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The Rice Thresher
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by Leslie A. Liu thresher editorial staff
The shutdown was prompted by an incident Tuesday night in which two DJs broadcast music and the end of the women's basketball game simultaneously. The administration said it shut KTRU down in retaliation for violation of the agreement KTRU had with the university to broadcast athletics on its FM station. "It's unfortunate that the actions have been taken as a result of what, I think, is an action that is not condoned [by] KTRU as a whole," Wiess College President Josh Katz said. "It's bad because [the two DJs] were in the wrong in broadcasting music over the women's basketball game, but at the same time, I think the reaction by the administration is pretty outrageous," Katz said. Lovett College President Phil Alexander said what the administration chose to do was "maybe a little rash, but well within their powers." "Things were not working the direction they were going now," Alexander said. "KTRU was trying to do the bare minimum to appease the university, and then they even then were dragging their heels on that," he said. "When neither side is willing to compromise, something bad is going to happen." Many students thought the administration went overboard. "The university really needs to accept that they did not handle this in the right way and [in] some way... make up for what they did," Sid Richardson College President Laura Rees said. Brown College freshman Toby Shute said it was disconcerting to know the administration could take such actions. "I'm afraid what else they could do without caring what the students think," Shute said. Sameer Siruguri, a KTRU DJ and a computer science graduate student, said he thinks the issue isn't that the administration crossed any legal boundaries. "I think it's a moral issue," Siruguri said. "I think they are stealing our culture, they are stealing something that students have made, and I think that the only way students can hope to win this will be to fight it as a moral issue." Others agreed. "It troubles me because it's been a student-run organization for 30 years, and it's a case where they're in the wrong and the university acted within their rights, but their rights weren't moral rights," Katz said. Many people came away from the meeting last night frustrated, in part because there were no concrete plans for the future addressed. "[Camacho] didn't give us any answers at all and I ... believe that it's an attempt to undermine what they've done and reorganize the KTRU content according to what the administration wants to do," KTRU community DJ Rob Nugen said. "I really think he wasn't ... forthcoming with his plans. He did say, 'The future is clear to me,' [but] he did not say what the future was." However, Nugen did see a positive side in the administration's heavy-handedness. He said if they hadn't taken KTRU off the air, only about 30 students would have shown up to a meeting like last night's and not as many people would be aware of the situation KTRU is facing. But though many may be in the know, some students feel this is not a student versus administration issue. "My problem with KTRU is that I don't think it represents the entire student body," Will Rice College senior Alex Hemsath, who used to be a KTRU DJ, said. "KTRU is saying that the administration isn't taking their desires into consideration, but KTRU itself doesn't take the wishes of the entire student body into consideration either." One of the proposed changes to KTRU which Camacho mentioned is making the station manager an elected position. "I don't see what different lines of authority he wants to draw," Siruguri said. "Right now the authority rests with the people who become KTRU DJs, and I think they've done a great job of creating a station that has a very wide and devoted audience." With the future of KTRU hanging in balance, students will have to wait and see. Efforts by the Student Assocation to open up a dialogue between students and KTRU in the past weeks have received a lukewarm reception. "I was working with a group of students in the SA to change KTRU, and the sad part is that ... KTRU was trying to change, but now they won't be able to create their own change because of mistakes that were made," Rees said. However, Alexander said the SA representatives who were trying to help KTRU didn't feel like KTRU's management was interested, as evidenced by missed meetings by the KTRU representatives. Alexander said Botsford and the college presidents are planning to meet with Camacho today. "You've got two sides that are very, very adamant," he said. "I think it's going to be up to student leadership and the student body to try to find a way to make this work, and this means all of it."
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