Cabrera offers free concert during Welcome Week

In an intimate performance in Ganz Hall, pop star Ryan Cabrera put on a free concert on campus Friday, Sept. 3, as part of SPEED's Welcome Week for students.

Donning a black dress shirt, gray vest, and rolled blue pants, the spiky-haired singer was accompanied by a single acoustic guitarist. Only a few rows in the back of the hall remained open, with most the crowd consisting of females cheering and singing along with most of Cabrera's songs.

Sara Sicking, SPEED's program director, wanted to get a popular artist to perform as the school year started.

"We wanted to get a little bit of a well-known person on campus for welcome week," she said. "Somebody that students may have heard of before. He was just recently on [the MTV show] ‘The Hills.'"

Center for Student Involvement coordinator Jarquetta Egeston thought bringing Cabrera to Roosevelt was a good idea. "She [Sicking] felt that if we brought a big-name entertainer to campus that it would be something that makes students proud our school is sponsoring this thing."

Such free events are possible for students due in part to the university student activity fee. "Every student pays $25, and that money goes toward student programming," said Egeston.

Egeston explained that at the end of the fiscal year, which is usually Sept. 1, the university takes 85 percent of total enrollment and allocates money to the student activity fee allocation committee, which is SAFAC and SPEED.

Egeston said the university uses 85 percent because school officials know that students could withdraw from school at any point; in the case that the money is returned to the students, she said they underestimate how much students will receive and therefore do it at 85 percent.

While Egeston could not divulge any information on the cost of bringing Cabrera to Roosevelt because of negotiations with his agent, she did say that Cabrera was performing at another school in the area and travel costs were therefore lower.  

"He worked out great," said Sicking. "Booking him worked out smoothly, and we didn't have any problems. It's been really great. He's really nice, too and has been talking with us the whole time."

Business major and Ryan Cabrera fan John Stevenson was excited on getting Cabrera on campus.

"I've been going here for several years, and I think this is probably one of the better things that they've done for welcome-back week," he said.