the state police are called to an off-campus housing location, that everybody on the lease and the landlord will be charged $500-$1,000, regardless of everyone on the lease being at the location or not. She said this is a problem because this ordinance could create a double jeopardy issue for students and double jeopardy is in the bill of rights, as a person can’t be for the same crime twice.
SGA faculty adviser Itzi Metzli said students should be concerned because students live at Slippery Rock nine out of the 12 months of the year and this could really affect them.
President Logan Steigerwalt announced the problems that other Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education (PASSHE) universities are facing, as the budget has not been passed. He said that some students at East Straudsburg University were not able to register for their spring semester classes.
SGA also granted $280 to Pi Kappa Alpha and $588 to Phi Beta Sigma.
Steigerwalt also said SGA is celebrating Project Positivity Week at SRU throughout the week.
Farrah announced that Rock Apartments Senator, Blake Kramer, was awarded the SGA scholarship of $500.
The meeting was adjourned at 10:13 p.m. The next and last SGA meeting of the semester will be on November 30 at 8:45 p.m. in the theater of the Smith Student Center.
