Column: CUAB, please step it up

Event planning 101: It is necessary and vital to have a set budget when searching for an affordable act.

On Tuesday, we published an update — or rather, a lack thereof — about the Jubilee concert. As we reported on Sept. 10, the Carolina Union Activities Board decided to forego the traditional Homecoming concert for a bigger spring Jubilee concert.

Last weekend, we had the Victory Bell, we had alumni attendance and we had the Bell Tower Climb. In a break of tradition, we did not have a Homecoming concert.

This is more than fine. As CUAB told me earlier, it’s difficult for the programming board to give due attention to planning a huge concert in the transitional summer period. Further, Jubilee saw higher attendance and was more popular than the Homecoming concerts last year, and it has an incredible amount of room to grow into a time-honored UNC tradition.

More important than breaking tradition is the fact that we still do not have more information about the spring Jubilee concert.

Since the beginning of the year, The Daily Tar Heel has been told the budget is flexible and up in the air. The budget is so up in the air that they cannot give us a budget range that is possible or plausible.

Maybe they have a budget — we just wouldn’t know, and there might not be one that’s finalized.

In an effort to get student opinion — which is pretty important, considering every student is paying fees to fund this concert — CUAB released a list on Sept. 4 of potential acts for Jubilee, including The Weeknd and Fetty Wap. The form for student feedback circulated for less than a month, ending on Sept. 26. Fewer than 2,000 students responded, and CUAB will not release the results until they release more details regarding the board’s budget.

The week after Homecoming, CUAB still does not have a venue for the Jubilee concert. Admittedly, this makes sense — how do you know how many tickets you’ll need to sell when you don’t even know how much to charge for an act you haven’t contacted yet? It makes it hard when you’re not sure what you can afford.

I am so excited for Jubilee. A huge Jubilee concert in the spring is a great move for CUAB and for the school in general. But it won’t happen if you don’t know whom students want or, further, what they can even afford.

My recommendation is making Jubilee a priority in both the board and within the student body. If public opinion is as important to CUAB as they say it is, why not hold multiple open forums and publicize it often? Why not post daily calls for talent nominations?

CUAB is similar to The Daily Tar Heel: we’re both student organizations created to represent other students, and we’re both doing the best we can. I recognize that organizing these huge events is stressful, and I respect the work everyone involved has already put into this process.

I only ask that CUAB continues this work in a timely manner and keep the student body updated along the way.