Frustration is boiling over at Northeastern University after the annual Springfest concert was cancelled in the wake of the Super Bowl riots that resulted in the death of the 21-year-old brother of a Northeastern student.
“Student morale is at a striking low on campus,” said Tom Kneafsey, Northeastern student and president of the Council for University Programs, which planned the concert. “It’s been a very hard year here.”
A few days before Northeastern’s spring break started on Feb. 28, the school’s president, Richard Freeland, “postponed” the concert, which was to bring Ludacris and Jurassic 5 to the school on April 2. In a press release, Freeland recognized the hard work student leaders put into organizing the concert, but he also noted that “timing is everything in life” and Northeastern is currently “being widely criticized for the irresponsible behavior that followed the Patriots’ Super Bowl victory.”
Council of Undergraduate Planning Concert Chairman Josh Pratt said students were disappointed by the cancellation.
“Students wanted a great event,” he said. “There’s no way to replace that concert.”
Even after Northeastern’s spring break, Pratt said emotions had not died down.
“There’s more frustration on campus,” he said. “I don’t think you can ease that frustration. So much work was just washed away.”
Pratt suggested that freshmen probably do not fully comprehend the disappointment felt by upperclassmen who look forward to Springfest each year.
“Seniors are really upset because the last couple of Springfests have been great,” he said. “They don’t have a next year.”
According to a poll posted on The Northeastern News website, the school’s student newspaper, 75 percent of respondents said the cancellation was “totally uncalled for.”
“Students are angered by this,” Pratt said, “which they should be.”
Springfest was organized as a unifying event for the Northeastern community to make students feel more connected to their school, Kneafsey said.
“I would hope the fact that the situation has gotten so desperate is reason enough to take a step back, come together and repair the school,” he said. “But after the concert mess, I don’t think people are going to come around very easily.”
Northeastern spokeswoman Christine Phelan said now is a time for students to do “a little soul searching” and not a time for a large-scale rap concert.
Phelan also disputed some students’ argument that concert was cancelled because Ludacris was performing.
“It had nothing to do with the nature of the music,” she said. “It had everything to do with timing.”
Students showed their discontent by protesting outside a Northeastern-planned Mardi Gras event and at a forum held by Freeland following the cancellation, Phelan said.
“Students were pretty voracious in their disappointment,” she said.
The event was cancelled in response to the negative attention Northeastern has received recently, Phelan said.
“We couldn’t march along merrily as if nothing happened,” Phelan said. “We have to show students are responsible for their behavior, act according and punish them.”
Kneafsey said he has no idea who will replace the big name acts when the council gets the go ahead to start planning again. The council is considering different ways to spend the $195,000 that was allocated specifically for the concert.
“We’re running with the idea of incorporating the community into whatever we decide to do,” he said. “We are not going to replace the Ludacris concert. It would send the wrong message.”
The university has formed a community task force that includes student leaders, alumni, parents and administrators. The group is charged with improving university-neighborhood relations, evaluating what went wrong on Super Bowl Sunday, preventing similar incidents and changing the “campus climate within the students to a more neighborhood-friendly mentality,” Kneafsey said.
Anti-drinking programs will also be increased in the coming weeks, Phelan said.