Freddy Correamanrique
Photo by Dustin Cox

Colorado State University-Pueblo’s offices of Student Life, Student Engagement and Leadership, and the Associated Students’ Government held the annual Student Leadership and Involvement Awards April 14. The banquet, which was themed “A Black Tie Affair,” took place in the OUC Ballroom and was coordinated by Tyler Hobson, a graduate assistant working with fraternities and sororities on the CSU-Pueblo campus.

Hobson was the primary coordinator of the event, but he said he couldn’t have done it without other members of SEAL and ASG. He said SEAL Director Gena Alfonso, ASG and SEAL coordinator Alexis King and newly-elected ASG President Sarah Zarr were a huge help to him.

Nomination for the awards were taken via the campus Pack Link system and were made by CSU-Pueblo faculty, staff and students.

“Anyone with a Pack Link account could chose who they wanted to nominate,” Hobson said. “We had over 100 nominations this year. We had 40 pages to review.”

Criteria and description of each award are located on the student website and the SEAL home page. Nominators were asked to write a short essay about the individual or groups they were nominating.

“Each award stood alone,” said Hobson,”Winners were selected by what was written about them.”

The decision regarding winners was facilitated by a panel of campus staff and faculty, and those elected could be elected for multiple awards, multiple times.

“Being a student, I could not be a facilitator,” said Hobson. “It was to make sure there was no conflict of interest.”

This year’s award categories included many for individuals and groups. For student organizations, there were awards for Diversity at Work, Event of the Year, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, Wolf Spirit, Emerging Student Organization of the Year, Outstanding Student Organization Adviser, Fraternity/Sorority of the Year and Student Organization of the Year.

Individual awards included the Threlkeld Prize for Excellence, the Diane Blackwell President’s Leadership Award, Emerging Leader of the Year Award, Outstanding Campus Collaborator, ThunderWolf spirit, Most Valuable ThunderWolf and Student Employee of the Year.

ASG awards included ASG Member of the Year, Cabinet Member of the Year, Legislative Branch Member of the Year, Judicial Branch Member of the Year, Project/Initiative of the Year and the ASG Lasting Legacy Award.

“Winners will have their names added to the perpetual plaque [in the OUC],” Hobson said.

The most prestigious recognitions of the year were The Threlkeld Prize for Excellence, which was awarded to Robin Arwood, and the Diane Blackwell President’s Leadership Award, which went to Freddy Correamanrique. Arwood and Correamanrique were presented with trophies and graduation sashes. They will walk first at CSU-Pueblo’s May 2015 graduation ceremony and have their pictures taken with President Lesley Di Mare according to Hobson.

The Diane Blackwell President’s Leadership Award is Correamanrique’s third Student Leadership and Involvement Award. He has been proactive in his involvement on campus. He has served as ASG Senator, held the positions of both the historian and president for the Biology Club and acted as student chair for various departments and events on campus. He is currently a building supervisor with Auxiliary Services.

Correamanrique is a gracious winner, but he admits he doesn’t feel he was any more deserving than the other nominees.

“It’s not about awards and recognition. It’s about the actions that got you nominated in the first place,” he said.

Construction on the art and music building roof will begin this summer. Photo by Jessica Warren.

The roof of art and music building at CSU-Pueblo is going to have a new look in the coming years.

In the summer of 2015, crews will begin construction on a green roof to replace the current one, which has had problems with leaking.

Over the past 10 years, the CSU-Pueblo campus has undergone some pretty significant changes. The remodeled library and academic resources center, student housing developments and the student recreation area are just a few construction projects the campus has seen recently.

The green roof is one of many constructions projects planned to begin this summer.

Also included in this summer’s construction plans are a gazebo, new walkways and parking lot repairs.

All of these projects have been designed to improve life on campus and many of them will follow sustainable and green standards.

The decision to redevelop the roof came after students and faculty raised concerns about the roof leaking into the rooms below. The current design of the roof doesn’t allow water to run off the roof properly.

Former president of the Associated Students’ Government Tim Zercher said it pools in spots, and leaks into the classrooms. Music students were troubled that the water was getting into the storage where they kept their instruments.

The state of Colorado approved funding to repair the roof. Initially, the state wanted to repave it but this would only lead to similar issue down the road, Zercher said.

