Source: KOALA TV
By: Company Press Release
(LA, JOLLA, CA) — Following 2,600 signatures gathered by concerned students, UCSD will hold its first special election to rescind a decision by their student government the Associated Students and vote directly on bans of "graphic depictions of sexual activity involving nudity" and the ban of KOALA TV and Steve York from Student Run Television. Student Run Television remains disconnected after UCSD administrators unplugged the station during a political talk show last November raising a serious First Amendment debate and questions over student control of student media.
While UCSD administrators have claimed since last February that the debate surrounding pornographic segments on SCSD and KOALA TV would be decided solely by students, they publicly changed their mind following the announcement of the petition to bring the decision directly to a student vote. Acting Assistant Vice Chancellor of Student Life Gary Ratcliff has stated "I fully anticipate the university will not provide SCSD access to the Triton Cable network to air graphically explicit sex acts."
The University’s public response has been to maintain the debate and regulations facing SRTV to remain solely a student issue. Students have accused the UCSD administration of lying since day one, citing 544 pages of internal documents obtained by the UCSD Guardian through California’s Public Record Act. According to these students, the documents show administrators have been pressing to ban SRTV the entire time during this debate and just comes days after UCSD Chancellor Mary Anne Fox was exposed to accepting an undisclosed $248,000 buy out of her sabbatical time from her earlier job.
"I find it funny that while our school administrators have been intimidating student’s Free Speech Rights our own Chancellor was keeping a quarter of a million dollars in extra salary secret," says Steve York, who has been at the center of the controversy surrounding SRTV since February. "It’s great UCSD’s leaders seem more concerned about student’s late night nookiee than honesty in disclosing their secret salaries paid by our tax dollars. I can say my scandals never made the front cover of the San Diego Union Tribune; I can’t say the same about Ms. Fox"
This week, January 23rd to 27th, all UCSD undergrads will have the opportunity to vote for these restrictions on Student Run Television; it will certainly be interesting to see if administrators respect student decision’s on what their own self-assessed funds go towards given revelations of their own monetary mismanagement.
"Elections Won’t Sway Ratcliff" -From the UCSD Guardian UCSDGuardian.org/cgi-bin/news?art=2006_01_23_01
"SRTV Ban Pressed by Admin" -From the UCSD Guardian UCSDGuardian.org/cgi-bin/news?art=2006_01_23_04
If any members of the media are interested in copies of the 544 pages of internal documents, the Guardian has made them available for public viewing or can be obtained by contacting KoalaTV at KoalaTV@TheKOALA.org
KOALA TV
Mailbox C-17
UCSD, LA Jolla, California 92093
Phone: 858-534-4216
