Is Concordia University Television under attack? Probably not. Does it need a new leader to guide the organization out of this mess? Definitely.
A little bit of context: Employees of CUTV have been quitting left and right, locks were changed on the office doors, the organization’s finances have been frozen by the university, scathing open letters have been exchanged and only one person currently sits on the Board of Directors, leaving the organization in a tight spot legally.
Basically, it’s been a rough couple of months for CUTV.
What CUTV should have done: for starters, there should have been more communication between members, staff and the people running the show. If the station was falling apart, the directors and the management should have addressed it much earlier. There is honestly no excuse for this level of confusion and blame-gaming.
This whole situation was made worse now that the Board of Directors has only one remaining member. This shows a clear lack of forethought and organization now that no new directors can be appointed, there are no bylaws to work off of and no one seems to be aware of what to do next.
What CUTV is doing wrong: from what we’ve been hearing, it sounds like everyone involved could use a bit of an attitude adjustment. People quitting en masse because of “tensions” at the station indicate to us that those underlying problems were not so subtle after all. The amount of infighting and name-calling we’ve been privy to of late is really childish. This is a university and some of the people involved in this mess are too old to be acting like they don’t know when to keep their mouths shut and their personal vendettas in check.
The solution: clean it up and clean it out. Some of the key players in this unravelling saga have been at Concordia for nearly a decade and we wonder if some fresh blood might be just the thing CUTV needs to stay afloat. While there is something to be said for the benefits of institutional memory, those benefits are vastly outweighed by the problems facing CUTV right now. As far as we can tell, the station is not under attack from the outside; it’s collapsing all by itself.
Now is the perfect time for a complete overhaul of CUTV. If the organization has been plagued by negativity and mismanagement, then it’s time for the veterans to step aside and see what a new generation of students can accomplish.
