Liberate WUMB

In a town that already has 3 NPR affiliates, operating a state university station as the 4th is WRONG! Turn WUMB over to the students and community! Share word about "Liberate WUMB"

https://www.facebook.com/FansofFolkRadioWUMB/

UMass Boston's stated "Missions and Values"* mandates a responsibility to fulfill its educational charter by providing the broadcast license it holds and the

facilities it owns to educate UMass Boston students. By excuding students from management, production and hosting positions and instead operating the station as an NPR affiliate, the administration is remiss in its responsibilities. This student involvement model is not foreign to the UMass system, it is the one employed at WMUA (UMass Amherst), WUML (UMass Lowell) and WUMD (UMass Dartmouth). WUMB has historically served its recently "retired" general manager, her administration protectors and a very small clique of supporters for too long. It is past time WUMB served the UMass Boston students and the local community, as do WMUA (UMass Amherst), WUML (UMass Lowell) and WUMD (UMass Dartmouth). We put out the following intentions:

1. Move station control away from the Vice-Chancellor of Enrollment and reorganize as a Registered Student Organization (RSO), similar to WMUA UMass Amherst, that is run of, by and for the students of UMass Boston and the UMass Boston community. Time frame: start immediately, implement by the start of the Fall term.

2. Suspend and reassign to fundraising or general office duties acting general manager Patty Domeniconi who has been for several years Pat Monteith's second in command. With her in place it will be "business as usual." Openly post a vacancy for an interim acting general manager with a term through 9/1/12 to manage the transition to an independent college/community radio station. Time frame: Immediate.

3. Dissolve the so-called "Friends Council" whose members were appointed by Pat Monteith with no checks and balances to UMass Boston. Time frame: Immediate.

4. Sever all ties with National Public Radio (NPR) and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). Replace syndicated NPR programs with student- and community volunteer-produced programs. Time frame: Immediate.

5. "Adopt Objective Statements", operating guidelines and a management and staff structure based upon those in current use at WMUA:WUMB will serve as a training facility in all facets of management and operations of a non-profit radio station.WUMB will promote and support undergraduate student empowerment.WUMB will serve as a forum for individuals and groups that historically have not had access to broadcast media.WUMB will provide programming and services that promote sensitivity to the different social and educational needs of the listening area.Time frame: Immediate.

6. Give current paid on-air staff notice their paid positions will expire 8/30/12 and give assistance to find other positions within the UMass or civil service system. Effective 9/1/12 fill all on-air staff with UMass Boston students and UMass Boston-area community volunteers.; open bids for all office staff positions modeled after WMUA (current employees may bid for their current positions). Time frame: Start asap, fully implement by 9/1/12.

7. Give all paid on-air staff notice their paid positions will expire 8/30/12 and give assistance to find other positions within the UMass or civil service system. Based on the WMUA model define staff positions and post vacancies to be filled on 9/1/12 (current employees may bid for their current positions). Time frame: Start asap, fully implement by 9/1/12.

8. Abandon the approved-for-airplay policy. Grant all "on-air personalities" full and complete artistic freedom needed to produce their own programs. Time frame: Immediate.

9. Abandon the dual events calendar policy (one for playlisted artists and one for all others). Present one events calendar for all user-submitted Boston-area music events. Time frame: Immediate.

10. For the on-air and other non-management staff, ORGANIZE! Join the Communications Workers of America, Local 1300 or form a new local. Time frame: Immediate.

11. Terminate reading mainstream media (Associated Press) headlines at 10 past the hour. Implement news programs produced by students in Communication Studies, International Relations, Linguistics, Humanities, History, etc. Time frame: Start asap, fully implement by 9/1/12.

12. Create new UMass student- and community-produced programs in the areas of campus activities, athletics, current affairs, and the kind of music UMass Boston students are listening to. These points are evolving and subject to your input. Please comment below.

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"Fans of Former Folk Radio WUMB" original purpose:

For some 20 years, WUMB played traditional, revival and contemporary folk. In 2008 management drank the federal kool-aid and accepted grants and operating funds from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) and National Public Radio (NPR). The cost of accepting federal funds was a mandate to chang format to AAA pop and adopt syndicated programs (such as 10 episodes (20 hours) /week of "World Cafe"), thus becoming "Boston's NPR music station". As WUMB-fm is licensed to the University of Massachusetts, abandoned folkies angry with the pop AAA NPR format as well as anyone believing that a state university licensed station should be operated by and for its students and members of the local community should register their beliefs with

Kathleen Teehan, Vice Chancellor for Enrollment ManagementCampus Center,4th floor,Rm. 4100100 Morrissey Blvd.Boston, MA 02125-3393Direct phone - 617-287-6020email - [email protected] - http://www.umb.edu/faculty_staff/enrollment_services/index.html
..and their state senator and representative.

