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Content News Editor

Yann Crist-Evans

Lucas Hess

Tanya Marchun Haley Pruitt

Lacey Schuster

Gavin WisdomClare O’Connor-Seville

JR Starns

Art Director Public Relations &Advertising Director

Online Editor

Creative Director

Financial Advisor

Director of Advertising & PR

Chief Copy Editor Content News Editor

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Kaitie Martinez

“What is a soul? It’s like electricity- we don’t really know what it is but it’s a force that can light up a room” -Ray Charles

Dear readers,

It’s nice to be back in the swing of things here at Fort Lewis. I would like to give special thanks to some exceptional people that have helped the Independent get to where it is now. Thanks to Dr. Leslie Blood, our Practicum Director, Dr. Faron Scott, our Ethical Advisor, Dr. Mika Kusar, our Business Advisor, Rich-ard Ballantine, who has given us extensive support and scholarship aid, and Professor Steve Meyers, who aided in training the photographers. I would also like to thank the returning staff members, our Creative Director Tanya Marchun, Chief Copy Editor Clare O’Connor-Seville, News Editor Gavin Wisdom, Senior Photographer Jordan Boudreaux, and staff members Jonathan Van Orne, Laura Beth Waltz, Mikki Suf-fin, and Ruby Spalding. The Independent also gives a warm welcome to the new editions to our team, our Public Relations Director Lacey Schuster, Advertising Director Haley Pruitt, Finance Advisor John Starns, Online Manager Lucas Hess and Art Director Yann Crist-Evans as well as all the newly joined members. I am proud to work side-by-side with this staff in con-tinuing to provide you with the best source of campus and community news.

Since our last publication in December, the final decisions were made regarding the Program Priori-tization process so please take a look at our article, Major Cuts, a Major Problem? for information on that resolution. There is also a new Arts and Entertainment section in this issue that takes a look at The Wailers and their performance on Friday, Jan. 28. Further-more, the Indy is kicking off sports this semester with the Fort Lewis College basketball season overview. This issue will provide you a peek at what our student government is working at. Furthermore, in this issue’s “Reader’s Perspectives”, previously the “Student Per-spectives section”, there is a commentary letter from one of our readers responding to the article in Issue 18, “Upper Level Administration Under Review: Is FLC Administratively Top Heavy?” by Gavin Wisdom, as well as a cartoon by Malcolm Manygoats. The Inde-pendent is always open for column submissions. If you are interested in writing one please feel free to contact me at kmmartinez@fortlewis.edu.

Visit us online at www.theindyonline.com.Thank you for reading!

Sincerely,

Kaitie MartinezEditor-in-Chief

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Green New Year’s RESOLUTIONS

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Students, faculty and staff are already feeling the impact of academic program cuts that won’t ensue until the spring of 2012.

At the recommendation of President Dene K. Thomas, the Fort Lewis College Board of Trustees made the decision to discontinue computer science information systems, agriculture, and Southwest studies at a meeting in December.

Last semester, Functional Area Review Groups evaluated aca-demic programs in order to determine how and where $551,000 would be cut from academic affairs, which could have come from either academic programs or administration. $424,759 came directly from academic programs, whereas $192,312 was taken from assistant dean stipends in academic affairs.

This $551,000 is 20% of the $4.5 million in cuts sanctioned by the State of Colorado. Currently, state funding for Fort Lewis is at about $12 million, which is anticipated to be as low as $8 million next year.

Administrators said they analyzed reports from the Organi-zational Review Task Force, which reviewed the administrative structure of Fort Lewis, alongside reports from the FARGs so the program and administration reviews could play off each other in the decision to cut academic affairs.

What Program Cuts Mean for Faculty

Eleven current positions are affected by the program reduc-tions, and although efforts will be made to retain as much faculty as possible, the college cannot accommodate them all, Thomas said.

“It’s a painful process. These are good programs and good peo-ple,” she said. “We were trying to make cuts in ways that did the least possible harm.” Thomas said the majority of the cuts are coming from salary and operating costs, the biggest of which is personnel. Tenured faculty will be moved into an available position within the college if there is a position available come the end of the two-year teach-out, she said.

The administration will attempt to relocate non-tenured fac-ulty within the college, but positions cannot be guaranteed. “At the end of the day, looking at the health of the college and the long-term welfare of the college, I did the best I could,” Thomas said.

CSIS Professor Evans Adams has been working at Fort Lewis for 21 years, and was the coordinator of CSIS for 18 years, Adams said. The college hired him to help develop the program in its initial phases. While Adams saw there was a possibility his department could be discontinued, he was surprised to see the college go through with

the decision, he said.The cut has deeply impacted his life, although the cut will not

affect Adams financially, he said, based on his retirement plans at the end of the 2012 academic year.

“The way it affects me personally is to see something that I’ve worked on for the last 21 years be shoved under bulldozers, and I don’t think given a whole lot of consideration as to what the consequences were,” he said.

Low retention rates as well as the high cost of program mainte-nance are cited in the Academic Program Review rationale, published and emailed to the campus community shortly after the decisions were made.

