The Valley Vanguard

Update: SVSU Discrimination And Harassment Policy Receives Revision

2008-12-07T20:11:00.000-08:00

By Michael Westendorf

SVSU has changed its policy on discrimination, sexual harassment and racial harassment.

In February, the Vanguard reported that the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) gave the policy its worst rating for “at least one policy that both clearly and substantially restricts freedom of speech.”

SVSU Director of Media Relations J.J. Boehm said in February the University might scrutinize the policy more closely as a result of the rating.

The policy undergoes a yearly review and during the summer, the University decided to rewrite it.

FIRE took issue with a provision in the former policy that stated: “Physical acts or threats or verbal slurs, invectives or epithets, taunting or verbal abuse, degrading comments or jokes referring to an individual’s race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, age, marital or familial status, color, height, weight, handicap or disability are strictly prohibited.” This provision has been removed from the updated policy.

“While we are pleased that Saginaw Valley State University has removed the most egregiously unconstitutional section of their policy,” writes William Creeley, FIRE’s director of legal and public advocacy, in an e-mail, “[W]e are disappointed that SVSU has chosen not to incorporate the precise legal standard for peer-on-peer ‘hostile environment’ announced by the United States Supreme Court in Davis v. Monroe County Board of Education.”

Creeley explained, “The Davis standard requires behavior to be ‘so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it effectively bars the victim’s access to an educational opportunity or benefit’ to be considered true, actionable harassment. Unfortunately, SVSU’s new policy fails to include any requirement that the behavior in question be severe, pervasive or objectively offensive. Instead, SVSU’s policy merely requires that the allegedly ‘harassing’ behavior ‘tends to create a hostile environment or that interferes with an individual’s academic effort, employment or participation in University activities.’ This is a less stringent standard, as it declines to incorporate the ‘severe, pervasive or objectively offensive’ threshold requirement. As such, the new policy is impermissibly overbroad because it fails to guarantee sufficient security to expression protected under the First Amendment – which SVSU, as a public university, is legally obligated to uphold.”

FIRE says that as a result of the change, they will reevaluate SVSU’s rating sooner than usual. The organization reviews each university annually.

Because the policy was just changed, the new policy isn’t included in the 2008-09 student handbook.

“SVSU should alert all students about the change so that there is no confusion about which policy is now applicable,” Creeley said.

Endowment Decline Expected To Continue

2008-12-07T20:04:00.000-08:00

By Hillary Darling

Vice President for Administration and Business Affairs James Muladore hasn’t seen anything like the current economic recession in his career. But could the recession cause both a decrease in available scholarship funds and an increase in the demand for financial aid?

It’s a fair assumption, says SVSU Foundation Executive Director Andrew Bethune.

Muladore, who expects an increase in financial aid requests, said SVSU’s endowment declined by 14 percent in market value from July 1 to Oct. 31. Once November’s data is available, he said the decline will most likely be 20 percent to 25 percent.

Endowments are funds donated to a university and invested for scholarships, endowed professors and other programs. SVSU’s endowment fell from $44 million to $38 million in the four month period ending in October.

“We’re not going to be insulated from the general market conditions,” Bethune said. “As the markets go down in such a drastic way, it takes everything with it. We are very conservative investors, and even the most conservative investors are affected by volatile markets.”

While SVSU’s funds dropped by 14 percent, the overall market, as measured by the S&P 500 Index, fell 24 percent in the same period. Muladore explained that not all of SVSU endowment is invested in stocks. Some funds are invested into fixed income assets and alternative investments.

The S&P 500 Index is one of several benchmarks SVSU uses to evaluate the performance of its endowment. The index is based on the performance of 500 stocks tracked by the Standard and Poors Corporation.

As of Dec. 3, the S&P 500 had declined by about 40 percent in 2008. Historically, the average market change is an increase between 8 percent to 10 percent annually.

If the market conditions continue, Muladore said the available amount of endowment distributions for scholarships and other programs would decline.

While he doesn’t expect the number of scholarships to decline, he said the dollar amount offered for each award could be less. University officials are reviewing the situation to see how a long-term market decrease could affect funds available in the future.

Muladore expects the need for the scholarships to grow.

“More individuals or families that in the past have not received financial aid may be in a position [to] now because of their jobs or financial situation,” he said. “I think all universities are thinking about that. It’s safe to say that a large number of have been negatively impacted to some degree by the current economy.”

The University Foundation will distribute approximately $350,000 in scholarships from endowment funds for the current school year. About
$1.5 million was distributed last year for scholarships, endowed faculty chairs and other university programs.

The University has not yet calculated the amount of endowment funds to be provided for scholarships next year.

The University will honor scholarship commitments for the current year. University Foundation endowments do not have an effect on outside aid programs, such as those funded by the federal and state governments or directly by SVSU.

SVSU’s $37 million in endowments is made up of more than 200 separate endowments. The original amount donated to the University is invested. The University Foundation then distributes a certain amount each year to the University based upon a distribution formula linked to the current market value of the individual endowment. The original amount donated remains invested in perpetuity.

About $9 million to $10 million of SVSU’s Oct. 31 endowment value is for scholarships. Each year, the University estimates the next year’s endowment distributions based upon the average value from the past three years. As a result, wild swings in the market, up or down, do not result in severe funding changes.

“With endowments,” Bethune said, “we err on the side of being conservative. We are here for our students. We need to make sure our dollars are there for our students.”

Muladore said the University is prepared as best it can be for the economic downturn. SVSU’s resources have been managed efficiently and conservatively, he said, while SVSU has kept scholarships a priority in the budget.

And SVSU is still the least expensive of the 15 Michigan state universities, he added, about 33 percent less on average.

“The cost of education at SVSU makes it accessible to families,” Muladore said.

Other colleges are also affected by the economic downturn.

While performance numbers from other institutions are not available until early next year, Muladore said all endowments operate in the same investment environment. Although each institution can have investments unique to that school, most similar asset classes have experienced negative performance. Muladore said he is not aware of any particular endowment that is currently experiencing a positive return.

“Across the board, the losses are in a similar range,” Bethune said. “If you see someone who hasn’t lost as much or lost more, they invested with different risks.”

Private universities are facing a different situation, Muladore said. While SVSU is funded by state appropriations and tuition, many private schools depend upon funding from endowment investments for basic operating expenses. For those schools, drastic market decreases could affect staffing and programs.

“[The economy is] on everyone’s minds,” Bethune said. “Markets have gone up and down over the years. This is a pretty wild swing, but things will get better. We have to know how to react. The warning signs are out that this is going to be a rough recession for the entire country. We’ll get through it. It’s just a matter of how long.”

Longstanding Chemistry Professor Dave Swenson Retires

2008-12-07T20:01:00.000-08:00

By Alex Kohut

One glance at Dave Swenson’s office reveals he’s not one to adhere to strict form. A nine-point buck’s head adorns a wall. Around the corner on the adjacent wall is the buck’s mounted backside.

The University’s H.H. Dow Endowed Chair has used a similar twist on the conventional his entire life, dabbling in a myriad of scientific endeavors during his career.

Swenson will close out his tenure at the University this week and embark on yet another endeavor.

“There comes a time in your life when you begin to realize it’s time to move on,” Swenson says.

His 12-year stay at the University is the longest stop Swenson’s made during his nearly 40-year career.

A string of health issues left Swenson with an energy level he says he thinks is too low for his current position, which aided his decision to move on.

Swenson isn’t ready to sit idly by in retirement, however. He hopes to embark on a team project in the Bahamas some time next year. Funding is the only thing holding up his team’s departure.

“In my mind, I’m already there,” he says.

The potential project is a cyclical operation that would involve Swenson’s team extracting vegetable oil from algae. Approximately 10,000 gallons of the oil can be extracted from every acre of algae. The oil is then converted to bio diesel fuel.

That number is a considerably higher figure than the amount possible to extract from other sources such as canola and soy.

A dry protein feed is left behind following the extraction of the oil, which Swenson says will go to feed animals such as pigs and chickens.

The process ensures nothing is wasted. Swenson has adhered to a similar philosophy throughout his life.

“You can’t solve complex issues with simple thinking,” he says. “But you can’t solve complex issues without simplifying.”

Though Swenson accomplished a great deal during his time at the University, he says he doesn’t believe in sticking with the same thing for too long.

“When you start to fade, the only way to rejuvenate yourself is to move on,” he says.

Some people respond to such scenarios by taking a sabbatical. Swenson, however, considers such action a “poor man’s job change.”

“People take sabbaticals with the intention of recharging, but they return and it’s not long before they’re in the same rut again,” he says.

Despite Swenson’s believe in periodic relocation, he says he has respect for those who are able to remain at the same job for a lengthy period of time.

“If you find someone who’s been at the same job for a long time, congratulate them,” he says. “Because that means they’ve got an inner fiber they can continue to draw from.”

During his time at the University, Swenson worked on several initiatives, such as the Greenhouse Project and a handful of Down syndrome collaborations.

Instructor of Chemistry Edward Meisel met Swenson while working on the Greenhouse Project upon Meisel’s arrival at the University in 2005.

“Some people as they age get stuck in their ways,” Meisel says. “But I found Dave to be very moldable and open to new ideas.”

Meisel says this openness to new concepts helped make Swenson popular with his students, staff and faculty.

Meisel recalls Swenson getting a standing ovation for a commencement speech, an occurrence later found was a rarity.

Like his professional life, Swenson’s academic career was also eclectic.

He studied at the University of Minnesota, University of Wisconsin-Madison, and did his post-doctrine work in England.

Swenson’s resume includes a list of locations scattered across the country.

He worked as a research chemist in 1977 at the National Center for Toxicology Research in Jefferson, AK.

Swenson later moved to moved to Kalamazoo, where he worked for The Upjohn Company’s genetic toxicology unit. The company is well-known for developing and manufacturing Motrin.

Swenson says he grew tired of corporate life and by 1987, decided to head out west. He relocated to Phoenix, AZ and developed Karkinos Biochem Inc., where he designed and tested anti-cancer agents.

Never one to get too comfortable, Swenson again relocated in 1990, this time to Louisiana, where he worked at Louisiana State University’s veterinary school.

Swenson arrived at the University in 1996, taking on a role in the chemistry department.

Though the laundry list of significant changes Swenson’s made in his life could intimidate some, he says taking such risks are a necessity.

“If you’re afraid to take a chance, chances are you’ll miss out on something really good.”

SA to Bus Students to Presidential Inauguration

2008-12-07T19:57:00.000-08:00

By Sara Kitchen

SVSU students are planning to join the hundreds of thousands who will flood Washington, D.C., to see President-elect Barack Obama sworn into office.

Tickets are on sale at the box office for the January 20 inauguration. For $50, students may reserve one of 112 seats on two charter buses that will travel to D.C. on the evening of Monday, Jan. 19.

The Swearing-in Ceremony is scheduled for noon at the U.S. Capitol, and a time for the Inaugural Parade down Pennsylvania Avenue has yet to be determined.

Tickets went on sale last Monday and so far 22 have been sold.

Student Association (SA) Parliamentarian Jeremy Jones, who helped plan the event, said he had expected to sell out of tickets last week. He attributes the lag in sales to students focusing on finals, holiday shopping and paying tuition for next semester.

“Hopefully, ticket sales will increase next week and we’ll have another marketing push when winter semester begins,” he said.

Jones said participants are not guaranteed to see Obama or the inauguration due to the crowd the ceremony is anticipated to draw.

“It’s going to be hard once we get there to even walk through the city, let along get close enough to see anything,” he said. “But there’s a chance we’ll get to if we get there early and people are motivated to wait around for hours to get a good spot.

“Just being there will be an amazing experience.”

Although there are no guarantees, undecided sophomore Ashley Kraft and elementary education freshman Laura Miller remain in high spirits.

“I just think it would amazing to be in D.C. at the time of the inauguration,” Kraft said, “because this is history in the making, and I can kind of say that I’m part of history just by being in that place at the time of the inauguration.”

Miller said the disclaimer did not weigh in at all on her decision topurchase a ticket.

“On election night, I felt like I was missing something by not being in Grant Park in Chicago,” she said. “I just would like to be [in D.C.] with fellow Americans. I have accepted that I probably would not see anything.”

Communications sophomore Bethany Freer weighed the pros and cons while at home on Thanksgiving break.

“I did not want to miss class, but this is an important event, and for only fifty dollars, why not?” she said.

Miller predicts the atmosphere in D.C. will be one filled with excitement, anticipation, and tears.

“I pray that on this special day, everybody will be safe and there for Barack rather than starting trouble….” she said.

Kraft said, “I’m kind of afraid that it’s going to be really crazy with everybody there, because I’m sure there are going to be a lot of people, both people for Obama and against.”

Political science sophomore and communications director for the College Republicans Robert Anderson said he thinks he is likely to be the only Republican on the buses.

“People have been calling me a traitor and a bandwagon jumper, but I still have my major disagreements with Obama and his picks for cabinet members thus far,” Anderson said, “but he is my President and I am willing to give him a shot, at least more so than the left ever gave President Bush.”

The trip is sponsored by SA, Minority Student Services, Residence Housing Association, Residential Life, and Student Services and Enrollment Management.

Jones said SA asked Program Board “for an allocation to help cover the costs of food and lessen the financial burden on students, but, unfortunately, Program Board denied the request.”

Program Board President Shane Williamson said that due to the lag of ticket sales among other issues, Program Board voted against funding the trip an additional $1,000.

“If you look at the breakdown of the costs and benefits of the program,” Williamson said, “you can see that 112 students will get about $11,800 of student money to go to an inauguration that one, they are not guaranteed to see Barack Obama, and two, if something goes wrong and they don’t make it there, they don’t get their money back.”

Williamson said Program Board was hesitant to support the trip without first seeing a budget.

“We saw it as kind of a waste of money and ill planning,” he said.

If tickets do not sell out to the students, SA plans to allow faculty and staff the opportunity to purchase them.

“We didn’t think it was right to give students funds to a trip that isn’t necessarily going to benefit SVSU students,” Williamson said.

Jones estimates it will take 10-12 hours to arrive in D.C. The buses will leave the night of the inauguration and arrive back in Saginaw Wednesday morning.

Booze Busters In Cage

2008-12-07T19:53:00.000-08:00

By Noah Essenmacher

Students competed for prizes in a game show contest that tested their knowledge of alcohol-related issues.

Student Association (SA) sponsored the “Booze Busters” game as part of the relaxation activities occurring before exam week.

Peer health educators from the Office of Health Education were responsible for the content and presentation of the game held in the Cardinal Cage on Wednesday night.

“Booze Busters” consisted of 50 fact-based questions that four peer health educators compiled through their own secondary research.

Seven students, down from about 30 who participated last year, competed for three gift cards for the amount of $25 each.

History junior Isaac Hudson won first place, Gary Hardin second and nursing sophomore Katie Jones came in third.

Hudson attended the event with the hope of winning a gift card and enjoyed. He says he never knew there were four shots in a Long Island.

Nursing senior Kyle McDaniel said the purpose of the event was “to promote alcohol awareness through safety and responsibility.”

McDaniel, a peer health educator, said alcohol is not a serious problem on the SVSU campus, but he acknowledges the importance of being aware of the dangers and responsibilities related to alcohol consumption.

SA representative James Wright said alcohol awareness can “help students to make better decisions.”

Games like the Alcohol Awareness Game Show, says Wright, give students important facts they need to make informed decisions regarding alcohol through a fun and engaging activity.

Wright said he was looking forward to students sharing their knowledge and winning prizes.

Education junior Jill Beemer said, “It’s fun to come up with ideas that will benefit [students] and educate them. It takes quite a bit of work.”

Beemer estimates that she and her fellow peer health educators spent approximately twenty hours preparing game.

Braun, Tyner Award Submissions Now Being Accepted

2008-12-07T19:51:00.000-08:00

By Noah Essenmacher

The University will recognize student writers across the disciplines by awarding prizes for their work this winter. Two writing awards in particular note the accomplishments of SVSU students.

The Raymond E. Tyner Writing Excellence Award and the Ruth and Ted Braun Awards for Writing Excellence have been a part of SVSU since 1991 and 1997, respectively. The awards are funded by endowments to the SVSU Foundation, and the award selection process is coordinated by Deb Smith, chair of the University Writing Committee.

The University Writing Program’s Web site says the Braun Awards “have been established to create incentives for outstanding student writing and opportunities for student writers to be recognized and published.”

The Selection Committee for the Braun Awards includes Diane Boehm, professor of English and director of Instructional Support Programs. Boehm is one of six faculty members from different departments who determine the Braun award winners.

Boehm said, “My feeling was that if you really want to encourage various kinds of academic expertise, you have to recognize that in some way. When this first started, there were very few academic awards.”

Students from each of nine categories are recognized with a $250 prize and the publication of their winning pieces in a locally distributed print publication and an online publication available on SVSU’s Web site. Winners are announced at a formal reception.

Boehm said either Ruth or Ted Braun have attended the reception every year.

“Ruth, I think, especially understands the value of honoring students for academic achievement,” she said, “and I think it was the impetus for things like the Sims Public Speaking and other awards that have come along since then.”

Ruth Braun said, “The new types of writing, as well as the subject matter, make for very interesting reading. It is especially gratifying to learn that some students are actually including a mention of the award on their résumés and applications to grad school.”

Boehm sees the contest as a rewarding opportunity for students, especially for those who have their work published for the first time.

“But more than that, it is a chance to really affirm their own capabilities and their hard work,” she said.

Kevan Umberfield, a mathematics and history senior, received the Braun Award in 2007 for his contribution to a historical documentary video in the multimedia category.

Umberfield said receiving the award was an honor.

“It’s great to see the University making these efforts to encourage and reward writing,” he said. “Too often, many students consider writing skills to be primarily useful in areas such as English. It’s wonderful to have the Braun Awards which recognize writing in all areas from the liberal arts, to the sciences, to multimedia.”

Umberfield said that considering the competitive job market and grad school application process, the Braun Award would give him a boost as he finishes his undergraduate career.

The Tyner award offers three prizes of $100 and a plaque.

The Selection Committee is comprised of three judges, two from the English department and one from another department. The Tyner Awards categories include fiction, poetry and nonfiction.

Blair Giesken, a creative writing junior, won the Tyner Award last year.

“Winning this award was the highlight of my educational achievement at Saginaw Valley,” she said. “I felt honored to know that two professors thought highly enough of my work to offer nominations, let alone to win the awards for both [fiction and poetry] categories.”

Giesken said the Tyner Award is a prestigious award and a gratifying and worthwhile way to recognize hardworking student writers.

Submissions for both the Braun Awards and the Tyner Awards call for original student work completed since January 1, 2008 and submitted before March 18, 2009.

Snowfest Blankets Black Box

2008-12-07T19:49:00.000-08:00

By Luke Deming

Competition for an audience wasn’t able to stop Alpha Psi Omega’s (APO) Snowfest talent show.

The theater fraternity’s show had a small audience due to two plays running simultaneously, but those in attendance laughed to parodies on Christmas tunes, popular songs and “illusion” magic that really didn’t fool anybody.

Theater and social work sophomore Christopher Biek is in charge of APO. The show followed the induction of seven new members into the fraternity.

“Half of the theater department is actually in Snow Queen and then we have Thomas the Train going on in the main theater, so we competed with a lot,” Biek said.

Five acts were entered and first, second and third place were awarded humorous gifts. Places were decided by the intensity of the audience’s applause to an act.

Donations of winter clothes for children were collected at the event.

Admission was free, but entering an act cost $5 or a donation of a pair of gloves. Biek championed the economic advantage of donating handwear.

