March 24, 2010

12
which qb will step up? 6A Meals on Wheels serves as vital part of the community, 1B [cm-life.com] windows 7 | Campus computers upgrading in coming months, 3A Mount Pleasant, Mich. Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Central Michigan Life Monday, March 24, 2010 women’s week Discussion, poetry among events, 8A By Jaimie Cremeans Staff Reporter H ookah lounges are becoming in- creasingly popu- lar in Mount Pleasant. Two recently opened businesses are offering students options so they can choose the atmo- sphere that works best for them. The Smokers Club, 100 S. Mission St., is adding two rooms to its estab- lishment that will be used as hookah lounges and should be open by the end of the month. The S.I.X. Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St., opened last fall. Smokers Club owner Dave Sprunger said he thinks hookah is becom- ing more popular because it is the cleanest way to smoke. He said as people become more aware of the dangers of smoking tobacco products, they are turning to hookah as a safer option. “You still get the nico- tine, which is why people smoke,” he said. “But it uses steam and water va- por, so there’s no tar.” Some college students, he said, might see it as a way to get around smok- ing bans in apartments. Sprunger knows a lot of students who smoke hoo- kah because it does not leave stains and a strong smell like tobacco does, and users can choose from a variety of flavors. The Hookah Lounge, in- side the Malt Shop, 1088 S. University St., is Mount hookah smoke rising sean proctor/staff photographer Farmington Hills sophomore Chris Plotzke exhales after taking a long drag from a hookah pipe Monday night at the SIX Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St. “I grew up around a lot of hookah shops. They were a great hang out spot,” Plotzke says. “I enjoy the taste and the atmosphere of the bar.” Specialized lounges growing in popularity at CMU A HOOKAH BAR | 2A on Facebook on Video facebook.com/cmlife TALK WITH US: Do you think the health care bill is unconstitutional? cm-life.com/category/ multimedia/video Check cm-life.com for a video on the psychic fair. live chat! cm-life.com What’s on the Web A look at what you can find off the printed pages JOIN US at 8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday for live streams of SGA presidential candidates Brittany Mouzourakis and Evan Agnello! Evan Agnello Brittany Mouzourakis Mouzourakis (Monday) and Agnello (Wednesday) will speak with the CM Life editorial board and answering questions. We invite you to log on and submit questions during the livestreams! By Maryellen Tighe Senior Reporter Petitions circulated in Michigan to exempt the state from the U.S. health care bill before the House of Representatives even voted on it Sunday. The bill, which the House eventually approved, was signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama. But the Michigan Citizens for Health Care Freedom is seeking to get an exemp- tion from the bill on the bal- lot for Michigan voters next November, a task requiring 450,000 signatures before July 4. “You need the extra sig- natures because there are always signatures that will not be accepted,” said Joan Fabiano, organizer at Grass- roots in Michigan. If the signatures are col- lected, the petition would present the bill as a violation of the 14th Amendment, Fi- nance and Law Assistant Assistant Professor Tom An- thony said. “There are lawsuits al- ready being filed to declare the whole thing as uncon- stitutional,” he said, “and I think they have a case.” There are some states, such as Nebraska and Loui- siana, that have been prom- ised no increase in health care costs, Anthony said. The Nebraska exception is being called the “Corn- husker Kickback,” which al- lows Nebraska to not pay for its expansion of Medicaid, but other states are forced to pick up the tab, accord- ing to a news release from the office of Michigan Attor- ney General Mike Cox. This could total more than $100 million. There also are deals for drug companies and federal employees, Anthony said. Federal employees are al- heAlth cARe ReFoRm siGned into lAw In-state movement petitions against bill Voters could be asked to exempt Michigan in November A HEALTH CARE | 2A INSIDE w See the timeline of health care reform, 5A By Sarah Schuch Senior Reporter and Tony Wittkowski Staff Reporter University President George Ross’ transition team will have its first meeting Thursday. It will be a closed-door meeting for the president and team members, said Mary Jane Flanagan, executive assistant to the president. Flanagan said the meeting will be “very organizational.” “One of the main things is it is an opportunity for the presi- dent to interact directly with the team,” said Phil Squattrito, co-chairman of the transi- tion team and chairman of the Academic Senate. “Ross will go over what he’s look- ing for.” What Ross would like to see from the team’s reports also will be discussed, said Kathy Wilbur, vice president of government relations and pub- lic affairs and co-chairwoman for the transition team. Three or four reports will be present- ed to Ross throughout the pro- cess, she said. The team consists of six subcommittees — administra- tive/staff priorities, academic priorities, student priorities, alumni priorities, community/ business priorities and public affairs/communications. Each subcommittee will in- clude 12 to 14 people, Squat- trito said. Ross wanted each subcom- mittee to have a combination of students, staff and faculty, Transition team meets Thursday with Ross List of members not finalized; meeting is closed-door George Ross A ROSS | 2A By Amelia Eramya Senior Reporter Seven people suggested to the Senior Staff Budget Adviso- ry Group that Central Michigan University shut off Kelly/Shorts Stadium’s marquee board dur- ing the week and overnight. The answer from the SSBAG said: “Already implemented. The video board is shut down every night between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.” The Kelly/Shorts stadium marquee board is contributing between $400,000 and $450,000 to the Athletics Department’s approximate $5.5 million an- nual revenue. Although it may seem the marquee board requires a lot of electricity, it’s actually saving energy and creates more rev- enue than expenses, said Derek van der Merwe, senior associ- ate athletic director. “There’s no expense to the university for the scoreboard,” he said. In addition, about $300,000 more is generated from the marquee boards in Rose Arena and the softball and baseball fields along with $1.2 million in private and alumni donations, van der Merwe said. A total of $750,000 comes in from adver- tisements and sponsorships from all the marquee boards, he said. About $17,000 to $20,000 was used to operate the power of the stadium lights and mar- quee board for the 2009-10 school year. The revenue from the boards is generated from advertise- ments and is the most impor- tant part of the board, van der Merwe said. “The board is the most pro- lific and significant revenue stream that (we) receive,” he said. The revenue helps pay for traveling costs for competitions within athletics, recruiting ex- penses and several sports-re- lated costs. EnErgy consErvation While the marquee board was being installed in February 2007, the athletics department followed several guidelines. One of the most important was to conserve energy. “The plan was to find some sort of way to power down the board,” van der Merwe said. A program costing $10,000 was installed to automatically turn off the board between midnight and 6 a.m. “There’s not a lot of need to have the board running be- tween midnight and 6 a.m.,” said Nick Williams, associate athletic director. While working with Daktron- ics, the department also chose to use LED lighting, which uses the least amount of power, Wil- liams said. “The board itself is fairly ef- ficient because of LED lights,” he said. Another guideline was to not conflict with the Brooks Obser- vatory, on the roof of Brooks Hall. The athletics department worked closely with the physics department to determine if the marquee board would affect the night sky. “The athletics department was very sensitive to the pos- sibility that the light from the board would be a problem for the observatory,” said Physics Professor Glen Williams. Glen Williams said based on the times the board would be on, the physics department determined there would be no serious impact on the observa- tory. “In our normal use of the ob- servatory, we haven’t found it to be a problem,” he said. [email protected] Marquee board at Kelly/Shorts Stadium making up to $450,000 SPEAK ONLINE WITH SGA CANDIDATES

