University Radio on Campus [UROC] had been in disarray since students voted in favour of paying a radio station fee in a 1995 referendum.
"As far as we know UROC is dead," said Shaun Brennan, a students' union executive. "They sent us a letter two weeks ago [stating their executive had quit.]"
Dylan Gault, Vice President of Administration for the students' union, says he was not surprised by the announcement.
"I was expecting this for awhile. UROC's people have been leaving their organization in great numbers," he noted. "They hadn't been picking up their mail or their club funding cheque for awhile."
"Frankly, UROC was totally incompetent at the time of the referendum," complained Gault.
"Their constitution said they supported racism, and sexism, when they really meant to say the opposite. Their constitution was unprofessional... they said they were going to work on it, and bring it in to me, but I never saw it."
Brennan blamed the demise of UROC on a lack of coherence amongst the organization's members.
"UROC had a lot of initial supporters, but couldn't pull together to get the money. When that happened they fell apart," he said.
The wording of the referendum question specified that funding would be for a Śradio station,' not for UROC. The students' union opted to hold the funding until UROC was ready to take to the airwaves.
Reflecting back on the situation Gault was adamant that holding the funding was the right thing to do.
"It's a good thing that [the referendum] passed [the way it did.] If the funding would have went to UROC I would have bigger problems now."
"At the time the student's union was concerned the money would disappear [if it was given to UROC]," agreed Brennan. "We wanted to see a commitment and a CRTC license before we handed out the money."
Gault estimated the current accumulation of UROC funding at about $50,000 dollars and expected the sum to grow to $80,000 by the end of this fiscal year.
With UROC now defunct, Gault was unsure of what the funding would now be used for.
"The fee will have to be [continually] collected unless there is another general meeting or referendum," remarked Gault.
"I will probably suggest [to the student's union] that they do something else with the fund. It could be used for a bursary or an endowment fund."
"We want to hear what students want us to do with the funds," added Brennan.
However, both Gault and Brennan did not rule out the possibility of the funding going to a future radio station.
"If somebody wants to put together another radio station that's fine. But, they're going to have to be almost ready to go before they get the funding," said Gault.
"If someone came forward with a strong organization we would look at giving them the money," agreed Brennan.
"I am certainly hopeful [we can get a radio station.] I think students want a radio station, but I think it is going to take a larger commitment than from just one or two volunteers.