Fort Lewis College News Magazine Issue 60 www.theindyonline.com

FREESeptember 2014

The Independent FLC flcindependent theindependentflc The Independent FLC

EDITOR INCHIEF

Trevor Ogborn

BUSINESSDIRECTOR

Aimee Gardere

CHIEF COPYEDITOR

Jaimee Souder

PRINTEDITOR

Deanna Atkins

ONLINEEDITOR

Carter Solomon

SOCIAL MEDIACOORDINATOR

Remi Majeski

LEAD PRINTDESIGN

Hanna Maddera

ONLINE DESIGNEDITORJulia Volzke

PHOTOGRAPHYEDITOR

Hana Mohsin

VIDEO PRODUCTIONEDITOR

Anthony Martin

PR & ADVERTIZINGCOORDINATOR

Lio Diaz

PR & ADVERTIZINGCOORDINATOR

Emilie von Fay

BUSINESSEmma Vaughn

Ariel Canterbury

COPY EDITINGRay Benton

DESIGNMadison Bush

Camden Smith

PHOTOGRAPHYDrew Lovell

Charine Gonzales

REPORTINGCatherine Wheeler

Dan RileySean Summers

Lauren HammondWhitney Kidd

Hayley Renstrom

BROADCASTNic Hassinger

Haylee KnippelMeryl Ramsey

Editors & Staff

Cover photo by Trevor Ogborn

Campus News: 3New Building, New Home for Geosciences, Physics and Engineering

Story by Catherine Wheeler

Bader and Snyder Complex Begins Stage Two of Renovation

Story by Dan Riley

Community News: 5Transportation Overload: Durango

Story by Sean Summers

COVER STORY: 7Local Honeybee Population

Story by Lauren Hammond

Sports: 9Title IX Brings Change to FLC

Story by Whitney Kidd

Budget: 11Campuswide Student Fee Increases

Story by Hayley Renstrom

Entertainment: 13Horoscopes, Recipe

CONTENTS From the Editor’s DeskDear Readers,

Welcome to The Independent’s first news issue for the 2014-2015 academic year. Our continuing goal is to pro-vide you with relevant and interesting news and informa-tion while gaining newsroom experience in a collegiate setting.

My name is Trevor Ogborn, and I am the Editor in Chief of The Independent for the year. As a junior ma-joring in communications, I hope to bring the last couple years’ knowledge to the table as we propel ourselves into the semester. We are moving into an ambitious semester for The Independent. Online is becoming daily, print is growing both in visuals and content, video is building momentum, and social media is widening its scope. I hope that you check out our various media and follow the improvement and evolution that we are striving for.

Feedback is crucial to our success, especially as we continue to define ourselves. I invite you to email me or comment on our social media sites in order to provide your input. Tell us what you want to see!

Thanks,

Trevor OgbornEditor in ChiefThe Independenttwogborn@fortlewis.edi

Fort Lewis College broke ground over the summer on the newest edition to the cam-

pus: the Geosciences, Physics, and Engineering Building. According to the FLC website, the building is primarily being funded through the state of Colorado, and has been labeled as one of the state’s leading construction projects.

FundingCurrent plans estimate the more than

60,000-square-foot project to cost approximate-ly $35 million, Mark Gutt, the construction manager at FLC, said.

A majority of funding has been and will be provided by the state of Colorado, Maureen Brandon, the dean of the arts and sciences at FLC, said. This correlates with the state’s need for these kinds of jobs.

According to the 2014 State New Economy Index, Colorado is third in the nation with jobs in the high technology field.

Due to the need in Colorado for geosci-ence, physics and engineering jobs, funding has been allocated to support these programs, Bran-don said.

“Funding is always the number one con-cern,” she said.

There are three phases of funding, which started in 2008 for design plans, Gutt said. FLC was given $3.2 million for initial design costs.

FLC only used $2 million, amounting to $1.2 million under expected costs, which was given back to the state, he said.

Phase-one funding, which includes the original $3.2 million, was received in June 2014 and amounted to $10 million total, he said.

Phase two was just recently received in Sep-tember by the college, amounting to $10.8 mil-lion, he said.

“There is a third phase that’s due to come at the end of June 2015,” Gutt said.