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March 24, 2010

Transcript of March 24, 2010

Page 1: March 24, 2010

which qb will step up? 6A Meals on Wheels serves as vital part of the community, 1B

[cm-life.com]

windows 7 | Campus computers upgrading in coming months, 3A

Mount Pleasant, Mich.Central Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeCentral Michigan LifeMonday, March 24, 2010

women’s week Discussion, poetry among events, 8A

By Jaimie Cremeans Staff Reporter

Hookah lounges are becoming in-creasingly popu-

lar in Mount Pleasant.Two recently opened

businesses are offering students options so they can choose the atmo-sphere that works best for them.

The Smokers Club, 100 S. Mission St., is adding two rooms to its estab-lishment that will be used as hookah lounges and should be open by the end of the month. The S.I.X. Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St., opened last fall.

Smokers Club owner Dave Sprunger said he thinks hookah is becom-ing more popular because it is the cleanest way to

smoke. He said as people become more aware of the dangers of smoking tobacco products, they are turning to hookah as a safer option.

“You still get the nico-tine, which is why people smoke,” he said. “But it uses steam and water va-por, so there’s no tar.”

Some college students, he said, might see it as a way to get around smok-ing bans in apartments.

Sprunger knows a lot of students who smoke hoo-kah because it does not leave stains and a strong smell like tobacco does, and users can choose from a variety of flavors.

The Hookah Lounge, in-side the Malt Shop, 1088 S. University St., is Mount

hookah smoke rising

sean proctor/staff photographerFarmington Hills sophomore Chris Plotzke exhales after taking a long drag from a hookah pipe Monday night at the SIX Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St. “I grew up around a lot of hookah shops. They were a great hang out spot,” Plotzke says. “I enjoy the taste and the atmosphere of the bar.”

Specialized lounges growing in popularity at CMU

A hookah bar | 2A

onFacebook

onVideo

facebook.com/cmlife

TALK WITH US: Do you think the health care bill is unconstitutional?

cm-life.com/category/multimedia/video

Check cm-life.com for a video on the psychic fair.

livechat!

cm-life.com

What’s on

the WebA look at whatyou can find offthe printed pages

JOIN US at 8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday for live streams of SGA presidential candidates

Brittany Mouzourakis and Evan Agnello!

Evan AgnelloBrittany Mouzourakis

Mouzourakis (Monday) and Agnello (Wednesday) will speak with the CM Life

editorial board and answering questions. We invite you to log on and submit questions during

the livestreams!

By Maryellen TigheSenior Reporter

Petitions circulated in Michigan to exempt the state from the U.S. health care bill before the House of

Representatives even voted on it Sunday.

The bill, which the House eventually approved, was signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama. But the Michigan Citizens for Health Care Freedom is seeking to get an exemp-tion from the bill on the bal-lot for Michigan voters next November, a task requiring 450,000 signatures before July 4.

