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ETROPOLITAN
Metropolitan -- State College of Denver student newspaper serving the Auraria Campus since 1979 VOLUME
15,
ISSUE
19
THIS WEEK...
.JANU A RY
29, 1993
DENVER,COLORADO
Scholarship companies misleading
Shades of spring
On trial
Chris Austin Staff Writer
MSCD's mock trial team to compete in nationals
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page3
• pages
Addiction series This week- kicking the smoking habit page 14
Dominic Chavez/The Metropolitan
Wednesday's warm weather enticed art student John Paul Bacon to take his work outside.
SP<lRTS
Lone 'Runner Ken Turner, MSCD's only senior, provides team leadership page 21
Scholarship search companies should be listed under the "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is" category, according to the Rocky Mountain Better Business Bureau and MSCD's Financial Aid office. "I've never seen a firm that has had any hand in getting a student money for college," said Ron Hamlin, a bureau employee. "I have been the scholarship counselor for over a year," said Bennett Buenconsejo, an MSCD financial aid counselor, "and not one scholarship has come through the office as a result of a scholarship search through these companies." Hamlin said the bureau does not keep a file of individual scholarship search companies because they are so often "here today and gone tomorrow." "These companies pop up and down so quickly, it is our position to educate people rather than to keep track of the individual companies," Hamlin said. "They are very temporary ," Buenconsejo said . "There was one company that had a 1-800 number and it was always busy. I even tried calling the number at night when I got see SCHOLARSHIP, page 8
CompUters stolen from .lab Chris Austin Staff Writer
The theft of $25,000 worth of computer equipment from West Classroom 244 has campus police puzzled and the information technology department beefing up computer lab security. Marc Falkenhan, manager of the academic computer information technology department, said the theft occurred sometime between 6 p.m. Friday, Jan. 8 and 7:15 a.m. Monday, Jan. 11. "The theft was discovered when a work study student got the key from me to open the lab," Falkenhan said. Taken from the computer lab were five Macintosh computers, three IBM compatible computers, a Hewlett-Packard Laser Writer, an Apple laser printer and an Apple Imagewriter. Police do not know how the thief or thieves broke into the lab. Jim Ferguson,
information director for Auraria Public Safety , said the lab was locked and checked periodically during the weekend. "It's hard to say how they gained entry," Ferguson said. "There was no sign of breaking and entering. There js a possibility that they used a jimmy to open the door. The room was checked throughout the weekend and was always locked." Falkenhan said he has submitted a list to APS naming everyone who had a key or the combination of the cypher lock on the lab's door. He added that police have been back to the lab several times to dust for fingerprints. ·· "It' s amazing to me the amount of time this person or persons must have had," Falkenhan said. ''There was nothing cut. Whoever it was took the time to unscrew everything. It takes at least two people to lift the HP Laser Writer. When AHEC delivers one, they bring it in on a
hydraulic lift." Falkenhan said the thief or thieves bad to be driving a truck or van to fit in all of the equipment. "I would think that they parked close to an exit," .Falkenhan said. "But no one saw anything suspicious. They went back and checked the police logs and there was nothing recorded." The theft is causing the information technology department to beef up security in the computer labs. "We are installing motion detectors in the labs," Falkenhan said. "They will be tied in with Auraria Public Safety's burglary detection system." Falkenhan said three replacement Macintoshes have been purchased and three are being leased, so students will still have access to the computers. The only inconvenience is the lab does not have a laser printer, but one is on order, he added.