t he scribe
The official student newspaper of the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. September 17 to September 23, 2009 [Volume 34; Issue 4]
UCCS hosts annual “Bike Jam”
Car fire at Lot 4 gives campus a scare
Picture courtesy of Renee Rudolph BY:
Public Safety Officer Steve Dewey takes a breather with UCCS Mascot Boomer. BY:
Tim Canon tcanon@uccs.edu Sept. 15, the UCCS Office of Sustainability promoted and held its annual “bike to school day” in an effort to create a cleaner environment and a healthier lifestyle by encouraging campus students, staff and faculty to commute to campus using alternatives to single-occupancy vehicles. The event featured a free breakfast in the morning, with two “in mass” rides later in the day, and bicycle experts from the Recre-
ation Center Bike Repair Shop were on hand all day to help students fix any mechanical problems that they may have had with their bikes. “We had 82 riders that came and registered,” said Sustainability Director Linda Kogan. “The Georgraphy Department won the award for most riders, with 18. Biology was second with 8 riders. Both the Recreation Center and the Sustainability Office had complete office ridership,” meaning all their staff showed up, she said. Despite the early start time of 7:30 a.m., turnout was higher than expected,
Ariel Lattimore
and about one third of the attendees were students. “This is the first time we’ve ever held this event, so it was great,” Kogan continued. “I think next year we’re going to do it again, and hopefully it will be even bigger.” “It just fits in really well with our sustainability goals of reducing emissions from cars, things like that,” replied Kogan. Other successes that she noted included a number of first-time registered bicycles, a multitude of feedback questionairre forms from the attendants on bike riding at UCCS and raised awareness about
UCCS’ upcoming bicycle library. “We had folks get to try out some of the bikes from the bike library here on campus,” she said. UCCS now has 12 new bicycles that will be part of a bike library program run through the Recreation Center, which will offer free bicycle rentals to students with UCCS student IDs. Kogan expects the program to start in the next couple of weeks. Local bike shops in town donated prizes, along with Sunflower Market and Costco. Sodexo also donated a part of the breakfast. ◆ The College Republicans placed 2,977 flags on the West Lawn-- one for each person who died on Sept. 11, 2001. Students, faculty, staff and public safety personnel gathered at 9:11 a.m. to observe a moment of silence. Ariel Lattimore
The End Laugh the PARADOX
Milk and RAs pages 14 and 15
CAMPUS NEWS Aaron Novy nominated to Sodexo board page 4 Buying Coffee on campus: When there is little time for Starbucks page 5
CULTURE Shopping for clothing locally in the Springs page 11
Randy Robinson rrobinso@uccs.edu Last week, a car at the university caught on fire due to a short in the engine, halting much of the traffic around UCCS. Last Wednesday, Sept. 9, at 4 p.m., Campus Police responded to a call that a car was in flames at the intersection of Lot 4 and the roundabout. Clay Garner, Public Safety police officer and one of the officers at the scene, said that by the time they arrived there, “The front of the vehicle was completely engulfed.” It took firefighters 50 minutes from the time of the report to finally douse the vehicle and remove it from the campus, by which point “the front end had melted and dropped to the ground,” Garner described. Many classes at UCCS are let out at 4:20 p.m., with the next shift beginning at 4:30 p.m., so the sudden influx of students and staff leaving or entering the campus was the main factor that determined the swiftness of the emergency response. Garner added, “Our concern was to keep traffic clear because we were afraid it might
OPINION The 9/12 Project: Shoot out or make-out sesssion? page 6
detonate.” The vehicle in question was a late-model Amigo, which Garner suspected was a modified vehicle. “After-market [upgrades] may have contributed to the fire. Most car fires aren’t that out of control,” he said. Garner believed that a nitrous kit may have been the culprit. Although nitrous oxide gas is not itself flammable, it can increase the amount of oxygen available to a flame source, aggravating an alreadydangerous situation. According to Garner, firefighters afterward determined the cause of the fire to be a short that started somewhere in the engine. As standard for police procedure, all non-emergency personnel remained 50 feet from the scene, in case an explosion did occur. When asked if a car fire has ever occurred on campus, both Garner and Chief Spice of Public Safety replied in dissent. Chief Spice elaborated, “We once had a car buried halfway from a mudslide, but never a car set on fire.” Public Safety said that the persons involved were staff on campus, but the individuals were not identified. No one was hurt in the fire. ◆
SPORTS Sports Buzz: John Madden: No end in sight page 13
Columns are not easy to write page 7
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