the independent
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Issue 23 Winter 2011TRANSCRIPT
i IndependentThe FREE
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Better Business
Low-Down
Activism and Empowerment
100 Years of
stage & “into
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Content News Editor
Lucas Hess
Tanya Marchun
Haley Pruitt
Gavin Wisdom
Clare O’Connor-Seville
Kaitie Martinez
“Join your college news magazine next semester!
Experienced and interested in a possible editor position?
Contact me at [email protected]!”
Online Editor
Creative Director
Advertising Director
Chief Copy Editor
Content News Editor
Lucas Hess
Yann Crist-EvansArt Director
“Simplicity is the glory of expression.” - Walt Whitman
“The only diet that works: if it tastes good - spit it out”
- Unknown
“I no doubt deserve my enemies, but I don’t believe I deserve my
friends.” - Walt Whitman
“I’m astounded by people who want to ‘know’ the universe when it’s hard enough to find your
way around chinatown.” - Woody Allen
Editor in Chief
Jordan Boudreaux
“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.”
- Theodore Roosevelt
JR StarnsFinancial Advisor
“A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.” - James Allen
“Nothing is permanent, not even death.” - The Imaginarium of
Dr. Parnassus
Cover Photo by Jordan Boudreaux
Haley Pruitt
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The Loan Low-Downby: John Miller
100 Years of Historyby: James Addoms
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Onto the Stage & “Into the Woods”by: Steph Cook
We encourage reader participation through our perspectives section. Submit letters, cartoons, or anything else you’d like to see in print to Editor in Chief Kaitie Martinez at [email protected] or News Editor Gavin Wisdom at [email protected]. Note: The Independent reserves the right to edit submissions as necessary or deny publication.
News tip? Contact Gavin Wisdom at [email protected] any other inquiries, contact Kaitie Martinez at [email protected]
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Building A Better Businessby: James Addoms
Reader’s Perspective
Sports Stats
Cover Photo by Jordan Boudreaux
Do you want to have your work seen? Have your photography, artwork, written words or any other media posted online at theindyon-line.com. Submissions can be sent via Email to [email protected].
Lacey SchusterPublic Relations Director
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff,
It looks like spring has finally sprung, and The Independent is starting off the new season with a new look. I’m talking, of course, about the new and improved cover of
our magazine. After listening to the feedback of several readers, the new cover has proved to be a great success! As the magazine’s Public Relations Director, I am pleased to see that the changes we have made are just as exciting for you as they are for us.
Spring is not only bringing new and improved changes, it is bringing on the same old routine that we always dread, finals week. If you are anything like me, the sunny weather and increasing temperatures seem to be luring you away from your books. Still, there are a few different tricks I use to stay focused.
I always find that I study better outside anyway. So rather than procrastinate, I try having the best of both worlds. If the weather is nice, I take my study materials to a quiet place and enjoy the sun while delving into that 15-page paper. Or if that doesn’t suit you, going for a long walk, jog or bike ride to clear your head before hitting the books always works for me. Before you know it, the semester will be coming to an end, and you’ll be all caught up on your assignments just in time for finals week.
And since you’ll be all caught up, come on down to Schnei-der Park next to the Durango Skate Park on Saturday, April 23, for our first annual Lazy River Duck Race fundraiser. We will be racing rubber ducks down the Animas River for several great prizes from local businesses. In addition, ten percent of the proceeds will be donated to Southwestern Water Conserva-tion in support of conserving water supply and enhancing the quality of drinking water in our community. I hope to see all of you there.
Thank you for reading,
Lacey SchusterPublic Relations Director
Agency, Activism, and Empowermentby: Dylan Leigh & Luke Ramseth
4 T I M E
As students prepare to graduate from Fort Lewis College’s School of Business Administration, they may find inspiration in the long list of local business owners with the same degree.
Shanan Wells, the owner of Sorrel Sky Gallery and SCW Art Consulting, was the first self-constructed art and business major to graduate from Fort Lewis, and now uses her degree to promote nearly 70 South-west artists, Wells said.
Wells emphasized the role that her student advisors played in her career path.
“I was able to work a lot with them directly to fig-ure out a way to incorporate my life experiences into my education,” Wells said. “Because of the professors and advisors, and the nurturing nature of the school it was really great.”
