The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: KHSU Updates

  • KHSU Update: 1 Employee Remains

    KHSU Update: 1 Employee Remains

    Administration rehires union protected station broadcast engineer

    Humboldt State University has rescinded the lay off of one KHSU employee out of the seven laid off in April.

    Kevin Sanders, a full-time employee who primarily works in Information Technology Services was rehired after his union, the California State University Employees Union, pushed back against the university. Sanders was and is the National Public Radio affiliate’s only broadcast engineer.

    “Kevin is employed, working mostly in the Information Technology Services area, but is available to assist with broadcast engineering for KHSU if the need arises,” HSU Communication Officer Grant Scott-Goforth said in an email.

    [perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”Steve Tillinghast” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=”18″]”Humboldt realized over the last several months that the chief engineer of KHSU is a critical employee and that the station could not operate, even in its reduced form, without him.”[/perfectpullquote]

    Humboldt chapter president of CSUEU Steve Tillinghast said in a press release that HSU management did not expect the Union to care.

    “Or perhaps they did not even realize that one of the employees in the group they terminated was part of a Union and that they would be held accountable,” he said. “Humboldt realized over the last several months that the chief engineer of KHSU is a critical employee and that the station could not operate, even in its reduced form, without him.”

    KHSU runs with the help of Chico’s North State Public Radio station to air its programming off and on since April.

    At the beginning of August HSU signed a short-term interim agreement with Capital Public Radio in Sacramento for programming assistance with KHSU Public Radio. The agreement will keep KHSU running till the end of October.

    According to a press release, “the agreement allows KHSU to continue airing national and state programming as the University considers various approaches for KHSU’s future.”

    HSU will be assessing ways to ensure KHSU aligns with the university’s teaching missions after an advisory audit report. The audit report, ordered by the previous HSU president Lisa Rossbacher, found the station lacking in the opportunities it was supposed to provide for students.

    The report suggested that over time the station had evolved from an exclusive student training ground to primarily a community servicing station. The report said the university should assess student involvement at KHSU and determine whether or not to develop more opportunities for students through “employment, internships, academic programs and coursework.”

    The advisory team did not, however, suggest laying off employees as an answer to any suggested shortcomings.

    For now, the university is considering joining the discussion of a three-way regional partnership with the Chico and Sacramento stations.

    This partnership could bring about certain opportunities such as a Public Service Operation Agreement, which would formalize cost-sharing for programming and management.

    Structural organization was also an area of improvement listed on the KHSU audit.

    HSU President Tom Jackson wants to gather input from faculty and students to learn more about their interest in KHSU before committing to anything further.

  • Student interns fired from radio station

    Student interns fired from radio station

    Megan Martin and Damian Jimenez are out a job, out a class and wondering if the past few weeks of their work at KHSU was all for nothing.

    They are just two of the student interns that worked at the radio station before it was gutted on April 11 by the Rossbacher administration. Martin and Jimenez were working under the tutelage of staff and volunteers, some of whom had been working at the station for over 30 years.

    But now, with just a few weeks left in the semester, the former interns are left wondering, “WTF am I going to do now?”

    “I feel cheated out of these last couple of weeks,” Martin said. “I really felt that these last few weeks were going to be beneficial to my college career.”

    LAL.BREAKING.NEWS.KHSU.4.12.2019.LAL.BREAKING.NEWS.4.12.2019.IMG_1754.JPG
    Hmuboldt State University student and former KHSU employee Megan Martin hugs former station manager Lorna Bryant outside of the station on April 11, 2019. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    Martin and Jimenez were enrolled in the “KHSU Experience” class this semester and had their learning experience cut short by the decision to gut the radio station. HSU President Lisa Rossbacher said that part of the decision for the drastic cuts to the radio station was to promote more student involvement at the station. However, the interns at the station were given “zero notice” about the station firings.

    “I walked up to the school and saw cop cars at KHSU and that’s how I knew something weird was happening,” Martin said. “I was reading stories on the Mad River Union about how the student interns were out of luck. [Frank Whitlach] was giving interviews about us students, without ever reaching out to us.”

    Trying to find someone in the administration to answer any questions about the lack of student notice has a been quite the ordeal. Frank Whitlach, associate vice president of marketing and communications, has been hard to reach and is currently on vacation.

    Vice President of University Advancement, Craig Wruck, and one of the main persons in charge of the firings, has been out of his office since at least the day of the KHSU firings and “isn’t available for an interview.”

    President Rossbacher commented on the KHSU firings on the day of the kerfuffle, but has not been available since then.

    On the day of the firings, Whitlach sent an email to the student interns reassuring them that their “student assistant positions will continue as planned for the remainder of the semester.”

    However, that “reassurance” seems to have fallen apart. As of now the future of the student interns is being discussed with the Journalism Department Chair Deidre Pike and Whitlach about what the steps moving forward will be.

    One option is to pay the students out for the remainder of the semester and to figure out how they will be given course credit for their work so far.

    “We were student assistants, getting paid,” Jimenez said. “I depended on that money.”

    The Associated Students of HSU also played a role in the gutting of KHSU. In an email obtained by the Lumberjack, Student Representatives Maddie Halloran and Eden Lolley were co-authors of the Associated Students Draft Resolution No. 2018-19-08 “An Act of Formal Support for Increased Student Involvement in KHSU Radio Station.”

    The email says that the goal of the resolution is to “encourage the KHSU station to increase student positions, student-produced content, student air time, and more.”

    “Craig Wruck came to our board in the fall and said that funds from HSU students is going towards funding [KHSU] and that there isn’t a lot of students employed there,” Halloran said. “The KHSU gutting took us all by surprise.”

    LAL.BREAKING.NEWS.KHSU.4.12.2019.LAL.BREAKING.NEWS.4.12.2019.IMG_1747.JPG
    Danielle Orr who has volunteered at KHSU for 39 years talks with former paid intern Damien Jimenez outside of Feuerwerker House where the KHSU station has been based on the HSU campus on April 11, 2019. | Photo by Thomas Lal

    Both Martin and Jimenez said that they were never spoken to about their roles at KHSU and that the whole situation lacked clear communication between those in charge and the ones now suffering from the fall out.

    “The university keeps on having this top down management style that says ‘more students need to be involved in the station,’” Jimenez said. “But I don’t think they understand the value of the station to me as a student. No one ever asked me why it’s important. I could go there and get professional experience. If there is just a bunch of students there, what’s going to make it not just KRFH 2.0.”

    Also missing from the AS resolution is recognition of the declining numbers of the KRFH news class. Amy Berkowitz, faculty advisor for KRFH news, said there has not been “enough bodies to support it” recently.

    “I have been asked on several occasions about helping KHSU and we have said that is not necessary because we have KRFH,” Berkowitz said.

    The future of the KHSU radio station is still in limbo. Currently there are zero employees or volunteers at the station and a broadcast out of Chico fills the airwaves. With the dismantling of the radio station, the football program, and the 3rd Street Art Gallery, one has to wonder what’s next?