Photo by - Joshua Lawton A possible RTD strike by the local driver's union could have a dramatic impact on those that rely on mass transit to access the downtown area. The contract between the union and RTD expired on March 1 and negotiations on a new contract are currently underway.

The possibility of a Regional Transportation District strike threatens thousands of Auraria students who rely on public transportation to take them to and from school, but negotiations between RTD and the local driver’s union continue.

RTD Chief Public Affairs Officer Scott Reed said that, although their contract expired March 1, Local 1001 of the Amalgamated Transit Union are still in negotiations with RTD over new terms and their impending strike if their demands for a wage increase, among other things, are not met.

“We are cautiously hopeful that we will be able to negotiate,” Reed said.  “A strike is possible; we don’t believe a strike is imminent.”

The initial demands of the union included a 60 percent wage increase over the span of a new three-year contract and an increase in paid holidays and vacations for union RTD drivers.

These demands were countered and have been reduced, but will be the subject of an upcoming meeting on March 14 between union representatives and RTD.

The Colorado Department of Labor has granted the union a right to strike.  Pending the outcome of negotiations, the threat of a strike is now very real.

If a strike were to occur, RTD would basically shut down. According to Reed, there is no indication when the strike would happen.

“I can’t say when it would start; it would be the union’s call.” Reed said.

Reed said that in the event of a strike, 35 percent of the service hours could be provided by private contract through companies such as First Transit and Laid Law Inc., but that would cover only a very limited area.

  The strike would not only affect students, but everyone in the seven-county grid of RTD routes.  Reed said that all regional and express bus routes would be shut down, as well as the Light Rail, the Sixteenth Street Mall shuttles and the Senior Ride (a specialized shuttle aiding senior citizens).

Students who attend classes on Auraria Campus and ride the bus or Light Rail will be greatly affected. Metro student Sabrina Houk, 19, said she relies on public transit, especially financially.

“I always take the Light Rail, every day.” Houk said. “I don’t even know how I would afford parking; the Light Rail is the only way I can afford to get here.”

Metro student Jacob Detweiler, 25, said the potential strike would be a problem even for those students who walk to class.

 Union representatives will meet with RTD on Friday to continue negotiations.  Scott Reed is hopeful that this meeting will be positive, and that the threat of the driver’s strike will dissipate. 

“We hope we will be able to negotiate,” Reed said.  “No one wants a strike to happen.”
‘I don’t even know how I would afford parking; the Light Rail is the only way I can afford to get here.’

- Sabrina Houk, Metro student
Headlines

Former Metro student and Student Government Assembly President Brotha Seku (Stephan Evans) was suspended until fall 2004 following a Feb. 28 judicial hearing.

Seku was overnighted paperwork by Elyse Yamauchi, student judicial officer, telling him he was suspended.

Yamauchi would not comment.

The letter said that the judicial board unanimously found Seku guilty of violating the student conduct code.  It said, specifically, Seku was found guilty of verbal abuse, intimidation, failure to comply with directions of college officials and abuse of the college judicial system.

Seku said he does not believe he was ever a threat to anyone.

“All I did was passionately advocate the rights of students,” Seku said. “I have no weapons but my voice.”

One of Seku’s advisers, Cenythia Green, said he must appeal to Yolanda Ortega-Ericksen, Metro vice president of student services.

“The appeal only looks at information that was not presented in the trial, which in this case is most of the information,” Green said.

Seku said he and his attorney, Walter L. Gerash, are in the process of filing an appeal.

Seku said his accuser Julius Muhammad, the former SGA vice president of communications, was permitted to tell his version of the story.  However, he also said witness Chris Chandler, SGA vice president for administration and finance, was not allowed to give his version and neither was Seku.

Muhammad said Seku was verbally abusive toward him during a conversation regarding the Nation of Islam Student Organization (NOISO).  Muhammad said Seku told him he would not put the NOI SO on the agenda because Muhammad had not been an equal participant in the SGA.

“He (Seku) has to be held accountable for his actions,” Muhammad said.