Wells knew that she wanted to own a gallery since her first visit to a gallery opening when she was 12 years old, and attributes much of her success to that defining vision.
“I think when you are really clear about what you want to do it’s fairly easy to figure out how to do it,” she said.
Wells pursued her passion all throughout high school and college, picking up any art-focused intern-
BuildingBetter Businesses
ship that came her way, and even found a temporary job working at the Smithsonian Institute, she said.
“I really think that the way to get it figured out is to get into your field as soon as possible, and work from the ground up, to make sure you’re doing what you want to do,” Wells said. “If you want to be in the banking industry start by answering the phones, start by sweep-ing the floors, or start by doing whatever you have to do so that you are in the environment of the industry you want to be in.”
After graduating from Fort Lewis in 1994, Wells worked as director of the Toh-Atin Gallery for eight years, at which point she decided to start her own gal-lery and art consulting agency in 2002, she said.
The pressure of starting a business can be stressful at times, and people new to such strenuous conditions can often be left questioning why they ever followed their heart in the first place, she said.
“In the end you have freedom, you’re doing what you want to do, you’re your own boss, I mean the list goes on and on,” she said. “Once you work for yourself you’d never even consider working for somebody else.”
Since Wells’ graduation, the school has continued to expand the assistance available to young entrepreneurs on campus, as well as in the community, through pro-grams such as the Southwest Colorado Small Business Development Center, located in the Education Busi-ness Building, Room 140.
According to the Ignacio/La Plata County Stake-holder’s Report, which is the Small Business Develop-
How FLC resources help you boom, not bust
By James Addoms
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Photos by Jordan Boudreaux and Carrie Meneghin
Community
How FLC resources help you boom, not bust
ment Center of Colorado’s annual summary of small business impact in La Plata County from 2004 to 2009, the SBDC has assisted in starting 60 businesses, which in turn created 301 jobs with a total capital formation of $26,809,080.
“We offer a ‘starting your business’ class that’s usu-ally at the public library every other month for any-one who wants to start their own business,” said Lynn Asano, Office Manager of the SBDC.
The SBDC provides assistance through things as basic as free one-on-one business counseling, to gov-ernment procurement classes for businesses at all stages, not just starting, Asano said.
“We also offer a bookkeeping boot camp which helps business owners to understand their basic finances,” she said.
The success of the SBDC is not only evident through the 2004-2009 Stakeholder’s Report, but also through their returning clientele Asano said.
“We have a lot of alumni coming back to the SBDC,” she said.
Former business and finance major Jared Tay-lor attended Fort Lewis for three years before leav-ing to pursue his dream as a small business owner, said Taylor, and used many of the tools provided by the SBDC to achieve his goal.
“I would go to the program and feel like I actually did something, and have more self-confidence to make it happen,” Taylor said. “It definitely helped.”
Taylor is the owner of Fried in Durango, a hotdog stand on the east side of Sixth Street Liquor, which opened its kitchen on St. Patrick’s Day of this year, he said.
Taylor has known that starting his own business was his calling since high school and, like Wells, praises the advantages of following your dream, he said.
“I have pictures of me at 17 with little drawings of how it would look,” Taylor said.
Two of marketing Professor Bill Dodd’s courses, Product Innovation and Managing Customer Value, proved to be especially helpful in launching Taylor’s vision, he said.
“Dodds helped so much with those two classes,” Taylor said. “He writes the book, and he knows what he’s talking about. He was a huge, huge influence.”
Taylor also acknowledges the difficulties of start-ing a business, and attributes his success to friends and family for their support.
“Making a business is definitely a community effort,” Taylor said. “If you’re humble enough to ask for help, than people actually want to help because you’re doing something bigger.”
Patience is also an invaluable tool when dealing with the bureaucracy of starting your own business, Taylor said.
“If you want to do something big, don’t think it’s going to be easy, and don’t think it’s going to be big strides, because it’s always those little baby steps that get you where you’re going,” he said.
To access the SBDC’s website, and take the first step towards starting a business, log onto http://soba.fortlewis.edu/soba/index.asp.
effort,” Taylor said. “If you’re humble enough to ask for help, than people actually want to help because you’re doing something bigger.”