The third phase has been estimated at about $8.9 million, which leaves $4 million to be gath-ered through private funding, he said.

The Colorado State Legislature pushed for FLC to receive the funds necessary to secure the building, Brandon said.

State Rep. Mike McLachlan and state Sen. Ellen Roberts were essential throughout the fi-nancing process, she said.

“Without their help, we wouldn’t have got-ten the money,” she said. “They understand the value of Fort Lewis to this portion of the state.”

Origins and the FutureThe project began as a way to boost the sci-

ence programs, in order to keep them competi-tive, Brandon said.

“That has been our rationale for a long time,” she said.

“We were a part of that natural progres-sion,” Ryan Haaland, a professor and the chair of the physics and engineering department, said.

Berndt Hall’s age and condition were major factors in the decision to create a new building that would allow these science departments to grow, Haaland said.

Plans for the GPE Building were finalized in 2010, Gutt said.

The college spent a year with the architects in order to convey the kind of building that the school needs, but plans for the construction of the building collided with the national recession in 2008 through 2009, Brandon said.

This led to many people doubting that the building would ever be complete within a rea-sonable amount of time, Haaland said.

“We were all a little bit pessimistic about the chance of us actually seeing a building any time soon,” he said.

“We had the entire building designed but did not have the funds to construct it for about five years,” Brandon said.

When the recession hit Colorado, it hin-dered the construction plans.

However, the creation of the Bachelor of Science and Engineering degree in the fall of 2010 produced a lot of enthusiasm among stu-dents and propelled the plans forward, Haaland said.

The popularity of the general engineering major has grown from 93 students in 2010 to 228 in 2013, he said.

Haaland and the rest of the engineering de-partment hope that the new GPE Building will allow the engineering program to grow.

They are envisioning 350-400 students in the program with the addition of the new build-ing along with current infrastructure, he said.

Though the current focus is on the GPE Building, it is not the only construction plan that FLC is working on.

There are currently long-term construction plans for the entire campus, Gutt said. Plans include the Whalen Gymnasium and Reed Li-brary.

Following the completion of the GPE Build-ing, FLC will be improving Whalen Gymnasium and the exercise science department structures, Brandon said.

“We’re hopeful to get the planning for the gym started this year, and that will take a finan-cial commitment,” Gutt said.

Construction, Details, and Students

Since groundbreaking has already occurred on the GPE Building site, construction is mov-ing forward.

The contractors are working on finding the existing utilities and deciding what will need tobe done in order to move to the next step, Gutt

said.Additionally, FLC plans to make the GPE

Building environmentally sustainable.The building will be Leadership in Energy

and Environmental Design Gold certified and extremely energy efficient when compared to other laboratory buildings, Gutt said.

Other plans for sustainability include re-gionally sourced materials and air quality, Gutt said.

The GPE Building will include many fea-tures in order to promote a student-centered environment, Brandon said.

“One of the things we told the architects is, wherever you have an oddball space, we want it to be student study space,” she said.

“I’ve never been involved in that level of de-tail in designing a building,” she said. “It’s just such a cool building.”

One of the features she is most excited about is the observatory located on top of the building, Brandon said.

There will be areas in the hallways to dis-play student work, she said. There are also plans to have a pendulum in a stairway.

General purpose rooms will be located in the building as well so that other programs may use them, she said.

Even though the excitement over the GPE Building is quickly growing, students should be aware of the construction that is beginning to loom, Gutt said.

“We try to minimize the impact on stu-dents, but there will be some impact in terms of pedestrian access,” he said.

The southwest corner of campus will be most affected, he said.

“It will be a seamless construction phase,” he said.

FLC plans to open the GPE Building for the 2016 fall semester, Gutt said.

Overall, the GPE Building will be a positive addition to FLC, Brandon said.

“It’s three programs, two departments, one big team,” Haaland said.

N

The south rim of campus is fenced off for the undergo-ing construction of the new Geoscience, Physics, and Engineering building.

Story by Catherine Wheeler Photo by Charine Gonzales Design by Camden Smith

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Campus News

Fort Lewis College is currently in the process of renovating all six buildings in the Bader

and Snyder complex for the first time since their original construction in 1967.

Reasons for RenovationThis project originally started after the

housing administration received feedback from the physical plant employees about the infra-structure of the aging buildings as well as stu-dent feedback about the general layout, Julie Love, the director of Student Housing and Con-ference Services at FLC, said.

