Volume 90, Issue 12December 7, 2009
News 2Features 5sports 8opiNioN - 9
~world headlines~scientific discoveries~faculty spotlight~geek of the week ~avalanche awareness~csm women’s basketball~what’s your beef~parking debate
satire 11
~robot takeover ~lais ruins grads
The CSM choir, band, and orchestra had their holiday concert Thursday night.
S pa 6.
tim weilert / oredigger
“One tenet of Dr. King’s move-ment is that we must work – inevery direction, with every opportu-nity – to promote an understandingand celebration of egalitarian andhumanitarian values. As students,every classroom we step foot inrepresents an opportunity to sharethese values with our colleagues;why would we want to take a dayoff?” Although school will be heldon Martin Luther King Day (MLK Day), Zach Aman insists that thethere is a “contradiction in celebrat-ing a life of service while ‘taking aday off.’” The day that celebratesthe respected visionary will beJanuary 18, 2010; “The celebration
has, historically, done a terric job
of bringing together students, staff,and faculty. In planning this year’scelebration, we sought to contin-ue that traditionwhile enhancingthe breadth anddepth of activi-ties,” said Aman. The impor-tance of King’slife might escapemany students, but the day devot-ed to paying tribute to him shouldbe a time where people learn moreabout his accomplishments; “Asengineers, we are trained to openour minds to see a problem or op-portunity in multiple dimensions– Dr. King’s philosophy advocatedfor this practice,” explained Aman.MLK Day is an opportunity to notonly advance an understanding of King and his life but to also cel-ebrate diversity. One of the bestplaces in the area to celebrate MLK Day is at the Colorado School of Mines (CSM), Aman said, “For thepast few years, Mines has offeredthe only MLK celebration in Goldenand one of the few on this side of Denver. I feel that we place tremen-dous and well-deserved value onDr. King’s movement.”CSM has been hosting a MLK Day celebration for nearly tenyears, which has been organizedby the President’s Diversity Com-mittee. In the past, “The faculty andstaff are invited to a breakfast andfree birthday cake is provided in theStudent Center during lunch,” said Aman. In recent years, the celebra-tion has grown to include “speak-ers, poets, artists, and musicians[who] take the stage to express
the signicance of Dr. King’s move
-ment while students socialize and
enjoy free food,” said Aman.
This upcoming year’s celebra-tion will take place throughoutthe entire week and will includemany opportunities for studentsand faculty to participate. MLK Day itself will include “a plannedexhibition in the Student Center,where students, staff and faculty
are invited to enjoy free food and a
variety of inclusive activities. We arealso planning to bring a slam poetrygroup to the evening celebration,”said Aman. After Monday’s activi-ties, there will be an emphasis oncelebrating diversity. “We are co-ordinating a variety of exciting andfascinating speakers for luncheondialogues that will be hosted by theDiversity Committee; we are plan-ning to announce these individualsand their sessions as we approachthe event. Finally, we are proudto announce a‘Celebration of the Movement’on Thursdayevening. [Thurs-day, January 21,2010] At thiscelebration, stu-
dents are invited to ‘jump in’ andenjoy free food and music by a
Mines DJ; we are also planning tobring in a few surprises, such as astep team,” said Aman.Students who are looking to getinvolved have an opportunity thatbegins this semester. Aman saidthat “in the next week, we will beannouncing the ‘Find Your VoiceCreative Contest,’ where studentsare asked to creatively express theimpact of Dr. King’s movement ontheir lives; responses may be sub-mitted in virtually any artistic me-dium (e.g., poetry, essays, art, ormusic). Submissions will be due by5 PM on MLK Day and the winnerwill be announced at Thursday’s‘Celebration of the Movement.’ Thewinner will receive a 15.6’’ laptopcomputer, with an AMD Athlonprocessor, 2 GB RAM, DVD burner,and a 64-bit edition of Windows7 Home Premium.” For peoplewho want to get involved withvolunteering during the week of theMLK celebration, Aman said, “Inplanning these events, our themehas been ‘Find Your Voice.’ Alongthose lines, we are coordinatingwith ASCSM’s
Into the Streets
toprovide volunteer opportunities forevent participants.”
imAge CoUrteSY ZACH AmAN
Benjamin Johnson
Saff w
Celebrating MLK
“I feel that we placetremendous and well-deserved value on Dr.King’s movement.”
On November 20, the Associ-ated Students of the ColoradoSchool of Mines (ASCSM) wasinformed that at some time, theGolden City Council would bedeciding on a proposal to imposeresident-only parking restrictions inthe neighborhoods surrounding theColorado School of Mines campus.On December 2, ASCSM wasinformed that the matter would bediscussed at the December 3 CityCouncil meeting. An email was promptly sentout by Jaime Thorpe, the ASCSMpresident. Among other things, itsaid, “The Golden Historic Neigh-borhoods Association (GHNA) hasproposed a resident-only parking
plan in the adjacent neighbor
-hoods to the north and south of the Mines campus.” At the sametime, ASCSM vice president Ash-ley Young and others drafted aresolution to be presented at thenext ASCSM meeting and a peti-tion to be circulated on campus.Both the resolution and thepetition contained three requests.First, that the GHNA proposalnot be implemented until Juneso that two more parking lotscould be constructed. Second,that the sides of the streets ad-
joining campus buildings be ex
-empt from the parking restric-tions. Finally, that bad parking inthe affected areas be addressedwith increased enforcement. At seven o’clock, both the city coun-cil and ASCSM meetings began. Young and several other ASCSMrepresentatives attended the citycouncil meeting on behalf of thestudent body. Before the GHNA proposal was addressed at the citycouncil meeting, ASCSM membersin attendance received a messageinforming them that the resolution,saying essentially the same thing asthe petition, had passed.When the GHNA proposal came
to the oor at the city council meet
-ing, Tom Atkins, president of theGolden Historic Neighborhoods
Association, was the rst to speak.
“The reasons for the problems thatwe have are clear,” he explained.“It is Colorado School of Minesvehicles students, staff, and facultyparking in the neighborhood streets.It is because neither CSM nor thecity of Golden has implemented aneffective parking management plan,either on campus or off campus thatis designed to deal with this.” Atkins then summarized, “Our
purpose here is not just to push this
problem to another neighborhood orto downtown. All of us are affectedby this problem, and we share theproblem. Our purpose is to pushthis problem back onto the campuswhere it belongs.” Atkins explained that the GHNA was asking for three things. Theywanted the city to “design and im-plement a permit parking systemfor the neighborhoods describedin our proposal.” He also saidthat they want “a comprehensivestudy of the parking needs andconditions to develop a selectionof alternatives and guidelines fordealing with these problems inthe future.” Lastly, they wantedto “make sure that CSM does thesame, that they work with the cityand the neighborhoods on theimpacts of their long term plan.” Atkins then shifted topics andexpressed concern about a pro-cess in which “pretty soon homesbecome rentals and then becometargets of acquisition, and then welose whole neighborhoods.”Other residents told their talesof inconveniences and woes theyhave faced with students parkingin their neighborhoods and ex-pressed concern that Mines hadmade promises before and thematter had been put off too long. Young spoke on behalf of students, saying, “We want youto know that we do understandwhere you’re coming from, andwe recognize that there is a very
difcult parking problem on cam
-pus and around the campus at theColorado School of Mines...We’rehere to ask that you will work withus to develop a parking plan that
is benecial to all.”
Dan Baker
gaua Suns Assca-n Psn
ASCSM addresses permitparking at City Council meeting
SEE PARKING ON PAGE 3
have agreat winterbreak!
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