Chance the Rapper could come to UNC (come on, Carol)

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story misstated the name of student's government's civic engagement committee chairperson. The chairperson is Drake Buxton. A previous version of the story also misstated one of the groups collaborating with student government. The group is NC PIRG. The Daily Tar Heel apologizes for the errors.

Student government is taking a serious chance in their letter to Chancellor Carol Folt. 

Vice President Sam Green dropped off a letter to Folt yesterday asking her to ask Chance the Rapper to perform on campus for a Rock the Vote concert and promote voter registration. 

"I’m expecting a response from maybe her secretary or her assistant or herself tomorrow," Green said. "She was pretty busy with Board of Trustee initiatives today.”

The UNC Young Democrats applied for UNC to become a concert site for Rock the Vote, a nonpartisan nonprofit focused on registering young voters. For the group, Chance the Rapper seemed like a perfect fit for the cause, which he already supports during his Magnificent Coloring World Tour. 

The Rock the Vote concert will feature performances from several a cappella groups and free food for attendees. But the Young Democrats are looking to add Chance to their lineup. 

“It was published somewhere that Chance the Rapper is partnering with the NAACP and giving out voter registration forms at his concerts. We have made a lot of contact with other artists and been unsuccessful due to approaching deadlines and wanted a big push to try and get him since he seemed like he might be interested in a civically minded event,” said junior Drake Buxton, who serves as the civic engagement committee chairperson for student government. 

“And our best chance of getting him there — pun completely intended — would be our strongest voice, which is Chancellor Folt,” she said. 

The concert is less than three weeks away, and several campus organizations have banded together to organize the event. 

“Student government is collaborating with CUAB, NC PIRG, NPHC, (National Pan-Hellenic Council) — Pan Hel — IFC, Young Democrats, College Republicans, Campus Y, GPSF (Graduate Professional Student Federation) and RHA to try and put on the event in a really quick deadline, so we all decided to approach her asking her to ask him in a letter,” said Buxton.

The end goal of the concert isn’t just to register students, but to get them excited about voting.

“I think students will be very excited about that because this election year has made a lot of students care about what will be going in in the election," Green said. "So whether he’s there or not we’re going to try to do the best we can to make sure there’s going to be events there, there’s going to be a lot of people registered to vote, there’s going to be a lot of education here."

Chance’s tour schedule puts him in Raleigh on Oct. 7 and Atlanta on Oct. 8, but Oct. 9 is wide open. Even if he can’t make it, the organizers are still looking at other options.

“Young Democrats earlier in the year reached out to around 700 people ranging from Third Eye Blind to Beyoncé. And a lot of it is just $200k performance fees that would make that a difficult turnaround, but we’re still working on reaching out to other people, from James Taylor all the way across the board to Wiz Khalifa,” Buxton said.

The event will come together with or without Chance, but sophomore Derek Mann is optimistic about the rapper showing up. 

“It’s legitimate, because I know Chance the Rapper did a concert at the University of Delaware pretty recently. I live back in Delaware, so I heard a lot about that," Mann said. 

"I think it’s definitely possible.”

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