The ASG and the state were able to come to an agreement on funding for the green roof design. The hope for the roof is that it will be both aesthetically pleasing and functional.

According to the EPA, there are many benefits of green roofs such as reduced energy use, improved health and comfort and enhanced water management and quality. Green roofs also insulate buildings while reducing the high energy intake that normally results from cooling and heating processes.

Photo by Jessica Warren

“Green roofs, by reducing heat transfer through the building roof, can improve indoor comfort and lower heat stress associated with heat waves,” according to the EPA. “Green roofs can reduce and slow storm water runoff in the urban environment. They also filter pollutants from rainfall.”

The state will be contributing to funding the roof, but a huge portion of the cost will come out of the student facility fees.

“We are using fees that have been building up over the past 10 years or more,” Zercher said. “The whole plan will cost $130,000.”

Installment of the green roof is a complicated process, Zercher said. Crews will first measure the area out and lay down several layers of material.

After this, they will apply a seed mixture, which will take a little while to cultivate.

“They put down a special soil. Then they spray it with a paste like substance,” Zercher said. “The paste is made up of a mixture of nutrients, sod, and seeds.”

The mixture will have time to settle, and vegetation will began to grow.

Due to the process of constructing the design, vegetation on the new roof won’t be visible for a few years.

Wolf Village Apartments – Photo by Daniel Potter

It was early March when residents of the Wolf Village apartments reported hearing gun shots following a series of altercations in the parking lot. The privately owned apartments are home to several CSU-Pueblo students.

When the Pueblo Police Department arrived on the scene they found shotgun casings, and wounded and distraught students. As they would come to find, the students had been wounded from the altercations, and not the gunfire.

Staff from CSU-Pueblo, the Wolf Village apartments, and the Pueblo Police Department began working to uncover more details of the incident.

The roommate of the Wolf Village resident responsible for inviting the suspects to the apartments said the night’s events spiraled after they hosted a party. Due to the nature of the incident, the witness’s and responsible student’s names will be kept private.

The witness said his roommate had decided to have the party on that evening, but things got out of hand relatively quickly.

“I went downstairs and there were two Mexican guys from Colorado Springs,” he said.

The witness said the men learned of the party after his roommate posted about it on social media site Yik Yak.

After his roommate and the two men began to argue, the witness said he asked the men to leave the apartment. The argument continued in the parking lot until the men left.

The men were not gone long before they returned with additional people. That is when the shots were fired and the two students were assaulted, he said.

“No students were involved in committing the assault or firing shots, and therefore no disciplinary action was taken against any student,” said Jessica Boynton, director of student judicial affairs and member of the campus safety team.

The Wolf Village resident responsible for inviting the suspects to the apartments has since been evicted.

The CSU-Pueblo staff has been working to provide the necessary resources for the students following the incident.

Wolf Village – Photo by Daniel Potter

“The office of student life met with several students directly impacted by the assault and shots fired to provide any academic accommodation or health services needed,” Boynton said.

In addition to providing immediate resources to affected students, CSU-Pueblo held a community forum in the OUC Hearthwell Lounge. The forum took place soon after the event and was open to the campus community. Organized to allow the campus community to discuss the incident and receive services and information, the forum included several professional representatives from the Pueblo community.

Forum representatives included a lieutenant with the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office at CSU-Pueblo, a captain and sergeant from the Pueblo Police Department, the owner and manager from Wolf Village, the dean of students, assistant director of housing, director of the health and counseling center, the director of student judicial affairs, and a representative from ACOVA, which is a local victim’s assistance organization, Boynton said.

The campus of CSU-Pueblo falls under the jurisdiction of the Pueblo County Sheriff. Since the Wolf Village apartments are technically separate from the campus, they fall under the jurisdiction of the Pueblo Police Department.

“The Pueblo Police Department is still investigating the incident,” Boynton said.

While the investigation is underway Pueblo Police Department has decided to increase their patrol around campus and Wolf Village.

“We are hopeful that the Pueblo Police Department will solve this case and provide some closure for our students and community that were impacted,” Boynton said.

