Community College of Denver student newspaper loses editor, stops publishing for second time

By Perry Swanson
The Metropolitan

The Community News died when its editor resigned Nov. 12, citing the stress of the job and an uncooperative staff as the reasons for his departure. It marks the second time this year the paper has folded.

Dennis Archuletta quit less than a month after the Community College of Denver student newspaper put out its only issue since spring semester. Controversy has plagued the newspaper for the last 2 years, mostly because of objections to the paperâs content.

A memo taped to the door of the newspaper office in the Tivoli cited Archulettaâs resignation and said that as of Nov. 12, ãthe Community News is no longer operational.ä

Archuletta explained his resignation by listing his complaints against staff members at the paper and others involved with its operation. He said the job demanded too much and paid too little for him to continue.

One complaint topping Archulettaâs beef list was a conflict with Felicia Sykes, director of Student Activities at
CCD, because he said she had the locks on the office door  changed Nov. 7 without notifying him. Two days later, Archuletta said he was able to get into the office. Then he was confronted by Auraria Campus Police, who, he said, threatened to charge him with trespassing.

Campus police said it has no record of the incident. Sykes confirmed that she had the locks changed but wouldnât comment further.

Archuletta also said someone is trying to frame him for the theft of a laptop computer and the forgery of a purchase order asking for the product.

He said someone used his name to sign a bogus order for an Apple laptop computer from a vendor called MacWarehouse.

All transactions for schools at Auraria go through a purchasing office. Roberta Miiller, who supervises the Auraria purchasing department, said she has no knowledge of the incident. A vendor could be fooled by a fake purchase order, she said.

Officials at the Denver Police Department confirmed the incident is under investigation.
Archuletta said heâs had to deal with one crisis after another with only minimal support from others at the college.

ãIâm just not paid enough to deal with this crap,ä he said.

But even with Archulettaâs complaints, Sykes said he could have been removed anyway, because he didnât meet
job requirements set by CCDâs Board of Publications.

Editors of the paper are required to take certain courses at the college, a minimum number of credit hours and maintain a minimum grade point average. Sykes wouldnât say which of those requirements Archuletta failed to meet.

ãThere were personnel issues, there were security issues, there is a criminal investigation,ä she said.