Dylan Concert Proves Successful

The heads of the Harvard Concert Commission (HCC) announced at yesterday’s Undergraduate Council meeting that Sunday’s sold-out Bob Dylan concert was a financial success.

HCC Chairs Justin H. Haan ’05 and Jack P. McCambridge ’06 said the concert grossed $133,000 in ticket sales and more than $1,500 in merchandise sales.

The event will reimburse at least half of the $30,000 that the council allocated to fund the concert earlier this semester, according to Haan, who is also a Crimson editor, and McCambridge.

Previous HCC events have failed to simply break even. In October, the HCC put on a comedy event featuring Jim Breuer which lost $302 on top of the $15,000 that the council expected to lose because of ticket subsidization.

Yesterday’s council meeting also included planning for initiatives later this semester.

The Committee on College Life, which allocates the money to the HCC, also proposed a bill to create an intramural dodgeball tournament in December.

The authors of the bill, Lauren P. S. Epstein ’07 and Sopen B. Shah ’08, said that the event might include a screening of the movie Dodgeball as well as prizes for the winning teams.

The bill proved contentious as eight amendments—some friendly and some hostile—were submitted to the chair.

The proposed amendments ranged from changing grammar and nomanclature in the bill to allocating an additional $200 for planning expenses to establishing a mandatory safety seminar before the dodgeball tournament.

Jason L. Lurie ’05 advocated eliminating the prizes for the winning team or adding prizes to all other Intramural competitions.

When Lurie’s amendments were defeated, he advocated rejecting the bill.

“We should leave this to the IM people,” Lurie said. “It’s ridiculous and unsafe.”

Despite Lurie’s objections, the bill passed by an overwhelming majority, as did several other amendments, two of which added a costume competition for the teams to be judged by a fashion panel.

The council also took a preliminary vote on the constitutional amendment that was debated last week.

The amendment would ensure that the Grants Fund, which provides money to student groups, receives at least 67 percent of the yearly budget, and that the Operations Fund—strictly for council expenses—receives no more than 5 percent of the yearly budget.

The amendment also stipulates that the council must allocate $5,000 to a reserve account at the beginning of each session of the council.

“The reserve fund is to cover accidental overdrafts,” council treasurer Clay T. Capp ’06.

All representatives present supported the bill with the exception of one abstention and one negative vote. The council members have one week in which they can change their vote before a final decision on the amendment is reached.

The council also passed a grant package for the week despite vehement protest from some quad representatives and council parliamentarian E.E. Keenan ’07.

The disputed grants—one failing to award any money to the Pforzheimer House Movie Club, the other awarding only $150 to the Women and Youth Supporting Each Other—both passed in their original forms despite proposed amendments to each and an invocation of the council’s anti-discrimination statute.

—Staff writer Joshua P. Rogers can be reached at jprogers@fas.harvard.edu.