Council Says Tribe Unlikely to Hold Spring Concert

The quest for Quest may be over.

Though the Undergraduate Council last week allocated funds for a spring concert by A Tribe Called Quest, there is now only a slim chance the band will perform on campus.

After passing a resolution to put the $15,000 from Harvard Dining Services and PepsiCo. towards a concert, the council discovered that A Tribe Called Quest is unlikely to tour this spring.

In addition, several members of the council expressed reservations about accepting the money at all because PepsiCo. has investments in Burma, a country governed by a brutal military dictatorship.

After a long debate on Sunday, the council decided to ask the students what they should do with the money.

"There's a lot money and a lot of issues at stake here," Campus Life Committee co-chair Tally Zingher '99 said at the council meeting on Sunday.

The Student Affairs Committee created a survey last night to pose to the students.

If the council approves the survey this coming Sunday, it will be conducted next week. The results would be presented to the council at the following meeting, said Robert B. Wolinsky '97, one of the survey's creators.

Council members will call 546 students and ask them if they think the council should accept the money from PepsiCo. They will then ask students to rank five choices ranging from having a free concert to giving the money to student groups to donating the money to a Burmese pro-democracy group, Wolinsky said.

The council, though, is not bound to follow the survey results.

"Some council members have said that the results will not affect their decisions.

"Others have said that they will consider what students have to say," said Marco B. Simons '97, chair of the Student Affairs Committee.

The council does not regularly conduct surveys. The last one was a general survey of student opinion last spring.

"It's unusual for the council to conduct a survey. But then again, it's unusual for the council to get $15,000 from Pepsi," said Simons.

"At first I was opposed to the idea of the survey. I thought it was the representative's job to know what the students felt," said Scott M. Singer '98.

Singer also said he felt a survey would slow down council plans. Council members could gauge student feeling just as well by informal discussion, he said.

Robert M. Hyman '97-'98, council president and a sponsor of the concert, said that the extra time taken up by the survey would not prevent plans for a concert.

"While advance time is always helpful, it is still possible now to put on an exciting, community-building concert," he said.

Hyman also said he hoped that, whatever the survey results might be, the council would still try to put on a concert.

He said the council did not have any possible replacements for A Tribe Called Quest at this time.

It is also unclear whether the $5,000 Harvard Dining Services offered to supplement the Pepsi donation would be available if the council decided not to hold a concert, according to Hyman.

Hyman said that "it is unclear" whether HDS would be still be willing to donate the money for other purposes.