“You need the extra sig-

natures because there are always signatures that will not be accepted,” said Joan Fabiano, organizer at Grass-roots in Michigan.

If the signatures are col-lected, the petition would present the bill as a violation of the 14th Amendment, Fi-nance and Law Assistant Assistant Professor Tom An-thony said.

“There are lawsuits al-ready being filed to declare the whole thing as uncon-

stitutional,” he said, “and I think they have a case.”

There are some states, such as Nebraska and Loui-siana, that have been prom-ised no increase in health care costs, Anthony said.

The Nebraska exception is being called the “Corn-husker Kickback,” which al-

lows Nebraska to not pay for its expansion of Medicaid, but other states are forced to pick up the tab, accord-ing to a news release from the office of Michigan Attor-ney General Mike Cox. This could total more than $100 million.

There also are deals for drug companies and federal employees, Anthony said. Federal employees are al-

h e A lt h c A R e R e F o R m s i G n e d i n t o l Aw

In-state movement petitions against billVoters could be asked to exempt Michigan in November

A heaLth Care | 2A

InsIdew See the timeline of health care reform, 5A

By Sarah SchuchSenior Reporterand Tony WittkowskiStaff Reporter

University President George Ross’ transition team will have its first meeting Thursday.

It will be a closed-door meeting for the president and team members, said Mary Jane Flanagan, executive assistant to the president.

Flanagan said the meeting will be “very organizational.”

“One of the main things is it is an opportunity for the presi-dent to interact directly with the team,” said Phil Squattrito, co-chairman of the transi-tion team and chairman of the Academic Senate. “Ross will go over what he’s look-ing for.”

What Ross would like to see from the team’s reports also will be discussed, said Kathy Wilbur, vice president of government relations and pub-lic affairs and co-chairwoman for the transition team. Three or four reports will be present-ed to Ross throughout the pro-cess, she said.

The team consists of six subcommittees — administra-tive/staff priorities, academic priorities, student priorities, alumni priorities, community/business priorities and public affairs/communications.

Each subcommittee will in-clude 12 to 14 people, Squat-trito said.

Ross wanted each subcom-mittee to have a combination of students, staff and faculty,

transition team meets thursday with rossList of members not finalized; meeting is closed-door

George Ross

A ross | 2A

By Amelia EramyaSenior Reporter

Seven people suggested to the Senior Staff Budget Adviso-ry Group that Central Michigan University shut off Kelly/Shorts Stadium’s marquee board dur-ing the week and overnight.

The answer from the SSBAG said: “Already implemented. The video board is shut down every night between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.”

The Kelly/Shorts stadium marquee board is contributing between $400,000 and $450,000 to the Athletics Department’s approximate $5.5 million an-

nual revenue.Although it may seem the

marquee board requires a lot of electricity, it’s actually saving energy and creates more rev-enue than expenses, said Derek van der Merwe, senior associ-ate athletic director.

“There’s no expense to the university for the scoreboard,” he said.

In addition, about $300,000 more is generated from the marquee boards in Rose Arena and the softball and baseball fields along with $1.2 million in private and alumni donations, van der Merwe said. A total of $750,000 comes in from adver-

tisements and sponsorships from all the marquee boards, he said.

About $17,000 to $20,000 was used to operate the power of the stadium lights and mar-quee board for the 2009-10 school year.

The revenue from the boards is generated from advertise-ments and is the most impor-tant part of the board, van der Merwe said.

“The board is the most pro-lific and significant revenue stream that (we) receive,” he said.

The revenue helps pay for traveling costs for competitions

within athletics, recruiting ex-penses and several sports-re-lated costs.

EnErgy consErvationWhile the marquee board

was being installed in February 2007, the athletics department followed several guidelines.

One of the most important was to conserve energy.

“The plan was to find some sort of way to power down the board,” van der Merwe said.

A program costing $10,000 was installed to automatically turn off the board between midnight and 6 a.m.

“There’s not a lot of need to

have the board running be-tween midnight and 6 a.m.,” said Nick Williams, associate athletic director.

While working with Daktron-ics, the department also chose to use LED lighting, which uses the least amount of power, Wil-liams said.

“The board itself is fairly ef-ficient because of LED lights,” he said.

Another guideline was to not conflict with the Brooks Obser-vatory, on the roof of Brooks Hall.

The athletics department worked closely with the physics department to determine if the

marquee board would affect the night sky.

“The athletics department was very sensitive to the pos-sibility that the light from the board would be a problem for the observatory,” said Physics Professor Glen Williams.

Glen Williams said based on the times the board would be on, the physics department determined there would be no serious impact on the observa-tory.

“In our normal use of the ob-servatory, we haven’t found it to be a problem,” he said.

[email protected]

Marquee board at kelly/shorts stadium making up to $450,000

sPeAK OnLIne WITH sGA

CAndIdATes

Page 2: March 24, 2010

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Pleasant’s oldest hookah hangout.

Owner Rosie Haddad said she thinks hookah has al-ways been popular among students, but other business owners are just now starting to realize the potential of the lounges in a college town.

“We’ve been here for five years, and business has been about the same for the last four years,” she said.

