Image courtesy of csupueblo.edu

The Colorado State University-Pueblo Search and Rescue team will be looking for volunteers this fall who are interested in joining their officially recognized team.

With a memorandum of understanding signed by Pueblo County, the team is ready to start taking the next big steps in becoming field-ready.

To become official, CSU-Pueblo, the Pueblo County Sheriff’s Office and Pueblo County Commissioners had to agree to terms laid out in the MOU.

“Now that that is in place, it means that the people that would be able to authorize us are on board and the people who authorize them are on board,” said Scott Robertshaw, associate director of student recreation and director of Outdoor Pursuits. “So it’s official.”

Robertshaw said he’s excited for the next big steps to come this coming semester. Their plans include forming the team by doing training and meeting with the sheriff’s office to go over paperwork.

“A part of the puzzle is all volunteers have to have workman’s comp which is being housed in the sheriff’s office,” Robertshaw said.

A majority of personal paperwork will be filed with the sheriff’s office because the team will only be able to respond in conjunction or authorization of the sheriff’s office.

The big project now is getting the administrative side with paperwork and a training checklist and team policies taken care of.

“We plan on doing all that throughout the summer so it’s totally ready when the students come back,” Robertshaw said.

Now that the team is official, Robertshaw expects the interest level to grow, and there is no limit to the number of welcome volunteers they are willing to have join the team. Right now, the team has 14 people who want to join and interest from over 32 people, Robertshaw said.

Although the team is not deployable yet, it does have a constitution, roles, a checklist and some training documents already in place that have been played around with. This is all from hard work from the current members over the last year.

“We want to make sure that when we tell the sheriff’s office we are ready that they know what we are ready for and that we can follow through and do our job,” Robertshaw said. “We don’t want to let anyone down or not be ready.”

To determine what the team is ready for in the field requires a lot of practice, including getting packs ready, fitness tests, land navigation tests, lessons on how to assist with the medical aspect and helping haul a litter and basic technical rope skills just to support.

“With this we can be a part of a search team and be out doing our job,” Robertshaw said.

Throughout the entire process of becoming an official search and rescue team, Robertshaw has reached out to other agencies asking what they would do if they were making a whole new team. He has received advice and guidance from other university based teams who have gone through the same process.

Robertshaw said the team has received help from Western State Colorado University, Pueblo County, Arapaho High School and CSU-Pueblo chemistry professor Mel Druelinger.

Additionally, he said, “Custer, Fremont, Teller County have been in contact with us because, we are building a team from the ground up and from what I can tell there haven’t been new teams in a while in the state of Colorado.”

Photo courtesy of csupueblo.edu

During my final year attending Colorado State University-Pueblo, I decided to join the school’s climbing club. I had considered joining in the past, since I had been climbing with the Outdoor Pursuits for a few years.

But there were always two things keeping me from joining before. The first reason, which might be obvious for a college student, was that I didn’t want to pay the fee. It seemed like a lot of money to spend upfront when I wasn’t considering the discounted competition prices and the experience of being part of a team.

I was only thinking about the other ways I could spend that money on things more immediate, such as going out to eat or on more climbing gear. It wasn’t until I actually dedicated to joining the team the experience it would give me never occurred to me: The places the club took me were worth more than the fee.

The second thing keeping me from joining was thinking I wasn’t good enough to compete. I had been climbing for two years and I always found it enjoyable. Climbing at an intermediate grade was never a concern when I was only climbing for my own pleasure.

I had friends who were already a part of the club, and they assured me that anyone was welcome to join the team. Anyone on campus who wants to learn more about climbing is welcome to join the team.

After being told that, I finally decided that the climbing club was the right choice for me.

I started thinking about how in high school I loved being a part of a competitive team. When our first competition rolled around in December, I had a stomach full of butterflies, but I was ready to get on the wall and climb my hardest.

After that first competition, I was hooked. Climbing had taken on a whole new meaning. It went from something I liked to do for fun to something I loved to push myself to do better at. I started training, pushing myself at practice and seeing improvements. I was climbing harder than I ever had because I had something driving me.

At the end of each season, the club helps send the five top climbers to nationals. This past year, nationals were hosted in San Diego. When I first joined the club, I thought there was no way I would be able to make it and go compete. It all sounded too good to be true.

