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Protesters’ messages washed away
by Noelle Leavitt
The Metropolitan |
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Courtesy photo - Anti-War
Auraria
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| Members of Anti-War Auraria write messages on
the sidewalk of the Lawrence Street Mall near
the flagpole with chalk for the campus protest
Jan. 27. AHEC used water to remove some of the
messages written around the Auraria campus. |
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Between nine and 11 students wrote messages with chalk on
the sidewalks of Auraria campus supporting an Anti-War rally,
Jan. 27, expressing their views on why the United States
should not go to war with Iraq. Shortly before the
rally began Auraria Higher Education Center employees erased
the messages with a water hose.
“They were clearly marked with AHEC stuff, and the
guy with the hose saw us looking at him,” Metro student,
Melissa Hedden, 25, said.
Hedden said she saw an AHEC truck along with four to five
AHEC facilities management workers spray the sidewalks at
around 8 a.m., about two hours before the rally began.
Metro student Erika Church, 26, said Anti-War Auraria, a
collation of 17 different organizations on campus, got verbal
permission from AHEC Assistant Director of the Events Center,
Irene Oliver, to chalk their messages on the sidewalks of
campus.
Oliver said there was no verbal agreement concerning chalk
writings for the rally and usually people ask AHEC for permission.
Oliver said it has always been okay to chalk on the sidewalks,
but the only time it is not is when the chalk is written
on the buildings. If chalk is written on buildings it is
considered graffiti.
Oliver said if Anti-War Auraria would have even remotely
mentioned it to her than she could have called everybody
and told them that they would be chalking.
Metro student and head sponsor of the rally Erin Durban,
19, said she doesn’t know if the chalking that Anti-War
Auraria was considered writing on a building or not.
“We wrote on the cement bottom part of the parking
garage,” Durban said.
Community College of Denver student and Anti-War protester,
Jennifer Samimi, 22, said the only chalking they did was
on the sidewalks.
Hedden said that when Anti-War Auraria went to AHEC to try
to find policies pertaining to chalking they gave her a
runaround.
Oliver said there are no written policies in place stating
the procedures for chalking because it is common sense,
and student organizations should know what they can and
cannot do.
Larry Lopez, Assistant Professor of Management, said, “We
drafted a new sign policy and chalk is one of the things
we haven’t looked at yet.”
“In the absence of nothing written, anything can be
washed away,” Lopez said.
Oliver said if students want to know what is okay and what
isn’t they should ask.
“When we asked for the rules, people were very rude
to us,” Hedden said, adding, “Personally I think
its garbage, because rules were enforced that do not exist.”
She also said Anti-War Auraria made very clear what was
going to happen, it was very organized, so there would be
no surprises about what was going to happen.
“The administration signed off on our application
and permit,” Hedden said
Durban said the chalking they did was of the tragedies that
might come if the United States did go to war with Iraq.
“We did body chalking of people,” Durban said.
Along the side walks were outlines of dead bodies lying
on the ground, and big peace signs with statements around
them that said, “No war with Iraq.”
Headlines
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Kaplan projects
$11 million budget cut
by Ross Mote
The Metropolitan |
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Photo by -
Joshua Buck |
| Metro President Sheila Kaplan addresses students,
faculty and staff during the Spring 2003 Convocation
in the King Center Concert Hall Jan. 30. Kaplan
said 17% of the state appropriated $45.5 million
may well be rescinded leading to potential layoffs
and administrators. |
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Metro President Sheila Kaplan issued an advisory to
the staff and faculty of the school about the state of the
college budget Thursday morning stating that Metro that while
has had to give back millions to the state and more cuts are
yet to come.
Kaplan projects that Metro will have lost a total of $11 million
in state funds between July 2002 and July 2003 due to the
Colorado budget shortfall.
She began with an overview of Metro’s accomplishments,
awards and goals, then moved into an extensive summary, outlining
the bleak fiscal realities that Metro will face in the second
half of the fiscal year, 2002/2003. Kaplan quoted State
Senator Dave Owen-R, who chairs the legislature’s Joint
Budget Committee, saying, “Round two is when things
get a little tough.”