Haddad is not concerned with the addition of compet-ing lounges, and said “there’s enough business for every-one.”

The addition of the other lounges, she said, just gives stu-dents a chance to pick which atmosphere is a better fit.

a ‘nicE social activity’Travis Smith, a St. Johns

junior, and Jacquelyn Simon, a St. Johns sophomore, said they like smoking hookah be-cause it is a nice, relaxing way to spend time with friends.

“I like the atmosphere,” Simon said. “It’s a nice social activity.”

Smith and Simon said they go to The Hookah Lounge about once a week.

Haddad said her business is not dependent on hookah sales, since hookah is only a portion. The Malt Shop, she said, has been in business for 40 years selling food, coffee and smoothies.

Sprunger said The Smok-ers Club also is not depen-dent on the hookah, since it also offers all kinds of to-bacco products. However, he wants to make hookah a big-ger part.

He said he is in the process of acquiring new lines of hoo-kah from Las Vegas so he can offer the latest trends along with traditional flavors.

Hookah sales have been up since the addition began, he said, and he expects them to go up even more once it is finished.

[email protected]

today

w a Hawaiian luau, an event with Hawaiian food and a dancing demonstration, will take place from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Bovee University Center Rotunda. The cost is $3 for students, $5 for others.

w “Machuca,” a Spanish film, will be screened for free with subtitles from 6 to 8:30 p.m in Pearce Hall 327.

w “inspire Michigan,” a competition for students’ social entrepreneurial ideas, will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. in French Auditorium. Pre-registered students will be given five minutes to present a project focusing on bringing out a core value in Michigan.

tHursday

w a voX Fundraiser, hosted by Voices for Planned Parenthood to raise money for Isabella County Women’s Aid, will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. in the Bovee UC’s Down Under Food Court.

w an american red cross Blood drive will take place from noon to 5:45 p.m. in Kulhavi Hall 142.

w comedian Mary Mack will perform from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Bovee University Center Rotunda. The event is free.

Corrections

© Central Michigan Life 2010Volume 91, Number 69

Central Michigan Life has a long-standing commitment to fair and accurate reporting. It is our policy to correct factual errors. Please e-mail [email protected].

EVENTS CALENDAR

hookAh bAR |continued from 1A

lowed to have ‘cadillac,’ or high price plans, without the taxes that regular citi-zens may be subject to.

The petition may be sup-ported by people concerned with its potential to harm businesses as well, he said. Businesses are required to purchase insurance for all their employees.

“The mom-and-pop busi-nesses where most jobs are created in the U.S. ... if they are forced to buy health in-surance, then they’re going to have to lay people off or close,” Anthony said.

There will be a lot of work required for Michigan citi-zens to be able to vote on a motion this November, Fa-biano said.

“It’s going to take a huge amount of time and energy and money to be successful,” she said. “The whole reason that they are even doing this

is because it requires a two-thirds majority (to vote).”

Without two-thirds of the state lawmakers as consti-tutional conservatives, she said it is up to the people to pass the initiative. And not all the conservative groups are working toward that goal.

The Tea Party movement is focusing on other initia-tives, Fabiano said, and still supports the health care pe-tition.

“We support the resolu-tion and all 10th-amend-ment resolutions,” she said. “(But) it excludes other resolutions that are being introduced.”

State Rep. Tom McMillin, R-Rochester Hills, initiated the petition, but his offices declined comment. The U.S. House also approved the Reconciliation bill, now be-fore the U.S. Senate.

[email protected]

Flanagan said, along with alumni and community members in the appropriate groups.

“This is a good way for (Ross) to hear from all these different elements,” said Ja-son Nichol, Student Govern-ment Association president and Mount Pleasant senior. “It’s helpful. Students — we think we know what we need, but we miss things.”

WEB sitE coMing soonA complete list of transi-

tion team members has not been finalized, Flanagan said. Invitations were sent out a few weeks ago, and she said more will be named by Thursday.

A transition team Web site will be launched in coming weeks, Squattrito said.

The Web site will include a listing of everyone in-volved in the team. It also will be a way to keep the community updated and al-

low team members to keep in contact.

Nichol will be co-chair-man with Resident Hall Assembly President and Whitmore Lake sophomore Robert Lane for the students priorities subcommittee.

When their terms are over, the two new presi-dents of the organizations will be the co-chairmen, Nichol said. But Nichol and Lane will still be on the committee.

Upon Nichol’s recom-mendation, Brittany Mou-zourakis, SGA Vice President and Garden City senior, will serve on the student pri-orities subcommittee and Muskegon senior David Breed on the academic pri-orities subcommittee.

“I was nominated through Student Government Execu-tive Council,” Mouzourakis said. “It was then approved by administration and Dr. Ross.”

Breed has been involved in Academic Senate all year, and Mouzourakis is a good fit for the position, Nichol said.

Last week, at the an-nouncement of their cam-paign, Mouzourakis and Breed accepted their po-sitions on the transition team. The pair is running for SGA president and vice president, but Breed said they threw in their names for the team before decid-ing to campaign.

