Kids/9
@' Pressopolitan
Volume 8
September 11, 1985
Issue 3
AHEC Bails Out on路 Monorail Plan Bob Darr
News Editor
Auraria's plans to build a monorail connecting the parking facilities at Mile High Stadium with the campus have been derailed, according to an Auraria Higher Education Center spokesman. Lawrence E. Hamilton, chairman of the Automated Guided Transit (ACT) committee, told a press conference Monday that Denver mayor Federico Pena's decision not to allow the monorail system to cross Speer Boulevard and terminate at the Denver Center for the Performing Arts forced the board to make an "irrevocable decision" to withdraw from the project.
terminals had been engineered. City officials and the Auraria board had nearly reached a compromise on the location of the Mile Hi terminal, leaving only the question of whether to terminate at the Auraria Student Center or the DCPA, Hamilton said. Hamilton said the board asked the mayor on August 9 to approve right of way crossing of Speer and a long term lease of parking spaces at Mile Hi by Sept. l in order to complete the planning process. He added the response from the city was critical in order to complete financing by the end of 1985. "This very real deadline is imposed by proposed changes in the federal tax laws which would eliminate the possi-
"Over the course of a year, AHEC and the city have worked very cooperatively, and they just happened to disagree on this one particular point.,, -Lauren Casteel
JoAnn Soker, Lawrence Hamilton and James Schoemer field questions from the media after anvouncing they had dropped plans for a
campus monorail.
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"Without this essential link to downtown, the project cannot be financed", Hamilton said. Although Auraria has always proposed a route to the DCPA, according to Hamilton, the board consented to the Mayor's request to evaluate a route that terminated at the Sh1dent Center. "Our financial advisors have informed us that the monorail system cannot be financed if it terminates at the Student Center," Hamilton said. "The additional downtown ridership expected from a connection to at least the DCPA is essential to the economics of the project." Hamilton said the AHEC board has been working on the project for over two years and the entire route of the monorail, except the two tum-around
bility of private financing of the project," Hamilton said. According to Hamilton, Auraria notified Pena on August 30 that Auraria was ready to finance and build a system linking Mile Hi and the DCPA, but couldn't finance an alternate route that terminates at the Student Center. In a letter dated Sept. 9, Pena stated he did not think a terminal at the DCPA wou)d greatly benefit the city. "While we very much want to have a station at the DCPA, we do not believe that having a terminus located at the DCPA, with the requisite tum-around loop, is in the best interests of the city," Pena wrote. "Moreover, implications for traffic, impact on residents, and significantly decreasing the likelihood continued on page 2
Magelli Says Metro Has Come of Age Lori Martin-Schneider Associate Editor
President Paul Magelli, addressing faculty and staff at the president's convocation Sept. 4, said Metropolitan State College has finally come of age after 21 years of struggle. Magelli, who's yearly speech resembled a state-of-the-institution address, said Metro lacks one element. "It is truly a new age institution which, for all practical purposes, is without peers," Magelli explained. He went on to justify his remarks,
saying the population of Metro has shared the college's transition from youth to maturity with the opportunity to "forge the identity of this young, optimistic, original institution." He also urged Metro to outgrow the d~fensiveness of youthful imitation and to become more open to the rich experience of life. Metro has more than 16,000 students from all walks of life, pursuing an education in 85 different academic programs. More than 120,000 students have attended Metro in its 21-year history, some of them taking their
place in the Denver business community. Metto has close to an eqt;al number of male and female students, with 15.5 percent of the student body from minority groups. Magelli said Metro may become a model of the "new age" institution by the turn of the century. "The very existence of this new-age institution is a testament to the idealism and spirit of the 60s," Magelli explained. "Those times were marked by renewed reliance on education to solve the social ills of a troubled coun-
try. Thus, Metropolitan State College is Colorado's testament to the most idealistic and democratic values of a turbulent time, which brought our integrity to a number of revealing tests. Let us not lose that brief, golden moment." Magelli suspects that testing is still underway, he said. He cited a need for a public image which is "Not imitative, but unique, not apologetic, but proud, which is not competitive, but authentic." He reminded listeners that Metro coat.
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