Stadium Snakes?

Fort Collins residents call for justice in CSU's stadium proposal battle
by Colleen Canty

Fort Collins community members worry bias, subjectivity and politically-motivated agendas may be poisoning a deliberation process for Colorado State University's recent on-campus stadium proposal.

According to a third-generation Fort Collins resident and CSU alumnus Anne Colwell, Jack Graham, CSU athletic director and co-chairman of the Stadium Advisory Committee, was allotted 45 minutes to “coach” student facilitators in their class preceding a public input forum recently.

“The whole public input session just reeked of bias,” Colwell told the Fort Collins City Council members at the last council's meeting.

Martin Carcasson, a CSU associate professor in the Department of Communication Studies and director of The Center for Public Deliberation (CPD) heading up the public input process, negated these allegations in a phone interview proceeding the meeting, claiming Graham “has respect for what CPD does and was not coaching the students.”

“I spent three days in our class preparing the student facilitators for the session; Jack had 45 minutes out of three hours to speak to them,” Carcasson said in the interview. “He came to the class to make sure students knew what the specific issues and ideas were.”

Apparently Colwell was not the only outraged vocalist who claims to see this as an injustice to the deliberation process.

Carcasson has received a “few” emails complaining about Graham's visit to his class and Colwell was the third resident to come before the council Tuesday with complaints about the stadium's public deliberation process.

“These input sessions are supposed to be unbiased and free of the CSU administration's input,” said Doug Brobst, another concerned Fort Collins resident present at the meeting. “I don't feel like this is happening or that we are being heard as citizens of Fort Collins.”

Seemingly troubled by these allegations and others centered around the sub-committees' public confidentiality, council member Gerry Horak called for “a spirit of openness” and council member Lisa Poppaw “an extremely public process.” Carcasson said he remains confident in his efforts and stands by the CPD's pledge to “passionate impartiality,” as stated in his article on the group's website (http://www.cpd.colostate.edu/) discussing their goals.

While Graham's classroom time was not officially announced at the public forum nor balanced with a voice from the opposition, according to Carcasson, this detail does not erode his group's foundational principle to “challenge unfair tactics and question power and relationships.”

“Trying to deny a conspiracy theory only proves it to the people who had the mindset that the stadium is already a done deal,” Carcasson said. “But I take my job very seriously and I feel comfortable we are in it for the right reasons – the students did what they were supposed to do very well.”

A survey given after the forum showed only nine of 224 respondents (.04 percent) believed the facilitators to be strongly or slightly biased, according to Carcasson.

The next full meeting of the Stadium Advisory Committee is scheduled for March 29 at 7 p.m. at the Hilton in Fort Collins. Carcasson will be giving a report and the public is invited to attend.