“They submitted our names for the team before we agreed to run (for SGA) together,” Breed said.

The rest of the semester will probably be used for subcommittees to meet and plan, Squattrito said.

“How much you will see visibly over the next four weeks, I’m not sure,” he said. “Committees will meet and talk about how they will gather opinions from people.”

Wilbur said Ross is aware of how little time is left in the semester, but he want-ed to at least get things started. The transition pro-cess is planned to continue through January 2011.

[email protected]

heAlth cARe |continued from 1A

Ross |continued from 1A

Page 3: March 24, 2010

Funding rallyStarting at 8 a.m. Thursday

at the Lansing Capitol Building, students representing several universities across Michigan will rally to ask for higher education funding, the concealed weapons on college campus legislations and the Medical Amnesty Bill. Central Michigan University’s Student Government Association is arranging to excuse students from classes and will provide busing for those interested in attending. SGA also will sched-ule a meeting with Education policy makers for students who wish to discuss higher education. Online sign-up can be found at rally.mistudents.org.

CBA dean forumGary Koppenhaver, a profes-

sor of finance and chairman of the finance, insurance and law department at Illinois State Uni-versity, will have a forum from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. today in Grawn Hall’s Pierpont Auditorium. He is the second finalist for dean of the College of Business Administra-tion to appear in an open forum.

Letter workshopCareer Services’ REACH Peer

Advising team is putting on a workshop to help participants write quality cover letters and thank-you letters from 7 to 8 p.m. today in the Bovee Univer-sity Center Isabella Room. At-tendance is free and open to the public. Participants will learn the importance of writing thank-you letters and how to make a cover letter stand out from the bulk. For more information, contact Jana Lewis at 774-3068.

Journalist visiting

Journalist, freelance writer and photographer Lorna Ty-chostup will speak on campus about her journey, starting at 7 p.m. today in Pearce Hall 127. Tychostup chronicled the dev-astation in Iraq and the story of its people as they attempt to regain a normal life. Sponsored by Program Board, the event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Nikki Burnstein at 774-3174.

Musical premiere

“Working: A Musical,” begins at 7:30 p.m. today in Moore Hall’s Theatre-on-the-side. The life of various American blue-collar workers is explored through monologues based on real-life ac-counts and interviews with actual working Americans.

Superintendent speaking

Mike Flanagan, superinten-dent of the Michigan Depart-ment of Education, will speak from 12:30 to 1:20 p.m. today in the Education and Human Services Building’s French Au-ditorium. For more information, contact Betty Kirby at 774-1503.

International Film Festival

Broadway Theatre, Celebra-tion! Cinema and the Park Library Auditorium are the main venues where movies will be showcased during the International Film Fes-tival, starting today. Java City, Art Reach, Celebration! Cinema and the CMU School of Broadcast and Cinematic Arts are selling tickets. The cost is $5 for an in-dividual ticket and $30 for a bulk of 20 tickets. For locations and times of screenings, see the Web site at cmfilmfestival.com.

If you have an interesting item for Life in Brief,

let us know by e-mailing [email protected].

Heidi Fenton, Managing Editor | [email protected] | 989.774.4343

inside life3AWednesday, March 24, 2010

Central Michigan life

[Life in brief]

By Sherri KeatonSenior Reporter

Misty Bennett’s mother taught her there is nothing she cannot do.

The College of Business professor said she understands the reality of that statement even more when she considers the special talent women have in dealing with adversity.

“I think we’re uniquely equipped to deal with that,” she said.

On Monday evening in the Bo-vee University Center Auditorium, a panel of three people — Bennett; Kathy Wilbur, vice president of Gov-ernmental Relations and Public Af-fairs; and Shawna Ross, director of the Volunteer Center — participated in a discussion as part of Women’s Empowerment Week, an event sponsored by The Organization of Women Leaders.

About 20 attendees posed a variety

of questions to the panelists, from balancing a family and career, facing adversity and networking.

Troy sophomore Griffin McMath questioned what empowers these women every day.

Ross said what inspires her is working with her students and other women figures.

“Their leadership and ideas in-spires and motivates me a lot,” Ross said. “My mom empowers me.”

Bennett said with great people as role models, her mission is to be one herself, as a faculty member.

“Part of it is getting yourself out there and seeing what your strengths

Wilbur, others speak on women’s empowerment

By Sherri KeatonSenior Reporter

Magatte Wade and Michael Strong are social entrepreneurs and conscious capitalists with more than a few things in com-mon.

Wade, a Senegalese-born, France-educated entrepreneur, is married to Strong, a white Ameri-can.

The couple will discuss their lives as a cross-cultural couple during “Living a Life Across Cul-tures” from 7 to 8 p.m. Thursday in the Bovee University Center Chippewa Room.

“(They) will share their wisdom and inspiration with the CMU community,” said Hope May, as-sociate professor of philosophy and religion.

The event is a part of “Flourish Fest 2010: A Celebration of Hu-man Flourishing, Entrepreneur-ship & Good Work.”

Wade launched her entrepre-neurial career around the San Francisco Bay Area, co-founding Adina World Beat Beverages.