None of the SGA members would comment on Seku’s suspension.

Yosief Abraha, vice president of student organizations, said he would not comment because in his opinion the last article printed in The Metropolitan made it look like Seku was against the NOI SO.

According to the letter that placed him under suspension, Seku is not allowed on Auraria campus, or to have any contact with Metro faculty, staff, student organizations or students at any college-sponsored activities on or off campus.

“At no point should Metro have control of the entire Auraria campus,” Seku said.

Green said it was ironic the administration brought charges against Seku less than one week after he turned in his SGA budget proposal for the 2003-2004 school year, in which he proposed a 500 percent budget increase.

The SGA is a student-elected government that consists of a president, 10 vice presidents, an attorney general and a chief justice.  Elections are held every April, and a term lasts one year.

In his proposal, Seku recommended that the number of salaried SGA positions be increased from 13 to 26, and the existing positions’ salaries increase from $500 per month to $1000 per month.

Green said the entire time Seku was SGA president he tried to implement changes not only in the budget, but also in policies.

“Anytime you make loud noise about inconsistencies, or try to make a difference, you’ll be silenced,” Green said.

The letter also said that Seku will be eligible to re-enroll for the fall 2004 semester, provided he can demonstrate an ability to control his pattern of angry outbursts, that he  successfully completes an anger management course and that he be placed on probation at Metro for as long as he is a student.

“If Seku felt the hearing was held unfairly, he should have handled himself differently,” Muhammad said.

“This whole thing really makes me wonder just how many other students have had to go through this,” Seku said.  He added that Metro’s judicial process is much like a dictatorship intended to train students to be obedient.
‘All I did was passionately advocate the rights of students; I have no weapons but my voice.’

- Brotha Seku, SGA President
Headlines

Tension was high and tempers flared after Sarah Weddington spoke in the Tivoli Turnhalle last Thursday about abortion and her part in the case of Roe v. Wade..

The tension came when the floor was opened up for Q-and-A, and anti-abortion speakers stood up to express their point of view.

When Metro student Mario Chavez, 25, was asked about the audience’s reaction to the anti-abortion speakers, he said, “[The abortion rights audience] was frightened.  We heard a lot of boos.  It is hard to stand up with everyone in the room disagreeing with you.”

However, the Student Activities Committee saw to it that both the anti-abortion and abortion rights sides had an opportunity to speak.

Sarah Weddington, Jane Roe’s lawyer in the case of Roe v. Wade, spoke about her involvement in the case, and the measures that have been taken to have the statute overturned.

Roe v. Wade was decided on Jan. 22, 1973.

“The day I won Roe v. Wade, if anybody had said to me ‘30 years from now you will still be talking about the case’ or…’30 years from now the case will be on the brink of being lost,’ I never would have believed it,” Weddington said.

Photo by - Danny Holland Kathy Knaus (middle) and daughter Whitney Knaus (right) a sophomore at Metro interact with speaker Sarah Weddington (left) after her speech on March 6. Weddington signed her book “A Question of Choice” for attendees in up stairs of the Tivoli Turnhalle. Weddington argued, and later won, the Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision in 1973. Weddington’s victory paved the way for abortion rights.

Weddington argued, and won, Roe v. Wade at age 26.  The year before, she became the first woman from Austin elected to the Texas legislature.  Weddington was also the first woman to become the General Council for the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She was able to further the interests of women when she served as Assistant to the President of the United States during President Carter’s administration.      

Weddington began the speech with an personal account of the case.  She spoke on how several young women approached her about what to tell other women in regard to preventing pregnancy.  Weddington researched the legal ramifications of assisting young pregnant women and informed them of safe places to get abortions.  She ultimately came to the conclusion that a lawsuit could be filed against the state of Texas, challenging the abortion laws.  It was at this point that Norma McCorvey, a pregnant woman who wanted an abortion, approached her.   

 With McCorvey — aka Jane Roe - as the plaintiff, Weddington filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas.  The Texas court heard her case and ruled partially for and partially against Roe, and the case was appealed to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court chose to hear the Roe v. Wade case, and Weddington prepared her defense.

