A uniting buzz has emanated around the A.S. Council and Student-Run Television lately. Following the council’s shutdown of the station and the administration’s subsequent refusal to reactivate the signal days later, the call of unity against higher powers could be heard on many student leaders’ lips.
“It shouldn’t be students fighting students anymore,” A.S. President Christopher Sweeten said at an SRTV meeting on Nov. 8. “The target should be the administration.”
While “the administration” has been the nebulous term used by virtually all students involved, there is one name that has been attached to all memos sent to Sweeten regarding the station: acting Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life Gary R. Ratcliff, who issued a list of requirements for SRTV’s return to the A.S. Council on Nov. 16. The ultimatum — which includes the establishment of a program review board that will make sure shows are within station rules and regulations — will provide both the council and university with the “front-end” protection that SRTV lacked, Ratcliff said.
“I’m not trying to [raise] questions about quality of programming with these requirements,” he said. “It’ll … be members of the community making sure everything is within the station’s charter, rules and regulations. We had the situation where the station managers — one position — acted as the representatives of the viewing community.”
Irresponsibility on the part of the council and station managers, who had been asked by Commissioner of Student Services Maurice Junious to review all shows starting Nov. 3, forced the ultimatum, Ratcliff said. An unscheduled segment featuring Earl Warren College senior Daniel Watts and John Muir College senior Steve York, who had broadcast several pornographic programs beforehand, spurred A.S. Vice President Finance Greg Murphy, who was keeping watch at the station on Junious’ behalf, to call Triton Cable to cut the station’s signal. The confrontation that ensued between councilmembers and SRTV members outside of the station was reason enough to keep the station off the air, Ratcliff said.
While Murphy and Watts have denied all claims that any physical confrontation took place, a mere standoff in front of SRTV shows that the council does not have the resources to maintain its own station, Ratcliff said.
“I couldn’t, in good conscience, let the station come back on air because I, [along] with many other people, were concerned about the station after that incident,” he said. “We didn’t want to see stakeouts at the station everyday just to enforce their own rules and regulations.”
It was the last option, Ratcliff said, to take the situation out of students’ hands, but requiring review of programs prior to airing will clear many of the headaches caused by York’s shows, which included a segment with Thurgood Marshall College Senior Senator Kate Pillon’s face superimposed over an adult-film actress.
“I know of 60 students so far who have asked their fees that go to SRTV be refunded because of Steve York’s airings,” Ratcliff said. “The council needs to get its house in order. It has the cart before the horse. It needs to have a charter with clear rules and regulations, effective controls and accountability for producers and station managers.”
However, a program review board will put the university at legal risk, according to station co-Manager Andrew Tess, who has consulted the Student Press Law Center. Ratcliff also ordered that all programs be scheduled a week in advance, a condition that would destroy the spirit of SRTV, according to station co-Manager Tiffany Rapp.
“The possibility to run programs live and at any time is part of the station’s excitement,” she said after the council shut down the station. “That’s the way we’ve always done it, and that’s the way it should be.”
However, that practice was exactly what led to the council’s concerns with the station, Ratcliff said. Councilmembers approved two measures regarding SRTV over the last few months: One banned York from SRTV premises, while another prohibited the broadcast of “graphical depictions of sexual activity involving nudity.”
“If students are training for the real world, they have to see that even in commercial television, you need to have scheduled programming,” Ratcliff said. “I don’t think that it’s an effective control [to give] a show’s producer permission to enter the station, unbeknown to anyone, and put on a show at any time.”
Ratcliff’s demand for a review board was borne of research of other campus’ media charters, which he found to be much more stringent than at SRTV. UCLA has a communications board that provides oversight, including “regular review of its publications and broadcasts,” providing “whatever disciplinary action it deems appropriate” for student-run media.
The outline of standards is not a disciplinary action, but a guide for the council to use to bring back the station as quickly as possible, according to Ratcliff. The sooner the council can rewrite the SRTV charter to produce more accountability and order, the sooner the signal feed will be turned on.
Other actions by the council still concern Ratcliff, however. Sweeten’s certification of a special election, which could overturn both of the recent SRTV regulations, contains a loophole that is “untenable,” Ratcliff said. Under the A.S. constitution, if the council’s decisions are overturned by student vote, councilmembers cannot revisit the affected legislation for a year.
“Last spring, the council asked York not to air that kind of programming again,” Ratcliff said. “This year they tabled the nudity ban. Then he did it again. Then they passed the ban. Then he did it again, and attacked a senator with his show. The notion that a prohibition of York’s broadcasts could not be touched for a year is not responsible.”
In the end, the university still has ultimate say over the matter, because it owns the cables used to transmit the station’s signal, Ratcliff said. But “the administration” wants to leave the choice up to students.
