Photo by - Danny Holland Board of Trustee Chair Bruce Benson takes a moment to reflect on Metro’s budgetary woes. A declaration of fiscal emergency was just one of many budget related topics discussed by the board during the Feb. 5 open session meeting in Tivoli room 320.

Metro’s Board of trustees’ tabled Metro President Sheila Kaplan’s motion to declare a fiscal emergency Feb. 5, but Kaplan insists the situation must still be taken seriously.

The trustees said they felt that to declare the 11percent rescission of state funds an emergency would be premature, in light of uncertainty over how Colorado state legislature will choose to balance future budgets.

“They needed more info concerning the state’s financial situation,” said Michael Barnette, Metro Vice President of administration and finance, who presented Kaplan’s declaration along with the Revised 2002-03 Metro Operating Budget and the Early Retirement Incentive Program to trustees at last Wednesday meeting.

The early Retirement Incentive Program was approved, and if embraced by eligible faculty the program could save the school as much as $750,000 annually.

Kaplan said she has heard back from 25 interested faculty members, but that number may not accurately indicate the overall success of the program.

 “Seeking information is not the same thing as requesting an early retirement,” Kaplan said.

Other budget adjustments initiated by Kaplan included, eliminating vacant staff and faculty posts, reducing allocations to the Auraria Higher Education Center and Auraria Library and the merger of Information Technology into the Division of Administration and Finance, which eliminated three associate vice president positions and one vice president position.

Photo by - Danny Holland Jep Seman addresses Metro's Board of Trustees on the legislative report . The Feb. 5 meeting convened to gain approval of financial plans in Tivoli room 320.

“We have to make tough decisions to protect the guts of the organization,” Kaplan said. “We cannot let this (state budget crisis) negatively effect teaching and learning.”

So far, Feedback to Kaplan has been supportive, praising her for her openness.

“We’re not sugar-coating it,” Kaplan said. “We’re just putting it out there as we know it, and people are pleased to be getting the information.”

Administrative Adviser to Student Government Assembly and Assistant Dean, Joanna Dueñas, said student fees also are a concern.

“We have a student fee agreement that was hashed out years ago regarding … how student fees would be spent,” Dueñas, said, pointing out that if essential programs are cut from the general fund, the decision could be made to finance them with student fees.
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Photo by - Joshua Lawton Student Government Assembly President Brotha Seku addresses many topics at SGA meetings. With Seku is Chief Justice Felicia Woodson.

Metro’s Student Government Assembly approved plans last Thursday to attend a team building retreat in Glenwood Springs from Feb. 21-23. The two-day retreat is expected to cost the SGA nearly $3,000 from student fees, which has raised concerns with administrators.

“We have asked that they consider in-house resources that are nominal, if not free,” said Joanna Dueñas, Assistant Dean of Student Life and administrative advisor to SGA. “I haven’t seen the final proposal or plan to legitimize it to the students who are footing the bill for this.”

Missing from the retreat’s development process, Dueñas said, has been a formal proposal with a detailed breakdown of cost and purpose. Dueñas feels that by omitting that, SGA not only fails to justify the retreat, but also fails to demonstrate return of investment to their constituents who are paying for the retreat in the form of paid student fees.

“Any good and sound proposal demands accountability and rationale,” Dueñas said. “If I were going to spend $3,000, I would have to go to my dean to justify that expenditure.”

Dueñas also believe the retreat could easily be perceived as fiscally irresponsible due to the current budget situation on campus and throughout the state.

SGA president Brotha Seku said, “I ‘d tell her (Dueñas) to stay out of my business,” Seku said. “I don’t tell the administration where to go, when to go and how to go. Where do they go when they do their business meetings?”

SGA Student Trustee Harris Singer also defended the retreat, but understands that spending money in hard times always draws criticism.

“I can definitely see how spending money like this would come under scrutiny,” Student trustee for the SGA, Harris Singer said.

“This is being paid out of the SGA Account,” Singer said. “We have an operating budget that’s flexible of about $20,000 to $30,000 a year. This is coming out of our discretionary spending.”

Discretionary spending, Singer said, includes office supplies, tapes for recording meetings, paper for printing flyers for minutes and agendas and material costs of SGA activities such as the recent Tivoli Open House. At the end of a fiscal year, surplus funds in the SGA account are returned to the Student Affairs Board reserve accounts to be allocated into the following year’s programming budget.

“At this point we have about $10,000 left to spend,” Singer said. “This would, to us, be a good use of the money that we have left.”

