{"id":7939,"date":"2016-10-27T18:41:40","date_gmt":"2016-10-27T18:41:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/jsuflash\/?p=7939"},"modified":"2016-10-27T18:41:40","modified_gmt":"2016-10-27T18:41:40","slug":"update-concert-concerns-addressed-by-academic-and-student-affairs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/2016\/10\/27\/update-concert-concerns-addressed-by-academic-and-student-affairs\/","title":{"rendered":"[UPDATE] Concert concerns addressed by Academic and Student Affairs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>William H. Kelly III
\n<\/strong>Editor-In-Chief<\/em><\/p>\n

After learning that the Homecoming concert featuring artists Lil\u2019 Wayne and 2Chainz was cancelled, students at Jackson State University wanted to know what went wrong.<\/p>\n

In wake of all the uproar surrounding the cancellation, SGA President Kendall Bunch wants students to remain positive.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are disappointed by the cancelled concert but we are working to ensure that the remainder of Homecoming is a success for our student body,\u201d said Bunch.<\/p>\n

Arron Richardson, interim director of disability services\/ADA, spoke with The Blue & White Flash to explain what happened.<\/p>\n

According to Richardson, approximately 500 tickets were sold.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do want the JSU audience to know that in order for us to have great shows of this caliber, we need our students to get behind us and make a conscience effort in getting and buying tickets,\u201d said Richardson.<\/p>\n

Richardson explained that funds from the Campus Activity Board were used to pay the promoter and to also purchase 1000 tickets given to students who participated in the canned food drive.<\/p>\n

\u201cJackson State has a plan in place to recoup those funds. If you take a look at our track record, all of the shows that we\u2019ve put on the past, our artists have come and we also have had no problems with the promoter. Would I say we crossed all our T\u2019s and dotted our I\u2019s, I would say no, but we wanted to give students a great show and that was always the plan,\u201d Richardson stated.<\/p>\n

The concert confusion began approximately three weeks ago when posters advertising the event were taken off social media and other campus outlets. Rumors surfaced at that time that the concert was cancelled. The Flash then discovered an unsolicited copy of the contract with the promoter, Marcell Morton, under the door of the newsroom office. After contacting Student Affairs staff Richardson and Vivian Fuller, assistant vice president for Student Affairs, the Flash was assured that the concert would be held. Later that week, posters appeared again with the concert date moved from Friday, Oct. 28 to Tuesday, Oct. 25.<\/p>\n

Once again however, social media rumors surfaced that the concert would not take place as scheduled. On the evening of Oct. 24, Lil Wayne posted a picture of the concert flyer with the word cancelled across it<\/a>, sparking many student concerns that the concert was off.\u00a0 On Tuesday, Oct. 25, the day of the concert, University officials released a statement confirming the cancellation of the concert via social medi<\/a>a.<\/p>\n

Richardson stated: \u201cWe never wanted to cancel the concert. We understand that all of our students at Jackson State want and deserve a concert and Academic and Student Affairs wanted to give the students not only a good concert but a great concert, but unfortunately the promoter didn\u2019t meet his end of the deal in closing the artists with payments.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson added: \u201cMr. Marcell Morton was not totally honest with us in the beginning but we wanted to give the students the show and the plan was to give students the show up until Monday when the artists didn\u2019t receive the last payment. In good faith, Mr. Morton sent the artists money, so when you send artists a substantial amount of money you are intending that the rest of the money will come.\u00a0 If you Google search him (Morton), there are shows that did not happen but there are also shows that did happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the contract, the promoter, Marcell Morton, who has previous and ongoing lawsuits for cancelled events and concerts, is associated with Events Experts LLC. Under the list of duties and obligations on the contract it states that Morton, \u201cis responsible for securing the Artist and Venue. In addition, the promoter is responsible for creating, organizing, coordinating, and broadcasting and\/or dissemination of all advertising materials promoting the event to the public.<\/p>\n

The Promoter is also responsible for onsite management of the event which includes ticket sales and the handling, control, custody and keeping of said receipts\/proceeds there from until their disbursement at time of Settlement.\u201d<\/p>\n

It also states under the Miscellaneous section that \u201cIf the Event is canceled due to circumstances not under the direct or immediate control of the Promoter, Co-Promoter shall be entitled to a full return of his services from the party or parties responsible for the Event\u2019s cancellation\u2026Promoter shall return Co-Promoter\u2019s ticket purchases in full.\u201d<\/p>\n

Richardson stated the university is moving forward with recouping the funds given to Morton and putting a plan in place to make sure issues like this do not reoccur.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is our intention moving forward to make it right with the students, however that may be. We have met and we wanted to let the students know that we want to give them a great Homecoming and that\u2019s the plan and I know sometimes when you are trying to make it right with students that whatever you are trying to do may spill over Homecoming,\u201d said Richardson.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWe want the students to know that we are here to support them, we want them to have a great Homecoming, we want the football team to win, we want a victory, and we want to end Homecoming on a good note.\u201d Richardson ended by saying, \u201cWe will not let this happen again on our watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many students on campus expressed<\/a> disappointment and embarrassment for the University regarding the concert cancellation.<\/p>\n

Brooke Felix, a sophomore biology major from Gulfport, Miss. said, \u201cI am highly disappointed. It is also very embarrassing to the school\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other students stated that after receiving information just last week on Founders\u2019 Day that the school was facing financial issues, this news was another blow to students\u2019 already low morale.<\/p>\n

Eddreka Gillem, a senior biology major from Leland, Miss. said, \u201cWe are just taking L after L, I was really looking forward to the concert.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ryun Moore, a sophomore computer science major from Jackson, Miss. said, \u201cIt is a big disappointment to the student body of JSU. We are headlining enough and this really makes us look bad.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Oct. 26, students were informed via email and social media that Jackson State University<\/a> will give refunds to students who purchased tickets for the Homecoming concert inside the Lee E. Williams Athletic and Assembly Center (AAC) on the main campus between 1-4 p.m. Students had to show proof of purchase by showing the ticket.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

William H. Kelly III Editor-In-Chief After learning that the Homecoming concert featuring artists Lil\u2019 Wayne and 2Chainz was cancelled, students at Jackson State University wanted to know what went wrong. In wake of all the uproar surrounding the cancellation, SGA President Kendall Bunch wants students to remain positive. \u201cWe are disappointed by the cancelled concert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-7939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-campus-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7939\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.jsums.edu\/theflash\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}