The renovation process, which consists of three phases, has already made it through Phase one, which was the internal renovation of Sny-der A and B, Love said.

“They had kind of reached their lifespan,” she said.

ChangesThe infrastructure improvements include

changes to the plumbing, heating, fire safety, electrical systems and information technology, Love said.

“The other big change that took a chunk of the money was that every room throughout the whole building has fire sprinklers in it for fire safety,” she said. “Before, only the common area spaces had sprinklers in them and the bedrooms did not.”

They have also made changes to the ac-cessibility of some of the suites, bringing more modern standards and codes to the design in compliance with the Americans With Disabili-ties Act, she said.

The changes in the general layout of the buildings came after receiving student feedback, Love said.

These changes include the addition of laun-dry rooms in every building and walled lounge areas in the upper level, she said.

Televisions have been added in the loung-es, as well as community shared kitchens in two of the buildings that all Bader and Snyder resi-dents can access, and computer labs in the two C buildings, she said.

“We wanted it to be more modern and nice for the students,” Love said.

Although many changes have been made, many of the older features of the buildings that the students have said they enjoy will remain the same, she said.

These features include the upstairs lounges and large common areas, she said.

According to student feedback in the past, students have enjoyed the lodge feel of the build-ings, so wooden ceilings remain on the second floor of every building, Love said.

All of these changes have also caused an in-crease in pricing for the Bader and Snyder com-plexes, according to the 2014-15 FLC Housing Room Rates pamphlet.

The two completed Snyder buildings, which used to fall in the same pricing tier as the rest of the halls in the complex, now have higher rates than in the past, Love said.

According to the pamphlet, the pricing for single rooms has increased by nearly $500, putting them in the same category as An-imas Hall for single occupancy rooms.

The pamphlet also shows the pricing for double occupan-cy rooms has increased by $515, putting them in the same cate-gory as the dorm rooms in West Hall.

Although the cost of living in these buildings became higher, they were still able to house stu-dents in the complexes, Love said.

“They filled up pretty fast,” she said. “I couldn’t give you an exact comparison, but they defi-nitely had a little bit of momen-tum for sure.”

Student Feedback Zabrian Mills, the new res-

idence director of the Bader and Snyder complexes, said he has received good feedback from the students about the new Snyder buildings.

Residents have been very receptive to the fact that the buildings are so new, Mills said.

They have been taking full advantage of some of the renovations, particularly the new-ly walled-off upstairs lounge area in Snyder B, which he says has become a study area for the entire complex, he said.

The new layout is much quieter than the original, he said.

Jonathan Snell, a freshman resident of Sny-der A, said he likes the changes brought forth by the renovation, particularly the size of the suites and the overall cleanliness and updated design.

Some students in Bader A and B, the two remaining unrenovated buildings, have made it known that they want the buildings to stay the way that they are because of their rustic connection to nature, Snell said. However, he doesn’t think this perception will last for too long.

“We do have some strong traditions in the Bader-Snyders and this is a change, but I think they’re seeing more and more that we’re not taking away traditions,” Mills said. “We’re just giving them new life.”

The ongoing construction does not dis-rupt the student learning environment, he said.

However, it probably makes them wake up a lit-tle earlier during the week.

Funding and Duration of Construction The construction process, which began in

October 2013, had a budget of $3.2 million for the first phase, and has many aspects that will carry over into the rest of the project, Love said.

The second phase has the same budget set aside as the first, she said.

The funding for this project comes direct-ly from the school’s auxiliaries budget, which is funded by savings exclusively from student rent on campus, she said.

“Auxiliaries are unique from other types of budgets at the college in that they’re self sustain-ing, so the money that we bring in is what we use to do all improvements and buy new mat-tresses and refurbish things,” she said.

Phase two of the construction, which en-tails the renovation of Bader C and Snyder C, began on Sept. 22, she said.I t will continue throughout this academic year and is set for completion in May of 2015.

“We haven’t set a specific timeline for finishing the last two buildings, so stay tuned,” she said.

Bader and Snyder Complex Begins Stage Two of Renovation

Torn out dresser in old room of Bader B.

