WESU: Clarification

After reading Charles Kurose’s Wespeak (“SBC funds not for inappropriate requests,” Feb. 22, vol. CXLII) about the Student Budgetary Committee (SBC)and allocations, I would like to make a clarification about WESU’s budget request. While discussing how WESU received about $11,000 less than it requested and $3,000 less than it received last year, Kurose stated, “the article missed the actual story, which was that $7,000 of the allocation request was meant to finance a weekend trip for a small handful of students to go to New York. It was this segment of the proposal that was denied and accounted for the bulk of their purported underfunding.”

This statement is fairly misleading. While WESU did request $7,000 for conferences, to say that it was for a weekend trip to New York doesn’t give an accurate picture of the request. Every year there are a series of conferences put on by organizations such as College Media Journal (CMJ) and Intercollegiate Broadcasting System (IBS), amongst other college radio organizations. These conferences help us learn how to create better programming, raise more money and acquire free new music from record labels. Last year, we sent 10 DJs to New York for the IBS conference to go to workshops that discussed everything from fundraising techniques to news programming. This year, we raised more money from our pledge drive and received an award from the Hartford Independent Media Center for our public affairs programming.

WESU is very appreciative for the funding we have received from the SBC. Still, we do not have enough money to cover all the costs that come with operating a radio station 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and we are organizing our second proposal to the SBC for further funding. However, to suggest that our conference budget simply provides for weekend vacations is not accurate.