Photo by - Luke T. Ray Outside the Emmanuel Gallery Jan. 21. It is the oldest standing church structure in Denver. A makeshift fence confines the lawn where a corner of the gallery is detaching from the rest of the structure. Despite the crumbling of the 127 year old building the gallery is remaining open to the public.

Over Christmas break, a cornerstone of the Emmanuel Gallery separated from the building, and Bill Trimble, facilities manager, has asked for emergency funding from the state for immediate repairs.

Trimble said Andrew and Anderson, a local contracting company, are studying the damage, but it is uncertain if the repairs will be possible due to the budget cuts the state has made.

The damaged area has been fenced off; however, the inside of the gallery is functional and will be open for student use.

“It looks more frightening than it really is,” said Jennifer Garner, director of the Emmanuel Gallery.

Garner said the gallery opens officially for students Thursday night for a Community College of Denver student art show.

Originally it was the Emmanuel Episcopal Chapel and was built in 1876. In 1903 the building was purchased by the Shearith Israel congregation and converted to a synagogue also know at the10th street shul. Services ended in 1958 and the building was purchased by the late Wolfgang Pogveba, who used it as a studio until 1973. Today it is used as an art gallery for all three institutions at Auraria. The building is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

“I am less worried about money now,” Durban said. “I now have the ability to delve into more community projects and make the projects I was already involved with flourish.”

Durban is a political science and women’s studies major at Metro. She has been a queer activist since high school, where she helped reorganize her high school group into a diversity club and encouraged her school district to be more queer-inclusive.

Here at Auraria, she is involved with the Feminist Alliance and the newly reformed Auraria Queer Alliance. She has helped organize the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women activities, as well as V-Day. She has been to the national Creating Change Conference four years in a row.

In order to receive the scholarship, Durban said, she had to show a blend of both queer and academic awareness and activities.

She had to maintain a high G.P.A. and get several letters of recommendation, one of which she got from Metro Honors Program Director Dolph Grundman.

Because of these activities, Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Services Director Karen Bensen thinks Durban is the “perfect recipient. She epitomizes what they were looking for.”

Durban is also a recipient of the Gill Scholarship for GLBT Auraria students. She was the first Gill recipient and has been receiving it for two years.

“I knew we has somebody good when I got her Gill Scholarship application,” Bensen said. “I’ve been so impressed with what she’s done on campus.”

Durban said she is working toward multi-issue organizing, looking to blend issues of race, gender and sexual orientation into her activism.

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ACC’s administration shut down the college paper in mid February 2001 due to a sexual harassment charge against three students on the paper. Shortly after the paper opened back up, the administration refused to renew the contract of Chris Ransick, who served as the papers adviser for 10 years.

“Why shut down the paper because of internal problems? Fire the people that were involved, but don’t shut down the paper,” said Bryan Goodland, current editor of the Arapahoe Observer.

Goodland and Ransick have been in close contact with Lawrence concerning the first amendment rights of the paper.

“She’s coming here to see why Chris’s contract wasn’t renewed and to make sure no first amendment rights were violated,” Goodland said.

Rebecca Medina, current student at ACC, started a petition for Ransick’s reinstatement, which over 100 students signed. Goodland said that the petition was turned in to the administration and was completely ignored.

“I think it’s ridiculous that the administration doesn’t listen to the students,” Goodland said. “The fact that we went through the proper channels and the administration ignored us and forced us to accept what ever adviser they chose is mind boggling.”

The administration agreed to meet with Lawrence to revise the papers current constitution, an e-mail from Dee McNeely-Greene, vice president for student services, stated.

Goodland, Ransick, Lawrence, and ACC administrators will have a meeting next week regarding the changes at the Arapahoe Observer.
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The new semester brought a wave of students crowding into the bookstore and standing in long lines, but Metro student and lead cashier at the Auraria bookstore, Joaquin Bustos, said that it looks more hectic than it really is.

Bustos said the bookstore is much more organized than it was last semester, making it much easier for Auraria students to purchase books.

Metro student Jessica Sturgilo had a different view and said that everything seems more crowded this semester than last, especially the bookstore.