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* Source: http://www.umb.edu/the_university/mission_values/
Mission & Values
Mission
The University of Massachusetts Boston is a public research university with a dynamic culture of teaching and learning, and a special commitment to urban and global engagement. Our vibrant, multi-cultural educational environment encourages our broadly diverse campus community to thrive and succeed. Our distinguished scholarship, dedicated teaching, and engaged public service are mutually reinforcing, creating new knowledge while serving the public good of our city, our commonwealth, our nation, and our world. Values
Inquiry, Creativity, and Discovery
The University of Massachusetts Boston is an educational institution dedicated to rigorous, open, critical inquiry—a gateway to intellectual discovery in all branches of knowledge, and a crucible for artistic expression. Our campus culture fosters imagination, creativity, and intellectual vitality. Responsive to the call of diverse disciplines, schools of thought, and public constituencies, we expect and welcome divergent views, honoring our shared commitment to expanding, creating, and disseminating knowledge. We celebrate our research culture, with its diversity of methods, commitments, and outcomes. We promote a culture of lifelong learning, and serve as a catalyst for intellectual interactions with scholarly communities, students, alumni, and the public. Transformation
Our work can transform the lives, careers, and social contexts of all members of our community. We seek to help our students to realize their potential in the pursuit of education. We support our students, faculty, and staff in their efforts to create knowledge, gain new understandings, and assume the responsibilities of leadership and civic participation. Diversity and Inclusion
Our multi-faceted diversity is an educational asset for all members of our community. We value and provide a learning environment that nurtures respect for differences, excites curiosity, and embodies civility. Our campus culture encourages us all to negotiate variant perspectives and values, and to strive for open and frank encounters. In providing a supportive environment for the academic and social development of a broad array of students of all ages who represent many national and cultural origins, we seek to serve as a model for inclusive community-building. Engagement
As a campus community, we address critical social issues and contribute to the public good, both local and global. We participate in teaching and public service, as well as in basic, applied, and engaged research, to support the intellectual, scientific, cultural, artistic, social, political, and economic development of the communities we serve. We forge partnerships with communities, the private sector, government, health care organizations, other colleges and universities, and K-12 public education, and bring the intellectual, technical, and human resources of our faculty, staff, and students to bear on pressing economic and social needs. Environmental Stewardship and Sustainability
We seek to foster a consciousness of nature’s centrality to the human experience and our collective obligation to environmental sustainability. Since our founding, we have emphasized teaching, research, and service activities that promote environmental protection and nurture sustainability, strive for responsible stewardship and conservation of resources, and enhance the natural environment—not least the marine environment around our campus on Dorchester Bay and Boston Harbor. Economic and Cultural Development
We make significant contributions to the cultural and economic life of a major American city and enhance the Commonwealth’s vital participation in the global community. We educate artists, writers, archivists, nurses, teachers, environmentalists, managers, scientists, scholars, and others whose lifelong efforts enrich the culture and environment of many communities. Through our research, teaching, and service, we work cooperatively with businesses and industries, and with local, state, and federal governments, to strengthen our contribution to the state’s, the nation’s, and the world’s cultural and economic development. An Urban Commitment
Our work is marked by a particular commitment to urban places, people, culture, and issues, and by an acknowledgement of their complex local, national, and global connections. Our university is located in a great city—Boston—the Commonwealth’s capital and major population center. We are proud to provide an excellent and accessible university education, as well as highly informed research and service, to residents of Boston and other cities, regions, and countries. Partnering with urban institutions and residents, we help to create sustainable and healthy social fabrics, economies, service organizations, and civic and cultural institutions.
*This is a revised statement that was completed in September 2010, in connection with the university’s strategic planning process for 2010-2015. From http://www.umb.edu/faculty_staff/enrollment_services/overview.html: "Serving radio listeners, particularly the folk and roots music audience, through WUMB-FM, the university's public radio station..." HA! Since 2008 WUMB has been pop AAA. UMass administrators: Grant control of WUMB to UMass Boston students!