26 positions affected by Metro budget cuts
by Chris Pilkington
The Metropolitan

Graphic by - Christina Jenkins The budget eating monster.

As a result of budget cuts at Metro, the Institute for International and Intercultural Education, a program on campus providing international and American students with information and services regarding study abroad opportunities, has been eliminated.  Also eliminated were the positions of International Student Advisor held by Mary Anne Krohn and the Study Abroad Advisor held by Rachael Patarino.

“The office will be discontinued,” said Dr. Akbarali Thobhani, Director of the Institute for International and Intercultural Education.

The budget cuts will also cause the elimination of 26 positions within some departments on campus.

“Metro is having to cut $7.2 million from their budget because of state budget cuts,” said Cathy Lucas with the Office of College Communications.  “Because of the budget cuts on campus there will be some reorganization within departments.”

School officials do not expect that the elimination of the Institute for International and Intercultural Education program will affect the amount of international students that enroll at the college.
“I think students chose Metro because of the educational quality available and not based on the support they could get from an advisor.  Metro will continue to provide the means available to students to study abroad,” said the Metro Vice President of Academic Affairs Cheryl Norton.  “Student services will now be working with international students to ensure that their needs are met.”

Some international students, however, are concerned about receiving proper information from a department that has not previously worked with students from another country.

“If you had any problems or questions before, Mary Anne (Krohn) was the person to talk to,” said Maria Lindstrom, an international student from Sweden, majoring in speech communications.  “Now it will be up to the student to keep up on visa laws and everything else we will have to know.”

The International Student Advisor position provided support services for international students attending Metro.  The services ranged from assisting with general culture acclimation to visa and drivers license assistance for students. 

Dr. Thobhani said the elimination of the position would now require student services to assist the international students.  In addition, the study abroad program will be jointly operated by Dr. David Conde with the Office of Academic Affairs, and Joan M. Foster, Dean of the School of Letters, Arts and Sciences.

Maria Lindstrom, International student from Sweden.
My Opinion   

The past couple of days my thoughts and feelings have been centered around one special issue. Last week it came to my attention that due to budget cuts, we—all the International students at Metro, no longer have an international adviser to go to. This makes me really concerned because it is important for  international students to have someone professional to come and talk to. My feelings right now can be compared to how it feels when someone is being pushed of the diving board without knowing how to swim. We do not know what will happen and everything is up in the air. Who will help us? Who will answer all our questions? There is always a constant stream of different questions about all sorts of problems. Especially now, as the semester is nearing its end, and many of us go home over the summer to our native countries. Do I need a new I-20 or not? Do I have all the papers, so there will be no problems coming back when school starts again in the fall? I know I am not alone having these thoughts and questions because they are always there. Furthermore, regulations are much more strict since “September 11th.” There are many new rules to learn if we do not want to “accidentally” get out of status because “I did not know...” If there is none here to inform us about these new rules, we might get in big trouble.  I understand that when there are budget cuts, something needs to change. But as it is now, more than 200 international students are hanging on the edge of that diving board, trying not to fall. As far as I know, we have no adviser to help  with visa issues and other problems facing us Metro student from another country.

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Office split accommodates two schools
by Travis Combs
The Metropolitan

The Student Disabilities Office maintains an optimistic outlook, regarding its future and ability to accommodate Metro’s disabled students.

A decision was made to dismantle the office in its present form by a board of directors April 11.  Two new offices will be created to exclusively provide accommodations to students with disabilities for both Metro and the University of Colorado at Denver. With a Student Disability Office for the three schools at Auraria, Lisa E. McGill, M.A., N.C.C., Director of Disability Services and ADA, hopes that the high quality of accommodations available for disabled students will continue.

“What we’re hoping, is the transition will be smooth, because instead of one office there will be two,” McGill said. “ I will say the staff that implemented this decision is very committed to serving students with disabilities.”

With the creation of two new offices to cover the educational needs of either Metro or UCD students, concerns were raised regarding the possibility of the office’s current staff members being replaced by a less experienced staff unable to maintain the present level of quality. “ My (hope is) that the services remain the same and that students have the same opportunity to obtain their educational goals,” said Nicholas Delmonico, a visually impaired speech communications major at Metro who utilizes The Student Disabilities Office. In its current form, the office provides, among other things, interpreters for the hearing impaired during lectures, and alternative testing for assessment tests and classroom examinations.

