A need for open airwaves
Campus clubs look for better communication with student government

Jon Ketchum | tech editor

As the station manager for WWPV, St. Michael's student-run radio station, senior Kyle Chadburn puts on concerts and events and provides students on campus with a variety of music on the radio. However, Chadburn says that his campus services have recently been stifled due to miscommunications between the station and a fellow student-run organization, the Student Association (S.A.).

On Monday, Nov. 26, Chadburn and program director Vinny Mannering sent out an e-mail invitation to club representatives on campus informing them of a closed forum talk taking place the night of Nov. 28 in St. Edmund’s Hall. At the forum, Chadburn and Mannering discussed issues that WWPV has experienced in dealing with the S.A. this semester, in the hopes of establishing a better relationship.

Cash battle

Chadburn displayed a Power Point presentation Wednesday night Nov. 28 during an open forum hosted by WWPV in an effort to hear what other club representatives had to say. Jon Ketchum, photo

At the end of every school year, club representatives and members of the S.A.’s Executive Board (E-Board) meet to discuss future budget plans. During the meeting, club representatives allocate money to fund events, concerts and club essentials such as new equipment, Chadburn says.

At last year’s meeting, Chadburn allocated $20,000 for the ’07-’08 school year, he says. With the money Chadburn and program director Vinny Mannering wanted to design and distribute new WWPV T-shirts to students on campus, free of charge, Chadburn says.

Early in the fall semester, Chadburn tried to withdraw the T-shirt money through E-Board S.A. secretary, Owen Glubiak, and was confronted with an ultimatum, he says. Because there was no mention of the T-shirts at last year’s allocation meeting, Chadburn was told that he should either forget about the shirts or sell them as a fund-raiser.

“Even though we just wanted to give the T-shirts out,” Chadburn said during Wednesday's forum. “We relented and filled out the forms and signed them in hopes of doing nothing more than to break even."

However, according to Chadburn, Glubiak has since been monitoring WWPV’s progress throughout the semester, making sure that the club will eventually replenish the $1,500 that was withdrawn from its budget for the new shirts, Chadburn says.

“He [Glubiak] told me [in an e-mail] that we weren’t trying hard enough,” Chadburn said at the forum. “He told us that we can’t just hang up signs and wait for people to come to us, we had to go out to them, even if that meant and I quote, ‘harassing freshmen in Alliot.’”

Chadburn also says that he has had trouble taking out petty cash, small sums of money, for various club needs throughout the semester. One such need is a video game that was promised to the winner of PV Palooza, a Guitar Hero contest sponsored by WWPV.

“We’re asking for $60 petty cash,” Chadburn says. “For the last three weeks the person who won has been e-mailing me wondering where the game is, and I don’t know what to tell him.”

However, Glubiak says that WWPV has not yet designated a club treasurer to take out the money needed for the game. According to Glubiak, each club needs someone who understands how to fill out the tax exempt and bank reconciliation forms needed to take out cash. Once a treasurer knows how to do the paperwork, taking out cash only takes two minutes, he says.

“WWPV knows that they need a treasurer to take out money,” Glubiak says. “Without one they don’t have anyone who knows how to fill out all the forms.”

Two events, one night

One Tuesday per month at 2:30 p.m., the S.A. E-Board holds an organizational meeting for clubs in order to address upcoming events on campus. Throughout the semester, no one from WWPV has been able attend any of the meetings due to class commitments, Chadburn says.

Chadburn speaking at the club forum. Jon Ketchum, photo

“They [S.A. leaders] schedule the meetings for the worst possible time for us,” Chadburn says. “During that one Tuesday of the month every member of WWPV has an obligation.”

Chadburn contacted Colin McSherry, E-Board co-director of programming, at the beginning of the semester and informed him that WWPV could not attend the organizational meetings. He later asked McSherry if the E-Board could reschedule the meetings for a weekday night instead, he says.

McSherry replied in an e-mail and told Chadburn that the meetings were held on Tuesdays at 2:30 because this was when he and co-program director, Steve O’Neil, had office hours.

However, after Chadburn’s scheduling concerns were addressed, nothing was done to better accommodate WWPV, he says. As a result, Chadburn was kept from the November programming meeting where the S.A. scheduled comedian Baron Vaughn for the night of Dec. 8. This was the same night that Chadburn had scheduled jazz artist Mark Zaleski to perform in Eddie’s Place above Alliot, he says.

“We are being penalized consistently for not coming to the meetings,” Chadburn says. “This scheduling conflict could have been avoided.”

S.A. president Alex Monahan also believes that the scheduling conflict could have been avoided. Monahan says that all club representatives are encouraged to send e-mails to E-Board members informing them when they cannot attend a meeting. They are also supposed to inform the E-Board of any events that they might schedule, he says. However, Monahan doesn’t see an issue in having two events on one night.

“It’s unfortunate to have conflicting dates for events,” Monahan says. “But I believe that both events will still draw large crowds.”

Contrary to Monahan, Chadburn feels that WPPV will not be able to contend with the appeal of Baron Vaughn, he says.

Representatives from five clubs attended the meeting. Jon Ketchum, photo

“I enjoy jazz music and I think it’s great,” Chadburn says. “But it’s going to be hard to compete with a guy who everybody loved last year at P-Day.”

Opening the airwaves

Chadburn hopes that in the future the student government will better represent the clubs on campus. Too often the lines of communication were shut down between the two student-run organizations, he says.

“Basically there needs to be more open communication that’s actually respected,” Chadburn says. “When we e-mail them, call them or go in to talk to them, they need to be there and they need to respond to us and be more open-minded.”

According to program director Mannering, it is vital for the S.A. to understand its role of providing funding for students. The students don’t benefit when the S.A. isn’t doing its job, he says.

“The vast majority of clubs do more for the student body than the S.A. does,” Mannering said at the forum. “The S.A. thinks they’re in charge of what money goes where. That’s not fair to the clubs and as a result it’s not fair to the student body.”

Until changes are made, Chadburn feels that WWPV cannot adequately provide the service that it was designed to provide, he says.

“I just want to see clubs being able to do what they are made to do,” Chadburn says. “We [WWPV] were made to put on events on campus, put on concerts and provide music via the radio, and we can’t do that right now.”