UTV13 officials fire back in controversy over show

Entertainment India may not appear on the UTV13 airwaves again this semester, but General Manager Heather Dorf said she acted appropriately when she imposed restrictions on the show for irresponsible behavior on the part of its producers. Dorf's comments followed charges made by the show's producer, Wharton sophomore Toral Mehta, earlier this week that Dorf imposed unreasonable restrictions on the show's staff, which in affect canceled her show. Dorf, a College junior, said last night that multiple instances of unprofessional and irresponsible behavior on the part of the show's producers showed her that the staff was incapable of producing its show "autonomously." She added that Mehta's abuses included returning UTV13 cameras days after they were due back to the station, erasing another UTV13 producer's work, mishandling station equipment and letting untrained Entertainment India staff members use the station's cameras. Dorf said Mehta's behavior was hurting the entire station. "Her irresponsibility was making our day-to-day operations increasingly difficult," she said. "If something's not there when you need it, you don't have a story. If you don't have a story, you don't have a program. If you don't have a program, you don't have a station." College senior and former UTV13 Sports Director Sherri Solomon said Mehta's behavior affected her when she was supposed to cover a men's basketball game with a camera that was in Mehta's possession. "So many times I was ready to quit working for the station because there were no cameras there because Toral had them," she said. "She was impossible to work with because she did not play by the rules and was not fair in what she was doing." After one of the abuses, Dorf said she decided to put the group on probation until the end of the semester. But after speaking with Mehta and hearing her apology, she decided to give the group a chance to continue production this semester. Dorf then told Mehta that if she wrote a proposal explaining what she had done wrong and what measures she would take to improve, she would consider taking the group off probation. When Dorf received the proposal two weeks later, she asked her board to vote on two issues: whether to let the show remain a part of UTV13, and if so, whether to mandate supervision of all of the group's activities. The board voted to keep the show in UTV13's lineup, but to "baby-sit" all production. Dorf said, however, that no one on the board has enough time to supervise the group this semester. "At this point in time, [with] about a month left in our season, everyone is tapped," she said. "Not busy with life, busy with UTV13." Dorf said the group can retrain next fall during the regular general training session, and the board will reconsider the group's status with regard to supervised activity at that time. Mehta said last night that the deadline violations she committed were mistakes, but that she had no prior knowledge of many of the rules Dorf referred to, such as one stating that every member of a show's staff using cameras must be trained. In fact, Mehta is the only trained member on her staff. "That's ridiculous," Mehta said. "Would you think that I was going to single-handedly make this whole show?" Dorf and former UTV13 General Manager and College senior Todd Donovan both said that Mehta has had the training policy explained to her numerous times. The policy is also posted around the UTV13 studio. Dorf said she hopes to see Entertainment India back on the air in the fall. "I don't want to lose programming," she said. "There's no reason we wouldn't want to have their show. It had nothing to do with the quality of their show."

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