“I thought it was a better deal to bring gloves,” he said.

Justin Gouthro, a Spanish, French and international studies senior, and Zachary Brissette, an accounting and political science junior, were the only act without an APO member, but they took home first place with a rendition of “Hollywood’s Not America” by Ferras.

Their first place win will serve them well, Biek said.

Gouthro and Brissette’s group received a college gift basket of macaroni and cheese, ramen noodles and pop corn.

“Basically it’s what every college student lives off of and gets malnutrition from,” Biek said.

“We both didn’t even realize it was a competition,” Gouthro said. “We were thinking it was just a fun event to come and play in and for people to enjoy and didn’t know there were going to be prizes.”

“We are definitely going to eat that basket,” he added, “Literally the whole basket.”

Physics senior Mike Saloka received second place and a bag of apples, which he said might turn into apple pie. Saloka used “illusion” magic, which included goofy tricks that nearly anyone could do.

Saloka wowed the audience with a trick that had his leg disappear behind a blanket. When the blanket was removed his leg would “suddenly” reappear to the audience’s surprise. He had to talk himself into entering because he wasn’t able to practice much.

“It took me about five minutes [to prepare],” he said “I was like ‘all right I got this. I can make my leg disappear. I’m good.’ And then it was convincing myself that this was actually a good idea to go up against people that actually have talent with this thing that I just threw together.”

Saloka was confident his APO friends would receive his “illusion” magic well. Snowfest gave him another opportunity to showcase his humor.

“[I can] make a fool of myself in front of people who already know I am a fool,” Saloka said.

Third place was shared between a parody on “I’ll Be Home for Christmas” by Danielle Schoeny and Andrea Knoll, and “How the Other Half Lives” by Amanda Mueller and Allison Murray.

Schoeny, a theater senior, acted as a passionate singer who messes up the words to the song, which upsets Knoll, a theater senior.

Mueller, a theater sophomore, and Murray, a marketing sophomore, played women who wanted to experience being rich or poor.

APO’s next big event is the Tony Awards this spring. The awards recognize the most outstanding actors from SVSU plays in the same academic year.

The theater department has more than just APO. The improv group Work n’ Progress meets from 5 a.m. to 7 p.m. Thursdays.

Murray encourages all students to attend theater events such as APO sponsored events, Work n’ Progress and SVSU plays.

“We are going to start doing more events so people should watch out for [us],” he said.

Vision: Government Cannot Allow Higher Education To Become Unaffordable

2008-12-07T19:45:00.000-08:00

439 percent – That’s how much tuition has climbed in the past quarter century. If this trend continues, the cost of higher education will soon become too much for most Americans to handle. The government needs to act now and protect student loans – both private and federal – before we price ourselves out of the education we’ll desperately need to guide our country out of the financial crisis.

Questions surrounding the stability and health of our state, national and world economies have dominated the news since mid-summer. And with the cost of tuition on a consistent rise over the last three decades, the affordability of higher education is becoming a very worrisome matter.

While students can still receive a loan from the government, private loans no longer are being given out with the same ease as they once were. With all the stipulations being levied on banks in this period of deleveraging, the government needs to make sure those private student loans so many in our generation depend on are being watched out for.

An alarming statistic cited in a recent edition of the New York Times shows that while tuition in the United States since 1982 has risen 439 percent, the median family income is up only 147 percent.

This raises a number of issues, not the least of which the educational gap this widening dichotomy is creating – something also cited in the same Times article. If 15 years pass at this same trend, who will be left to patch our sinking ship?

The article goes on to say that for the poorest 20 percent of families, the net cost of a public university is 55 percent of the median income. That meaning over half of their yearly earnings – not savings – would go to their child’s education, should they choose to send him.

It looks as if it’s becoming more difficult than ever to find the elusive American Dream. It’s becoming more difficult than ever for someone to, as the old saying goes, pull themselves up by their boot straps, and attain a comfortable life for themselves and their family.

While banks and automakers, who have very few to blame but themselves for the positions they’re in, ask for billions of dollars to rectify their mistakes, it becomes increasingly difficult for students – the ones left to pay for and then fix this terrible circumstance – to seek private loans from banks to fund their schooling. This is why the government needs to protect these loans.

Yes, some students – and many in the workforce – have abused these loans. They purchase TVs, XBoxs or copious amounts of alcohol with their government loan refund check, or use a private loan to avoid having to actually get a job to support their carefree college lifestyle. But this doesn’t mean we should let precious funding slip from hands of a demographic currently in stark need of it.

The most important tool in navigating through the financial crisis will be education. Enough has been taken from public education in this country. If both federal and private student loans are allowed to remain unprotected by the government, it will be the final blow.

Letter: Intelligent Design Not Science

2008-12-07T19:43:00.000-08:00

To the Editor:

I would like to respond to Intelligent Design editorial written by Luke Deming in the Nov. 24 issue of the Vanguard. Mr. Deming makes some interesting but very uniformed statements in his editorial. Teaching Intelligent Design may be an alternative idea of describing how life started and continues today but it is not science and has no place being taught as such.

Evolution is a scientific theory that not only unifies the themes of biology but is also based on sound science from biology and other scientific fields such as geology and physics. This theory has been upheld in study after study despite intense scientific scrutiny. Most conflicts that do arise in the scientific community occur over specific processes that occur in evolution, but not in the theory of evolution itself.

What I think is most interesting is the lack of understanding that many people have about how science works. Mr. Deming points this out while trying to make his point about offering alternative views in science classes. Science is not a democratic process; we don’t vote on the “best” theory. Instead, we formulate one or more reasonable guesses (or hypotheses), test them and see which hypothesis is supported by the data. If a hypothesis is supported by enough evidence, that hypothesis can become a theory. There have never, ever, been any data generated to suggest that Intelligent Design is a valid hypothesis let alone a scientific theory. This is why it is not taught in science classes.

Aron Drake

Lecturer of Biology

SVSU Faculty

Duncan: Black Friday Now An Ominous Symbol

2008-12-07T19:40:00.000-08:00

By Courtney Duncan

The typical holiday season is supposed to be a celebration of faith or of relationships with friends and family by participating in traditions such as decorating, singing, cooking and of course – shopping. Although spending time with those around us should be the most important part of the holidays, many of us have lost sight of the importance of the break from everyday life we get during the winter months.

This year, for many, Thanksgiving was spent around the dinner table, and it was most likely a great start to the holiday season: Filling up on turkey, potatoes, pie, or whatever else is enjoyable, followed by a football game, nap, or more turkey of course. The unfortunate part of this seemingly good story is what happens when Thanksgiving ends and “Black Friday” begins.

Black Friday was originally named for the heavy amount of traffic cities experienced on the day after Thanksgiving, and continued to be referred to as black because this period of time is when companies are in the black, or are turning a profit. Perhaps after this past Black Friday, we should consider the name to be a bad omen; after all, black as a symbol is usually equated with death, and death is exactly what we got this year.

When a Long Island, N.Y. Wal-Mart opened this Black Friday, Jdimytai Damour of Jamaica, a worker, was trampled to death as customers rushed in to save a few dollars on hot ticket items. In this same stampede, a pregnant woman had to be hospitalized because of potential injuries. Across the country in Palm Desert, Calif., two men possibly fighting over gifts shot and killed one another in a Toys R Us store.

Many have blamed these incidents on bad security and crowd control at stores; there is proposed legislation that would require malls and shops to heighten security and crowd control on days such as this. While stores should be held responsible to some extent to ensure safety and order to their customers, it is important to remember that no one has to act like a primitive animal to save a few dollars. How about we consider a bill that requires each person to treat his fellow citizens humanely?

When referring to this year’s stampede, one reporter stated, “There’s no question the people in that New York crowd lost their humanity in the quest for a bargain.” Another equated holiday shopping with a “blood sport.” Both of these references are undoubtedly true. We have essentially lost respect for our neighbors, our species and ourselves. It is time to realize that saving a few dollars (or even a few hundred) is not worth the mistreatment of those around us.

Essentially, we have lost sight of the ever-so-highly-held Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you,” or “Treat others as you would like to be treated.” It all seems so simple. The rule each of us learned prior to beginning our school careers, or at the very latest during kindergarten, is what we are now failing to remember during a time when life is supposed to be filled with love and enjoyment.

My guess is that none of us would like to die in the next stampede for a Hannah Montana doll, but then again, that’s just my best guess.

Of course, I understand that saving money during the Christmas season to please those we love with incredible gifts is important, especially during the current financial crisis, but as a culture, we have taken things too far. We, as Americans, have become greedy animals.

It is time to take a step back from what we have made the holidays to be and remember that there is more to life than expensive gifts. Take part of the decorating, the caroling, the eating, the movie watching, the sleeping in, and all of the other festivities this season. It is almost guaranteed that memories of these experiences will far surpass remembering the sweater your mom got for you for half price on Black Friday, unless of course she killed someone on the way to get it – then, I’m sure the memory will live with you forever.

After exams are over at the end of this week, take time to enjoy those around you, and don’t get too caught up in what we’ve made the holiday season as an American culture.

Kohut: For Most, Black Friday A Misconception

2008-12-07T19:37:00.000-08:00

By Alex Kohut

The fallout from this year’s Black Friday “festivities” has reinforced the reality that Charlie Brown’s gripes over the commercialization of Christmas 40 years ago will continue to go unheard.

People grappled over cheap high-definition televisions, Blu-Ray players and other items.

The most notable aspect of this year’s Black Friday was the death of a New York Wal-Mart employee, who was trampled to death by deal-hunting shoppers.

But for all the criticisms directed at stores for their Black Friday practices, I can attest that it’s not Thunderdome everywhere on that day.

I got my first taste of Black Friday last year, braving the cold and lots of ice all over my car at 4 a.m. so I could snag an attractively priced George Foreman grill from J.C. Penney.

Most of my drive to the mall was spent mentally prepping myself. I braced myself for the sheer madness I was likely to encounter en route to securing possession of the stupid grill I’d had little interest in when it was priced $20 higher.

I passed Kohl’s just before arriving at the mall and noticed the parking was so congested people had taken the initiative to turn the grass into additional parking spots.

I started to wonder if I’d be able to use my Foreman grill with all of the injuries I’d probably get from my donnybrook with some woman over the last grill in the store.

To my surprise, I was in and out of the store with the grill and no bodily injuries 20 minutes later. The store was densely packed, but orderly.

You could sense some excitement in the air, but nothing that suggested a street fight was on the verge of breaking out near the cookware.

There was simply a warped sense of community amongst people who were willing to forego sleep in the pursuit to max out their credit cards.

This year, I opted to visit Birch Run’s Prime Outlets Thanksgiving night to “celebrate” Black Friday.

I was able to visit the stores I wanted, get the things I needed (in addition to many things I certainly did not need) and get back home, all within a few hours.

The stores were fairly crowded, but again, there was no foreboding of hand-to-hand combat over an in-demand item. I observed many people cordially talking to complete strangers, perhaps sharing a chuckle about standing in a long line to buy bed sheets at the Polo outlet store at 1 a.m.

There was an occasional long line, but no violent incidents of any sort. Perhaps the biggest conflict of the night was waiting in line to use one of two family bathrooms, being the only guy in line, and thus being completely unaware of which one I could use.

Understandably, most of the horrific Black Friday incidents you hear about occur at stores where such incredible bargains are offered that patrons don’t mind beating their fellow man to get that HDTV from a brand you and your victim have never heard of.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t countless stores in your area where you can find a good bargain without the risk of being an unwilling participant in a humanized Running of the Bulls.

As a society, we tend to focus on the negative while conveniently overlooking the positives.

The injuries and occasional deaths resulting from Black Friday sales are no doubt unsettling. They speak ill of the stores that offer these deals and make people in general look like animals for such behavior.

Still, this doesn’t mean we have to ignore any benefit that stems from the sales. Perhaps thinking this way just makes me a shameless consumer. As a matter of fact, I definitely am a shameless consumer.

But Black Friday, when done the right way, is an exciting several hours for folks who don’t mind getting out of a warm bed in the middle of the night to buy a discounted George Foreman grill.

Hilldale Charges Past Cards

2008-12-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

By Alex Baumgardner

After an 0-3 start, the SVSU men’s basketball team was in need of a win Sunday against Hillsdale to avoid its worst start since the 2001-2002 season.

They didn’t get it.

A put-back dunk by former Cardinals forward Luke Laser put the Chargers up 53-50 midway through the second half, giving the Chargers their largest lead of the game. That small bit of irony would prove too much for the Cardinals, as they fell 68-66.

A 21-9 Chargers run, during which Laser had two key buckets, allowed Hillsdale to take its first lead of the game then never look back.

During that run, the Cardinals took 14 three-pointers, making only five of them. While Hillsdale was able to pull away a little more with each passing possession, the Cardinals suffered a prolonged scoring drought, missing five consecutive three pointers on five consecutive trips.

Despite this, the Cardinals only found themselves down by nine with just under three minutes to go. They were able to put together a seven-point run of their own, capped off by a key three-pointer from pro-range by preseason All-GLIAC selection guard Dante Williams, bringing the Cardinals back within two points. Senior guard Lawrence Ross had a chance to force overtime, but failed to convert a heavily contested jumper from the free-throw line as time expired.

Poor shooting has plagued the Cardinals so far this season. As a team, the Cards are a collective 29 percent from behind the arc, six percent lower than their average from a season ago.

Williams, known for his three-point shot, has had a particularly difficult start from the field, shooting 36 percent, four points lower than his 40-percent mark from a year ago.

The Cardinals led for the majority of the game and after a steal led to a fast-break dunk for Ross, the momentum seemed to be in the Cardinals favor. However, Hillsdale struck right back, keeping them in striking distance, before finally taking the lead after Laser’s put back dunk finally gave them the lead.

Free throws also hurt the Cardinals, who shot only 50 percent from the line.

Junior guard Avery Stephenson led the Cardinals in scoring with 16, including a three-pointer to put the Cardinals back within five with 38.9 seconds remaining.

Freshman Greg Foster continued his solid play after replacing last year’s leading scorer, Mario Mackey, as the team’s starting point guard. He finished the game with 10 points and a team-high nine rebounds.

The Cardinals have one more home game this Sunday against Lake Superior State before traveling to Tiffin Dec. 18.

Cardinals Unable To Pull Off Upset Against Hillsdale

2008-12-07T19:32:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

Any hopes SVSU’s women’s basketball team had of upsetting undefeated Hillsdale disappeared fairly early into the game as the Chargers got off to an early lead before running away with a 74-38 victory.

The Cards were never able to get into any sort of rhythm offensively as they turned the ball over early and often. In the first half alone, they had 15 turnovers and finished the game with 24 total.

The offense struggled to get anything going as it took a little over four minutes for the Cards to score their first points. SVSU opened the second half with a nearly five-minute offensive drought. They trailed 33-11 at halftime and by the time they got on the scoreboard in the second half, Hillsdale was up 50-12.

Defensively, the Cards had no answer for the Chargers three point shooting. In the first half, Hillsdale went four-for-six from beyond the arc. For the game, they made nine of their 15 three-point field goals while the Cards only managed to knock down two of their 13.

A big reason that the Chargers were able to dominate the way they did was the rebounding differential. At halftime, the Chargers had out-rebounded the Cards by a 26-11 margin. For the game, they took down 14 more rebounds than the Cards did, with a decisive 45-31 advantage. When Hillsdale wasn’t knocking down three-pointers, they were converting second-chance points thanks to their ability to get offensive rebounds. The rebounds led to a lot of easy points in the paint.

The Cardinals had only three players score in the first half. Senior guard Tricia Everett led the Cards in the first half with five points on two for five shooting from the floor. Sophomore guard Kelley Wesp led all Cardinal scorers with 10 points. Sophomore forward Brittany Burkhardt finished the game with nine points and six rebounds.

Hillsdale junior guard Janay Miller came off the bench to score 21 points. She hit three-pointers on three consecutive possessions in the first half to start what turned out to be a 40-4 Charger run. For the game, she hit all five of the three pointers she attempted and finished with a career high in points in only 22 minutes.

Hillsdale came into the game undefeated with a 5-0 overall record to go along with a 1-0 GLIAC record. SVSU was 1-4 overall and 0-1 in the GLIAC, still looking for their first conference victory. The Chargers proved that SVSU still has a way to go under first year head coach Shannon Baugh if they want to be as successful as them.

While the Cards struggled on both the offensive and defensive sides of the floor, poor defense is something that has plagued the Cards in the early season. The 74 points is the second fewest points allowed in a game this season for the Cards. The 38 points the Cards scored was the second fewest points that they have scored all season.

The Cards look to get on the winning track Dec. 14 when they welcome Lake Superior State to town. Tip off is scheduled for 1 p.m.

Redoute Goes Out On Top

2008-12-07T19:22:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

Senior Sarah Redoute finishes her stellar career being named an honorable mention All-American to go along with First Team ALL-GLIAC. Head Coach Will Stanton wins a post-season award after the Cardinals finish the most successful season in school history.

SVSU senior volleyball player Sarah Redoute can now say that she has come full circle in terms of her volleyball career.

In her seventh grade volleyball tryouts, Redoute was within two picks of not making the team. After recently completing her senior season at SVSU, she was named an honorable mention All-American. Some would consider that a monumental accomplishment for a girl who almost didn’t make her junior high team.

“I find it quite funny when I look back at the time when I first picked up volleyball at seventh grade tryouts and was the 13th pick out of 15 girls trying out. I almost didn’t make the team. After that, I excelled and only wanted to get better. I played AAU volleyball in the off-season every year after that and started my freshmen year on varsity in ninth grade,” Redoute said.

Redoute, who will graduate in May with a degree in marketing, helped the Cards volleyball team have the most successful season in their history. They advanced all the way to the Regional Finals before falling to Grand Valley. Looking back on the season, she is satisfied at how well the team played although she wishes they could have advanced further.

“Our inexperience in the NCAA tournament showed through when we fell to the Lakers yet again. We were crushed that our season ended but we couldn’t help but stand proud knowing that we advanced our team as far as it has ever gone.” Redoute said.

Not only did Redoute have an outstanding senior season, her individual success on the court is something that she has maintained throughout her time at SVSU. She is number one in school history with 1,281 career kills and total attacks with 3,942. She places fifth in SVSU history with 1,188 career digs. She attributes her individual success to the help from her coaches and teammates.

“Tracy Moran was our new assistant coach this season. She helped immensely with the middle attackers, an area that we knew we would need to perfect if we were going to be successful this season. We worked hard with her every practice and it showed in our success.” Redoute said.

Redoute said she is happy to say that she accomplished all the goals that she set out for herself.

“One of my goals this season was to be named First Team All-GLIAC, so I was extremely happy to have accomplished that. All the other individual awards I received were just icing on the cake because I really didn’t expect any of them,” Redoute said. “Our team goals at the beginning of the year consisted of making it to the GLIAC finals and making it past the first round of the NCAA tournament. It’s a satisfying feeling to accomplish goals that were set at the start of the season.”

One might say that the success Redoute has experienced during her volleyball career isn’t all that surprising considering the work that she has put into the game.

“I never stopped trying to be the best that I could be. I will never start things unless I am going to put 110 percent effort into it, and in the end it all paid off.” Redoute said.

Stanton receives post-season Coach of the Year award

Also reaping the benefits of a successful campaign was head coach Will Stanton, who was named Midwest Region Coach of the Year.

Stanton, who is in his fifth season as head coach, guided the Cards to 25 victories, which tied the school record.

Stanton has turned the team into annual conference championship contenders. He was named GLIAC Coach of the Year in 2007, after completing a 20-12 season. In 2006, he coached the Cards to their first above .500 record in eight years. Redoute credited Stanton with helping the team come together to complete the successful season.

