Members of the Northwestern Community Ensemble have spent the past months preparing for their biggest gospel concert of the year, but questions regarding how the group distributed tickets may cast a shadow over the event.
Saturday’s concert, called “Bless Me Indeed,” begins at 7 p.m. at Cahn Auditorium and will feature Grammy-nominated singer Karen Clark Sheard. The ensemble received $19,165 from the Student Activities Finance Board during spring funding toward the event, as well as an additional $840 in fall supplemental funding.
Fliers for the concert advertise that free tickets can be picked up at Norris University Center as well as at two community locations that could land the group in hot water: Hours of Peace Bookstore and Moody Bible Institute. Guidelines for A-status groups, which receive funding from the Student Activities Fee, call for NU students to have the first shot at tickets.
“It’s been an unspoken rule that since students pay the Student Activities Fee, they should be the ones benefitting from the Student Activities Fee,” said Erica Williamson, Associated Student Government’s new financial vice president and a McCormick junior.
Williamson said she discussed the ticketing matter with representatives from the ensemble during its group audit Thursday night. She declined to comment on any potential action that SAFB may take against the group.
Adrienne Moore, NCE coordinator, also declined to comment on the ensemble’s ticketing policy or Thursday’s audit. She emphasized that NCE still is “very excited” for Saturday’s concert and that additional tickets will be available at the door.
Moody Bible Institute, 820 North LaSalle in Chicago, refers to itself on its Web site as “an inter-denominational higher-education Christian organization that seeks to serve Christ.” A spokeswoman said Thursday that she was unaware whether NCE had distributed tickets on its grounds.
NCE also faced Associated Student Government scrutiny in March 2002. At the time of the ensemble’s winter gospel concert, which drew a crowd of 600 people, members of ASG’s Executive Committee analyzed the group’s mission to determine whether it functioned as a cultural or religious group. ASG does not recognize religious groups but does fund groups with a cultural focus.
“(NCE says) that they’re a cultural group and that African-American culture is fused with religion, but if you can’t separate that, then you can’t be recognized and should go to the chaplain’s office for funding,” former ASG Executive Vice President Srikanth Reddy told The Daily last year.
Reddy’s Executive Committee then worked with ensemble leaders to remove some of the religious language from their mission statement and shift the group back toward a cultural focus.
