Meet CSU’s newest Chinese water scholars | Page 5
Ice, ice baby
PAGE 3
CSU figure skating team holds tryouts to attract new members
THE RO CKY MOUNTAIN
Fort Collins, Colorado
Thursday, September 6, 2012
COLLEGIAN
Volume 121 | No. 22
www.collegian.com
THE STUDENT VOICE OF COLORADO STATE UNIVERSITY SINCE 1891
the
STRIP CLUB
The Republican National Convention ended on Sunday and the Democratic National Convention ends Thursday. As conventions go, these have been pretty mediocre –– save for an old man talking to a chair, there just hasn’t been anything that memorable about them. So here’s some things we’d like to see as the DNC comes to a close. DYLAN LANGILLE | COLLEGIAN
E.J. Levy, author and professor, will be reading her anthology “Taking Life Twice” this evening at the University Center for the Arts.
The long road from econ, to author, to CSU By MARCUS MORITZ The Rocky Mountain Collegian New CSU assistant professor E.J. Levy’s story, “Theory of Dramatic Action,” begins with some bad luck. The reader’s cat has died, car has died and marriage has ended. Told in second person, the narrator tells the reader, “Now as you drive a U-haul across the vast stretchmarked belly of the continent, on your way from Colorado to start film school in Ohio, you try to locate a feeling to go with these events.” The story is part of Levy’s fiction book, “Love, In Theory.” Levy is holding a reading of “Love, In Theory” Thursday at 7:30 p.m. in the University Center for the Arts to showcase the new book and as an introduction to the Creative Writing
Department at CSU. It is also the first reading for the program’s Fall 2012 Reading Series. “The story collection is pretty funny,” Levy said. “It is contemporary love stories reflected through the lens of a variety of intellectual theories.” For instance, “Theory of Dramatic Action” is based on the idea of dramatic structure (introduction, rising action, climax, falling action) and in the story those actions are mirrored by events. “I love E.J.’s writing,” said Maureen Stanton, a writer, colleague and friend of Levy’s. “Her writing has everything that I want in great literature — an intellectual sensibility, lyrical, eloquent and original prose, and also heart — her stories are affecting.” Another of Levy’s books, “My
“Senate needs to, at this point, have confidence in the bodies they delegate to.” Taylor Jackson | Student Services Director ASCSU
Student fee reforms pass first Senate vote By CARRIE MOBLEY The Rocky Mountain Collegian The new student fee process legislation –– introduced to the floor last week by Associated Students of CSU Vice President Joe Eden –– passed the first required vote of two-thirds approval Wednesday night with a vote of 19-1-4. The bill passed without a proposed amendment that would have granted more power to student senators. It awaits one more round of voting for final approval on Sept. 12. Bill 4202 could change the process of collaboration between the Student Fee Review Board and the ASCSU Senate by having the SFRB report to Senate on a regular basis throughout the academic year. This process would entail Senate giving recommendations to the SFRB at every meeting. After the SFRB compiled all the fee proposals into one “Long Bill,” the Senate would then hold a vote of confidence at the end of the year to approve all the fee areas. After its introduction, the bill was sent to all three Senate committees: internal, external and university affairs where the bill was reviewed. It was amended by the external affairs committee –– a move met with harsh criticism by the larger Senate body. The proposed amendment
would bring some power back to the Senate. Whereas in Eden’s proposed legislation the Senate would have one vote of confidence at the end of the year, the amendment offered changed this to a process similar to auditing. It would give Senate the power to re-review one fee proposed by SFRB per month. If the Senate voted against the fee during its review and proposed a new one, SFRB would then be mandated to follow the Senate’s recommendations. “We had some reservations about only having recommendations that carry no weight and have no teeth,” said Sen. Halden Schnal, an external affairs committee member who coauthored the proposed change. “With this amendment, if we have a serious concern, (Senate) can change it and carry some weight … If something were to happen, we want Senate to be the body with the final say.” This, however, is exactly what other senators didn’t like about the proposed amendment to the bill. “Senate needs to, at this point, have confidence in the bodies they delegate to,” Student Services Director Taylor Jackson said. “You don’t approve every decision I make in Student Services. You have to have confidence in their See CORPS on Page 6
