by Joshua Lawton - The Metropolitan

SGA president Felicia Woodson and professor Madison Holloway listen to George Culpepper, president of the Political Science Association during the weekly meeting in the Senate Chambers of the Tivoli building Oct. 2.

Student Government Assembly President Felicia Woodson’s appearance in a press conference held outside the Tivoli on Sept. 30 in protest of the right wing views of speaker David Horowitz has prompted some students to ask for her immediate resignation.

“Personally, I think you’re a great person; as president, you need to step down,” said Metro student George Culpepper after recusing himself from his position as president of the Political Science Association.

Culpepper, a member of Auraria College Republicans, stated that he was “appalled” that Woodson accepted an invitation to speak at the conference.

“As for speaking at the rally, I don’t have a problem with it,” Woodson said. “I was a student long before I was president.”

Although SGA members were asked not to take a biased standpoint on the issue, Woodson attended the press conference and voiced her opinion, an act that the some of the SGA and Culpepper see as a violation of her position.

“I think we have to be careful not to condone this,” said Krista Koufmann, vice president of academic affairs for the SGA at the Sept. 25 SGA meeting.
Woodson expressed her feelings on the issue.

“I had the understanding we would investigate and learn more about the bill.” Woodson said. “Public speaking was not the issue.”

While Woodson made the comment that she was speaking as a concerned student and not student body president, many perceived the opposite.

In a flyer distributed in Latin American politics classes, Woodson was listed as speaker and as president of the SGA. Culpepper cited the actions as being a direct violation of her job description and oath of office. Violations include misconduct, abuse of title, and not representing the opinion of the entire student body.

Culpepper is asking that she immediately submit a formal letter of apology and resignation to the student body.

LaShanta Smith, a former member of the SGA, expressed concerns about Culpepper’s opinion. Since Culpepper is a member of the Republican Party, Smith wondered if the situation would be less controversial if a student or faculty member who was indifferent to Horowitz’ speech had expressed concerns. Smith suggested also to have a Democrat express his or her opinion about her actions.

“She has a right to express her opinion. She’s a student first and a president second,” Smith said.

At the press conference held outside the Tivoli, Woodson was introduced as the SGA president before she got up to speak. She then stated that she was acting as a student and a citizen, not as student body president. However, some members are concerned that her title did come up many times in her speech. Still, Woodson stated she was not acting on behalf of the student population.

“I would love to go into detail, but it will cause more of a problem,” Woodson said. “Fortunately, there are good people on campus and I’m pleased to have their support.”

At a Political Science Association meeting on Oct. 6, points were made that perhaps resignation was going too far. A resignation might hinder pending important political issues, andelected officials are misquoted and introduced incorrectly everyday.

“Instead of voting off, I would prefer a suspension,” said Rachel Miller, vice president for communications of the SGA.

Supporters of Woodson would like to see a disinterested party’s opinion on the situation. John Trompeter, a senior at UCD, sees the acts of the ACR as overreacting to remove Woodson from office for speaking out against a strong member of the Republican Party.

“She was elected because of her opinions and ideas,” Trompeter said.

In response to Woodson’s comment, “why are we even allowing this message to be sent out on this campus?” at the press conference, Trompeter said that although the comment was “unenlightened,” he can understand where she is coming from. Trompeter said that the Horowitz speech was poorly organized and would have been better if a Democrat was invited to show both sides of the story.

As for the use of Woodson’s title in her speech, Trompeter replied, “That’s the only way you can get legitimacy.”

Trompeter feels that Woodson should not resign for making what he refers to as a “misguided” statement.

“What, are we going to start punishing people for their opinion?” asked Trompeter, calling the action taken by the ACR an “ extreme reaction to a comment Republicans didn’t like.”

Zav Dadabhoy, director of Student Activities and advisor to the SGA, said that he “could argue both ways” on the subject of Woodson’s resignation.

While supporters of Woodson stand behind her in her decision to speak out at the conference, they also think the comment that questioned Horowitz’ appearance was going a little too far. As for the call for resignation, Trompeter said that Woodson was elected for her ideas and political views.

“I will take appropriate steps once SGA and Culpepper make the first move,” Woodson said.

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by Joshua Buck - The Metropolitan

Students pass under an array of changing leaves near the North Classroom Oct. 7, a sure sign that fall has arrived.

Metro’s faculty senate met Wednesday, Oct. 1, a day after Academic Bill of Rights author David Horowitz visited the college. While Horowitz’ proposed bill was a topic of discussion throughout the meeting, it was not the only item on the senate’s agenda.

