SCU Presents: The Student Art Revolution
Photo personnel: Isa Montes Source: Diego Acevedo
Campus concerts, dance performances and theater productions put on by the SCU presents performing arts center will all be free for students this year thanks to the work of undergraduates, the Associated Student Government (ASG) and faculty.
During spring quarter of last year, now-senior music major Simon Lanzoni began advocating for the change after noticing a lack of student attendance at Professor Carl Shultz’s spring concert.
“I was super stoked because he was doing jazz arrangements of Radiohead tunes for $14,” said Lanzoni. “But when I went, there were 20 people, max.”
The next morning in Professor Bill Stevens’s musicianship class, Lanzoni remembers talking about how amazing the concert was, but that ticket prices were extreme.
“We knew something needed to be done,” said Lanzoni. “We thought a petition might be a good place to start, so I made it as soon as I got home and the project took off from there.”
The petition gathered over 500 signatures in a few days and garnered the support of the student body, faculty and members of ASG.
“I was talking to Simon, who flat-out said the concert should be free,” said Stevens. “I told him that the music faculty completely agrees with him and we’ve been asking to be heard for a long time, but it's not up to us. This needs to come from you – student voices need to be heard.”
Following Stevens’s advice and with the aid of current chair of the music department, Dr. Scot Hanna-Weir, Lanzoni spread word of the petition around campus, collecting signatures primarily from students and faculty within the music department.
As his petition grew more popular, Lanzoni partnered with Santa Clara’s ASG to design a solution. First-year senator Gracie James-Hickey and previous class senator Evan Fine drafted an open letter highlighting numerous issues with the SCU Presents system to put before the rest of the senate.
“The system was frankly, quite classist,” said James-Hickey. “$14 is not feasible for any college student.”
Once the open letter was passed unanimously by ASG’s Senate, it was sent to administration and ultimately an agreement was reached to have a trial period for the 2023-24 school year. The trial period grants students free admission to all performing arts performances through SCU Presents, and depending on student response, is subject to change in future school years. If substantial student interest is shown, the change may become permanent.
“It’s so important that we push the arts to the attention of all students on campus,” said Lanzoni. “There's so many communities of people on campus that are pouring everything they have into these various disciplines and it's really important that these people be supported.