Sports: Vollyball schedule released | Page 3
Page 6
Re-building Mason Street Closures for track replacement and conversion for two-way traffic
THE RO CKY MOUNTAIN
Fort Collins, Colorado
Thursday, July 12, 2012
COLLEGIAN
Volume 121 | No. 6
www.collegian.com
THE STUDENT VOICE OF COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1891
New equine reproduction lab rises from ashes By Nic Turiciano The Rocky Mountain Collegian Dr. Jason Bruemmer stands inside a small shed at the Equine Reproduction Laboratory with his arm — all the way to his shoulder — inside a mare, searching for signs of an embryo. Not far away cranes, tractors and construction crews work to rebuild his office. Bruemmer, a professor at the ERL, points to a small, fuzzy computer screen connected to the ultrasound camera he holds inside the mare, explaining the picture’s content to two students. Does noise from the construction disturb the animals? “The short answer is yes.” The ERL handles upward of 500 horses annually and instructs 120 students weekly, Bruemmer said, but on July 25, 2011, a fire leveled the property’s main building.The construction signals the early stages of the ERL’s rebuild. “The walls were concrete, so they didn’t burn,” Bruemmer said. “When the fire got into the attic, that was all wood, so the heat just brought the whole thing down and it pretty much destroyed everything.”
The separate components of the ERL that used to live in those skeletal concrete walls are currently housed in a number of temporary wooden structures, but the new building, at 12,200 square feet and costing approximately $5 million to construct, will house in a single location the laboratories and teaching facilities lost in the fire. “We had that originally, but it was exceedingly cramped. It was very difficult to have enough room in there to have students observe what was going on,” said Dr. Thomas Hansen, professor and director of the ERL. “We’ve incorporated a larger laboratory space so that students can actually see a lot better what the clinicians are doing in context to ultrasound, artificial insemination, embryo collections, embryo evaluations, sperm collections from stallions, sperm evaluations and then semen freezing.” Funding for the rebuild is currently coming from a university loan to the ERL, Hansen said, but the construction will ultimately be paid for by insurance proceeds from the fire and donations from clients and supporters. “There’s a history of peo-
the
Strip club
Worst one way streets in the US To honor Mason Street’s upcoming transformation from a one way street to a two way street (see page 6), we present to you a list of the worst one-ways in the country.
Lombard Street, San Francisco
Nic Turiciano | COLLEGIAN
Professor Jason Bruemmer shows students Alida Ortiz and Leah Cashman images from the ultrasound he performs on a mare at the ERL. The ERL, which was destroyed in a fire on July 25, 2011, is currently being rebuilt.
ple giving to the ERL because they buy in to the concept, the idea of training students while people are caring for their horses, and that’s why people continue to come back and use the services here,” Hansen said. Some clients, however, have been less than satisfied
with the ERL since the fire. Charlie Cox, owner of Parnell’s Irish Cobs, is one of the 175 ERL clients who lost genetic material when frozen semen from his stallion was destroyed in the fire. Cox estimates his potential losses to be between $30,000 and $40,000. According to Cox,
CSU’s outreach to ERL clients following the fire did not meet expectations. “I think people like Hansen and Bruemmer at ERL have been working very hard behind the scenes to try and get some resolution for See Rebuild on Page 3
Adjusting to the end of RamCT
You know, the really curvy street that they sometimes use in car commercials? It’s also featured in the Alfred Hitchcock film ‘Vertigo.’ It consists of eight hairpin turns over the course of one block.
Broadway, New York CIty
By Kyle Grabowski The Rocky Mountain Collegian
Kaitie Huss | COLLEGIAN
CSU sophomore Jennie Maydew makes wristbands for this Saturday’s Hammer Bash concert. All proceeds from the event will go towards supporting the various projects at Hammer Time! including a community garden and a tool-lending library.
