The following are two selected articles written for our Journalism 109 class or Popular Audiences.
Tuition Increase
UP students have taken to the streets again to protest Congress’ approval of the P 4.57 B UP budget, which is 36.5 per cent short of the proposed P 7.2 B.
As if that wasn’t enough, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has passed a 20 per cent budget freeze on all government institutions.
The initial proposed UP budget of P 7.2 B, which only covers maintenance, is cut to more than half--leaving UP with only P 3.66B. Possible Tuition Increase
A budget cut implies many things for UP students. The most important is the imminent possibility of tuition increase.
The budget allotted for UP is not enough to only maintain UP education. Facilities have to be improved and new buildings must be constructed. The necessary funds for expansion must be generated in some other way. But as the government could not provide the budget, the students are the ones who could be penalized in the form of tuition increase.
The Board of Regents (BOR) had already approved a tuition and laboratory fee increase for the graduate level effective last semester. UPD Chancellor Emerlinda Roman held that "graduate education, unlike undergraduate education, is more of an option than a privilege. The University therefore provides lower subsidy to its graduate programs." She added that "the increase translates into a better learning environment for the students.”
However, UP President Francisco Nemenzo has stressed that there will be no tuition increase. But then, he added that he’s "open to the idea of making the richer students pay more."
A Matter of Semantics
Another way to increase tuition is through the Socialized Tuition and Financial Assistance Program (STFAP), also known as the Iskolar ng Bayan Program. Technically, there will be no tuition increase, but students in the lower brackets might have additional payments--in other words, STFAP rebracketting.
Brackets one to four are given 100 per cent waiver of tuition, miscellaneous and laboratory fees, as well as corresponding living, lodging, transportation and book allowances. Bracket five has 100 percent tuition subsidy, bracket six has 75 per cent, bracket seven has 50 per cent, bracket eight 25 per cent. The rest who did not apply for STFAP automatically belong to bracket nine.
By STFAP rebracketting, the administration could shift a bracket lower. For example, only brackets one to four will be given 100 per cent tuition subsidy, while the rest of the following brackets will have to pay for other fees.
In a sense, there’s still increase in what students have to pay every enrollment.
Commercialization of Education
To make the situation more complicated, there have also been plans to change the UP Charter.
According to Student Regent Kristine Claire Bugayong, House Bill 445 will just integrate the provisions of the Higher Education Modernization Act of 1997 (HEMA) into the UP Charter. This could lead to the commercialization and privatization of state colleges and universities--through "joint ventures with business and industry...public or private, local or foreign."
HB 455 also commands the Board of Regents (BOR) to generate funds by entering into joint ventures, by long-term leases, fully-owned subsidies, securitization and outright sale of land grants and other university real property. The BOR is also encouraged to "receive property of all kinds...and be subject to the terms of the donor."
The Bill, if approved, would empower the BOR to generate income by mobilizing UP assets. It also authorizes tuition and other fee increases. Aside from this, accepting assistance from industries and businesses will commercialize services and dictate the curriculum. Using the land around the university for private business establishments may also affect student welfare and the conduciveness of the university for studying.
But Jose Endriga, UP Vice President for Public Affairs who is lobbying for HB 455 in Congress emphasized that "utilization UP assets should be for academic purposes, not for the benefit of private firms."
A statement from Anakbayan, Stand-UP and League of Filipino Students enjoins every student and anyone who is affected by the budget cut to fight for the right to quality education. It is a fight not only for UP students but for all Filipino youth.
Being informed and aware is not enough.There is a responsibility to take part in the struggle; to educate the rest of the people of the issues on hand and to participate in the decision-making of the government leaders. There is an urgent task to decide what will happen to the university and to Filipinos in the future.
Sidebar on Death to Pop 2: the Noise Bleeding Continues...
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How to Organize a Rock Concert
Your frat or sorority is celebrating its anniversary and you can’t come up with an impressive and incredible gimmick to top all the other events of the year? Or maybe your org is bankrupt and is pressed for fund-raising ideas? Maybe you just want some easy money, and you want to party. Hit two birds with one stone with a rock concert. Not only will you be earning money, you’ll also have fun in the process.
But before all the fun starts, you have to go through grunt work first. A lot goes into the preparation for a rock concert. First of all, you have to know lots of people. Not just any people--people like managers, groupies, even band members themselves. Or at least know people who have contacts to people like that. Of course people who will fund the concert are also important.