The three points Weddington made to the Supreme Court were these: Pregnancy is fundamental, there is a constitutional right to privacy and whether the state had a compelling reason to regulate abortion.

By fundamental, Weddington meant that having children was a large determining factor in a woman’s life.  Not long before the Roe v. Wade decision, a constitutional right to privacy had been decided by the Supreme Court concerning the use of contraceptives, and Weddington attempted to prove that the same right to privacy applied to childbearing. 

Weddington also had to prove that the state had no compelling reason to regulate abortion.  Her argument was that in no other area did the state treat the joining of egg and sperm as a child.  A child conceived in the United States was not considered a citizen; one had to actually be born in the U.S. to be considered a legal citizen.  An unborn child could not be listed as a dependent on a tax-return.

She gave her closing argument and left the Supreme Court, unsure of the outcome of Roe v. Wade.  The results finally came and, as a reporter told Weddington’s assistant, “She won it, 7-2.”

Weddington talked about the almost immediate attempts to have the ruling overturned and of the ongoing and more recent attempts to have it overturned. 

Weddington mentioned the National Council of Catholic Bishops and their ten-year plan to overturn Roe v. Wade. 

She described the Bush administration’s attempts to regulate abortion.  Weddington also spoke about how both President Bush and Attorney General John Ashcroft have spoken out against abortion.

“The administration takes the position that once there is joiner of egg and sperm, a person exists,” Weddington said.

However, according to Weddington, the Roe v. Wade statute of legal abortion will stand as long as a majority of the Supreme Court supports it.

Weddington expressed her disgust with a campus flyer that labeled her a “liar, fraud, and accomplice to murder.”  She vehemently denied these charges and said, “Accomplice to murder—absolutely not.  I am an accomplice to women having the ability to make their own decisions and have freedom of reproductive decisions.” 

She also denied the charges that she had lied to and  manipulated Norma McCorvey.

The speech was in anniversary of a similar event that took place on Auraria Campus not long after Roe v. Wade was passed, according to CU-Denver student Laila Mahmud, 20, an events planner for the Student Activities Committee.
‘The day I won Roe v. Wade, if anybody had said to me ‘30 years from now you will still be talking about the case... I never would have believed it.’

- Sarah Weddington, Roe v. Wade attorney
Headlines

Growing up the child of a Mexican communist leader was not always an easy task, a speaker at Metro said Monday.

“One of my brothers was discharged from the Air Force because he attended a communist meeting when he was 8 years old,” Mary Lou Salazar said.

Salazar, the daughter of the late chairman of the Communist Party of Colorado, Robert Trujillo, gave a speech called, “Growing up Red and Brown.” Salazar was the first of several speakers during Women’s History Month at Metro.

Trujillo was born in 1903 and lived through the depression, Salazar said. He joined the Communist Party in 1935 and was selected as chairman in 1960.

Born in 1942, Salazar is one of nine children of the charismatic leader. She grew up in a poor but loveable home. When their father had political figures come to the house, the children were allowed to stay, rather than be sent to their rooms, Salazar said.

Starting school was a cultural chock to Salazar, who spoke only Spanish until the age of 5. At first the teachers put her in the school basement where she was taught English all day. It got to the point where Salazar was discouraged from speaking Spanish at all, she said. Today she sometimes even has problems remembering some Spanish words.

School was a rough place for Salazar and her siblings. They were harassed not only by their peers, but also by their teachers. There was a lot of hatred toward communists, and the teachers talked about them as evil and as they were the enemy, Salazar said.

“My father told me and my siblings not to salute the flag in school. Everyone did but me,” Salazar said on the question of whether she was a part of the communism or not.

When Salazar was 9 years old, she went to her favorite store to mail a letter to her sister, who had moved to Colorado Springs. Salazar loved the store because it allowed her to cross a big street by herself. When Salazar asked for stamps, the storekeeper asked her if she was sending a “communist mail,” Salazar said.

