Last week, Michael Barnes wrote a very fair and informative article for The Mac Weekly about the situation regarding Campus Program’s shutting down of WMCN over the summer months. However, I would like to clarify WMCN’s argument, as well as reveal further developments regarding the issue of summer broadcasting that need to be brought to the Macalester student community.

As Barnes reported, WMCN turned in a comprehensive proposal for summer broadcasting to Campus Programs on April 1, after we were told that they would shut us down over the summer. The proposal was quickly rejected and our meeting to discuss it with Head of Campus Programs Brian Wagner and WMCN Faculty Advisor Tara Stormoen was cancelled at the last minute with no explanation. After several rescheduled meetings (at which they claimed they were reconsidering the proposal) we got the final word from Wagner on April 14 that not only would we not be allowed to broadcast, but that our staff would also not be given daily access to the station during the summer. While they say they will be willing to discuss some sort of compromise regarding access, the credibility of Campus Programs has been so degraded from our perspective that we hold little faith in their willingness to act in the best interest of the station.

By Wagner’s own admittance, this really comes down to the money the school makes off summer conferences. This summer, Macalester College will make $90,000 off conferences and other paid use of our facilities and residence halls. Apparently, Macalester students doing a radio show present a security risk toward these people who are using the facilities we pay out the ass for. While $90,000 is certainly no small sum, it is a drop in the bucket when one considers that each Macalester student will pay $26,638 towards tuition for the 2004-05 school year. So why are the needs of over 80 student DJs, let alone the long-term investment in Macalester’s media resources being put behind the quick profit of summer conferences?

When we asked Wagner and Stormoen last week why our three paid staff members can’t have access to the station this summer, we were told that it is because the school holds preexisting contracts with the groups that rent out our residence halls for conferences over the summer. These contracts stipulate that no Macalester students will be allowed access to Wallace, Bigelow or 30 Mac. Why didn’t Campus Programs let us know about these mysterious contracts in the first place, before we waged an exhausting five-week campaign to change their minds? As it turns out, our entire effort to get them to reconsider their decision on summer broadcasting had no chance in hell of succeeding because they were contractually obligated to block it from the start. Instead, it took five weeks of our hard work and persistence to even get them to tell us why it was a hopeless cause and thus reveal how little say we really did have on the issue.

What is the point of having student-run organizations when we are allowed absolutely no real input whatsoever into a decision that has such tremendous and far-reaching effects for our organization’s future? Is this our ‘Macalester Democracy’ where administrators claim to consider the petitions of students behind closed doors, while they know very well that there is no chance of compromise? Where the profits from summer programs take precedence over the long-term interest of students? Where previous contractual obligations are kept secret, while a façade of fair dialogue upholds the false image of cooperation and democracy?

At the end of our meeting with Brian Wagner, I asked him what direction he would like to see for WMCN in the future. His reply was that he would like to see the Media Board (a committee involving the heads of Macalester’s student media organizations) become a more useful tool in coordinating and promoting student organizations on campus. While this is a viable goal that would certainly be beneficial to the radio station and Macalester, this answer reveals perfectly the narrow-minded view with which the Macalester administration views its media resources. Essentially, Wagner expressed a desire to see WMCN become a more valuable tool in the long arm of the Macalester administrative bureaucracy. What he fails to recognize is that WMCN represents a powerful untapped resource for Macalester, its students and its administrators. Macalester is a neighborhood institution that has long had a strained relationship with its surrounding community. Doesn’t the school owe its students all the support they can give in a community that largely views us as spoiled and pretentious troublemakers? Similarly, a serious radio station can be a tremendous financial asset to a college. According to Radio K Program Manager Adam Mehl, that station’s biannual pledge drives raise $100,000 a year in alumni and community donations for the University of Minnesota. With WMCN’s newly improved FM broadcast signal, and a ton of hard work and cooperation, our radio station could be a similar asset to Macalester.

Unfortunately, Wagner and Macalester administration will not allow WMCN’s dedicated staff and DJs to show them what we are capable of. They are simply buried too deep in their own bureaucracy and short-term interests to recognize what kind of a resource they have at their fingertips.