Open Call to Anybody Losing Money on the Eclectic House Hosting Restriction
This post is a call for information about anybody who is losing student group money due to contracting issues and the Eclectic House Hosting Restriction.
There has been a severe lack of balanced information regarding this whole controversy; the only public statements are being issued by members of the Eclectic society, while the SJB are most likely bound by confidentiality restrictions and are thus unable to respond to Eclectic's accusations. While I don't want to call Eclectic a bunch of liars, there is evidence that Eclectic may be misrepresenting their case.
This is mostly due to a comment by Anna W on Aural Wes post Free Eclectic (and one of the few actual pieces of information from the Administration):
Here is the notice Eclectic's house manager received in his mailbox yesterday, explaining what it would mean for Eclectic to be on "disciplinary probation":The wording of this letter strongly implies that the ban is being lifted on Wesfest is due to "previous contracting," as opposed to the idea that (as Eclectic has been asserting) "selling the school to prospective students is more of a priority than maintaining a thriving student culture."
"200 High Street as a venue for performances, gatherings, parties or any events is restricted through April 30, 2009. This restriction will be lifted to allow the previously contracted event to occur at 200 High Street during accepted candidates' weekend."
We're relaying the information as it is relayed to us. More as it comes in.
However, as I mentioned earlier, I do not want to unduly accuse anybody of intentionally misleading the student body. What's more, "strongly implies" by no means "proves" that this is the case. Still, there is enough room for doubt in the situation that it is important for the full story to be available to the students, as the House Hosting Restriction affects us all.
Thus, I am calling for anybody who has actually contracted a band to play and actually lost student group money due to the house hosting restriction to come forward and prove that the lifting of the house hosting restriction for Wesfest is a result of the administration's desire to woo admitted students, rather than uphold previously contracted agreements.
If the information does come to light, I will be the first to call the administration on its bullshit and support Eclectic against the administration's decision. However, if this doesn't happen, then we, as the student body, have reason to believe that Eclectic is intentionally distorting the facts of the situation in order to appear sympathetic. I personally hope the former is true, but we, as critically minded students, cannot blind ourselves to the possibility of the latter.
34 comments:
Thank you. This is a good call, both for the people who might be losing money and the rest of the campus who would like to know the truth of the situation.
You are dumb. No money is "lost." The issue is that contracted bands won't be able to play without a space to play in. Since they're contracted, the bands will get paid, but the students will get nothing (no show).
How does your "call for anybody who has actually contracted a band to play" prove ANYTHING?
yeah honestly this post should be taken down. it's irrelevant and makes no sense. how is eclectic "tricking" anyone. the reality is, the school is letting the wesfest event go on. yes, there was a previous contract in writing and no, eclectic did not assert otherwise. people just made their own conclusions. wesleying writers need to stop conspiracy theorizing until they have all the facts.
Don't take it down, lets just edit to read "GIVE US THE GODDAMN FACTS"
I think what I, and the rest of the student population want to know, is what the hell is going on here? Why haven't we been given the full story?
You people obvious didn't read this properly.
Basically the wesfest show was finalized "contracted" before the ban and everything was already booked/paid for. It just happens that wesfest is the weekend that show on. Eclectic claims it is because the admin wants events on wesfest. maybe there is more to it than this.
So what he is asking for is info on any other shows that were already finalized and are now canceled (and people will lose money on, which is what eclectic asserted). I for one, want to know if any finalized contracts are being terminated by the ban...
@ 11:30
I think we can agree that colloqially "lost" money means paying for services (giving money to bands), when the services are not rendered (no one gets to hear the band).
chill.
Eclectic will be issuing a statement today regarding the situation that will outline exactly what charges were brought against us and how we handle them. It should have been sent out before the Sound Co-Op statement but it didn't because we are student, too, and sometimes mistakes happen. We will also be releasing a timeline of events building up to the ban so that there is total transparency. We could not do so before because it was an SJB hearing after all. Please wait for our statement before you use this blog as a sounding board for an Eclectic witch hunt. The facts are forthcoming in a well-written articulate fashion.
Adam, it might actually be a good decision to take this down. It's actually just causing undue panic. There are enough fire-starters involved in this, as is (starting with Scott Backer). Let's not get all fired up! The details are forthcoming but the member whose computer it's on is probably just doing thesis stuff and hasn't sent the file.
we sent the statement already but it hasn't been posted yet. post pleeeeaaaase!
We submitted a statement to Wesleying this morning, which can also be read on the Eclectic website:
http://eclectic.wesleyan.edu/show_article.php?id=7
Don't let Eclectic guilt you into taking this down, Adam.
What do they have to hide?
this post is immaterial and pointlessly incendiary, please consider taking it down...
Eclectic - Why don't you just sign the little paper and let the SJB publicize their investigation if you wan't full transparency?
