A8 • NEWS • THE METROPOLITAN • APRIL 9, 2009 DID YOU KNOW?

The word ‘democracy’ is banned in online chat rooms in China.

$LA$HED • THE BUDGET CRISIS

THE CUTS
Prior to the announcement of an
additional $300 million in cuts, Metro’s
Board of Trustees had approved at its
April meeting to move forward with
some of the following cuts.
President’s Office:
$183,725
• Includes eliminating
the diversity program
coordinator.
Academic Affairs:
Cuts shrink opportunity fund
By Caitlin Gibbons
cgibbon4@mscd.edu
The state’s proposal to cut $300
million dollars from higher educa-
tion would cut Metro’s College Op-
portunity Fund allocation by $28
million dollars.
COF currently pays $90 per
credit hour for students eligible for
in-state tuition.

$3,478,263 The amount COF will pay per

credit hour next year is yet to be de-
• Includes eliminating cided, but with a $28 million cut
vacant support staff from the fund, it is certain it will de-
crease.
positions.
“The recent budget cuts will tre-
mendously reduce COF,” said Joint
Student Services: Budget Committee member Sen. Moe
$368,661 Keller, D-Wheat Ridge. ”The proposed
cuts are proportional to what schools
• Includes eliminating
receive for COF and fee for service.”
the administrative Fee for service is another way
assistant to the the state funds higher education and
vice president for helps schools cover high-cost pro- Brandon Richardson discusses his borrowing options with Denise Brandenburg, a financial aid ad-
grams. Some institutions like Metro
enrollment position. viser, in the Office of Financial Aid Jan. 14, 2008. File photo by Dawn Madura • dmadura@mscd.edu
receive more COF funding and others
receive larger fee-for-service fund- 189 in 2004 as a way to fund higher for their portion of COF as part of the project COF are ineffective because
Administration & ing. education. Students have to apply budget for higher education. they are not based on actual enroll-
Finance: For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, for the fund, then that money is de- The fund is determined by esti- ment numbers.
$91,059 Metro received $43,986,120 in COF
stipend funding. In light of the recent
ducted from the students’ portion of
tuition. Students receive the stipend
mating a college’s enrollment.
Associated Students of Colorado
The specific amount per credit
hour is also set by the General As-
• Includes eliminating proposed cuts, the college is looking for up to 145 credit hours. Director of Legislative Affairs Aaron sembly. Once the long bill, which
the accounts payable at only $15,763,500 in COF for the The Colorado General Assembly “Jack” Wiley said COF is nothing contains the state budget, is final-
clerk position and 2009-2010 fiscal year. decides each fiscal year the amount more than a force. Wiley also said ized, the amount of COF per school
COF was created by Senate Bill of funding each school will receive that the estimates legislatures use to and student will be set.
reorganization of the
Department of Human
Resources.

Institutional
Federal financial aid unscathed Proposed solution
unlikely
One place a group of legislators
Advancement: By Clayton Woullard She said her office plans to increase the amount of have proposed making up some of
$51,000 cwoullard@mscd.edu the Colorado College Responsibility Grant from $600 to the lost money — at least for this year
• Return the 2009 fiscal $800 a semester. And an increase in Pell Grant money — is by removing it from a $500 mil-
The second round of cuts to Colorado’s higher-edu- and financial aid for those students who have an expected lion reserve fund of a public workers
year operating budget.
cation fund won’t negatively affect financial aid for Metro family contribution of $6,926 or less are to be expected compensation plan, called Pinnacol
students significantly. with an increase in tuition. Assurance. But the president of that
Information Cindy Hejl, director of Metro’s financial aid office, said However, at press time, she was not able to say how company has threatened legal action.
Technology: that according to the Colorado Department of Higher the financial aid office will otherwise help students com- “We certainly do not want to see
$452,116 Education, as of April 2, state financial aid would not be
affected by the proposed $300 million in cuts. However,
pensate with the likely tuition increase without getting
final numbers from the administration.
higher education hurt. But we’re very
clear that these assets belong to Pin-
• Increase the use of prior to the $300 million cut announcement, scholarship “I think Dr. (Stephen) Jordan’s trying to make the nacol. They do not belong to the Leg-
student technology fee money for this coming academic year had been slashed least increase as possible,” Hejl said. islature,” Pinnacol spokeswoman Suzi
for student-related IT $122,000, meaning approximately 100-200 students The state’s budget cuts will not affect federal financial Stolte said.
may not receive scholarship money at Metro, Hejl said. aid for students. In fact, Metro received a $130,000 in- Should the proposal be adopted, it
personnel costs.
Also, $240,000 of the Pre-collegiate Academic Competi- crease in federal work-study for this coming year as part will destabilize the business communi-
tiveness Grant was reduced, affecting approximately 170 of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package passed in ty in Colorado and make the state less
Total Savings: Metro students. February, and the Supplement Education Opportunity attractive to businesses, Stolte said,
$4,642,824 “I don’t know that we have a plan to compensate for Grant was not cut, she said. meaning there will be less jobs for fu-
the loss of those two programs,” Hejl said. ture graduates.

