Volume 1, Issue 2 - Feb. 28, 1979

Page 1

In my · mother's opm1on, two things could make me go blind. One of them was watching an eclipse. The last time I had a chance to watch an eclipse was in the early 1960s. My mother, who has Italian superstition within her, refused to let me out of the house or near any windows. She was convinced there was something magic about an eclipse which w0uld blind children instantly, even if they viewed it indirectly by projecting the image through a pinhole. Last Monday, I got another chance to see the phenomenon when the moon blotted out 88 per ce~t of the sun over Denver. I wouldn't have another chance to see an eclip~ until the year 2017. l used purloined book boxes and cheap polarized filters to make a viewer and joined the small group of modem Druids gathered at the Student Center. The Druids had their own insufficient homemade viewers pointed at the sun. The scene was an opthomoligist's nightmare. Peggy, an MSC student who will be 63 by the time the next eclipse rolls around,

ran in and out of the Student Center every 15 minutes to check on the moon's progress. Each time she looked through the viewer, her reaction was similar to thousands who witnessed the celestial show Monday. "Ooh ... ahh," she said. 'Ibis is really fantastic!" As the eclipse' reached its zenith at 9:23 a.m., about 250 persons were gathered at points outside Auraria buildings. Many cut cla~s to watch the show in the sky. "I figure I won't remember what happened in Lit class 38 years from now," a man said. "But, I may remember the eclipse·." "I'd better check this out now," another man said as he stuck his head in the box viewer. ''l'm not sure I'll be alive in 2017." The crowd began to thin around 9:45 a.m., and only a few diehard box-heads, oblivious to doctors's warnings and Italian superstition, gazed at the sun until the moon's outline was no longer visible. --Frank Mullen

• Vol. 1 /ssu.e 2

Feb. 28, 1979

''completely surprised" -

Tancredo denies suppo~t of merger by Frank Mullen

idea of the bill co n cerning the local boards for state colleges and universities, but opposes a merger of MSC and UCD. Tancredo said he backs the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE) plan directin g the two i~stitutions to "consolidate, eliminate or jointly operale"

-------------------t governing Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Arva<la) said he was "completely surprised" by a Feb. 22 Rocky Mountain News slory naming him as a co-sponsor of SLale Sen. Hugh Fowle r 's ( R-Li ttleton) hill reorganizing the governance of higher ~ducation in Colorado and merging the University of Color.. ado al Denver (CCD) and Metropolitan State College (MS C). Tancredo said Feb. 22 he had not spoken to Sen. Fowler '"since ovemher" concerning the omnibus governance bill. Tancredo said he agrees with the basic

38 " duplicitive programs." Undergraduate programs. hj! said, might best he limited to MSC, with UC D controlling the graduate programs. Fowler sa id th e News s tory was "acc urat e when it cited fiscal mi smanagem e nt at th e University of

A LOOK INSIDE ••

\

Is Z·PG zero?

pg. 3

'.' Harvard West"

pg. 4

MSC

pg. 5

Air Force

Colorado rt1edical Cen.ter" as proof of the Board o f Regenls· inability to manage seve ral ca mpuses at once, but sa id Tancredo is not a co-sponsor of the bill at this time. "I can 't speak for Rep. Tancredo," he said. Had Fowler, the c hairman of Lhe Se nat e Educ:ation Committee and Tancredo, th e chairman of the House Eduation Committee, joined forces to back the merger proposal contained in Lhe governance bill, considerable weight would hav e been put behind th e proposed legislation. "Those two (education) committees are considered the most knowlcdgable people in the legislature in the field o f education," a source in the legislature said. " If both committees get behind a proposal like Lhis (merger), it would be f'Xlremely difficult to oppose it successfully." ·Tan credo said he offered Fowler his s upport on a draft gove rn a n ce bill introduced to the Joint Inlerim Study Committee in November. He said be supports '·90 percen t " of Fowler·s hill and feels governance is the primary reason for the current problems in higher education. '·Right now Auraria is one of the most blatant exam ples of governance problems in the state." ht• said. " llowever, I will continue to support the CCllE idea of what is going to happen at Auraria ." Tancredo sa id he is drafting a bill which would place t\uraria under the. provisions of Colorado?s "gunset law." Under

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his bill, Auraria would have to prove its effecti\'eness by a July 1981 deadline or face " termination or reorganization. " Tancredo said local governance may he the only way to make the governing boards more responsive to the needs of the individual institutions. lie said the local hoards. should he appointed, while Fow-· ler 's bilJ calls for "locally elec ted boards." Fowlrr said be will introduce his governance bill this week and expects many legislators will attempt lo amend ~roposal. L continued on page two

Rep. Tom Tancredo (R-Arvada).

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