It was not a calm night at Joint Board on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The prospect of bringing hip-hop artist Jean Grae to campus this Saturday generated both excitement over the concert and fighting over where the funding should come from.

Debate lasted over an hour, moving through several amendments and touching on issues of overspending and diversity in concerts. The semester budgets of two committees were taxed; one Cabinet member reportedly left in tears. How the concert became one of the biggest SGA controversies of the year boils down to money, jurisdiction, and communication.

The concert is part of the two week-long "Hip-Hop Evolved" symposium. Veronique Porter '08, who organized the symposium along with Pat Green '09 and Spencer Green '09, said they wanted to bring an original female hip-hop artist to campus. Together they discussed which female performer could effectively display ties to the underground hip-hop culture while still maintaining a style specific to her image. "I wanted a real woman emcee who didn't have to put her sexuality out there to be an emcee," said Porter.

Following the decision to bring Grae to campus, Porter contacted Concerts Chair Josh Lindgren '08, who said he would get in contact with Jean Grae's label, Blacksmith Records. "I didn't hear from Josh for a while so I e-mailed him back," said Porter. "He said he hadn't heard from the booking agent." After two weeks without a response, Porter directly contacted the label and managed to speak directly with the vice-president of the label.

Lindgren said that he had tried to bring Grae to campus but that coordinating with the artist and her label proved too difficult. "We were talking for a while about how we could put a Jean Grae concert together. I tried to set it up, but Jean Grae wouldn't come," said Lindgren. "More recently Veronique was able to get through to her."

Following her conversation with the vicepresident, Porter was put into contact with the manager, who asked her to send a proposal. Porter sent a proposal of $8,000 to the label and it was accepted after two days.

Lindgren said that Porter was able to contact Jean Grae directly to work out financial arrangements, but at that point in the semester, there was not enough money in Concerts's budget to pay Grae. "We didn't have the money she was looking for," Lindgren said.

With Concerts apparently unable to fund Jean Grae, Porter sought financial support from various on-campus groups, including ACE, Multicultural Affairs, Student Affairs, CBS, ISO, AAC, the Office of Diversity and the Diversity Steering Community. Despite the help of all these groups, Porter and others were left $3,700 short, forcing them to go to Joint Board to ask for the remainder of the funds.

During the Joint Board meeting at which Porter and organizers asked for money, ACE Committee was eventually asked to fund the concert. T.J. Hawley '10, ACE Coordinator, said she was surprised that the ACE budget was selected. "I knew that Veronique would be petitioning Joint Board for money, but I did not know that it would be coming from ACE," said Hawley. "My understanding was that ... since we already recommended that they have $2,000 for travel expenses, that the additional money would not come from ACE committee."

Last Wednesday's Joint Board featured an hour-long debate on where the money should come from. According to the minutes, senators fought over the ability to spend the SGA fund balance and what happens if committees overspend. Hawley's position was that Concerts should fund musical activities, while Lindgren was concerned about booking opening acts for bands.

Since the initial budget approval at Joint Board Lindgren has volunteered extra money to pay for unforeseen equipment costs that arose in the concert's planning.

The vote to approve the final split, $1,500 from ACE and $1,215 from Concerts, passed 12-4-2. Joint Board's decision has a grave impact on the budgets of both Concerts and ACE. "$1,500 is approximately eight Harris parties, it's more than 15 study breaks," Hawley said. "We normally do a lot of fun stuff for the atmosphere [of Harris parties that] you'll see probably not happening this semester."

Hawley emphasized, however, that she was not against the event itself. "Hip-hop has not gotten the attention in the past few years that it should on the campus, and I think that Jean Grae was a very important part of the symposium."