Security costs for the Sun God Festival will double this year, as programmers plan to substitute the use of undercover officers for uniformed authorities from other universities in a completely remade day-long event. (Will Parson/Guardian File)

Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Penny Rue turned down a
request from student officials to cover extra security expenses for this year’s
Sun God Festival, now made a larger endeavor after administrators and A.S. councilmembers
joined in an effort to remake the concert into a community-building event.

In recent years, programmers employed contracted security
personnel and undercover officers at a $15,000 flat fee. However, concerns over
security management have increased, following a concert last year that saw a
rise in the number of event-related arrests and citations. A.S. Programming
requested over $17,000 from Student Affairs in the hopes of defraying security
expenditures that have doubled this year.

A.S. Vice President of Student Life Donna Bean, whose office
oversees the programming department, said that nearly one-third of students
were too intoxicated during the day to make it to the nighttime concert, which
last year featured hip-hop artist T.I.

Last year’s alarming figures spurred Bean, a presidential
candidate in this week’s A.S. elections, and the programming department, headed
by Assistant Vice President of Programming
Kevin Highland,
to commission an all-campus review of the festival that opened up its operations
to critiques from almost every department. The complaints were compiled into a
22-page Sun God Planning Report released in October, and programmers have since
rebuilt the festival to alleviate worry about botched security and safety
measures. The report detailed electronic entrance lines that malfunctioned last
year and stranded crowds of unruly concertgoers.

In past interviews, Rue has said that the festival was
becoming increasingly unmanageable for student programmers and event
coordinators.

“[Sun God started] as a homegrown event and developed to a
point where its infrastructure is overwhelmed,” she said in January. “But we
believe it can be reined in.”

Rue also backed the report’s claims that the festival had
diverged from its original community-building ideals. Programmers responded by
gutting the event’s layout and operations, establishing a new day-long,
carnival-like attraction located on RIMAC Field. The new event, hosted this
year on May 16, adds a nighttime DJ-hosted dance, booths for both vendors and
student organizations and an area for student-produced artwork and films.

But hosting the new festival will be a significantly
costlier undertaking, according to Festival Director Garrett Berg, especially
in the near future.

“We truly were depending on [Student Affairs’] money,” Berg
said of his rejected proposal. “There is no question that the festival will
need increased funding in the future. Even if the event doesn’t change at all
next year, costs will increase, and we’re already beyond our current budget.”

Much of the new costs will pay for new security measures,
Berg said. In past festivals, programmers partnered with local authorities and
the UCSD Police Department, also employing undercover officers to patrol
campus. At the January council meeting, Rue agreed with councilmembers who
protested the use of undercover police, saying that it promoted backwards
enforcement of safety.

“[Undercover officers] don’t seem like the way we want to
police our students,” Rue said.

Programmers plan to replace their staff of local undercover
officers with uniformed police from other universities. The change to an
upfront policing style will encourage safety but will cost over $30,000, Berg
said.

In her statement to A.S. President Marco Murillo, Highland
and Berg, Rue said she was “confident that Associate Students resources should
be able to cover this increase [in security].”

Murillo said he was extremely disappointed with Rue’s
response, adding that students might
have to shoulder the festival’s financial load now that Student Affairs is not
supporting any part of the newfound overhead.

“We had hope this year that administration would be willing
to fund the added costs of security, since this is the first year the
programming undertakes a new structure to the event,” Murillo said.

In this week’s elections, students will be able to complete
a survey question on the possible uses for higher activity fees, which includes
events like the Sun God Festival.

Murillo added that although this year’s council began with
an unexpectedly large amount of carryover funds, it has already slated the
monies for other uses, including A.S. Safe Ride, the All-Campus Commuter Board,
the Women’s Commission and the campus’ Bear Gardens.

“Administrators missed a great opportunity to show students
they are supportive of long-standing traditions on campus,” Murillo said.
“There seems to be a fundamental discrepancy between the stated goals of the
administration and their actions.”

The programming department had attained $30,000 from the
A.S. Council earlier this quarter. Those funds were meant to add flexibility to
a tightened festival budget, Berg said, which is made all the more rigid
without support from Student Affairs.