KTRU sale leaves campus clubs unsafe

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.