The University of Idaho provides a number of free and low-cost events for students, faculty, staff and community members that are rare in other areas, but many students do not always take advantage of these opportunities.
Philip Vukelich | Argonaut Childish Gambino performs for students Wednesday in the Kibbie Dome. The concert was free for students and was part of 2012 Finals Fest hosted by Vandal Entertainment. Approximately 3,500 attendees filled the Kibbie Dome floor, and ASUI Vandal Entertainment paid $35,000 to bring Gambino to the University of Idaho.
The cost to host these events varies, but it is rare for UI’s Moscow campus to go a week without an event produced by one of the university’s departments or ASUI’s Vandal Entertainment. Additionally, spaces on campus such as the Kibbie Dome and Student Union Building ballroom allow UI to generate revenue by renting them for events unrelated to the university.
University groups host the Lionel Hampton International Jazz Festival, Palousafest, Finals Fest, various cultural events, the Borah Symposium and a variety of Vandal Entertainment events such as comedians, musicians, movies and magic acts.
Many of these events are hosted in the ASUI Kibbie Dome. Tyson Drew, Kibbie Dome manager for University Support Services, said the Dome comes with a number of fees but student groups are never charged a base facility fee for use of the Dome.
“Because we receive student fees we don’t charge student groups a facility rental,” Drew said. “For example for Finals Fest we’re not charging Vandal Entertainment a facility fee for the concert but we will pass through our expenses to them, so whatever our labor is and our CMS charges are … we’ll pass that on.”
On-campus student groups pay $100 per hour or $2,000 for full-day use of the Dome. The price jumps to $200 per hour or $3,000 for the day for off-campus groups.
Drew said University Support Services negotiates with groups for the cost of their event and said events such as the second Ron Paul speech are good money-makers for the university.
Drew said University Support Services hires out for services such as crowd management and lighting and passes those expenses on to the group hosting the event.
Events such as Wednesday’s Final’s Fest performance with rap artist Childish Gambino are hosted by Vandal Entertainment and take up a large portion of their $250,000 budget that is made up entirely of student fees.
tertainment receives $13 dollars per student from the dedicated student activity fee.
Christina Kerns, ASUI Student Engagement coordinator, said Vandal Entertainment aims to keep the events they host accessible to students.
“Prior to this year the only thing we were selling tickets to were our movies and as of this year we’re not even charging for those. We haven’t ticketed any of our events this year … our events this year are 100 percent free for students,” Kerns said. “Going forward for the next academic year Vandal Entertainment has decided they are going to do fewer events and spend more money on each event so they can get slightly bigger names. It’s still not the kind of money that would bring people that are on the radio but hopefully we can increase attendance.”
Kerns said contracting fees for performers are the main costs for Vandal Entertainment.
“The contracting process has skyrocketed in recent years, so we do what’s called all-inclusive contracting,” Kerns said. “We contract at a price that’s agreeable for them to handle their own travel … that way we don’t end up as travel agents. As travel prices go up, our contracting prices continue to go up. Even for a low-cost event that contract is probably at least $1,000.”
Aaron Mayhugh, head of campus events for University Support Services, said the cost to host an event depends on what is being hosted and what the group needs to produce the event, but labor costs for on-campus venues are the same regardless of who hosts the function.
“Labor costs are the same no matter who our client is, but the resources — because we benefit from other institutions purchasing stuff — we kick that back in a savings on what their rate is for any given item that we rent to them,” Mayhugh said. “And that’s where the cost savings are is in the line-item rental items because my labor costs don’t change if it’s University of Idaho or Moscow High School.”
Line-item rentals include tables and chairs, sound systems and lighting, canopies and curtains, podiums and other items necessary to produce an event.
Off-campus groups pay a slight mark-up for these items, the revenue from which goes back into the dome and other facilities, Drew said.
“We have a slight mark-up on our resources and basically the facility fees are set up so that at the end of the year we pretty much will break even,” Mayhugh said. “That mark-up covers those spaces in our year where we don’t have anyone coming in wanting to use the space … that’s an attempt to cover the labor costs to keep staff on that are available for us when we do have events. Essentially if we get any extra money at the end of the year it gets taken back into the general fund.”
The general fund supports all aspects of UI.
Kaitlyn Krasselt can be reached at [email protected]