Strong is the Chief Executive Officer of FLOW, a nonprofit or-ganization that promotes en-trepreneurial solutions to world troubles.

May said Flourish Fest’s ulti-mate purpose is to encourage student ideas.

“(This week) is to awaken and stimulate the creative potential of CMU students,” she said.

Sanford senior Casey Smith is a young entrepreneur who said he likes to have his ideas heard.

Students will pitch social en-trepreneurial ideas before judges

InsIdew Women’s Week also has events planned, 8A

living a life across cultures

Flourish Fest 2010w Today: Inspire Michigan! (Competition for Social Entrepreneurial Ideas), 7 p.m., EHS Building’s French Auditoriumw Thursday: "Living a Life Across Cultures," 7 p.m., Bovee University Center Chippewa Room.

paigE calaMari/staff photographerKathy Wilbur, vice president of governmental relations and public affairs, left, speaks during a panel discussion with Management Instructor Misty Bennett, center, and Shawna Ross, director of the Volunteer Center, Monday night in the Bovee University Center Auditorium. A WoMen | 8a

how to save a life

Windows 7 coming to campus computers

Harrison senior Derick Roland and Chelsea Osborne, a Mid Michigan Community College student, listen to Randy Hauter, a Red Cross instructor from Farwell, on how to use a defibrillator.

Harrison resident Chelsea Osborne, a sophomore at Mid

Michigan Community College, receives CPR

instruction Tuesday evening at Morey

Courts, 5175 E. Remus Road. The class was

conducted by the Central Michigan

Chapter of the American Red Cross,

which also hosts another session at 7

p.m. Thursday.

photos by NathaN KostEgiaN/

staff photographer

By Connor SheridanSenior Reporter

Personal computers across campus will soon

boot to life with the latest Microsoft Windows operat-ing system.

They started the transition to Windows 7 from Windows XP on Feb. 24, in a decision made by Central Michigan University’s Distributed Computing Steering Com-mittee.

The computers will be

upgraded at the discretion of technicians at each in-dividual college, said Rog-er Rehm, chairman of the DCSC and vice president of information technology and chief information officer.

“It doesn’t have to be a radical shift,” Rehm said. “Whatever we do with Win-dows 7, it’s going to have a

minimal impact on faculty in the classroom.”

The transition is unlikely to take place during the spring semester, as such broad changes can be prob-lematic mid-term, he said.

Each part of the school will move at its own pace, but everyone will move for-ward and most the changes

will be in place by the fall, Rehm said.

The upgrades are covered by CMU’s Microsoft Web site license, which costs $265,000 annually and pays for all Microsoft products in use by the university.

Most changes should take place by fall, officials say

A WindoWs | 5a

By Michael L. HoffmanStaff Reporter

You never know when you may need to perform

CPR.Marie Fussman, health

and safety coordinator for the Mid-Michigan Red Cross Chapter, said CPR, or cardiopulmonary resus-citation, is an important skill that everyone should learn.

March is Red Cross month and Fussman is running brief CPR training courses.

She hosted one ses-sion Tuesday night and is holding another at 7 p.m. Thursday at Morey Courts, 5175 E. Remus Road.

The courses emphasize non-breathing compres-sion methods of CPR.

“Anyone can learn how to do it,” Fussman said. “Even children can per-form it on an adult. Stud-ies have shown that chest compressions alone in-crease survival rates.”

Fussman, along with

Red Cross instructor Ran-dy Hauter of Farwell, dis-cussed Tuesday the im-portance of knowing basic CPR practices.

“If we can get people to just call 911 and start com-pressions, we can make a huge difference,” Hauter said.

He said survival rates for people who suffer cardiac arrests outside a hospital is lower than 20 percent if compressions are not started within five min-utes.

Derick Roland attended Tuesday’s demonstration and said he has been certi-fied twice.

“It is absolutely impor-tant in order to save lives,” the Harrison senior said.

Although he has never had to use his skills, he said he is glad to have them just in case.

Tim Prout, a Central Michigan University po-lice officer, also stressed the importance of CPR training.

“You never know what’s going to happen or when

it’s going to happen and you can learn (CPR) for al-most nothing,” Prout said.

Fussman said Thurs-day’s course will not only focus on compression-based CPR but also on how

to help someone who is choking by showing a DVD illustrating how to perform these acts along with other first-aid information.

[email protected]

Couple promotingentrepreneurshipduring Flourish Fest

A Cultures | 5a

Page 4: March 24, 2010

voices[cm-life.com/category/opinion]

4A

central Michigan Life

Wednesday, March 24, 2010

The fourth largest university in the state should have standards in place for appointing administrators, especially when the positions are in the interest of thousands of students and faculty.

CMU is no small business. It’s a public institution, and the positions in question are the highest paid on campus.

When Dr. Ernest Yoder was an-nounced as the founding dean for the

Medical College, it came as a complete shock to many. There wasn’t an open forum or a chance for students, faculty and university workers to voice their opinion. Even former prospective dean Cam Enarson, the current interim, held an open forum, despite not taking the job.

