A3 • JANUARY 28, 2010 • THE METROPOLITAN
NEWS
CAITLIN GIBBONS • NEWS EDITOR • cgibbon4@mscd.edu
Hope forHaiti
Aurarians
respond
with aid
By Andrew Flohr-Spence
spencand@mscd.edu
Since the news broke Jan. 12 of
the earthquake in Haiti, the thoughts
and prayers of many have been with
the devastated country. And many
have turned their thoughts to action.
Haiti, it turns out, is not so far re-
moved from Denver.
Two days without word
UCD biology senior Olynda Mileon,
who was born in Haiti but has lived in
the U.S. since she was six, has grandpar-
ents and three cousins who live in the
country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, which
was largely destroyed by the earthquake.
Mileon told her story to students and
faculty who attended an information
session held by Metro’s Center for Urban
Connections Jan. 21 in the Multi-Cultur-
al Lounge organized.
For two days she and her family
were unable to reach anyone on the
telephone. Mileon said the only in-
formation they could get initially was
from Internet and TV.
“We were glued to the television,”
Mileon said.
Finally, her father’s cousin called
with the news that everyone in the
family had survived. But narrowly:
one of her cousins was on the second
floor of a school building that col-
lapsed and managed to escape with
only scrapes and bruises.
The houses where her cousins
lived in the capital collapsed and they
have since left the city to live with
friends in the countryside. Mileon’s
grandparents’ home luckily was not
destroyed.
But others her family knows were
not so lucky. The daughter of a close
friend of Mileon’s father died in the
earthquake. Many people in their cir-
cle of friends lost family members.
“It wasn’t easy to realize the ex-
tent of the damage,” Mileon said.
When they first heard the reports,
the family assumed maybe several
hundred or a thousand maximum
might have died, Mileon said.
“We didn’t imagine it would be
this bad,” she said.
The magnitude-7 earthquake was
the strongest to hit Haiti in 200 years
and killed an estimated 200,000
people in the poorest country in the
Western Hemisphere. Around 80 per-
cent of the almost 10 million people in
Haiti live on less than $1 a day.
Continued on A7>>
CCD students Ruth Blake (left), Marleasa DeLeon (center) and Minas Giorgies look over a handout
during their Basic Composition class in theatre #7 on Jan. 26 at the Starz FilmCenter. Students from all
three schools on Auraria Campus attend classes in Starz due to an increase in enrollment. Photo by Jamie
Cotten•jcotten1@mscd.edu
Classrooms crammed
Space crunch
pushes overflow to
Starz FilmCenter
By Rita Wold
rwold@mscd.edu
Classes at Metro are being held in
odd places and even delayed, as stu-
dent enrollment soars and the Aura-
ria Campus struggles to make enough
room.
“We have more classes being of-
fered than there are classroom spaces,
so we are moving into spaces that are
unconventional,” said Rob Byers, di-
rector of Auraria Higher Education
Center Use & Support Services Divi-
sion. “Classes are being held in confer-
ence rooms; classes are being held in
Resolution reduces speaker’s pay
Attendance a factor
in compensation cut
for SGA position
By Ben Wiebesiek
wiebesib@mscd.edu
The Metro student government
assembly senate voted four to one to
change the pay for the speaker of the
senate Jan. 22.
But after the vote, members of the
SGA offered conflicting reports as to
the motive behind the resolution.
SGA Vice President C.J. Garbo said
“As the ‘news value’ of Haiti diminishes in
the eyes of the international media, let us not
forget our neighbors.”
- LEAH MILLIS on A8
THIS WEEK
EVENTS
1.29
Application for
graduation deadline
for spring 2010
Applications available
and due in Registrar’s
office, CN203
1.29 “Fall of the
Republic”
Campus Connection
presents
documentary
about the Obama
Presidency.
Tivoli Turnhalle
7 p.m.
2.3 Last day
to drop and have
classes deleted from
academic record
with 50 percent
refund
2.4 Blake
Mycoskie
the Starz theatre.”
About 13 classes have taken shel-
classes without rooms.
Last Tuesday, only five classes were Distinguished Lecture
ter in the Starz Filmcenter, while five without rooms due to the space made Series presents the
founder of TOMS
classes remain without rooms.
Representatives from Starz could
available in Starz.
Nesbitt is currently working to re- Shoes.
not be reached for comment, however, arrange classrooms that are running Tivoli Turnhalle
theater rental typically runs $750 for below capacity in an effort to achieve 1 p.m.
a three-hour minimum. more space.
In fall 2009, Metro’s enrollment According to Metro’s Office of INDEX
increased 7.4 percent over the previ- Institutional Research, over the past
ous fall. The college plans to maintain five years, the number of on-campus INSIGHT ... A8
current enrollment levels until the course sections offered to students in- METROSPECTIVE ... B1
Student Success Building is complete creased by 8.2 percent. AUDIOFILES ... B6
in fall 2012. “We know that enrollment is up SPORTS ... A11
“We already had a space shortage” everywhere,” Byers said. “The classes TIMEOUT ... A14
before the new student growth, Sean that normally wouldn’t make it are
Nesbitt, facilities planner, said.
Nesbitt is the college’s first facilities
making it because people are taking
them.”
WEATHER
planner. He was hired four years ago.
This semester, at the end of the CONTINUED ON A5>> 1.28 • Chance of snow
first week, Nesbitt said he had 17 High: 35/Low: 18
1.29 • Mostly sunny
High: 43/Low: 19
1.30 • Mostly sunny
High: 48/Low: 21
the vote was prompted by frustrations
within the senate regarding the atten-
said.
Julia Woodward, senator and
1.31 • Mostly sunny
High: 47/Low: 23
dance of the current speaker, Hashim speaker pro tempore said, “ We are all 2.1 • Partly cloudy
Coates.
“Members of the senate originally
students and we have all had difficul-
ties arise with school or life. We’ve had
High: 43/Low: 21
2.2 • Mostly sunny
explored the idea for Coates’ removal a lot of illnesses last year with other High: 48/Low: 24
but this effort was abandoned because senators. So it would be unfair to pun- 2.3 • Mostly sunny
there wasn’t the two-thirds majority ish just one person for these absences.” High: 52/Low: 26
necessary for removal,” Garbo said. Woodward said she felt reducing By Kendell LaRoche
Garbo said the senate decided be- Coates pay was a compromise.
fore their meeting to redefine the hu- But Coates said the vote might CORRECTIONS
man resources job description instead. have been motivated by personal dis-
“It wasn’t seen as a punishment agreements between him and some To notify The Metropolitan of
but as a fair and equitable readjust- members in the SGA. an error in any of our reports,
ment of the hours worked for the please contact Editor-in-Chief
speaker in relation to the pay,” Garbo Continued on A5>> Dominic Graziano at
dgrazia1@mscd.edu