Patience is also an invaluable tool when dealing with the bureaucracy of starting your own business, Taylor said.
“If you want to do something big, don’t think it’s going to be easy, and don’t think it’s going to be big strides, because it’s always those little baby steps that get you where you’re going,” he said.
To access the SBDC’s website, and take the first step towards starting a business, log onto http://soba.fortlewis.edu/soba/index.asp.
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imbuk 3 once sang, “The future’s so bright I gotta wear shades,” but for some Fort Lewis College seniors, see-ing the light might mean realizing that their student loans are about to become post-graduate debt.
Because many loan programs allow students to wait until a few months after they graduate to make loan payments, some students may not become aware of the details of their loans until the time comes to actually pay them.
Fort Lewis awards loans and grants through the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.
Students can receive Pell grants, Per-kins loans, and Stafford loans by filling out their FAFSA forms, said Sue Ruetsch-le, a general professional of financial aid.
Students do not have to pay back Pell grants, which are awarded to students with exceptional need, but they do have to repay loans, Ruetschle said.
Many students who are awarded a Pell grant will qualify for the option to take out a federal Perkins loan, she said. These loans are need-based and have a fixed interest rate of five percent.
Students have nine months after they graduate until they must begin repaying the loans and typically have 10 years to repay the loan once they begin payments, she said.
The amount students usually take out through a Perkins loan is between $200 and $1200, usually closer to the $1200 range, she said.
A federal Stafford loan can be either subsidized or un-subsidized.
Subsidized Stafford loans are need-based, while unsubsidized Stafford loans can be rewarded to all students, Ruetschle said.
Students do not have to pay interest on subsidized loans as long as they are enrolled at least full-time, she said.
“The government is basically paying your interest while you’re in school,” she said.
The interest for these loans is currently 4.5 percent, however next year it will drop to 3.4 percent.
The unsubsidized Stafford loan can start gaining interest as soon as it is granted, Ruetschle said. Interest for these loans is 6.8 percent.
In cases like the unsubsidized Stafford loan, the interest can accumulate and capitalize, she said. This means that that 6.8 per-cent interest could add on to the total cost of a student’s loan, or principal, so the next time interest accumulates it will be more money, because it will be 6.8 percent of a larger amount.
“The interest can compound, it’s similar to a savings account,” she said.
This compounding often takes place quarterly, or four times a year, she said.
There is also the option of alternative or private loans for stu-dents, she said. These types of loans are often in addition to FAF-SA loans, and help to bridge any financial gap a student may have.
“Last year I got the Wells Fargo collegiate student loan—well I have Fort Lewis loans too,” said sophomore Parker Dale Earnest. “I have three or four loans, just because I needed—well—I needed the extra money.”
Private loans often have a higher interest rate and few options for deferment, Ruetschle said.
Deferment is a way for students to extend the time they have be-fore they must begin paying back their loans, she said.
Some of the ways a person might defer their loan would be by re-entering a degree-seeking program like graduate school, or by filing for deferment due to economic hardship, she said.
There are also options for loan forgiveness, meaning that some programs will actually help people minimize the amount of the loan that they have to pay back, she said.
These options can include certain teaching programs, the Peace Corps, which can also offer de-ferment, and AmeriCorps, she said. AmeriCorps gives students an option to work off their debt ei-ther during or after the time that they are a student.
For people who are in the process of paying off their loans, big payments are best if possible, she said.
If someone can make large payments then there will be less time for in-terest to accumulate and compound, meaning a lower overall amount of debt.
“It’s definitely going to be, like, hanging over my head,” Earnest said. “There’s a little anxiety, but the sooner you pay it off the better.”
Earnest was unsure about how much money he actually owed at this point, and where he could find that information, aside from actu-ally going to the financial aid office, he said.
Without visiting the financial aid office, students can view their cost of attendance, and the amount of aid that they have been awarded so far, by signing into webOPUS, clicking the “Student Services and Financial Aid” tab, then the “Financial Aid” link, and finally on “My Overall Status of Financial Aid.” This window will also provide links for students to view any holds they may have, as well as their financial aid history breakdown.