Sylvester James Gates Jr. | Photo courtesy of csupueblo.edu

Award-winning theoretical physicist Sylvester James Gates, Jr. spoke at CSU-Pueblo’s Hoag Recital Hall March 12.

His lecture, which was entitled “At the Boundary of Modern Science: Where I Find Myself,” was sponsored by the CSU-Pueblo college of science and mathematics, the office of student services and enrollment management and the PROPEL center.

Gates was awarded the National Medal of Science in 2013 for his contributions to the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields. In 2009, he was the first person to receive the American Physical Society’s Edward A. Bouchet Award.

He currently serves on President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology and is a board member of trustees of Society for Science and the Public. He is also a member of the National Academy of Sciences.

The purpose of Gates’ visit was to discuss the impact of STEM in education and the community. His lecture focused on the importance of advancements in the STEM fields, focusing primarily on physics. He also correlated these advancements to his own experiences as a physicist.

In his lecture, he said “a series of accidents,” led him to become a physicist.

He said his parents were very instrumental in encouraging his education. His father gave him an Encyclopedia Britannica set when he was eight. Inside the encyclopedia, he said he found a set of mathematical equations that seemed to captivate him.

He knew at age 14 that he wanted to attend the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after learning about it on a television program. When he was 19, he applied to MIT and was accepted, he said.

In 1973, Gates graduated from MIT with bachelor’s degrees in mathematics and physics. He was the first in his family to attend college, making him a first generation student. After earning his degrees, Gates continued to work toward a doctorate at MIT.

While on course for his doctorate degree, he stumbled upon the concept of supersymmetry, which deals with calculating the behavior of elementary particles to understand the behavior of symmetry in matter.

Gates was the first at MIT to work with supersymmetry. In 1977, he presented his first thesis on the subject “Symmetry Principles in Selected Problems of Field Theory.” Since his original thesis, his work with supersymmetry has helped physicist develop a better understanding of time and space.

He has made multiple appearances on TV programs about physics, including those on PBS’ Nova and BBC Horizon. His most notable appearance is on the 2003 PBS series “The Elegant Universe.” In addition to appearances, Gates also created a DVD series entitled “Superstring Theory: The DNA of Reality.” This series was designed to help everyday people understand the complex theories of unification. He will appear in Nova’s “Big Bang Machine,” later this year.

In his lecture Gates shared his scientific “Bucket List,” which consisted of theories he hoped to see come to life in his lifetime. Originally included on the list was the Higgs Boson, which was discovered in 2012 at the Laboratory of Atmospherics Chemistry located at CERN laboratory in Switzerland.

To provide context for the theories in his bucket list, Gates presented a series of scientific laws and principles relevant to bringing the theories to life, including several equations. He discussed the need for changes to certain equations to understand the theories’ principles. Gates used Albert Einstein’s in theoretical physics as an example.

He also likened the expansion of understanding mathematics to the evolution of music. Through altering calculations, mathematicians are able to raise new questions that were previously not thought of.

“Math is more than just symbols and numbers,” he said. It gives mathematicians,” that extra ability to sense the universe.” The ability for a mathematician to find a new approach at mathematics is similar to a musician finding his or her own voice, he said.

Gates also discussed the importance of the STEM fields to the world around us, as our society is becoming more technologically advanced.

Inventions like radio, television, the Internet, and cell phones have benefited our world greatly, but he said many do not think about how these things came to exist. “Media and society do not pay attention to the scientist behind (these things),” he said.

“Scientists are not in the business of making headlines. Science is what drives the scientist,” Gates said.

Officers from the Pueblo Police Department responded to a call reporting gunshots at the Wolf Village March 8. The call to police was made after a series of altercations that took place in the Wolf Village parking lot. The incident was reported to have broken out following an off-campus party.

Wolf Village Apartments – Photo by Daniel Potter

The PPD questioned several students at the scene after finding shot gun casings. There were no reported injuries from the gunshots, but one student was hospitalized with head wounds.

One witness recounts being awoken at around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday by the sounds of an altercation taking place near his apartment at Wolf Village.

Due to the nature of the incident and safety for students involved, the witnesses requested to keep their names private.

“I woke up to skirmish sounds outside and I went the window and saw a kid outside being jumped by four kids,” the witness said.