In my case, I hung out at bars and tag along the gigs of my friend, Meryl’s band, Matilda. There are usually people in the crowd who have connections. People in backstage are especially helpful. My friends and I collect phone numbers of the managers and the band members. It could be embarrassing to approach a total stranger and ask for their number but you have to be assertive and self-assured in this business. Always bring a pen and paper to write down important phone numbers (and get autographs as well).
Now it could be hard for other people who don’t get access to backstage of concerts or if you don’t know anybody at all with connections. The easy way to start is to check out album sleeve notes. There are usually phone numbers, e-mail and snail mail addresses of managers there. There are websites as well. Just search them on google.com, bogpile.com or metacrawler.com. Listening to NU 107’s In the Raw from time to time could also help. That’s where I got the contact numbers of Chicosci and Dicta License.
The next phase is planning the concert itself. After gauging the feasibility of holding a concert, you’re ready for the real work. It’s really grueling and exhausting, so it would be wise to organize a team of people to help you. Let’s say you’re the one handling the bands who are going to play--contacting them, arranging the payments, etc. For the pre-concert, you still need somebody to handle the most important part—marketing and finance; as well as advertisements and promotions. For the concert itself, somebody should handle the food (bands hate it when there’s no food); somebody should be around if any of the band members has a question or if anybody wants to go to the comfort room…that kind of stuff; there should be people at the entrance, ticket booth, and people roaming around to make sure there aren’t riots or anything (they are called marshals), and finally the security. Concerts, particularly, rock concerts attract riots and the “jologs” that cause them, especially if you’re inviting Slapshock or Greyhoundz, but we’ll get to that later. For a small sum, police from UPDP are very willing to help out.(What? You think the cops roaming around the Sunken Garden during the Fair are making sure nothing goes wrong out of loyalty to their duty and the goodness of their hearts? Give me a break!)
With all that in order, you think you can relax and let other people do your work for you? Sorry, you’re wrong. You have to see it through and monitor the progress of the other committees. First of all, consider the most important thing about concerts--MONEY.
Money is necessary to be able to pay off the bands, to get a good sound system, to pay for the ads. Bands usually get their payment after the event itself, but for the sound system, they usually ask for a down payment. This is a job for the Marketing and Finance Committee. They are the people who beg companies to give them donations. You need to make a sponsorship package stating the promotion and advertising they’ll get at the event, and the corresponding amount they have to cough up in order to acquire these offers. Any UP org has had experience with this; just ask your finance committees for the gory details.
Examples of companies you might approach for rock concerts are PULP magazine, MTV Ink, Myx (and your event might even get shown on their program, Sound Check); NU107 who will give you air time in exchange (this is very important for the advertisement.) Caterers are a good option since they can also provide free food for the bands. Generally any company who might be interested is very welcome. Cellphones, condoms, clothes, and what have you—the more sponsors you can get, the happier we’d all be.
Companies might issue checks and you might not be able to cash it in at once, so there must be sufficient time to gather all the funds. Before everything else, the sponsors should have confirmed already. Without sponsors, without money, you can just forget about having a concert.
Something like my friend Meryl Antonio’s experience could happen to you. Meryl, the head organizer of Kamia Residence Hall’s Death to Pop 2 (February 19, 2002) had to withdraw money from her own account, and that’s just money needed to fax sponsorship packages to companies and to call people. But after that, with the money and, everything else followed as seen by the success of the concert.
The next step is to contact the bands. Assuming you already have contacts and everything, start calling the bands and their managers depending on your theme and your target audience. If you’re into rap metal--invite the likes of Slapshock, Greyhoundz or Cheese. It could be a bit of a problem though for Slapshock. They’re a good crowd-puller, but since they’re so famous now, 2,500 pesos just won’t close the deal with them. For our Death to Pop Battle of the Bands Concert at our dorm, Greyhoundz agreed to that amount and played four songs. Cheese played three songs for 1,500. I’m not saying you could pay them 1,500. It’s just that Cheese are sort of regulars at the concerts we organize that they don’t care much anymore. And we have friends who are friends with them, knew them way back in Grade 4 and everything, so anyway...Actually, Cheese got us contacts to Greyhoundz, since Ian Tayao, the frontman of Cheese and Reg Rubio of the ‘Houndz are best friends.
Friendship can be very useful and economical as well. Bands might even play for free--if you’re friends with them. For example, Kiko Machine, a UP Fine Arts-based band volunteered to play for free at Death to Pop2. But then, they always play for free at UP gigs. Other bands who might play for free are unsigned bands whom you know are good enough because they already have regular gigs at Mayric’s, 70’s, Freedom Bar or wherever. Again, you have to hang out at bars or the backstage to get contacts.
