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The Rice Thresher
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by Elizabeth Jardina Thresher editorial staff KTRU went off the air 8 a.m. this morning. Regular programming has been replaced by satellite content from the World Radio Network. The station is locked; the bumper stickers have been removed from the office door; and a sign on the door says, "No Admittance: Violations subject to Code of Student Conduct." Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho pulled the plug on the station because of an incident Tuesday in which KTRU DJs Jones College junior Viki Keener and Wiess College junior Patrick Glauthier broadcast the last hour of the women's basketball game and music simultaneously. "I don't think anybody was eager to have anything like this occur, but when the students started trashing the programming on KTRU, something had to be done," Vice President for Public Affairs Terry Shepard said. Camacho sent an e-mail explaining the shutdown this morning to KTRU General Manager Will Robedee, a Student Affairs staff member, and asked him to forward the message to the KTRU listserv. Camacho refused to comment on his decision and directed all inquiries to Shepard. Shepard said KTRU wouldn't resume normal programming until the station was "reorganized," and said there was no timeline on when that reorganization would happen. "I suspect, given the time of year with finals and all, that it's probably not going to make it this semester," he said. Students affiliated with KTRU were astonished by the shutdown when they found out about it this morning. KTRU DJs have been coming to the second floor of the Student Center all morning to look at the locked station. One girl left in tears. "I think it's a very good example of the strong-arm tactics that the administration has been using with KTRU the entire time the process has been going on," Station Manager Johnny So, a Will Rice College senior, said. Yesterday, Camacho decided that for the next two years, between three and four athletic events per week will be broadcast on KTRU. This decision is the result of a recommendation made to Camacho by the KTRU Oversight Committee. So, a member of the Oversight Committee, said students who work at the station were upset about the decision because they think the negotiations will result in more athletics being played on KTRU after two years. With the station shut down indefinitely, So's attitude is grim. "This is definitely the death spiral that everybody's been talking about the whole time," So said. Keener, in tears during an interview this morning, said she felt horrible. "I just wanted to crawl somewhere and die," she said. "This is the most horrible thing that could have possibly happened." She said she sent a formal apology to the members of the women's basketball team after the incident Tuesday night. Keener said she was not acting on behalf of KTRU Tuesday night. "I feel like [the administration] should have punished me individually if they had wanted to take any kind of action. I thought they would be mature enough to do that, since my actions were not representative of KTRU at all," Keener said. Shepard said KTRU leadership did not respond to the incident adequately. "There was a sense that the leadership of the station didn't show leadership the way they should have," he said. "There was no action on the part of the leadership, and, at least tacitly, this was allowed to happen." So said he sent an e-mail to the KTRU listserv stating that although he objected to some of the DJs' actions, he would allow DJs to act as they desired. "[The e-mail] essentially said that I gave individuals the liberty to do what they feel is right," So said. "It does voice that I objected to a lot of the things that some people were doing." However, So said he did not feel it was his responsibility to punish the DJs for their actions. "I don't know what they expect me to do, fire people? That's not going to happen," he said. Student Association President Lindsay Botsford said she found out about the shutdown when she read her e-mail between 9 and 10 a.m. today. She met with Camacho, President Malcolm Gillis and KTRU Oversight Committee chair and Vice President for Finance & Administration Neill Binford this morning. Botsford said she understood why the university took this step as a result of the simultaneous broadcast of a basketball game and music Tuesday. "The problem is that this was a blatant violation of a policy that was created by both the university leadership and students, and the one end didn't hold up their end of the agreement," she said. "I think it showed a lack of respect for the mutual collaboration that was happening." Botsford said the SA Senate will remain involved in working with students and administrators to resolve the conflict over KTRU and to set up a structure for running the station. This will be a continuation of the ongoing work to restructure the KTRU and SA constitutions. "Right now, our role is going to be figuring out how to deal with the situation and set up a good groundwork for the future based on the same principles we were working toward already," Botsford said. So has scheduled a meeting tonight at 6 p.m. among KTRU DJs, Camacho and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs John Hutchinson in Sewall Hall, Room 301. So said he called the meeting before the station shutdown to begin a dialogue between the administration and KTRU's volunteer DJs about Camacho's decision that KTRU will broadcast between three and four games per week. The meeting is open to the general public. So has scheduled a meeting tonight at 6 p.m. among KTRU DJs, Camacho and Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs John Hutchinson in Sewall Hall, Room 301.
Other members of the Thresher editorial staff contributed to this report. - back - |
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