“I feel that over the second half of the season he really connected with the team and inspired us to succeed even more,” she said. “After we lost the last match, he shared with us how proud he was of us for accomplishing everything we did. He lets it be known that being named Coach of the Year is a team accomplishment, which is very humble.”

Talented Artists Find Way Into Sins

2008-12-07T19:20:00.000-08:00

By Whitney Ricker

Cardinal Sins, the publication created by SVSU students, faculty, staff, and alumni featuring artwork, photography, prose, and poetry, has released its Fall 2008 issue.

Creative writing senior and Sins editor, Matthew Falk, commented on the large number of submissions with more than 100 entries in color art and more than 90 entries in poetry. Other categories did not receive such a large number of submissions.

“We do have a creative non-fiction/essay category, but no one seems to know about this, because we didn’t get a single entry,” said Falk.

Falk mentioned that selecting which submissions were to be published was made difficult because of the large number of submissions and diverse staff. “Our staff has a lot of different ideas and opinions about what’s good, so we have some lively conversations.”

A winner is chosen from each of the seven categories of submissions. Some submissions often stand out from the others.

“We all loved Adam Baudoux’s ‘Haiti’ photo; there wasn’t much debate about that one,” said Falk. Baudoux, a graphic design senior, also had the winning photo, “Support,” for the color photography section.

“God inspired me to shoot those photos and He is my driving force behind everything I do,” said Baudoux who plans to open a studio in Bay City to continue his career in professional photography.

Professional and technical writing junior Alan J. Dore won the poetry category with his piece “You Can Do / It / ‘s Just 25 Lines.” This poem was written in response to an assignment with requirements Dore considered unreasonable.

“Something about the possibility of graded self-expression seemed unjust,” Dore said.

Dore plans on getting a job as a writer, but if that doesn’t work out, he hopes to keep writing.

“For me, writing can be ridiculously difficult, this process of endless self-discovery,” Dore said. And even though it’s hard for him, he says it would be more difficult not to.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Joel Lewis collaborated with Libby Booth to create their winning color artwork titled “Vacation 296.”

This piece was created at the tri-city Art Battle, a 3 hour competition between local artists to create a painting on the spot. Booth and Lewis didn’t have a plan going into the competition. “We let the art simply come to life as a direct expression of our emotions at the time,” said Lewis.

Since its win at the art battle, “Vacation 296” has been put on view at several other venues in the tri-city area. “For me art is just a fun therapeutic hobby. My main creative outlet is writing,” said Lewis who has one published book, several working manuscripts, and has written children’s stories and poetry.

Lewis and Booth frequently paint together so collaborating on this piece was not uncommon.

“We are very good at feeding off from each others’ artistic energy and creative concepts,” Lewis said.

He explained that Booth is the main talent behind the piece. “If we were personified as cartoon characters, she would be like Rocky, with all of her good ideas and ambitions, and I would be Bullwinkle, the silly comic relief of the duo that keeps us laughing as we work.” Booth plans to travel to Chicago to continue her professional art career.

Graphic design senior Renee Adler was the winner of the black and white artwork section with her piece “Petrified.” “Petrified” was a result of a class assignment requiring the creation of a piece using a “life word.” She had created the piece after a significant breakup.

“I took advantage of my angry feelings toward the world, and ‘Petrified’ was the result.”

“Petrified” was in the 2008 SVSU student art show and was featured in the Hell’s Half Mile Exhibition in Bay City this fall.

Adler is unsure where her talent will lead her in the future. “I wouldn’t mind taking my graphic design skills to a bigger city,” Adler said. “Maybe, eventually, I will own a graphic design business and possibly work from home.”

With her piece “Hello, Littlefoot,” creative writing senior Storm Ainsley won the short fiction category. Ainsley’s piece was influenced by The Land Before Time movies.

“I take great inspiration from the state of childhood,” said Ainsley. “I have a somewhat inexplicable connection to origin/creation stories.”

Ainsley plans to apply to graduate school for a Creative Writing MFA. She has always wanted to write and plans to pursue any opportunities to write that may come her way.

Cardinal Sins release a new issue near the end of the fall and winter semesters.

“There are no hard and fast rules. We will consider anything that is good, fresh, and creative,” said Falk.

With current staff members on the cusp of graduation, Cardinal Sins is looking for new staff members to take their places and continue production.

For those interested, it is encouraged to show up at any of the meetings held Friday mornings at eleven somewhere on the second floor of Brown.

For questions and more information, Matthew Falk can be reached at mdfalk@svsu.edu

Books Take A Back Seat To Major Motion Pictures

2008-12-07T19:17:00.000-08:00

By Lauren Maceri

When the titles Harry Potter, Twilight, and Lord of the Rings are thrown around, the immediate association with them lies in the blockbuster hits they have become.

But before these movies made their way onto the silver screen, they were mass-produced and sold in bookstores. That’s right, these exceedingly popular stories first became books but are quickly finding their way to the backseat of their fabricated widescreen versions.

Many people all over are subsequently replacing literature with the alternative. It is rare to find students and adults indulging themselves in a good read purely for the sake of enjoyment and maybe to expand their intellectual minds.

The issue of time has become such a factor that there are other things people feel they can be doing instead of spending one or two hours on a novel.

But when we take a closer look at how free time is spent among consumers, television and video games play an integral part in entertainment purposes.

There are plenty of students who would rather spend hours upon hours playing mind-numbing video games or watching marathons of their favorite reality shows than opening up a book and simply reading.

A lot of this has aided to the decline in book sales over the years. Is it because students are associating literature with school?

General education courses and many English courses require some type of study in literature.

Albeit, having to read five to eight books throughout the course of a semester can become pretty stressful, that I will agree with, but is this why students don’t want to take the time to read books of interest themselves outside of the confines of course requirements?

Reading can be a completely enriching experience for those who embrace the creative mind. Being able to muster up your own idea of a character, setting or plot based on the descriptions in a novel adds a sense of imaginative creativity that you aren’t offered though movies.

The images are made for you and your whole conception of the book can become skewed.

Avid book readers will argue that movies take a lot away from the quality of the book itself, and it’s true. For the sake of time, and probably money, production companies will alter the story to fit a specific time slot. There is no telling what kinds of information will be absent from the original and so the outcome of the film and its success is all up in the air.

But maybe having books made into movies isn’t such a terrible thing. There have been movies I’ve watched that I would find out later had been based off of a novel. If the movie is good enough, my immediate thought is, “Now I want to read the book.”

But what is to be done about all of the other fascinating and well-written novels that have yet to be touched by the young minds of our generation?

Books are rarely seen as a fun activity to do if bored or if time permits, but reading for pure enjoyment can really benefit individuals. It helps in practicing the skill of focus.

To fully comprehend and understand a novel, you must immerse yourself in the text. This kind of skill can be helpful in the classroom.

By reading, you can learn to teach yourself to pay more attention to the important information and even gain better comprehending skills.

But aside from the academic benefits of reading, there is so much more personality in novels that many of us take for granted.

So instead of waiting until the next big book-turned-movie comes out, go out and actually read the book. You might find it to be more enjoyable, and beneficial, in the long run.

Vocal Resident Takes On New Challenges And Revels About Students

2008-12-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

By Luke Deming

Being a proud member of the SVSU Music Department is something that vocal Artist-in-Residence Julie Meyer doesn’t have to work at. But that doesn’t mean it was easy to make a career adjustment back in 2002 when she took on the position.

“The decision was somewhat difficult for me. I already had a private studio of more than 30 singers and knew that I could retain only a handful if I took on the additional SVSU teaching load,” Meyer said. “However, I certainly welcomed the new challenge.”

Meyer, a soprano singer and pianist, is enlightened to consider herself a member of a Music Department that has a very good reputation. This reputation is evident with the clear improvement of voice students since the artist-in-residence position was created.

“I believe that the number and ability level of singers attending SVSU has risen noticeably. In fact, we often find ourselves having to search for additional adjunct faculty in order to handle the number of voice majors and minors.”

Before 2002, her teaching career at SVSU was sporadic. She started teaching voice in 1976 as an adjunct and left a few years later to work on her doctorate. She came back and occasionally taught in the late 1990s.

Now an artist-in-residence, Meyer gives hourly private lessons to voice majors, teaches two studio voice classes per semester and jury or recital preparation. Her classes range from a beginning voice class and vocal pedagogy classes to a special diction class. But Meyer doesn’t just teach her students, she also tries to give them unique experiences.

“I have brought in many talented artists for master classes with the students, and each year I take interested students to the state National Association of Teachers of Singing fall adjudications, where they have received a number of first, second and third place awards,” Meyer said.

In March 2008, Meyer performed in and helped direct the SVSU Muse and Brunch: High Tea on the High Seas—A Salute to Gilbert. The SVSU Muse and Brunch has been an annual show for the Music Department and the 2005 SVSU Muse and Brunch: A Taste of Opera made the Saginaw News Top Ten List of area performances for the year 2005—a special memory for Meyer.

Accolades and awards aren’t what Meyer takes the most pride in. Meyer’s greatest gratification comes from seeing her students’ improvement—students she considers a blessing to teach.

“I take my greatest pride in my students, their growth and their accomplishments,” Meyer said. “The students are wonderful.”

Meyer attributes the Music Department’s success to the support and commitment from Dr. Donald Bachand and Dr. Mary Hedberg, the past and present Deans of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences.

Meyer acknowledges President Eric Gilbertson’s encouragement has been vital too. The community of support and the Music Department’s dedication to its students has allowed the department to set itself apart.

“I feel the SVSU music department is always looking for ways to improve, to provide the best instruction possible to its students, and to meet the highest academic standards and certifications,” Meyer said.

Meyer has performed with the SVSU choirs, and with the Three Sopranos. She has also been in opera productions, the Saginaw Symphony, Eddy Band, Germania Choir and Orchestra, the Bay City Choral, Saginaw Choral Society, Midland Music Society, and in Pit and Balcony and Bay City Player theatrical productions.

Meyer will be performing with her daughter, Sarah, and the Saginaw Choral Society in Yuletide for the Young at Heart at the Temple Theatre. The Christmas concert takes place December 13.

RFoC Hosts Day Of Cultural Cuisines

2008-11-25T05:14:00.000-08:00

By Hope Bishop

The RFoC is a common hangout for many students on campus, a place to eat a variety of American foods; however, this year’s International Food Fair turned the dining area into a buffet of culture, a place to sit back and experience an entirely new country.

The annual International Food Fair is a fundraiser for SVSU’s English as a Second Language (ESL) program.

Kelly VanConnett, a chef of the RFoC, said, “The food fest began in 1999, but was a lot different then. It was held in Groening Commons, and students prepared the food in their dorm rooms. Now the RFoC provides accessibility to the kitchen and makes things a lot easier.”

International students from Africa, Japan, China, Taiwan, India, Saudi Arabia, Korea, Thailand, Palestine, Kuwait, Germany, Mexico, Pakistan, France, Colombia and students from the United States all cooked foods from their home countries.

The students prepared a variety of ethnic foods at stations set up for each country.

Juan Velasquez, a student from Colombia learning English at SVSU said, “We made sancocho, a very popular Colombian soup. The ingredients weren’t hard to find – potatoes, corn, cilantro, avocado, chicken and green bananas.”

“I like American food,” Velasquez said, “but I cook Colombian food all week.”

Representing Kuwait, mechanical engineering major Ali Ali said, “We made chicken sauce and rice because it’s a very traditional food. The spices were hard to find here, though.”

Victoria Wilson, an undecided student from Germany, prepared kartoffelputter (potato pancakes) and zwiebel kuchen (onion cake).

“It is very good and is a family recipe,” she said. “Everything was easy to find.”

The fair provided the SVSU community with opportunities to sample the variety of foods and cultures.

Nursing freshman Lindsey Wallace said, “It’s interesting to see what different cultures eat and fun to try something else than American food.”

Kailah Happ, an athletic training freshman, said, “Personally, I am used to American food – and there isn’t any ketchup or ranch around here.”

Jolene Jaquays, an ESL specialist at SVSU, said, “I’m really picky, but I managed to find something delicious from every country.”

College Democrats and Republicans Prepare For Elections

2008-11-25T05:12:00.000-08:00

By Noah Essenmacher

SVSU’s College Democrats and College Republicans have their own executive elections coming up this winter.

The College Democrats will elect new officers in two weeks while the College Republicans will hold their election during the first week of the winter semester.

Senior political science major and current vice president of the College Democrats Darren Kregger said incumbent officers will run unopposed for new offices in the annual election.

“There is actually only one contested race,” he said. “There are three returning board members who don’t have any competition, and I think we are all nominated again because they trust us and we work hard [to] make sure things get done.”

“[We] make sure that people are on the same page. There is a lot of communication going on.”

Kregger is nominated for president, and political science major and current secretary Justin Alexander is nominated for vice president. Current treasurer John Kauten is nominated for another term in his current office.

The contested race for the secretary office will be decided in two weeks. Kregger expresses confidence in all of the candidates.

“For all of the candidates, no matter who wins the one contested race, they’re all more than capable of leading,” he said. “Really, from our leadership, I’m looking for stability and consistency and making sure things still get done and bringing new ideas to the table.”

The College Republicans are looking for leaders who are hard-working and committed to their organization according to political science junior and president Brandon Sprague.

Other current executive board members include political science junior and vice president Bridget Sobek, political science junior and secretary Aaron Baylis, and elementary education sophomore and treasurer Tara Robishaw.

Sprague said switching the group’s election to an “every-semester cycle” was a decision made with hopes of increasing student involvement.

“We had been electing once a year, and we felt that with people joining midway through the year that it really wasn’t fair to them to have it locked in for a year,” he said.

Sprague said biannual fall and winter elections prevent future officers from becoming complacent in their positions, a situation that Sprague said has not been an issue for current leaders.

The College Republicans hold elections for president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. Current office holders are renominated unless they choose not to run, and challengers must be nominated and seconded.

“What we will do is have anyone that is nominated in an actual race will get up and have a few minutes to give a speech about why they deserve the position,” Sprague said.

Sprague encourages student involvement in the College Republicans and its elections. The group plans several activities, including a trip to the 2009 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington, D.C.

“Come to one of our meetings and see what we are all about,” Sprague said. “Myself included, we’re not the stereotypical Republicans. There is very much diversity in our group. We have people who align more with the Libertarian Party and some that come in because they have more right-leaning views, but just as a group we are very diverse on many issues.”

Sprague said the organization’s goal is to get Republicans elected to local positions and to increase Republican presence on campus.

Kregger welcomes interested students to attend College Democrats meetings and find out more about the group. Voting privileges within the group are reserved for members who are “involved and showing up for meetings.”

“If [students] can come and they want to be involved ... there are cabinet positions where there is probably going to be more turnover in appointed positions.”

In addition to supporting Democratic candidates, Kregger said the organization seeks an active presence on campus.

The group is planning a Casablanca theme party, a fundraiser in the Saginaw community and an event for the United States presidential inauguration.

“One of the biggest recruitment opportunities is always the Cards Party in the fall,” he said. “But also it is just getting our name out there or doing events on campus to show people that we are active.”

Children's Hospital To Benefit From Up 'til Dawn

2008-11-25T05:11:00.000-08:00

By Sara Kitchen

College students typically have a laundry list of reasons why they’ve stayed up until dawn during their college careers, few of which are as good as addressing letters to support the

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Each year, SVSU’s student-led Up ‘til Dawn organization plans for an all-night letter-addressing party that benefits the Memphis-based pediatric treatment and research facility.

St. Jude’s accepts all children who suffer from cancer and other catastrophic diseases, regardless of a family’s ability to pay for treatment.

Volunteers at Up ‘til Dawn are supplied with the materials to send letters to friends and family members requesting donations for the hospital, which runs primarily on fundraising efforts.

Up ‘til Dawn director and pre-pharmacology senior Ashleigh Corlew led organizational efforts that began early in the semester and produced a registration list of over twice as many students as last year.

Of the program, Corlew said, “I just love it. I’ve been to the hospital in Memphis. You can’t even explain how amazing this place is.”

Corlew, who returned to direct the program for the second consecutive year, said the group reached more students this year by contacting nearly every registered student organization (RSO) on campus and attending their meetings.

“We’re still fairly new,” she said of Up ‘til Dawn, which is in its fifth year. “People are still finding out about what we do. We’re just trying to get the word out that it’s a great cause.”

Students who brought 50 addresses or more were entered in a drawing to win an iPod.

Several students representing RSO’s signed up as teams.

Social work senior Ashley Sherbino volunteered with fellow members of the Student Social Work Organzation (SSWO).

“This is going to a great cause, and what we’re going into gives us a different outlook on what we’re doing this for,” she said.

Sherbino tapped into her high school graduation open house list to fill her address quota and said she planned to stuff letters throughout the night.

“Even though I have to be up at 5:15 a.m., I’m still staying up ‘til dawn,” she said. “I’ve got lots of Diet Coke and the company of friends to keep me awake.”

Mechanical engineering sophomore and Up ‘til Dawn executive board member Shawn Stover was one of two guest speakers at the event. Stover shared his recent experience with kidney failure.

“I know how hard getting funding for medical expenses can be,” he said. “With my situation last year, insurance companies paid for everything. I don’t know how I would be able to pay for school otherwise.”

Stover underwent seven months of dialysis and received a kidney transplant from his father in 2007.

“It means a lot to me that everyone comes to this,” he said.

Volunteers also received a performance from SVSU’s hip hop dance team and Forte. A buffet of food donated from local restaurants fueled hungry letter-stuffers.

Corlew expects to receive updates on the amount SVSU’s letters are generating in coming months and hopes to hit the $20,000 mark.

She wishes to thank all those who volunteered and contributed to the night’s success.

Vanguard Vision: Online Professor Ranking Sites Breed Culture Of Indolence

2008-11-25T05:08:00.000-08:00

The path of least resistance – It seems to be the path chosen to many college students. While Web sites such as Ratemyprofessors.com and CampusBuddy.com provide a seemingly noble service, they make it easier for students to not challenge themselves, and have helped create a generation of young people who feel they’re not paying for an education, but rather for the small white piece of paper handed to them at the end of their four years of attendance.

The issue - The professor rating Web sites have on a student’s scheduling habits.

Our position - Some of these sites provide students easy access to important information – like grade frequencies, percent of students passed and failed, etc – that are making it more simple for students to build the easiest schedule possible, forgetting the reason we’re here is to be challenged culturally and intellectually.

Robert Frost’s quote about taking the road less traveled is such a common colloquialism, it’s almost a cliché. Regardless of the possible writing faux pas that comes along with beginning an editorial with a cliché, it’s important to note that most college students do not follow Mr. Frost’s ideal.

For most of us, the road less travelled is better left to someone else. We put more effort in holding out for late afternoon classes, registering for the easiest courses and finding the easiest professors.

The latter is getting easier by the semester, it seems. Web sites such as Ratemyprofessors.com and CampusBuddy.com offer students peer opinion on professors, and in the latter’s case, the actual grade frequencies of nearly all a school’s teachers.

While this at first seems an incredible help to students – after all, the last thing any of us wants is a semester dealing with professors who are impossible to work with, and they do exist here at SVSU – it also creates a culture of indolence.

There are a number of things offered by a university – a new social network, a mind-opening experience, the opportunity to visit and explore different cultures and countries that for most are a world away. However, the cardinal charge of an institution is providing its students the best education their money can buy, and preparing them for the rest of their life by helping them to learn how to deal with difficult tasks through progressive thinking and problem solving.