There have only been up to four faculty members in the depart-ment’s history, and currently there are only three, Adams said. One tenured employee recently took a job at Amazon, so there could be a need to fill a position.

The department doesn’t use a lot of specialized software or pro-grams other than the general computer labs, he said.

“I definitely don’t feel real good about working here right now,” he said. “It’s kind of soured me on what was otherwise a fairly positive experience over the last 20 years.”

Aaron Gordon, a CSIS professor and the area coordinator, plans on looking for a job elsewhere, he said.

While Gordon could have petitioned to stay and teach in the math department, he chose to look for other opportunities, he said.

The program cut was a mistake, especially in light of Obama’s recent call for enhanced math and science programs and education and innovation in those fields, he said.

Whether or not Gordon will stay through the two year phase-out period remains to be seen, he said. Depending on the opportunities that present themselves, Gordon could leave before seeing the CSIS program to its end.

The only other CSIS employee, Greg Butler, is at Fort Lewis on a temporary one-year contract, Gordon said. This means that if Gor-don chooses to leave early, Fort Lewis would need to hire a temporary instructor in order for CSIS students to finish their major or minor.

Richard Wheelock, an associate professor in the department of Southwest studies, was also planning on retiring, and will be leaving at the end of this

Other professors in the Southwest studies department are work-ing with the school’s administration to explore options that would allow them to continue teaching at the college.

Professor Andrew Gulliford has tenure in both Southwest stud-ies as well as history, so he is in the process of moving to the History department, Schott said.

Gulliford’s expertise is in public history—the role of historians outside the classroom. Moving Gulliford to the history department could open the door for development in a public history program or other programs that could offer students unique employment opportu-nities down the road, Schott said.

“Fort Lewis is making an attempt to use our resources efficiently and to have a cutting edge curriculum,” Schott said. “It just means tweaking it a little bit.”

Discontinued Programs Rattle Fort Lewis

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Associate Professor Peter McCormick had a joint appointment with environmental studies and also taught in the Native Ameri-can and indigenous studies department, Schott said. He has requested to move to NAIS and continue his work with environ-mental studies.

Moving McCormick to the NAIS department could support Thomas’ plan for growth within that department, while elimi-nating the need for an outside hire, she said. McCormick will complete a request that the department will review, and hopefully the move will be in place by next fall.

Professor Robert Bunting has asked to stay for a few years because he is near retire-ment, she said. Bunting’s request has not yet been resolved. Agriculture instructor Beth LaShell could not be reached for comment.

Changes in Curriculum and Effects

on Program Participants The CSIS and Southwest studies depart-

ments will continue through the end of the 2012-13 academic year, while the associate-level agriculture program will be discontin-ued at the end of the 2011-12 academic year, according to the December 2010 Academic Program Review.

The school sent an email to each of these students immediately following the decision, informing them of the situation and urging them to meet with Assistant Dean Timothy Farrell by the end of January to discuss their needs, Schott said.

“We’re pledged to letting those students finish out their degree, if they want to,” she said.

Fort Lewis is committed to looking at what each student has left to take, she said. The School of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences will either offer the class a student needs, make arrangements for the student to do an independent study, or allow them to take a similar class, she said.

Although new students cannot enroll in any of the discontinued programs, the college will continue to offer courses with a similar focus, Schott said.

Nine students in the department of Southwest studies are being directly affected by the program cuts, Schott said. These stu-dents include majors, minors, and humani-

ties students with Southwest studies as their primary concentration.

“We continue to understand that we’re located in the Southwest and that a sense of place is important here at Fort Lewis College,” Schott said.

The mission of the Center of South-west Studies, which is a separate entity from the academic department, has not changed and will continue to operate in a similar manner as well as house classes for various departments, she said.

Students as new as sophomores and possibly second-semester freshman should be able to graduate with a CSIS major or minor, Adams said.

Adams and Gordon will offer all of the CSIS courses that students need to complete their major or minor require-ments within the next two years, Adams said. This typically means about two CSIS classes per semester.

Adams and Gordon recommend lower level students to take their CSIS classes now, and complete their general education classes later on, Adams said.

While current CSIS students may be able to complete their program, the department cut could have an impact on prospective students’ decision to enroll at Fort Lewis.

While the department cut was up for debate, professors surveyed the CSIS students, and a majority of them reported that they would not have come to Fort Lewis if the CSIS department was not offered when they enrolled, Adams said. The main exceptions were student ath-letes and other students who were here on scholarships.

In 2009, 70 students were declared CSIS majors, according to the Academic Program Review.

News of the program cuts left senior Katie Kelly, a self-constructed sustainable agriculture major, infuriated. While the department had always seemed under-funded, there was a large amount of potential and student interest, as well as community interest and support for the agriculture department, she said.

“For the students to be going out of their way to partake in the depart-ment, and then to just shut it down really

crushed me, it really upset me,” she said. Unlike Kelly, Thomas Markle, a

freshman agriculture student, has not yet completed the agriculture classes he will need for his minor. If he takes the proper courses during the next few semesters, he should be able to finish the program before it is cut, Markle said.