By the end of the season, we had our top five climbers determined and the fifth and sixth place climbers were so close to one another that the club council helped send six climbers to nationals. Somehow, I was one of those climbers.

The trip to San Diego was one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. It was more than just a vacation because I knew I had earned being there. It was the best way to close out my college career being able to see some of the best collegiate climbers in the world and climb next to them.

I will continue to climb, but it won’t ever be the same. I made the most of my last year here and only regret no doing it sooner. I can still compete on my own, but I won’t have my team anymore. They were my support group helping me train and pushing me during competitions.

After an incredible season, all of our team’s hard work paid off. We were voted the No. 1 club sport of the 2015-2016 academic year by the Club Sport Council and the president and coach of climbing club, Reese Irwin, received the President of the Year award.

Donna Souder will direct the Center for Teaching and Learning. | Photo courtesy of csupueblo.edu

A $2.6 million grant has been awarded to Colorado State University-Pueblo to create a Center for Teaching and Learning. Donna Souder, associate professor of English and Director of Writing, is the project’s director and will be given support from Derek Lopez, director of the Center for Academic Enrichment.

“It (the Center for Teaching and Learning) will support innovative teaching strategies for faculty and is going to be faculty driven which means its success relies on the support and the commitment of the faculty across units on this campus,” Souder said.

“The grant itself is going to go to create the Center for Teaching and Learning and the hope is that from the center we will be running our summer bridge program and jumpstart programs.”

The $2.6 million will be spent over the next five years to get the center started and running. According to the abstract plan for the grant, which was written up by Souder, the money will be disbursed with approximately 77 percent invested in salaries, fringe benefits and faculty and staff stipends; 10 percent for equipment and supplies; 4 percent for travel; 7 percent for contractual items; and 0.5 percent for other expenses.

The Title V grant proposal will be funded under the Developing Hispanic-Serving Institutions Program of the U.S. Department of Education. Souder started working on the grant last October. “We submitted it on May 15 and thought we would know something by the end of July or the first of August. We heard about it on Sept. 22,” Souder said.

The cycle for Title V grants goes from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, Souder said. The grant was supposed to start Oct. 1, but Souder and Lopez didn’t know they got it until Sept. 22. Because of this, they only had three days to start pulling the program together.

The space for the Center for Teaching and Learning will be located on the third floor of the General Classroom Building. The rooms that will be used were made with the center in mind, Souder said. Most programs given awards like this don’t have an established center all ready, which makes CSU-Pueblo unique.

“I think that it is very exciting that we are going to have a single place where faculty can work together to address issues on this campus and to work together for what’s best for our students and to me that’s the most exciting piece of this entire grant,” Souder said.

By Jan. 11, Souder plans to have an idea of what to apply to the center, the money and support it will receive and what collaborations for the center are going to look like. Souder will also be visiting other centers like this one around the country and apply what works those programs to CSU-Pueblo.

Outdoor Pursuits and the Student Recreation Center are offering a search and rescue course. Image courtesy of csupueblo.edu.

When a person goes missing in the backcountry, a majority of the time a search and rescue team is deployed to head out and find that person. At Colorado State University-Pueblo there is a group of people who are interested in lending a hand and learning about the search and rescue trade.

The Student Recreation Center and the Outdoor Pursuits program are currently holding a class to teach students how they can become a part of a search and rescue team. The class is led by Scott Robertshaw, associate director of student recreation and director of Outdoor Pursuits.

“It’s so exciting!” Robertshaw said. “Schools across the country, and some even being in Colorado, have teams within search and rescue. Western State is one of those schools that has one. It’s a combination of students and staff and they are partnered with the local agencies in Gunnison.”

Robertshaw said the plan is to eventually get a group of people together to form a search and rescue team that can be called out when someone goes missing and local agencies need assistance. People participating in the class get training and certifications that they can take with them wherever they go.

“What’s key is where this lives. So this is a team in Student Recreation and Outdoor Pursuits. There is no academic credit class. So they aren’t getting a search and rescue certification from CSU-Pueblo,” Robertshaw said. “This is entirely through the Student Rec so it is non-academic. It’s not a club or a club sport it’s just a group or team within the Outdoor Pursuits.”

Robertshaw described the program as a sister program of Outdoor Pursuits.

He said there are three tiers to the search and rescue process.