Story by Dan Riley Photo by Charine Gonzales Design by Madison Bush

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Over the summer, Durango saw some major changes to the layout

of several streets and intersections, par-ticularly with regard to bike-friendli-ness on the south end of town.

U.S. Highway 160 and U.S.Highway 550 Continuous Flow Intersection

The completion of the overhauls at the intersection on U.S. Highway 160 and U.S. Highway 550 is classified as a continuous flow intersection, Amber Blake, Durango’s multimodal transpor-tation organizer, said.

The design of this intersection al-lows for traffic to travel with the max-imum amount of efficiency, Blake said.

The continuous flow intersection served as a more efficient and cost-ef-fective solution to the overhaul of that intersection, the other option being a complete overpass, she said.

Durango’s continuous flow in-tersection is not the first intersection based on this model, she said.

The new style of intersection first appeared in New York and is a popular feature in Utah’s infrastructure, Thom-as Humphrey, a traffic engineer with the Colorado Department of Transpor-tation, said.

This intersection model serves to alleviate congestion at the busy junc-tion of Highway 160 and Highway 550, Blake said.

The U.S. Highway 160 and U.S. Highway 550 intersection sees the most traffic of any intersection on the West-ern Slope, which made this year’s over-haul a very necessary project, she said.

The project’s emphasis on added bike friendliness is a new development

adopted from other areas in the state and across the country, Humphrey said.

Bike and Pedestrian TravelThe added focus for increased safe-

ty for bike and foot travelers in Du-rango is part of the effort to encourage multi-modal transportation in town, Blake said.

Although pedestrian travel ac-counts for a small portion of total trav-elers in the United States, 14 percent of all traffic fatalities are pedestrians, Humphrey said.

The increased measures for safe alternative modes of transportation include different colors of paint on the road to signify which vehicles belong where, he said.

Layouts were also changed in lane structure, he said.

The green paint, which can be seen along several points in the new inter-section and other traffic signals in town, signifies bike zones, Humphrey said.

The concept was originally adopt-ed from Portland, Oregon, by Boulder, Colorado, and Durango followed the model, he said.

The green paint aims to increase drivers’ awareness of bike travelers, Humphrey said.

Similarly, the raised crosswalks, known as speed tables, were adapted from a design seen in Boulder, Colora-do, to act as a speed reduction feature for vehicles, he said.

These raised features help to de-crease pedestrians’ risk when crossing at intersections, he said.

The islands incorporated in the continuous flow intersection also in-

crease pedestrian safety by minimiz-ing the time pedestrians spend in the street, he said.

The green bike boxes at traffic sig-nals are a first-of-their-kind develop-ment, Blake said.

“People see the bike boxes and know that a bike belongs there,” she said.

The focus on multi-modal travel in Durango aims to promote sustainable travel, reduce emissions and encourage an active lifestyle locally, she said.

Planning and ImplementationPlanning for the continuous flow

intersection project began in the sum-mer of 2013 and the project, complet-ed late this summer, took one-and-half years to complete, Humphrey said.

Funding for the continuous flow intersection project came from multi-ple sources of federal and state grants, Blake said.

The project had been meticulously planned out in order to maximize effi-ciency and apply for grant funding be-fore it expired, she said.

The continuous flow intersection served as a solution to the lingering problem of the intersection of U.S. Highway 160 and U.S. Highway 550, which Durango has been trying to solve for decades, Humphrey said.

An alternative solution was a full overpass system at the intersection, Humphrey said.

The continuous flow intersection helped to save money with the renova-tion as it allowed much of the existing material to remain in place, Humphrey said.

D TransportationOverload:

urangoStory by Sean Summers Photos by Drew Lovell Design by Camden Smith

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Community News

Given the project took place in a busy, urban area of the city, it was important to maximize efficiency and minimize impact, Blake said.

One complication that has to be considered with projects in Durango is the possibility of encountering disposed uranium tailings, which are remnants of Durango’s mining history, Hum-phrey said.

The continuous flow inter-section project did not encounter any uranium tailings, which add-ed to the speed and efficiency of the project, he said.

The construction allowed much of the existing concrete and all of the light poles to stay in place, saving a significant amount of money on the project, he said.

Overall, the project went very smoothly and quickly, Blake said.

“I think this is the fastest

project we’ve done with CDOT,” she said.

