Community Group Fails to Save WEMC

Losing a last minute appeal to save EMU's 52-year old "voice and window" to the community, an ad hoc community group led by Ruth Stoltzfus Jost, a local attorney and EMU alumna, had to concede its desire this week to keep WEMC programming in the hands of the university.

"The idea of putting this kind of potential promotional asset (WEMC) up for adoption, to simply give her away and to receive nothing in return except getting her off your hands, simply astounds me," Harvey Yoder, formerly on the faculty and a member of the ad hoc group," wrote to President Swartzendruber and Provost Beryl Brubaker after losing the appeal. "I'm afraid you will experience a similar reaction from at least 4,000 other fans of the station, all of whom are potentially a growing part of EMU's support base."

The appeal apparently fell on deaf ears because in his presidential update this week, Swartzendruber told the campus community that his office was working on the details of a lease agreement with WMRA that would initially be for a period of five years.

"The plan, if finally approved by EMU and WMRA," he said, "would beimplemented near the end of January, 2007 and include provisions for a small advisory group to meet regularly with WMRA station managers to reviewprogramming options and decisions."

Another irony in the community struggle to keep WEMC in the hands of EMU management is the scheduling of Amy Goodman, the award-winning host of Democracy Now! to speak at a WEMC fundraiser tonight at Community Mennonite Church in Harrisonburg. Goodman, who will speak at 7:30 p.m. on the importance of the independent media, is aware of the EMU move to lease its radio station to WMRA and insists that any donations received at the event be given to WEMC.

Christine Wagler, organizer for the Goodman event and a returning student to EMU, wonders why more students aren't up in arms about the loss of the station. "EMU's decision to give up the programming management of the station is grossly short-sighted," she said, noting that it is not often that an award-winning author and journalist travels this far for free to offer her influential voice to a local event of this kind.

Pushed by the prioritization process to find savings any place they could, WEMC, along with other community promotion programs fell victim to the cutting table when Jon Kauffman-Kennel, the present radio station manager, submitted his resignation, effective Dec. 15. It was at that point that the administration picked up on a previous interest by WMRA to look at a leasing arrangement. While the funding for WEMC continued at a $75,000 a year pace until 2008, EMU intensified talks with Tom DuVal, general manager of WMRA, when Kauffman-Kennel resigned.

A public forum was held in Strite Auditorium on Oct. 30 to introduce the leasing plan and to hear responses from the faculty, staff, students and community. Pressed on just how he would retain the unique character and independent programming of WEMC in the new lease arrangement, DuVal was vague and non-committal, especially when asked if he would continue airing Democracy Now!, a controversial program that has drawn a devoted and loyal group of listeners.

Phil Easley, a former WEMC general manager and member of the ad hoc group, is under no illusions about WMRA's goals for WEMC. "They have offered absolutely no planning for the station," he says, noting that DuVal has approached EMU several times in the past with a leasing proposal. Easley, who also worked for WMRA before coming to WEMC, claims their primary goal is to add another 4,000 listeners to their 52,000-listener base for greater community support.

Weighing in from the communication department of EMU is adjunct professor Dick Benner who sees the WEMC move as one of several institutional treasures lost to the prioritization process. First came the phasing out of the Historical Library, he said, representing the life work of one of EMU's most accomplished historical scholars, Irvin B. Horst. "That library has holdings that even the Library of Congress doesn't have. Dr. Horst must be dying of grief."

Then came the closing down of the planetarium, showings of which attracted more than 5,000 elementary students to the campus over the years, having, in his view, the value of thousands of promotion dollars and goodwill by the community. And now, WEMC, a gift from the Class of 1954 that gave a "voice and window" to the community, as noted by class member John R. Martin at the Oct. 30 forum.

"Three institutional treasures now gone," Benner said, after reflecting on his more than 40 years of association with EMU as an alumnus, a former development vice-president and now faculty member. "All these goodwill treasures sacrificed for a collective small savings in a $24.6 million annual budget."

Jerry Holsopple, chair of the communication department who keeps his pickup truck dial locked on 91.7 FM (WEMC's call letters), says he can't understand the administration turning down a proposal to keep the station running on a all-volunteer basis. "It is clear they couldn't get someone to come in for one-half time pay for only a few years."