During the incident an alarm from a nearby car was set off. The owner of the car, who is a student, came out into the parking lot to check on his vehicle.  While the student was checking on his car, “he was then hit by a dude that apparently had brass knuckles. He hit him, and he fell, and hit his head on the rocks,” the witness said.

The student was later taken to the hospital for injuries to his face and head. “He’s in the hospital right now,” the witness said.

After the student fell from being hit, the witness reports hearing a gunshot.

“Everybody scattered and went back into their homes,” he said.

Following the gunshot, another man then came to the scene with a gun and threatened one of the parties involved in the initial altercation.

“A guy came with single barrel shot gun and held another dude up,” the witness said. The man with the gun was questioning the whereabouts of another individual. The witness said when he didn’t get the response he wanted, he “picked up his shotgun casing, fired a shot in air and left.”

The police arrived shortly after the incidents arose.

Upon arrival, they found shot gun casings and began to questions students. The police then called the fire department to help the injured student.

It is still unclear what caused the initial altercation, but it is believed that the suspects involved do not attend CSU-Pueblo. PPD is still investigating the incident.

Students with information regarding this incident are encouraged to contact Crime Stoppers at 719-553-2502 or 542-STOP (7867).

As a precaution CSU-Pueblo advises students to use precaution when they come across unknown people and to be aware of their environment. The Campus Safety Team would like to remind students of the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office offers a Safe Walk Program. This program provides students with a free escort to their vehicles when their safety is questionable. Students interested in this service should call 719-549-2373.

Photo courtesy of CSU-Pueblo Forensics

The forensics team at CSU-Pueblo will be competing in two national championships this season. Each championship will showcase talents in both speech and debate and interpretive events.

The first competition, the National Parliamentary Debate Association National Championship, will take place March 14 at Kansas City Community College in Kansas City, Missouri.

There will be a total of 153 teams from 52 schools competing at this year’s NPDA championship. Each team is made up of two students, and three of the teams competing at the event will be from CSU-Pueblo.

Every team is set to compete in a series of five to six rounds. For each round, the team is given a topic of either speech or debate to compose an argument to. After the topic is presented the teams, they will be given 20 minutes to research the topic and develop an argument.

Teams will then have 40 minutes to present their arguments, according to forensics team member Eliana Taylor.

The forensics team’s goal is to provide participants with the opportunity to build competitive communications skills and challenges participants to think critically.

“You learn how to think on your feet,” Taylor said. “It’s definitely an adrenaline rush.”

According to the team’s page on CSU-Pueblo’s website, “the team operates under the premise that intercollegiate debate is a uniquely rewarding educational experience, enhanced by competitive success and ethical conduct. Commitment and excellence are the foundation of a quality program.”

Taylor is an English major with a communications and rhetoric minor. She has been a part of the forensics team since the fall 2014 semester. She said participation on the team has changed both her academic and personal outlook on the world around her.

“It made me more aware of current events,” she said. It has also influenced her to change her major to one that is geared toward a career that includes the skills she is learning on the team.

The forensic team has been a part of the CSU-Pueblo campus since the 1960s, but activity with the team started to lull during the late 1990s. Only recently has it started to pick back up.

“The team has been a student organization the last two years with minimal participation and travel,” said Kathryn Starkey, the director of the forensics team.

Starkey recently took over leadership of the forensics team. Since she has been directing the team, it has been more organized and active, Taylor said. Team members now meet more frequently, prepare for potential debates and are involved in more competitions.

The second competition the forensics team will participate in this season is the American Forensics Association National Individual Events Tournament at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, Oregon.

This event will take place in April. Forensics team president Dami Ogunbayode was the only member to qualify for the event.

Ogunbayode’s interpretive poetry placed him in high standing at multiple competitions this season. He will be the first CSU-Pueblo student in 18 years to attend the event.

Photo by Jessica Warren

Audience members filled CSU-Pueblo’s Occhiato University Center to watch CSU-Pueblo’s Got Talent Feb. 28. Students, along with a few parents, came to show support for participants of the spring talent show, which was hosted by Student Engagement and Leadership.

The event provided students the opportunity to show off their talents, and the best performances were awarded prizes. First place won $300, second place won $200 and third place won $100. Performances were scored by a panel of three judges, which was composed of CSU-Pueblo faculty members.