These things aren’t gained by filling our schedules with the classes so easy we can get away with showing up 30 percent of the time and turning in work we know is substandard. Settling like this is a terrible habit to stumble into. We should create our party schedule around our school schedule, not the other way around.

And sure, we all have a class or two we just need to fill credits – something else that should rise contempt in even the most languid student. These sites help us

With that, these sites do carry serious merit. Without them, underclassmen and transfer students would be left with even less an idea of what to expect on the first day of each semester, and, in the case of CampusBuddy.com, important information on the grading practices of those teaching.

For students looking to challenge themselves, a site such as CampusBuddy helps show which professors are too difficult, which ones are challenging and fair, and which are barely as interested in attending class as the kid in the back who can’t help but snore through his one o’clock class. So keep in mind, we could be mortgaging our future because some spited student gave their professor an expletive laden review.

Thanksgiving Spirit In Limited Supply With Modern Americans

2008-11-25T05:04:00.000-08:00

By Stuart Chipman

Each year, on the last Thursday of November, when autumn sets the trees ablaze and the first snowflakes begin to paint the landscape, most of the United States sits down to celebrate, watch a football game, gorge on turkey and gorge a little more on pie. Then, they waddle over to the couch and flop down into a tryptophan-induced coma to rest up before the most vehement shopping day of the year.

But rewind. Back at the dinner table, though there is a regrettable loss of focus in this area, many families still make a point to express their gratitude for the unearned privileges they and their ancestors have received, hence the name of the holiday.

But when did this noble tradition start. Rewind some more. In 1621, a group Wampanoag, in their infinite hospitality, saved the lives of a group of ill-equipped colonists who had sentenced themselves to starvation with their lack of knowledge of their environment.

Everyone who attends elementary school learns this in history class. Thanksgiving is a time not to just give thanks in general, but to celebrate hospitality, acceptance and generosity. Or at least it ought to be. Unfortunately, the hospitality the colonists received did not start a domino effect; the horrible exploitation that followed did. As Squanto was thanked for his hospitality by being tossed on a slave ship to Europe, the spirit that started Thanksgiving was turned into the spirit that has dictated the history of immigration in the United States.

America, for any group of first-generation immigrants besides those first colonists, has hardly been the land of dreams. Instead, Africans, Irishmen, Germans, Italians, Eastern Europeans, Asians, Pilipinos and Latinos have been welcomed with animosity, racism, abuse and exploitation. The last immigrants to the U.S. to be met with a warm welcome were those settlers received by Native Americans. Promptly thereafter, the genocide of nearly 12 million American Indians had effectively established the rule of the white man. So long and thanks for the food.

Since then, the United States has accepted more immigrants than any other nation in the world. The brutal trials that each generation of new American immigrants endured makes the U.S. appear to be some global fraternity with a horrible induction ceremony. Indeed, most immigrants would gladly down a few shots and take a naked lap if that would earn them status as an American. Instead, they endured cotton fields, long hours in the hazardous factory, life in the shanty-towns or abuse by the long arm of the law, and still that was often not enough. There is no longer any benevolent tribe of Wampanoag waiting to deliver them a feast. The only relief that immigrants to the U.S. can hope for is that another group would succeed them and inherit the contempt of society.

A recent receptor of this contempt is the Latin American immigrant. Despite the benefits they bring with them – paying far more in taxes than they use in services, doing work that native-born citizens usually consider too dirty or too dangerous (the hotel industry in the Southwest would collapse without immigrant labor) and boosting the economy by lowering the dependency ratio (most immigrants are in their prime working years between 18 and 65, and do not depend entirely on social services) – despite this, people still create a repertoire of derogatory names and myths for Latin Americans, and our government agencies reflect that animosity.

I spent Thanksgiving last year at my brother Gordy’s house in Lansing. My family ate dinner and then everybody over the age of 25 promptly fell asleep, and Gordy and I waltzed around his neighborhood carrying our remaining Thanksgiving cheer between us and sharing it with his friends from El Salvador. I spoke few words in English all night as I celebrated with some of the most hospitable, kind and pleasant people I had ever had the pleasure of meeting. I thought at that moment, this is what Thanksgiving is all about: Hospitality between cultures.

A few weeks ago, Immigration and Naturalization Services burst into the restaurant where these Salvadorans worked – guns drawn, cussing and swearing – and hauled them outside to the parking lot where they laid them face-down on the pavement and chained them together before putting them in the back of a van and bringing them to Detroit.

Some of these immigrants have been in the U.S. for over 20 years, received mortgages to buy homes, been legally married in the U.S. and had children who were in school. The first had come as political refugees and made trips to the Immigration Services building in Chicago as frequently as possible to bring the rest of their family to the U.S. One by one they came, documented and legal. They worked 50 to 60 hour a week at a popular restaurant and a tortilla factory saving money. Nobody knew why they were being arrested. The INS is the only law enforcement agency that does not need a warrant to arrest people or search them.

For whatever reason this family was arrested, the treatment was barbaric. This country was built and survives on immigration. Immigrants do not “take our jobs,” NAFTA does. They are not any more prone to violence or criminality that than the domestic population, statistics that show an incredibly high crime rate among undocumented immigrants are usually including their working as crime, and we all know the horrible effects that pool-cleaning, housekeeping and landscaping has had on California – mainly clean pools, clean houses, and pretty lawns. This story is just an illustration that the spirit of Thanksgiving is only celebrated on one day a year. I challenge Americans to match the unwavering hospitality of the people we treat so poorly.

Intelligent Design Helpful To Show Diversity Of Theories To Students

2008-11-25T04:56:00.000-08:00

By Luke Deming

In 2005, the Kitzmiller vs. Dover Area School District court case in Louisiana questioned the place of the scientific theory Intelligent Design in American schools. The school board required a message be read in science classes indicating there are flaws in the Theory of Evolution and a book advocating Intelligent Design is available for students who want to read it. Students were also encouraged to keep an open mind with scientific theories. Why should a school district be sued over a million dollars because it gave an alternative to Evolution and told students to keep an open mind? The school board was only informing students about Intelligent Design – the theory was not taught in class, it wasn’t advanced as a better theory than Evolution, and students were not told to stop believing in Evolution.

The controversy over teaching Intelligent Design (often linked with Creationism) in public schools has created tension between students, parents, school boards, teachers and scientists. Intelligent Design is the idea that some intelligent cause (usually a supernatural being) created life on Earth, instead of life developing through indirect evolutionary processes such as natural selection.

Intelligent Design has typically been tied to religion and, as a result, has not been taught in public schools. While Evolution has proven to be a solid theory backed by decades of brilliant research, Intelligent Design also has a place being taught in American schools.

Just to clarify, I am not a Christian, I have many problems with organized religion and I don’t consider myself religious. But, if American schools want to compete with the world, its students can’t be limited. The curriculum needs to be expanded to have the most complete and thorough education in the world. That starts with teaching theories that aren’t in textbooks but have support from legitimate scientists, such as Intelligent Design.

In a 2004 Gallup Poll, 35 percent of Americans believed that Darwin’s Theory of Evolution was well supported with evidence. It is clear that more educated people are more likely to believe in Evolution because 52 percent of college graduates believe Evolution is well supported by evidence. But 45 percent of Americans believe that a god created human beings in their present form (this belief denies the evolving process taught in schools). Is it that Americans are dumb and unwilling to believe the Theory of Evolution that has an overwhelming consensus in the scientific community? Is it that Americans haven’t bought into Evolution because of scientific or religious beliefs? Or could it be that they are curious to learn more about the creation of the Earth so they can have a firm belief?

Detractors of Intelligent Design theory often rely heavily on emotional arguments – for example, “it’s religion with science involved.” Intelligent Design doesn’t claim any religious god as creator of the universe, it doesn’t require repentance of sins, it doesn’t say people are going to heaven or hell and it doesn’t use any religious text. It merely makes the argument that life on Earth might have been created by an intelligent force instead of random chance. While Intelligent Design may seem similar to religion, it is by no means a religion or a religious scientific theory. The separation of church and state has no effect on the theory because it’s not a religion.

Others claim that since Intelligent Design’s backers usually are Christians, it is simply Christianity repackaged. Judging a theory by its supporters is unscientific and wrong. Intelligent Design needs to be considered on its own merits if we are going to determine if it is a religious scientific theory. Further, many supporters of Intelligent Design aren’t Christians – this includes atheists who believe a superior alien race created the universe (odd, yet probable considering the enormity of the universe – good chance mathematically there is a brilliant race out there).

Intelligent Design also is attacked for finding flaws or gaps with Evolution. But American children should be educated on these gaps and flaws.

While Evolution is a solid theory, its flaws keep it from being perfect. Dating methods that are supposed to support Evolution often produce inconsistent results and require significant assumptions. Also, fossil records haven’t produced the millions of missing links it predicts. But just because Intelligent Design backers refute Evolution doesn’t mean that Evolution backers shouldn’t refute Intelligent Design.

Evolution supporters should point out that Intelligent Design hasn’t been properly researched, and its mathematical formulas are often assumed or subjective.

Every scientific theory has flaws, gaps and holes in it. While it is important to know the strengths of a theory, recognizing its weaknesses is the next step to truly understanding it.

Teaching children scientific theories and not exposing their flaws and gaps is not just an error of education, it is blatantly misinforming them. By refusing to consider anything but Evolution, and not pointing out flaws in Evolution, we are limiting ourselves on finding out how life on Earth was created, and we are stunting our children from learning about all the possibilities.

Letter: Voting Is A Right, Not A Privilege

2008-11-25T04:55:00.000-08:00

To the Editor:

Just a thought on the article in this week’s Vanguard. It is in reference to the voting on election day. The Kochville Township representatives are wrong.The definition of privilege is something that is conditional or granted after birth, such as driving. Those who choose to drive must, by law, earn the ability by passing state-wide tests. Period. No questions asked.

A right is an inherent, irrevocable entitlement held by all human beings from birth. This includes voting. Plain and simple.

-Judy Herek

SVSU student

Letter: I "Heart" Female Orgasm

2008-11-25T04:53:00.000-08:00

To the Editor:

Am I the only student that didn’t get a thrill out of the “I heart female orgasm” program at this institution? I thought this university was supposed to be one of “higher” learning, not a university that brings in speakers on the topic of pleasuring one’s girlfriend.

Now, before you dismiss me as a prude, hear me out. I am not advocating that sex education is bad. It is helpful and morally correct (in my opinion) to educate ourselves and youth on the consequences of sexual conduct. I am not even saying that sex is bad or taboo to talk about, either. It should, indeed, be taught that sex is not a taboo, but a normal thing for married couples. Let me say that again. Married. And the 75 percent of Americans who claim to be Christians would agree too, right?

Maybe critics are right. Maybe the practice of telling kids to wait until marriage to have sex is not working. What about the other influences that may come into play, however? In other words, what about the media that is on TV, the way our society as a whole views sex, infiltrating into our minds and/or programs like “I heart female orgasm” that talk about sex like it is some nonchalant, watercooler discussion. Vanguard staff writer Courtney Duncan even said, “I’m not going to go as far as Solot and Miller did about the pleasures of sex, because I think that mentality is excessive, but I will say that sex needs further discussion in schools.” (Nov. 17 issue) I completely agree. I was at the event and I felt that it was distasteful and excessive; that the speakers went too far in talking about sex, like it should be enjoyed by anyone and everyone, married or not. Have we lost all sense of moral decency and upright?

I applaud Program Board for always trying offer the latest and greatest entertainment for our campus; however, I just simply ask them to choose more wisely when allocating our school’s funds toward events that are as distasteful as the one witnessed this week.

– Adam Christopher Arnold

Secondary Ed. Senior

Hat Tricks Highlight Weekend

2008-11-25T04:50:00.000-08:00

By Adrian Nida

The Saginaw Valley Club Hockey team swept the weekend with wins over Jackson Community College on Friday and Delta College on Saturday. The sweep brought them up to 10 consecutive wins, a record for the team. Their overall record stands at 15-2-0-1.

The Cardinals opened Friday night’s game against Jackson with a 1-0 lead after the first period. The goal was scored on a power play by junior forward Jon Tibaudo, who went on to get a hat trick and his 103rd career goal.

After a slow start in the first, the Cardinals gained an 8-0 lead during the second period, towering over the Generals. Saginaw’s second goal was scored by senior forward Jake Trombley, his first of two goals that night. Freshman defenseman Steve Pelky scored Saginaw’s third, fifth and final goal of the game, notching a hat trick as well.

Jackson was able to slip the puck past the Cardinals’ freshman goalie Jake Chaillier at 5:09 of the third period, leaving the score at 8-1.

Hat tricks were in the stats for the Cardinals once again on Saturday night as freshman forward Ben Welch scored three of Saginaw’s four goals against Delta. Welch slipped his first past Delta’s goalie on a power play at 12:07, assisted by Tibaudo and Pelky. The Pioneers came back at 17:54 in the first, tying the score 1-1.

Saginaw senior defenseman Brian Jensen was sent to the box at 3:27 in the second, allowing Delta a power-play goal and the lead. The Pioneers held on through the rest of the second period, closing it with a 2-1 lead.

Assistant Captain Brian Jensen explained the team’s struggle during the first two periods.

“We were playing on new lines,” he said. “We didn’t get to practice on them so we didn’t get a gel going. They were switched back so the third went well; we got a lot more production.”

At the start of the third period, the Cardinals’ line changes showed. Assisted by senior forward Matt Fogal and junior defenseman Chris McGuire, Welch scored his second goal of the game, knotting the score at 2. The Cardinals went on to take the lead with Welch’s third goal at 5:15 on a power play assisted by Pelky.

Delta answered back when a tripping penalty on Saginaw freshman forward Tim Tibaudo allowed the Pioneers a power play goal to tie the score 3-3. The Pioneers were then sent to the box and the Cardinals were able to break the tie on a power play. Jensen scored the game-winning goal with assists by Tim Tibaudo and senior forward Nate Engstrom, locking their 4-3 win.

“I couldn’t have done it without Tim,” Jensen explained. “He made the play happen. He grinded the puck and worked it out to Nate. Nate shot and I ran where the rebound was going.

“To have a 10-game win streak feels real good,” Jensen said. “And Delta’s number six in the nation so it was good to win at their house.”

Spikers Fall To GVSU In NCAA Midwest Regional Finals

2008-11-25T04:48:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

The Cardinals volleyball team’s record-setting season came to an end yesterday after losing to Grand Valley in the NCAA Midwest Regional finals.

The Cardinals got things started off taking game one from the Lakers by a score of 26-24. In a game that saw neither team get more than a three point advantage, SVSU used a late rally to seal the game. Grand Valley took game two after rolling out to a 22-10 advantage. The Cardinals did manage to close out the game on a 9-3 run to bring the score to 25-19. The Lakers kept the pressure on the Cardinals in game three, with a 25-19 win. Grand Valley closed out the match with a 25-12 win in game four to advance to the 2008 NCAA Championships.

The Cardinals offense was led by senior outside-hitter Sarah Redoute (Clinton Township, Mich.) who notched her 12th double-double on the evening with 16 kills and 10 digs, while freshman outside-hitter Annie Buxton (Aurora, Ont.) chipped in with nine kills. Junior setter Kait Harris (Essexville, Mich.) dished out 24 assists. Senior Carmen Schacher (Flint, Mich.) had a team-high 16 digs.

After falling to Grand Valley State last week in the finals of the GLIAC tournament, the Cards got little rest before having to face off against Michigan Tech in the opening round of the NCAA Midwest Regional, which took place at Grand Valley. Making the task even more daunting was the fact that the Cards had squared off against the Huskies a week earlier.

The Cardinals had no problem advancing past the Huskies, winning in straight sets by scores of 25-17, 25-23 and 25-20.

In the first game, the Cards got off to a torrid start, leading by as many as 10 points before Michigan Tech was able to make a mini-run at the end of the game to bring the score closer, although the Cards were never in any real danger of dropping the game.

The second game was an up hill battle for the lady Cards who fell behind early. They were able to pull out the come-from-behind victory in a tightly contested match that saw many lead changes.

The third game was a back-and-forth battle. Michigan Tech took their last lead of the game at 8-7 although the Cards were able to score the next three points and take a 10-8 lead. They would not trail for the remainder of the game, finishing off the Huskies 25-20, and capping off the first round victory.

Next up for the Cards was Northern Kentucky, whom the Cardinals had already lost to earlier in the season, dropping a 3-2 decision.

The Cards gained revenge, as they won the match with scores of 19-25, 25-11, 25-17, 19-25 and 15-13.

After dropping the first match, the Cards rebounded and won three out of the last four games to pick up the

3-2 victory.

The first game was close through out, with the score tied at 17 before Northern Kentucky was able to score the next three points to take a 20-17 lead that the Cards could not overcome.

The Cardinals dominated the second game, leading by as many as 13 points before finishing off Northern Kentucky 25-11.

The third game was close until the Cards scored five straight points midway through to take a 14-8 lead, which they would not relinquish.With their season on the line, Northern Kentucky came out in the fourth game determined not to have it come to an end. In what was a close game throughout, Northern Kentucky used mini three-and-four run scoring sprees to take the game 25-19.

SVSU got off to a quick lead in the fifth and final game. They scored the first two points to take an early lead. After Northern Kentucky got on the scoreboard, the Cardinals responded by scoring three of the next four points to take a 6-2 lead. The biggest lead of the game belonged to the Cardinals at 9-4. Northern Kentucky had one final last ditch effort in order to continue their season although it was not enough. They cut the Cardinal lead to 14-13, although the Cardinals were able to get the final point they needed to secure the victory.

Underclassmen All-Conference Award Winners Have Cards Excited For Next Year

2008-11-25T04:43:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

After completing a 7-3 season and narrowly missing out on the playoffs, 12 Cardinal football players reaped the benefits of having stellar individual seasons by being named to the All-GLIAC TEAM.

Making the 2008 All-GLIAC First Team for the Cards was senior offensive lineman Desi Mayner, junior linebacker John Jacobs, and senior defensive back Matthew Black.

The All-GLIAC Second Team was comprised of three Cardinals. Junior tight end Galen Stone joined senior running back Brandon Emeott and senior defensive lineman Brad Bush.

The Cards managed to place six players on the Honorable Mention Team.

On special teams, senior kicker Jeremy Burr and junior punter Kurtis Fournier were named to the Honorable Mention Team. Offensively, junior offensive lineman Jordan DeRosia and senior wide receiver Carl Grimes were named to the team. On the defensive side of the ball, sophomore linebacker Mike LeVand and junior defensive end Toby Goetz were named to the team.

Head coach Jim Collins, who is in his first year, believes the reason so many individuals had successful seasons was because of the work ethic that each had.

“Jeremy Burr put a lot of hard work into his kicking this year,” Collins said. “There’s no doubt in my mind that he was one of the best kickers in the country during the season. Had we not went for it so many times on fourth down inside our opponents 35-yard line, he would have had more opportunities to kick field goals than he ended up getting.”

Emeott became the first Cardinal running back to rush for more than 1,000 yards in a season since the 2005 campaign. He finished the season with 12 rushing touchdowns.

“Brandon had an outstanding season for us,” Collins said. “He really picked up his game in the second half of the season. He has great vision and is able to find the holes that the offensive line opens up for him. He had a great season for us.”

Mayner and DeRosia helped anchor an offensive line that allowed Emeott to top the 1,000-yard mark. They also allowed a league low 10 sacks for the entire season, enabling sophomore quarterback Dan Stiefel to have plenty of time in the pocket to find an open receiver.

