Official WESU stance
By Jesse S. Sommer
I am the Station Manager of WESU. Over the past two months, I have been
consistently and unfairly misrepresented by both the Wesleyan administration and
the unaffiliated “Save WESU” student groups. The administration has
over-emphasized the extent to which contractual decisions have been made, while
several student groups have usurped our struggle and severely compromised WESU’s
position on the eve of its critical revitalization project. In a last ditch
effort to refocus our support base, I am attempting to address these
misconceptions now, and clarify the many facets and interests surrounding the
WESU question.
In an e-mail to WESU student and community supporters, a leader of one of the
“Save WESU” coalitions referenced the Board’s negotiations with the
administration about a possible affiliation with NPR, and charged that “the
Board stands in a strange position where [it] has the potential to sell us out.”
This is categorically untrue; the station was actually “sold out” two years ago
when a former station manager transferred ownership of the station license from
the Wesleyan Broadcaster’s Association, (an independent student corporation), to
the Wesleyan administration. However, recent evidence now further suggests that
the WBA went defunct in 1990, and that the station operated illegally for
thirteen years until its acquisition by the University, during which time
neither students nor the administration owned the license.
In another e-mail, the WESU Board was indicted for “not informing any of the
other DJs about the situation until a month ago.” This, too, is simply
incorrect. That claim was issued by a WESU activist who is not a WESU member,
and was not at the first all-DJ meeting of the semester. At this meeting, all
WESU DJs were informed that the University, as the new licensee, owner and
liable party, was going to implement major changes at the station which might
include National Public Radio programming. Since the spring of 2004, when
several Board members approached the administration begging for some assistance
and oversight at WESU, the Board has publicly renounced the NPR plan. Feasible
alternatives, however, have proven scarce.
In the Dec. 3 issue of the Argus, the Students for Democratic Action published a
letter in which they stated: “The Administration is saying that we are unable to
run our own radio station.”
The reality of the situation is that we are unable to run our own radio station.
We’ve been plagued by equipment and furniture theft and have no official
membership list or screening process. Our Board members don’t come to board
meetings or do their weekly board hours. Our DJs don’t come to the monthly
all-DJ meetings, do their mandatory service hours at the station, or even show
up to do their shows. Our training program is in shambles, DJs have no knowledge
of the FCC rules and regulations they break on a daily basis, and the station
has absolutely no system for maintaining the proper documentation that federal
regulations require. There is no respect for authority, our Constitution has
been rendered totally ineffective, and the Board has essentially no degree of
managerial control due to a despicable lack of resources, oversight, and
administrative support.
We’re the largest group on campus, yet we have no faculty advisor. We’re one of
the most powerful college radio stations in Connecticut, yet we have no General
Manager. For the last three years, our Board has been plagued with unsupported
and ineffective leadership. We have been doomed to fail by the neglect and
indifference that the student body and the administration have shown us since
our relocation from the basement of Clark Hall. WESU and, by extension, Wesleyan
University (as the liable party) runs the risk of incurring thousands of dollars
worth of fines every semester. A veteran community DJ has stated that up to a
third of our DJs would be purged from the airwaves if the Board were in a
position to implement proper guidelines. We’re disorganized, we’re struggling,
and we’re desperate. WESU is in a state of utter disrepair, and we need help.
WESU requires a full-time, paid General Manager to function. In order to make
this position lucrative enough, a full-time salary and benefits package must be
provided by the administration, as it owns the facilities this person would
manage. Administrative support is unquestionably necessary to achieve this goal.
And yet several student groups have demanded that the WESU Board terminate all
negotiations with the legal owners of the radio station.
Sommer is a member of the Class of 2005 and the Station Manager of WESU.
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