The Colorado Department of Transportation held a grand opening event for the continu-ous flow intersection on Aug.15, Nancy Shanks, the communica-tions manager for the Colorado Department of Transportation, said.

While the project did not re-quire a vote of approval by Du-rango citizens, it was well-pub-licized and promoted to help Durango locals prepare for and adapt to the change, Blake said.

While there are questions and concerns with the new system, public reception of the project has been positive overall, Blake said.

“It’s different, and change is always hard,” Blake said.

A man takes advantage of the new censor padat the stoplight in his business clothes

Bike-friendly tahoe headsNorthon 550, next to new bike lane.

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Durango and the surrounding Four Corners area has seen a decline in the honeybee pop-

ulation size over the last few months. This leaves both room for concern as well as action to be made.

Hallie Venaglia, the Bee Club pres-ident at Fort Lewis College, went to see the bees once before her fascination set in.

“I’m taking this on as a learning ex-perience,” Venaglia said.

The Bee Club is concerned with processing and selling honey as well as

making candles with beeswax that they have gathered, she said.

The club also has to winterize the hives so the colonies make it through to spring in order for the Bee Club to be active next summer, she said.

The Value of Honey BeesA honey bee’s finished product,

honey, helps to aid the discomfort caused by allergens that derive from the pollen in the natural landscape.

Honeyville has been in business selling honey products since 1986, Danny Culhane, owner of Honeyville,

said.“A lot of people eat raw honey, and

it does contain bits of pollen and differ-ent things from the area,” Culhane said. “Some people, it helps. Some people, it doesn’t. It just all depends.”

“There’s nothing very scientific about it, but you kind of desensitize yourself if you’re allergic to whatever’s in the pollen,” he said.

Besides the usefulness of honey aiding allergies, honey bees are also widely valued for their unique skill of pollination.

Story by Lauren Hammond Photos by Trevor Ogborn and Hanna Maddera Design by Hanna Maddera

Honeyville’s bees.

Honeycomb produced by FLC’s honeybees. The Bee Club is processing honey to sell.

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Cover Story

Paula Nelson has been the presi-dent of the 4 Corners Beekeepers Asso-ciation for the past year, with one year remaining on her term, she said.

Although honey bees are not the only pollinators humans look to, a large majority of the plants, vegetable and flowers alike do not self-pollinate, Nel-son said.

One of which are almonds, Nelson said.

“In China, they need to hire a crew to hand pollinate trees because of the decline of honey bees and pollinators in general,” Nelson said.

While the decline in honeybees has created jobs, the reason for decline is a topic of discussion around the world.

Decline in Honeybee PopulationWhen the discussion of a significant

decline in bee population is brought to the table, the use of pesticides and her-bicides is examined as well, Nelson said.

“What they have found is that when bees have been subjected to pesticides, it destroys their internal compass and they get lost,” Nelson said.

This means that they can no longer find their way back to the hive, and the hive dies, she said.

However, according to the United States Department of Agriculture web-site, there is not any definite research that has been done to confirm that pes-ticides and herbicides are causing the massive declines.

The USDA in collaboration with the Agricultural Research Service states on its website that, “Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) threatens the health of honey bees along with the economic stability of commercial beekeeping and pollination operations in the United States.”

The USDA also states that “despite a number of claims in the general and scientific media, a cause or causes of CCD have not been identified by re-searchers.”

CCD is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it dates back as far as the 1870s. Furthermore, the 2006 CCD occur-rence may have even been worse than the present situation, Culhane said.

In 2006 some of the producers lost up to 80 percent of their colonies, he said.

Although some specialists would say that the CCD today is not as severe as past incidents, not many specialists in the area would dispute humans abili-ty to help keep bee population high, she said.

Helping the BeesCulhane’s interest in the bee busi-

ness came about simply because it ran in the family: his father was a beekeep-er.

“One of my dad’s sayings was that he would never put a bee hive where you wouldn’t want to live yourself,” he said.

“How to help them and yet not kill them with said help is a very fine line

that each and every beekeeper is walk-ing daily,” Nelson said.

Because it is such a touchy field of work, there is not much that the general public can do to aid with the issue of CCD, Culhane said.

