THE
ETROPOLITAN
The Metropolitan State College of Denver student newspaper serving the Auraria Campus since 1979 Volu~e
Denver, ColQrado
N9vember 9, 1990
13, Issue 12
NE\\/S
FEATL:RES
SP<>RTS
Racism accusations against Met addressed pages
'Listen Up: The Lives of Quincy Jones' worth the listen page9
'Runners basketball opener no fiesta page 16
Auraria buildings' air quality questioned Julie Pezze The Metropolitan
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Denver's Capitol, veiled by a November evening snowfall, as seen from Civic Center Park.
Panel focuses on Mid East crisis Carolyn Bauer The Metropolitan
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A near-capacity crowd was bombarded with information about the current Middle East crisis during a recent round table discussion. Metropolitan State College of Denver President Thomas Brewer and professors Robert Hazan, Akbarali H. Thobhani and Sandra Gudmundsen spoke Nov. 5 at the 25th Anniversary Round Table discussion called to debate United States involvement in the Middle East. "When the weather in the region cools, the possibility of a hot war increases," Brewer said in his in-
troduction to the audience at the St. Francis Center Lounge. "Itis our duty to always look for alternatives to war," said Hazan, a visiting assistant political science professor who outlined a basic history of the Iraq/Kuwait region. Hazan explained that Iraq was an independent kingdom as of 1932, but it gained its independence as a state in 1958. According to Hazan, Saddam Hussein has been a key member of the Baath coalition, Iraq's leading political party, since 1968, and he has been in complete control of the country since 1979. He went on to say that the free flow of oil is the main motivation for U.S. involvement in the gulf area. Hazan ended his talk with an
ominous warning about Saddam Hussein. "War can and must be avoided," he said. "If it comes, it will be quick and devastating, and Saddam Hussein will cause as much damage as possible." Thobhani, director of the Institute for Intercultural Studies and Services at MSCD, concurred with many points in Hazan' s assessment of U.S. policy and added to the list what he sees as other U.S. objectives. "The U.S. has soughtto contain radical nationalism in the Arab world," Thobhani said. "Nasser, Khadaffi, Ayatollah Khomeini and others were anti-west. The U.S. also seeks to preserve the territorial status quo in the Middle East to maintain the stateoflsrael because see Middle East page 3
Despite the Auraria Higher Education Center's recent attempts to solve some long-standing air quality problems, the air quality at St. Cajetan' s was tested last month following several employee complaints SincetheopeningoftheAuraria Campus, there have been problems with the ventilation systems on campus. In the summer of 1977, complaints were made regarding high temperatures and lack of ventilation. The problems went unresolved causing some employees to become ill and some classes to be cancelled. AHEC appealed to the state f~~-Ol'capital construction funCisJ~icy the problems and was.grant~ ~xception to a 1973 governor' s ex..ecutive order that in new prohibited. air conditioning _,\ 路 construction. ' A chiller plant "".as constructed in J979, but only served to cool the Science, Library and Arts buildings. In April of 1988, an intermemo was sent to the vice president of Business Affairs on behalf of concerned employees. The intermemo was intended to provide data for additional air treatment system needs. "Supervisors feel that absenteeism is affected because employees experience a higher degree of respiratory illness," the memo stated. Eleven specific cases were mentioned and outlined in the memo. One employee was granted long-term disability after developing severe allergies which doctors determined to be a direct result of the air system in the Arts Building. In its conclusion, the intermemo said the working conditions were "inhumane." In June of 1988, the auditors conducting an examination at Metropolitan State College of Denver reported the "quality of air was poor due to the fact we .would become ill in the building and recovered when we walked out." It
was recommend that the college, " without hesitation," improve the quality of the arr for the Central, South and West classroom buildings as well as for the Technology, Library and Science buildings. All of those building were also targeted in the intermemo. AHEC's 1988-89 legislative capital construction budget requested funds that would bring "the remaining major campus buildings into compliance with current health codes for an adequate ventilation system." The request was for $2.5 million for a new chiller plant project. St. Cajetan's, the Rectory, the Physical Education and Recreation Building and 11 of the Ninth Street houses were also included. The legislature appropriated
$2.6 million and the project, except for the PER Building, was completed in May of this year. St. Cajetan 's received "new direct expansion to its existing air handler." But, last month, employees of the University of Colorado at Denver psychology department, housed at St. Cajetan' s, began complaining about the air quality. Among the complaints were headaches and nausea. And two known CU-D psychology professors vacated their offices because of the problem. In a memo to his students, one professor cited, "most facu lty in St. Cajetan's have reported recurrent health problems for over two years," as a reason for vacating his office. He also added that the university has decided that it "is a health hazard for students to attend classes at the building." Both professors have relocated to other parts of the campus. Dianne DeMars, a registered sanitarian at Denver Health and Hospitals Air Quality Environmental Protection Division, was asked by AHEC to test the chemical levels at St. Cajetan 's after some employee complaints. CU-Dchemistry professor John Lanning also tested the Acetaldehyde levels in the building. Acetal
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see AIR page 3
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