Life in Action,” won the Flannery O’Connor Award for Short Fiction last year. “Becoming a writer was a very slow journey for me,” Levy said. “So I spent a lot of time wanting to make art and wanting to write, but I felt that people like me had to go to law school instead.” Her other book, titled “Amazons,” is a memoir about a trip to Brazil while she was studying economics — her first choice before becoming a writer. “For me, ‘Amazons’ was really a reckoning about what happens if we put all of our faith in a cost benefit analysis,” Levy said. “We really treat free market capitalism as a religion, and where does that take us? It takes us to some pretty interesting places. So I came back
READING SERIES What: 2012 Fall Reading Series Who: CSU professor E.J. Levy reading from her novel, “Love, In Theory” Where: UCA Art museum When: 7:30 p.m. Cost: Free, but with limited seating
and quit economics.” A book reading can be drastically different at each location. “On a book tour, you typically read excerpts of your book to various audiences,” Stanton said. “My favorite part of that experience is the question and answer period that follows the reading. This is when you get to have a real See LEVY on Page 6
CSU students offer to mentor local at-risk youth By AUSTIN BRIGGS The Rocky Mountain Collegian
For Campus Corps mentor coach Katyi Frost, one of the more rewarding experiences in working with at-risk youth in the community is seeing the expression on the kids’ faces when they meet with their CSU student mentor each week. “Their faces just light up,” said Frost, a junior human development and family studies (HDFS) major. “A lot of these youth, they don’t have people that are stable in their lives. And for them to show up and have that mentor be here and their face, I just don’t even know how to describe it.” Campus Corps pairs atrisk youth with a CSU mentor, who meets once a week for four hours on campus in a group setting with other mentors and youth. The kids are often referred into the program from the juvenile justice system but can also be at risk from bullying at school or because of potential stresses that come with a low-income environment. In the five semesters since the program officially started, Campus Corps Director Jennifer Krafchick said 550 youth and 700 CSU students have participated in the program. Although most students are in the HDFS program, any CSU student is eligible to participate. They must fill out an application, passing an FBI background check and being
Things we want to see at the DNC
KEVIN JOHANSEN | COLLEGIAN
Jordan Arellanes and Kayti Frost discuss upcoming events at the Campus Corps office. Campus Corps is a youth program where students can serve as mentors to at-risk youth.
selected into the program. Students receive three upper division credits for participating. Once selected, participants go through about 20 hours of training that covers how to interact with youth, what to do if a mentee discloses potentially harmful information and how to redirect a youth if they’re discussing inappropriate topics. “It’s really intense,” Frost said of the three-day training. “It’s really important that the mentors know how to address an issue when it comes up.” This semester’s training is almost over and the youth will be on campus for the first time next week meeting their mentors. Breaking up into home
groups, the students and youth explore campus, get help with homework, participate in group activities like soccer and crafts, and sit down for a family-style meal. Krafchick said research studies indicate the benefits of mentoring. “Research shows that having consistent and caring adults in their lives can truly change the trajectory of an adolescent’s life,” Krafchick said. “It means so much to have someone who is reliable and available to them and all about them for four hours each week. It makes such a huge difference for the kids we see.” Frost remembered one See CORPS on Page 6
Joe Biden talking to an empty stadium The incident where Clint Eastwood talked to a chair for 15 minutes was the highlight of the RNC. Everyone knows that Joe Biden loves to one-up people, so he should show up early to the convention and angrily rant to all of the empty chairs at the DNC. Nobody should be out-crazying you, Joe!
Paul Ryan photobombing everything The Wisconsin representative is well known for being a proponent of the P90X workout routine. But we haven’t seen any concrete proof of this –– yet. So to fix this error on Ryan’s part, he should photobomb every picture at the DNC –– shirtless. “50 Shades of Ryan!” The Strip Club is written by the Collegian staff. Illustrations curtesy of The McClatchy Tribune.