But given the university’s track record of hiring people, this is nothing new. University President George Ross was appointed without open forums

or any official forewarning. Although having open forums may

not be the set procedure for hiring administrative staff at CMU, it doesn’t mean they shouldn’t be held. The hir-ing of Yoder, Ross and football coach Dan Enos involve six-figure salaries. These are positions paid for by student tuition. Why don’t students get a voice in the hiring process?

These are positions that will affect professors and university workers — why weren’t they a part of the hiring process?

Candidates for the College of Busi-ness dean position are forced to have open forums. Although the position is not as big as the university president or the medical college dean, it’s still of significant student interest. The fact that these candidates must have open forums, but not the university presi-dent or other deans, reflects a double standard in the hiring process.

So here’s the message: Set a standard

for hiring on campus, especially those who make major decisions and are paid the big bucks. These standards should be public to everyone on cam-pus so people know what to expect.

The majority of positions, if not all, should require open forums, just like that of the dean of business. Officials worry that open searches will sway candidates from interviewing out of respect for their current employer, but it is a larger disservice to students and faculty when someone is hired without community discussion.

Those on campus deserve to know who the big wigs are and how they’re going to influence CMU. In an environment that’s aimed at molding young people into entering the work-force and making a difference in the world, there’s no excuse for the lack of standards when it comes to hiring.

Lead by example and at least allow the university community to know what to expect.

When it comes to hiring high-ranking of-ficials, you would expect the employer to have set standards and a process in place.

But Central Michigan University doesn’t really have rules and regulations when it comes to hiring. How deans and others are hired is anyone’s guess.

EDITORIAL | University needs a set procedure for hiring administration

Lack of standards

E-mail | [email protected] | 436 Moore Hall

Mount Pleasant, MI 48859Fax | 989.774.7805

Central Michigan Life welcomes let-ters to the editor and commentary submissions. Only correspondence that includes a signature (e-mail excluded), address and phone number will be considered. Do not include attached documents via e-mail. Letters should be no longer than 300 words and commentary should not exceed 500 words. All submissions are subject to editing and may be published in print or on www.cm-life.com in the order they are received.

[letters to the editor]

And health care for all

Bill approved by Obama has strengths,

weaknesses

NATE BEELER [CARTOON]

[our readers’ voice]

Admitting itThe more you try to ignore your

feelings for a person, the worse off you will be.

I could give you millions of rea-sons why admitting your feelings is the best choice, but I will start with basics.

You can not help who you fall for.Every single one of us learned this

in regards to our first “love,” also known as middle school.

At any rate, falling in love is one of the beautiful and ultimately frustrating features of our species, as well as something you have abso-lutely no control over.

Do not be afraid of it.Love is supposed to be a mess,

and it is supposed to be difficult.If you find yourself in it, here are

two things not to do.First of all, do not bottle your feel-

ings inside. Picture your emotions as a two

liter of Faygo Red Pop, and then open the bottle after shaking it as violently as you can.

If you do not deal with your emotions, there is no way you are getting it out of the carpet.

Second, do not date other people in an attempt to forget your feelings.

Not only is this an awful idea, but I promise your emotions will return with a vengeance if you try to move on without being ready.

In my case, my emotions returned after a few beers and a very public scene at The Bird Bar and Grill.

As I said, ignoring is a terrible idea.

So, if you are like me and are feet over elbows over someone, the best way to handle it is to sit that person down and tell them exactly how you feel.

Me, I took my own advice and told the guy.

It did not turn out the way I wanted and this is another unfortu-nate aspect of love; it is not always returned.

It is tough if the person does not feel the same, but keep in mind by admitting my feelings, I also saved myself further embarrassment at The Bird.

This is not the greatest win of my life, but a win I will take nonethe-less.

central Michigan Life

“I really haven’t looked at it. I actually just found out it

passed tonight.”Carlos Corondo,

Hazel Park sophomore

C M Y O u | How do you feel about the health care bill?

libby march/staff PHotograPHer

“It’s about time. I’m kind of satisfied with it.”

Ashoni Toler, Bloomfield freshman

“I don’t think we have the money to go through

with it.”Kyle Mcevoy,

Metamora sophomore

“I’ve been listening to my

parents talk and I don’t think we’re

ready for it.”Abby Palmteer,

Virginia freshman

Brian Manzullo, Editor in ChiEf | Will Axford, VoiCEs Editor | Heidi Fenton, Managing Editor | Eric Dresden, UniVErsity Editor | Jackie Smith, MEtro Editor

EdiTORiAL Brian Manzullo, Editor in Chief Heidi Fenton, Managing Editor

Joe Borlik, Student Life EditorJackie Smith, Metro Editor

Eric dresden University EditorAndrew Stover, Sports Editor Ashley Miller, Photo EditorWill Axford, Voices Editor

david Veselenak, Online EditorChelsea Kleven, Lead Designer

AdVERTiSiNg

Lindsey Reed, Katie SidellAdvertising Managers

Carly Schafer, Shawn WrightMulti-Media Marketing Coordinators

PROFESSiONAL STAFF Rox Ann Petoskey,

Production Leader Kathy Simon,

Assistant Director of Student Media

Neil C. Hopp,Adviser to Central Michigan Life

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the

free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

– The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

Well, they did it — love it or loathe it.

