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Volume 6 Issue 2
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"Growing with a growing community."
Parking lots at capacity With the beginning of the fall semester, parking problems are once again painfully evident on campus. Lots filled to capacity, sporadic 路 traffic snarls, and overflo)V into the Westside neighborhood are just three of the problems facing the AHEC parking office this week. "Weve got 5,000 parking spaces available for an anticipated 35,000 students, faculty and staff," said Auraria's parking director, Raul Gomez. "Of course, everybody isn't going to be here at once. But if even half of the campus population is here at one time we are faced with three and a half people for every available parking space. The first two weeks of each semester are the heaviest, Gomez said, with every lot on campus filling to capacity during peak rushes. "At 10:00 Monday morning we had filled every space in every lot on campus," he said. "Spaces didn't start to open up again until after noon." Even when spaces start to open up, preferred lots may continue to stay full throughout the day, said Gomez. "That's why we place attendants in the lots for the first two weeks," he said. "They can direct traffic to where there are vacancies." "After the first two weeks, something happens. People make arrangements for carpooling, they get familiar with bus schedules, I don't know what. But after the initial rush there are always . spaces available, especially in the outlying lots." Along with full parking 路 lots, traffic congestion is a continuing problem. To help alleviate the problem, Gomez said they "flip-flopped" the price of two lots, raising the price on "the lot most responsible for the traffic problems at 8th and Curtis, while lowering the rate at a less strategically placed lot down the road. In addition to the problems f~ by students trying to park, residents in the Westside neighborhood are once again being inconvenienced by students and faculty who have discovered continued on page 3
Metroprea Augmt 31
Film series Has setback
Tom Wathen, CoPIRG's top watchdog. see page 12
Telecourses page 8_
Culture Club '
page 15
Hoser humor page 16
With great hopes for the future, the newlyreorganized MSC Student Activities Office is battling with the uncertainties of new people and new positions, and running headlong into Auraria's notorious problems with communication. Six new positions were created this summer to be filled by MSC students, in the hope of providing greater student input into the use of the student fee monies allocated to Student Activities. The new positions divided the office into distinct areas, with a film series manager, a lecture series manager, a special events co-ordinator, a public relations manager, and a club and organization coordinator. Currently, the.five student co-ordinators answer t6 a student assistant director, who, in turn, answers to the Director of Student Activities, a profes.sional position. Problems developed early on, as the responsibilities of each co-ordinator began to overlap. The first program to suffer was the film series, whose dates have had to be reshuffled because of a snafu in making room reservations. "Three of us ended up making room reservations for the films." admits film coordinator Mark Eikerman. "We overlapped on dates and times, and there were a number of conflicts,'' he said. As a result, acting Director of Student Activities Peggy Raab has had to sit down and piece together aseries of dates for the films with Student Center Facilities Coordinator Barbara Weiske. Some of the dates now set for the films differ from the movie schedule published in The Metropolitan. In addition to the film series, the MSC Lecture Series has had problems related to the re-organization, said Raab. "I think that (lecture series co-ordinator) Jackie Weigand has had some problems figuring out how much responsibility is hers, and how much belongs to Student Affairs. In addition, there have been some problems negotiating contracts with speakers," said Raab. But despite the uncertainties, the continued on page 3