In response to last week’s Staff Editorial titled “Get Rid of NACA,” there are a few clarifications. The mission statement of the National Association for Campus Activities is “to link the higher education and entertainment communities in a business and learning partnership, creating educational and business opportunities for our student and professional members.” The clear goal of NACA is to bring students and campus programmers directly to artists, performers and their agents. Lawrence greatly benefits from this interaction, especially during the multi-day regional conference held in the spring every year.
A large portion of SOUP’s budget is authorized in advance of the spring NACA conference so we can commit to contracts on site and save significant dollars on programming. By utilizing NACA and working collaboratively with other colleges and universities, our programming board receives discounts from performers and artists that would otherwise not be available. We are not bound to spend those dollars only on NACA acts, but book acts we feel are best suited to our campus needs. NACA brings together more than a thousand schools and thousands of performers and artists from all over the nation, not just the Midwestern region. Artist Austin Willacy, who performed in January, was booked through an agency in New York, and the Kinsey Sicks were booked through a San Francisco agent. NACA has helped establish nationwide contacts and has opened numerous negotiating opportunities beyond what would be possible for a small school such as Lawrence, and has launched the careers of many performers.
The goals of the programming boards across campus are to bring diverse, inspiring and unique acts that would appeal to campus. Money that is spent at NACA is directly spent by students on events that they choose. Specifically, by using various programming models, SOUP brings successful acts to campus at a highly discounted rate. If you are interested in NACA or programming, SOUP meets every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Sage Basement and all student input is considered and welcomed.With regards,
Kat Kaszpurenko
SOUP
Letter to the Editor
