Part-time students will get an incentive to become full-time at Metropolitan State College of Denver under a tuition plan approved by college trustees Wednesday.
The nine-member board voted unanimously to approve the tuition package, which sets a full-time student’s tuition at $1,216 for 12 to 18 credit hours.
The previous tuition system encouraged students to be part-time because they paid more for each additional hour rather than one flat rate, said Metro president Stephen Jordan.
The move is intended to give students an incentive to take more courses and graduate sooner, he said.
In particular, the new tuition plan targets the 5,000 students who are taking 10 credit hours, just two hours short of full-time status.
Under the new plan, students taking 10 hours will pay $1,013, but they can take up to 18 hours if they pay an additional $203.
Part-time students are more likely to drop out – a problem at Metro, where 40 percent of its 21,000 students are part-time, Jordan said.
Under the new schedule, the average tuition increase is 5 percent.
JEFFERSON COUNTY
“Metal projectiles” hit two vehicles
The Colorado State Patrol is investigating reports that metal projectiles struck at least two vehicles Wednesday morning and afternoon along Colorado 58 outside Golden.
No one was injured, but at least one vehicle sustained a hole in its windshield from “some kind” of projectile about the size of a dime, Trooper Gilbert Mares said.
Authorities were trying to determine whether the metal slugs were bullets or some kind of pellets. “All we know is they’re metal projectiles,” Mares said. “We can’t say at this point that they came from a firearm, but we believe they came from some kind of device.”
Both vehicles were traveling in the same area along Colorado 58 between Boyd and McIntyre streets in the Golden area.
The first incident occurred about 7:30 a.m., and the second about 2:30 p.m., Mares said.
One of the motorists called police and warned co-workers via his company’s e-mail of what he thought might be a sniper shooting at cars, said one of the co-workers, who asked to remain anonymous.
GRAND JUNCTION
Two killed in U.S. 50 crash of car, minivan
A collision involving a minivan and a car Wednesday morning on U.S. 50 in Grand Junction left the child and driver of the Saturn dead.
The car was heading north from B 1/2 Road, crossing U.S. 50 to 28 1/2 Road when it was broadsided by the van, which was heading west, hauling a trailer, according to the Colorado State Patrol. Both vehicles spun, the van coming to rest on the road, the Saturn off the north side of the road.
The child was dead at the scene. The driver, a Grand Junction resident, was taken to St. Mary’s Hospital but died about 30 minutes after the accident. Identities of the victims were not released.
The driver of the van, a Telluride resident, was treated at the scene for minor injuries.
DENVER
Wording approved on affirmative action ban
Backers of an initiative to eliminate affirmative action programs in Colorado advanced a step Wednesday toward the November 2008 ballot.
The state’s Initiative Title Setting Review Board approved language that would appear on the ballot after a two-hour debate.
The proposed initiative would amend the state constitution to prohibit the government from “granting preferential treatment to any individual or group on the basis of sex, race, color, ethnicity or national origin.”
Richard Westfall, lawyer for the sponsors, said the effort to eliminate programs offering preferential treatment to certain groups was simply a way to end forms of government-sponsored discrimination.
Edward Ramey, lawyer for the opponents, called the measure a “classic case of log-rolling” because it yokes the effort to ban “reverse discrimination” to an existing ban on discrimination. Ramey has a week to ask the board to reconsider its decision.
Further legal challenges could come before the sponsors can begin gathering 76,047 valid signatures of Colorado voters needed to get on the ballot.
CENTENNIAL
Suspect arrested in kidnap, carjack
Authorities said Wednesday that they have arrested a 22-year-old kidnapping suspect after a Centennial woman who had been dragged behind her car during a carjacking spotted him and called authorities.
Lee Thomas Driscoll, 22, was arrested Tuesday on warrants including kidnapping, robbery, assault, harassment, marijuana possession and car theft, Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said. Driscoll was being held in the Arapahoe County Detention Center.
On May 30 about 7 a.m., a woman rolled down her car window on East Orchard Road in Centennial to help a man asking for directions. The man opened the car door, got in and hit the woman in the face, Robinson said.
The victim freed herself but got tangled in the seat belt and was dragged about 10 feet down the street, Robinson said. She was treated at a hospital.
On Tuesday about 5:25 p.m., the victim reported seeing the suspect in the 1600 block of West Littleton Boulevard, Robinson said.
DENVER
Infrastructure plan explained to public
About 120 people packed the city’s first public meeting Wednesday night on a proposed plan to fund infrastructure projects throughout the city.
The meeting was largely informational, with city staff and members of Mayor John Hickenlooper’s Infrastructure Priorities Task Force explaining proposed funding mechanisms for recommended projects worth more than $560 million.
The event was part of a series of five public meetings on a proposed bond package and property-tax increase voters are likely to see on the November ballot.
The next meeting is at 6:30 tonight at St. Anthony Central Hospital, Auditorium A, 4231 W. 16th Ave.
More information can be found at DenverInfrastructure
DENVER
Trial date set for two accused of stabbing
A trial date of July 13 was set Wednesday for two women accused of stabbing a woman and her 16-year-old daughter in front of a Denver elementary school.
Ashley Munoz, 21, and Yvonne Munoz, 25, appeared in Denver District Court and waived their right to a preliminary hearing. They face charges of first-degree assault, manacing and other counts in the Feb. 13 incident, said Denver district attorney’s spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough.
