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The Associated Students of the University of Arizona took a $917,000 hit when a concert they sponsored drew a smaller-than-expected crowd.
ASUC paid a total of $1.4 million to mount the show, and brought in barely a third that much in revenue. Jay-Z headlined the concert, whose bill also included Kelly Clarkson, Third Eye Blind, and The Veronicas.
The loss wipes out ASUC’s $350,000 emergency reserve fund. The remainder of the debt will be covered by the campus bookstore, which provides the student government with more than half a million dollars in support each year. For the next five years, those annual payments will be cut by $114,000.
The Jay-Z concert was ASUC’s first stadium show in more than thirty years, and the culmination of a four-year campaign by the student government to bring large-scale performances to campus.
The New School Free Press has the transcript of the Wednesday night speech in which Bob Kerrey told the New School Board of Trustees that he wouldn’t be seeking a contract extension. As I was reading it over just now, a passage from near the end leaped out at me:
“My term as President will end no later than July 1, 2011.”
No later than. Huh.
Like lots of other people, I reported yesterday that Kerrey had announced he would be leaving the New School at the end of his current contract — but that’s not actually what he said. He said he would be leaving by then, and he was careful to leave the door open for an earlier departure.
Now, to be fair, he did say earlier in the speech that he had “confidence I can continue to lead this university through June 30, 2011 when my current contract ends.” And he has said in the past that if he ever lost the support of the New School’s trustees, he’d resign. But still.
Look what else he said, near the top of the speech: “To understate the case, this has been a challenging semester for the university and my family. There have been moments when I reached the limit of my willingness to continue serving as your president.”
It’s been clear for a long time that Kerrey has been ambivalent about continuing on as president of the New School. It doesn’t look to me like he’s completely put that ambivalence behind him, even now.
Bucknell University’s administration has denied a conservative student group permission to hold an affirmative action bake sale.
Such sales, in which cupcakes and cookies are offered at full price to white male students and cheaper for women and students of color, have become a common attention-grabbing tactic for right-wing campus groups in recent years. Clashes with administrators over the sales have been common too, with sponsors claiming that they’re protected speech and universities noting that they’re — by design — a discriminatory practice.
Wikipedia has a pretty extensive article on affirmative action bake sales, including mention of a nice move by the Graduate and Professional Students of Color student organization at the University of Illinois, which responded to one such sale by holding a white privilege popcorn giveaway in which white white men were given a full bag of popcorn, while women and people of color got a mostly-empty bag.
Congress passed the federal budget last week, and though there are still some issues to be hammered out before final approval, the United States Student Association is celebrating.
In its latest Legislative Update, USSA calls the budget “a sweet victory for students,” as it contains provisions that would eliminate student loan program subsidies to private lenders and convert Pell Grants to an entitlement program — both of which mean more support for students in need. The budget also includes $89.4 billion in discretionary spending for education.
For updates on the implementation of these budget provisions and info on how you can get involved, reach out to USSA at their website or check out their new blog — the newest addition to the Student Activism blogroll.
A yearlong drug investigation at the University of Illinois culminated in more than two dozen arrests last week.
But all the cops found was six ounces of pot and some Xanax.
The UI campus police launched “Operation Thunder Strike” last fall, and the force decided to make “a little bit of a splash” before the end of the semester, according to Lt. Roy Acree. They obtained search warrants and arrest warrants for seventeen people, and swept in on three fraternity houses and several apartments starting last Tuesday.
They made twenty-five arrests, twenty-one of UI students, but Acree said the total haul was “180 grams of cannabis, numerous pieces of drug paraphernalia, cocaine residue, and some Xanax pills.” Cops also confiscated two vehicles, three television sets, two computers, and about three thousand dollars in cash.
Spring classes end tomorrow at UI, and final exams start this Friday.
(The Chronicle of Higher Education swallowed the campus cops’ line on this bust, by the way, but the comment thread on their story is turning into a real doozy.)
studentactivism.net 
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