Comedian Chris Rock will take a break from his “Black Ambition Tour” to entertain students Feb. 23 at the Schottenstein Center.

The Ohio Union Activities Board, along with the student activity fee, has made the appearance by Rock free to Ohio State students.

“We are incredibly excited to be able to offer this opportunity to students,” said Matt Couch, assistant director at the Ohio Union. “Since the very early stages of conversation about the activity fee, (Rock) has been by far the No. 1 comedian students have told us they would be excited to see on campus.”

Rock rarely does college shows, let alone free shows, so the OUAB didn’t know how great of a chance they would have to attract him to OSU, Couch said. The show is not part of his tour, rather a special event for OSU students only.

“This is the first time we’ve had someone of (Rock’s) size,” said Amy Elliott, coordinator of student involvement at the Ohio Union. “We look forward to doing something this big in the future; this is just the first of many big appearances that the OUAB will provide.”

A performer of Rock’s stature and appeal usually gets a large fee including a percentage of gross ticket sales for a show. While tickets for Rock’s tour run between $44 and $64, tickets for the OSU show are not being sold. The only money being paid to Rock is the fee taken care of by OUAB.

“That’s what makes us feel incredibly fortunate that we’re able to make an offer attractive enough to bring him here,” Couch said.

Rock will make $200,000 from the OSU appearance. If he were to get 90 percent of the revenue from selling the 14,000 seats that will be available in the Schottenstein Center for his show at an average cost of $54 per seat, he could make almost $700,000.

“We understand that he has rejected many offers that would have been more lucrative for him,” Couch said. “But because he was intrigued with the environment of a free show at a university of our size and stature, he was willing to do it for much less money.”

The $200,000 OSU is paying Rock constitutes about 9 percent of the $2.18 million overall in the activity fee fund for this year.

“As far as bang for our buck goes, I don’t know that there are many other ways we could use 9 percent of the activity fee that would make a bigger impact at one time,” Couch said.

Jen Matzye, a sophomore in interior design, said she is glad Rock is performing for OSU students.

“I think that it’s very generous of him to come here for a lesser amount of money,” she said. “(Rock) is a good choice for our activity fee because everyone likes him.”

The student activity fee was enacted by the Undergraduate Student Government in the spring of 2003 and went into effect in the fall of 2003. All OSU students pay the $15 quarterly fee, and an independent body of elected and appointed representatives decides how the school will use the fee. While the majority of the funding has been allocated to campus-wide entertainment administered by the OUAB, the remaining money is used by other on-campus organizations.

In addition to dozens of movie screenings, late night programs, lectures, local music concerts at Woody’s and graduate and professional student programs, OUAB has larger-scale events planned for winter quarter.

Among other events, Better Than Ezra will play a concert during BuckeyeThon on Feb. 7 in the Ohio Union Ballrooms. The show is technically free for OSU students, however, BuckeyeThon is a fundraiser, and they encourage a $5 donation at the door.

Actor-comedian John Leguizamo will perform Feb. 8 at the Mershon Auditorium. The Columbus Zoo’s Jack Hanna will be coming Feb. 9 to the Ohio Union Ballrooms to teach students about his animals and his work. Hanna will be bringing several animals to show the audience. Hip-hop artist Talib Kweli will play Feb. 28 at the Newport Music Hall.

“To be able to book the single-most student-requested comedian with this activity fee, while still managing to do the hundreds of other programs that the activity fee is subsidizing, speaks volumes about how creatively and responsibly OUAB is utilizing the activity fee,” Couch said.

Two free tickets per student ID will be available only at the Ohio Union Information Center, beginning at Feb.2 at 7:30 a.m. Additional details are available online at www.ouab.net.