Ever hear of the Generics? Sketchup? The Weekday Players, Kol Sasson, The Bureau or Erasable Inc? Student performance groups abound on the campus and amateur production has become a bit of a tradition here at the university. Whether it’s plays or songs, almost every Terp has experienced some sort of student show in College Park. We should consider ourselves lucky to have such a rich tradition. As most educators will tell you, the arts are a vital part of a full education. That tradition, though, is in danger. And it might cost you.
Last spring, the university received the green light from the Maryland General Assembly to renovate the Tawes Fine Arts building. The English department needed a new, modern workspace, and Tawes was the perfect target. In the past few years, the administration has viewed the antiquated Tawes performance space as redundant in light of the freshly finished Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center.
The neat and tidy renewal plan overlooked one thing, though. The Main Stage Theater, Blackbox “Experimental” Theater and countless classrooms of Tawes served as prime rehearsal and performance spaces for the numerous singing, dance and performance groups on the campus. All but the Main Stage was free of charge to use and hardly ever occupied. A courteous request usually entitled student groups to unlimited use of the building’s resources and space. Destroying that space would evict the dozens of student groups that flocked to Tawes like squatters to gold.
And so, on July 1, 2007, the frontier closed. Tawes was roped off and the general public was barred from entering the building. The bohemian student groups on the campus were left with one viable performance space: CSPAC. CSPAC, however, was not designed with student groups in mind.
Forget the nightmare that is squeezing every student group, Off-Center CSPAC production, Main-Stage CSPAC production and class-assigned performance groups into the five CSPAC rehearsal rooms. Focus instead on the fiscal disaster that performing in CSPAC presents student groups. Plainly put, CSPAC is expensive. The cheapest performance space costs $300 a day to rent, not including labor or custodial fees. CSPAC was not designed to be an all-purpose, cheap solution for the campus like Tawes was. This means student groups must suddenly come up with more money to pay for rental fees they have never paid in the past.
This is where you come in. You see, these student groups get their money just like any other student group: The SGA funding process. More groups uniformly needing more money in their budgets spells out a huge problem. Do these groups get their budget increases, possibly at the expense of your student group’s budget? Or are these groups destined to be left out in the cold through no fault of their own? Then again, everyone can pocket the money they need if we jack up the student activity fee.
I think the answer lies in compromise. CSPAC already shows it understands the plight of high prices and low budgets by offering special, lower rates for on-campus groups. Of course $300 a day may not be low enough. Perhaps a week or two can be set aside during each semester in CSPAC as a special “Student Group Holiday”? Groups would be invited to perform in CSPAC during a designated period at severely discounted rental rates. At the same time, student groups would have to submit to CSPAC’s schedule in order to rehearse and perform. By grouping all the performances together at the same time, CSPAC would be able to match its offer of lower rental rates with times that rental revenue naturally slows. It would also ensure that the performance calendar remains steady and manageable. If successful, the holiday could even become a traditional performance festival.
However it’s dealt with, we must protect our wealth of innovative student groups. They not only provide an entertaining service to our campus population, but they serve as an outlet for the creative minds of hundreds of students at the university in College Park. To let them wither away would embody the true meaning of tragedy.
Daniel Kobrin is a senior government and politics major. He can be reached at dkobrin@umd.edu.