Photo by Sydney Smith
7Photo by Sydney Smith
ecently, massive change has erupted in the Middle East originating out of calls for revolution from the oppressed. From peaceful protest to outright warfare, peo-ple are enacting their hopes of a diff erent future.
Attempts to understand this phenomenon have under-pinned the international discourse for months, harboring diverse reactions and responses from the international community and the United States. Th is has thrust both national sovereignty and human rights into the forefront of debate.
“Jean Paul Sartre once said, ‘As long as any one of us is a slave, all of us are slaves,’” said Reyes Garcia, professor of social and political philosophy.
Th e Independent talked to Reyes Garcia of the Depart-ment of Philosophy, Erik Juergensmeyer of Peace and Confl ict Studies, and Yohannes Woldemariam of the Department of Political Science to gain local insight on the political situations in the Middle East.
Among the topics discussed were the causes of a multi-tude of revolutions and protests throughout the region, as well as the implications of the ensuing changes.
From the ousting of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali in Tunisia to the resignation of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, as well as the resistance against the uprising by Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, fundamental change continues to spread throughout the region.
“Fort Lewis College students should care because it is like hearing resonance with music, resonance with revolu-tion,” Garcia said. “Students should want to join the dance, that energy of young people in the Middle East.”
By January 14, Tunisian President of 23 years Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali had stepped down, leav-ing in exile to Saudi Arabia.
Nine days later in Egypt, tens of thou-sands of protestors marched in down-town Cairo, insisting Hosni Mubarak, the president of Egypt for more than 30 years, leave office.
Garcia said there were prepara-tions for two years among young people in many countries. Primarily they were students interested in performing non-violent protests and acts of civil disobe-dience.
People estab-lished agency and e m p o w e r m e n t through social media, the Internet and the sharing of informa-tion. One could argue this had an effect on the movement, Juer-gensmeyer said.
“ F u n d a m e n t a l human dignity was violated, along with respect for political oppression,” Garcia said. “A collective unconscious was realized by the rela-
tionship between human dignity and a demand for involve-ment in the political process.”
Juergensmeyer said that the movements demonstrate that the people have power too.
“It is not just a political issue; it is a human rights issue. Once people see the effects of non-violent resistance, then it will advance the study of peace,” Juergensmeyer said.
Woldemariam explained the protests had an across-
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In early January, Tunisian street vendor Mohamed
Bouazizi set himself on fire when police confiscated his cart. In the following days, protestors gathered amidst police crackdowns, calling for the removal of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the president of Tunisia for more than twenty-three years.
“The trigger, liter-ally, the flames that ignited the events in the Middle East, was the street vendor that set himself on fire in the face of indignity,” Garcia said.
W o l d e m a r i a m said despite being the “trigger” for larger protests and crack-downs, the vendor burning himself was by no means the cause of greater Middle Eastern unrest.
“There was lots of pent-up history and context,” he said. “It’s always been a mystery to me as to why people all of a sudden rise up. In places where we think of people as very passive, well, we got surprised in Tuni-sia, Egypt and Libya. It’s a tricky issue.”
Garcia said that an inequality of wealth along with the inadequacy of these regimes to meet people’s basic human needs were precursors for revolution.
W o l d e m a r i a m stressed that “the West” or the United States had nothing to do with the protests.
“In Egypt and Tunisia, protesters were not thinking about the West,” he said. “The West was not a factor in this whole issue starting, as much as it wanted to be. The West was actually perceived as an enabler of the dictators in the Middle East for decades.”
“Democracy has to come from the internal strengths of a society,” Woldemariam said.
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the-board kind of involvement from all segments of soci-ety, despite some theories of involvement of fundamentalist Muslim groups.
“People from all walks of life were protesting,” he said. “In Egypt, the Muslim Brotherhood were actually the late-comers. They weren’t sure what was happening would be to their advan-tage. It was not the stereotypical fanatics trying to take advan-tage of potential grievance.”
After continued protests in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, Mubarak resigned from office on February 11.
During the uprising in Egypt protestors began calling for reform in Iran, Iraq, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Jordan, Leb-anon, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Algeria, and Bahrain, showing the sheer scope of the movement.
“It is important to distinguish between these different uprisings,” Juergensmeyer said. “We must think about their goals, their countries’ infrastructures and their free press.”