Inside the hive reside microorgan-isms that are easily killed by a lot of hu-man intervention, which in turn can be devastating to the hive, Nelson said.

The biggest issue currently facing the industry may have something to do with the lack of young people joining the commercial scale beekeeping busi-ness, Culhane said.

“They’re an agricultural commodi-ty, and they’re not as loving as a horse or a cow that has a personality, but there’s definitely a feeling there,” he said.

One of FLC’s honeybees pollenating a flower on campus.

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While not a new regulation, Title IX has been a recent conversation piece at Fort

Lewis College, as new Title IX trainings have taken place on campus.

Part of the reason for this training is not because FLC has been out of com-pliance, but schools such as the Col-

orado State Universities in both Fort Collins and Pueblo were found out of compliance with the law last year. These schools were among 53 other colleges and universities listed in a release from the U.S. Department of Education from May of this year.

Title IX states, “No person in the

U.S. shall, on the basis of sex be exclud-ed from participation in, or denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimi-nation under any educational program or activity receiving federal aid.”

Rape culture versus safe culture has been in the spotlight at a national level, and it was time to bring awareness at a local level at FLC, Molly Wieser, Title IX coordinator said.

“It’s pretty cut and dry,” Wieser said. “Colleges have to train their staff to report when a student reports sexual misconduct to them.”

“And the reason for that isn’t for the college to play big brother and re-vic-timize victims,” she said.

The point of the training is so the college can get a better picture of how campus safety is conducted, she said.

Title IX guidance is sensitive to the victim’s wishes, Wieser said.

“The point of this is not to steal the reign from victims,” she said.“The point of this is to help victims.”

“Across the country, colleges and universities have gotten a reputation for not being responsive to student com-plaints,” she said.

“There are students who come to the professors or come to a staff mem-ber not because they just want to tell that person on the down low but be-cause they expect that person to do something about it.”

Wieser wants to be responsive to that expectation.

If an alleged victim does not wish to report the incident to authorities im-mediately, they do not have to, but they can still report it to faculty to receive further guidance, she said.

When faculty start to get a report from a student, they are trained to quickly say that they have to let the Ti-tle IX Coordinator know about sexual

Story byWhitney Kidd Photos by Hana Mohsin Design by Madison Bush

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Sports

The Skyhawks flag, blowing in the wind oon a gloomy day,

conduct reported to them, she said.If that is approved by the student,

the conversation would take place, but if a student wants to report it to some place confidential, there are several ways to do it, Wieser said.

Title IX is not only about sexual assault, harassment and discrimination but also gender inequalities in sports.

“A lot of people have a misconcep-tion of what Title IX is,” Gary Hunter, director of athletics, said. “A lot of people think it’s an NCAA rule or regulation. It is not. It’s a federal law.”

Title IX states that in or-der to comply with the law, a school’s athletics program must meet at least one of three tests.

Title IX states the three tests are, “The number of par-ticipation opportunities for male and female athletes is substantially proportionate to their respective enrollments; or the institution has a history

and continuing practice of expanding participation opportunities responsive to the developing interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex; or the in-stitution is fully and effectively accom-modating the interests and abilities of the underrepresented sex.”

If men and women are not treated equally at FLC, then the school faces possible penalties and could lose feder-

al funding, Hunter said.To remain in compliance with the

law, FLC has added women’s golf and women’s track and field to its athletics in the past year, Lynne Andrew, FLC as-sociate director of athletics, said.

The athletic department at FLC has made a great stride when it comes to following Title IX rules, Andrew said.

The athletic department felt it was time to add women’s sports since the number of men’s teams have increased over the past few years, she said.

At the time of their pro-posal, the athletic department thought they would get one of the two new sports, but FLC was lucky enough to get both sports since both sports were financially viable, she said.

Andrew said she hopes to add more sports, such as swimming and sand volleyball, in the near future.

A student athlete with a soccer ball.

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FLC’s soccer field.

Campus-wide student fee in-creases are relatively standard at Fort Lewis College and will reap

benefits for students participating on campus.

OP Fee IncreaseA number of student fees have been

raised this year, including Outdoor Pursuits memberships, room and board costs and residential parking permits.

An Outdoor Pursuits membership costs $50 for students this year com-pared to the $40 membership last year.

