When I visited Rice University as a potential student in 1997, I met a student who invited me to accompany her on her 4-7am shift at KTRU. Naturally, I jumped at the chance. It would not be an exaggeration to say that my visit to KTRU was one of the primary reasons I chose to attend Rice. One year later, I was proud to have a 4-7am general shift of my own. In my second year I was the Promotions Director as well as a DJ, restarting the publication of the KTRU Folio, writing public service announcements, silk-screening home made t-shirts for the station and making flyers to promote the Outdoor Show.

In my third year, I found myself in the somewhat less desirable position of trying to force myself to leave the house after being physically sick the morning I learned that KTRU had been shut down in stated direct response to the civil disobedience that I had chosen to participate in the night before– the simultaneous broadcast of a Rice Athletics game and my scheduled show. I clearly remember dragging myself into the Jones Commons’ during breakfast, standing on a chair, and trying to hold back tears as I told my classmates what had happened.

My memory of the weeks following the shutdown of 2000 are hazy, but I can honestly say that the greatest regret of my life to this point has been that I did not protest more loudly and with more conviction. Some may say that if this is my greatest regret, I have certainly lived a charmed life. However, I look at it from the point of view that KTRU is *that* crucial of a resource for Rice students and the Houston community– KTRU is *SO* important to me that my greatest regret in life is that when I took a stand, I did not stand up for it as strongly as humanly possible.

When we are teenagers, we feel injustice more strongly. Similarly, art can be life-changing, music sounds better, and it is worth remembering that it will never sound that good again. It is a testament to KTRU that for myself and for hundreds of other DJ’s and alumni, the passion we feel for KTRU as a cultural institution to this day is NO less than the passion we felt for it when we were 18.

The secretive sale of the KTRU broadcast license to UH is unjust, disrespectful, and shameful. The reasons for the sale as cited by President Leebron in his letters do not make logical sense, and his assertion that universities are entering a new age in which we must sacrifice “underutilized resources” to meet our PRIORITIES is simply confusing, as apparently an “underutilized resource” does not refer to activities that lose more money than they could potentially bring in (see the Rice Athletics program), but instead refers to the sterilization of what could be seen as a minority group of undesirable weirdos with a public face.  What other resources will be sacrificed to attain this brave new digital world of prioritized gleaming chrome food serveries? I loved my experience at Rice because of the very qualities it claims to value as seen on the official quote on its Facebook page: “radical”, “unconventional”, “passionate” thinking people– words that can also be used to explicitly describe the KTRU mission, but much less so a dormitory cafeteria.

Among all the other problems that have been brought up with the sale of KTRU, President Leebron needs to tell the Rice community what his Priorities are, in the most specific terms possible. Is it the corporatization of Rice University as a for-profit business? Is it to foster academic freedom and research via the creation of a campus that values creativity in ideas from all areas?

Whatever his Priorities may be, it is crucial that the alumni know what they are, so we can decide if we want to continue supporting what Rice University stands for. It is not a question of the University ultimately “changing over time” and alumni resisting the changes– it is a question of the values we as a society want to promote in the education of our young people, and indeed in the operation of an academic institution: independence, creativity, humanity, leadership, originality, passion, and openness.

If the Priorities of Rice University are accurately reflected in the events undertaken secretly for the last year and (reluctantly) in public for the last week, I do not support them ethically, financially, academically, or personally, and will never again give Rice the benefit of my praise or my money.

Save KTRU.
Victoria Keener, Ph.D.
2002, Jones, BS Bioengineering