“The first tier is just getting people together and talk search and rescue stuff, reading articles and looking up information,” he said. “The second tier is to set up a kind of class rotation for certification courses, the first being a Wilderness First Aid course. The third tier is to partner with the Pueblo County emergency services.”

The class has already started and the first meeting had a showing of 15 people. Students and faculty are welcome to show up to any meeting.

The ultimate goal in the end is for the group to be recognized as a team that can be called out to help throughout the year, Robertshaw said. When someone gets hurt, a carry out team is basically about 18 people, with six people holding the litter or rescue basket, six people resting and six carrying gear. Sometimes carry outs need a lot of resources.

In this class people will learn many of the skills like Wilderness First Aid, the ability to handle mental strain, rappelling or hiking in to where someone might be trapped and many others, Robertshaw said.

“For the last seven years I have been involved with being EMT and search and rescue and I’ve met lots of people in pueblo who are interested,” Robertshaw said. “So some of it comes from my own personal interest and some of it comes from the Outdoor Pursuits program. This is what we teach people to do.”

“Our staff naturally has people who are interested. I’m looking for opportunities to create unique programs for students that keep them here at CSU-Pueblo.”

Photo courtesy of csupueblo.edu

Colorado State University-Pueblo’s student operated radio station KTSC-89.9, Rev 89 is ranked sixth in the nation among noncommercial stations.

This ranking is as of the spring 2015 rankings by Nielsen Media, according to a Sept. 18 CSU-Pueblo news release.

“It’s incredible,” said Jenna Mangino, Rev 89 station manager. “I am blown away every year by how this station performs.”

Along with the sixth ranking in the nation, the Rev 89 also tied with KDZA-FM for second place for most listened to radio station in Pueblo.

There are two different ratings. The first is average quarter hourly share and the second is cume, Mangino said. Cume ratings are based off of unduplicated listenership. Rev 89 is sitting at about 17 percent of the Pueblo market.

Back in 2003 and 2011 the Rev 89 received a ranking of number one in the nation.

“We are trying to get back to that point,” Mangino said. “Our students are doing incredible work because it takes a team effort to make the station climb. So getting a national rating means that we are doing something right and we need to keep doing that.”

At this time, the university is the largest financial supporter of Rev 89. With this new rating there is more potential for support from the community, which would translate into dollars for the station.

Rev 89 has some big plans for the near future, Mangino said. There are plans to get streaming going and to launch mobile apps. This station is also getting a new automation system. It will cost $18,000 to update the equipment and get new software, which will allow students to focus on mixing and the sound of the station.

Outdoor Pursuits started as a small student group 30 years ago. Image courtesy of csupueblo.edu.

The Outdoor Pursuits program at Colorado State University-Pueblo is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The program, which is dedicated to taking students and staff members of CSU-Pueblo into the outdoors, has grown tremendously in the years it has been on campus.

Scott Robertshaw, associate director of student recreation and Outdoor Pursuits, said the club was founded in 1985, depending on the interpretation of the time the club was officially introduced.

The program started as a small student group that worked out of the biology department and recreation department.

Although the OP is outfitted and known for its climbing, rafting, backpacking and other adventures, it has more to offer, including a place for students to belong. It has become a community of people who bond over their love to get outside and breathe some fresh air.

The OP gives people who love escaping city life a chance to leave campus and experience the beauty of Colorado whether it is for the first or hundredth time, OP employees said.

“The program helps people find themselves. They paddle for the first time or they climb a mountain for the first time. And it might not be something that they do for a profession or even every day, but we’ve seen it on trips where people are amazed with themselves for what they have learned they can do if they just try,” Robertshaw said.

Not only does the program encourage first time experiences for students campus-wide, but many of its student employees also come from a variety of majors outside of recreation. Currently, not a single student employed with OP is a recreation major.

“The community of staff that we have is a bunch of different people from different majors that come with some training and they get more while in the program. And they create a community that helps them be successful at CSU-Pueblo,” Robertshaw said.

The groups taken on most weekend trips are generally small, ranging from about 10 to 20 participants, who sign up on a first come first serve on basis.

There is a Co-Op price offered to members of the OP for a small price at every semester. Each trip is led by at least two employees of the OP to keep participants safe and to teach them outdoor skills.

