Parking wars at DU
Regarding the 1950s memories you asked readers to share in your winter issue: Who remembers the “student riot” at the Bizad campus one spring between 1954 and ’56? Daily, students parked in time-limited parking on the block-long curb across from the Bizad building. A meter maid chalked tires to catch overtime parkers, and a particularly nasty motorcycle cop wrote the tickets. Students those days had as much creativity as today, and at set times daily, the car in front would move around the block while everyone else moved up one space, hoping to obliterate the telltale chalk mark. This displeased the city fathers, and enforcement increased. One day, a shower of water balloons fell on the motorcycle patrolman, who pulled his gun (as I recall) to the catcalls of students on the fourth-floor library deck. Classes emptied, and soon a crowd jeered from in front of the building while the cop threatened and glowered. Red-faced deans came out to quell the disturbance, but with limited success. The Denver Post sent a photographer to document the “riot,” but things quickly settled down. The University powers-that-be were scandalized by the affair, but as student riots go, it was small potatoes, about on par with the “panty raids” that occurred in other institutions as well as at DU. Students today are considerably less restricted than we were then, but I doubt they have nearly as much fun resisting authority.
Roy Wilson (BSBA ’56)
Sequim, Wash.
Affordable education
I am in total agreement with Don Burgess about “building a better DU.” I am a proud and extremely grateful Women’s College graduate. I could not afford to assist any of my four children in attending DU. I have one child who graduated two years ago from out of state, two who graduated in December (one in state and one out of state), and one graduating in May (in state). Sadly, our family could have easily had a DU family tradition, but we could ill afford it. Please be a “pioneer” in making quality education affordable; until this happens at DU (and other universities/colleges), our nation will continue to slip in global educational and economic ratings.
Estella Rummelein (BA ’03)
Centennial, Colo.
What a waste
DU hosting the first presidential debate of 2012, at a cost of $1.65 million? Ridiculously self-centered, foolish and a waste of money. There are many worthwhile uses of this large amount of money. Shame on both Chancellor Coombe and Mayor Hancock! And “Straight Shooter,” your fluff piece on a consistently right-wing senator from a solidly Republican state, was a waste of time, especially given the Republican leadership’s main aim to remove Obama. The Republican damage to our country and their refusal to govern with the Democrats is much more of a story. The University has become a corporate-controlled Republican school in terms of its views, planning and massive investments in corporate-supported areas. Human service programs appear to be more of an appendage than an important part of DU.
Walter Beck (MSW ’55)
Saco, Maine
Peace Corps lessons
I received the winter 2011 issue of the University of Denver Magazine and was pleased to see your article about the Peace Corps. There is just one correction to be made: I, not Kevin Dixon, was the first Peace Corps volunteer from DU. I graduated from DU with a major in Latin American studies in June 1961 and joined the Peace Corps in August 1961. I applied while at DU and remember when the FBI interviewed Arthur Campa (my adviser), they asked him, “What is Sylvia Boecker running away from?” Dr. Campa answered, “Sylvia is not running away from anything, she is running toward something.”
My assignment was the Philippines, where I taught English and Spanish for two years in Ibajay, Aklan, on the island of Panay. I agree with the other volunteers that the Peace Corps changed my life. I eventually became a lawyer and have been working in immigration law since 1977. Most of my clients are from the Philippines.
Sylvia Boecker (BA ’61)
Williamsburg, Va.
Thanks for the article about Theresa Munanga and her Peace Corps experience in Kenya. My teenage daughter spent a month in Kenya this summer as an intern for Bold Leaders, a group headquartered in Denver that works with teens to develop leadership skills here and in other countries, including Kenya. My daughter has shared a lot about her time in Nairobi and the rural Mount Kenya area, volunteering with several groups and living with a host family with no electricity or plumbing. I was so excited to read that Theresa wrote a book — I immediately purchased a copy for my daughter as a holiday gift. My daughter wants to go back to Kenya and is interested in the Peace Corps when she is done with college. The book will be perfect for her! And I hope I get to borrow the book to read, too. Congratulations, Theresa, on volunteering with the Peace Corps and writing a book about your experiences and insights.
Melissa (Goldman) Turner (BA ’79, MBA ’83)
Denver