The cancellation of a concert scheduled for last night has raised questions about advertising, planning and perhaps most importantly, race-based decision-making in the minds of members of the University community.
The University Union's Major Attractions Committee had planned to bring Jeru -- The Damaja and Black Moon, two popular hip-hop groups, to Page Auditorium on Sunday. Union officials say poor ticket sales made holding the concert financially impossible.
"We feel there wasn't enough interest at this time to go ahead," said Trinity senior Heath Marcus, Union president. As of Nov. 28, the day following the Thanksgiving break, 39 tickets had been sold for the concert.
"It was the financially responsible decision to make," said Beth Budd, assistant dean for University life and an adviser to the Union.
"It was getting to the point where [projected losses] would jeopardize programming for the entire year," she said, adding that this is the first time in her eight-year tenure at the University that a concert was canceled due to poor ticket sales.
This is also the first time the Union has sponsored a hip-hop, hard-core rap performance on campus.
Trinity junior Milan Selassie, Duke Student Government vice president for student affairs and a major planner of the concert, alleges ticket sales may not have been the only deciding issue. "A lot of students told me that there was racism behind [the Union's] actions," Selassie said.
"I think it's tragic that the University didn't give the concert a chance to sell," he said, pointing out that tickets were only on sale for a week--one that was interrupted by the Thanksgiving break.
Selassie said the Union will lose $8,000 dollars in contract fees, a figure that he thought could have been easily made up by extending sales a few more days.
Several people have questioned the Union's advertising. "I think it was poor planning on their behalf," said Trinity junior Allison Phaire, Black Student Alliance vice president for internal affairs. "Maybe they didn't push it as much as they should have."
Phaire added that the Union did not do mass advertising for the Oktoberfest De la Soul rap concert either.
Budd said that this is common practice for Oktoberfest bands, citing the ad campaign for Dave Matthews Band's Oktoberfest appearance one year ago. "It's not the kind of band that's the issue here," she said.
Trinity sophomore Sterling Ray, who helped publicize Sunday's proposed concert, disagreed. "I do feel that there was some hesitant behavior on the part of Duke that wouldn't be there for other events," he said.
Union officials deny that race played any role. "I think it's ignorant of people to say race was an issue in cancelling this concert," said Trinity sophomore Andrew Fechner, chair of Major Attractions.
Fechner added that by making the decision to cancel Sunday's show when they did, the Union was able to save about $5,500 in production costs. "We would have needed several hundred people showing up at the door to make the concert economically possible," Fechner said.
Lawrence Mopkins, a North Carolina Central University senior whose band was slated to open the concert, said they could have expected a high turnout. "A lot of students wanted to go to the concert."
Although Budd said that the Union expected door sales to be high, there was not enough evidence to take the financial risk of holding the show.
Tickets went on sale at Page Box Office Nov. 21 and were available off campus starting Nov. 22 at Poindexter Records in Durham and Schoolkids Records in Raleigh.
Selassie expressed regret that Poindexter was chosen as the only off campus sales spot in Durham, saying that NCCU students do not frequent Ninth Street, where the store is located.
"We couldn't locate a place in time at NCCU because this is something new to us," Fechner said, citing the Union's prior relationship with the Poindexter store.
Selassie and Fechner had originally agreed to target some advertising at NCCU students. But Fechner said that Selassie was responsible for ensuring that publicity took place in the NCCU area. "For one reason or another, he didn't make it there," Fechner said.
Selassie and Ray said that fliers were put up on and around the NCCU campus. "The fliers came out a little late, but they did notice them," Mopkins said.
Budd said that because this was the Union's first hip hop concert, they relied on advice that word-of-mouth publicity in addition to posters and fliers would be sufficient to attract a good crowd for the concert.
"For some reason that didn't work well for us this time, so next time, we'll try it a little differently," she said. "I don't look at this as a wasted experience or wasted money."
Budd added that the Union is attempting to salvage the effort, as well as recoup some money, by perhaps bringing one of the groups to a site such as the Coffeehouse next semester. But Selassie was pessimistic. With a maximum capacity of 300, he said the Coffeehouse could not raise enough money in ticket sales to woo "a decent rap artist."
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