Many times, the receiver that Stiefel connected with was Stone, who scored at least one touchdown in seven of the team’s 10 games. Stone finished the season with 47 receptions for 641 yards and eight touchdowns.

“Galen really had a great year for us,” Collins said. “Especially in the second half of the season when we were trying to get into the playoff hunt and we needed a big play, we could always count on Galen. It seemed like the last half of the season he had a big game every single game, which really helped take the pressure off some of the other players.”

Jacobs and Black each had stellar seasons defensively for the Cards. Jacobs led the GLIAC in total tackles with 131 for the season. Jacobs still has another season to go and has already moved into 12th place for career tackles at SVSU. Black, who made First Team along with Jacobs, had five interceptions, which was good for third in the GLIAC. He returned one of the interceptions for a touchdown. Black also finished the season on a high note as he was named the GLIAC defensive player of the week for his performance in the Cardinals last game against Ferris State. He had two fumble recoveries, an interception and a blocked punt that was returned for a touchdown.

Fournier had a good season punting the ball, placing sixth in the GLIAC with a 40.2 yard average per punt with a season long of 70 yards.

Goetz and Bush had solid seasons defensively for the Cards, both placing in the top 20 of the GLIAC in total sacks.

Goetz finished with 4.5 sacks, good for 13th place in the conference. Bush finished with 3.5 sacks, which placed him in a tie for 17th place.

LeVand, who is only a sophomore, placed 23rd in the GLIAC in total tackles with 71. He also had 3.5 sacks to cap off a strong season defensively.

Grimes was Stiefel’s second favorite receiver behind Stone. Grimes finished the season with 37 receptions for 507 yards and three touchdowns. He averaged 50.7 yards per game.

With six players returning to the team that made All-Conference, Collins is excited for the future.

“With all of the talent that we have returning, there’s no telling how far we can go next season,” Collins said.

Artists-in-Residence Work With Students In The Community

2008-11-25T04:39:00.000-08:00

By Luke Deming

In 2005, SVSU’s music department made a unique adjustment to its list of faculty by adding three artist-in-residence positions.

Jeff Hall, a jazz artist-in-residence, had worked as an adjunct at SVSU from 1974 to 2005, but he decided it was a good time to try something new.

“I had been working here at least 25 years as an adjunct and Dr. Peretz, head of the department, asked me if I’d be interested in doing this artist-in-residence [position].” Hall said. “I asked him what it was and he told me what it was and I said ‘Oh yeah I’ll do it.’”

Hall plays the saxophone, is a stand out jazz artist and has his own Web site, www.jeffhalljazz.com, where he offers a variety of music services. The change in position has changed job requirements for Hall, and has had many benefits.

“It was an opportunity for me to get out in the community more. I was pretty much just sort of here at SVSU and I didn’t do a whole lot outside of SVSU,” he said. “Part of being an artist-in-residence is going to various high schools. So you go down to these high schools and work with the high school kids. This gives them an opportunity to hear and see and talk to a jazz artist, and also to familiarize them with the art and what we do here at SVSU.”

Hall has seen a growth spurt in students playing jazz at SVSU. This might be due to Hall taking students to perform, talk about different instruments and discuss jazz music with high school bands.

“We don’t call it recruiting although it is recruiting. It’s just exposing the college and the music department to high schools in the area.”

Along with going to high schools, artists-in-residence also teach two classes per semester, put two concerts on a year where they perform and give applied lessons to music students.

Currently Hall and Julie Meyer are the only artists-in-residence because a former artist-in-residence is on leave. The position has demanded more time from Hall.

“I have to admit there’s a lot more work involved than I thought. I have to do all the preparation for the concerts and I have to work with the students a lot more.”

Even though Hall is putting in more hours, he enjoys the position.

“The thing I really like about being a jazz artist-in-residence is the opportunity to put on these concerts,” said Hall. “What we do is we hire some top drawer professional musicians from the Michigan area and do this last concert on [Nov. 15], that was a themed concert. What we did there was we played some jazz that was made famous by vibraphone players.”

The concert on Nov. 15 was titled “Jazz: The Michigan Connection” and it featured some of the best musicians in Michigan.

“Jim Cooper is one of the greatest vibraphone players you’re ever going to hear. And the piano player, Dave Hay, was astounding.”

Hall mentioned that bringing professional musicians to SVSU has two benefits.

First, quality entertainment is available to the community. Second, the concerts have a unique impact on SVSU music students. Students at other universities often don’t get opportunities to interact with professional musicians.

“Our kids get a chance to go to them and talk to them,” Hall said. “In fact, what Mr. Cooper did was he took one of our students away on the night of the concert. Took him away separately for about half an hour to 45 minutes and worked with him privately. That’s an opportunity that you very rarely get.

“[The concerts] expose our music students to these other professionals. They are exposed to what they do, they’re exposed to how they perform, they’re exposed to how they think.”

Hall’s next concert is on Thursday, Dec. 4 in Rhea Miller Recital Hall and features a student jazz ensemble. Hall is the director. Hall’s next concert is in March.

“I am almost done, thank heavens, for this concert. Although I’ve got a few other things I’ve got to brush up. It’s going to be cool jazz. It’s music that was popular from the 50s to the 60s,” Hall said. “So what I am doing is I’m looking up this old music, listening to it and then rearranging it for this ensemble that I have. So it’s time consuming, but that’s actually fun for me. I enjoy doing that so I don’t really mind putting the effort into that.”

Twilight's Effects Fail To Dazzle

2008-11-25T04:36:00.000-08:00

By Patrick Herald

Twilight, the latest young-adult book-to-movie adaptation, is a reasonably entertaining way to spend two hours, but ultimately seems more like an extended TV show pilot than a proper film.

Based on the first of Stephanie Meyer’s popular novels, Twilight follows Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) as she moves to a new high school and subsequently befriends Edward (Robert Pattinson), a member of the mysterious Cullen family.

As most will know, Edward and his family are vampires, and the real conflict in the story is how Bella and Edward can navigate their quickly romantic relationship in the face of their fundamental difference.

Stewart is a good choice for this sort of role. I recognized her from Into the Wild, where she also successfully played a character who is a bit of an outsider, but not an outcast; Bella is different but not a weirdo. Before she meets Edward, she befriends a nice, unassuming group of students. These early scenes are some of the best in Twilight. The actors seem like pretty convincing high school students, and they have the familiarity with each other that lends itself well to a group of friends.

Pattinson overacts somewhat in his role as Edward. I realize the character is supposed to be intense and all, but if a student at my old high school made the same scowls and glowering stares all day that Edward does, he’d likely be the laughing stock of the school.

Twilight portrays the ordinary well. Bella hanging out with her friends, Bella eating with her dad, all of these things are grounded in the real are convincing.

When it tries to handle the supernatural, though, like Edward’s superhuman speed, it just doesn’t handle it in a convincing way. Surely it is difficult to show someone running faster than a human can run – how, after all, do you show the impossible? I thought The Matrix did a pretty good job, though. When Edward runs up a hillside with Bella on his back, his legs a blur, I had to remind myself that his name wasn’t Sonic, and he is a vampire, not a hedgehog.

The visual effects throughout Twilight seemed more like something from television than the movies. The construction of the story line did as well, as it’s clear that the plot of Twilight is only a short prequel in the grand scheme of things. When the movie ended, I felt like I had just seen the pilot of a new show rather than a film. It’s easy for me to imagine the characters from Twilight in a new show along the lines of Heroes, and there’s nothing wrong with that. It just doesn’t seem proper for a feature film. The villain is even introduced and dealt with in a brief and episodic manner.

One thing that clearly does make Twilight stand out from television, though, is the cinematography. Set in rural Washington, the gloomy and tree-covered hills, always awash with rain, set the mood beautifully. There’s even a shot of Bella and Edward at the top of a massive pine overlooking a lake that’s downright profound to look at.

I didn’t dislike Twilight by any means, but I feel like I would be lying if I said it is a good movie. It would be fairer to call it a decent way to pass an evening, but one which is already forgotten on the drive home. Vampire movies are so numerous now that I could only be satisfied by something truly outstanding; Twilight is far from it.

A Lack Of Rap Turns Hip-Hop Into Electro Pop

2008-11-25T04:32:00.000-08:00

By Alex Kohut

Experimentation is dicey business within hip-hop. While the genre isn’t the one-note wasteland its detractors paint it as, rap albums who stray too far from the tried-and-true formulas more often miss than hit.

Six years after the fact, Common still hasn’t erased the hippie-channeled Electric Circus from the gray matter of most listeners.

Mos Def made his 1999 debut classic Black on Both Sides seem like a faint memory when he unleashed The New Danger in 2004; a mish-mash of elementary guitar licks and equally forgettable lyrics.

Even Andre 3000’s semi-brilliant The Love Below caused a stir because the more eccentric half of OutKast had benched his effortless delivery in favor of crooning.

Despite the resistance to anything too different in hip-hop, it’s vital for emcees to keep retooling and evolving as creative artists. Fail to do that and you either fall off the map or become a caricature of your former self (hi, Snoop Dogg!).

So maybe it shouldn’t come as any surprise to see, or rather hear, Kanye West wiping the drawing board clean and drawing up a new game plan on 808s and Heartbreak.

After all, the producer/rapper invests almost as much energy in convincing the world of his complexities as he does creating music.

Unfortunately for Kanye followers, the self-professed Michael Jordan of the music industry’s new game plan is delivered to our eardrums via Auto-Tune.

The once rightfully mocked robotic voice distorter, utilized strictly by atrocities such as T-Pain, somehow has become a hip-hop staple in the last two years.

Used sparingly by West not too long ago, he and the device now are as tough to pry apart as a parent dropping their kid off for the first day of kindergarten.

The Auto-Tune also makes any sort of fluid lyrical delivery an exercise in futility. But don’t worry, because Ye takes a page out of Andre 3000’s book here and scraps the rapping all together.

That in and of itself wouldn’t be such an issue if doing so hadn’t seemingly stripped the typically quotable Kanye of anything interesting to lament.

“Welcome to Heartbreak” is a potentially intriguing confession of self-loathing marred by cringe-worthy lyrics such as, “My god said she’s getting married by the lake / But I couldn’t figure out who I’d wanna take / Bad enough that I showed up late / I had to leave before they even cut the cake.”

I’m sure Kanye meant well with tracks such as “Coldest Winter,” an ode to his mother who died during surgery last year.

But with precisely six paint-by-number lines spread over three verses, the content is too generic to generate anything poignant.

As with his catalog of solo classics, Kanye himself is at the helm of the production.

Unlike his first three albums, though, West opts to limit the crate-digging and sticks mostly to a sound best linked to electro pop.

The near-complete absence of rapping coupled with production that strays from hip-hop mores results in an album with lethargic, uninspired offerings.

Anyone who’s followed West’s career knows a workaholic lies beneath the childish façade. Let’s commend him for his attempt to nudge along his innovator status. But then let’s tell him he needs to head back to the drawing board.

Student Claims Voter Intimidation At Kochville Township Hall

2008-11-16T20:21:00.000-08:00

By Sara Kitchen

An SVSU student leader says some of the more than 350 students who cast votes at Kochville Township Hall on Nov. 4 were intimidated by election officials.

Kochville Township Clerk Sheila Hill, however, says such claims are untrue.

SVSU Student Association Parliamentarian Jeremy Jones was one of several student leaders who organized free transportation using University vans to take students to and from the polls throughout the day.

Jones said some students claimed they received inappropriate treatment from election officials and at least one Kochville community member.

“Some students had issues getting ballots to actually vote, and there were just some very inappropriate comments made toward the students about what we were doing,” Jones said. “They weren’t happy with Student Association providing transportation. They were not happy that the students were out there voting, and many people complained that students were there.”

“There were also some reports of voter intimidation,” Jones claimed, “specifically on the students. Students said the poll workers were rolling their eyes at students when they voted.”

While no students were denied ballots, Jones said one student had difficulties obtaining a provisional ballot.

“She had registered in Kochville Township but they didn’t have her on file, so technically she was still registered in Detroit,” he said, adding she had a hard time obtaining a provisional ballot.

Jones says he also had an issue with a Kochville resident outside of the Hall.

“There was one lady, she was yelling at students telling them we should not be voting here because we don t live here…we should be voting where our parents live,” he said.

Hill said, “Jeremy came in, he was a bit rude, and he said some of my inspectors were harassing the SVSU students. So I said OK I will take care of it if there was a problem. And I had been going up and down those stairs all day long checking out students who were not on the poll list.”

“After he left, I went up and I spoke to each one of my inspectors,” Hill continued, “whom all have been inspectors, except for three, for a long time, and they go to training all the time.”

Hill said no student reported voter intimidation. “Other than Jeremy, no one came and complained to me,” she said.

Lyle Brewster, a Kochville Township resident served as the Republican challenger, a position that includes making sure voters are properly registered. If something isn’t right, “we have a right to challenge it,” he said.

Federal law prohibits the display of partisan symbols within 100 feet of voting locations.

Brewster said Jones wore a Barack Obama T-shirt.

“I asked him, ‘How can you be using this van and bringing these students here with an Obama t-shirt on?” Brewster said. “That is illegal, because even the state will tell you basically that you can transport people, but you’re not supposed to tell people how to vote, and he was trying to tell people how to vote by wearing that T-shirt.”

Hill said, “We asked him to go outside and turn his t-shirt inside out and all he could do was yell at us and say ‘I want to talk to you. I want to talk to you.’ And I said, ‘I will after you change your T-shirt.’”

Jones said he was not aware of the law and cooperated when he was informed.

Brewster said he noticed another student who wore an Obama pin.

“The [inspector] said you can’t vote with that pin on, and the girl said, ‘OK whatever,’ and she put it in her pocket. I don’t think students know what the rules and regulations are,” he said.

Regarding SVSU students registering to vote in Kochville Township, Hill said, “It’s fine. In fact, when I found out they were registering, I ordered extra voting booths,” she said. Hill said she made sure an up-to-date poll book was available.

Hill said students did not have trouble obtaining ballots, “but there were many of them not registered, and if they were registered, they were registered in a different community. A couple of them we sent to Saginaw Township and to the city where they were registered to vote, but no one was refused.”

“I think that when a lot of theses students got registered here, they put their home address down,” Brewster said.

Brewster and Hill said a few students weren’t sure how to complete a ballot.

“I saw about three or four of them where the students said ‘I need a new ballot because I goofed up on this,’” Brewster said.

While several SVSU students registered to vote on campus through campaign workers, Hill says her staff and inspectors, “did not come to the college to register students. Some [students] felt that because they weren’t registered, it was our fault, and it wasn’t because I don’t know who came [to SVSU].”

“It’s not that they shouldn’t be registering or that they shouldn’t be voting,” Hill said. “That’s not how I feel. They should register and they should vote.”

“That is a privilege, to vote,” Brewster said. “If you don’t take the privilege to vote, that’s your responsibility. It’s not the township’s job to go around and ask everyone to vote.” Despite Jones’ experience, he wanted to thank the Kochville community members who were supportive of students voting.

A Peaceful Pursuit

2008-11-16T20:18:00.000-08:00

By Mary Oakley

A post-graduation option that has sent SVSU alumni around the world is continuing to attract hopefuls with the desire to provide service in distant cultures.

The Peace Corps currently has 7,876 volunteers and trainees serving in 76 countries. Volunteers work in one of five programs: education, health, environment, business, or agriculture.

According to Kristin Wegner, the Peace Corps Recruitment Representative for the Chicago region, 21 SVSU alumni have served in the Peace Corps. The Chicago region includes Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Michigan, and Ohio.

Serving in the Peace Corps is a 27 month commitment. Participants spend three months in-country with other volunteers receiving training for the duties they will perform abroad.

“Volunteers spend the first three months in language, cross-cultural, technical, and health and safety skills training,” Wegner said.

SVSU business graduate Rollin Johnson served in the Peace Corps from 2003-2005 in Nepal and Burkina Faso, West Africa. “Part of your service is a proficiency of the language of the country you are working in,” he said.

During his service, Johnson learned two languages: Nepali in three months and function French in one month. “Peace Corps probably has some of the best language training in the world with the way it is done.”

To be eligible for the Peace Corps, volunteers must have attained a bachelor’s degree from any discipline before completing the application process.

“You have to go through a fairly lengthy application process,” Assistant Director of Career Planning & Placement Mike Major said. “In fact, the Peace Corps recommends that if you want to go into the Peace Corps upon graduation, either start the application process at the end of your junior year or at the beginning of your senior year, just because you go through a fairly extensive background check.”

The background check is a part of a six-step application process. SVSU nursing senior Darryn Crocker is currently completing this process.

The first step involves filling out an online application, requesting recommendations, and writing essays.

The second step requires potential volunteers to complete a background check.

“If nothing is red-flagged, you get sent a packet with instructions to get fingerprinted and to get a background check done,” Crocker said.

Major says that during the second step, applicants fill out a form called the SF-86, which is a 14 page security document. “It’s not too different from somebody getting top secret clearance in the military,” he said. “They basically want to know where you have lived for the past 10 years, the name of someone who knew you well at each address, and it can’t be the same person.”

Applicants are interviewed for the third step, either in person or over the phone. At this point in the process, Crocker traveled to Chicago for her interview.

By the fourth step, Peace Corps recruiters nominate applicants for their prospective positions.

“How and where Peace Corps assigns volunteers to work is based largely on matching the educational and work experience with the kinds of projects for which countries have requested assistance,” Wegner said.

Crocker has been nominated for Sub-Sahara Africa for June 2009. The nursing major plans to participate in health field of the Peace Corps.

“My recruiter told me that the programs that fit my time period with health care were Eastern Europe or Sub-Sahara Africa,” Crocker said. “I didn’t want to be in the cold, so I chose Sub-Sahara Africa.”

For the fifth step, applicants undergo a full physical and dental evaluation.

“They want to make sure you are in good health,” Director of SVSU’s English Language Program Diana Vreeland said. Vreeland taught English in the Peace Corps from 1990-1993 in Eastern Europe.

Crocker is currently experiencing the two to three-month waiting period that follows step five.

The sixth step is when the Peace Corps office of placement contacts applicants with their official contracts and locations.

“I’m very anxious to hear back where exactly they want to send me and exactly when I am leaving,” Crocker said. “I just know that it’s going to be an amazing experience, one that I feel God has led me into and I look forward to it.”

Crocker said the Peace Corps has three goals: to heal where needed, to give the country one’s culture, and for the country to give one its culture.

“That’s what made me choose Peace Corps,” she said. “I wanted the cultural exchange, while with Doctors without Borders you don’t learn the language and you don’t become part of the community.”

Reflecting on his Peace Corps experience, Johnson said, “It’s one thing to study something from a distance; it’s another thing to live it day to day. I don’t think it would’ve have been possible to have that experience the way it was provided in the Peace Corps.”

While abroad, Johnson helped with small business and business enterprise development. He worked with fair trade and helped provide loans to those who couldn’t get them from commercial banks.

“It was life-changing; it was an amazing experience,” he said. “It was very humbling as well. People that you go in to ‘help’ are the folks you learn the most from.”

Johnson said he learned more about the local culture by living in Nepal and West Africa then he thought he could any other way. Vreeland agrees. “You give a lot, but what you get in return is 100 times more then what you ever gave,” she said. “You learn a language, you learn a culture, you get such deep friendships, and it’s a wonderful experience.”

Additional information on the Peace Corps is available in the Career Planning & Placement office in Curtiss 111 or at www.peacecorps.gov.

Web Site Offers GPA Statistics

2008-11-16T20:09:00.000-08:00

By Alex Kohut

Students across the country now have another source of assistance in the class selection process.

