by PATRICK LEJTENYI

McGill’s campus-community radio station CKUT has always operated on a tight budget, and if the student body decides against it in an upcoming and much-delayed referendum, its administrators will find out what fiscal belt-tightening really means.

Between Friday, March 10, when advance polls open, and Wednesday, March 15, McGill students will be able to vote on whether they want to continue the university’s association with the self-declared progressive radio station. At issue is the $160,000 collected from the $4 fee each student pays per semester that constitute 40 per cent of the station’s budget, the same amount students have paid since CKUT was created in 1988. It may not sound like much of a fee, but the station is still vulnerable. Losing the vote would mean losing student funding and losing their space, as the building housing the station is owned by McGill.

A referendum deciding the station’s fate was slated for last fall, but was delayed over problems regarding the question on the ballot.

Branching out

Next week, from Monday, March 6 to Sunday, March 12, will be campaign week on campus. Michael Zackon, chairman of the CKUT board and the man behind the Yes committee, is confident his side will come out on top.

“I know we have a lot of supporters,” he says. “It’s just a question of getting the students out to vote and getting them willing to vote yes. I can’t imagine that once students are aware of how wonderful CKUT is, they won’t vote yes.”

But not everyone thinks CKUT is that wonderful. For years it had been criticized by students, staff and listeners at large for being too insular, too polemic and too inaccessible to the people who pay for the station’s ongoing existence. It’s largely from this perception (false, according to Zackon) that the university decided to change the relationship that existed between McGill and CKUT after their contract expired in 2001.

Under the previous agreement, McGill collected and distributed the $4 to the station directly, bypassing the SSMU. But in 2001, according to Rachel Doran, CKUT’s McGill outreach coordinator, the administration shortened the new agreement from five years to three. The station was told, Doran says, that it had to develop a closer relationship with the student body that funds it. That meant it would have to come under the umbrella of the Student Society of McGill University (SSMU).

As a sign of goodwill by CKUT, the station created Doran’s (non-permanent) position, and began broadcasting two campus-related shows. Despite the compromise, Doran says, relations between the station and the SSMU are good, even though SSMU president Adam Conter says he’d like to see even more campus-related programming, especially regarding student club events and athletics.

What the CKUT referendum will do, says Conter, is “prove the station’s relevance.” He says that by having a referendum once every “generation” of undergrads—that is, once every four or five years—it legitimizes CKUT’s existence to the people who pay for a good chunk of its annual budget.

Diversity of opinion

The SSMU did officially back the Yes committee in a resolution, meaning that, according to Zackon, “We have the backing of the student government.”

But not everyone was on board, says Conter. “Of course there was some opposition [among council members to back CKUT]. Otherwise we wouldn’t be doing our job. That reflects the incredible diversity of opinion we have.”

Still, he says, he and others recognized the unique position CKUT occupies as both a bridge between McGill students and the community at large, and as a valuable learning tool.

But it’s no secret that CKUT does not appeal to everybody, even within the McGill community. Those who vote no, speculates Zackon, might do so for fiscal or “other reasons.” Its left-wing politics would probably be at least one.

Zackon, however, doesn’t think it will be a problem. “It seems that some of the opposition from last semester have come to see their position as misguided,” he says. “I’m optimistic there will be less opposition than in the past.”

By press time, there has not been an application for a No committee, says Tania Jenkins, chief returning officer at Elections McGill, the body running all campus votes. “But in my experience, these things always come in at the last minute,” she says. The “last minute” would be noon Wednesday, March 1, past the Mirror’s deadline.

There still remains another question to be asked in a future referendum. If the students vote to continue their association with CKUT, they will be asked if they care to index the fee to keep pace with inflation.