Prior to the meeting, interim President Ray Kieft spoke to the senate, reiterating some points he had made at Metro’s fall convocation. Kieft also stated his plans to bring changes to the reduction in force policy from the Board of Trustees’ policy manual.

“My intent is to work with the board, hopefully to begin the first step,” said Kieft of the revisions. A few of the proposed revisions include ensuring that salary is not a consideration in potential layoffs, considering program needs and an individual’s performance and including the faculty senate president’s counsel in the process. Kieft also noted that while the economy is “by no means robust,” it appears to have “bottomed out” and he and the trustees “do not believe we will be faced with any kind of budget recision.”

Faculty Senate President Joan Foster called the meeting to order following Kieft’s comments. Foster began by reading some of the comments she had made at the press conference that had proceeded Horowitz’ presentation a day earilier. Later, Foster stressed the need to “change the culture of the administration” and the need for the administration to “have trust in the faculty” and treat them as “intelligent, responsible, and resourceful individuals.”

Hal Nees of the curriculum committee then addressed the senate regarding the committee’s recommendations to the CCHE that more courses be added to the guaranteed transfer program. Proposed additions include Introduction to Theater, World Regional Geography and Introduction to Chicana/Chicano studies.

Following Nees’ report, the floor was opened to senate members for comments regarding the Academic Bill of Rights.

“The heart of education is autonomy from the political process,” said one senate member.

The senate then listened to standing committee reports. Tony Ledesma, co-chair of the student affairs council, also discussed the Academic Bill of Rights. Ledesma noted that “some students are concerned there is a lack of hearing both sides” in classes at Metro. He also urged students to engage in “critical analysis” of the bill. According to Ledesma, the SAC may propose the sponsorship of public forums to encourage “discussion by both sides of the faculty.” These issues will most likely be “taken up later in the academic year,” said Ledesma.

Richard Griswold of the faculty welfare committee also spoke to the senate regarding the possibility of providing various services to the faculty, including financial and medical planning. Wilt Flemon of the instructional resources committee then asked the senate for feedback on “what issues the committee should work on.” Flemon handed out forms for senate members to indicate what issues are of concern to them and their respective departments.

The next faculty senate meeting is scheduled for 3:50 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 15 in Tivoli Rooms 320 A and B.

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Beyond an increase in tuition this year, students at Auraria are going to gradually notice the effects the budget cuts in Colorado higher education will have.

The Auraria Higher Education Center has experienced a nearly $4 million budget cut this fiscal year, a reduction from almost $17 million to $13 million.

Students will notice the effects around campus, mostly in a lack of maintenance of the grounds and cleanliness of the buildings.

While the effects of these cuts aren’t immediate, several within AHEC, including Chief Financial Officer Curt Weideman, said the long-term effects will get progressively worse.

“It’s sort of like, if you don’t change the oil in the car like you should, something’s going to break down and when it breaks down, then there’s going to be concern and people are going to notice it,” he said. “Right now, it’s hard for students to see the impact of what’s going on at AHEC because things still seem to be going right.”

This is one analogy Doug McLean, manager of design and construction for Facilities Management, said is commonly used within the division, which was hit the hardest by these cuts. McLean is stepping in for Facilities Management Director Jim Kelley while he is out sick.

Facilities management lost a little more than $1.5 million from last fiscal year to this year, and almost 30 positions, which Auraria Foundation Executive Director Dean Wolf said will result in reduced services.

“What you’re going to see is the response to problems is going to take longer than it did in the past,” Wolf said. “Another year of these reductions and we’re going to start to see some deterioration of facilities.”

McLean said that many of the janitorial positions were hit the hardest, so those on campus can expect to see a lower quality of cleanliness in classrooms and on the grounds.

According to Jim Peasley, operations manager for Facilities Management, besides the observable physical effects such as dry lawns, a lack of plants, unshoveled snow and dirtier classrooms, there will also be less-observable effects.

“We’re not getting all the preventative maintenance work-orders done that need to be completed because we have a lower staff count,” he said.

Preventive maintenance entails repairing and maintaining the heating and air conditioning units, plumbing and electricity, all departments Peasley oversees, and he said are “behind-the-scenes.”
He said an inability to respond quickly to this type of maintenance could result in noticeable effects for the students.

“If we’re not able to get to all the preventative maintenance is that there will be more failure,” he said. “If things fail, students will notice in that they’ll be more uncomfortable, the rooms might be too cold, they might hear some noisy piece of equipment, things like that. If a boiler goes out, for example, the whole building could be freezing.”