CampusBuddy offers online access to over 80 million official grades at hundreds of college campuses nationwide.

The site features the complied grades from college classrooms displayed as percentages under the name of each listed professor or department.

For instance, the average grade point average in SVSU’s English department is 2.84.

But unlike similar sites, CampusBuddy blends the academic side of college life with the social aspect.

With the Web site’s Facebook application, students can securely log in at CampusBuddy and network with college students.

“We’re reconstructing the social fabric of school,” says CampusBuddy creator Mike Moradian.

Moradian, a 2007 University of California-Los Angeles graduate, says the site is similar to the Facebook of several years ago, when it was strictly a college network.

Although the social element is one of the site’s main draws, Moradian and his staff of 12 have spent more than three years obtaining and compiling the official grades from colleges across the country.

Originally available only to California college students, CampusBuddy expanded its grade retrievals to include colleges in other states.

“We saw how taken students were by the site, and we made up our mind to push and make it available to everyone,” Moradian said.

CampusBuddy now offers grades from about 250 colleges, though Moradian says the site’s network is set up for 6,000 schools.

Moradian admits the decision to gather grades from colleges nationwide has severely increased the workload for the site’s staff.

“There’s a legal process we need to go through to get grades from the schools each time, which makes it difficult,” he said. “Some schools are more cooperative than others, but it’s still tough because the legal statures are different from state-to-state.”

The grade distributions on CampusBuddy are updated each semester, which means the retrieval of grades is an ongoing process.

Moradian says a lack of transparency in grading led to his creation of CampusBuddy.

“You might need to take the same econ class, but it’s three times more difficult with one professor than with another,” he said.

Even though the Web site offers the grade distributions for each department and professor, Moradian says the main purpose of this information is to help students find the best professors for them.

The site offers statistics such as school grade point average, percentage of students with a B or higher, and percentage of students with a C- or lower.

SVSU’s current grade point average is 3.00. Sixty-seven percent of its students received greater than or equal to a B, while 11 percent received non-passing grades.

CampusBuddy calculated these numbers based on the grade analysis of 3,992 classes and 90,661 grades.

In a growing pool of sites designed to disclose grading and teaching patterns of college professors, CampusBuddy is able to distinguish itself.

Though the site encourages user feedback on classes and professors, its sharing of official grade distributions ensures a mix of fact and opinion.

“Sites like Ratemyprofessor.com have a platform that’s more geared toward ranting and raving,” Moradian said. “It’s more emotion-based and doesn’t give you an idea of the class dynamic.”

Despite CampusBuddy’s format, some professors warn against making serious class decisions based on such Web sites’ information.

“If you read the fine print on these sites, you'll notice that they usually say quite directly that they make no warranties about their claims,” English professor Eric Gardner said.

Gardner says he is also skeptical about such sites because they are dot-coms.

“Dot-coms exist to make money for their owners, either through advertising revenues or other fees or both, not to help students,” he said.

Moradian objects to that notion.

“Not all dot-coms have the sole focus of making money,” he said. “We’ve invested a lot to create this service for students, and we’re working to keep the site free.”

As the site continues to grow, Moradian says the staff’s focus is on building its student base.

The CampusBuddy staff has created a better awareness of the service through advertising on sites like Facebook.

CampusBuddy is also a venue for high school and college internships. Moradian is currently searching for interns to assume marketing and design roles for the site.

With the site’s growth, Moradian says he’s received mostly positive feedback.

“I spoke with a professor in Wisconsin who thinks the site’s format is helpful for the students,” he said. “He told me he believes making the grades available to the public is going to make students work harder.”

Loiacano To Rework Kochville Rental Ordinance

2008-11-16T20:06:00.000-08:00

By Alex Kohut

Kochville Township voters also chose change on Election Day. Township residents selected Democrat Jim S. Loiacano as their new supervisor over incumbent Patricia A. Bourdow and Republican David Sanchez.

Loiacano received 593 votes, while Sanchez finished second with 422. Bourdow, who can as a write-in candidate, likely received the majority of the 361 votes.

About 1,500 of the 2,090 registered voters in the township hit the polls on Election Day.

One of the first actions Loiacano plans to take as the township’s supervisor is the implantation of a rental ordinance.

Such an ordinance would supplement the current zoning restrictions, which limit the residents of housing to single families.

Loiacano says a rental ordinance would enable students to seek residence throughout the township and not just the town homes near campus.

He says this distribution of students throughout the township would facilitate interaction between students and other township residents.

The distribution would also thin out the volume of students living in the town homes. Loiacano says this could in turn result in fewer negative incidents in that area of the township.

He says mixing students and other Kochville residents could help erase the negative perceptions each side has of the other.

“Mixing them would get both sides to intermingle and I think also show each side the other one isn’t as bad as they may think,” Loiacano says.

Loiacano is the township’s third supervisor since 2004. Bourdow assumed the role in 2006 following the recall of Kenneth P. Bayne.

The result of the supervisor race is good news for township residents who have opposed much of the area’s development over the last several years.

Loiacano has said developers should limit development to the Bay and Tittabawassee before branching out.

In another tightly contested race, Democrat Stephen J. Yanca retained his spot as the township’s treasurer, defeating Republican Sally J. Knowlton 686-658.

The Board of Trustees appointed Yanca to the role last June, filling the vacancy left following the May 5 recall of Crystal Kaurer.

The margin of votes between Yanca and Knowlton was the same when the two squared off for the position in August’s special election.

University Discusses Winter Cost Solutions

2008-11-16T20:03:00.000-08:00

By Noah Essenmacher

While some colleges in Michigan have lengthened their winter break period to mitigate energy costs, SVSU says it’s looking at other options to soften the financial blow of high cost months.

“We do know roughly what it saves per day if we were shut down. It depends on what month you’re in,” Hocquard said. “It is surprising. [January] is like $20,000 per day. In December it is more like $15,000 per day. It sounds like a lot of money but when you look at tens of millions of dollars for a budget and business needs of the University, people expect people to be here when they call for admissions or whatever. So we haven’t really extended it as other schools have. [The potential for savings] is the same as a lot of other places. We have just have not made that decision yet. We’ve looked at it, but there are a lot of other factors involved besides just that money.”

Hocquard said that specific future projects offer better alternatives than scheduling adjustments. These projects include a sub metering system for individual buildings and a possible aqua thermal heating and cooling system for the Health and Human Services Building.

“One of the projects we are talking about to save energy is to put sub metering into buildings, so at least we will know how much energy is going into say Living Center North versus Living Center South. Right now we don’t really know that and to get down to the utilities like water and that sort of thing so we can become closer to identifying groups. Then we can have [efficient energy usage] contests between buildings or whatever so there may be some possibilities like that in the future.”

“We are considering a pretty creative venture with the new Health and Human Services Building. We’re talking about putting in an aqua thermal heating and cooling [system] for that building. That would use water-to-water heat pumps and the ponds out front … In the summertime the costs are close whether we can do it that way or with the electric chiller, but it is less expensive. But in the wintertime we can heat the water instead of a regular gas boiler and heat it for almost half the energy. It is electric instead of gas, so it saves quite a bit of energy. It is getting there and hopefully we’ll have it.”

Hocquard encourages students and faculty to share their own creative solutions to the energy issue.

“I don’t know if there are ideas that people could give to us but we are willing to work with them. I think that student organizations are the best avenue for [reaching students.] I’ve heard that some schools have contests for ideas.”

SVSU takes measures each year to encourage appropriate use of energy resources on campus.

“We gear up for the obvious things,” Hocquard said. “We try to talk to people about lowering the thermostats in their areas. In various years in the past we have put out fliers keep your thermostats down in the winter and things like that. The RAs are supposed to be involved … they are looking after the buildings, including [identifying] what is broken or doesn’t work or if they see something that is very cold or very hot they will let us know sometimes.”

Hocquard noted some of the behaviors that add to the energy costs of the campus.

“In the smaller buildings and here in the housing, the students had control of their spaces, and over the years people were turning the heat up all day and opening up a window, things like that, or they would go off even in the summertime…they would turn the air conditioning down a long ways and just leave. That had some problems to it too. We have tried to adjust the thermostats in the housing area. We put in adjustable thermostats that can only be adjusted to a certain range.

“Personal responsibility is the only way to solve it,” Hocquard said. “Turn out the lights when you don’t need them, screw in the fluorescents instead of the regular incandescents, and just not opening the window when it is too cold out, and keep wearing that sweater when you can.”

College Dems, Republicans Begin Post-Election Activities

2008-11-16T20:00:00.000-08:00

By Michael Westendorf

After working hard on the election earlier this month, both the College Republicans and the College Democrats have elections of their own coming up. The two groups are slated to elect new officers, and the process can become quite competitive, says College Republicans Treasurer Tara Robishaw.

When the Vanguard sought confirmation from the senior officers of the groups in regards to their intentions for either running for their current position or for running for president, only one person would elaborate.

“I have no plans right now to run but if someone happens to nominate me for a position I would gladly run and do my best in the position,” says Melanie Ellison, the newly-appointed recruiting director for the College Republicans. The group just amended their constitution to have officer elections each semester to encourage more participation.

The College Democrats recently stopped the practice of charging incoming members a fee to join.

“We just felt that we do enough work for the campaigns to earn a membership card,” says Justin Alexander, secretary of the group.

In contrast, the College Republicans say they are pleased with the general direction of their group.

“The Youth Counts trips really helped develop some of the new members, including myself, and have really brought some of us close. I think we are doing great things and have some great plans for the group,” says Ellison.

The College Republicans plan on spending the rest of the year helping out the community with various public service projects, such as volunteering at local soup kitchens.

The group, along with the College Dems, also plan on a public debate, similar one held last year, where each organization will field representatives to debate political issues.

The College Democrats have a Casablanca film-themed party coming up, although details have not yet been released. They are also planning a dinner fundraiser and an inauguration event. On Wednesday, the group will have a ‘movie night’. After the formal organization meeting, the group will get together to watch a political film and have popcorn.

Two SVSU professors, John Kaczynski and Stewart French, are helping the College Democrats set up post boxes at the University. According to Alexander, once SVSU has 30 post boxes, the University can have a polling location.

Program Board's Long-Awaited Event Draws Capacity Crowd In Rhea Miller

2008-11-16T19:57:00.000-08:00

By Emily McGuire

With advertisements filling windows and bulletin boards across campus as early as September, Program Board’s heavily advertised event, I Heart Female Orgasm, finally took place last Wednesday in the Rhea Miller Recital Hall.

Dorian Solot, a breast cancer survivor, and Marshall Miller are a married couple, graduates from Brown University, who reach out to educate students on sex, relationship issues and the details in between…all the details in between. With their sense of humor and playfulness of the topic over 700 SVSU students were able to interact with and listen to Miller and Solot talk about safe sex, what is and is not considered “normal” and dismissed some of the popular rumors of sex.

Shane Williamson, president of SVSU’s Program Board, was intrigued when he witnessed “Female Orgasm” being advertised at Michigan Tech. After watching the presentation himself Williamson thought SVSU just might need something like this.

“After I saw it, I thought SVSU could use something like this, I thought it’d bring spiciness to the programs here that SVSU offers,” Williamson said. “I talked to the Program Board and they thought it was pretty scandalous, but we got everyone who needed to be on board to go with it.”

Williamson said the topic of sex isn’t as taboo as it used to be.

“[There are] a lot of misconceptions about sex and its important for students [to be educated]. This presentation is kind of a way to break barriers between men and women on the issue of sex. It’s normally always been a male-dominated subject and was always seen as taboo and a dirty subject, but it’s not.”

Sex education isn’t the only idea that Williamson wanted students to bring away from this program.

“I want students to know that they can bring most any program to campus. If they join an organization, and there are so many here at SVSU to choose from, and work hard you can really do anything.”

Nor is it the only intention of Solot and Miller. Having done over 400 presentations around the country at colleges, universities, businesses, churches, and conferences, the duo’s goal is to educate but to help their viewers stay healthy and have fun.

The event, which was the focal point of Program Board’s fall event schedule, came with a $3,500 price tag, accounting the lecturer’s themselves, as well as advertising materials and merchandise provided by the group.

“When working on bringing the program, the base price for the lecture itself is $3,500,” Williamson said. “It included some free shirts and signs to give away, a publicity package to help us advertise and other little tips to help us get people to the program. We decided not to do any other additional programs with them because we were not sure how well this one was going to go over with the students. There were other options to get their other programs at discounted prices or special rates.”

In fact, the program went over well with students.

"I think for as much as they put into the program it turned out pretty well,” freshman Noah Ross said. “I mean I saw advertisements early on in the semester and thought it'd be huge and when I showed up I was surprised to see how many students came."

Another student, who wished to remain anonymous, agreed, but thought the event should have lasted longer.

"I actually thought that since I saw posters and stuff almost at the beginning of the semester it would be a lot longer, I think the program only lasted about an hour or so but it was still pretty informational; my roommates and I liked it."

When asked if Program Board was planning a similar event in the near future, Williamson said, “No, no more female orgasm presentations. We don’t want to be known as the sex group or anything like that. The [Program Board] has been busy this semester, putting on quite a few programs. With a turnout of over 700 students…wow, that was great. [The board] is just focusing on wrapping things up this semester, we’re taking a little break but we are coming back next semester with a lot of really interesting programs too.”

Vanguard Vision: Creating Problems To Solve Becoming Common Practice

2008-11-16T19:49:00.000-08:00

A scary trend – SVSU isn’t perfect, and it’s unfair to expect it to be. But it becomes increasingly difficult to satisfy a population who remains relatively quiet about their needs and problems. What this has created is a culture where certain groups create problems to solve, and the solutions do little to serve anyone but the people who created them. The burden rests on us all to walk our problems down to the people who can help and it’s their job to walk to us to seek our concern.

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Our university has seen a lot of changes in the past decade. New buildings, a more entrenched presence in the community and a perpetually growing student population. The latter, at least in regards to student activity, complaints and need assessment, presents an important task for student leaders and their respective organizations on campus. The more people here, the more difficult it is to gauge what their needs are and how to address them without disenfranchising a disproportionate number of the campus population.

Such is the task of any government or body of a few charged with the responsibility of helping a potentially voiceless many.

That voiceless many is never easy to reach. They tend to hide in their dorms and let their complaints dissolve into vapor after all-too-brief conversations with their fellow socially apathetics.

There’s no easy way to get through this kind of person. Surveys go unfilled, questionnaires go unanswered, meetings go unattended.

The result of this culture of passionate disinterest seems to be those few participants in the system meant to help their unmotivated population create problems to solve that cost us all in the end.

This is an dangerous double-edged sword. And it’s one we at SVSU have been playing with for a long time.

In the last few years, rules have been instituted, initiatives undertaken by student leaders that seem to solve a pressing issue, but because there are so many here who remain silent, the question of who made these issues pressing becomes an extremely relevant one.

A terrific example of this is the eternally debated smoking policy enacted last winter. It’s a policy that at one point was deemed unenforceable by the administration, only to be enacted because the few saw it as a potential personal and political victory that points to their ability to get things done if they want to.

But was this really an issue that demanded action? I think the answer can be found in the students and staff who, nearly a year later, still smoke in front of buildings and are not reprimanded for it.

Who’s to blame for this? All of us. The unconscious many for doing little-to-nothing to bring their issues to the students who can help them, and the acting few for not taking enough initiative to pound the pavement and force out of those who flood the Courtyard every day in between walking to class.

“Tried” should not be a word in a government’s vocabulary. Neither should the phrase “personal victory.” Reaching people trying not to be reached is a savage undertaking with no end. But it’s the awful task of any governing body. And it begins with action.

Duncan: Time To Move Forward: Sex Education Should No Longer Be Denied To Students

2008-11-16T19:46:00.000-08:00

By Courtney Duncan

“I Heart Female Orgasm” was a common phrase around campus this week in light of the program that filled the Malcolm Field Theatre Tuesday night. Surprisingly, there was not too much controversy over the name or the program itself; this would not have been the case in a typical American high school.

The couple, Dorian Solot and Marshall Miller, who travel around the nation presenting programs similar to the one at SVSU, spoke on the topic of sexual education. They questioned what driver’s training would be like if it was taught like sexual education; that is, if student drivers were told that driving could harm them, so they should stay away from it because it was bad. Theoretically in this situation, students would never receive hands-on training to drive; they would never learn how to operate the car or what to do if there was an accident. Thankfully, driver’s education is not taught in this format, but sexual education is. Sexual education has a tendency to be taught as if students do not actually need to know anything about the subject. If students are told that sex is bad, why do they need to know how to put on a condom or how to access birth control? I’m not going to go as far as Solot and Miller did by saying that students should be taught about the pleasures of sex, because I think that mentality is excessive, but I will say that sex needs further discussion in most schools.

By age 18, 6 in 10 women and 5 in 10 men admit that they have had sexual intercourse. Nine million new sexually transmitted infections are found in teens. Each year, there are 750,000 teenage pregnancies; one-fourth of these end in abortion. Luckily, there has been a decline in teen pregnancy, and 86% of the reason for the decline is attributed to the expanded knowledge about contraceptives, according to the Guttmacher Institute.

Although teenage pregnancy has declined, students are still too far behind when it comes to knowledge about sex itself and topics related to sex. 1 in 5 teenagers receives abstinence only education, and only 62% of females and 72% of males have received education about contraceptives prior to having sexual intercourse. There has also been a recent trend in abstinence only education in sexual education programs.

While abstinence is a great lesson, it is not practical. Even with increased abstinence only teaching, there are still three-quarters of a million teenage pregnancies, and over 50% of the teenage population is having sex regardless of the fact that they are taught it is “bad,” “wrong,” or “immoral.”

A staggering finding is that despite the known consequences of educating students without providing them with information in all subject areas of sex, teachers are increasingly teaching less about everything but abstinence. In my own health and sexual education class, we spent more time learning about the parts of the eye and the ear than we did discussing sex. In the past ten years, 1 in 4 teachers relay the abstinence only message, while 20 years ago this number was only 1 in 50. It is time for the government to start enforcing that sexual education is taught on its own and not as a part of a health class where it can be avoided for all but a few class periods. It is time that no child should be allowed to be exempt from enrolling in sexual education classes. It is time that the issues of contraception, childbirth, sexually transmitted infections, and abortion are addressed, and not pushed to the wayside.

Once again, it is time to move forward as a society. Teenagers have been having sex for as long as it has been physically possible for their bodies to do so; in other words—forever. It is time to get out from under the shield of oblivion and be responsible. Contrary to the beliefs of many, it is possible to teach about sex without encouraging it. Most parents talk to their children about alcohol and how many have a “good time” by using alcohol, but they also talk about the damaging effects it can have on one’s body, so why not educate teens about sex—all parts of it. Do not simply hand kids condoms and let them run with it; educate them. Teach teens about the consequences of sex, and tell them your opinions on sex, but then let them decide for themselves, because they will anyway.

Johnson: Conditions Of 1968 Enhance Impact Of 2008 Election, Pt. 1

2008-11-16T19:33:00.000-08:00

By Jim Johnson
Guest Columnist

There are few, if any, advantages that come with aging … the "wisdom" of age is from my perspective more than offset by the physical aches and pains that escaped my earlier years and now become a part of my daily life. Last week, however, the benefit of living my 57 years became so very meaningful.

At 10:59 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2008, I sat on the set of a television affiliate providing commentary on election results. All major networks concomitantly declared Senator Barack Obama the president-elect of the United States. The television monitors before me switched to the scene at Chicago's Grant Park. Well over 100,000 people cheered and cried as Obama and his family walked out on the stage to greet the nation he would soon lead.

