Article

61-year-old WHRW Dj: Just another victum of the BU administration?

Mike Styne, general manager of WHRW, feels that Walikis’ efforts on behalf of both the students and the school should entitle him to free parking on campus..
Lindsay Kennedy -

Some of you may not know him. Others may have heard his show, “European Ethnic Melodies,” which airs weekly on WHRW. But those acquainted with him won’t hesitate to say that Daniel Jan Walikis is a special and integral part of the campus community.

The university administration seems to think otherwise.

“Dan Jan” as he is affectionately known by the WHRW staff, is a 61-year-old middle school history teacher and BU alumnus who has been volunteering at the campus radio station since 1987. He has done over 800 shows without a miss since that time, even scheduling important surgeries around his shows. The lifelong Binghamton resident is enthusiastic about how his work has impacted both the students and the local area, and sees his show as benefit to the university community.

In an issue that has arisen time and time again over the past few years, the administration refuses to classify Walikis as a university volunteer. Such a classification would entitle him to a free parking pass. Instead, he is considered a volunteer for the Student Association, since he is working with a student group and not a “university-affiliated department,” such as Music or Theatre. Therefore, he is not entitled to free parking on campus, according to parking services.

What exactly constitutes a university volunteer? It is a question that Walikis and his WHRW coworkers have long been asking, and they have never received a straight answer. Understandably, they are getting frustrated. Mike Styne, general manager of WHRW, feels that Walikis’ efforts on behalf of both the students and the school should entitle him to free parking on campus. Even past managers like Paul Battaglia, the alumnus who was killed in the World Trade Center attacks, had pressured the administration to give Walikis free parking, and got nowhere.

According to Walikis, he was issued a window-sticker parking pass when he first came to work for the station, which he paid for himself. When parking services changed over to its’ current passes, Walikis bought one and hung it on his rear-view mirror like everyone else.

In October 1998 he received a letter from the university that struck him as strange and hurtful: the letter stated that he had been given a free parking pass by mistake, and that if he did not relinquish it at once, “administrative action” would be taken against him. Walikis had always listed himself as a volunteer for the university, but obviously the university did not feel that they had gotten their money’s worth from him.

Distressed, he wrote to President DeFleur explaining his situation. DeFleur, as is her policy, referred him to someone else: Michael Scullard, who was then the Vice President for External Affairs. Scullard promised Walikis that he would make a speedy decision regarding his classification as a volunteer. In the meantime, he gave him a number of parking passes to use for the meters scattered around campus, which he could have until a final decision was made.

Well, that was then and this is now. Scullard retired this summer without ever having made a decision concerning the WHRW volunteer, who has since run out of those privileged passes. The new administration promised in October to notify Walikis of his volunteer status, and even suggested making him a “faculty advisor” to the radio station, which would entitle him to free campus parking. They have yet to call him back.

This seems to be yet another case of the university administration ignoring what it does not consider to be important, hoping that the situation will go away if it does not address it. But Walikis has no intention of going away any time soon. He feels that his years of service to the campus radio station and his influence on the students who work there should enable him to be recognized as a volunteer for the university. His dedication should be recognized. He has probably done more with students on this campus than perhaps many of the recognized “university volunteers.”

The disappointment of this man in the institution which gave him an education is evident. Wanting to thank the university for his master’s degree in history, Walikis figured the best way to do that would be to help out its’ students. His show plays Polish and Eastern European melodies and has helped many students in BU to connect with their heritage; some even tape segments to send home to their grandparents. The show has impacted the local community as well, and many residents view the program as one with the university and as a way of integrating it into the Triple Cities area, which has not always been kind to students. Walikis is proud of the fact that he can count among his fans his middle school students, the BU community, and the city of Binghamton as well, including a 92-year-old listener who faithfully tunes into his program every Tuesday.

The fact that the administration refuses to recognize this man as doing something positive for the university is absurd. Although he is a volunteer for a student group, this does not separate him from the university, something the administration has never quite understood. Everything that Dan Walikis does for students, he does for BU as well. As an alumnus, he is understandably confused and hurt by this university’s treatment of him. With an administration that is notorious for seeing alums solely in terms of their monetary value, this isn’t really surprising.

But in a small way, Dan Jan Walikis has done more for this institution than Lois DeFleur and her field house ever will. He has the admiration and respect of the students, and he has taken his own time to get to know them and to influence them, which in turn contributes to the growth of the university as a whole. The least the administration could do is to thank him for that by allowing him to park on campus for free. But when the university is more concerned with sweeping him quietly to the side rather than acknowledging his achievements, Dan Walikis’ reward won’t come any time soon.