Black Student Commission Concert

At a glance

Status: Completed

This concert aims to create a culturally relevant and unifying space for the University of Washington community, particularly… Read full summary

Funding received
2023-2024
Grant type
Small
Awarded
$5,000
Funding partners
  • Services and Activities Fee (SAF)

This concert aims to create a culturally relevant and unifying space for the University of Washington community, particularly uplifting the Black student demographic. With a small Black population on campus, many of whom face limited opportunities to engage in broader campus activities, this event serves as a vital platform to foster connection, morale, and inclusivity.  

The concert will feature a popular artist in a larger venue, providing an opportunity for students to feel connected to their campus and each other. By organizing this event, we strive to attract and retain Black students while demonstrating the University’s commitment to diversity and inclusion through meaningful and sustainable campus experiences.

The purpose of the event is to bring the entire UW campus together by hosting an artist that is appealing to the student body. Last year we hosted a concert for the very first time in Meany Hall, bringing out artist Mariah the Scientist. We sold out all 1200 seats! Based on the immense interest, we knew that conducting this event at a larger venue would garner even more success. For this reason, we are making efforts to not only book a more popular artist but provide a larger space for people to congregate. Doing this will allow us to attract both the audience from last year and the students who may not have had the opportunity or knowledge to attend the previous concert. We want to use this concert as a space where students feel connected to their campus and community. 

By organizing a consistent event we can appeal to students who are yet to come, demonstrating unity and sustainability within campus life. Unfortunately, this is an extremely costly task and nearly impossible to do on the BSC budget alone. We have been working on fundraising a total of $82,000 and are already at $47,000! With your help, we will be closer to putting on one of the most successful events this campus has seen by a student body. Like stated on the Sustainability Action Plan, "We all have a part to play", and ours is to facilitate healthy positive spaces for the black students on campus.

The project involves these departments:
Office of Minority and Diversity, President's office, Office of Student Life
  • Rickey Hall

    Project support

    rickey1@uw.edu
    Affiliation and department
    OMAD
  • Denzel Suite

    Project support

    slvp@uw.edu
    Affiliation and department
    Student Life

Request amount and budget

Total amount requested: $5,000
Budget administrator: Kim Jones

Plans for financial longevity

n/a

By March 21st: Have all money together
Between March and April: Have all set-up crews together and paid for/Artist paid for
Beginning of May: Set up for concert, barriers, Artist performs

Plans for long-term project management

After the funding ends, we will have showcased the artist and openers. We hope that this fund paves a way to make this concert a tradition that every year can help put on.

Problem statement

We would use this fund and put it towards setting up of stage on Red Square. We have ran into problems this year funding this concert, but we still want to cater to our audience on this campus by bringing a larger artist out. With this fund, it would go towards supplies to set up the stage ie. barricades and technical setup for sounds.

Problem context

We answered yes for the University's Diversity Blueprint because after reading through all the goals, we see correlating themes of trying to uplift our diverse campus through different mediums. We need spaces like this concert to boost morale and unify the Black demographic of campus through culturally relevant spaces. In particular "Attract and Retain Academic Personnel", The University of Washington features a small Black population many of which are athletes that often don't get the chance to be involved in general campus affairs making the population much smaller than listed. With a demographic so small and a University attempting to attract more Black students in an effort to increase diversity the concert is the perfect opportunity to attract AND retain such a small population.

Communication tactics and tools

We would mostly communicate through email, phone calls and how to crowd serf this information to the public, social media like instagram and tiktok.

Outreach communication plan

We will do as much outreach to all communities to make it known that this event is going on. We want to hit all space in the black community, LGBTQ community, international community and the administration community.

Student involvement

The interns and commissioner would be volunteering to organize everything and have paid work for the people setting up on the day of this event.

Categories

  • Art
  • Diversity and Equity
  • Student Groups