At that instant, as the gravitas of the moment became apparent, I was struck by the irony: Grant Park in 2008 compared to Grant Park in 1968. The divisive issues which afflicted this nation precisely four decades earlier were remarkably similar to the very issues which face us now.

1968 was a year of national discontent, populated with a most unpopular war, assassinations, economic strife and racial division. 2008 contained many of the same issues, but now standing before the world was a newly elected black man: Erudite, Harvard-educated, telegenic and emblematic of one single word – "hope."

I was so thankful to have lived long enough to see our progress and evolution toward race fulfilled.

1968 was an ominous year filled with prescient events consistent with tragic recent years and a premonition of things to come. The nation still reeled from the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963 and the 1965 shooting of Malcolm X. In April 1968, Martin Luther King was slain. In the weeks which followed, cities burned and racial divisiveness consumed our life.

Like 2008, it was a presidential election year. But, the hopes for a rebirth of Camelot ended on a Los Angeles hotel kitchen floor with the assassination of Democratic presidential candidate Bobby Kennedy. The Democratic National Convention was marred by the riots in Grant Park.

The war in Vietnam spun out of control with the year dominated by the Tet Offensive. In a single week ending Feb. 18, 1968, 543 U.S. personnel were killed and over 2,500 injured. A new wave of 48,000 draftees was ordered by the Pentagon.

Half a world away disproportionate numbers of black soldiers died to preserve a still-segregated environment back home. Minorities had a more than equal opportunity to die for a country that provided them with a less than equal life.

1968 was so similar in many ways to the world we find now in 2008. That similarity seemed to end, however, on that crisp Tuesday evening a week ago...

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Jim Johnson is a lecturer of political science. Read part two of his faculty op-ed next week.

Ricker: PETA's Ben and Jerry's Suggestion Only In Theory

2008-11-16T19:24:00.000-08:00

By Whitney Ricker

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) recently sent the founders of Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream a letter suggesting they substitute human breast milk for the cow’s milk in their dairy products. The letter suggests breast milk has more health benefits for people than cow’s milk. And, in true PETA style, it explained how using human breast milk would reduce the unethical treatment of cows in the process of harvesting their milk.

PETA learned of this idea from a Swiss restaurant owner who decided to use human breast milk, instead of cow’s milk, in 75 percent of the dairy foods on the menu. The breast milk was provided by donors who were paid for their services.

In a somewhat effective attempt to win over the general public instead of just animal-lovers, PETA provided information which explains how consuming human breast milk is better for people than cow’s milk. “Dairy products have been linked to juvenile diabetes, allergies, constipation, obesity, and prostate and ovarian cancer,” stated the letter. In addition, the letter referenced the well-known children’s doctor, Dr. Benjamin Spock, who suggested that children who consume cow’s milk stand a higher risk of acquiring “anemia, allergies, and juvenile diabetes and in the long term…obesity and heart disease – America’s number one cause of death.”

Of course, PETA was not stingy in providing reasons that this idea is advantageous to animals. The process of harvesting cow’s milk is not an ethical one. Cows are “forcefully impregnated” constantly to ensure maximum milk production. Once they have served their purpose and are no longer useful, they are butchered. Also, the veal industry relies on the dairy industry. When male calves are born, they are sold to veal farms because they cannot produce milk. At the veal farms, they “endure 14 to 17 weeks of torment” until they are butchered.

While the cows’ case is effectively made and should pull at the heartstrings of many, this suggested substitution is still questionable. The whole process seems a bit bizarre. Just imagine mothers, who either choose not to breastfeed or do, and are just depriving their children of their breast milk to make some money, sitting down to a breast pump in a factory surrounded by other mothers giving ‘donations.’ Maybe the process would become as common as donating blood or getting your hair done, and the mothers would sit around making idle conversation. Maybe not.

If this idea were to take hold, first, a rate would have to be determined for the reimbursement of the women. This rate might be based on how much milk they donate. Or perhaps on how nutritious their milk is, depending on the quality of their diet and physical activity. Maybe mothers of a certain age produce better quality milk than others; this would all have to be considered.

Next, the facility where the ‘donations’ would take place would need to be prepared. This could either entail large public rooms where the mothers are hooked up to the pumps, which wouldn’t be much different than the set-up of dairy farms, or individual rooms where the mothers who aren’t comfortable with ‘donating’ in public may go.

Unfortunately, mothers in need of money might deprive their children of milk, and in turn, nutrition, so malnutrition, instead of obesity, becomes a problem. Or, mothers who don’t really think the plan through might start having children just to make money off their breast milk, and we end up with more children without caring parents. This idea seems to produce more problems than solutions.

And yes, everyone cares about their children’s health, but will this plan make that much of a difference? The kids will still be shoveling down Snickers bars and Doritos; is there a substitute for the fat and carbohydrates in junk food, as well?

While most people are concerned about the well-being of animals and their own health, it doesn’t seem that this plan provides enough advantages to actually be employed. The cows, however, might disagree.

Spikers Fail To Gain GLIAC Title After Falling To Top-Seeded Grand Valley State

2008-11-16T19:17:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

SVSU's volleyball team had high hopes entering the GLIAC tournament. They didn't disappoint, as they advanced all the way to the championship match against host Grand Valley State University before dropping the match, 3-1.

First up for the Cards was number two seed Michigan Tech. The Cards were at a disadvantage to start the game because the match was played at Michigan Tech in front of a packed gym. This had no effect on the Cards as they defeated the Huskies 3-0. They won by scores of 25-13, 25-18, and 25-23.

The Cards jumped out to an early lead in the first game that they would never relinquish. Senior outside hitter Sarah Redoute led the attack with
13 kills, eight digs, two blocks and an ace. Senior defensive specialist Carmen Schacher led the Cardinal defense with 20 digs and an ace in the opening match of the tournament.

Next up for the Cardinals was Northern Michigan University, whom the Cardinals already had defeated twice this season. The Cards made quick work of the Wildcats as they won in straight sets by scores of 25-19,
25-22 and 25-19.

Junior setter Kait Harris contributed with 24 assists and 11 digs. Redoute led the offense with 13 kills and
11 digs. Schacher led the Cardinal defense with 20 digs. With the win, the Cards advanced to the championship match of the GLIAC tournament for the first time in school history where rival Grand Valley awaited.

The Cardinals dug themselves into an early hole as they dropped the first two games of the match by scores of
20-25 and 18-25. SVSU managed to claw back into the match by winning the next game by the score of 25-15. That was as close as the Cards would get to the Lakers. They would fall in the next set by the score of 14-25, ending the Cards championship aspirations.

The first set was a back-and-forth battle that was close throughout. With the score tied at 16, the Lakers scored the next five points to take over momentum and win the first set.

The Lakers were able to carry the momentum they gained into the second match. Their lead hit a peak of nine points before they closed out the Cards.

Leading 17-14 in the third set, the Cards scored five straight points to secure the set.

The Cards led the fourth set early on before the Lakers scored five straight points in the middle of the set to win the championship.

Redshirt freshman middle hitter Annie Buxton led the Cardinals in the championship match with 12 kills. Redoute contributed offensively with seven kills. She also helped out on defense with 11 digs. Harris led the Cardinals with 28 assists. She also had four kills to go along with 13 digs.

Men's And Women's Soccer Teams Both Advance To The GLIAC Finals This Year

2008-11-16T19:12:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

Both the Cardinals men’s and women’s soccer teams experienced an up and down season in the fall. Both teams had a chance at redemption when each advanced all the way to the championship match of the GLIAC tournament.

Neither team was fully able to complete the upset as the men’s team lost to Findlay by the final score of 4-2, while the women’s team dropped a 2-0 decision to Grand Valley State.

The men were at a disadvantage to start the game, as they were with out two of their top players. Senior forward Brent Walker received his fifth yellow card of the season in the semifinal match against Ashland, meaning he would have to sit out the championship game. Senior defender Daniel Wragg received two yellow cards in the Ashland game, which also knocked him out of the championship game.

In the championship game, the men dug themselves into an early 2-0 deficit. Junior defender Brock Humphries cut the deficit in half at the 28:59 mark, although Findlay would answer back a few minutes later to take a commanding 3-1 lead into the half. The teams traded goals in the second half to complete the scoring. After the game, Walker talked about how proud he was of his team.

“We had to battle through a lot of ups and downs this season. Making it to the GLIAC finals was amazing considering we didn’t even think that we were going to make the tournament. It just shows the potential the guys had.” Walker said.

Walker was especially upset at the fact that he was unable to help his team out in the biggest game of the year.

“It was a really big disappointment. I have played here for four years and put a lot into it. Not being able to play was very tough. I wanted to win so badly but it’s a part of the sport so it’s just something that I have to accept.

The women were unable to generate any offense when they faced off against the number one ranked Lakers. The Lakers led 1-0 going into halftime and would later add another goal in the second half to complete the scoring. The Cards only managed to get off three shots for the game. Even though her team lost, senior midfielder Stephanie Roy was still proud of the way her team played in the championship match.

“After a season full of ups and downs, there was never any doubt in my mind that we would make it to the finals and have one last chance to make the playoffs. I was extremely proud of the team. It’s a long season and it says a lot of about the character of the team to give it everything they have all the way to the finals.” Roy said.

Freshman goalkeeper Anne Bershbach was able to stop six of the eight shots she faced, although her offense wasn’t able to provide any support against the tough Laker defense.

“Grand Valley is a great team.” Roy said. “They didn’t become the number one team in the nation for no reason. We knew coming into the game that we would have to take advantage of every opportunity because they would be few and far between. Everyone worked as hard as they could for the full 90 minutes and that’s all we can ask for.”

With the losses, the women’s record dropped to 10-9 overall for the season. The men’s record fell to 8-10-2 for the season.

Women's Team Roughed Up In Season Opening Loss To Quincy

2008-11-16T17:27:00.000-08:00

By Anthony Fontana

The women’s Cardinal basketball team opened the regular season portion of their schedule in Quincy, Illinois over the weekend. They didn’t get the results they were looking for as they dropped the first game of the two game tournament by the final score of 102-64 to host Quincy University.

The Cardinals, who are playing under new head coach Shannon Baugh, had no answer for the hot shooting of Quincy, who set a new school record in three-pointers made in a single game with 12. The Cards spotted Quincy an eight-point lead to start the game that only got bigger, thanks in part to Quincy hitting seven three pointers in the first ten minutes of the game. Quincy held the Cards to a dismal 29-percent shooting in the first half as they jumped out to a 48-27 weekend.

The second half was much of the same for the Cards, as they struggled defensively to stop Quincy from making shots. Offensively, the Cards continued to struggle to get anything going, finishing the game shooting 35-percent. Quincy managed to outscore the Cards in the second half by a margin of 54-37. Junior forward Kelsey Mausolf paced the Cardinals offensively with a double double, 17 points and 11 rebounds. She also sank nine out of the ten free throws she attempted. Quincy finished the game shooting a red hot 50-percent from the floor.

Senior guard Tricia Everett contributed with eight points, while also managing to dish out seven assists. Sophomore guard Kelley Wesp was the only other Cardinal besides Mausolf to score in double digits, as she finished with 12 points. Wesp was two for two from beyond the arc.

The Cardinals play their second game of the season on Sunday against Missouri State in the consolation game of the tournament.

Memorable Poets Reflect On Memorable Poetry

2008-11-16T17:19:00.000-08:00

By Luke Deming

Saginaw is often known for its athletes and entertainers, but SVSU President Eric Gilbertson pointed out there is something else the city is known for - poetry.

The 11th triennial Theodore Roethke Memorial Poetry Prize was awarded to Robert Pinsky last Tuesday. The $3,000 prize is given every three years to an American poet’s individual book of poems This year’s prize covers work published in 2005, 2006, or 2007. The award is in honor of the great Saginaw poet, Theodore Roethke. At the time of his death in 1963, Roethke had won more awards than any other American poet.

Notable actor Richard Fitzpatrick, who has appeared in Good Will Hunting, Sixteen Blocks, and the TV show The X Files, mentioned his thankfulness for Roethke’s ability to write about the rich experiences of a fifteen-year-old boy.

“Roethke showed me the way back to the believing boy in my skin,” Fitzpatrick said.

Pinsky, who is known for his political poetry, won the award with his book of poetry Gulf Music. Pinsky is a former U.S. Poet Laureate, created the Favorite Poem Project, and has appeared regularly on PBS and The Colbert Report.

Pinsky, Fitzpatrick, and poetry prize judge Lloyd Schwartz talked about Roethke and read some of his pieces such as Roethke’s 1953 Pulitzer Prize winner “The Waking.” Pinsky also read a few poems from Gulf Music.

Professor of English, Basil Clark, was pleased to see great poetry presented.

“Its very reassuring to see people come together this way and enjoy the evening together,” Clark said. “[It was special] to hear people of this stature read and share their experiences of Roethke.”

Education junior Skyler Loomis enjoyed the event too. He said, “I thought the whole thing was really enjoyable. I really liked hearing Robert Pinsky talk about his poetry.”

The award was special this year because it is part of last week’s festival that celebrated the 100-year anniversary of Roethke’s birth and also because this year’s three judges were the same judges that awarded the first ever Roethke prize in 1968.

While Pinsky has had tremendous success as a poet, he can’t remember when he wanted to write professionally.

“There was never really [a moment] when I said ‘now I want to be a professional writer.’ It was the only thing I felt good at.“

While many critics have stated that the days of great American poets are over and claiming the younger generation is unable to produce a great writer, Pinsky holds a different opinion of the belief.

“That’s baloney. They have been saying that for hundreds of years. When Longfellow and Whittier got old and died they said, ‘well the great generation of American poets is over.’ And then they said the same thing when T.S. Eliot and Wallace Stevens died. That kind of thing just goes on forever, it’s not significant.”

In his acceptance speech, Pinsky talked about his multiple interpretations of the line “I learn by going where I have to go” from Roethke’s most famous piece “The Waking.”

“[At first] I thought it as a description of living without meddling, without a lot of reflection, or attention, or planning, or guidance counselors or hiring consultants or goals. Just live by experience rather than anticipation,” Pinsky said.

He explained how he felt stupid when his second interpretation revealed that the poem was about coming to terms with death. But his third interpretation revealed to him that the poem was about one’s legacy being carried on, just like Roethke’s still is today.

“We don’t only go into morality… we don’t only go into whatever nothingness or after life we think about…We [also] go into memory.”

Small Stage, Big Performance

2008-11-16T16:53:00.000-08:00

By Luke Deming

The SVSU theatre department overcame a smaller stage to deliver big results in Sideman.

The show stars Tyler Frank, Caleb Knutson, Jenn Wilk, Amanda Mueller, Chad Baker, Mat Easterwood, and Anthony Roberts and focuses on Gene (played by Knutson), a jazz musician, that tries to earn a stable income by playing the trumpet with his three band mates, but fails to hit it big. Gene’s inability to provide for his family puts stress on his mentally ill wife Terry (played by Wilk) and his son Clifford (played by Frank). Clifford does his best to try and save his family from falling apart. Clifford also guides the audience through this memory play.

Most theatre shows, except for summer shows, take place in the large Malcolm Theatre, but due to a scheduling conflict director Janet Rubin chose to move the show into the 85-seat Black Box.

“We moved our season dates. When we did that there was already something booked in there and so we couldn’t get in. So we moved the show in here,” Rubin said.

Rubin and the actors had to make adjustments such as taking out one of the three seating units, but the adjustments were well worth it.

“In the beginning it was really like trying to put a big production in a small, small space,” Rubin said. “But now that we’re in here it was like a happy accident because I don’t think it would have worked nearly as well in the big stage.”

The smaller theatre did make designing the set difficult for technical designer Jerry Dennis.

“On this particular show [the size of the stage] did hurt a little bit. It would have been a lot easier to do on the main stage,” Dennis said.

In order to accommodate for the stage, Dennis had to rebuild the set multiple times.

“You are actually looking at the third incarnation of the set,” Dennis said. “It is sort of a compromised set, but it seems to be working so far.”

The stage wasn’t the only obstacle the show had to overcome. The second show of the fall usually takes place at the start of December, but The Sideman started in mid-November. While this took away almost two weeks of practice, Rubin is happy about its benefits.

“Everybody was pushed right at the end of the semester. Students were trying to finish exams, students who were coming to see the shows were worried about writing their papers, getting their assignments done,” Rubin said. “We thought there really has got to be a better way. So we made the change.”

Theatre junior Caleb Knutson said that he and the cast had to be more detailed and focus on their expressions with the close audience. He supported Rubin’s statement that this show really allows acting talent to emerge.

“Janet said at the beginning that this was an actor’s show,” Knutson said.

Drama and humor were prevalent throughout, but keeping the two balanced was a tough task. Balancing acting seriously while saying comedic lines was difficult.

“Taking it serious on the emotional level while you still have those funny lines. You hear the audience laughing and you are trying to stay in the scene,” said Theatre and Graphic Design senior Jenn Wilk. ”It is a serious matter, but it is written in a way where it’s somewhat light hearted.”

This show stands out with brilliant acting, comedic relief, and a great set. But Theatre senior Danielle Schoeny said there also is an important theme present.

“I really liked Clifford’s closing monologue where he was like they didn’t play for fame, they didn’t play to be rich, they just played for each other and I think that is really cool because it shows the bond that they had,” Schoeny said. “It reminds me that in life it’s about your closest friends.”

A Watchful Eye

2008-11-09T19:34:00.000-08:00

By Hillary Darling

Flashing lights illuminate rain drops into blue streaks over an SVSU campus police cruiser. Night Officer Chad Lackowski was in the driver’s seat. A 19-year-old sat in the back, facing a minor in possession charge.

“I’m so disappointed in myself,” the minor said, “my whole family is going to be disappointed…This is not the kid I am. Yeah, I’m a college kid and I drank some beer. Yeah I’m underage. I know that. But I mean, I never try and cross the line and tonight I really messed up.”

“How much have you had to drink?” Lackowski asked. “Be honest with me.”

“Two, three beers and a shot of Burnett’s, sir. Cherry Burnett’s.”

The Nov. 6 Pierce Road stop resulted in two minor in possession of alcohol (MIP) tickets, one of the more common weekend write-ups for the campus police. But Lackowski, a 2005 SVSU graduate, says there isn’t a typical day in police work, which is one of the aspects that drew him to the job.

Chief of Police Ronald Trepkowski said the officers take an interest in the students.

“The biggest thing,” Lackowski said after writing the two MIPs, “[is] I don’t want them doing it again, and I want them to realize that what they’ve done is wrong…They have to have some type of consequence for their actions.”

The minor’s car had rolled through a stop sign around midnight. Lackow-ski flipped on his lights, but instead of pulling over to the side of the road, the car pulled into the entrance of Campus Village.

Lackowski ran the plate numbers in the Mobile Data Terminal (MDT), a computer resting about armrest level, before approaching the vehicle. He talked with the driver and returned to his cruiser, a Chevy Impala. The driver did not have his license with him. Lackowski punched his information in the computer and found the driver’s record was clean.

Lackowski returned to the driver, asking him to get out of the car. The officer’s pen-sized light illuminated the driver’s face as the driver’s eyes followed the light back and forth.

Lackowski took a device out of the police car and gave the driver what would be the first of three breathalyzers.

“He did all of my sobriety tests really well,” Lackowski explained later. Lackowski said if he hadn’t smelled the alcohol on the driver, he wouldn’t have had much reason to believe he was intoxicated.

Lackowski escorted the driver to the back of the police car and took his information.

The driver said he had only driven about a mile and thought he was able to get himself home. The driver blew a .080 blood alcohol content. His passenger blew over twice as

high.