Bustos said things run a lot smoother when students bring a copy of their schedule, not a copy of their bill, in effort to find books.

“The more information, the better,” Bustos said.

He also said it is important for students to know that the text floor is broken into three different sections for the University of Colorado at Denver, Metro and the Community College of Denver, so if a Metro student needs books they should go to the Metro section. With that knowledge, it makes it easier on the student and the cashier so that they don’t have to put books that were not needed back, Bustos said.

“It’s also very important to match their section number with their classes, because section numbers are specific days and times,” Bustos said.

It can also be helpful for the students who do not buy books until after classes start to bring in their syllabus while shopping for books, Bustos said.
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Photo by - Joshua Buck Elyse Yamauchi (left) presented the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Awards to recipients Erika Church, Dr. Luis Torres (middle) and Brother Jeff Fard during the Peace Breakfast Jan. 17.

Race relations have taken steps forward but still fall short of the dream of a racially harmonious nation envisioned by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. over 35 years ago.

Speakers at the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. 2003 Peace Breakfast stressed that even though racial equality and understanding have moved forward in this country since King’s time, improvement must be continuously striven for.

The event celebrated and remembered the legacy of the civil rights leader, who’s work help end laws segregating African Americans from access to white facilities in the 1960s by practicing the philosophy of non-violent resistance. King’s birthday is on Jan. 15, but was celebrated on Jan. 20

“We are doing better, but that is not good enough,” said Jennifer Rhyans, a Metro student speaking at the closing segment of the breakfast titled “Expressions of Dreams Unfulfilled and Hope Alive”.

Metro Academic Affairs staff member Charlotte Baker peers over the program outlining the morning's events during the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Breakfast Jan. 17 in the Tivoli Turnhalle.

During a musical performance by Robertta Fay Moore honoring Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. at Metro's annual Peace Breakfast, student and Board of Trustees member Harris Singer applauds.

Metro student and Board of Trustees member Harris Singer participates in prayer before the annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Peace Breakfast Jan. 17.

Holding her baby “Noah,” Aneesha Linaris, 5, sits in the lap of Kate Lutrey while attending the annual Dr. Martin Luther King Peace Breakfast Jan. 17 in the Tivoli Turnhalle.

Photos by - Joshua Buck

“Unfortunately, for too many of us Dr. King’s dream remains a vision as yet unfulfilled,” Rhyans said.

Rhyans also emphasized the need for individual people to carry on the torch of King’s legacy by taking positive

steps to help other human beings.

“If you want peace, work for justice,” Rhyans said. “If you want justice, defend life, and if you want life, do something, help someone.”

Keynote speaker, Rev. Gill Caldwell, who marched with King during the 1960s civil rights movement, gave a short speech titled, “Reflections: Dr. King — the Man, the Dream.”

In his speech, Caldwell said that King empowered a nation to fly away from what he called “D.I.A.” It syood for Denial, which Caldwell called a psychological illness, Invisibility, the invisible members of society who are often invisible to themselves and Amnesia, because remembrance of racial history is freedom from amnesia.

“Martin Luther King, Jr. helped the people move from the shadows,” Caldwell said. “In order for them to see themselves and to be seen by those who wanted to use them but did not want to see them.”

Caldwell also emphasized the need for current leaders to back up their words of racial equality with demonstrations of action.

“I believe that if Martin Luther King, Jr. were alive today, rather than believing the words of our leaders, he would confirm their words and then push them up to their words,” Caldwell said.

According to Peace award recipient Luis Torres, the need to carry on the carry on King’s work is relevant today because racial equality in America has come up shorter then where it could and should be.

    “I thought we would be a lot further along by now than we are,” Torres said. “At that time it was a matter of physical integration, of literally getting our bodies into institutions such as Metro. Now it’s a matter of academic, intellectual and cultural integration.”

Any cause or movement, especially the civil rights movement, has to be carried through with persistence despite any lack of progress, according to Torres.

“Keep this movement going,” Torres said. “If you can keep it moving while you are standing and strong, then keep it moving while you are standing and strong. If you have to keep it moving while you are tired and bent over, then keep it going while you are tired and bent over.”

