Student Association Comptroller Malik Evans at last week’s SA meeting announced it would not be providing University Union the funds that were meant for rapper Fetty Wap.

UU, the student organization that hosted Juice Jam on Sept. 25, had planned on Fetty Wap being the headline act. However, the rapper was not able to show up on time due to unforeseen travel delays and UU canceled his appearance.

“Fetty Wap breached his contract so therefore he will not be paid,” Evans said.

UU asked that the funds that were supposed to pay for Fetty Wap still go to the organization. But Evans said SA rejected this approach due to many different factors.

UU offered Evans and the Finance Board many ways that the reallocated funds could be used. These funds, Evans said, would be used in bringing in bigger names or financing a new event.

He added that the ideas UU presented were enticing, but that it did not have a majority of students’ best interests in mind. One reason for this is that UU would not budge on lowering the cost of new concerts, making students hesitant to spend the same amount of money in case of a similar situation happening again, Evans said.

“Fetty Wap fans will have to keep paying $20 for Block Party,” Evans said. “People took off on Monday to see Fetty Wap.”

Evans also said the decision came down to SA’s budget for student organizations. This academic year’s budget is “exceptionally” less than in the past, Evans said, which led to a lot of budget cuts and strategic decision-making on how the funds were allocated.

Being able to use the funds meant for Fetty Wap, Evans said, would offer support for other student organizations that may not have budgets like UU. Evans added the spring semesters typically are heavily programmed by organizations and these funds would bring in more speakers, which he said would help the students.

Evans said this was not supposed to be seen as a punishment toward UU, but a way to use the situation to help other organizations.

UU’s Public Relations Director Grant Nygaard said the organization was disappointed with the decision not to reallocate the funds but respected the decision of the Finance Board.

Charles Mastoloni, a senior policy studies and political science dual major, wrote a letter to The Daily Orange that criticized SA for “violating their own Financial Code.”

Evans said the letter was a “huge misstatement” from Mastoloni.

“Mastoloni is angry in a way that was uncalled for,” Evans said. “He said wrong stuff then told us to do our job.”

In the letter, Mastoloni wrote SA was in violation of the carryover policy that is implemented by SA. According to SA’s Financial Code, “Unused designated funds shall remain in an organization’s account until the end of the semester.”

Evans said the carryover policy is not applicable in this situation, as the funds UU had requested were allocated for Juice Jam would be used “toward our concerts planned for this school year,” according to a letter published to the students on September 27.

Carryover policy cannot be carried over from an event to a different event, Evans said.

Evans has made SA President Eric Evangelista and Vice President Joyce LaLonde aware of the conversations between SA and UU, and said they have been “very supportive.”

Evans added that there will be a published letter regarding the decision in the coming days.

Published on October 2, 2016 at 10:46 pm

Contact William: wgmuoio@syr.edu