Dueñas said, “If the rationale is ‘we have $10,000 so we should spend it,’ that’s not an adequate answer in light of the situation we are in now. A lot of the students they represent could never come close to affording this type of retreat. Have they talked to the students? Do they think this is the best way to spend this money, or is this perceived as a luxury?”

Dueñas questioned the timing of the retreat and points out that SGA elections are traditionally held in April, and that much of the current SGA will no longer be in office to benefit from this retreat.

“First of all, retreats have typically been at the beginning of the term,” Dueñas said. “Certainly they’ve had team building opportunities this year.”

Seku said training has occurred throughout the year, and made open reference to sessions of leadership training and conflict resolution, but insists this retreat serves a different purpose.

“I need a place to plan,” Seku said. “You don’t plan in the midst of you work. You go away from it.”

All thirteen members of the SGA administration are slated to attend the retreat. Seku said Faculty Adviser, Madison Holloway, would be accompanying them.

Singer said Glenwood Springs was selected for its close proximity.

The SGA hopes the retreat gives them an opportunity to work on goals and strategies identified during planning sessions held in January with Hollowa, and Percy Morehouse, executive director of equal opportunity and assistant to the president of Metro.

“We’ve been with them both on strategizing the ideas that we have,” Singer said. “Creating the budget, creating the strategic plan, accountability, and follow-through timelines on different projects we want to work on before the end of the year.”

Dueñas said she is not convinced this is the best use of student fees.

“We’re here to help advise students regarding how this whole money thing works, as well as the best way to use that money,” Dueñas said. “Maybe it is team building. Any time you have an opportunity to team build, that’s good. But $3,000? That’s a lot of money.”

 Seku said the SGA has been in constant struggle to gain the skills necessary to properly represent students, and what the retreat represents is their last push to accomplish the goals and objectives of SGA.

Seku also said the retreat will help the SGA create a greater sense of community and commitment to empower students and their right to have control over their education process, including budgets, curriculum and policy.
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Photo by - Shannon Davidson During the Tivoli Open House celebration Feb. 11, Julia Montijo a Community College of Denver freshman(left) and CCD Student life member Ismael Garcia along with Blanca Castañeda enjoy the food and other festivities going on throughtout the building.

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Following a 10-year absence, the Rocky Mountain Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Queer Leadership Summit is returning to The Tivoli on Feb. 14 and 15.

This will be the first gay/lesbian event on campus since National Coming Out Day in October of last year.  The two events, according to Auraria Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Services, are by no means alike.

 National Coming Out Day was a celebration for gays and lesbians, whereas the summit is an informational conference.

A flyer advertising the summit stated, “ The leadership summit will bring together student, community, political, academic and emerging leaders to grapple with issues inherent in any movement- building effort.” 

The summit will host several guest speakers, including Jennifer Vega, a state representative for the Washington Park area, said Karen Bensen, director of the GLBTSS office on campus. Jerry Callejo, regional coordinator for the Long Yang Club, a group for GLBT Asians, will also speak.

The keynote speaker will be Beverly Jenkins, a lesbian from Milwaukee, Wisconsin, whom GLBTSS staff said they met at another conference a few months ago. Jenkins then persuaded them to let her speak at this convention. 

The biography on the BLBTQ Leadership Summit web site states: Jenkins founded the Building Bridges Conference, and was part of the People of Color Institute organizing committee.  Jenkins is also poet who was named “Change Maker” for 2002 by the Milwaukee based Shepherd Express.  Her latest work is entitled “ABRAXA.”    

Flyers for the conference were distributed to campuses state-wide, and at the University of Wyoming, High schools have also been notified about the upcoming summit, said the staff of GLBTSS.

 “The convention is expected to bring in 100 to 150 people,” said Metro Student Nico Baker, 22, who works at the GLBTSS office.

“This is not a 101 session for those who are interested in learning more about the gay/lesbian community,” Bensen said, “It is targeting GLBT students, but we hope allies will come.”

A flyer, available at the GLBTSS office, states, “The conference’s theme is ‘Celebrating the Whole Leader.’  The planning committee invites allies and GLBTSS community members alike to participate in this gathering of socially conscious and motivated leaders who are dedicated to making their communities stronger.” “Workshops will include many diverse topics such as:  dealing with racism in our communities, building strong, viable organizations, coalition building across groups…”  and many more. 

GLBT Student Services is the independent gay/lesbian organization on campus, and has a part time staff comprised of Metro and UCD students.  The three Metro students are Nico Baker, 22; Mishka Char, 22; and Julie Thomson, 26. Because it will begin at 1:30 pm on Friday, the event should not interfere with other students on campus.  The summit is scheduled to end at 4:00 pm on Saturday.

