- TPagel3-| January 2009

CAMPUS |

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2008 PANTHER POST

Bringing back Panther Radio

By Sebastian Baglole Panther Post

To bring up the possibility of a revitalized airwave me- dia here on campus, I must for a minute wax historic on the timeline of student radio at UPEL.

The old CIMN radio was crackling out its final trans- missions about 1997. With a reception distance of about the length of campus, per- haps a little more, the station was quite literally confined exclusively to students. This however is the wish of few student disk jockeys who would spread the word fur- ther, and since reception was scarce, so too were any promotional assistance or notoriety CIMN might have gathered.

A couple of years ago, a leak was sprung through the cracks in the silent walls of the Kelley building. A team of students headed by Justin Doiron consorted to bring about an all-access radio program available online at radio.upei.ca, which now redirects to the UPEI home page. This was a promis- ing debut from what could possibly be the new student alternative to radio music and local news, what with providing the students with an array of shows and tunes for students by students, and relieving the stress from the steeply declining sensibili- ties over at SPUD FM, and the atrocities of K-ROCK and Ocean. | .

These students had nurtured

the embryo of future student radio with their own careful- ly-preserved equipment, and managed the station almost entirely on their own. And with a number of promo- tions via Music PEI, the EC- MAs, and the Juno awards, as well as a myriad of other local festivals, Radio@UPEI had shown a lot of promise early on. And because online radio streaming was loose on formality and free of cost, this gave the creators some breathing room to let the brainchild roam free of the Student Union.

“I loved Radio@UPEI, though I think the biggest problem was that nobody had a clue it existed,” Na- than Gill, a former member,

quite frankly stated. “We did

a lot of things very well and a lot of things miserably.” Inspired by the creation of Radio@UPEI, another ra- dio was born and named, coincidentally, Panther Ra- dio. This came after several students voiced a desire to name the radio after their paternal sports team, fusing the station not only on the grounds of local music and campus news, but also with the support of upcoming sporting events. The Panther Radio grew for a year, with all sports games successfully covered. After pushing on a cou- ple more years, the stu- dents moved on, took their equipment, and the project flatlined. Why did it fail? Doiron chimed in to the Panther Post, “I think ulti- mately it failed because the

founding members basically just finished school without properly training and attract- ing replacements, which is really a shame.”

In such a sad state with no incoming funding from the Student Union in sight nor any other institution of the university, it seems nearly incredulous that a student body can be bereft of such a key outlet, and quite a sub- stantial media tool. A station that students may see as their own will enforce a singular student motif, increase stu- dent interactions and social gatherings from this well of collusion, and as such a friendly source of media, it cannot possibly generate the love-hate relationship a newspaper can, springing the kind of camaraderie that print is just not capable of delivering. :

So who’s on it? Why shouldn’t we be on it? From a personal source and many others encountered, UPEI has tended to build a repu- tation for a distinct lack of school spirit; or alternately, one doesn’t feel a strong enough sense of acquain- tance.

Maybe we haven’t got- ten to know the school well enough personally, or maybe we don’t share enough in common. It’s been proven that something as simple as musical tastes highlight a common ground in student interests, and such a connec- tion can be as useful to a uni- versity aS a sports team, or even, God forbid, a student

paper.

Faith & Justice Experience program changes lives

By Patricia Urena

Post contributor

It was a life changing experi- ence and it opened her eyes to diversity, the youth co fa- cilitator for the 2009 Faith & Justice experience program, said in Charlottetown yester- day.

Lisa Walsh, 22, participated into the program in 2007 and is now a short-term mission- ary with the Latin American Mission Program, an

organization that works to- wards social justice issues.

Walsh said the program provides an opportunity for youth to experience life in a developing country. and en- courages them to take this

experience and apply it to issues of faith and justice in Canada.

“I want to learn more,keep involved and keep on doing what I can for social jus- tie’

Walsh said many of the par- ticipants stay involved with social justice and some have even changed their studies thanks to the experience. ~

“You commit to work for social justice through faith, but that is working to the truth.”

Walsh said the participants stay with a typical Domini- can family in smaller towns scattered throughout the cen- tral and southern regions of

the country.

“T learned to appreciate and respect my family a lot

more .”

Walsh said the Faith & Jus- tice program consists of six

formation sessions that are important before journeying to the Dominican Republic.

“It’s a time to get to know the other participants and the facilitators.”

The program is sponsored by LAMP and _ the Diocese of Charlottetown, Walsh said.

Cathy Ronahan, who works for LAMP as the coardinator for the Faith & Justice expe- rience program, said LAMP was established in the dio- cese of Charlottetown in 1967 in response to the call of Vatican II to share person- nel and other resources with countries of the south, espe- cially with Latin America.

“Since that time, 21 mis- sionaries from P.E.I. have worked in the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua, St. Vincent and Grenadines.”

Ronahan said the Dioc- esan Youth Committee was formed in 1998 as a response to the pastoral planning pro- cess which set youth minis- try as one of the priorities for the Diocese.

“The goal of youth minis- try is to foster, facilitate and empower the faith growth of young people.”

Ronahan said the program aims to give people from de- veloping countries their soli- darity and not their help.

“They are asking for what they need and not receiving what they don’t need.”

Ronahan said the program gives youth the experience

‘of learning how communi-

ties can become indepen- dent, have health care, edu- cation and food.