ON THE STREET By Jeremy Knight • jknigh15@mscd.edu

How would a 50 percent increase in tuition affect your ability to continue your education?
“It would just depend on how “I’d probably not be able to go to
financial aid would cover it and if school. I recently lost my father two
they cover enough, then it would be and a half years ago, so my mom
fine for now. But overall, it will hurt
in the long run to pay those loans has stayed home alone and has tried
back.” to help me out with school. A 50
Kyndra Gallegos percent increase would pretty much
shut me down for a while.”
Clay Dubois

Auraria mulls funding moves
By Tara Moberly
tmoberly@mscd.edu
News of a $300 million cut in
funding has left Auraria shifting
funds and formulating plans to con-
tinue operating with a dwindling
pool of funds.
Auraria Higher Education Center
— which is funded by the three insti-
tutions at Auraria ­— is formulating
plans to make necessary reductions
while also providing the same level
of service to students.
“It’s difficult to cut any major
services at Auraria. Mail needs to
be distributed, campus cleaning and
maintenance still need to happen
and obviously security and safety are
important to Auraria. We are seeing
what we can do within these areas
FEE MOVES TO A VOTE
“It would be hard to continue. I
guess loanwise I could continue, but
it will still be a lot. I came to Metro
in the first place because they are so
cheap.”
Aundrea Mata
without affecting (the) health and
welfare of faculty and students,” said
Executive Vice President for Admin-
istration at AHEC Dean Wolf.
Current construction at Auraria
will not be affected, Wolf said.
UCD is also facing tuition in-
creases and program cuts as a result
of the Joint Budget Committee’s de-
cision to trim $300 million from the
higher-education budget.
“From our perspective, the bud-
get is such a moving target at this
point that it’s hard to determine
where it’s going to end. You know
we’re going to take cuts,” University
of Colorado system spokesman Ken
McConnellogue said.
McConnellogue would not esti-
mate how tuition may be affected by
the decrease in state funding, noting
THIS JUST IN: Coca-Cola translated to Chinese means, “To make mouth happy.” • THE METROPOLITAN • APRIL 9, 2009 • NEWS • A9
THE BUDGET CRISIS • $LA$HED
WHAT THEY’RE
SAYING
“Is it too early to start
that the school will look at internal projects may have to be shelved. drinking?”
cuts and cost-containing measures Students at CCD are also facing Metro Trustee
first. higher tuition as the Colorado Com- Maria Garcia Berry
“We haven’t got to that point munity College System could lose an
in the discussion. With our regents, estimated 62 percent of its funding.
“You need to keep your
they want to look at where we’re cut- While community colleges could
ting before they talk about increas- gain an additional $13 million in funds representatives at the
ing tuition. Our priority is to try to from gambling revenues, that money Capitol busy. Get together
protect our academic and research will not begin to trickle in until 2011. and organize with CCD and
enterprises as much as possible. In the meantime, CCCS is con- UCD now, because later is
When we look at cuts, we first look sidering several options to bridge going to be too late.”
at the administrative areas. We don’t the funding gap, everything from in-
creasing tuition to closing campuses.
Vice President of Student
fill positions or cut positions or make
major purchases,” he said. “If cuts of “We have to look at everything Services Kathy MacKay
the magnitude they’re talking about — tuition increases, closures — all
come through, there’s just no way of it because the cuts are so dra- “The one time funding
that we’re going to avoid cuts.” matic,” CCCS spokeswoman Rhonda from Pinnacol will help
Capital construction projects are Bentz said. While CCCS had prepared in the crunch, now. But
usually first to be cut, McConnellogue for the previous cuts, they were not
prepared for the additional cuts an-
next year, we are back in
said. Current projects such as the Sci-
ence Building will continue but new nounced last week. the same boat without the
Pinnacol life raft to save
us.”
Rep. James Kerr
Professor David Kottenstette, Metro President R-Jefferson County
Stephen Jordan and alum Kevin Harris discussed
the proposed student fee for capital construction “We will not be able to
April 6, in the Roger Braun Room. expand funding for higher
The three, as well as SGA President Andrew education. In the next
Bateman and Vice President C.J. Garbo discussed years we will be able to
the fee and the Student Success Center, the name maintain, but not increase
of the building the fee would fund. “We don’t funding. We are hoping to
have any space left,” Jordan said. “I have put 14
keep things stable.”
trailers on this campus.” Metro, he said, has a 98
percent utilization rate of classrooms. “That’s un- Rep. Mark Ferrandino
heard of,” he continued. D-Denver
The fee, if approved, would begin in the fall se-
mester of 2010. Seventy percent of the fee would “We will never recover
go to capital construction with the remaining 30 from these cuts.This is
percent allocated to scholarships and classroom something I didn’t think
enhancement. The fee would be $5.25 per credit would happen.”
hour, up to 12 credit hours. The fee would rise in Sen. Moe Keller
2011 to $12.10 and $19.80 in 2012. The fee would D-Wheat Ridge
continue until the building is paid for. A full-time
student in 2012 would pay an additional $237.60. “It’s not a matter of shifting
The building would be Metro exclusive and be around money. There is
home to all student services including the finan-
simply not enough money.”
cial aid office and advising. While Bateman said he
plans on voting for the fee, he advised students to Rep. Nancy Todd
look at the facts and “weigh the cost and benefits” D-Aurora
for them. Students will be e-mailed a ballot to
their MetroConnect accounts the week of April 13. “I see a sign behind me
Photo by Leah Millis • lmillis@mscd.edu that says ‘WTF where is
our funding?’ Well, OMG
Pinnacol has it!”
Sen. Al White
R-Hayden
“Honestly, it would affect my ability “It would affect me drastically, I
to continue my education. At first, believe. Because I do school through
I heard something crazy like a 300 financial aid, it pays the majority of
percent increase, so 50 percent my tuition. If they were to increase
doesn’t sound as bad as that. I guess that it would also affect the govern-
it would just end up getting paid. ment funding me to come to school.
My parents pay for my college.” And possibly affect me being able to
Jonathan Malockowd pay for my books and transporta-
tion and parking here on campus.”
Stacia Marks