Conference attendees will be responsible for their own accommodations, but the GLBTSS office can be contacted for hotel suggestions. 

For students, staff, and faculty, the convention is $20 per person, and the Activist Institute is $10. For community members, the convention is $30, and the Activist Institute is $15.  For more information, go to their web site at www.lgbtqsummit.org or call 303-556-6333.
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On Jan. 23, the Denver Board of Health voted 4-0 to “highly recommend” that the City Council pass a bill to update current public smoking laws, which means Denver could soon join numerous cities nationwide in stomping out cigarette smoking in public places.

The proposed changes would ban smoking in public places such as restaurants, bars and nightclubs, and would also ban smoking within 20 feet of building entrances and exits.

Feelings on the issue among Denver residents are mixed.

Danielle Parent, a nonsmoker from Denver, said that she supports the ban.

“I don’t like going out and smelling like smoke. I don’t like going to a restaurant and the nonsmoking and smoking sections are too close together. It’s like they’re the same section,” she said.

Photo by - David Merrill Sarah Gurney, a graduate biology student at the University of Colorado at Denver and Metro junior Lisa Hollan, a marketing major, relax and enjoy a cigarette with their beer in the Boiler Room Jan. 3.

Parent said that she’d go out to eat more if the ban were passed by the City Council.

Nina Lemoi, another nonsmoker from Denver, said that she does not support the ban.

“To completely take it (smoking) away without compromise is completely wrong,” she said.

“It’s not that big of a deal to just go outside,” said Mariah Raiche, a smoker from Denver. Raiche said that she supports the bill and has no problem not smoking in public places. 

Others fear that Denver restaurants and bars will lose customers if the bill passes.                     “Smoking customers will go to the suburbs. You can drive 10 minutes in any direction from central Denver and be across the city line,” said Pete Meersman, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association. 

Meersman doesn’t think that a ban will affect all Denver businesses. “A lot of restaurants have already chosen to be smoke-free, those that haven’t probably have customers that smoke,” he said.

Meersman also said that smoking laws should be dealt with on a state-wide level rather than a “patchwork” of cities throughout the state.

Smoke Free Denver, a coalition of more than 30 anti-smoking organizations and a major supporter of the bill, was not available for comment.

Michelle Fatovic, a server at The Boiler Room, a restaurant and bar on the Auraria Campus, also thinks that business will suffer. Fatovic estimates that the vast majority of Boiler Room customers are smokers and fears that they won’t stay as long if indoor smoking were banned. She would prefer that the City Council consider more segregation of smoking and nonsmoking sections and better air filtration systems.

Dina Andrianakos, a manager at the Holly Inn, a restaurant in Southeast Denver, said that the ban could put the restaurant out of business.

All of our customers are regulars, it’s like Cheers, and they all smoke. They’ve all said that if they pass a law like this they’ll stop coming in. They’ll go somewhere where they can smoke, she said.

Colorado communities including Alamosa, Aspen, Boulder, Fort Collins, Louisville, Montrose, Pitkin County, Snowmass Village, Superior and Telluride have already passed similar nonsmoking laws.

The City Council has not yet announced when the final vote will be held on the issue.
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The after party

After the Homecoming game, 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 Metro community.
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Up in smoke

Two Metro student’s were arrested for possession of marijuana and public consumption at 10:48 a.m. on Feb. 4., both were caught on 12 St. and Lawrence.

Look out Speed Tracer

A 1999 silver Chevy Tahoe was involved in a traffic accident in the Tivoli Lot A at 11:49 a.m. on Feb. 4. A 1998 green Mercury Tracer backed into the Tahoe, which was leaving a parking space. The Tahoe’s left rear quarter panel was moderately damaged and the Tracer had minor damage to the rear bumper.

Not the kind of metal you want on your wrist

A Metro student was arrested at 12:31 p.m. at the Administration Building on an outstanding warrant on Feb. 6. Another Metro student was also arrested for an outstanding warrant on Feb. 7 on 10th St and Curtis.

Multiple arrests on campus

Andrew L. Majors and Stephanie Loose, no campus affiliation, were arrested at 9:45 p.m. in parking lot D on Feb. 5. Majors was arrested for possession of marijuana and Loose was arrested for an outstanding warrant.

Edward Bearrunner and Alvin Graygrass, both transients, were arrested at 11:41 p.m. in St. Francis Alley on Feb.7. Bearrunner was arrested for public consumption and disturbance. Graygrass was arrested for public consumption and loitering.
- Andrea Terrones
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