Council To Fund Five Social Events

The Undergraduate Council may spend up to $18,000 on five major social events this spring, including a "Harvard Night" this Thursday at the Boston nightclub Lipstick. Council Chairman Sesha Pratap '84 said yesterday.

Around $15,000 of the sum will go to a concert featuring. The English Beat while The Beat has not yet definitely agreed to perform, the Council has put in a bid for the band and has tentatively rented Briggs Cage for April 29.

Instead of hiring the band through an agent, the Council will work through James Barber '84, a WHRB staffer with a connection to The Beat's recording company. Steven H. Black '84, chairman of the Social Committee, said yesterday.

Tickets, limited to 10 per person, will sell for $7. Because the Cage holds about 3000 people, the Council could realize a profit of up to $6000 from the concert. That money would be used to finance other social events.

Pratap said the Council ruled out the idea of having the concert in the Harvard Stadium because of the complex organization it would have required. An outdoor concert would cost more and be more susceptible to weather. Pratap added.

The Council also needs a backer, a group which would pay. The Beat a $6000 fee if Harvard has to cancel the concert Having a backer is "mostly a form of insurance." Pratap said adding. "It's very, very unlikely that we would have to cancel the concert."

Pratap said he has asked Dean of Students Archie C. Epps III whether the College will act as backer, but Epps has made to decision.

Pratap said the Council is now looking to four charity organizations as possible backers--Amnesty International. Ronald McDonald House in Boston, Oxfam, and the American Cancer Society.

In exchange for backing the concert, the group would split profits with the Council.

Lipstick

The Council also approved $400 to rent out the club Lipstick Thursday night. Admission to the club will be free to all Harvard students and their guests, and the bar will serve reduced-price drinks from 8 to 10 p.m. Green beer, in honor of St. Patrick's Day, will be on the house.

Black said he expects the College Night at Narcissus, a club next door to Lipstick in Kenmore Square, will draw more people to the Harvard event. "I hope that people will combine the two," he added.

Pratap and Black said yesterday that the events should "appeal to a broader base of students."

"I think this is very important to a certain group of students who are looking to the Council for campus-wide student events," added Pratap, adding. "If that is what they want, I think we should come through for them."

The three other events are a dance the Council is co-sponsoring with the Radcliffe Union of Students (RUS), a talent show, and an outdoor picnic. The show and picnic will probably be combined.

The April 15 dance at the Freshman Union will cost about $1200, to be financed half and half by RUS and the Council. An all women's band headed by Regina Burch '83 will play, along with another band from either Harvard or Boston. RUS President Elizabeth Young '85 said yesterday.

The picnic will be held either April 15 or April 22 on the triangle between Eliot, Winthrop, and Kirkland Houses and the Indoor Athletic Building. Pratap said he hopes the House dining halls will provide the food, and that House committees will provide drinks inside each House. The talent show will probably be held in conjunction with the picnic and include "comedians, jugglers, guitar players," and other Harvard entertainers, as well as one Harvard band.