“I think what I love most about working for the outdoor pursuits, minus getting to hang out with awesome people, is the fact that we give students the tools they need to get out with us, but to also get out and have adventures on their own. We are very informative and encouraging when it comes to the outdoors,” said Gillian Brown, Outdoor Pursuits rock wall supervisor.

Thee CSU-Pueblo students will be at the national rock climbing competition in Melbourne, Fla. on April 20. Photo courtesy of http://www.colostate-pueblo.edu/

Colorado State University-Pueblo will be sending several students to Melbourne, Fla. to compete in the national rock climbing competition.

Nationals will take place on April 20 and the students will be leaving Colorado on April 18 to prepare for their competition.

To be eligible to compete in nationals, each student paid a fee, and needed to be a member of USA climbing in the Collegiate Climbing Series Division. They also had to compete in at least two competitions prior to nationals.

A few of CSU-Pueblo’s students have traveled and participated in several competitions around in the surrounding area this year.

“The last [competition] we did was in Gunnison which was two weeks ago and we have another coming up next week in Wyoming,” said Meagan Fenn, senior, health promotion major and qualifier for nationals.

In recent competitions, the students going to nationals have done well. Fenn placed second in Gunnison, Colo. and has placed in every competition she has climbed in this year.

Another national’s qualifier, Maddie Kasten, junior, community/commercial major, placed first in her first competition, second in the second and first again in her third competition of this year.

Fenn competed in nationals last year in Boston and gave a brief description of how the point system works: climbers take their best five routs out of both high rope and bouldering, and they are each given a number from judges on how well the rout is climbed depending on how long it took and how many times the climber falls.

A beginner would have a number around 900, and an advanced climber would have a number around 1600. The rankings of each climber are the cumulative number of points, after they are added together. Each climber will be climbing for individual and school team points.

“As a college our points are together and we receive points as a team,” Fenn said.

Josh Cordova, a senior health promotion major, has not been to nationals before and is looking forward to it. He has placed in competitions this year and achieved second place in Gunnison, Colo.

“All the competitions have been a lot of fun and I’m really excited to compete in nationals,” Cordova said.

When climbing top rope the difficulty ranking can be somewhat difficult to understand. All climbs that require ropes are belayed, and are ranked starting with a 5 and followed by a number and letters defining how difficult the climb is.

“The higher the number after the 5 shows how difficult the climb. A 5:10 is harder than a 5:9, and once you get into 5:10 you get alphabet letters to go after the numbers. A 5:10A is easier than a 5:10C. The most difficult climb goes up to 5:15 and the lowest is about 5:6,” Kasten said.

Kasten can comfortably climb a 5:10C, which is an intermediate climb, and will be what she will be climbing against 200 other competitors in nationals.

Fenn can also comfortably climb a 5:10CD and is working on advancing to 5:11 currently, but admits right now they are a little rough for her. Cordova is currently climbing somewhere between a 5:14 and a 5:15.

In addition, there is also the task of bouldering, which does not require any ropes or a belayer. For this, the climber must make it across the rock wall in the horizontal direction, instead of vertical.

Bouldering and high rope climbing are different and require different kinds of muscles and talents.

“Bouldering is more strength for me and I prefer the technique of high roping more,” Cordova said.

Although there is no lavish prize for winning at nationals, the experience and adventure will be enough to satisfy these CSU-Pueblo students.

If they choose, they can also submit works of writing to receive scholarships for next semester.

The Diversity Resource Center will hold events, starting March 18, as part of Week of Women’s Her Stories, to celebrate Women’s History Month. Photo courtesy of www.rebeccaheflin.com.

The Diversity Resource Center will be hosting the annual Week of Women’s Her Stories starting Monday March 18. There will be activities going on through the week until Thursday March 21 in the Occhiato University Center.

Although the use of marijuana is legal in Colorado, it is against university policy to use on campus. Photo courtesy of http://the420times.com

In the state of Colorado, it is still a felony to sell marijuana without a medical distribution license, but the use of it is a different story.

Medical marijuana has been utilized, in the state of Colorado, for quite some time, and a recent law has been passed allowing certain stipulations for people to use it, without a medical prescription.

A person who is over 21 years old may possess 1 ounce or less without punishment or fines. It is still a petty offense to use this in a public setting. A person carrying 2-6 ounces will be charged with a misdemeanor and potentially face one year of incarceration.

