KUGN-AM promotes itself as “the voice of the Ducks.” Cumulus Broadcasting paid the University $1,000,000 for the right to use that name and broadcast Duck games, and the University should now find a new voice — one that lives up to our standards.
The University’s Affirmation of Community Standards Policy says it promotes “a culture of respect throughout the University community.” But the ongoing, hate-filled diatribes of national radio personalities such as Michael Savage and Michael Medved promote no respect. And they don’t promote a culture that “rejects bigotry, discrimination, violence or intimidation of any kind.”
Is the cash-and-benefits package really worth the association with hate that the station’s talk-radio hosts are buying from the University? These personalities are broadcast on some 1,200 stations nationwide, which is fine — they are entitled to their opinions, and they have the right to express them.
However, by being “the voice of the Ducks,” KUGN’s association appears to represent every Duck — including women and minorities.
And Hispanic students should take affront to being compared with rabbits and their breeding habits. Female faculty should take offense to being called “too emotional” to have the right to vote. Staff of Jewish faith should be outraged that Savage played tapes of Adolph Hitler’s speeches over German military music the day after Yom Kippur. Gay community members should be offended by the notion that homosexuality was called a “grand plan … to cut down on the white race.”
These are not sentiments that the University should support or promote — or so it declares in its policies. But by taking money from KUGN, the University is giving tacit approval, or at least it’s keeping quiet for the sake of money.
Either case contradicts the University’s mission, which proudly declares its “dedication to … freedom from unfair discrimination for all members of the University community and an acceptance of true diversity as an affirmation of individual identity within a welcoming community.” We couldn’t agree more; diversity is what makes this country great. But many demographic groups on campus could hardly feel welcome in the kind of environment KUGN provides.
All students, groups and departments on campus should demand that the University break its contract with Cumulus Broadcasting. Students — and student leaders — need to make it clear that we believed what the University told us: Diversity is welcomed in our community, and freedom of expression does not mean freedom to hate in our name.