News
March 4, 2013
Page 3
Bill banning concealed carry on campus heads to state senate Samantha Morley smorley2@uccs.edu After much deliberation and controversy, the Colorado House approved House Bill 1226 on Feb. 18, banning concealed weapons on college campuses. The bill has moved to the state senate and is one step closer to making it illegal to carry concealed weapons on college campuses. Three related gun control bills were also approved. Combined, the four laws limit gun magazines to 15 rounds, ban concealed weapons on college campuses, require background checks for those looking to buy a gun and impose a fee on gun buyers to pay for their background checks. Democrats held a 37-28 majority vote. SGA President Stephen Collier attended the committee meeting and expressed his dissatisfaction with the ruling. “I am deeply disappointed in the Senate House passing this bill,” he said in an email to The Scribe. “The presented ‘for’ arguments were based on nothing more than emotion, fear and hyperbole. Furthermore, representatives, I believe, belittled UCCS students and every other Colorado higher education student.” Collier explained how arguments made it seem as if college students are not “responsible enough to maintain a concealed weapon while on campus.” According to the Colorado Daily, three University
Photo by Nick Burns House Bill 1226 passed the Colorado House of Representatives and has moved to the senate as the debate rages as to whether or not college students should be able to carry concealed weapons on campus. of Colorado student government members showed support of HB 1226. Tyler Quick, vice president of external affairs; Colin Sorensen, Legislative Council president; and Julia Harrington, co-director of legislative affairs, attended the House meeting to support the bill. Quick commented that the bill should be passed quickly because he felt the CU community was “concerned and distracted by [the] presence of concealed carry weapons on campus.”
Rep. Claire Levy, DBoulder, sponsored the bill. During an interview with the Daily Camera, Levy stated that “there are a lot of students who simply are not ready to be in the presence of firearms. It’s a dangerous mix.” Evan Shelton, founder and CEO of Students for Ammunition and Weapons Safety, commented in an email, “If this bill passes and is signed into law, I believe there will be plenty of protests.” Shelton is waiting to see how the bill fares in
the senate before taking any action. “However, we strongly urge ALL individuals who do not agree with the bill to contact their Senate representative and speak their minds in an attempt to have the bill killed on the Senate floor,” he said. Pikes Peak Community College’s Student Body President Troy Smith believes that students should be allowed to carry concealed weapons on campus. The UCCS and PPCC student governments are working together to contest
the bill. “[Collier and I] are putting together a group to oppose this. It looks like we have a big group of student government leaders and they’re all on board,” Smith said. The group aims to educate people that the bill was developed out of Boulder and that “the rest of Colorado isn’t Boulder.” The CU Board of Regents held a meeting at UCCS on Feb. 20 to discuss concealed carry on campuses. The Republican-dominated board voted
6-2 to postpone the issue “indefinitely.” Republican Regents Jim Geddes and Sue Sharkey urged that the right to have concealed weapons on campuses be supported. “I think it’s important to begin highlighting the growing coalition of schools coming out against HB 13-1226,” Collier said. Colorado State University in Fort Collins is readying to pass a resolution against the bill, and Colorado Mesa University is also opposed to the document. S
Online courses draw attention from administration, faculty Peter Farrell pfarrell@uccs.edu
Kyle Marino kmarino@uccs.edu Massively open online courses, or MOOCs, are a recent trend in the professional academic world. Administration faculty are weighing the possibility of joining other universities in providing credits for the courses. The premise behind online courses focuses on the flexibility of the student. Enrollment in an online course means no attendance or docked points for absences, taking material at a time that fits the student’s schedule and earning credits toward a degree without entering a classroom.
What makes MOOCs different from regular online classes is the heavy emphasis on online-only learning. Additionally, MOOCs have a heavy emphasis on free education. Companies like edX, Coursera and Udacity all began in 2012 with a similar premise of offering online education without tethering students to a classroom desk. Spokespersons from the dean’s office believe that MOOCs can become a productive way to educate people, though they don’t know if they will be implemented at UCCS in the near future. For a commuter campus like UCCS, the appeal of massive online courses is a
unique prospect. David Anderson, chair head of the UCCS chemistry department and member of the president’s taskforce on MOOC technology, is optimistic, but is cautious about the idea of MOOCs at UCCS. “Nobody knows where all of this is going to go,” Anderson said. The Board of Regents and administrative faculty realize that the online courses should be taken seriously as other colleges are beginning to accept MOOCs for credit, Anderson said. The primary obstacle of MOOCs for universities is adopting a business model and generating revenue. The regents and university administration will
do something about it, but they are unsure how to fit it into a business model as MOOCs are free, Anderson added. UCCS is in the process of forging a tentative partnership with Coursera. CU Boulder is following in step. At the moment, the online program at UCCS has a handful of undergraduate programs that require a 60/60 split of in-person and online credits. It also offers several more master’s and certificate offerings. The undergraduate programs offered include health care, criminal justice, business and nursing. Some senior students would like to have seen more online courses of-
fered by UCCS in the time they spent pursuing their undergraduate degrees. Polina Reynolds, a senior in biology, philosophy and psychology, has taken online courses from both UCCS and Coursera. “They are lacking in communication, but technology is improving,” Reynolds said. “[Coursera] classes have a definite structure and a timeline that is motivating, but are also no commitment.” Kimberly Aronstam, a UCCS alum who graduated in 2009 with a degree in business, echoed Reynolds. Aronstam said there were no online classes offered when she was an undergraduate student at
UCCS. “I would’ve killed to take online classes,” she said. An immovable criticism of MOOCs and strictlyonline courses is the lack of hands-on learning material. For students who learn kinesthetically, online-only presents a notable obstacle. Other students are not so swayed by the idea of learning in a more digital medium. “It seems like a good idea,” said freshman Jacob Fisher, “but it takes away from the experience you get of learning in a classroom environment and meeting lifelong friends.” S Eleanor Skelton contributed reporting.