When I was asked to write an editorial for the Miscellany concerning Vassar College Entertainment’s (ViCE) budget from the perspective of co-President of Hip Hop 101 I knew immediately what needed to be said. Come May, I will have been co-President of Hip Hop 101 for three years and that experience has given me an up-close and personal perspective of the Vassar Student Association (VSA), VSA funding, ViCE, the Student Activity Resource Center (SARC) and Campus Activities that few other students have. Over the last three years it has become abundantly clear to me that, for the most part, ViCE is very good at what they do. Despite their less-than-stellar reputation with the student body, they are the best at navigating all of the organizations and offices I just listed.
In spite of this fact, there is a major flaw with concern to the relationship between ViCE and other organizations that needs to be addressed. ViCE falters in it relationships with other organizations in that it is given over a third of all the money budgeted to campus organizations, yet does not work in a significant way to find other organizations with awesome ideas and help them make those ideas real. After three years of witnessing this, I believe the only way to fix it would be financial regulations placed on ViCE’s budget by the VSA—specifically regulation that requires a significant amount of ViCE’s funding to be used for collaboration with other student organizations.
This week I attended the Sunday VSA meeting as I always do on days when Hip Hop 101 has a fund application up for consideration. As always, our application—for our annual Throwback Jam, a block party and concert on the quad—generated a heated debate in the VSA. The debate largely focused on the difference between ViCE and Hip Hop 101, a comparison that I view as mostly irrelevant as ViCE is meant to be all encompassing and generalized, while our organization is relatively small and specialized. Moreover, our goal is not just to put on concerts; it is to utilize hip-hop culture, which is a commonality and strong link between the Vassar community and the Poughkeepsie community, to promote peace, unity, love and having fun. Nonetheless, there are reasons the comparison was made and why they were perceived as relevant.
Last week the Miscellany published a Staff Editorial titled “The Miscellany commends ViCE for inclusivity” (2.18.10). In this editorial, the Miscellany’s editorial board praises ViCE for “the significant link that the [Flaming Lips] concert has made between on-campus and off-campus communities.” I think the comparison of Hip Hop 101 to ViCE last night had mostly to do with this idea. While I do not doubt that there is some truth in the importance of hosting a major event off campus, the truth is that this event is not set up to significantly “strengthen the often-adverse relationship between Vassar College and the wider local community.” Instead of pursuing this goal, I would assert that this event in some way imposes a particular type of Vassar College culture onto the Poughkeepsie community, one that is not necessarily present in the community itself.
To begin with, consider the artist of choice: I have nothing against the Flaming Lips, but what part of the Poughkeepsie community are we reaching for with this particular group? Maybe we are targeting the community of college students in the area, but we do not necessarily have an adverse relationship with Bard, for example. Secondly, consider the $35 price tag for non-student concertgoers: That sounds welcoming, right? Or consider the potentially detrimental effects of the presence of drugs and alcohol that will likely be brought into the Poughkeepsie community with this event. All in all, it seems likely that this event is “in Poughkeepsie” for another reason: The Civic Center was cheap to rent ($2,500) and is the only space big enough for this elaborate show. (ViCE spent well over $60,000 of our money to put it on.)
On the other hand, Throwback Jam, which will be held this year on the afternoon of the Flaming Lips show on April 17, does actually reach out to the Poughkeepsie community and does something real and even tangible with concern to this “adverse relationship.” Our event features music and culture that is shared between our two communities, it is free and it is highly promoted throughout the city. Last year approximately half of our 750 to 1,000 attendees were Poughkeepsie community members. All of our events are similarly comprised. Even our weekly meetings promote unity. In all four years I have been here, I doubt that I have attended a Hip Hop 101 general body weekly meeting that did not include of at least one member of the student body, one member of the College staff and one member of the Poughkeepsie community—and most meetings have many of each.
The point is that when it comes to throwing an event that is supposed to bring these communities together we (and other organizations, too, it deserves saying) have the experience and the perspective to do it. The problem with ViCE is not that they are too exclusive in terms of membership: Anyone can join. It is that they are too exclusive with regard to other organizations. If they really wanted to throw an event that brings our communities together, then they needed to ask us and other groups with similar missions to be at the drawing board with them.
I think ultimately that the VSA does the right thing by funding ViCE as heavily as they do, but with that privilege ViCE has a responsibility that so far they have refused. Imagine if our system was organized like this: Instead of going immediately to the VSA for extra funding when we were planning Throwback Jam, we went to ViCE (which we have many times), and they responded by saying, “Yeah, that is going to be awesome, clearly you know how to put on a hip-hop event, you specialize in it, we would love to work with you, be a part of the event and fund this.” (They have never done this for any large event in three years.) Yes, ViCE is incredible at navigating the bureaucracy of the College and has the infrastructure to handle large sums of money. Yet, it seems obvious that Vassar Teknowledgy is worth including when throwing a giant DJ dance party, VC Punx is worth including when throwing a punk rock concert and Hip Hop 101 when throwing a hip-hop event.
Why not regulate ViCE to hold a significant amount of their budget with the requirement that it be used in collaboration with other organizations? This adjustment would keep the current student organization infrastructure, but promotes the best use of the available money—those that care about a specific type of event get a hand in planning it. ViCE not only should approach Hip Hop 101 when they want to throw a hip-hop event, they should feel obligated to. Additionally, they should have serious incentive to work with any organization that approaches them with a good idea. By making a significant portion of ViCE’s budget tied to collaboration, the VSA would be making both these things a reality, and would be making ViCE a lot more inclusive. Most importantly, they would be helping other organizations that have overlap with ViCE find funding for their events without draining the VSA coffers. Lastly, such regulation might cause the competition between ViCE and other student organizations to dissipate, engendering a cooperative spirit among them and hopefully correcting the hierarchical perception of the VSA, ViCE and “the rest” of student organizations.
—Jay Leff ’10 is the co-President of Hip Hop 101. He collaborated on this column with Emma Carmichael ’10 and Carola Beeney ’11, co-President and member of Hip Hop 101, respectively.
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