In light of Nora Miller’s ’12 death, Radical Performance Machine, a student group that plans concerts on campus, cancelled a show by the band Stars that had been scheduled for last Saturday in Beckham Hall. Stars agreed to a reduced cancellation fee and will be donating the money to the Amazing Grace Food Pantry, the charity to which Nora’s parents have asked friends and family to contribute.

Before taking her life, Miller posted lyrics from a popular Stars song, “Your Ex-Lover Is Dead,” on her Facebook page. Because the lyrics alluded to Miller’s suicide method, Radical Performance Machine decided to cancel the concert out of respect to Miller and those close to her.

“We’d been working on the concert since last May, but we as a student group didn’t feel it was respectful to Nora’s family to have the show,” said Will Schragis ’12, the Radical Performance Machine member who booked the concert.

The last-minute decision left Radical Performance Machine in a logistical bind because the students had already entered into a formal agreement with the band to play on campus.

“In Connecticut, oral contracts are binding,” said Chair of the Concert Committe Donovan Arthen ’11. “Because we had already at least agreed on a contract…that meant we technically had to pay the band everything we had promised them.”

“We were so close to signing the contract and had led everyone to believe that we would sign it, so it would have been irresponsible of the school and also rude to try to pull that,” Schragis said.

Despite the formal agreement reached by Stars and the Radical Performance Machine, the band agreed to a special deal to accommodate the extenuating circumstances. Rather than charging the University their standard cancellation fee, Stars agreed to subtract from the fee the revenue that the Student Budget Committee (SBC) would have made from ticket sales, so that the SBC would not lose more money than expected.

“The band was actually very reasonable in the whole process,” Arthen said.

“That money comes straight out of the band’s pocket,” Schragis said. “The band is being extremely generous. They feel awful. The fact that their song is associated with this tragedy on campus is really tough for them.”

The student body has been supportive of the cancellation of the concert according to Arthen.

“I think that everyone I have spoken to has been more than 100 percent understanding about the situation,” he said.

Though the Concert Committee is not at liberty to disclose specific figures, Arthen believes that the committee will be able to recover from the economic setback. The SBC provides funds to bring bands like Stars to the University.

“The Student Budget Committee has been very helpful,” Arthen said. “And it’s not a big enough chunk of the budget that it means that no one else can do a show that size. If someone else plans a well thought-out show, it definitely can still be funded.”