Wolf helped make the decision of which departments would be cut and by how much.
He said Auraria Campus and Security received the least cuts, of approximately $70,907, because protection of the students is one of the highest priorities.

“You have the matter of the safety and welfare of people on campus and when you have to provide coverage 24 hoursa day, 7 days aweek, there’s a level of awareness you must have, otherwise you can’t man your operations.”

Wolf and McLean both said that the cuts in Facilities Management are going to cause a gradual decrease in the quality of services, which could directly affect students’ education.

“The environment has a lot to do with how the learning process takes place,” Wolf said. “If you went to a classroom and it’s clean and it’s lit and so on, you’re going to feel better about it. If you walk into a room that’s got scuff marks on the wall, but just isn’t as bright and shiny as it used to be, you just don’t feel good about it, so your whole attitude for learning is not going to be as enthusiastic as is of the instructor.”

Dick Feuerborn, Division Director of Facilities, Planning and Use, said his department is simply going to have trouble being as quick as they used to be.

“It’s probably going to take a while for the impact to hit the students,” he said. “We’ve tried to do everything in our power to re-adjust how we do business so we keep the impact to the students down to a minimum. It’ll be just a delay to respond in certain situations.

“We’ve not diminished our services, it’s just that in some cases, we’re not able to respond as quickly as we could in the past. Like a trouble call, like in a room where the equipment is not functioning and in the past we’d be able to handle it very quickly. Now, sometimes it takes us longer to get there. We try to salvage the class and get there before the instructor gives up so they don’t have to cancel the class,” he said.

Weideman said the cleanliness of the classrooms won’t be the only thing that decreases in quality.
“Equipment in those classrooms has a life of about 3 to 4 years. With this kind of a budget shortfall, we’re not going to be able to replace that equipment,” he said. “It’s not going to make your classroom experience very well if your professor can’t operate the equipment. These things will gradually show up.”

Feuerborn, whose division is in charge of maintaining and fixing the equipment, said the loss of staff slows down reaction time to problems, but you have to try to work around that. “I think what we’ve tried to do is become more efficient in what we do,” Feuerborn said. “You try to work smarter and you try to prioritize differently and not let the cuts impact the core activity of the campus. Really what has to improve is the economy and then our funding. I think students are already doing what they need to be doing.”

One of the services cut from AHEC was Disabilities Services, but it was picked up by Metro and UCD. According to Metro’s Chief Financial Officer Mike Barnett, the expenses and revenue for DSO were simply shifted from AHEC to the schools.

“I don’t think there has been any significant change in service at all,” he said. “Basically, we felt we could provide a better service to our students and take a third party out of it.”

According to Barnett, Metro’s base funding from taxpayer dollars was reduced by about $6 million this year, which increased tuition by about 5 percent. Also, a combined 60 administrative positions and vacancies were eliminated.

Weideman said that while students may be paying more for fees and tuition, they are not paying for the AHEC budget shortfalls.

While Wolf said he does not believe the situation will get any better for another two years, Feuerborn said he thinks this is as far as the cuts will go.

“There’s only a point to what you can cut,” he said. “I’m of the opinion that we’ve made all the cuts that we can possibly make and still deliver the services to the campus. If it continues, we need to look at what kind of services these institutions can do without.”

Barnett said it doesn’t matter how much AHEC is cut in comparison to Metro.

“Cuts are cuts,” he said. “And they hurt either side no matter where they are.”

Wolf also said that there’s really not much the students can do to immediately change this situation, but they can make an effort to change things for next year.

“I think (students) need to make their legislators aware of their concerns about higher education,” he said. “The sad part of it, when you make the most cuts in higher education, is you’re passing the costs directly back onto the students . . . but you can see a bit of a groundswell in public opinion on these things, and to me that is encouraging,” Wolf said.

Weideman said that if there are any further cuts into AHEC, they will not only have to cut staff to avoid lowering utility costs, which are about $3 million, but AHEC will have to reconsider what services they can provide

“Do we reduce the number of days we clean offices and clean classrooms? Are we able to shovel the walks in the wintertime? A lot of what we do is invisible to everyone.”

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October is Domestic Violence Awareness month on campus and the women's studies program, located at 1033 Ninth Street Park, has been organizing events and has participated in a rally at the capitol building to start off the month.

The organization put up a bulletin board near Central Classroom 212 with photos of abused women and the words: “Domestic Violence Kills” in red paint.

Last week, someone vandalized this board.

“I think it shows insecurity because they can’t handle what is out there," Metro senior Eric Zimmerman said of the vandalism. “If they don’t want to confess to it, they have no integrity; they can’t handle the truth.”

