If the loss of student ticket sales doesn’t hurt the Associated Students of the University of Utah’s budget-as Alexandra Gregory, special programs chairwoman for the Associated Students of the University of Utah (and, in the interest of full disclosure, a Chronicle A&E writer) alleged when it was announced that tickets to Sarah Jones would be free-ASUU shouldn’t have been charging students for these events to begin with.

After claiming that financial discretion was necessary to compensate for last year’s Presenter’s Office’s squandering of its reserve fund, the one-woman show was opened to all students. The decision was made after only seven tickets were sold as of Friday.

Obviously it didn’t help matters that marketing efforts were so lackluster. Advertising began just a week and a half in advance, with ASUU’s usual brand of artsy, weird posters that aren’t effective at communicating to passing students.

But that’s hardly the crux of the problem. In years past, ASUU administrations gained a positive reputation after putting on free, fun events that lent marketability to their efforts in selling student tickets. It’s clear that this year’s administration has not yet developed that kind of rapport with its student constituency. It needs to quickly, or it may have a problem.

It seems like there are only two potential sides to this coin: Either the costs of these events were completely unnecessary and dictated on a whim, or the cumulative effect of these unsuccessfully charged events is a serious detriment to ASUU’s future plans for this school year. It has several more monthly concerts scheduled, and it seems like ASUU might be in trouble come spring for the Grand Kerfuffle.

ASUU’s focus on just one or two events each year-and its disregard for everything in between-illustrates its inability to make the most of its resources.

Flyers are cheap-somebody just has to take the time to hand them out. And why not bring in marketing students to help? Ask the department if anybody’s willing to include the promotion of a concert in his or her curriculum as part of a class project. That’s free.

To ASUU’s credit, Fiona Apple was marketed ferociously by its workers. Even so, that wasn’t really as necessary because Apple is a huge name and doesn’t really require as much support from local marketing efforts.

If none of these things really matters, and it was simply an executive blunder to ever charge students in the first place, then the central figures in budgeting need to step forward and acknowledge their misjudgment. Conversely, if this underfunding is having a seriously adverse effect on future plans, ASUU needs to be upfront about the problem so it can seek the opinions of the students it represents before it reaches conclusions.