To the Editor:

WRPI (91.5 FM) is the campus FM radio station. Its license is held by the Board of Trustees and it’s run by a Student Union club technically named “Radio Rensselaer” with an Executive Committee of seven students elected by the student members each December. For anyone who has been following Capital Region news lately, there has been a lot of talk about WRPI, its role in the community, and the station’s current leadership. For many years now, non-RPI “community members” have been involved with the station, helping to fill air time during the summer, the morning, and on weekends. Some of them even started an organization known as the “Friends of WRPI” that accepts donations and raises money for the station. On the surface, it sounds like it should be one big happy family.

Unfortunately, as often happens when you bring multiple groups of people with very different interests together, it is not so. In the past several years, tensions have developed between various groups of WRPI student and community members. It is important to remember, however, that not all WRPI community members are members of the Friends of WRPI. Though most students are interested in music, and many community members are interested in talk radio, we have had student talk shows, and we currently have a fair number of community-member music shows.

The problem comes down to this: These groups have different perspectives and different interests. The students in the club are only here for a few years and are all relatively the same age. Most community members are older and some of them have been with the station for decades. The station itself is clearly run by and intended for students, but community members have and continue to contribute a lot through air time, service to the station, and fundraising with the Friends of WRPI. Ultimately, however, WRPI’s license and facilities are owned by RPI, and its operating budget is funded primarily through the activity fee paid by students.

As such, community members are guests of WRPI. At the same time, WRPI’s Executive Committee and student membership are the hosts. That relationship has responsibilities on both sides. Community members have a responsibility to remember that they are guests and that ultimately they are at a college radio station run by students. The Executive Committee has a responsibility to treat community members as you would treat any guest, with respect and dignity.

Neither of these things has been happening recently. Certain community members have taken WRPI for granted, treating their airtime on WRPI as a right and not a privilege with corresponding responsibilities. Certain student members, particularly a few members of the Executive Committee, have been selectively enforcing station rules against community members they don’t like or don’t agree with. Angry individuals on both sides have been downright rude to each other, to the point of creating a hostile environment at times at an otherwise “chill” student hangout.

Judging by the press, a change is on the horizon. I would guess it involves removing most of the community members from WRPI’s membership or disbanding the Friends of WRPI. I sincerely hope that is not the plan, at least not in the short term. There are some great community members at WRPI who have done nothing wrong and have been with the station for many years—people like Howard Jack on Mostly Folk and Steve Daub on Stormy Monday Blues. These guys have very good radio shows and know better than anyone that they are guests of the club and the Institute. I’m also very concerned about the effect on the summer schedule when no students are around. Additionally, if the Friends of WRPI are disbanded, I sincerely hope the Union is prepared to take up the financial slack for a club that is already in desperate need of new—and extremely expensive—pieces of equipment.

I wish this issue could have been dealt with sooner, before it came down to a battle between the Executive Committee and disgruntled community members. While I was on WRPI Executive Committee I did my best to be the voice of reason. Sadly, this was my last speech.

Robert Otlowski

CSCI ’06