The bigger, better Sun God Festival will cost more. And now
that administrators have turned away
students’ appeals for financial support, it will cost us a lot more. For a deal
that seemed too good to true (a bigger, better festival at no extra cost?!), the
other shoe has dropped.
Suspension of disbelief would help swallow this year’s Sun
God saga easier. After sloppy management of last year’s festival painfully
exposed the fact that it had outgrown its infrastructure, administrators and
students alike united to remake the 25-year-old event. What emerged from the
exhaustive review process was a completely new festival, reorganized in basic
layout and curatorial flavor.
The festival would officially bring students into the fold,
involving them in any number of student-run organization booths or art
displays. Finally, the foundations of community so sorely lacking at UCSD would
be fused into the campus’ largest event.
A.S. programmers even went a step further to preserve
community interests by overhauling their security tactics. The undercover officers
of past Sun Gods have been a truly aversive force; their presence at last
year’s festival was one part, albeit a large one, of the explosive cocktail
that ultimately trashed programming’s management reputation with stories of
incapacitated drunks, riotous crowds at entrances and overzealous undercover
officers.
To re-establish order this year, programmers plan to employ
a less invasive strategy that utilizes uniformed officers from other colleges.
The hopeful result: a more accommodating, work-with-you security presence that
better accents the new festival’s community ideals. The catch: it costs twice
as much.
Programmers sought as much support as possible from nearly
every campus party available. First grabbing $30,000 from the A.S. Council in
March (the original request was heavily tapered down after heated debate over
adding to the event’s already gigantic coffer), then, logically, advancing to
Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs Penny Rue’s doorstep for a helping hand.
It is shameful to see administrators on the sidelines in
such a heavy student-interest issue; it is plain insulting that they are one of
the few noncontributing parties in the new festival. True, programming’s
$17,000 request may have overshot the definition of a “contributing party,” but
it could have served as a small token for Rue to signify a more
collaborative campus presence.
As a party pitching in important work in the new festival,
the University Events Office has been the site of creative readjustment. Slowly
but surely, programmers have leaned on UEO for important staff needs. The new
position of A.S./UEO Event Coordinator, recently filled by Olivia Tomisia,
embodies a link between the UEO A.S. Programming Office. The job’s salary was
paid for by the a surprisingly large council carry-forward. The A.S. Council is
rightly, and cautiously, preparing its infrastructure to handle the bigger,
better Sun God. It is pouring more funds, more staff and more effort into its
beloved campus event.
But the council is admittedly tapped out. And to see Rue
offer no olive branch speaks ill of future student relations.