Salazar also talked about having FBI agents sitting in a car outside their house day and night and how their lives were full of threats. She would hide in the closet, thinking that if her family were killed, at least she would live and could keep on fighting, Salazar said.

“The unique ways I was raised are deeply imbedded in me,” Salazar said. Her values in life are to love and act out of that love, work hard for peace and justice. Other important value she has is to involve and embrace others in a spiritual realm.

“My Chicano background, as well as my social background, taught me how to share,” Salazar said. “Me being born brown fits well into communism. I want to help people.”

Before earning her Ph.D., Salazar worked at Denver North High School, where she also graduated. Salazar helped students who had dropped out of school. Salazar’s own background made it easy for her to get along with Hispanic, Asian and Black students because she knew what kind of a cultural shock they were going through, Salazar said.

Salazar earned her Ph.D. in Peace Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. “Today I fight to bring back Peace Education to the schools since I believe it is a very important topic. Especially considering what the world looks like today,” Salazar said.

After being interviewed for an article about what it was like growing up as a daughter of a communist, Salazar got the idea to write  a book about her father, who passed away in 1985. Salazar said the book, titled “The Responsible Man,” would be the best way to pay a historical tribute to a man who “built the fire so other people could get warm.”

Sponsors for the speech were: University of Colorado at Denver Office of Student Life/Activities,  Metro Chicana/o Studies and Los Herederos for Change and Esperanza. For more information: 303.556.3124.
Headlines

A greater national understanding of diversity, treatment of women, and Islamic values among the Muslim-American community is important, said a Colorado author Thursday, in support of her new book.

A problem facing the Muslim-American community is the negative association with war and terrorists, Asma Gull Hasan told students and faculty members at Auraria.  The main reason there is little increase of positive views of Muslim-Americans is due to bad media attention, she said.

“A common stereotype,” Hasan said, “is that all Arabs are Muslims and all Muslims are Arabs.” 

The Muslim population is very diverse and represents more than just Arabs.  The Muslim society consists of American Muslims, African Muslims, Arab-Americans, and white Americans converted to Muslims, Hasan said.

Muslim-Americans must overcome the challenges that are a result of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hasan said.  The bad reputation of Muslims existed before 9/11, and Hasan urged the audience to focus on more positive effects, such as a higher interest in Muslim-Americans, and awareness of global issues. 

“(9/11) opened up people’s eyes. However, some eyes have remained closed,” Hasan said.

Women are treated differently in the Arab and Islamic world, Hasan said.  A strict standard is held for women, and men and women are kept separate.

“Gender segregation is more important than the political situation,” Hasan said.

Hasan addressed some similarities between American and Islamic rights.  The Islamic religion states that women have rights equal to men.  Economic rights, democratic ideas, freedom of speech, and freedom of politics are all important for Muslim women, Hasan said.

“Islam stands for democracy,” Hasan said.  “(Islam) stands for the same values as America stands for.  Many American values are also Arab values.”

Young Muslim women in America have a slightly different system of dating and marriage than native Muslims, Hasan said.  Muslim-American women participate in “halal dating,” Hasan said, where parents are actively involved in their daughter’s dating life.   Halal is the Islam term for permissible behavior. 

Islam declares that women have education rights, property rights and marriage rights, Hasan said.  The Koran states that a man is 100 percent responsible for expenses, therefore women do not have to spend any money on household expenses. 

“Women have the right to keep their maiden-name, the right to vote…rights given 1400 years ago,” Hasan said.  “Islam is more American than America is.”

Hasan ended her speech by reciting a verse from the Koran, stating people were separated into nations and tribes to better know each other. 

“Become stronger by getting to know different cultures,” Hasan said.

Hasan spoke in support of her new book, American Muslims: The New Generation, and speaks at various campuses, bookstores, and conferences.  The speech was sponsored by Metro’s Department of Political Science and the Political Science Association. Dr. Robert Hazan, chair of the Political Science Department, said the public should have a worldly awareness of the Muslim community.

