By Helen Stevenson

Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the Office for Student Involvement (OSI) have removed Soulja Boy from CAB’s Spring Weekend lineup, following his recent arrest. According to TMZ, the rapper was arrested for a weapons violation during a routine check-in with his probation officer.

“After careful consideration, the Campus Activities Board has decided to remove Soulja Boy from the Spring Weekend concert lineup,” said Kathryn Teaney, FCRH ’19 and CAB president, in a statement. “We want to reassure our fellow students that we considered every side of this decision as well as their larger implications.”

Cody Arcuri, assistant dean for Student Involvement, said the office has been discussing the recent events with CAB and supports its decision to remove Soulja Boy from the lineup.

According to Teaney, Soulja Boy’s confirmation was the earliest release of a Spring Weekend performer in recent history. She said the unconventional build up to this year’s concert allowed the university community to watch Soulja Boy’s “resurgence” in the media, all with the concert in mind.

“We valued Soulja Boy as an exciting part of our Spring Weekend programming, and we’re sad to have to remove him from our lineup,” she said.

However, Teaney said, CAB is working to secure a different artist to perform in Soulja Boy’s place.

“We apologize to everyone who was excited for Soulja Boy to perform, but we assure you that the Spring weekend concert is on track to be another entertaining performance by popular artists we have already confirmed,” she said.

Teaney emphasized CAB’s goal to provide social, cultural, educational, informational and alcohol-alternative programming to the university community.

“We work countless hours to properly represent the students’ interests while programming safe, successful, and mostly free events for the student body,” she said. “We are a group of students programming for the students and we hope that you’ll understand our reasons for having to remove this artist from our lineup.”

According to Spring Weekend Concert co-chairs, Madeline Cialani, FCRH ’20, and Elizabeth Roberts, FCRH ’19, the decision to remove Soulja Boy was made without their approval.

“As hard as we fought for the students to keep him, the CAB President and OSI terminated the contract without our knowledge,” they said. “We are extremely disappointed in the actions taken this past week, but are doing our best to ensure that the concert is still one to remember.”

Despite their disappointment, Cialani and Roberts said they are still looking forward to a successful Spring Weekend concert.

“We are proud of the concert we have put together and cannot wait for Spring Weekend,” they said. “See you all on the 27th.”