“That fee hasn’t increased in near-

ly six years, and our costs continue to rise,” Brett Davis, assistant director for Recreational Services, said.

OP’s operation costs continue to rise due to equiptment costs and main-tenance, Davis said. Participation has also increased.

Story by Hayley Renstrom Photos by Drew Lovell Design by Hanna Maddera

Outdoor Pursuits increased their yearly pass for 14-15 school year.

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Budget

The extra money is not solely going to maintenance.

The fee increase also allows for OP to bring in new equipment and pro-graming like stand up paddleboards for the spring semester, more snowboards, and introduction to outdoor skills classes, Davis said.

OP is completely fee funded, so it has to attend closely to what the mem-bers want, he said. Housing Rates Up

Housing rates have also gone up 3% this year, Julie Love, director of Student Housing and Conference Ser-vices, said.

Room and board add to $8,800 for the academic year. It is an extra $280 per ac-ademic year with the 3.3% increase, Love said.

According to FLC’s budget history sheet from the bud-get office website, in the past three years the rate increase has fluctuated between 1.8% and 3.6%.

“So many things go into setting the rates,” Love said.

This includes what the occupancy count will be, what utilities will cost and if the college is pay-ing off any section of the bond payments or taking on more mortgage, she said.

“Things of that sort all go into the decision, and we propose a rate in-crease based on that,” she said.

The housing office isn’t trying to make money off of the students, she said. Breaking even is the goal.

“We’re just trying to do a good job running our operation and giving back

to the students,” Love said. Residents with vehicles parked on

campus will notice that the residential parking permit fee has increased by $10, making the academic year cost for residents $120, Michelle Peterson, Bud-get Director, said.

“Parking operations on campus are self-funded,” Peterson said.

There are 23 parking lots on cam-

pus, she said. The money from the fees goes into

paying for maintenance, enforcement and administration costs and signage, she said.

Registration FeesStudents pay mandatory fees relat-

ed to their number of registered credit hours.

The fee per credit hour is $56.95, Cheryl Wiescamp, CPA in the Control-ler’s Office, said. This adds up to a lump sum all students pay.

“On the back end, what we’re doing is we’re separating it into all the differ-ent places it goes,” Wiescamp said.

The money goes to different places, she said. For instance, the college can specifically count to the last cent what

students paid for the Student Union.

“That money then is only used for the Student Union building,” she said.

All of the fees go through a regu-latory process by the ASFLC to make sure the fee is justifiable and necessary, she said.

Each and ev-ery cent that stu-dents pay in fees is accounted for and available to the pub-lic on the cashier’s website.

Future of Student Fees

“We have not started looking at what the rate in-crease will be next year,” Love said.

FLC’s fiscal year runs July 1st, 2014 to June 30th, 2015, she said.

With the budget being dependent on factors ranging from enrollment numbers

to the housing market in Durango, it’s hard to tell what the in-crease will be next year, she said.

Going off of previous years’ fluctua-tions, an astronomical fee increase next year or in the years following is unlike-ly, Wiescamp said.

Some of the many great pieces of equipment OP has to offer.

IndyThe 12

IndyThe13

Entertainment

Aries (March 21 - April 19):Red is your color, it fits your bold personality. I admire the way you make your red sweatpants a fashion statement around campus. Keep doing that.

Taurus (April 20 - May 20):Get back in touch with the environment. There is no better place than Durango to do that. Visit mountains and valleys in search for the prettiest wildflowers. Take only pictures and one flower, tucked behind your ear.

Gemini (May 21 - June 20):Relax. Put your energy in a jar and seal it for an hour. Lie down with a glass of your favorite beverage and listen to the gentle sounds of the afternoon coming in through the open window.

Cancer (June 21 - July 22):Take a dip in the Animas River and close your eyes. Release your worries in the rushing water, so you can watch them get carried away in the rapids.

Leo (July 23 - August 22):Don’t burst into tears when your plans go wrong. Had a bad day? Week? Year? Today’s the day it turns around. Throw out the homework assignment you did terribly on and get a head start on your next big assignment.

Virgo (August 23 - September 22):Try to get off work this weekend. Drive a couple hours away and channel your inner heart-eyes emoji. Have a good trip!

Libra (September 23 - October 22):Sometimes thinking about things too much makes me indecisive. If you’ve been mulling over something lately, take action and pursue a snap decision.

