KTRU sale dealings ominous for all student organizations

By Staff Editorial     8/19/10 7:00pm

This week, an announcement was made that came as a surprise to both the Rice community and the Houston community in general. The sale of KTRU's transmitter tower, license and frequency to the University of Houston for the sum of $9.5 million has been met with both cries of foul play and shrugs of apathy (see story, page 1). But one thing is certain: This transaction will leave a massive imprint in the pages of the Rice University history book.As any student that has chosen to become part of a specific facet of the Rice community can tell you, there is no price that can be put into the love, dedication and hard work that goes into these undertakings. Coffeehouse workers, Thresher employees, athletes and any other club members have been reminded that the administration can and will act unilaterally to make an existential decision on students' behalf without consultation or even forewarning.

The most noticeable change will be the loss of KTRU as an entity in the Houston community. These call letters have stood for free radio at Rice since 1971, and despite occasional slumps in listeners, KTRU was named the best radio station in Houston by the Houston Press on two occasions in the last decade.

Of course, we would be ignorant to disregard the scant number of followers KTRU actually has on campus. And while the station means so much to members of this community, it remained as a hanging asset that was poised to produce the greatest financial and communal benefit through this transaction.

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While many students and Rice affiliates may not have been active listeners and will not be very affected by this loss, 150 KTRU disc jockeys, about two-thirds of which are Rice students, will have a large part of their identities forcibly taken away. These men and women define much of their Rice experience through the lessons they learned and the opportunities they gained while working for KTRU.

It was further insulting to KTRU contributors to see that the administration was conveying plans for future broadcasting on their behalf in an attempt to assuage the fears of the student body. In much the same way, the timing of this announcement came as an insult to many. Most students are not on campus to voice their concerns. Those students who are on campus have been tied up with O-Week, the time in which 950 new students get their first impression of Rice University.

But this action has done more than give off a bad first impression to new students. The Board of Trustees and President David Leebron set a dangerous precedent that contradicts the Vision for the Second Century.

The Thresher recognizes, however, that this sale was intended for the best interest of the student body. A portion of the money will be going toward the construction of the East Servery, which comes as welcome news, but also makes us wonder where the money to complete the project would have come from without the sale. Fortunately, students will be consulted about the usage of the remaining funds from the sale, even though they were not consulted about the sale itself.

But the Thresher cannot and will not ever stand for the unilateral and secretive decision-making that has surrounded this sale. It is also fitting that tomorrow, Rice students will arrive to campus and see that Salento was chosen to service Brochstein Pavilion, the result of bidding from which student-run Coffeehouse was expressly forbidden without even consideration of a proposal. Thus, the administration should know that we no longer see these actions as one-time exceptions or uncharacteristic actions. Rather, it is a pattern of student-exclusion that the Thresher vehemently opposes.

Student rights on this campus must be valued above all expansions or additions. However, this sale further pushes a single message to the student body: The administration simply does not trust the student leaders at Rice with regard to its most crucial decision making. We at the Thresher feel very strongly that no progress toward the Vision for the Second Century can be made until this message is reversed - until the current students of Rice are entrusted with the institution's future. Which does the university value more: running a business or providing for students' interests?

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