The world has witnessed a violent response from Libyan
leader Muammar Gaddafi in response to the Libyan rebels, his own people. Libya is currently continuing a considerably more violent revolution than its precursors in Tunisia and Egypt.
“In Libya, even those who have served Gaddafi sense a vio-lation of what it means to experience one’s own humanity,” Garcia said. “Even their ambassador to the UN could not recon-cile being a human being and serving that regime.”
The violence, including air raids on Libyan rebels as well as Gaddafi’s threats to enact vengeance on those involved in the rebellion, resulted in United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which agrees to, “approving a no-fly zone over Libya, authorizing all necessary measures to protect civilians”, according to the UN Security Council news release on March 17.
The United States and its allies have taken an active role in enforcing a no-f ly zone and bombing Gaddafi mili-tary strongholds.
“I don’t believe that violence is a necessary component of revolution,” Garcia said. “Yet international military interven-tion in Libya may be needed because the Libyan system has collapsed completely. We need to disarm the aggressor that is Gaddafi.”
Woldemariam said he supports the ousting of Gaddafi, but does not support the way in which the United States has been involved.
“I’m all for getting rid of Gaddafi,” he said. “He is a tyrant. He’s overstayed his welcome by 42 years.”
However, Woldemariam said he wonders why, if the U.S. military gets involved in Libya, it doesn’t get involved in other revolutions that have become violent in Bahrain and Ivory Coast.
When thinking about these revolutions, said Juergens-meyer, “natural resources must be kept in mind.”
“With this selective intervention in Libya, one begins
to question why we intervene in Libya and not these other countries where there is no oil,” Woldemariam said. “In principle, intervention in Libya may have saved lives, but at the same time if it is done across the board with a consis-tent principle, then it would enhance the credibility of the Obama Administration.”
In a speech made on March 28, President Barack Obama justified the United States’ involvement on moral grounds and said the United States would be turning over all military involvement in Libya over to NATO.
“Even while NATO is supposedly taking over right now in Libya, we are totally behind it,” said Woldemariam.
“My reservation is not the intervention per se, but how the intervention is being done and why it’s not con-sistent,” he said.
Woldemariam said he has concerns about the future of the Libyan conflict. He said there is no way to predict what will happen next, or how far or long revolutions and vio-lence will spread.
“What we do in Libya sends a message to the other dicta-tors,” he said. “They are gauging—‘How many people can I kill, how many civilians can I kill, before the West is going to say, ‘OK, you’re out.’”
On a larger scale, Garcia said there is clearly a wave spread-ing through the world.
“Their aspirations for freedom are our own,” Garcia said. “We must think of those who come from marginalized sectors of the world. They seem to know the reality of the system of oppression. It is the oppressed who have the most to teach us. They will help us see the ways in which we are oppressed, and how we can become free.”
PHOTOS BY JORDAN BOUDREAUX
he stage is set— towering above, giant moss-covered trees are meticulously placed, also doubling as towers and huts, only to be illuminated when the actors reveal them to their audience. The orchestra, lead by Jonathan Latta, warms up next to the stage letting the cast, crew and the audience know that the musical is about to begin.
“Into the Woods,” written by James Lapine with music and lyrics by Stephen Sondheim, is an enjambed fairy tale that takes a different look at certain childhood tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Cinderella,” “Jack and the Bean Stock,” and “Rapunzel.”
The Director of the Production, Traci Lyn Thomas, moved to Durango five years ago after living and working in Las Vegas as a singer, dancer and actress in the production “Mamma Mia,” Thomas said.
Thomas’ directing career began when she started working with the Durango Performing Arts Company, San Juan College and Fort Lewis College, she said.
Thomas directed a chil-dren’s version of “Into the Woods” a few years ago and was approached by Ginny Davis, an associate professor
By John Miller
Cinderella with her evil stepmother and stepsisters.Foreground: Emily EiseleBackground: Dakotah Watson, Hannah Howard, Shellby C. Sayer
The entire cast of “Into the Woods”Photos by Scott Griggs
in the theater department, to direct Fort Lew-is’s production of the musical, Thomas said.
Sondheim’s music is difficult to sing and to memorize, Thomas, and half of the cast is from the music department while the other half is from the theater department.
