UC Davis has opted to demolish Freeborn Hall, the building that houses KDVS, while no adequate space resides on campus to relocate the facility. KDVS is the Sacramento area’s 13,000-watt student/community-run freeform radio station operating from UC Davis campus since the late 1960’s. Even now, during the COVID-19 epidemic, the station continues live programming, in order to foster cultural expression and to serve northern California and beyond. KDVS has occupied offices in Lower Freeborn Hall for the last 54 years. Freeborn Hall is a historic auditorium on the UC Davis campus. It was identified as needing seismic upgrade in the early 2010’s. UC Davis spent four years accruing stakeholder input on Freeborn for a seismic retrofit and refurbishment. This culminated in a report by BAR Architects that proposed a complete renovation, and found Freeborn Hall architecturally redeeming. As the result of undisclosed discussions at the former chancellor’s office, it was abruptly and unilaterally decided to systematically remove the student auditorium and student activities for higher profile non-student projects. Although KDVS was continually promised a proper relocation, the campus decided that among the billions of dollars in planned projects, KDVS and other student units were not a priority. Between 2018-2021 the university attempted to find a vacant space on campus to relocate KDVS as Freeborn was earmarked for demolition. The decision was announced April 2nd to downsize KDVS into a computer room on campus. Continue reading more about the situation here: https://savekdvs.org/whats-at-stake/
