Even though the Sept. 21 Cage the Elephant concert was free and open to the public, someone had to pay for travel, stage hands and production.

Up front, the Campus Activities Board covered the expenses. But when the Student Government Association became involved as a co-sponsor, it was decided that the organizations would each cover half of the costs.

SGA President Billy Stephens said the executive cabinet took $5,000 from the executive discretionary money, which is at SGA’s disposal. Senate approval isn’t needed to use that money, Stephens said.

However, SGA also wanted to take some money out of senate funding, which did need approval. The bill approving funding stated that SGA could allocate $3,000 of senate funding for the concert.

The bill was passed Tuesday night, almost a week after the concert.

Stephens said the bill came up after the concert because there wasn’t a rush for funding. CAB had already paid up front for the concert, which also featured bands Manchester Orchestra and Thee Japanese Schoolgirls.

Stephens wanted to give the senate a full week to look over the bill since it was the “first dip into senate funding.”

SGA ended up only using about $2,500 of senate funding.

Stephens said that if the senate hadn’t approved the bill, it would have been in a “tight grind.”

The bands did not make any profit from the concert.

Stephens considered the concert a success.

“I think it was one of the best PR successes the Student Government Association’s had for quite some time,” he said. “Not only were we able to get students engaged, but we were able to make it a community-wide aspect.”

Administrative Vice President Devon Hilderbrandt said SGA wanted to co-sponsor the concert to “start off the year with a bang.”

 “The band was really interested as well in doing a free show — a hometown show,” said Chief of Staff Katie Stillwell. “So we wanted to support them however we could.”