“The cast has really risen to the occasion seeing how some have never acted and some haven’t done much singing,” Thomas said. “I’m so impressed with the cast and they have done such a good job.”
“I saw ‘Into the Woods’ when I was 15, and ever since have wanted to play the role of the witch, so I’m incredibly excited and feel very lucky to be doing this,” said Rachel Saul Pol-lack, a music major with a minor in theater.
The cast members all got their scripts before winter break, Pollack said, so that they could start working on the music before rehearsals had even begun.
“I had played the part of Red Riding Hood in high school and really wanted to play a dif-ferent part,” said Emily Eisele, who plays the role of Cinderella. Eisele auditioned and got the part before she had even been admitted at Fort Lewis, she said.
“It’s very interesting to see a different side of the fairytale we’ve heard for years,” said Eisele, “Like Cinderella, she wishes for some-thing then gets her wish and then realizes it’s not what she wanted. It’s really cool to look into these characters and dive a little deeper
under the surface,” Eisele said. “It was awesome working with Traci
Thomas,” Eisele said. “She has such energy, which makes you want to match it, and she pushes us to find the subtext and what’s really going on in the minds of the charac-ters.”
Elizabeth Dunn, a junior theater major playing the role of Jack’s Mother, thought the joint effort between departments was a great success. There were a few hiccups throughout the production, said Dunn. “It’s really hard when you’re collaborating with different departments and the tech and set designs are both really intricate and amaz-ing. Greg Mitchell put a lot of time into it. But bringing it all together was kind of hard but it turned out wonderful,” Dunn said.
Patrick Wiabel, a senior theater major, plays the part of the Wolf.
“I mostly do serious roles, like I’ve played a murderer and I played Macbeth,” said Wia-bel. “Having those parts then transition-ing to the Wolf who’s this crazy eccentric and outspoken character— it’s definitely a rewarding experience to step out of the type that people tend to put me in.”
“It has definitely been an amazing expe-rience and this is one of the best casts I have worked with,” said Wiabel.
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Campus
100 Years of HistoryFort Lewis College Remembers Its “Bright Heritage”
By James Addoms
The initial purpose of the school was to educate Native Americans, ages 3-19, on “How to walk the white man’s road,” Smith said. “It didn’t work too well, because the kids didn’t want to be there, and the tribes didn’t want to lose their kids.”
After attempting to continue education with very little success, eventually employing head hunters that would abduct Native children and bring them to the boarding school site for five dollars a head, the site was again abandoned and left to the state of Colorado, Smith said.
Colorado, not knowing quite what to do with the land, devel-oped it into a rural high school in 1911 near what is now Her-mosa, Smith said.
“Native students would be admitted free of charge and on the same terms of equality as white pupils.” Tapley-Booth said. “Twenty students were enrolled in the new Fort Lewis High School by the fall of 1911, offering a range of classes to young people of the region.”
But with the town of Durango growing rapidly, and trans-portation to and from the rural school scarce, by 1927 the school was faced with two options: closure or change. “They weren’t getting enough kids,” Smith said.
“In 1933 the last class of high school students graduated, and from that point on, it became a junior college until 1962, at which point Fort Lewis became a four-year college,” Smith said.
It hasn’t been an easy road, and the resilience of Fort Lewis was forced to prove itself in the late 1950s, when the school was nearly shut down due to a lack of enrollees once again.
The centennial anniversary of Fort Lewis College, while fostering a celebratory attitude campus-wide, has also renewed interest in the school ’s unique history. The Center of South-west Studies has jumped on the opportunity to educate the community about just that.
The center’s long awaited exhibit, “Frontier Blues,” opened its historical gateways on March 18.
“The exhibit revisits the school’s unique history, fostering a reconnection to local and regional history, and the college’s edu-cational mission,” said Julie Tapley-Booth, Event Coordinator for the Center of Southwest Studies.
The exhibit’s historical focus is coupled with the release of “Bright Heritage, Shining Future: Fort Lewis College 1911-2011,” a book written by Department of Southwest Studies Professor Duane Smith.
The book, much like the exhibit, uses the assistance of pho-tographs to trace the roots of Fort Lewis from its inception as a U.S. Army base, to the use of the base as a Native boarding school, to the four-year college it is today.