“Well, here’s what I’m going to do for you,” Lackowski explained. “You’re going to get an MIP today.”

From the backseat there came, “Is there anything I can do? Anything?”

“You can take this to court …” the officer began.

“Seriously, it could have been 100 percent a lot worse,” replied the voice.

“Well, I understand 100 percent that it could have been a lot worse,” Lackowski said. “You could have rolled through that stop sign and hit someone. You could have hit someone while you were driving impaired, OK?”

“Yeah … I kicked back and drank a few beers and I know I shouldn’t have drove, but there is no one else who could have done a better job.”

“You couldn’t have stayed there?” the officer questioned.

Well, I mean I could have, but…”

“Listen to the situation I’m in OK?

You drive down the road, get in an accident, kill someone, and I let you go.”

“Well, yeah. But that would never happen though.”

A second campus officer, Luke Huss, assisted Lackowski and parked the minor’s car, taking the keys until morning. Huss, after receiving permission, searched the car and found two full beer cans under the passenger seat.

The stop was Lackowski’s third since about 10 p.m. These situations included giving warnings for failure to stop at a stop sign and for illegal window tint.

When not on call, Lackowski patrols within the campus, making traffic stops or conducting property checks.

“I usually look for someone to blow the stop sign. Bad,” he said. “For me, other factors are [their] driving record. Are they nice? Are they not real happy? For me and a lot of officers, attitude will get you a long way.”

Trepkowski said the University officers write about one ticket for every four stops. MIPs are common calls during the night shifts, he said, and the biggest challenge on campus is theft.

SVSU has had a police department since about 1977 according to Trepkowski. The chief’s work with the campus police since 1979 and connection with the University had him describing himself as someone who “bleeds Cardinal red.”

“[Students are] liable to see our officers all about the campus simply because we take an active interest in the campus,” Trepkowski said, “… and that makes the connection, too. I’m not just a police officer out here [wanting] to enforce the law and that’s it. I think we want to make a connection to the community and make sure we know that we are a part of our community."

Farming In The Inner City

2008-11-09T19:31:00.000-08:00

By Anne Hasenberg

SVSU is bridging with the Saginaw community to dust off the current economic plight with a new approach to the problem of urban areas having limited access to healthy foods.

On Nov. 5, the newly formed Saginaw Urban Food Initiative (SUFI) began installing non-soil-based indoor hydroponics farming systems in the basements of Saginaw’s Houghton-Jones Resource Center and Good Neighbors Mission.

Low-income inner-city residents have a problem accessing healthy food. Despite the high density of fast food restaurants and convenience stores, many inner cities have developed food deserts where access to healthy food, such as fresh produce, is limited.

National level research indicates that factors such as these have led to lower consumption of fruits and vegetables by low-income populations. Currently in the state of Michigan, 12.2 percent of people are classified as being food insecure or lacking reliable and consistent access to healthy food.

This problem grabbed the attention SVSU Assistant Professor of sociology Brian Thomas. Thomas has partnered with Chris Schilling, SVSU’s Charles J. Strosacker Endowed Chair, and Edward C. Meisel, an instructor of chemistry at SVSU, to work with members of the Green Cardinal Initiative and SUFI on jumpstarting the hydroponics project.

Thomas said the problem is the rising fuel and food prices that are a burden on the Saginaw community members.

“[Our] project is untested but shows potential to help the surrounding community have access to fresh and healthy food all year long,” Thomas said.

The two low-cost hydroponics systems were developed by SVSU using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping, lumber, a pump and some hardware. Each unit has 48 holes and is capable of producing up to 48 plants at a time, producing averages up to about 100 plants per site.

Each of the hydroponics units would eliminate the problems of seasonality, soil quality, contamination and fragmented land. The food grown will feed people in the Good Neighbors Mission and Houghton-Jones Resource Center who do not have the resources to purchase food.

The use of low-cost hydroponics systems and soil-less gardening to produce fresh vegetables tests will occur throughout the winter season. A workshop is planned to follow in May 2009.

Funding for the hydroponics project is provided through grants from The Saginaw Community Foundation, SVSU and members of the community centers associated with SUFI.

SUFI is a collaborative effort between representatives from the city of Saginaw, the Mustard Seed House, the Good Neighbors Mission, SVSU and the Houghton Jones Resource Center.

The project, which is still in its early planning stages, will help urban areas sustain affordable, healthy food through winter.

“It’s important that students get involved with the project, because if this works, we’re going to train people to implement this in the county,” Thomas said.

Students wishing to participate in the Green Cardinals Initiative can e-mail Thomas at bjthoma1@svsu.edu or visit www.svsu.edu/greencard.

Tutors Apply Writing Skills To Aiding Hospice Patients

2008-11-09T19:28:00.000-08:00

By Hope Bishop

While many students realize the benefits good writing skills provide in the classroom, they may not realize the impact such skills could have when combined with community service.

In the winter 2008 semester, sophomore Jamie Wendorf and junior Chelsea Smith, a pair of SVSU Writing Center mentors, took their skills to local hospice sites through the Living through Literacy program.

The students displayed interest in participating after Saginaw’s Southern Care Hospice contacted Writing Center Director Diane Boehm in search of volunteers.

The program allows volunteers the chance to visit hospice centers and work with patients on writing projects.

“I joined because it sounded rewarding and I knew I could grow from it,” Smith said.

“I got involved because I had been trying to find a volunteer organization to work with, Wendorf said. “When I heard about Living through Literacy, it just clicked. It was the first time I had the opportunity to work with the elderly, but I have loved it since.”

Jeanne Butzin, the volunteer coordinator for Southern Care “Hearts of Hospice” Volunteers said, “Living through Literacy is a wonderful opportunity to be a blessing to someone in their final days...It leaves [families] with a lasting treasure and gives a chance for the next generation to get to know someone they may not have otherwise, with the written heirlooms.”

Volunteers write obituaries, autobiographies, short stories, and make scrapbooks for patients.

Opportunities also exist for volunteers who do not wish to participate in writing intensive activities. They may read to patients, go on walks with them or assist the hospice centers with administrative duties.

“I have helped write short stories, an autobiography and am currently working on a scrapbook,” Smith said. “I also play the piano for residents in the lounge.”

Wendorf made a scrapbook for a patient and was able to collaborate with his wife during the process.

Smith recognizes the wide-reaching value of Living through Literacy.

“It is very beneficial for the patients, their families and the volunteers,” she said. “It lets the patients know that people still care about them and increases their self-worth.

“Also, it gives them a chance to reminisce. Their families are able to gain a sense of closure and create a strong support system. The written heirlooms provide a way for memories to live
on and are really something they cherish.”

Smith and Wendorf’s goal is to turn the program into a Registered Student Organization for the winter 2009 semester. They are applying for a Foundation Grant from the University and have contacted nursing, psychological, English, and social work professors to let them know about the program.

They hope to involve more students and have had four nursing students recently join.

“Working with the elderly has changed my perspective and helped me see that there is more to the world than going to college,” Wendorf said.

“I’ve grown so much emotionally, even academically,” Smith said. “It’s a great opportunity to build relationships. You really learn about priorities and what really is the most important thing in life.”

Brazilian Jui-jitsu Enthusiasts Hit The Mats

2008-11-09T19:25:00.000-08:00

By Carolyne Payne

A unique breed of athletes established themselves as a Registered Student Organization this fall with the emergence of the SVSU’s Brazilian jiu-jitsu (SVBJJ) club.

Brazilian jiu-jitsu, a form of fighting that focuses on joint locks and chokes over punches and kicks, was founded when Japanese judo expert Mitsuyo Maeda visited Brazil among other countries in 1914. The art was developed and adapted further until it became what it is today.

On SVSU’s campus, the Brazilian jiu-jitsu club is a student-run, student-taught group that grows with every meeting and is advised by Jason Swackhamer. Members teach other members to create a collective learning experience for everyone.

The club began this fall when communications and digital and media design graduate student Ryan Foldie, who has practiced jiu-jitsu on and off since he was young, noticed dance mats were available to students in the Ryder Center and decided to start a group for interested students.

Every Thursday night at 9:30 p.m., a growing group of about 20 people meets in the Dance Studio (Ryder 249) to meet new people, work out, de-stress and learn new techniques. Each meeting kicks off with warm-ups and stretches, followed by technique and positions, reviewing of the former week’s techniques and moves, and the group grapples or “free-spars.”

The group is diverse, consisting of beginners who showed up after expressing interest to other wrestlers and athletes who compete in mixed martial arts tournaments.

Foldie is excited about field trips and outings to jiu-jitsu seminars and watching Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Freshman criminal justice major Spencer Davenport had no formal experience with martial arts and is glad he started attending the SVBJJ meetings.

“It’s good to know how to defend yourself, especially as a police officer,” he said. Davenport said the club is also “a great way to meet new people and get a good workout that is safe because there is no imminent threat of death.”

Undecided freshman Jimmy Woodrow, who has had extensive martial arts experience, enjoys the club for the variety of social interaction and different style of fighting it provides. Woodrow takes Hakko-ryu, ju-jutsu, and kickboxing classes at Martial Arts Connection on Bay Road in addition to Brazilian jiu-jitsu at SVSU.

“I found out about the class from a flier and I’m glad I came. I’m going to stick around,” Woodrow said.

Another of the more experienced club members is marketing junior Steve Lagace. Lagace competes in mixed martial arts tournaments and encourages anyone to check out Brazilian jiu-jitsu because it’s “a great way to blow off steam, meet new people and learn about different fighting styles.” He enjoys being able to teach and learn techniques and feels there is nothing else like this club at SVSU.

There is no cost for students to join SVBJJ. Students interested in finding out more about the club can contact Foldie at rfoldie@gmail.com.

English Degree Holders Explore Degree Paths

2008-11-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

By Stacy Wilson

Many college students wonder where they will end up after graduation and what they can do with the majors they pursue.

For some students, choosing a major is difficult when post-graduation careers are not one-size-fits-all. Students studying within the field of English can often encounter this problem.

SVSU’s Bachelor of Art and Behavioral Sciences degree in English offers students three possible areas of concentration: English literature, creative writing and professional and technical writing (PTW). An English education major also is available from the College of Education.

Helen Raica-Klotz, an English professor at SVSU, explains what English students often intend on doing once they obtain their major. “Students can be writers, teachers, go into human resources, marketing, and non-profit writing jobs,” Raica-Klotz said.

Recent SVSU alumni Jason Wolverton and Kelly Stewart are making career strides after obtaining undergraduate degrees with majors in English.

Wolverton graduated from SVSU in the spring of 2007. He majored in creative writing and worked at SVSU’s Writing Center and for the Valley Vanguard.

Currently, Wolverton is a marketing director for Commercial Software Inc. in Midland.

“We do many things, including Web page and software design, and we also operate a number of real estate and rental Web sites in the Tri-Cities,” Wolverton said, who also is an overseer for Midlandsports.com.

It wasn’t until Wolverton discovered the Writing Center and the Vanguard that he found his niche.

“My work at the Vanguard and at the Writing Center not only taught me a great deal, but also allowed me to make vital contacts that are useful in the real world,” he said. Raica-Klotz served as his Writing Center coordinator and helped him get his current job.

One thing Wolverton wishes someone would have told him was to get involved in other activities.

“If getting a good job is your number one priority, you need to get involved in other activities,” he said.

SVSU helped Wolverton learn to think critically and “outside the box.”

“Both of these things I do day-in and day-out at my job,” he said.

Technology also plays a role in
his work ethic now, because, according to Wolverton, it is important to write well and communicate one’s message, whether it is in an e-mail, blog or letter.

Stewart concentrated on PTW at SVSU. She moved on to law school after graduation, hoping that it would help her.

“It’s only my first term, so it’s hard to say how helpful my writing degree will be in law school, but I’ve heard that an English degree gives you a good foundation,” she said.

Before law school, Stewart worked as a grant writer at a fund consulting firm in Bay City. Her experience at SVSU is similar to Wolverton’s, as she also worked at the Writing Center.

“My classes at SVSU and my experience as a tutor in the Writing Center gave me a good working knowledge of writing and editing principals, and the rest I learned on the job from my co-workers,” she said.

Both Stewart and Wolverton managed to get to where they wanted to be with the help of their classes and advisers.

Election Party Draws Crowd Of Hundreds, Invokes Emotional Responses

2008-11-09T19:18:00.000-08:00

By Courtney Duncan

The 2008 election brought tears of joy and of pain to many of the hundreds of students who attended SVSU’s election party to watch live coverage of the results in the Thompson Student Activities Room.

SVSU’s Program Board, Student Association (SA), and Residential Housing Association (RHA) collaborated to offer students food, party favors, and opportunities to win prizes while they viewed election results.

“I’m just balling my eyes out – so happy,” criminal justice and sociology sophomore Amanda Helton said. “Proposals 1 and 2 are passing – that’s amazing. There’s hope for the future.”

While many students also felt this sense of joy about the election, others were left in tears for different reasons.

“I was crying, literally, and not because I was happy. I’m moving to Canada,” occupational therapy sophomore Megan Milbourne said.

Art freshman Aaron Inman, who was sitting along the back wall of the room shortly after 11 p.m., said, “I don’t want to talk about it. I’m moving, and not to Canada or Mexico, that’s not safe enough.”

Several other students celebrated Barack Obama’s victory, though they didn’t reach the point of tears.

“I’m excited,” graphic design senior Thereese Ford said. “I don’t know what else to say. I’m at a loss for words.”

“I’m happy. I hope everything turns out better than it has been lately,” secondary education sophomore Leanne Hilkowski said.

Many students were satisfied that their efforts to change America by voting were successful.

“I’m really elated…real surprised. I drove back to Detroit to vote. I’m really happy,” graphic design sophomore Nicholas Ashmon said.

Student leaders who hosted the election party were also satisfied. Around 600 students attended throughout the night, enjoying Jets Pizza, Buffalo Wild Wings, and a large assortment of snack as the election coverage progressed.

Program Board President Shane Williamson was impressed with both the event and the election.

“This event shows that student leaders can program for students on a large scale,” he said. “It only goes to prove to those above us that we can do this – money well spent, time well spent.”

Williamson was proud of the way the organizations collaborated.

“The Big 3 can work together and show unity,” he said. “We couldn’t have done it without the work of all three organizations.

“I’m also glad Obama won. I’m glad we had such a diverse group of students to witness it. It’s a really historic event – students voicing their opinions.”

SA President Angela Seeley held a similar view.

“We’re collaborating for the students. We want to use all the students’ money to the best of our abilities,” she said. “We can fund huge programs when working with three budgets. It’s nice to have unity and not be competing with each other.”

Isaac Hudson, president of RHA, was happy with the election results.

“I hope [students] reflect that only 70 years ago it would’ve been hard for an African American to vote, and now we have a black president.”

He was equally impressed by the program.

“I’m really happy with the turnout for the event. I think it’s more than any of us expected. I’m really happy that RHA was able to help what seems like potentially one of the biggest programs on campus.”

“I think programs like these show that Big 3 organizations have committed to a partnership and attitude of working together to put students first,” Hudson said.

Notable SVSU Alumni Return To Campus For Celebration

2008-11-09T19:11:00.000-08:00

By Stuart Chipman

On Saturday evening, jazz music and fine dining primed the banquet halls in Curtiss Hall for laughter and reminiscing as 350 alumni met with old friends and colleagues from their days as SVSU students.

The 2008 SVSU Alumni Celebration, presented by the SVSU Alumni Association and Health Plus of Michigan, brought alumni together to honor six distinguished former classmates and to enjoy a well-prepared fish and pork dinner, and a performance from the comedy group Capital Steps.

The dinner music was arranged and played by SVSU students and alumni, apart from the drummer, who Micheal Ducharme, in his invocation introduced as “just a drummer,” setting the tone for a laughter-filled evening

Six individuals were recognized as Outstanding Alumni, one from each of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences, College of Business and Management, College of Education, College of Science, Engineering, and Technology, and the Crystal M. Lange College of Health and Human Services, and an additional alumna received honors as a Distinguished Alumna.

Walter Reynolds, a 1984 graduate of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences and 2008 Outstanding Alumnus, was recognized for his notable career in law enforcement. Reynolds has served as a member of the Michigan Chiefs of Police, the United States Attorney’s Office Anti-Terrorism Advisory Council and many other notable committees. He is currently serving as assistant special agent in charge to the Detroit Division of the FBI. The lesson that he found most useful from his days as a Cardinal was “how to learn more by listening than you do talking.” He also expressed his gratitude for the personal attention he received from his professors at SVSU, among those now-Vice President of Academic Affairs Don Bachand.

Michael Finney, a 1979 graduate of the college of Business and Management and 2008 Outstanding Alumnus, has been the vice president for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation and assistant city manager of Saginaw. Finney now is the president and CEO of Ann Arbor SPARK and has also been recognized as a Distinguished Professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He expressed his thankfulness for the valuable friendships he found at SVSU and has kept since, particularly with former Ombudsman Dick Thompson and Jim Dwyer, assistant vice president of Student Services and Enrollment Management. Finney offered some insight to current SVSU students with their futures ahead of them: “Perseverance is the biggest thing. If you continue to work hard, things will bear fruit.”

Mary Anne Ackerman, a 1990 graduate of the College of Education, is superintendent of the Frankenmuth School District and a 2008 Outstanding Alumna of SVSU. In her acceptance speech, Ackerman expressed her gratitude for the education she received at SVSU. Ackerman is a Reese native who, in her spare time, enjoys reading, playing the piano, gardening and decorating for the holidays.

Gerardo Gonzalez, a 1975 graduate of the College of Science, Engineering, and Techonology, retired from his 30-year career with Delphi Automotive Systems with many outstanding professional accomplishments. Gonzalez also is a veteran of the United States Army and now a 2008 SVSU Outstanding Alumnus. He remembered his years at SVSU as “interesting times and fun times.” He said that universities help to “learn how to find information,” a useful skill, he said, for succeeding in the cutting-edge world of business. Gonzalez’s son also is a recent graduate of SVSU.

Terrance Lerash, a 1981 graduate of the Crystal M. Lange College of Health and Human Services and 2008 SVSU Outstanding Alumnus, began a career as a staff nurse and has climbed through a variety of management positions to reach his current position as president and CEO with Synergy Medical Education Alliance. Lerash found useful advice received from the late Crystal Lange: “Create a vision for yourself.” Lerash called himself a pioneer, as one of the first and few male students of the nursing program at Saginaw Valley College, a college which he remembers as “out in the cornfields.”

Vicki Leblanc Rupp of the graduating class of 1983, received her Bachelor of Science degree from SVSU, beginning a career with Dow Chemical that has brought her to the position of global director of regulatory affairs and remediation in environment, health and safety of the Dow Chemical Company. Rupp called her education at SVSU “a strong, intimate, family kind of experience.” She was a member of the varsity softball team, and acquired “friendships that have [lasted] much longer and deeper than friends I had in high school.”

Gratitude and recognition were mixed with laughter and entertainment that all alumni, distinguished, outstanding or otherwise, enjoyed.

Jim Maher is a former SVSU football player and now sits on the SVSU Alumni Board.

“Muddy Waters was the coach back then,” Maher recalled. Maher’s college friend, Steve Umphrey, was also an athlete at SVSU – a collegiate race-walker. He and his wife, Sandy, were residents assistants. Maher warned the Umphreys that the press was present and to watch what they said. “Wouldn’t be the first time we were in the Vanguard,” Umphrey said.

The alumni left SVSU with broad smiles and sore bellies after the performance from Capitol Steps, who kept the audience laughing thunderously for over an hour.