CSU protesters call for transparency

BY SCOTT REIF
The Ramspondents

CSU students met on campus at the Lory Student Center Plaza in protest of several issues regarding the school’s administration Nov. 19. The protest was organized by the school’s chapter of the Young Democratic Socialists of America (YDSA), who say that information isn’t being transparently shared to students by administration.

“There’s been a lack of clarity surrounding a bunch of different issues,” Brayden Albrecht, co-chair of the school’s YDSA chapter, said. “The three big ones that we are focusing on are particularly the Aug. 14 Free Speech Policy, which is restrictive toward students, the ability to change gender indicators in Ramweb, and the presence of the Department of Homeland Security here on campus without a statement from the university.”

The students of the YDSA at CSU say they believe firstly that changes to the school’s Free Speech Policy, enacted on right before the semester started, restrict students’ ability to protest and use their right to freedom of speech on campus. Not only this, but the YDSA and other protesting students affirm that the guidelines within said policy are unclear, giving the university more freedom to restrict certain practices of free speech, including chalk-drawing on the Lory Student Center Plaza and the ability to congregate and protest in the school’s public forum. Speakers of the YDSA started the protest by reading the school’s policy in its entirety.

Protesters also argued that the school’s changes to Ramweb and the presence of the Department of Homeland Security on campus are acts of compliance to President Donald Trump’s administration and put immigrant students and students of different gender identities at risk. Albrecht affirms protests like the one held on Wednesday are a way for students to speak out against these policies and actions and start conversation within the school community.

“We as the students, we have power, and sometimes it feels like we can’t do anything at all,” Albrect said. “This event is designed to give people hope, encourage students to talk to their neighbors and to ask questions.”

The student organization plans to march in December in support of an oath to student loyalty. “We’re going to be marching a compact that encourages the school to side with its students rather than the Trump administration,” Albrecht said.

The school’s YDSA chapter as well as Albrecht encourage students to be involved in student activism, including within the organization. “(The YDSA) is a great organization,” Albrecht said. “It’s a way to find hope again. We find hope through fighting, we find hope through activism, and we find hope through community. YDSA has all those things.”

The student organization intends to keep protesting for transparency from the school’s administration and for the school to focus on the safety, protection, and identity of CSU students. 

“We want answers. We want to know what’s going on,” Albrecht said. “This is our university, and we deserve to be kept in the loop.”

Scott Reif is a promotional videographer and online marketer with an affinity for political writing and local arts & culture. He is a student of the Class of 2025 at Colorado State University studying Journalism & Media Communications, as well as a production assistant for Fort Collins' own Barnfly Productions, led by Emmy-award-winner John Barnhardt.

By BEAR ATWOOD
The Ramspondents

In 1998, Rita Hester was killed in Boston. Three years earlier, Chanelle Pickett was also killed in Boston. Both were Black Transgender women and while not connected, their deaths represented a wider issue of violence against transgender individuals.

The  following year, Gwendolyn Ann Smith founded Transgender Day of Remembrance in honor of Hester and Pickett as well as other transgender people who have been killed.

In Fort Collins, the city council recognized Transgender Day of Remembrance during their meeting on Nov. 18. 

Transgender day of Remembrance is being celebrated by the group Rocky Mountain Equality.   They are hosting an event for LGBTQ+ people and allies to come together to show solidarity and recognize the challenges faced by the trans community.

The event will be held on Nov. 20 at the Center for Creativity.

Bear Atwood is a writer and reporter with a passion for community-based journalism. He’s a first gen college student attending CSU with a major in English and a minor in Journalism and Media Communication.

By BEAR ATWOOD
The Ramspondents

While there are no bicycles or races, the Larimer County Food Bank is giving away New Belgium Brewing Company coupons to the first 250 people to donate a frozen turkey from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. Nov. 20 at their annual Tour De Turkey. 

Morgan Villnave is a community engagement manager with the Larimer County Food Bank. 

“We really love that we're able to do this, and we have a really great system to ensure that as many people are getting turkeys as they possibly can,” Villnave said. “Turkeys are really hard for us to source, so being able to do an event like this where the community is showing up and bringing us the turkeys, is really important to us.”

According to Villnave, the food bank needs about 4,700 frozen turkeys to satisfy the needs of their agency partners and schools that request the turkeys. 

While the event is named after the most prominent Thanksgiving food, the food bank is also open to taking in other holiday centerpieces such as pre-cooked ham, other birds and Tofurkys so long as they are also frozen. They will be accepting donations at two locations, the Drake Centre in Fort Collins and the Orchards Shopping Center in Loveland.

The food bank will also take other shelf-stable Thanksgiving-related items during the event that will also be distributed with the turkeys.

“Canned vegetables, canned fruits, canned pie fillings, shelf-stable pie crusts, gravy packets, stuffing, that goes in a tote and we're able to send that off with the turkeys as well,” Villnave said.

The turkeys and other food will be distributed the following three days after the Tour De Turkey to schools and organizations that work with the food bank. 

For those who would like a turkey, Villnave recommends contacting 211 Colorado, a helpline for people to get connected to services and resources like food assistance and more. 

“We work with about 129 different organizations throughout the county who can request turkeys from us,” Villnave said. “Everything goes to families who mostly already said that that's what they need, or agency partners who kind of know what their community looks like a little bit better than what we do.”

The food bank is able to distribute the turkeys so quickly after collection through volunteers who help drive the meat to their different partners. For those interested in volunteering, they can do so on the Tour De Turkey website. 

The food bank is also taking financial donations. Unlike other items that the food bank gets from grocery stores and other partners, stores tend to sell their birds at a loss, making them less incentivised to donate them to the food bank. This makes these donations, both financial and turkey-based, important to the food bank.

Typically, the food bank collects the turkeys through a drive-through system, a system they developed during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

“(During the pandemic) we still needed turkeys, so we did the drive-through model with the help of New Belgium,” Villnave said. “They signed on to help us out at the time, it was just like ‘we're gonna do this as a stopgap to help out during the pandemic,’ and it's turned into a really fun partnership over the past five years. A lot of the New Belgium staff come out wear turkey suits and ride around on these funny little bikes that they've made.”

Bear Atwood is a writer and reporter with a passion for community-based journalism. He’s a first gen college student attending CSU with a major in English and a minor in Journalism and Media Communication.