This is the second consecutive year that our school has undergone
budget cuts. Last year, Metro was asked to give back $3.3
million in non-tuition, state appropriated funds, which it
managed to do through prudent spending and the use of additional
revenues generated by enrollment increases.
An additional $1.2 million was added to Metro’s budget
restrictions, bringing the total amount of cuts to 10 percent
of the college’s non-tuition state appropriation.
Citing the New York Times Pulse of the Economic West, Kaplan
said, “when the technology-telecommunications-transportation
bubble burst, Colorado and Utah were the region’s hardest
hit states. Colorado’s unemployment rate has almost
doubled from 2.8 percent to 5.5 percent and economists say
this is the worst recession Colorado has experienced since
the 1930s.”
This unfortunate turn of events has translated into a dire
need to cut costs in the state budget. Kaplan said, the Colorado
Legislature will need to cut $850 million from Colorado’s
financial plan.
“If the new revenue estimates, due in March, are lower
than projected—and there is every indication they will
be—the deficit will increase,” Kaplan said.
She then related the affect this information would have on
Metro State, “I have every reason to believe that rescissions
from higher education will total 17 percent if not more. Metro
State’s share, now at $5 million, would increase to
about $7.7 million.”
“Against a backdrop of record enrollments,” Kaplan
said, “(we) are doing a Herculean job of ensuring that
in these tough economic times that our students receive a
quality education and the services they need to succeed.”
Listing what Metro has done in the past to adjust to cuts,
Kaplan said, “We have allocated new tuition revenue
from enrollment growth to compensate for the loss of state
funds; we have instituted a hiring freeze, and we have eliminated
positions by merging Information Technology into the Division
of Administration and Finance.” Kaplan refers to this
as “win-win strategies.”
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Kaplan
projects that Metro will have lost a total of $11
million in state funds between July 2002 and July
2003 due to the Colorado budget shortfall.
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However, additional reductions in state money will mean that
the school must look to the staff and faculty to make further,
more agonizing concessions.
“We have exhausted the ‘win-win’ strategies
for managing Metro State’s share of Colorado’s
budget shortfall,” Kaplan said, adding, “Undoubtedly,
decisions will be made that will spark consternation and even
dissention. But I am confident that by working together and
sharing burdens to the extent possible we can manage this
crisis in ways that keep the college as whole as possible
today and position it for tomorrow.”
Feb. 5, Kaplan asked the Board of Trustees to declare a fiscal
emergency and to institute the Early Retirement Incentive
Program for staff and faculty members who have served the
school for 20 years or more.
Those having served 10 to 19 years will be eligible for the
Early Separation component of this plan.
Depending on how many eligible employees take part in the
early retirement and/or separation plan and how much money
is saved due to these departures, the school may be able to
lessen the severity of future mandatory concessions.
During her speech, Kaplan made plain what the staff
and faculty are being asked to do.
“We’re all expected to tighten our belts,”
she said, “They should make a belt puncher available,”
which prompted troubled laughter from the audience.
Students are being urged to contact the state legislature
and insist that they protect funding for Higher Education.
Information about your representatives, including contact
information, can be accessed at www.congress.org.
Headlines
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Students discuss Bush’s plans
by Jenni Grubbs
The Metropolitan |
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About 40 Metro students and faculty gathered in North Classroom
Jan. 29, to discuss President George W. Bush’s Jan.
28 State of the Union Address.
The discussion was hosted by the Golda Meir Center
for Political Leadership and its director, Norman Provizer.
“The idea behind it is to get an exchange of ideas,”
Provizer said, “not to present a viewpoint.”
It was an opportunity for faculty members to talk and listen
to their students, he said.
“It was fun,” Provizer said. “It did exactly
what we ought to be doing here: a civil forum for people
with different perspectives to express those differences.
Ultimately, if education isn’t about that, it’s
not about anything.”
The group talked about issues related to the current economic
recession, the federal deficit, the AIDS epidemic in Africa
and the prospects for war against Iraq, according
to Metro political science department chair Robert Hazan,
who went to the discussion.
Hazan focused on the president’s remarks about Iraq.
He said he argued that, “on the basis of the data
submitted by President Bush in his State of the Union address,
the United States should not go to war against Iraq. The
US should allow the UN inspectors more time to do their
work.”