THERE IS NO "LITTLE PAPER" have you ever been SJBed before? it's not a investigation, it's a reading of your crime and then a subsequent punishment. There are no detectives working on the beat to reveal what 'really' happened. You just get charged for what they caught you doing and you try to defend yourself. That's it.
12:40: The SJB didn't do an "investigation", and there's no "little paper" that we can sign. We have not been given or even shown the notes from the SJB's closed deliberation on our case.
I've seen more information to the case than the Eclectic Society has revealed to the student body. This wasn't over just a single event. For my own confidentiality I can't divulge what this information is, but I urge the society to come clean and admit everything they've been charged of to the student body before this information comes out of the mouth of the administration.
Adam, this doesn't make any sense.
If you actually think Scott Backer sat around thinking to himself "I wish I could cancel this promotional event for wesfest, but unfortunately it is the only event scheduled this year in which the bands are party to a contract. Damn you Eclectic!" then I don't know what to do for you.
Also, I don't believe that the letter you quote implies anything (strongly or otherwise) about why the wesfest was allowed to continue. It says that the event was previously contracted, probably as a way of legitimizing the decision, but does not make any assertations as to why that event was allowed to continue. I appreciate your disclaimer stating that "strongly implies" is different from "proves," but I think your particular reading of that letter is still very unlikely, making your post somewhat out of line.
I really wish you would edit, remove, or further qualify this post, since it has an extremely accusatory tone (especially with the bold-face text) and seems to be based on an illogical assumption, even if you admit it is an assumption.
Thanks.
1:46 pm:
The Wesfest event was allowed to continue because it was the only event this semester in which a contract had actually been signed. If it had been canceled, money would have been lost.
All the other events at Eclectic were planned, but not yet contracted, so no money would have been lost.
This is why the Wesfest show at Eclectic was the only event allowed to happen, there's no SJB/administration conspiracy to dishonestly woo prefrosh, or whatever.
And no, I'm not in the administration. I'm a student who enjoys Eclectic shows and thinks this ban is stupid, but am getting annoyed at the misrepresentation of facts.
adam, you are being a sensationalist cunt who is trying to exert himself as a voice worth listening to via a student blog. get over yourself and fashion a coherent argument.
really though ... this post doesn't make sense ... i'm so confused by what you think is reason and i see as utter randomness.
This helps nothing. What are you doing?
cuntrageous
The state of Connecticut honors verbal contracts so this point is entirely null and void. Any agreement by a group to come to Eclectic House, I believe and admittedly am not entirely sure, should be honored by the school.
Let me break this down into simple bullet points for you.
1. Eclectic states that the lifting of the restriction during wesfest is a despicable and hypocritical move by the administration to woo prefrosh. I have provided links to these accusations.
2. The post on Anna Weiner's blog could indicate that the administration is lifting the ban for wesfest because those events were previously contracted, rather than a result of the administration attempting to woo prefrosh.
3. One can discount the interpretation in #2, if any single other person stated that they had lost money due to previously contracted (rather than simply planned to have) an artist to play at Eclectic.
4. However, if #3 does not happen, then the interpretation in point #2 would be true, and Eclectic would be accusing the administration of being hypocritical and arbitrary when they themselves knew this to be untrue. This would show that they were intentionally misleading the student population by distorting the facts to make themselves seem more sympathetic.
If you'd like further clarification of my line of reasoning, you are welcome to post further. But as it stands, that was what I was trying to say by my post.
Unfortunately for your logic, #2 does NOT preclude #1.
Wow Adam really sucks, stop wasting peoples time, you are way too self-important. Nobody cares about your nit picking or your bullshit investigative journalism. you suck
#2 is correct - I have this from a member of the administration
Go Adam.
Don't let people attacking you personally for your perfectly sound argument get you down.
Yes, Go Adam.
You are not wanted here.
If he was wrong, or starting a witch hunt, why hasn't anyone answered his call...
Way to go Adam! I don't hate Eclectic, and it's a shame that they've been band. I have so many good friends in the society and in bands who play there, but they've really handled this poorly. You're doing some good work to get to the bottom of this.
"Let me break this down into simple bullet points for you."
Condescending... dicky...
worst post ever on wesleying. take it down, someone on wesleying staff with more brains than this dickwad.
It is probably true that this was the only event which had a completed contract, as most contracts are only signed a few days before, if not the day of, the show. While this doesn't rationalize the decision, its an important point to make
adam is a bucket of dicks.
I think this is a very important point to make, and I fully support this post. Regardless of how you feel about the rest of the ban, it's essential to note that considering this a giant administration conspiracy is ridiculous.
This is a completely reasonable (and even admirable) reason to allow the Wesfest event to continue - to make sure that folks aren't out the money when they went through the proper channels and already got contracts signed.
There is an important and obvious distinction between the following two things: (1) allowing a previously contracted event to remain and (2) trying to whitewash campus and destroy Wesleyan's weirdness as has been implied.
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