“[It is] important to promote an intellectual environment where various communities engaged with relationships are mutually meaningful,” Hazan said, in response to Hasan’s speech.
Headlines

		Photo by - Will Moore Katherine Limeberger shows off her pins during the Women's Circle for Peace March and Rally Mar. 8.
Photo by - Will Moore Holding a balloon, Marin Holmes, 5, takes part in a children's prayer as part of the Women's Circle for Peace March and Rally Mar. 8 as a part of International Women's Day.	Women's Circle of Peace March
Photo by - Will Moore About 5,000 anti-war protestors gathered at the Denver Civic Center to participate in the Women's Circle for Peace March and Rally the took place as part of International Women's Day Mar. 8.
Photo by - Will Moore Women pass around a prayer bundle during the Women's Circle for Peace March and Rally held Mar. 8. About 5,000 people were in attendence.

Headlines

Metro administration asked to comply with open meetings law

The Metropolitan sent a letter to Metro administration requesting they comply with Colorado Law Concerning Open Meetings and Colorado Law Concerning Open Records.

Two weeks ago Metro administrators refused to open a judicial hearing to the public when under Colorado Law Concerning Open Meetings that judicial hearing should have been open.

The administration has also refused to give records pertaining to that hearing when a waiver that was signed by the person on trial requested those documents be made public.

New communication portal available in the fall

A web-based communications system, portal will be launched by Metro in the fall 2003.

With the new portal students, faculty and administrators will be able to customize their own website for the department or area of study they are in.

It will be paid for by information technology student fee and cash reserves, The @Metro administrators’ newsletter said.

The Metropolitan will have an extended story about the portal system in upcoming weeks.

Noam Chomsky to appear at Auraria April 4

Author, professor and activist Noam Chomsky will speak at the Auraria Events Center April 4 at 7 p.m. Doors open at 6 p.m.

Tickets are available in Tivoli 305. Ticket prices are: $3.00 -- Students, staff, and faculty of the Auraria Campus with ID ( 2 ticket limit) $20.00 all others

For more information, call 303-556-2595.
Headlines

Thefts increasing on campus

A Metro student reported a theft March 6 in the Library.

The student’s laptop was taken from inside a first floor restroom, where it was placed on a counter.

Stolen: Sony laptop computer, $1,400.

There are no leads or suspects at this time.

Total Loss: $1400.

Another Metro student reported a theft March 6 in parking lot L.

 The student reported a rear license plate missing from a Mazda Protege.

Stolen: Colorado license plate, $25.

There are no leads or suspects at this time.

Total Loss: $25.

A University of Colorado at Denver student reported money taken from her wallet March 4.

 The student’s wallet was in her purse and at the time of theft was hanging in a closet in room 126 in the Auraria Child Care Center.

 The amount taken was $60.

There are no leads or suspects at this time.

Total Loss: $60.

A Metro student reported a theft March 4 in the Arts Building.

The student’s locker was broken into and her CD case, various CDs, and combination lock were taken.

Stolen: CD case, $10, various CDs, $210 and combination lock, $10.

There are no leads or suspects at this time.

Total Loss: $230.

Numerous campus arrests

A man with no campus affiliation was arrested on an outstanding warrant March 9 at 1201 5th St.

A man with no campus affiliation was arrested on an outstanding warrant March 9 at 10th and Colfax.

A Metro student was arrested March 3 on Larimer Street for investigation of an assault.

- Andrea Terrones

Corrections
In the March 6, 2003 issue four mistakes were made:

• On the cover, the teaser for the centerspread anonymous interview on living with HIV was with an HIV positive man, not an AIDS patient.

• On page 7, due to an editing mistake, the quote, “She was never tired. The rest of us would be vegging but she was always going. She’d come get me off of my recliner and we’d be off doing something,” was misattributed to Jesse Satery. It should have been attributed to Michael Sentel, Elizabeth Sentel’s father.

• On page 9 reporter Stephen Shultz’s name was misspelled.

• On page 17 reporter Kristi Starns’ name was misspelled.
Headlines