The college began as a military post that was located about 18 miles Southwest of town, and was named after Lt. Colonel William Lewis, who never actually made it to the site of the post said Smith.
“They never fought any skirmishes or battles, and only one trooper was ever killed,” Smith said.
The post was abandoned in 1891, and became designated as a Native boarding school.
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Photos Courtesy of Center of Southwest Studies ArchivePhoto Descriptions:
“The number of students was going down rather alarmingly,” Smith said, “and during the war the number of enrollees was down in the ‘30s due to the draft, and was mostly all women.”
Still located 18 miles outside of town, the school was facing a bleak future.
“It was dying out there,” said Smith. “It probably would have been abandoned again by the end of the ‘50s if we hadn’t brought it into town.”
In 1956, Fort Lewis President Charles Dale Rea, who the Old Fort Memorial Clock Tower was named after, moved the site of what was then Fort Lewis A&M to its home on top of the mesatoday, helping secure the future of the school as Colorado’s “Campus in the Sky.”
“He was the man with the foresight to bring the college into town, over the objections of many townspeople, and that’s really what saved the school,” Smith said.
The move aided Fort Lewis not only financially but with stu-dent recruits as well, Tapley-Booth said.
“Fortitude and hard work would become hallmarks of the school’s heritage,” Tapley-Booth said. “Today we can celebrate the dedication of so many, allowing the school to grow and pros-per as an educational institution these past one hundred years.”
Smith will donate all proceeds from “Bright Heritage, Shin-ing Future” to the Centennial Scholarship Campaign in hopes of assisting Fort Lewis in its continued growth.
To pick up a copy of Smith’s book, or to walk through a visual depiction of the college’s unique history available in the “Fron-tier Blues” Exhibit, the Center of Southwest Studies is open Mon-day through Friday 10 a.m.- 4 p.m., and Saturdays noon- 4 p.m.
“Fortitude and hard work would become hallmarks of
the school’s heritage.”- Julie Tapley-Booth -
Opposite Page - The military post that would become Fort Lewis, September 1881Upper Left - Durango in 1890 Upper Right - Old Fort Lewis in Hesperus Lower left - Southern Ute Chiefs Group portrait from left to right Sam Burch, Tony Buck Jr., Tony Buck Sr., Benjamin North, Edwin Cloud, Buckskin Charlie and wife Emma Naylor Buck Nicholas Eaton, Peter Spencer. Lower Right - Aerial photo of Fort Lewis College Campus and Durango, 1994.
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Reader’s Perspective
We all make hundreds of decisions every day, and a lot of these decisions are based on whether what we do is environmentally friendly or not.
Here is an example of a common decision-making scene: You’re in a public restroom and you need to wash your hands. After you’re done,
you realize you must dry your hands you have to choose between using disposable paper towels, the electric hand dryer or good ol’ natural air-drying.
Currently forests around the world are being destroyed at an alarming rate for many paper products, including paper towels. As the demand for disposable paper towels increases, our rich forest vegeta-tion decreases. According to the National Resources Defense Council, due to the demand in virgin pulp-producing trees, native species of trees in forests in the United States are being replaced day by day, disrupting the natural ecosystem of those environments. So, if you must use paper towels, it helps to choose ones that contain mostly recycled paper fi bers.
Electric hand dryers take a little more time than using paper tow-els to dry your hands. Electricity is also being used in the process of drying hands. Older dryers also emit heat into the area which creates
ineffi cient temperature changes that lead to an increase in electric-ity used. Th e good news about electric hand dryers is that with green technological development, the drying time has been improved and they have become more energy effi cient than ever. Th ere is a theory that hand dryers are less hygienic than paper towels, but this is a myth because paper towels leave wet spots on your skin, allowing for germs to hitchhike along with your freshly washed hands.
Lastly, there is always the option of let-ting your hands air-dry. Th is will take a little longer and it may be slightly uncomfortable, but no paper will be wasted and no electricity is required. It only takes about two or three minutes for hands to air-dry naturally.
Perhaps the best solution, though, is to carry around a small cloth to dry your hands. Carrying around your own cloth limits the amount of germs you would encounter compared to wiping your newly washed hands on your pants, for example.