Scorpio (October 23 - November 21):You keep so much in the locked chest under your bed, but I would never peek inside of it when you’re not home. Trust a friend, and surprise them by sharing something unexpected.

Sagittarius (November 22 -December 21):

You don’t go unappreciated - thank you so much for all of your hard work!

Capricorn (December 22 -January 19):

Yesterday, someone poked fun at me for thinking a picture of myself was cute. Tell yourself that you look great today. It’s not vain.

Aquarius (January 20 - February 18):I disagree with you lately, but that doesn’t make you wrong. You can dive into the swirling water, but I’ll just sit in the shallow end and watch. Just please be careful.

Pisces (February 19 - March 20)Do something creative you haven’t done in awhile. For example, draw something and get lost in it. Don’t leave for good though - come back and share.

This Week’s HoroscopeHoroscopes are an unoffical statement, written by an Indy staff member.

IndyThe 14

½ cup of quinoa2 Roma tomatoes, in chunks

¼ cup of diced onion1 jalapeño

a few sprigs of cilantro1 avocado

1 clove of garlic minced1 head of butter lettuce

Put the quinoa with 1 cup of water in a pan. Bring to a boil, then set to low and cover and let cook for 15 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool.

Put tomatoes, onion, ½ of the jalapeño or however spicy you like your salsa (I did half, and it was really spicy, so do less if you feel the need), cilantro, and garlic in food processor and pulse until fully combined.

Make sure quinoa is cool then put about 1-2 tablespoons of it in each lettuce cup. Don’t over fill. Then layer in salsa and top with slices of avocado and sprigs of leftover cilantro. Enjoy with friends!

What You Will Need:

Recipe: Quinoa Lettuce Wraps with Salsa and Avacado

FALL SEMESTER 2014Last day to withdraw without academic financial penalty*Classes beginDeadline for adding classes (Census Date)Deadline for dropping individual classes without a recorded grade (Census Date)Deadline to submit Application for Graduation (Census Date)Mid-term grades due from facultyDeadline for students to withdraw from an individual courseSpring and Summer semesters advising begins (for currently registered students)Spring and Summer semesters registration (for currently registered students)Thanksgiving Break**Last day of classesFinal examsFinal exams make-upCommencementFinal grades due from faculty***Final grades viewable to students

SPRING SEMESTER 2015Last day to withdraw without academic financial penalty (other fees may still apply)*Classes beginDeadline for adding classes (Census Date)Deadline for dropping individual classes without a recorded grade (Census Date)Deadline to submit Application for Graduation (Census Date)Mid-term grades due from facultyDeadline for students to withdraw from an individual courseSummer and Fall semesters advising begins (for currently registered students)Spring breakSummer and Fall semesters registration (for currently registered students)**Last day of classesFinal examsFinal exams make-upCommencementFinal grades due from faculty***Final grades viewable to students

* Also the deadline, 4 p.m., for submitting petitions for in-state residency and documents for Native American Tuition Waiver.** Also the deadline, 4 p.m., for withdrawing from the term.*** If grades are not viewable by this time, notification will be sent via FLC-STUDENT-OFFICIAL.

FORT LEWIS COLLEGE2014-15 ACADEMIC CALENDAR

FALL SEMESTER 2014Dates subject to change per the approval of the Provost

Sunday, August 31Monday, September 1

4 p.m., Tuesday, September 16Tuesday, September 16Tuesday, September 16

12 p.m. (noon), Monday, October 204 p.m., Friday, October 24

Monday, October 27Monday-Friday, November 10-21Monday-Friday, November 24-28

Friday, December 12Monday-Thursday December 15-18

Friday, December 19Saturday, December 20

10 a.m., Monday, December 221 p.m., Wednesday, December 24

Sunday, January 11Monday, January 12

4 p.m. Tuesday, January 27Tuesday, January 27Tuesday, January 27

12 p.m. (noon) Monday, March 24 p.m. Friday, March 6

Monday, March 9Monday-Friday, March 23-27

Monday-Friday, March 30-April 10Friday, April 24

Monday-Thursday, April 27-30Friday, May 1

Saturday, May 210 a.m., Monday, May 4

1 p.m.Wednesday, May 6