At its first general body meeting of the fall 2015 semester, WMUA leadership confirmed that phase one of the Department of Equal Opportunity and Diversity investigation into personnel and workplace conduct at the station was completed.
The EOD began investigating matters at WMUA in spring 2015 following the station’s removal of long-time radio host Max Shea and the suspension of Glenn Siegel, the former station adviser. WMUA leaders have repeatedly declined to comment on the investigation.
At the meeting, interim station adviser Annemarie Seifert told the general body that the likelihood of a further update on the investigation is not good.
The announcement that phase one of the investigation is complete comes days after 35 WMUA community members signed an open letter to Chancellor Kumble Subbaswamy regarding the “crisis” at WMUA. In the letter, community members said the recent crisis has “crippled the station’s day-to-day functions,” and protested station leadership’s decision to move the time slots of shows run by community member DJs to early morning “graveyard shifts.”
The community members are demanding a meeting with Subbaswamy to resolve issues at the station, and requested the recent conduct of student management be examined.
Community members have also asked station leadership for clarification about the removal of Shea, who was issued a no trespassing order in April and banned from the station. Shea has said he has not received an official reason for his removal.
Siegel, who was the station adviser for more than 20 years, is no longer with the station, but still works at UMass in a different role within Student Affairs.
An EOD investigation consists of three phases, according to WMUA community member Dee Michel. Phase one is the gathering information and facts, while phase two includes the writing of a report and/or recommendation. In phase three, the report would be passed onto Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs and Campus Life Enku Gelaye.
In a recent interview with the Daily Collegian, UMass spokesperson Ed Blaguszewski said he “expects the investigation to result in an evaluation overall on where (the station) is heading and how it can best serve the students and the community.”
Michel also said that WMUA’s grievance committee was also warned by EOD not to hear any cases against General Manager Andrew DesRochers, Programmer Haley Chauvin and Music Director Chloe Doyle while the investigation was in progress.
There were moments of tension between student leaders and community members at Monday’s meeting, including when community members voiced concerns over recent changes in management structure at the station, which they believed should have been addressed at the meeting but were not on the agenda.
Ross Gienieczko can be reached at [email protected] and followed on Twitter @RossGien.
Dr. Ed Cutting • Sep 15, 2015 at 10:25 pm
It’s also worth remembering that WMUA is required both to “act in the public interest” and to follow the stipulations it made in its application for its broadcast license. Anyone can send a written comment to the FCC –the mailing address is:
.
Federal Communications Commission, Consumer and Governmental Affairs Bureau, 445 12th Street, S.W., Washington, D.C., 20554
.
The FCC even has a web interface for this: https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=38844
.
A second important point here is that if Max Shea is over age 40, he is protected by the Federal Age Discrimination Law, which puts him into a protected class similar to women — and because of the FCC license, it applies to volunteer employees. Hence this is like firing a pregnant employee, without saying why, and — ooops — you don’t have any other female employees, pregnant or otherwise….
.
Or if you gave all your remaining female employees the “graveyard shift”, ummm…..
.
Notwithstanding what EO&D proclaims, Age over 40 is a protected class — and in an employment termination context, statements about age have the same legal significance as racial slurs. And unless you have a lot of 19-year-old Community Members and a lot of undergrads in their 40’s, 50’s, & 60’s, you inherently have a presumption of discrimination — discrimination being grounds for the FCC to yank a license….
Excalibur • Sep 15, 2015 at 7:41 pm
Sunlight is the best disinfectant.
Dr. Ed Cutting • Sep 15, 2015 at 5:41 pm
This stinks to high heaven folks, particularly the part about the “warning” not to hear grievances against certain people. Right….
Do NOT trust EO&D and do NOT trust Enku Gelaye — I say that as someone who once made both mistakes and now regret having made them. Do not trust the administration of that university — even the decent people can not be trusted because they have families and children and you are expendable when it comes down to their careers and paychecks.
Never forget that UMass considers students to be an inexhaustible fungible resource and nothing more.