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UVMtv is in danger of losing its studio on the first floor of the Davis Center.

In 2009, an agreement was drawn up between director of the Davis Center, Allen Josey, director of Student Life, Pat Brown, and former UVMtv presidents Greg Schondelmeier and Jeremy Baras, said current UVMtv President Max Landerman.

It was arranged that the $25,000 rent would be forgiven until the third year they were stationed there. By year three UVMtv would be expected to pay $10,000 of their rent, and by the fourth year they’d be paying in full, Brown said. 

Landerman said he is not satisfied with this agreement. 

“[UVMtv] would be putting up $25,000 of our supposed income every year to stay in the space that WRUV and the Cynic had not to pay a cent for,” he said.  

Josey said he does feel that it is unfair that UVMtv is the only student-run media outlet affected by the financial obligations of the Davis Center.

UVMtv had just recently been established when spaces in the Davis Center were being assigned to WRUV and the Cynic, Josey said.

“When we were designing the Davis Center UVMtv was barely in existence, so it wasn’t part of the footprint of the building,” he said. “Otherwise, they would be down with all the other media folks.”

However, at the time the agreement was made the Davis Center had more of a financial cushion, Josey said.

“When the TV studio was told they could stay there for free for right now it wasn’t an issue because there was a little bit of extra financial room,” he said. “Now, it’s a lot tighter.”

When UVMtv opened operations in the Davis Center there were both programmatic and financial expectations laid out for it, Josey said. 

Josey said he believes UVMtv has made some progress on programming but financially they haven’t made a big enough dent.

“At this point, UVMtv is a year and a half overdue on their first payment,” he said. 

With student enrollment going down, there is more pressure on the Davis Center to generate enough income, Josey said.

Last spring the Davis Center asked for UVMtv to create goals to address how they plan pay their rent.

As a part of these goals, UVMtv plans on increasing traffic in and around the studio even more and creating more events throughout the semester to prove they are integral to the Davis Center experience, said UVMtv promotions director Hailey Grohman. 

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“The DC is the place to be on campus,” Grohman said. “Basically all of UVM passes through every day, and that kind of visibility for a student organization is priceless.”

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Sophomore Arielle Kaminer said she thinks that UVMtv could do more to connect with students in the Davis Center. 

“It’s disappointing that they’re in danger of losing their space because they’re a part of UVM’s campus,” she said. “But, I can’t say I know too many people who watch it either.”

Landerman said he plans on addressing this issue in the coming months. 

“We don’t want to be that underground TV station that you have to be cool enough to watch,” he said. “No, we want to be the voice of the student population.” 

But Landerman said he feels their efforts will never be enough. 

“There are people who are willing to pay and want this space and I think Allan [Josey] is willing to give it to them,” he said. “It seems that this place is more and more about the bottom line.”

Josey has recently put together an advisory committee including students, staff and faculty members that will be involved in addressing the issues surrounding UVMtv’s space, he said.

This committee will be involved in figuring out the best set of tenants that would benefit the largest amount of students, staff and faculty in the Davis Center, Josey said.

The SGA is also involved in suggesting alternative programs to replace the space in the Davis Center, he said.

“Ideally I want everybody that’s down in all those spaces to generate as much traffic as possible,” Josey said. “If you’re not involved in the club, it’s not necessarily drawing the same kind of potential traffic.” 

Feb. 8, Landerman is meeting with Josey again to tell him why he UVMtv is a valuable member of the Davis Center.

“There is only one thing we care about,” Landerman said. “We care about this space.”