After getting the bands to agree, you can start making the program because it saves time. In things like this, time can be very expensive. You pay for the time of the bands and for the time of the sound system. You pay for it by the hour, which brings us to our next topic.
You must canvass for a passable sound system. That means look for a lot of mobile and sound system rentals and negotiate--haggle even. Be sensitive to the needs of the bands without hurting your pocket. Bands like Cheese require several amps and speakers since they have two percussionists, a turntablist, two guitarists and an energetic vocalist who’s very likely to go bouncing around and could damage the equipment. Sometimes they bring their own equipment, sometimes they don’t. Bands could get really pissed off when they sound bad, especially temperamental people like the Cheese guys.>
Seems we’re all set. But remember all those things you promised your sponsors? Yep, you must get those advertisements plastered all over campus, with your sponsors’ logos in them. Plus you need to advertise the event to get people to come. Sure, you already have airtime in NU107 but you need all the advertising and promotion you can get. An ad should contain the important facts: the bands playing, the sponsors, the time it will start, the venue, and a contact person for the tickets.
Assign somebody to design the posters and tickets. If you live in a dorm, or within your org or frat or sorority, there are a lot of creative people out there with some free time who might be able to help you. If there isn’t anybody, the printing press/computer place where you’ll get the posters reproduced could make the poster themselves. Again, negotiate the cost, and offer the printing press a sponsorship as well. You'll get a discount that way.
The advertising materials constitute 3 forms: the airtime in NU, the posters, and flyers. Sometimes it’s not enough to get people to come if they just see the announcement; they have to be hammered with it with one-on-one invitations, which includes selling the tickets, and by giving out flyers. This is the job of the Advertising and Promotion Committee.
I mentioned above that the poster must inform the people about the time and--the venue. The venue has to be reserved at least two months before the day itself, sometimes earlier, unless the area is your property or something. You might have to get some people to construct a stage for the concert, but some sound system rentals provide the stage. Well, it’s more like a low platform really, but who are we to complain? Sometimes they also provide the fencing to close off the area from those who are too cheap to buy tickets. If it doesn’t come with the package deal, assign somebody to handle it. There are carpenters or utility personnel around who can do it.
Like the sound system, you could be paying for the venue by the hour, so make sure you have a program, and make sure you follow the schedule. Not only will you save time and money, you can avoid pissing off the bands if they don’t play on time. Band members are people who may have other appointments. They might have gigs somewhere else at the time, or they may have families waiting for them. It’s just common courtesy on your part. Also, your program is not disrupted, and you’ll be avoiding boos from the audience.
To hurry the concert along, to keep the audience entertained while the bands are doing their sound check, get a competent and witty host. Better yet, get two hosts. It’s very tiring to host an event. You think they’re just standing around pretending to be funny? They have to sound perky all night and they have the moody audience to deal with.
I suppose you’re all set for the concert itself. You have bands, you have a sound system and equipment, you have a stage and a venue, you have people watching, there’s security, some food booths. But you can’t sit back and relax just yet. You still have to be around in case something goes wrong. And believe me, there are a lot of things that could go wrong at concerts. There could be a last minute power outage, the equipment could be damaged, a guitarist’s strings could break, or the bands may forget to show up. This is a worst-case scenario, but you have to be prepared for anything. There should be a generator handy (ask the sound system rental), remind the bands to come and confirm that they’re coming; and make sure there are cops patrolling the area.
And then there are still little things like gifts for bands aside from the payment. Lambanog is usually a good choice. But there are some bands who ask for juts or doobie. Anyway, you might want to have some food booths, henna tattooing, Japanese haircuts, or whatever, at the event. It’s still additional income.
After the event, maybe around 4 am, there must be a team assigned to clean up the area. It’s typically the deal when leasing a venue.
Finally, for real you can rest and give yourself a pat on the back. Let somebody else compute the revenue and hope it breaks even. If you did a good job with the marketing, then you’ll have that income you’ve been aiming at. But really, organizing a concert is already a feat in itself. You should congratulate yourself.
And next time it will be even easier. Might as well offer your services for organizing concerts. Heck, some of my friends’ jobs are exactly that. With this experience, you can do anything. It’s traumatizing, but when it’s over and it turns out into a success--the feeling you get seems to erase all the hardships you went through. It’s the feeling that you did everything you could, and it went OK. Not just OK, but great, spectacular, marvelous, amazing. Actually, other people can’t still get over how we pulled off Death to Pop 2. It really is unbelievable--all the hard work that went into it, culminating into one night. So, follow through. Prove how tough you are, how determined and strong you are. There’s even a bonus--you have earned money and had rubbed elbows with rock stars! Whoever said business and pleasure don’t mix?