“This was the only school I wanted to go to, and it’s the only one I applied to,” Markle said. “I always knew that CSU was a great school for agriculture. For my minor, it would be a great place, but I don’t want to go to school in Fort Collins.”

Kelly had also considered transfer-ring to CSU prior to the program cut, but chose to stay in Fort Lewis’ agriculture department and create her own major, she said.

Kelly, who has found jobs and work-trade programs overseas as well as job opportunities dealing with sustainable agriculture in Durango, said her educa-tion in both business as well as agriculture is a major factor in creating such oppor-tunities.

The Academic Program Review cites agriculture to account for less than 9 per-cent of the job market in La Plata County and as a decreasing economic driver.

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Laura Beth Waltz never planned on becoming the student body president of Fort Lewis College, but the former softball player has taken on the challenge at the top of ASFLC student government for the remainder of the year.        Waltz steps into office during a trying time at Fort Lewis, with three separate majors recently cut and mixed feelings on how the Fort Lewis administration is dealing with state budget cuts.Waltz was vice president under Alray Nelson for the majority of the Fall 2010 semester. In mid-November, Nelson resigned after receiving a summons by the Durango Police Department for falsely reporting to authorities.

“Most people have moved on, because they believe in student government,” Waltz said. “But it was hard to move on for a lot of people. They felt betrayed.” Student Senator Christine Myers said business in ASFLC is getting back to normal. “Everybody has recovered, and stepped up and done their jobs,” Myers said. “We’re rebuilding our relationships and moving forward with our initiatives.” ASFLC has two new senators this semester, with two more to be appointed soon. One of the new sena-tors, Hugo Pomarico, said that he wanted to get involved because of challenges Fort Lewis is going through, including the Native American tuition waiver and state budget cuts. Pomarico said a main focus for the student senate this semester will be student fees. Two other goals, Waltz said, involve improving school spirit and working on tradition-building events for the Fort Lewis College Centennial. Budget Cuts Just before the end of the Fall 2010 semester, three majors were cut: agricultural science, Southwest studies, and computer science. The decision was made by the FLC Board of Trustees, with input from the administra-tion and faculty. The removal of the three majors affects nine professors and 126 students, and the programs will be gone by the 2012-2013 school year. Most of the decision-making process lacked student leaders. “At one point we had input,” Waltz said, “But

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not much. We could only plea our case.”

Waltz is a sitting member on the Board of Trustees, and is there to provide the board with a student viewpoint, she said.

“President Thomas laid out to us the process for the budget cuts, but we didn’t have any say at all,” Myers said. Despite the disappointment in not being involved in the talks, both Waltz and Myers said they approved of the decisions that were made, considering the college was forced to cut costs of about $551,000. Waltz said that the agriculture program, while having strong ties to Fort Lewis history, only had two students graduating with the major this year. It was also just a two-year program, which didn’t fit in well in the four-year liberal arts setting, she said. In her position as a senator, Myers focuses on bringing healthy, local food to campus as well as serving on the Old Fort Sustainability Committee. She was troubled by the removal of the agriculture major, but said the decision made sense. “It’s a two-year program and most people involved in agriculture have a self-designed major anyway,” Myers said.

The Southwest studies program cut was also logical, Waltz said, because many classes for the degree were already inter-departmental.

As for the computer science program, Waltz said that the graduate rate was low in part because students had transferred to more prestigious computer science schools. She said some of the faculty in the department also work in information technology on campus, and they will continue in those roles.

Overall, Waltz said the school did a good job in minimizing the impact. “We didn’t lose the identity of Fort Lewis at all.”

Role of Student Government on Campus

It is the student government’s job to facilitate communication between both that of students and administration, and students and faculty.

Waltz said President Dene Kay Thomas is doing a solid job in her first year building those ties, and improving the campus.

“There is mistrust with the administration,” she said. “But the previous President started a lot of initiatives that she had to carry out. Thomas has come through. I think she can solve some of our school’s identity crisis problems.”

“Keep in mind,” said Waltz, “the admin-istration is providing a service. As students, we’re customers. We can have a say in what’s going on.”

One way to have a say is to talk to stu-dent body leaders like Waltz. Despite being thrust into her current position at a tough time, her outlook is positive, and she remains on a student level.

“People can come and talk to vice presi-dent Heather Bryant and I,” Waltz said. “Both of us picked this position with a big heart of service and stewardship. We’re open to listen-ing.”

The Nicholreiner family Photo by: Jordan Boudreaux

Unites Durango: An Evening of Reggae

By John Miller

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Bassist: Aston “Family Man” Barrett Drummer: Anthony WatsonVocals: Koolant and Brad Walters

Photos by: Jordan BoudreauxFront Man Koolant getting some crowd particpation going

The Nicholreiner family Photo by: Jordan Boudreaux

Unites Durango: An Evening of Reggae

By John Miller

11

Bassist: Aston “Family Man” Barrett Drummer: Anthony WatsonVocals: Koolant and Brad Walters

Photos by: Jordan BoudreauxFront Man Koolant getting some crowd particpation going

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