GSU VP involved in GPB deal previously served on WABE board; denies conflict of interest

• Joeff Davis
• LEFT OFF THE DIAL: WRAS DJ Vanessa Vonland is one of many students involved with the station that stands to lose airtime once Georgia Public Broadcasting begins its daytime programming.

An alleged conflict of interest regarding a top Georgia State University administrator’s role in the school’s Georgia Public Broadcasting partnership and his past position on WABE’s board of directors has raised concerns from WRAS supporters.

Vice President of Student Affairs Douglass Covey, who’s tasked with overseeing the university’s programs and services, has recently worked with President Mark Becker to broker the multi-year, $150,000 partnership between GPB and GSU. The move gives the state media network 14 hours of daytime new programming from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. on a daily basis. According to emails obtained by the Signal, GSU’s student-run newspaper, conversations about the partnership started as early as last September.

Until last month, Covey served on the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative board of directors, which oversees WABE and Public Broadcasting Atlanta. Some GSU students and alumni see that role as a conflict of interest, given that he was working with two competing media outlets. They question how that factored into the controversial WRAS format switch.

“This is a classic example of conflict of interest,” says Zach Lancaster, a GSU alumnus and former WRAS production director. “Covey was working in the best interest of two organizations. He entered into a position with one organization’s interest that’s mutually exclusive from the other.”

Covey first joined the board, which reserves a seat for GSU’s president or an appointed designee, in early 2008. On April 22, two weeks before the GPB deal was publicly announced, Covey submitted a resignation letter to PBA President and CEO Milton Clipper. In a copy obtained by CL through an open records request, he wrote that his GSU administrative duties stopped him from being “actively involved” with the board. Because of those responsibilities and various schedule conflicts, Covey wrote, he decided to step down.

“Truly there was no conflict of interest,” Covey tells CL. “For one thing, WABE was not privy to this agreement between Georgia State and GPB. Also, I did not negotiate the agreement. I was uninvolved with negotiations with GPB. So there isn’t a conflict of interest.”

According to PBA policy, a conflict of interest occurs when “when an officer, employee, or Board member has a direct or fiduciary interest individually or in an entity...which directly completes against the Atlanta Educational Telecommunications Collaborative.” Covey agreed to the terms in March 2011.

Lancaster thinks that Covey’s decision to stay on the board (one that’s working to maximize donations and increase listenership) when GSU was simultaneously negotiating another deal with GPB (a state media network that will enter Atlanta’s radio market due to the agreement) raises serious ethical issues. Even if he wasn’t directly involved in GPB talks, the alum says, that decision still required Covey’s approval as someone who reports directly to GSU’s president on matters involving student affairs.

“A large portion of his job is ensuring that students are taken care of and involved in student life. WRAS is a unique beast,” Lancaster says. “It’s a radio station owned and operated by the college, but the college lets the students run. It falls directly under his purview. If he never sat at the table, you’re talking about the voice of students being completely removed and cut out. If he was involved the GPB deal, that’s even more concerning than ethics violations.”

Many WRAS supporters have spoken out against what they think is a one-sided deal in favor of the state media network. And it’s an agreement, Lancaster says, that clearly defines GPB’s benefits, but doesn’t specifically spell out what students get in return for losing daytime radio programming. Because of that, he hopes that the administration can “come to the table in good faith and renegotiate with students, alumni, and GPB” to find an operating model that benefits all parties involved.

Covey says the current partnership, which includes access to GPB studios and staff, will help TV production students receive up to 12 hours of airtime each day that could be seen by many of metro Atlanta’s Comcast subscribers. Right now, the school TV programming operates on a closed circuit and can only be viewed on campus. Those additional benefits will better serve students in the long run, he says.

“The agreement with GPB has benefits for the university,” Covey says. “I don’t perceive this as meaning that the institution cannot continue to have a positive relationship with Atlanta Public Broadcasting. This was not a matter of taking sides. An arrangement with GPB uniquely offers the university some desirable outcomes because they’re a broadcast network. They’re in a position to collaborate with us in invaluable ways that are different from the benefits of continuing good relationship with Atlanta Public Broadcast. I don’t see the two as being mutually exclusive.”

Covey says that Becker will likely appoint his replacement to WABE’s board later this summer. A WABE spokeswoman declined to comment on Covey’s alleged conflict of interest.