... Vol1lme20
Issue JO
October 24, 1997
News Apples in Metro computer labs Page3
Commentary Student government needs to repair its reputation to be tah.e n seriously Page 10
Features Jenny Sparks/The Metropolitan
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Charlie Metro watches the action from the dugout Oct. 20 at Lutz Sports Complex In Arvada. Metro is a former major league manager and player with 4 7 years of experience in professIona I baseball. He is playing in a league with Metro history Professor Thomas Altherr and Metro student Richard Foster. The team plays each Monday. See story on page 14.
SGA has limited power Some members say gro~p not taken seriously by administration By Perry Swanson The Metropolitan
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Student Government Assembly members at Metro want one thing - influence. They don't agree on how much influence students should have on the educational process or exactly where that power should be directed. They do agree that a stu..... dent perspective is vital to formulating college policy. The catch phrase for this is "shared governance." On one end of the spectrum is Jessie Bullock, vice president ofStudent Fees, who said the administration and students should be "equal in power." On the other end is Gabriel Hermelin, vice president of Campus Communications,
who said she's happy with Lhe level of influence she has and maintains that student leadership is more about learning than actual governing. Several factors have limited the SGA's power on campus. • Student government is supposed to represent all of Metro's 17,000 students, but only 6 percent of Metro students voted in the election last spring. Two percent of Metro students voted for SGA President Karmin Trujillo. · • Neither Colorado law nor college policy requires Metro to listen · to sludent concerns on most issues. The only exception, a policy from the Colorado Commission on Higher Education, says that college administrators must "involve student participation in setting student fees."
Trujillo said shared governance doesn't exist at Metro. • Student government members only serve advisory roles on the decision-making groups at the college, such as the Board of Trustees and the Auraria Board of Directors. They cannot vote or make binding decisions. Bullock, however, says this is not good enough. "I don't understand why the system was ever made up where students could give their opinion on a committee, and it wouldn't be taken seriously," she said. "Administrators are here year afler year. They need student government to give a fresh outlook." The crux of Lhe problem lies in whether "shared governance" means that sludents should serve in advisory roles or have bind-
Metro faculty bares its artin campus show Page 13
Sports Swimmers hope numbers translate into high scores Page 25 Jennifer Larwa
Quotable "Rock Jou.....Usm la people who can't writ• Interview·
In•
people who can't talk for people who can't read."
see SGA on 6
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- Frank Zappa