Administration issues statement regarding Rice’s radio station

Administration issues statement regarding Rice’s radio station

Editor’s
note: Provost Eugene Levy sent the following informational
e-mail Monday, Dec. 4. To ensure it reaches all interested
faculty and staff, Rice News was asked to reprint it.

To: University
faculty and staff
From : Eugene H. Levy, provost
About: The Rice University radio station

I know that
many of you are concerned, as I have been, by the recent
sequence of controversies and events surrounding the temporary
suspension of student programming on KTRU.

As the events
unfolded over the past few days, I wanted to understand
the background, rationale and justification for the actions
taken by Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho
on behalf of the president and form my own opinion about
them.

I thought it
might be useful to share with you what I have found. To
be sure, I have not attempted an in-depth scholarly investigation.
I have not had time (or inclination) to investigate original
sources or interview all the parties. What I have done is
follow the unfolding events as they have been reported in
the student media, read the statements of students and administrators
as reported there, look over some pertinent documents and
listen to my colleagues as they tried to work through the
problems that led up to the suspension.

The attached
narrative summarizes the rationale and the perceptions that
underlie the suspension of KTRU student operations, as I
have been able to piece them together.

At this point,
new negotiations are under way involving student government,
the KTRU student organization and university leaders.

Since 1970,
KTRU has functioned as a radio station under a license from
the Federal Communications Commission. The Rice Board of
Trustees holds the license. Since 1991, KTRU has operated
as a 50,000-watt broadcast station reaching throughout Houston
and portions of southeastern Texas.

As the holder
of the KTRU license, the board of trustees is legally responsible
and liable for the operation of the station. FCC regulations
require that the board of trustees maintain responsibility
for, and final control of, the station and its programming.

The board of
trustees has delegated to the president of the university,
and the president’s appropriate delegates, the responsibility
for operating KTRU in accordance with applicable policies
of the university, as well as laws and regulations. Specifically,
the original board of trustees resolution in 1970 requires
that “the policies governing the operation of the station
shall be determined by the president of the university,
and continuous supervision of the broadcasting shall be
maintained by the president.” The president subsequently
delegated this authority to the vice president for student
affairs.

The broadcast
transmitter, related equipment, staff support and infrastructure
for KTRU are financed in large measure by allocations from
the university budget. In addition, funds are provided for
KTRU from the student blanket-tax. Between 1993 and 1999,
the university spent $223,940 for KTRU capital equipment
and other costs.

A student organization
operates the Rice broadcast station insofar as it is permitted
to make use of the board-owned KTRU broadcast license. The
KTRU student organization is supposed to operate on a day-to-day
basis as an entity of the Student Association, the bylaws
of which state:

• KTRU
… shall be controlled by the KTRU Committee and by
the station manager.

• The KTRU
Committee shall consist of the president of the university,
the faculty adviser to KTRU, a representative of the Association
of Rice Alumni, the station manager of KTRU, a representative
of the KTRU staff appointed by the station manager and the
president of the Student Association as an ex officio.

• The KTRU
Committee shall determine the general programming and operating
policies of KTRU. The station manager shall determine the
daily operation and programming.

In the mid-1990s,
concern arose that KTRU had been operating in a manner de
facto inaccessible to the broader university community or
the Student Government Association. Consequently, in 1997,
KTRU underwent formal review by a committee composed of
students, faculty, staff and trustees. Among the recommendations
of the review committee were:

• Establishment
of an advisory committee appointed by the president to guide
the operation of the station;

• Increased
funding and staff;

• Implementation
of broader university programming, including broadcasts
of Shepherd School of Music performances, athletic events
and public affairs lectures, such as from the James A. Baker
III Institute for Public Policy.

During the past
three years, the university has been moving steadily and
slowly toward implementing the recommendations of the review
committee. The university has provided improved equipment
for the station and increases in budget and personnel.

The university
expected a similarly forthcoming approach on the part of
KTRU student leadership. Instead, KTRU leadership has continued
to operate outside of Student Association oversight and
outside the stipulations of the board.

This situation
has been going on for some time, as the KTRU student management
has resisted sustained, collegial efforts on the part of
both the university administration and the Student Association
to restore KTRU to a normal mode of operation expected of—and
adhered to by—all university and student-activity organizations.

The situation
came to a head over the past three months during negotiations
to obtain increased broadcast time for student athletic
events. After three months of negotiation, the KTRU advisory
committee (including student representatives of KTRU) reached
a compromise agreement, midway between the amount of time
requested by the athletics department and the amount originally
offered KTRU management. The agreed upon compromise amounted
to less than 5 percent of KTRU broadcast time over the course
of a year.

Following the
conclusion of this agreement, KTRU broadcasters engaged
in disruptive action Nov. 28, when the station played musical
programming on top of the broadcast of a Rice women’s
basketball game. This act, in addition to being an act of
substantial bad faith, was disrespectful to fellow students
who are members of the women’s basketball team, as
well as disrespectful to listeners.

In response
to protests about this behavior, the KTRU station manager
publicly stated that he would take no action to prevent
such transgressions in the future. In effect, the station
manager stated publicly and explicitly that he would not
exercise his responsibilities as manager of the station.

Under the circumstances,
the cognizant members of the university administration concluded
that KTRU was operating without adequate management, that
the station management was not in a position to be responsible
to the university for the appropriate operation of the station.
Consequently, the administration concluded that it could
not assure the operation of KTRU in compliance with university
policies and federal regulations. In turn, the board of
trustees could not be in a position to warrant to the FCC
that the station was operating in compliance with the license
or that the board, in actual fact, retained ultimate responsibility
for and control of the station. Nor, under those circumstances,
could the president fulfill his obligation to the board
of trustees to set policy and supervise the broadcasting.

Unable to achieve
satisfactory operating conditions and unable to negotiate
with KTRU management in the expectation of good faith, the
university administration concluded that it had no choice
but to suspend student operation of KTRU until satisfactory
operating policies and practices could be put in place,
accountable to the university and to student government.