In a southwestern Ohio college town, the public radio news station with seven full-time employees will become an unstaffed repeater for Cincinnati Public Radio under an agreement announced Jan. 22 [2009].
The association includes public broadcasting stations licensed to colleges and universities — largely public TV or TV/radio joint licensees. It is one of several “affinity groups” within public TV that are consulted by national organizations making policy decisions. It is a member of the Affinity Group Coalition. The association also adopted a set of Core Principles, below. Mission
The mission of the University Licensee Association (ULA) is to assist public broadcasting stations licensed to colleges and universities in efforts to fulfill individual missions and goals through the sharing of ideas within the association and to speak for the special needs and interests of the licensees during times of national planning and decision-making.
For the faculty of Wake Forest University, the hush order given to reporters at the university’s WFDD-FM last September came too close for comfort.”I’ve never seen anything rile the faculty on this campus like this did, and I’ve been here 11 years,” says law professor Ronald Wright. “A lot of faculty members identified with those reporters. We’re both in the business of telling the truth.” “What has occurred on our campus violated certain ‘givens’ about what a university should be: a place where freedom of thought and expression thrive,” said this month’s report by an ad hoc committee appointed by the faculty senate. The defense of free speech on the campus in Winston-Salem, N.C., has whipped up antagonisms, uprooted most of WFDD’s news staff, and required lots of long, tense meetings, but the issues may be nearing resolution.
Five months after the conflict developed between Wake Forest University (Winston-Salem, N.C.) and its public radio station, WFDD, the faculty’s Senate Ad Hoc Committee on WFDD released this report Feb. 2, 2000. See also coverage in Current and case study on the conflict in the Public Radio News Directors Guide. Events Triggering This Inquiry
Proposed Guidelines on Confidentiality Policy
The Public Trust and Internal Management at WFDD
The Committee’s Process
Conclusions
Memo from university Vice President Sandra Boyette to university Counsel Leon Corbett
Appendix
Separate statement by member Michael Curtis
Report to the University Senate on the WFDD Matter
Introduction
In October 1999, the President of the University Senate appointed an Ad Hoc Committee on WFDD. She asked the committee to inquire into events at public radio station WFDD during September 1999 and to report to the University Senate with proposals for avoiding such events in the future.