Carrying marijuana becomes a felony when the amount carried reaches 12 ounces. The possession of 8 ounces or more is considered possession with the intent to distribute and will enhance any sentencing brought to a person.

Like many university campuses in Colorado, Colorado State University-Pueblo does not allow the use of marijuana. Even if a person meets all the requirements of the law, the use of marijuana on the university’s campus, including parking lots, will result in immediate punishment.

The reason for this is because the university is federally funded. All the grants, financial aid and loans are through federal funds and the use of marijuana is still federally illegal.

The university has to sign off that there is no tolerance to the use of marijuana, with the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act, to receive all the funding that is required. Without federal funding all students would be required to pay their own way out of pocket.

However, the question is, whether or not it is illegal to come on to campus, from an off campus location, under the influence of marijuana.

“It would violate the code of student conduct even if it is legal, but without drug testing we can’t tell unless there is a blatant outburst in a class,” Director of Student Judicial Affairs, Jessica Boynton, said.

So yes, it is against school policy to come on campus under the influence of marijuana, but it is just difficult to pick out when that happens, unless someone is impeding on classroom learning.

If a student were to be caught using marijuana on campus there would be several different punishment options.

Although Boynton believes each case is different and punishment depends on the circumstance, the typical first offence punishment consists of probation, a $60 fine or an educational drug class.

“Sometimes I like to have the student read a chapter out of the drug book on campus and then report back to me on what they learned from it,” Boynton said.

Even the use of medical marijuana is not allowed on the university campus. In the case that a student has a prescription and needs to use marijuana for a health issue, they can request to wave living requirements on campus.

In addition, the marijuana policy also applies to all school-funded trips as well. If the university sets up a ski and snowboard trip to a nearby resort, it is still against the Drug Free Schools and Communities Act to use marijuana.

The Outdoor Pursuits will be going on a spring break trip to Big Bend National Park. Photo courtesy of http://travel.nationalgeographic.com.

This year for spring break, the Outdoor Pursuits program, at Colorado State University-Pueblo, has organized a trip to Big Bend National Park, in Texas, as a credited trip for two classes on campus, beginning on March 23.

In addition, students, community members and staff at CSU-Pueblo are welcome to sign up for the trip that can take a maximum of 28 people.

Although all the positions have been filled, Outdoor Pursuits is keeping a list of people who would be interested in going on the trip, in case if anyone who signed up were to drop out.

The price for students is $350, $400 for members of the CSU-Pueblo staff and $450 for community members.

On this trip students will learn many outdoor lessons about hiking, camping, land navigation, outdoor cooking, using a map and compass, reading the weather, what plants are edible, first aid, knots and about wildlife in the area.

All of these lessons will help the students work as a team and live in the wilderness, for about a week.

“We want to teach people how to hike in the desert with a backpack when it’s hot and sometimes there are critters,” Associate Director of Students Recreation, Scott Robertshaw, said.

Robertshaw, one of the supervisors accompanying the group on their trip, thinks it is very important for students to learn to work together as a group. Students will learn how to work together when they are frustrated and when other people have reached their limits.

Last spring break, the Outdoor Pursuits program offered the same trip, but it was not as large as it will be this year.

During their time in Texas, the group will be doing a great deal of hiking around the national park. Some of the trails that they will have to choose from are: Window’s Trail, Old Ore Trail and Boquillas Trail.

Similarly to the desert, the Big Bend National Park will be extremely hot during the day and very cold at night. The environment can be very unforgiving, causing dehydration, overheating and hypothermia.

For these reasons, the campers will require a certain amount of equipment, such as hiking boots, windbreakers, insulating tops, insulating hats and gloves, water, a sleeping bags, compasses, whistles and much more.

Much of the equipment, including the expensive items like a tent and sleeping bag, required for the trip, can be rented from the Outdoor Pursuit’s equipment room.

Two 15-passenger vans with trailers will be taken on the estimated 16-hour trip to Texas.

“Map Quest says it’s a 13 hour trip, but I’m estimating longer with breaks and eating ‘cause not everyone is hungry at the same time,” Robertshaw said.

The Outdoor Pursuits program is also working on organizing a trip for international students to go to Moab, Utah or Mesa Verde National Park sometime in the spring semester.