WTBU will significantly cut back on operating hours this semester after several of the student radio station’s members were caught drinking in the studio and left an outside door propped open last December, violating a security policy implemented by the administration before the fall 2006 semester.
The incident occurred in the early morning hours of Dec. 9 when two disc jockeys had several guests in the station, which is located on the third floor of the College of Communication building. According to WTBU Faculty Adviser Anne Donohue, the party was drinking alcohol and left an outside COM door propped open. This violated a station rule that forbids anyone to consume alcohol in the studio even if they are of legal drinking age, according to a Dec. 14 email WTBU General Manager Ryan Harbin sent to station members.
“It was an egregious violation,” Donohue said. “The doors were left ajar, propped open with what I understand was either a liquor bottle or a 12-pack of beer.”
Following the Dec. 9 incident, Donohue met with COM interim dean Tobe Berkovitz to discuss how the policy violation will affect the station and its broadcasting hours; the station formerly broadcast material 24 hours a day, seven days a week. A security camera was also added to the studio Dec. 15.
“He threw out some numbers, and I threw out some numbers, and we compromised with the [hours],” Donohue said. “It was a very brief meeting . . . there was no great debate. It was sort of just what’s manageable and what’s in the best interest of the station.”
But slashing hours from the 24-hour broadcasting schedule will increase the potential for higher-quality programming, Berkovitz said.
“I think everyone – the students, the listeners, the faculty – want high-quality programming through the entire broadcast day,” he said.
Donohue and Berkovitz said station members put millions of dollars of equipment at risk for theft by leaving the door open.
“There was drinking going on in the station, and the door was left ajar, and while it was left ajar, bad things happened in the building,” Donohue said. “Not just in the radio station, but a room was vandalized, and computer equipment was thrown to the floor, and it was not a good situation.”
WTBU station members called the Boston University Police Department when they saw students drinking in the studio, according to Donohue.
Although there were claims of classroom vandalization, BUPD Sergeant Jack St. Hilaire said there is no substantial proof the propped door and vandalized room are connected incidents. Although Donohue said the party was consuming alcohol, St. Hilaire said there was no drinking involved when officers arrived at the scene.
“Our officers checked in, and everything was in order,” he said. “There was no evidence that there was drinking.”
While both DJs have been suspended from the station, their punishment will be handed down from the university.
WTBU first became concerned with security violations during the spring 2006 semester and over the past summer. Donohue said students routinely left a COM building door ajar because they had trouble locking it. Instead of going down the three flights of stairs from the station to open the door, Donohue said students would leave the door propped open to let in DJs and guests or station members who did not have their access cards updated.
In response, Donohue said WTBU instituted a new policy in which students were required to sign a security agreement at the beginning of the semester stating “explicitly” they would make sure to close the door behind them, and they would not leave the door open for anyone not associated with the station. The agreement, which states it is “imperative” that the building remain secure at all times, said the consequences would be serious.
According to the agreement, “Under NO circumstances should you open the doors for anyone who is not authorized to be in the building.” The agreement states a record is kept of who enters COM with swipe cards, and in the case of theft, whoever is recorded as having entered the building “could be held liable, or asked to speak to the police.” It also specifically forbids leaving the door “ajar or propped open.”
“It had built over several months,” Donohue said. “There had been serious threats and then a policy put into place so that everybody was made aware of the seriousness of the situation.”
Harbin said students were reminded at every station meeting of the importance of leaving the doors closed.
“It was a security issue,” the COM senior said. “Everyone knew that.”
In an email sent to WTBU members, Harbin said the new operating hours, while not final, will generally stop either at midnight or 1 a.m. every night.
The decision to cut back broadcast hours will increase time slot competition and hinder experience for new interns, WTBU members say. Harbin said new interns with early morning time slots – between 2 and 8 a.m. – will be most affected, because the station already accommodates almost 250 members.
“We usually gave second-semester freshmen and second-semester sophomores those slots,” she said. “Now, we just don’t have many slots . . . it’s far less likely that they’ll get a show.”
WTBU Sports Director Jonah Goldberg said the tighter scheduling and shorter hours will also result in more competition among students for prime show slots, although Donohue said only one student has approached her since returning to school about not having a place within WTBU.
“Everyone who is involved with the station is going to suffer,” Goldberg said. “There are less opportunities, and now it’s going to be a competition . . . it’s going to be that much tougher.”
With the decision coming at the end of the semester, Goldberg said he is curious about how students, many who are not aware of the situation, will react when they find out.
According to Donohue, the shorter broadcasting hours will help the station avoid “definite major holes” in its on-air schedule this past semester which appeared partially due to a vacancy left by a DJ who quit and a DJ not showing up for a scheduled show.
The decision will make air-shift slots more competitive among students, a reality in the radio business, Berkovitz said.
“Anyone who is going into journalism, broadcasting, any of these areas, it is going to be competitive,” he said. “You are going to have to prove that you have great ability in terms of programming, in your work on-air, and so I see this as a way that the management and the faculty representing WTBU will be able to ensure that the best students have an opportunity for air-time, for management positions.”
Donohue said she expects the decision to shorten broadcasting hours may be revisited by next September, although she said it may be sooner.
“My feeling is we’ve got to prove that we can handle the responsibility, and if that’s the case, we can certainly reconsider,” she said. “Right now, I think we didn’t have enough people to fill the slots that we had adequately last semester, so I’m not terribly concerned about that.”
Donohue said while many students were unhappy about the decision, it is now up to them to rise above it.
“I think the students saw the writing on the wall,” she said. “They had been warned amply and it happened, so I hope it stops, and I hope this is a reminder to anybody else who wants to use the radio station for their own purposes to not do that.”