While the judges were polite, they were not shy about which performances they enjoyed. One the judge kept saying “Nice shoes,” while struggling for a response to a performance. Judging criteria was not disclosed.

The show consisted of a variety of musical and dance performances and one juggler. Many of the performers were new to the stage, while a few were obvious professionals.

First place went to Josh Floyd.

Floyd, who has been playing the piano since he was seven, made the room stand still as he sang and played an untitled song he’d composed on the piano. He described the piece as a personal song he wrote while going through a difficult time.

A few of the participants took some time to talk about their performances, but all of the performers were excited to get to share their talents.

Photo by Jessica Warren

Mass communications major, Dale “Dale-A-Mania” King-Adade, who won second place, performed a rap single from his new album, “Claim to Fame.” Toward the end of his performance, King-Adade did an attributive dance to Michael Jackson.

“Michael Jackson wouldn’t want it any other way,” King-Adade said. “He is my biggest influence.”

Music duo Black Phoenix performed the R&B single “Vixen” by artist Miguel. The duo is made up of “Smurf,” who is a mass communications major, and “Sambo,” who is business marketing major. The performers asked to be referred to by their stage names.

Smurf played the electric guitar while Sambo sang. The pair said they went through a few different songs before finding “Vixen.”

When choosing the song, Smurf said “I can do that.”

“It was an accident,” Sambo said. They described it as the “Frankenstein of musical work.” This was their first public performance.

Another act to share a first-time performance was Sherri Kidner.

Kidner, a nursing major, performed the Kutless song “What Faith Can Do,” combining vocals and American Sign Language. Kidner has been singing for most of her life, performing in her church choir. However, she has only been signing American Sign Language for a year. CSU-Pueblo’s Got Talent was her “first time signing and singing,” Kidner said. The judges commended her for her performance.

The most unique performance was Nicole Hulet’s juggling routine. Hulet, who is a junior biology major, started juggling as a street performer in Boulder when she was nine.

Photo by Jessica Warren

She performed off and on until she was 17, but CSU-Pueblo was her first performance in 7 years.

Hulet included a mix of balls, rings and clubs in her set and even impressively included all three at the same time at one point. She said she doesn’t go on stage with a set routine but focuses on the music and alters her routine based on the audience’s reaction.

It’s really “about pleasing the people,” Hulet said.

Third place went to Avion Perkins who performed an original rap about trees.

Most of the artwork on the Pueblo Levee Mural Project will not be affected until fall 2015.
Photo by Daniel Potter.

The Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center held an event Feb. 18 to discuss the Pueblo Levee Project and provide the public with an opportunity to discuss its history and future.

The event, which took place 7 p.m. at the Southeastern Colorado Heritage Center on B Street, was free and open to the public.

Rick Kidd, an engineer from the Pueblo Conservancy District and Cynthia Ramu, local artist and artwork coordinator for the levee project collaborated on the levee project presentation.

The levee was built in 1921 to protect Pueblo from floodwaters after the city was hit by a huge flood in 1920. This flood took hundreds of lives, damaged several homes and covered the downtown area in 25 feet of water.

The levee has finally begun to show its age 94 years later. Parts of the wall are cracked and there are places where the foundation has slipped. Concerns about Pueblo’s flood safety began to raise issues for city officials.

The combination of an aging foundation and requirements to meet Federal Emergency Management Agency standards made the need to repair Pueblo’s levee apparent.

In 2014, the Pueblo Conservancy District got approval to begin repairs to the levee.

Repairs began in fall 2014. It is expected that the repairs will cost $15 million and take as long as three years to complete. The levee, which currently stands 65 feet high and stretches 3 1/2 miles long, will have to drop to 13 feet in height to meet FEMA standards.

The length of the levee is expected to stay the same.

Artwork on the levee begin in 1978 when a couple of artists called the TEE HEE’s painted “Fish in the Bathtub,” the very first mural on the levee. It is commonly said that the group worked illegally under cover of night for close to three months to complete the piece.

“Fish in the Bathtub” can be seen from the Fourth Street Bridge.

It didn’t take long after the first piece of art went up on the levee wall before other artist began to add to the wall. Hundreds of pieces from various artists can be found along the 3 1/2 mile levee.

