The student senate has voted down a referendum question that would have put Gorham Television’s future to a student vote. The question gave students the option of either combining GTV with the Student Communication Board or eliminating it altogether.
The SCB, which maintains The Free Press and the community radio station, WMPG, is given 30 percent of the student activity fee each year.
Student Senator Mako Bates drafted the referendum question which was to give voters three options on how they think GTV, USM’s student run television station, should be funded.
The first option on the referendum would have combined GTV with the SCB under the current budget. The second option would have combined GTV and the SCB, but approve the SCB for 33 percent of the student activity fee. The third would have cut student activity fee money for GTV entirely.
GTV, a closed circuit broadcast system airing only on the Gorham campus, costs $15,000 a year to upkeep. Adrian Wong-Ken, president of GTV, said that he is not taking a budget next year and that he and Paul Koenig, executive editor of the Free Press, are in the process of merging GTV with the newspaper.
The senate meeting that was held on Friday March 11, focused on whether or not the referendum question was necessary in determining the future of GTV. Senator TJ Williams requested that the senate consider removing the referendum from the elections in order to give GTV the opportunity to run without a budget next year and move forward with a plan to merge with the Free Press.
“I would like to hear how this referendum question prevents time from planning ahead and more importantly how does it still prevent anyone from sitting down together and discussing it,” said Senator Alex Bresler in defense of the referendum question. Bates defended the referendum as well on the grounds that the outcome of the vote would reflect what the students wanted.
Carey Corrow, chair of the SCB said she felt voting students might not be aware of what it costs to run three media outlets and how stretched the SCB’s $150,000 already is while running only two of those media outlets. “If you don’t know the whole story it’s hard to make an informed decision,” said Corrow who was not present at the senate meeting on Friday. Corrow said there was no issue with GTV joining the SCB, but the referendum proposed by the senate raised budget concerns.
After two failed attempts to come to a vote on the issue, the senate moved to reconsider the referendum thus preventing the question from being voted on in the 2011 elections and allowing GTV to move ahead with plans to run without a budget next year.
Before Friday’s meeting, Wong-Ken said he wanted GTV to be part of the SCB, but not at the expense of the other two media outlets. “There is pressure to properly use the student activity fee money and I don’t feel I can do that at this point,” said Wong-Ken, who admits that GTV is a suffering entity.
Wong-Ken describes the major problems of the television station as lack of staff and lack of structure. GTV has no formal advisor and currently runs with the help of volunteers and work study students. Corrow said that as it is being run now, GTV is going to need more money to function at a higher level and if the television station became an entity under the SCB it could cripple funding for WMPG and the Free Press.
Wong-Ken said GTV doesn’t need a budget as money would only aid in expansion. “Expansion is not needed; organization is needed,” said Wong-Ken who hopes to rid the Gorham campus of the 24 hour broadcast on channel 2 and begin to shift focus on to online production with the Free Press.
Bates said he thought the process of Friday’s meeting was fair. “I don’t like the results, but I think it’s functional,” he said.
“I think the outcome was a good idea to give time to really discuss within the groups what we really want to see come out of this,” said Jim Rand, WMPG station manager and a member of the SCB.