Macalester’s student-run radio station, WMCN, will not be allowed to broadcast during the summer months, said Director of Campus Programs Brian Wagner.

The decision comes after Wagner and Dean of Students Laurie Hamre received more than two dozen requests for summer programming from student DJs and a four-page proposal from the station managers at WMCN.

The decision angered WMCN General Manager Taylor Harris ’04, who said he waited for weeks for a meeting with Wagner.

“[The college administrators] have their reasons, and although they are small-minded, paranoid and plainly wrong, they at least had the dignity in the end to finally explain them to us,” Harris wrote in an e-mail to student DJs.

According to Wagner, he and Assistant Director of Campus Programs Tara Stormoen received the proposal shortly after Spring Break.

Wagner set up a meeting with the station managers for Monday, April 5, but Stormoen sent an e-mail to cancel the meeting a few hours before it was to occur, Harris said. Stormoen informed the station managers that their request had been denied by Wagner and that they would not be allowed to broadcast during the summer months.

“We were all pretty offended when [Wagner] wouldn’t meet with us,” Harris said. “It was probably a small decision for him, but a huge decision for WMCN.”

Harris was concerned that Wagner had solicited no student input in his decision. “I [wanted] an explanation of what the decision making process was,” Harris said.

Wagner met with Harris, next year’s General Manager Megan Sheehan ’05, and Program Director Andrew Yeoman ’04 on Monday, where he explained the reasoning behind a decision against summer programming and listened to the students’ concerns.

“[The station managers] asked us to reconsider our decision, and we did,” Wagner said. He announced the final verdict to the station managers on Wednesday, April 7.

Concerns about security, the reliability of student staff and the usefulness of summer programming led Wagner, in consultation with Hamre, to reject the proposal.

Wagner expressed concern for the security of DJs arriving on campus and those who will be staying in the dorms, noting that break-ins tend to occur most when there are few students around.

“The summer is just a unique time [when] the traffic patterns on campus are very infrequent,” said Wagner. “There’s less people around, there’s less eyes and ears on campus.”

Hamre cited concerns with the behavior and success of student DJs and summer programming in the past.

“There are just not enough students on campus nor have we found there is adequate interest from listeners to justify being on the air in the summer,” Hamre said. “We have not had summer operation for several years—it was stopped due to lack of interest, misuse of the space by summer DJs, theft and having just two or three students participating.”

In past summers, Campus Programs received calls from the post office where mail to WMCN was overflowing due to station managers’ inability to check their mailbox, Wagner said. According to Wagner, this signals a need for more trust in the leadership of the station.

“It starts with showing that there is a presence there,” Wagner said. “When it comes down to this big a trust issue we can’t make that big a leap.”

Harris emphasized that there is currently a high level of interest in summer programming. More than 50 DJs have signed on supporting the idea, most of whom have offered to run at least one two-hour show during the summer weeks.

Wagner also called into question the appropriateness of running the radio station during a time when classes are out of session. The purpose of co-curricular activities is to assist the education of students, Wagner said.

“The Macalester experience is framed around the academic year,” Wagner said. “In this case, what learning is really going to occur?”

Harris and the other station managers said that the decision hurts the effectiveness of the radio station in a variety of ways.

Last summer the station, which operates from the basement of 30 Mac, was inaccessible due to the renovation of Wallace Hall. When the station is dormant during the long summer months, it is difficult to maintain a steady listener base and to continue to solicit promotional CDs from record companies, Harris said.

“We lost three promotional companies and [First Avenue] tickets,” Harris said. “They just stop sending us CDs.”

The construction last summer also strained the relationship between the student managers of WMCN and the administration.

“We were locked out of the station all summer,” Harris said. “A lot of our equipment was broken [and] most of our wires were cut.”

Allowing the station to operate during the summer would help rebuild the strength of programming at WMCN and foster a greater enthusiasm among student leaders, Harris said.

Just this year, WMCN installed a new signal-processor which increased the strength of the signal. According to Harris, the range of the station now reaches well into Minneapolis and St. Paul, and means that students are taking the operation of the station more seriously.

“We try very hard over the entire school year to create an identity on campus and with the community,” Harris said. “I really do think this has been the best semester in a while.”

For student DJ Ted Roethke ’05, the real question is whether the decision should rest in the hands of Campus Programs.

“If it’s a student-run organization and funded by student government, then there’s no real reason [WMCN] shouldn’t broadcast for the summer,” Roethke said.

Roethke runs a program called “Early Morning Smart,” where he has hosted a variety of community members, including a member of the Hmong community who came in to describe her experiences in the jungle of Laos.

“[WMCN] ties the Macalester community for the summer in a way that’s not currently done,” Roethke said.

Next year’s WMCN Office Manager and Webmaster Nick Malecek ’07 stressed that for students living in the Twin Cities during the summer, the radio station is a rare asset.

“We all work for free and are very willing to offer our time,” Malecek said. “I would do multiple shows to help fill the slots.”

While Wagner is firm on his decision against summer broadcasting, he encouraged the student leaders to work with Campus Programs during the summer and said they may be able to obtain office space in the campus center to develop their leadership and training programs.

“We would love to build those relationships over the summer,” Wagner said. “We’re just saying that they can’t broadcast.”

In the e-mail to DJs, Harris said this decision will affect his commitment to supporting Macalester once he graduates.

“Every year until the day I die I will respond to their alumni fundraising letters with a letter explaining exactly why they won’t get a cent from me,” Harris said. “It’s because [the money] goes to employing small-minded bureaucrats, instead of providing the students with the best … radio station they can broadcast.”