Hammer Bash: Trading tunes for tools
Third annual benefit concert supports local non-profit organization By Kaitie Huss The Rocky Mountain Collegian Walk into Hammer Time! shop, located on east Laurel, and you’ll find a wall lined with books to read, a sewing area equipped with reams of fabric and even a community garden out back. But the most inviting element exists within the volunteers that create the space. Hammer Time! is a non-profit organization that provides a space for the Fort Collins community to learn and share new skills. The organization is run entirely by volunteers
and funded solely by donations and fundraising events. This Saturday marks the organization’s third annual Hammer Bash, a day-long concert series featuring 24 local bands. The concert will take place on a farm located at 4321 County Road 54G in Laporte. “It’s all the bands the community loves in one place plus some lesser known people that you might not go out and see,” said David Klausa, Hammer Time! volunteer. Karen Snider, a Hammer Time! volunteer and recent CSU garden and
soil crop science graduate, said the location of the event is symbolic to the nature of the organization. “Choice of the venue is a way to celebrate the DIY music culture,” said Snider. “It keeps it about the music and the community.” Hammer Bash is the organization’s largest fundraiser of the year. Attendees are encouraged to donate anywhere from $5 to $10 dollars to enjoy a day full of music, games and food. “It’s pretty much just to keep Hammer Time! going,” said Klausa who
said they operate month to month. “We rent out a warehouse on East Laurel and it’s pretty expensive— about $1,200 each month so we have to keep doing fundraisers just to pay the rent.” Hammer Time! opened shop in 2010 and has since grown a community focused on promoting an organic, self-improving lifestyle. “There are a lot of people like myself who have just poured our lives into this place just to keep it functioning,” said Klausa. “The idea is we want to See Bash on Page 6
Blackboard, CSU’s new course management system, isn’t quite the same as RamCT; but, it’s not far off. CSU switched from RamCT to Blackboard for the summer session, and will continue to use Blackboard for the 2012 school year. Students in Carol Seger’s cognitive psychology class didn’t notice the change. “Nobody mentioned that it was different,” she said. For Seger, the systems are largely comparable and have minor quirks that take “a few extra clicks” to figure out. “Adding students and auditors and dealing with incompletes was annoying,” she said. “I don’t think it’s any better or worse — just different.” History and political science major Jody Tippit prefers Blackboard to RamCT. “It’s easier to access things and looks a lot nicer,” he said. “It seems like professors are having issues putting anything on there correctly though.” CSU recommends that professors, “plan ahead to learn the new system and develop content early,” on its RamCT help website. Journalism and Technical Communication professor Dani Castillo taught one of 50 pilot courses during the Spring, and sees the advantages of the new system. “Some instructors at CSU may not be that happy with the new system just because, like any software, it takes a while to learn,” she said in an email. “I like Blackboard a lot better. Setting up the grade book is also easier in Blackboard, RamCT was super difficult.” The one advantage RamCT had over the new Blackboard system, according to Castillo, was its customization options. “I'm a web designer and can usually do a decent job at making it look good. The problem is that most teachers don't have that training and can very easily make the environment look VERY ugly,” she said in an email. Ultimately the success or failure of the system will be determined as it is used more often. "It just took a little time to adjust," Seger said. Producer Kyle Grabowski can be reached at news@collegian.com.
If contemporary film and telvision have taught us anything, driving in New York is always awful. Though the center of the theater world used to be a two way street, it currently becomes a one-way south of Columbus Circle.
Mason Street, Fort Collins
Every single time you want to go to sleep or are in a really important class, this magiical avenue seems to produce a train with a whistle that pierces dreams. Not to mention the train tracks themselves. They’re very confusing and can make you think you’re driving on a two-way street. A very big mistake, trust us. Thankfully the upcoming construction will help fix any one-way issues.
North Lincoln Avenue, Loveland
Shortly after passing Highway 34, the road takes a massive split, separating into two separate one-way streets. Make sure you don’t lose your way driving in Loveland, because going the right direction on US 287 again could be a dicey proposition. The Strip Club is written by the Collegian staff.