Student alleges death threat
Metro student accuses SGA members of plotting to kidnap, kill him
by Clayton Woullard
File Photos
The Metropolitan
Former Chair of the Auraria College Republicans George Culpepper
A Metro student and former Auraria College Republican has filed a complaint
against two Student Government Assembly officials he claims discussed
killing him.
George Culpepper, who last year was chairman of ACR also said he filed
a report with the Auraria Police Department Friday in which he accused
Metro students Beth Ott and William Safford, both members of the SGA,
of discussing possibly kidnapping Culpepper, taking him to an Indian reservation
and killing him.
He claims that Ott had told Jessica Greiner, also a Metro student and
SGA member, in a private meeting, that Ott and the Metro student organization
Native American Students for Un-American Activities wanted to “get
rid of” Culpepper and would take him to an Indian reservation because
the laws are different there.
Greiner said she heard about the threat, but because the investigation
is still underway, she can’t comment on the case.
Ott, co-president of NASUA and a Choctaw native, and Safford, a non-native
member of the group, directed a NASUA meeting Friday afternoon, which
Culpepper claims was held to discuss how to remove him from campus.
Political Science professor Oneida Meranto
Last fall, Culpepper filed a complaint against political science professor
Oneida Meranto, a Native American tenure-track faculty member and NASUA’s
faculty adviser, in which he accused her of political bias in the classroom.
Metro graduate Nick Bahl also filed a complaint accusing Meranto of political
bias.
Ott said Culpepper’s allegations are false and that she didn’t
even know she was implicated until Tuesday when she was told her name
was on the complaint.
She also said that laws for murder or kidnapping on an Indian reservation
are not different from those in the rest of the country.
“I think it’s quite evident that George knows absolutely
nothing about federal Indian law,” Ott said.
Navajo native Michelle Rose, co-president of NASUA, said she’s
appalled by the allegations against Ott and Safford.
“I think it’s absurd,” Rose said. “I think he’s
(Culpepper) just out there. He obviously wants to fight us (NASUA) and
I honestly don’t understand why.”
Culpepper said he isn’t targeting Meranto or Native American students
on campus.
“Apparently Dr. Meranto has issued her poison through so many students
that they think that I’m attacking one of their own and that isn’t
the case,” he said.
Culpepper also said Ott and Safford violated the Student Code of Conduct
by not informing the authorities about the death threat and for holding
a meeting to discuss him and how to eliminate him, all of which he said
disrupted his academic performance.
“I’m trying to move on with my life, but now they want to
bring me back into the fold,” he said.
Culpepper said Ott, the SGA’s vice president of communications,
and Safford, attorney general, promised to represent all students, and
by going after one student, they have violated that promise.
“When you sign up to be a SGA member, you’re there to represent
all students, even myself,” Culpepper said. “And they didn’t
do that because they actively participated in a meeting to get rid of
me.”
Ott said Safford and she never represented themselves as officials of
SGA and their actions with NASUA are completely separate from the SGA.
“We are involved in the Native Movement only as students,”
she said. “Anybody claiming that this has anything to do with the
SGA is completely mistaken.”
Jesse Samora, current ACR chairman, said he will ask for Safford and
Ott’s resignation or their removal, not only for allegedly threatening
a student, but for holding a meeting in which they pushed their agenda.
“Holding a meeting like that is not what any Student Government
member should do,” Samora said. “Student Government members
are there for the students and not for themselves”
SGA President Candace Gill said what Ott and Safford are doing is separate
from the SGA as a body.
“The issues they’re addressing are separate from that of
the student government,” Gill said. “I think they will be
able to keep it separate and not pull the student government into the
issue at hand.”
In the NASUA meeting Friday, Ott and Safford also presented a petition
that describes alleged discrimination against Native Americans on campus,
including death threats made against Meranto.
“The main goal of the action of this petition is to seek due process
for native students on a campus where we feel there has been a lack of
due process for minorities,” Ott said.
The petition also asks for a thorough revision of Metro’s grievance
policy.
SGA Vice President of Communications Beth Ott
Ott said the college’s current grievance policy is unfair because
she said it allows people like Culpepper and Bahl to report their complaints
directly to the president’s office rather than having to report
through the proper channels.
While Metro interim President Ray Kieft appointed a task force to focus
on the college’s grievance policy in the spring, Ott said she feels
the task force is unfair because Culpepper was allowed to appoint the
members.
“The grievances at Metro need to be changed and the task force
in place is not equipped to do that,” she said.
In a hearing last Thursday organized by State Senate President John Andrews,
R-Centennial, Metro student and Republican William Pierce, along with
a student from Colorado State University and the University of Colorado,
testified about political bias in the classroom.
Pierce filed a complaint against Meranto Aug. 24, accusing her of political
bias and discriminating against him as a conservative student the previous
day, the first day of class.
Pierce dropped the class after the first day.
“She inferred (sic) that we (conservatives) are incapable of thinking
critically, and should therefore drop her class,” Pierce wrote in
a letter to Percy Morehouse, director of Metro’s Equal Opportunity
Office.
He also wrote that Meranto said in class the reason most of those in
the academic world are on the left side of the political spectrum is because
they are able to think critically and those on the right are not.
Meranto said that allegation is false.
In her lecture, she said ideologues on either extreme of the political
spectrum have a hard time thinking critically. She also said she read
the Student Bill of Rights, which outlined the grievance policy and what
a student should do if they have a problem with the way she teaches, to
the class and printed it on the syllabus.
At press time Pierce could not be reached for comment.
Dr. Meranto also said to the class that she knew there were Republican
plants in her classes who were there to monitor her and they should drop
the class because they would not learn anything.
On the online message board for the Metro student organization Creative
Resistance, a leftist protest group, Culpepper wrote in a post Aug. 12:
“All I know is Dr. Meranto has ONE chance to screw up, which she
will, and she is gone. Rest assured, someone IS in her class that I asked
to sign up for to watch over her.”
Culpepper said he did not plant Pierce or anyone in her classes and he
wrote that to get a reaction out of Dr. Meranto and members of Creative
Resistance, many of whom have publicly announced their support for Dr.
Meranto.
“I wanted to get a reaction out of her and get the truth to come
out,” Culpepper said. “I knew that if I stated that, she would
mention something in her classroom…that ‘I know some of you
are planted.’”
Kieft filed a disciplinary notice against Dr. Meranto, disciplining her
for divulging information about Culpepper’s academic records, but
did not chastise her for any political bias in the classroom.
Culpepper said he wasn’t happy with the result, but he can accept
it. He said he is forming a Metro State Students for Academic Freedom
organization to collect complaints from students who experience or have
experienced political bias in their classes. He said they will be a non-partisan
group and will forward the complaints to the state legislature, as well
as the school.
Dr. Meranto said the student’s claim is still under investigation,
but she said she is confident it will be resolved in her favor because
she said she taped the lecture.
She said this whole ordeal has been taxing on her.
“I’m very stressed out; I’m emotional,” she said.
“This stuff begins to wear on you. It’s not fair I have to
rein in my passion for something.”
Robert Hazan, chair of Metro’s Political Science department, said
he would not comment on the claims specifically, but was disappointed
with how the student handled his complaint. He said the student should
have approached Dr. Meranto and if he had no success there, to approach
Hazan so the three could have a meeting to discuss the matter.
Instead, Pierce brought his complaint directly to the administration.
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