If you had to choose between disposable paper towels and an elec-tric hand dryer session, it would be more eco-friendly to use the hand dryer. Hand dryers today are made more effi cient than ever before and do not require any trees to be used up in the process. Of course, if you’rebrave enough, then go au natural and use a reusable cloth or simply wait about two minutes for your hands to dry naturally.
Golf
4/10-12/2011 Dairy Queen Wolfpack Invitational Pueblo, Colo. - Walking Stick Golf Course
4/18/2011 RMAC Championships (RMAC Event #4) Goodyear, Ariz. - Wigwam Golf Club
5/1-4/2011 NCAA Division II Central/West SuperRegional Albuquerque, N.M. - UNM Championship Golf CourseSoftball
4/8/2011 Regis Durango, Colo. 5:00 p.m.
4/8/2011 Regis Durango, Colo. 7:00 p.m.
4/9/2011 Regis vs. Mesa State Durango, Colo. 11:00 a.m.
4/9/2011 Regis vs. Mesa State Durango, Colo. 1:00 p.m.
4/9/2011 Colorado Mines Durango, Colo. 3:00 p.m.
4/9/2011 Colorado Mines Durango, Colo. 5:00 p.m.
4/10/2011 Mesa State vs. Colorado Mines Durango, Colo. 11:00 a.m.
4/10/2011 Mesa State vs. Colorado Mines Durango, Colo. 1:00 p.m.
4/16/2011 Adams State Alamosa, Colo. 12:00 p.m.
4/16/2011 Adams State Alamosa, Colo. 2:00 p.m.
4/17/2011 Adams State Alamosa, Colo. 11:00 a.m.
4/17/2011 Adams State Alamosa, Colo. 1:00 p.m.
4/22/2011 Western New Mexico Silver City, N.M. 12:00 p.m.
4/22/2011 Western New Mexico Silver City, N.M. 2:00 p.m.
4/23/2011 Western New Mexico Silver City, N.M. 11:00 a.m.
4/23/2011 Western New Mexico Silver City, N.M. 1:00 p.m.
4/30/2011 Colorado State-Pueblo Durango, Colo. 12:00 p.m.
4/30/2011 Colorado State-Pueblo Durango, Colo. 2:00 p.m.
5/1/2011 Colorado State-Pueblo Durango, Colo. 11:00 a.m.
5/1/2011 Colorado State-Pueblo Durango, Colo. 1:00 p.m. Lacrosse
4/9/2011 Adams State Durango, Colo. H 1:00 p.m.
4/15/2011 Colorado College Colorado Springs, Colo. A 4:30 p.m.
4/16/2011 Center Colorado Springs, Colo. N 3:00 p.m.
15
Planned Parenthood provides affordable and confidential health services including STD testing and treatment.
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1099 Main Ave., Ste. 105 (Enter at 101 W 11th St.) 422-1869
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Telluride Summer College
- Permaculture Design Certificate - Ecopsychology
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- Workshops: Cob Building, Beekeeping
Register now. Available for college credit or non-credit.
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LIVE @ FLC BALLROOM!
FORT LEWIS COLLEGE
PRESENTS JAMES AND ERNIE. THESE GUYS WILL KEEP YOU ON
THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT. CELEBRATE FLC’s PREVIEW
WEEKEND WITH A NIGHT OF COMEDY THAT WILL KEEP YOU
LAUGHING FOR YEARS TO COME.
WHEN: April 15, 2011
WHERE: FLC BALLROOM
FREE FLC STUDENTS, FACULTY/STAFF w/ID and PREVIEW WEEKEND STUDENTS & FAMILIES WITH PREVIEW ID. $10.00 GENERAL ADMISSION
TIME: 8:00 P.M.
TICKETS: available in Student Union Building at
Leadership Center Desk April 4th – 15th, 8 am to 5pm Mon- Fri cash only, or presentation of valid FLC I.D
Or take your chances at the door.
SPONSORED BY FLC STUDENT WELLNESS, ALL PEOPLE’S LODGE RSO & UNITING STUDENTS THRU WELLNESS RSO.
For more information CALL 970-247-7508
Tickets are limited and on a 1st come basis.
Call today! Reserved seating for FLC Students & Elders
JAMES AND ERNIE April
15th, 2011 8:00 PM