Dear Editor,

FallFest’s failure did not depend on the acts booked or the sheer volume of students excited to attend. The failure alone sits upon the shoulders of the A.S. Council. Councilmembers failed to recognize that FallFest is a concert for the students, run by the students. They also fail to recognize that UCSD undergraduate students are not customers and that the council does by no means provide customer service. Undergraduates do not purchase tickets for every concert or council event held on campus. We provide the money up front through our activity fees. Our admittance to every concert is paid for, in full, and is not bought. For the council to consider itself a concert venue extends the concept of the council itself. The council is a campus organization and not a concert venue. The council does not book acts and then sell tickets to the general public, therefore undergraduate students are not its customers.

This idea that students are customers led to the additional problem of prioritization. Outsiders were considered above students because they fund “a significant portion of the event.” Students provide the bulk of the funding and are already charged admittance to all concerts. We are your primary source of budget funding. If the funding for a concert is at least $200,000, then the $14,400 provided by outside ticket buyers is chump change.

Since all acts require payment up front the 800 tickets sold for FallFest only replaces a portion of the funds that you paid for Lupe Fiasco.

To say that the $18 per ticket is a source of revenue is true, however, to say that the revenue gained from the ticket sales affected your ability to book acts is untrue. It may affect your ability to fund additional events but it should not have a significant affect because you separate the total budget funds for the year into small events and three large concerts for the year. If you already know how much you will have for each event then keep the event within its predetermined means. Do not say that we need to have tickets to provide for part of the concert if the additional funding of $18 per 800 tickets sold does not affect your budgeting for the year since it is predetermined, but instead say that it provides extra funding for future events and your T-shirts.

Garrett Berg, you and the council forget that the concert is for UCSD undergraduates. We come first because we are mandated to pay your activity fee. FallFest is a concert whose main focus is to involve undergraduates and anyone who is not an undergraduate should not have such an outstanding focus. Your opinion that ticket purchasers are an important source of revenue does not acknowledge that UCSD undergraduates are your largest source of revenue. Keep in mind who the concert is intended for.

— Rachel Cheng
Revelle College junior