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Photo by - Joshua
Buck
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| Director of the Golda Meir Center and Professor
of Political Science Dr. Norman Provizer discusses
President Bush's State of the Union Address with
his On Leaders and Leadership class in North Classroom
1316 Jan. 29. |
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Many students said they felt the same as Hazan, but some
were open to war, Provizer said.
While Bush’s speech started out talking about business
and Medicare reforms, tax cuts, hydrogen-powered cars, and
world AIDS relief, the finale was all about Iraq, which
was also the main focus of the discussion.
“Some have said we must not act until the threat is
imminent,” Bush said. “Since when have terrorists
and tyrants announced their intentions, politely putting
us on notice before they strike?”
Bush declared that if “Saddam Hussein does not fully
disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of
the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him.”
Bush also talked about North Korea and Iran as threats to
the United States.
“In Iran, we continue to see a government that represses
its people, pursues weapons of mass destruction and supports
terror… On the Korean Peninsula, an oppressive regime
rules a people living in fear and starvation.”
The students also discussed these issues.
“The students actively participated in the discussion
and their statements were thought-provoking,” Hazan
said. “All of their questions and assertions were
well articulated. I sensed that they were more concerned
about the prospects for war than the recent economic downturn.”
The State of the Union
Some of Bush’s points include:
• in 2002 the United States added the Department of
Homeland Security
• “tough reforms” were passed for American
business laws
• income tax reductions were passed, which the president
proposes to take effect immediately, rather than in 2004
and 2006 as planned
• a proposed end to “the unfair double taxation
of dividends”
• healthcare and Medicare reform
• a proposed a prescription drug benefit for seniors
• a proposed medical liability reform
• $1.2 billion in research funding for hydrogen-powered
cars
• $450 million for mentors nationwide
• $600 million for drug rehabilitation and treatment
• a proposed end to partial-birth abortions
• a proposed law against human cloning
• seeking peace between Israel and Palestine
• $15 billion, over the next five years, to fight
AIDS in Africa and the Caribbean
• working to keep “terrorists on the run”
• $6 billion for vaccines
• Iran and Korea are threats
• Iraq and Saddam Hussein are big threats that must
be stopped
Headlines
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American civil rights in jeopardy
U.S.A. Patriot Act, Dept. of Homeland Security pose
threat to privacy
by Travis Combs
The Metropolitan |
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Since the attacks on 9/11, the civil rights of American
citizens have been put in significant jeopardy by the passing
of various bills through the congressional house, according
to former Congresswoman, Cynthia McKinney.
The U.S.A Patriot Act, the funding for the war on terrorism
bill and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security
all pose a real risk to the rights and freedoms Americans
now enjoy, said McKinney in a speech given in Tivoli 320 on
the Auraria campus Monday morning.
McKinney, the first African American woman who has represent
Georgia’s fourth congressional district for ten years,
but lost that seat last year.
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Photo by - Olga Chilian
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| Cynthia McKinney, former U.S. Representative,
speaks Feb. 3 in Tivoli room 320 about the U.S.
Government's role in the War on Terrorism and
the future of civil liberties. |
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“I do want my government to protect me from terror,
but who’s defining terror and what type of terror do
I need protection from?”, said McKinney.
What is defined as terrorism can be relative to whomever is
doing the defining according to McKinney.
“I remember when the U.S. thought Martin Luther King
Jr. was a terrorist just because he wanted black people to
vote,” said McKinney. “I remember they went after
Josie Carmichael just because he said ‘black power’.
I remember they banned James Brown from the radio because
he said that he was black and proud and now Dick Cheney and
the crowd that’s in the White House now, also thought
Nelson Mandela was a terrorist.”
McKinney’s speech, entitled “The War on Terrorism
and the Future of Civil Liberties”, addressed the past
methods the Federal Government has used in the past to combat
what was then deemed a threat to national security and the
Bush Administration’s current policies in the wake of
9/11.
“I voted against every bill that passed through congress
having to deal with homeland security,” said McKinney.
“Not because I don’t want our country to be secure,
but because I fundamentally disagree with the road down which
our country is going.”
According to McKinney the groundwork for the current administrations
policies in regarding the eroding civil rights of individual
Americans is the result of a deliberate and carefully executed
plan.
