As the executive board of Student Events, Brandeis' on-campus, student-run
programming board, we have been both excited and impressed by the amount of
coverage the change to the Secured Activities Fee (and the Student Events
Fee) has received in the last two articles of the Justice. This is a change
that affects all students on campus, and the Justice has been doing a great
job in ensuring that their readers have some information about what has been
happening.
In an attempt to bring even more information to the many readers
of The Justice, we would like to clarify both the mission of Student Events
as a programming board and the manner in which we allocate the Student Events Fee money.
Most importantly, the mission of Student Events is to enhance the overall Brandeis on-campus experience through programs that target many facets of the
community: a film series, theme weeks (Louis, Louis and Bronstein), two large
concerts each year, and entertainment events including 'make-your-owns,'
smaller concerts, and other novelty activities. Sometimes, we are fortunate
enough to go above and beyond this mission statement by planning extra events
for the campus (for example, the Hurricane Katrina Dance-a-thon, co-sponsored
by Student Union, or the Winter Jam concert, co-sponsored by WBRS).
It is financially impossible to be responsible and involved with every fun event on campus, and it would be unnecessary to do so, as there are so many clubs and organizations on campus that do a great job in providing events for campus. For this reason, the
Student Union, with help from Residence Life and Quad Councils, is charged with planning such events as Modfest and Rosenball (a fact which is slightly misrepresented in the 10/18 editorial: "Modfest and Rosenball are primarily sponsored by the Union to improve campus social life, even though that is the charge of Student Events.").
The editorial in question also states that "there is little burden on secured
groups to justify their expenditures and operating budgets." Student Events will honor any request a student has to see a copy of the Student Events budget and also has the professional help of a staff advisor, Sarah Bordeleau from the Department of Student Activities, who ensures that funds are appropriately used and the board is working cohesively and effectively. Student Events does not see these checks as 'burdens,' but rather as necessary devices to make sure
that students' money is spent in a way that students believe correct.
With that goal in mind, we have greatly increased the use of surveys (sending out a concert survey and a theme week survey and anticipate providing more) and have decided to host a Student Events Forum on Wednesday, November 16, to help Student Events better understand the concerns and needs of students. In addition, the staff holds daily office hours in the Student Events office (room 241) in the Shapiro Campus Center
during which students can drop in with concerns or suggestions. We have never been burdened
by our commitment to students' needs; rather, we see it is a unique privilege
of our board.
One of the key ways that Student Events serves these needs is through
co-sponsorship, allocating funds, publicity tools, and production services to
groups who wish to put on events but would otherwise be unable to do so. We
do this not due to "pressure from the Union and the administration," as
stated in the editorial, but because we want to help the campus. We have
never been pressured to do our job well, nor have we needed to be. The volunteer staff of Student Events works hard to plan fun and exciting programs for campus and always keeps the best interest of the student body in mind and looks forward to co-sponsoring programs as well. In the last year, we have contributed Student Events money and/or resources to the following events: Campus Camp Wellstone, Rosenball, Upperclassman Barbeque, Trisk's Halloween Dance, The Haunted Castle, Adagio Dancefest, Louispalooza, the Alumni Tailgate, Sundeis, Starving Artist's Semester Show, BTV's movies, the Vagina Monologue, Hillel's Purim Party, and many more. Student Events is always looking for unique programming for the Brandeis community that is reasonably priced and well-suited to the interests of students and the amount of programs can vary from year to year. While we are very fortunate to receive the Student Events Fee that creates our budget, it is difficult to "dramatically expand these activities" (as stated in The Justice article) under our current budget without compromising the goals Student Events has set-forth to meet, and being "allotted much less funding" would only further limit the number and quality of events on this campus which would include concerts and the film series.
We hope that this brief response from Student Events has served to clarify some of the more complex points which The Justice editorial had raised. The more correct information we can provide to campus, the better we are able to serve you as a campus programming board. Please visit our website (www.brandeis.edu/studentevents) to offer suggestions, to volunteer to help at an event, to find out about any upcoming events or just to learn more about what we do on campus.Thank you for your time,

Student Events Board