This was the 12th year for the breakfast and it was held at the Tivoli Turnhalle at Auraria on Jan. 17. The program consisted of speeches, musical tributes and the presentation of the peace awards.

The peace awards were given to Brother Jeff Fard, community activist, writer, poet, entrepreneur and visionary; Torres, president of the Chicano Studies Department at Metro, researcher and activist; and Erika Church, a Women’s Studies and Political Science major at Metro, also involved in feminist activism.

Jackie Benton, professor at the Metro Department of African American Studies, emphasizes the point that even though King’s birthday is celebrated once a year, people wishing to carry out his vision must become involved year-round in realizing it.

“It’s a nice program and people feel good about while they’re here, but then they go back to their lives and that’s the end of it,” Benton said. “That’s why we emphasize action: because we want people to carry this beyond just attending this breakfast.”

King’s legacy as one of the great leaders of the modern African American Civil Rights movement had significant impact felt up to this present time according to C.J. White, chair of African American studies.

“Needless to say, in every movement you cannot underestimate the role and impact of a leader, and in terms of the goals civil rights movement and the kinds of things King envisioned to change we can feel it the legal arena,” White said. “We no longer have Jim Crow laws. We no longer have enforced racial ethnic segregation but we must remember we can legislate laws but we cannot legislate attitudes.”

Read more about the Martin Luther King Peace Breakfast on Met On-Air by going to themetonair.mscd.edu

Click here

VIDEO COVERAGE from the Martin Luther King Peace Breakfast 1/17/03 http://themetonair.mscd.edu

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CVA presents teachers’ workshop
The Center for the Visual Arts will offer a workshop for Denver Public School teachers beginning Jan. 13. Part of the Art Across the Curriculum program it is titled Tantalizing Textiles and will explore the history of textiles.

The program was launched in 1991 and involves artists, teachers and students in multi-disciplinary, hands-on art classes, student art projects and student field trips.

For more information, go to http://www.mscd.edu/~collum/@metro/@metro_vol4/AACv4010803.htm.

Employee tuition program policy changes
Metro’s employee tuition program policy has been changed.

The college’s tution waiver program, which is available to permanent employees now states that employees must pay all tuition and fees within five days of registering for the class and must receive a passing grade to be reimbursed, which happends at the end of the semester.

Employees can be reimbursed for up to six credits hours per year. For more information, contact Student Accounts at (303)556-6188.

First Metro Homecoming in February
Metro will host its first-ever Homecoming basketball game Feb. 13. The NCAA II championship Roadrunners will face rival Regis University at 7:05 p.m.

Other activities planned are a concert by the Alumni Choir, a campus lecture by Harlem Globetrotters owner Mannie Jackson, a campus pep rally and an office-decorating contest. Employees are encouraged to wear Metro clothes and show support for the college.

Important dates
The last day to drop with  a 100 percent refund is Jan. 27 at 11 p.m.
The last day to be placed on a waitlist is Jan. 28.
The last day to drop with a 50 percent refund is Feb. 5 at 11 p.m.
The last day to withdraw from a class without a faculty signature is Feb. 17.
The last day to withdraw from a class with faculty signature for Spring 2003 is March 31, not March 25, which is during spring break.

Graduation Application deadline nears
Students planning to graduate in spring 2003 must submit an Application for Graduation by Jan. 31 in the Office of the Registrar, Central Classroom 105. The card is available in the Registrar’s office and identifies a student’s intention to graduate in spring 2003, the correct and complete spelling of the name for the diploma, the major/minor, concentrations and proper degree catalog. Students completing final degree requirements during the summer semester should not apply to graduate for the spring 2003 semester and are asked to attend the fall 2003 commencement ceremony.

Openings at Child Development Center
The Metro Child Development Center has a few openings for its child education program. Metro students who fit the following criteria qualify:
•have children ages three to five years old,
•desire a high quality educational program for their child,
•are taking a minimum of six credit hours on main campus,
•meet income and family size guidelines, and
•have increased financial stress related to childcare.
For more information, call (303)556-2759 or e-mail Karine Drechsel at drechek@mscd.edu.

GLBTSS 10th Anniversary
Auraria Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Services is turning 10 years old this month. Watch The Metropolitan for more information on this anniversary.

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