This act of vandalism was committed early last week. The vandalized section of the board was restored to its original state after the women’s studies center became aware of the crime.

Misty Dawn Conrad, a student employee of the women’s studies department and one of the three domestic violence survivors who put up the bulletin board, said the board is important for the department's goal of education.

“We’ve had a lot of positive feedback for it," Conrad said about the board. “Our job here is to educate the campus about the situation."

Sheila Solano, the vice president of Iota Iota Iota, an honor society for women’s studies, said domestic violence is still a problem.

“The majority of people don’t know it’s still out there," she said. “If we were to put little pink letters up (on the bulletin board), it would minimize the situation.”

The women’s studies program can be divided into two sections. One is academia, the other is providing services. These services include helping people who need emergency housing or food. They also help students who have been out of school for a long time make the transition back into the academic community. Men are welcome to take advantage of these resources as well.

“Victims are always welcome to come to the women’s studies office," Solano said, "anyone here can help.”

The employees of the women’s studies department spend time finding resources for victims and gathering phone numbers and information for victims and friends. Resource information is located next to the bulletin board by Central Classroom 212 as well as in the women’s studies office. This information includes “Don’t Suffer in Silence” cards with names of organizations and phone numbers that those in need of help can call.

“We find people in these situations don’t know where to get help," Solano said.

The women’s studies center also has on-site help available. Regina Lang is a certified counselor available for these purposes, as are the other in-house employees.

“Statistics show that (domestic violence) is happening a lot," said program Assistant Director for Women’s Studies Cheryl Sipe. “It crosses all races, all genders, all economics.”

Conrad confirmed this.

“It doesn’t matter who you are," she said.

The women’s studies program will have a self-defense workshop from 9 a.m. to noon Monday, Oct. 13 and 2 to 4 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 16 in St. Cajetan's. For more details call the program at (303) 556-8441.

Headlines

by Joshua Buck - The Metropolitan

Alex Ruterbories, a UCD freshman, leaps for a frisbee thrown by his friend Collin Yablon, also a freshman at UCD, while the two were enjoying the warm fall weather Oct. 7 in the Lawrence Street Mall.

Sept. 27
Jason Barlow, a Metro student, reported the theft of his motorcycle temporary tags. The motorcycle was parked in Lot H at the time of the theft.

Sept. 29
Michael McKee, a UCD student, reported the theft of his temporary license tag. The tag was taken from his vehicle while it was parked on the west end of the third floor parking structure at 1201 7th St.

Sept. 30
Teal Shaner, a Metro student, reported the theft of a sculpture that was taken outside of the Arts Building. The steel and rock sculpture was an art project that Shaner had done for class. The replacement value of the sculpture is estimated at $70.

Sept. 30
Micheal Cooper, a Metro student, reported the theft of his wallet and ID cards that had been taken from a locker in Room 105 in the HPER Building.

Oct. 1
Molli Lorenzo, a CCD student, reported a purse theft. The purse was taken while Lorenzo was on a pay phone in the South Classroom Building. The purse contained $15 in cash, and credit cards, as well as Lorenzo’s ID cards.

Dorit Katz, a MSCD student, reported a theft of personal property from the women’s restroom at the Auraria Campus Library. Katz left her Day-Timer, $40 cash, her ID, and several credit cards in the women’s restroom. Upon her return, the items were gone.

By Jay Vasconcellos

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Students become decisive
The number of students without a declared major is decreasing greatly. Only 22.9 percent this fall haven’t decided on a major, an improvement compared to 32 percent in 1999.

Give blood on Oct. 9
A blood drive will be held on Oct. 9 at the St. Francis Atrium from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bonfils’ goal is to collect over 4,000 units of blood a week to accommodate the needs of patients.
Students can simply walk in, or make an appointment by calling Corrie Santos at (303) 556-6791, or Kelly Young at (303) 556-6273

Catch these guest speakers
Jack Mudey of KUVO, and Douglas Vaughan, an Award-winning investigative journalist, will be in Tivoli Room 440 on Oct. 14 to discuss their experiences working with the “underground press” and the Radical Information Project.
Opening will be, “Challenging consent through the use of alternative press,” at 10 a.m. From 1-3 p.m., learn “How to use the media…before they use you.”

Exploring Native American cultures
Those interested in learning more about the history and tradition of Two Spirit women and Native American cultures are invited to attend a workshop from 1:30 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 15 in Tivoli Room 640. Presented by Mary Lou Van Voorhis.

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None this week

The Metropolitan strives for accuracy. Report mistakes to the news editor at: leavittn@mscd.edu

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