“Accommodations for students might include a modified environment, but never a modified curriculum,” McGill said. “You have to meet the qualifications of the classes; if you can’t, you’re not even eligible for accommodations.”

The students eligible for services range from the hearing and seeing impaired to those afflicted with psychological and physical disorders. A total of 437 students utilize the services of the Student Disabilities Office, 342 of those are Metro students and 95 are enrolled at UCD.

Michael Barnett, interim vice president of administration and finance and one of the board members who voted in favor of dismantling of the office, hopes that the creation of two separate offices will not only maintain the quality level of service provided, but will cut down on costs as well.

“This decision was not supported by Auraria and we did not propose it; it was proposed by (Metro),”  McGill said. “ We will implement it (the decision) and do the best we can to provide students with accommodations.”

According to Delmonico, despite the decision to divide the office and possibly cut the current staff, he is optimistic that Metro will ensure the high level of quality services will still be available to those who need it.

Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 protects the right of disabled students to access higher education.

“ I think that Metro cares, and that’s why I think they’re trying to craft the program in a helpful way,” Delmonico said.
Headlines

New theater performs female version of The Odd Couple
by Jonelle Wilkinson Seitz
The Metropolitan

Vintage Theatre Productions, a new Denver-based touring theater company, makes its debut public performance this month with the female version of Neil Simon’s The Odd Couple. 

Vintage Theatre Productions was co-founded in February by Craig Bond of the Arvada Center, Lindsay Sanders-Goranson, an Metro Speech Communications student and Chris Goranson.  With its flexible, portable productions, VTP brings a new concept to the Denver theatre scene: theatre that comes to you.

All of VTP’s shows are available for both private and public bookings.  Sanders-Goranson, who is the company’s marketing director as well as an actor, said that, at first, private organizations were unsure if they would be able to provide an adequate audience once they had booked a performance.  However, the groups that booked The Odd Couple attracted full houses and some have already booked a performance of VTP’s fall production, Ken Ludwig’s Lend Me  a Tenor.

Sanders-Goranson and Bond emphasize that flexible, yet high-quality theater depends heavily on the cast.  Usually, the cast gets to work in a new performance space only the night before the performance. 

“It takes dedicated actors to change and remember new blocking every weekend,” said Sanders-Goranson in reference to where the actors move while on stage.

The hilarity of The Odd Couple relies strongly on physical comedy, an element that is especially challenging for the actors of a touring group.  However, in a packed private performance in early April — in a space without proper lighting or even a raised stage — the cast displayed all of the timing and energy necessary for the play to succeed.       “We believe we have assembled one of the strongest casts available in Denver for this production,” said Bond, executive director of VTP.   

Bond, who has been a professional box office manager for 10 years and has more than 15 years experience in all aspects of theatre, chose The Odd Couple for VTP’s first production because of its familiarity and because of its solidly funny script.

“The female version of The Odd Couple is simply one of the funniest scripts I have ever read,” he said.  “Right now, the country needs some light stuff for entertainment.”  

For the female version of the play, Simon replaced the classic characters in the male version, Oscar, a divorcee, and Felix, who has just separated from his wife, with Olive and Florence.  The men’s poker game became Trivial Pursuit, and the upstairs neighbors, the giggly British sisters, became the hilarious Spanish brothers, Manolo and Jesus.  The dinner party conversation, which is plagued by the brothers’ sporadic knowledge of English (imagine what happens when “nougat” is confused with “no good”) and Florence’s complete ignorance of Spanish (she pronounces “Jesus” with an English “j”), is one of the funniest aspects of the play.  

VTP’s first public performances of The Odd Couple, with Libby Rife as Olive and Janene Kahlenbach as Florence, will be April 26 and May 12 at 2 an 8 p.m. at El Centro Su Teatro, 4725 High St. Tickets are $12 in advance, or $15 at the door.  For tickets or to inquire about booking, call 303-839-1361 or visit www.vintagetheatre.com.
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