KTRU sale leaves campus clubs unsafe

By Kevin Bush & Jonathan Stewart     8/26/10 7:00pm

These are the times that try Rice's soul. The recent incident involving the sale of the KTRU transmitter necessitates a surge of vigilance and skepticism among the student body. Unless the Rice administration is forcefully made aware of student opposition to the secretive process through which the KTRU tower and frequency were pawned off to the University of Houston, we must operate under the assumption that any university asset or program the administration deems unprofitable or underutilized is available for sale to the highest bidder. All members of the Rice community should be alarmed by the dangerous precedent established by the subversive liquidation of a fixture of our university's culture. We must demand more accountability and transparency from our administration. While neither the administration nor the Board of Trustees is obligated to obtain student input before making decisions, effecting drastic changes to a student-run organization should involve students. President David Leebron claims that the negotiations for the sale were, "by necessity, confidential" in order to "bring them to a timely conclusion." However, the administration began appraising the station's value and scouting the market years ago - all without notifying any student stakeholders. The administration's failure to inform students that a major student organization could undergo irreversible changes is unacceptable. If crafting a deal to sell the transmitter necessitated secrecy, then Rice never should have made the offer in the first place. It is disappointing and perplexing that the administration was more candid about the potential merger of Rice University and Baylor College of Medicine than it was about the sale of a radio tower. Given the immense backlash that resulted from its previous attempt to shut down the KTRU signal, it is hard to imagine that the administration's opacity was not a deliberate attempt to preclude dissent and to obviate organized opposition. The administration may never admit it, but its actions suggest it had something to hide. More disturbingly, its choices permanently undermine confidence in its receptiveness to student input. Unless students actively express our disapproval, Rice administrators have little incentive to operate more openly in the future.

While we recognize that the incoming $9.5 million and the proffered campus enhancements may seem to provide compelling justification for the sale, we urge students to not be persuaded by such crass attempts to buy our acquiescence. President Leebron averred "confidential negotiations were necessary" to sell KTRU. If this is true, then if we students permit the campus improvements to serve as a premise for selling the tower, our acceptance condones the secretive process used to acquire them. To accept the ends is to condone the means. Thus, one cannot claim simultaneously that the sale of the KTRU signal was justifiable but that the administration's secrecy was not. Endorsing the sale of KTRU based on the proposed improvements it would provide would send the administration a message that its actions - including its willful circumvention of student opinion - are acceptable. In a response e-mail, President Leebron directed us to "hold [the administration] to [its] word that this is not a precedent." We propose a better option. Do not sanction the sale to begin with.

We take further offense at the condescending language the administration has adopted in its attempt to excuse its actions. For example, President Leebron asserted that KTRU should be for sale because it is one of Rice's "most underutilized resources." If underutilization can serve as a pretext for liquidating university assets, then every unprofitable athletic program, underperforming academic department, and unnerving student tradition (do we even have to mention which ones?) should fear for their futures. Moreover, Vice President for Public Affairs Linda Thrane told the Houston Chronicle that, as a result of the sale of KTRU, "Students aren't losing anything." Even if we accept that the ability to broadcast over the airwaves what the Houston Press. has on multiple times dubbed "Houston's Best Radio Station" does not amount to "anything," the entire Rice student body has lost the administration's purported commitment to student input. By its own admission, this administration will decide how much our organizations mean to us - and act accordingly.

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Unless we are given concrete assurances to the contrary, students must presume that the administration can and will undermine student programs without entertaining any form of student input. This administration has, through its actions and words, provided ample reason to suspect that it is only a matter of time before something you love about your Rice experience is taken away. Regardless of our opinions about the sale of KTRU and the promised benefits to campus, we students must unite to hold our administration to higher standards of transparency and accountability. The future of our university is in our hands. Next time, we must not be silenced.

Kevin Bush is a Lovett College junior. Jonathan Stewart is a Duncan College junior.

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