In 1995, the levee mural made it into the Guinness World Book of Records as “The Largest Mural in the World.”

While Pueblo Conservancy District is working to repair and develop the new levee, Ramu is working to preserve the artwork on the levee.

The majority of the artwork on the levee will not be affected until fall 2015. It is unknown at this time whether any of the current artwork on the levee will be replicated on the new levee. It is also unknown whether artwork will be permitted on the new levee at all.

Ramu currently has a website and Facebook page that are both entitled Pueblo Levee Mural Project. These pages are dedicated to preserving the artwork on the levee and encourage members of the community to share stories and pictures about the artwork on the mural.

One Billion Rising aims to empower women and end violence against them.

The Zonta Club of Royal Gorge, the Royal Gorge Bridge and local women’s rights advocate Sarai Trujillo will be holding an event to raise awareness about violence against women and girls in Canon City Feb. 14 at 12:30 p.m.

The event, known as One Billion Rising, will be celebrating its third year of empowering women and working to decrease violence against them.

The event began in 2012 when a handful of advocates for women’s rights decided to join together. The name One Billion Rising was chosen in respect for the high volume of women and girls all over the world who have been victims of violence.

According UN Women, “One in three women have experienced physical or sexual violence. One hundred twenty million girls have been forced into intercourse or other sexual acts at some point in their lives and 133 million women and girls have undergone female genital mutilation.”

One Billion Rising hosted its first event Feb. 14, 2012.

Since then, the event has attracted several international women’s advocacy groups to participate.

In February 2013, the campaign gained world recognition. It wasn’t long before 200 countries joined in the movement and began to host One Billion Rising events of their own. Supporters all over the world met to demonstrate and show their support for the event.

At this year’s event, supporters will join together to sing and dance to the song “Break the Chain.”

“Break the Chain,” is a gospel style song written by Tena Clark and Tim Heintz.

During the first One Billion Rising event in New York, local activists and artists collaborated to perform the song, and choreograph a dance to go along with it. Since then, the song “Break the Chain” has become the anthem for the One Billion Rising movement across the globe. 

One Billion Rising will also be hosting smaller events throughout Colorado during the month of February.

Frank Nemich’s “The Load” and other alumni works will be on display in the Fine Art Gallery until Feb. 27. Photo by Daniel Potter.

The art department at CSU-Pueblo is currently showcasing a gallery of alumni artwork in Hoag Hall in celebration of past and future Pueblo artists. The showcase includes the work of art alumni who attended CSU-Pueblo between 1950 and 2013.

The department will also host a reception for the show Feb. 13 from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. in CSU-Pueblo’s Fine Art Gallery, which is located in Hoag Hall.

The reception is open to the public and there will include an opportunity for guest to purchase artwork from the displayed collection. Proceeds from the sale of the artwork will go to fund scholarships for future CSU-Pueblo art students.

“A History of Making: Celebrating 7 Decades of Art Alumni” is scheduled to run until Feb. 27.

A similar collection of art was shown in the 1980s at CSU-Pueblo. That show, however, included significantly fewer years of artwork.

Gallery Coordinator Caroline Peters said the time period was not only chosen to express appreciation for multiple decades of CSU-Pueblo’s alumni artwork, but also to show the public that CSU-Pueblo art students have continued to produce art long after graduation.

The pieces displayed in the gallery are made with a variety of mediums and techniques that were either learned in or inspired by art coursework at CSU-Pueblo.

Many of the pieces are available for purchase, while others are for show purposes only.

“The Load,” an impressive sculpture that casts a shadow in the far center of the gallery, was created by 1998 graduate Frank Nemich.

Hanging from the ceiling in the far left center of the gallery is an intricate wire design called “Undergarment for a Macho Woman.” Diane Sandusky, who graduated from CSU-Pueblo in 1980, is responsible for this piece.

Other works include textured acrylic painting “Strata” by 1999 graduate Mark Monack and an oil painting entitled “Tucson” by Tom Durham.

The gallery is open to the public Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

The art department currently only has two art scholarships offered to CSU-Pueblo students, and funding is very limited. “The purpose of the reception is to raise money for art scholarships for new students,” Peters said.