“This is a political landscape which we have a hand,”
said McKinney. “The grand design was laid out many years
ago, but it took all of us in our own way to make it happen.”
To add weight to her claim, McKinney said that one just has
to look at recent events to bring to light what is currently
happening to individual liberties in the Bush Administration.
“If we were to go back and look at some of the historical
documents that reveal what we were doing at home and abroad
fifty years ago, it becomes easier to understand the layout
and design as we see it today,” said McKinney.
Even the civil liberties of universities are in danger with
the passing of the homeland security bills, according to McKinney,
who claims that professors can be punished for expressing
civil dissent and the F.B.I can now work with campus police
to survey potential student terrorists.
According to McKinney, The U.S.A Patriot Act, which was passed
shortly after the attacks on Sept. 11th, give the Federal
Government sweeping powers of surveillance and access to private
information on individual citizens both domestic and abroad.
With the passing of this legislation the restrictions on telephone
and internet surveillance is eased. The ability of the Federal
Government to conduct secret searches has expanded and allows
for the deportation of non-citizens who are considered members
of suspected terrorist organizations, said McKinney.
“When the U.S.A Patriot Act was rushed through congress
in the days after the Sept. 11th, it bore little resemblance
to what was needed to prevent another attack,” said
McKinney.
Throughout U.S. history leaders and members of civil rights
movements have been victims of scrutiny and occasionally violence
from the Federal Government, who perceived these organizations
as threats to national security, said McKinney.
“When the United States Government started talking about
homeland security, I remembered that in 1968, two hundred
forty military personnel were surveying Dr. King and in just
two months in March and April of 1968 those military personnel
logged in 16,000 man hours trailing Dr. King,” said
McKinney. “That’s why I find it hard to believe
they don’t have a clue what happened at 6 p.m. in Memphis,
Tennessee On the balcony of the Loraine Hotel where Dr. King
was killed.”
Quoting George Washington, McKinney pointed out that that
‘the mere presence of a large military is in and of
itself hostile to liberty’ and that a patriot in an
often misunderstood term in contemporary society as it was
used in Washington’s day.”
Patriots are the ones resist the intrigues of favored countries
and unprincipled men,” said McKinney, paraphrasing Washington.
“Sadly he also had to add that true patriots are liable
to become suspect and odious.”
Headlines
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The after party
After the Homecoming game please join students, faculty,
staff and alumni for a post-game party hosted by Metro’s
Student Government Assembly at Brauns Bar & Grill, 1055
Auraria Pkwy, across the street from the Tivoli.
Meet the players and coaches and enjoy food and drink with
the rest of the Metro community
Headlines
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Almost, but not quite
A security wire was cut from a digital projector in the
South classroom sometime between Jan. 20 and 31. The
projector is attached to the ceiling and was not taken. Value
of cable is $5. Police have no suspects or leads at this time.
TOTAL LOSS: $5.
Wait a minute, I don’t have three hands
A Metro student was pick-pocketed while walking down
the 1100 block of 10th Street Mall on Jan. 30. The student’s
wallet was taken from the right front pocket of his windbreaker.
Stolen: men’s leather wallet, $12.; assorted currency,
$55. There were no witnesses and police have no suspects
or leads at this time.
TOTAL LOSS: $67.
I can’t hear you now
A Metro student’s cell phone was taken from his backpack
while he played basketball in the Physical Education Center
on Jan. 30. The cell phone was on top of his bag at the
side of the court. Stolen: Motorola cell phone, $250. Police
have no suspects or leads at this time.
TOTAL LOSS: $250.
Maybe it was the wicked witch
A Metro student’s bike was stolen from the bike rack
between Central and West classrooms at 8:20 a.m. on Jan.
29. Stolen: Mongoose bike, $200; cable lock, $20. Police
have no suspects or leads at this time.
TOTAL LOSS: $220.
Didn’t run fast enough
A 1999 black Chevy truck was damaged in a hit and run
while in the parking garage. The right rear bumper and quarter
panel was dented. A witness was able to get the hit and
run vehicle’s plate number.
TOTAL EST. LOSS: under $1,000
No, that is not what that’s for
A transient was arrested at 11:50 p.m. on Jan 31 for
urinating in public.
Headlines
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