The Afforable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) was ap-proved.

It slipped by the U.S. House by a slim margin of 219-212, and we have none other to thank (or chas-tise) than our own statesman, Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee.

Stupak was one of the last hold-outs for the approval of President Barack Obama’s most coveted cam-paign promise. But the president worked some political magic and convinced the representative to vote for the bill.

His vote, along with the votes he brought on board with his support, gave Nancy Pelosi the 216 votes needed to pass the bill. Those votes did not come without some quid pro quo, however.

In order for Stupak to vote, and the estimated 10-15 votes he brought with him, the president promised an amendment to the bill that would eliminate federal funding for abortions. Now, the only remaining step is for the Senate to pass the reconciliation bill contain-ing the Stupak-Pitts Amendment completing the legislative process.

When Obama was campaigning for president, I was an avid support-er of his platform, especially with regard to health care. I knew that within the next few years, I would graduate college and get kicked off my parents’ insurance plan, leaving me to fend for myself and hoping I won’t get sick.

But over the past year, I have become less confident in his plan for universal health care.

While the bill includes several nec-essary measures, the eight months of planning is not enough time to write a fair, comprehensive bill.

Some changes I favor are parents being able to keep their children in-sured on their family plan until they are 26, allowing them the chance to establish themselves after graduat-ing college.

Those making below $29,327 a year for a family of four will be given access to Medicaid and those making less than $88,200 a year for a family of four will be eligible for federal subsidies to help cover some of their health care costs.

Finally, starting later this year, insurance companies cannot deny people based on pre-existing condi-tions, giving everyone the chance to get insurance.

But the Act is not flawless.The first flaw is that if a person

decides to live sans health care, he will be fined 2.5 percent of his annual income for not having insurance. This is not right. Citizens should have the option to get health care but, if they choose, they should be allowed to live without it.

The federal government has no place forcing citizens to purchase a good or service.

Also, some seniors, primarily those enrolled in Medicare Advan-tage plans, could see premiums go up and benefits decreased. Our elders should be receiving more help than this.

This is a major victory for Obama, but only time will tell if it was a vic-tory for the American People.

Michael L. HoffmanColumnist

On Monday, Colleen McNeely of the Student Government Association decided to overstep her bounds as a student representative and released confidential information from SGA offices in order to sway the outcome of this election.

As the information divulged is not publicly available, the Evan for President campaign has filed a FERPA complaint against SGA, because stu-dents should not have to worry about being publicly attacked by their own representatives.

It is unfortunate that those in power at SGA find it necessary to attack stu-dents and CM Life in order to win an election they are losing. We know SGA is flawed. We know SGA represents their own interests, and not the inter-ests of all CMU students. That’s why they accepted over $14,000 in bonuses from the administration and caved when it came to tailgate last year. And that’s what we’re trying to change.

Our opponents have a right to sup-port being paid by the administration. We happen to believe that student gov-ernment should be an independent student voice. Just like CM Life is not run by the administration, so should SGA work toward student interests, not

their own. But no one should fear be-ing called out in the press or otherwise because they disagree with SGA.

This campaign should be about issues, not personal attacks. And the fact of the issue is, we can’t keep voting for more of the same. We need new leadership in SGA. I know that when students are given the facts, they will choose the candidate that best repre-sents them.

Ben Lazarus Spokesperson, Evan for President Warren freshman

Last week’s advice column recom-mended that a community female and her boyfriend cohabitate.

This is not good advice for anyone who would like to be in a fruitful and lasting relationship.

We can define cohabitation as a male and female living together outside of marriage. This begs the question: why not be married?

The answer, as suggested by the columnist, is that it would be a trial period for marriage. What is to be tested? What conditions would restrict you from loving that person? If you cannot commit, it is obvious that you

have reservations about being married with that person.

That’s okay. Focus on that and resolve it with your partner. Odds are, cohabitation will not resolve the divi-sion between you two and it will only widen and deepen that division.

True love is unconditional. Cohabi-tation teaches how to live, not love, with conditions. Roommates and pets are kicked out because of not meet-ing exceptions or conditions. That is cohabitation. When you are unhappy in a cohabitation relationship, you will be more likely to blame your partner for your unhappiness.

The feeling compels cohabitation. True love is patient. Visit docshare.com for a fine summary of cohabitation sta-tistics with appropriate citations that will lead you to the research behind the conclusions. This is a discussion worth having. It is worth having for the sake of your relationship.

Cohabitation exposes the divide between partners in painful ways. It is not the way to love. There will be unreconciled feelings of hurt, loss and spite. Surely, it would be better if we did not kid ourselves into thinking that we can test our relationships like a 90-day “risk-free” product trial.

Because the risk is the loss of love.

Patrick HaggertyIntercollegiate Athletics Director

Response to McNeely’s letter in Monday’s CM Life

Central Michigan Life is the independent voice of Central Michigan University and is ed-ited and published by students of Central Michigan University every Monday, Wednesday and Friday during the fall and spring semesters, and every Wednesday during the summer. The online edition (www.cm-life.com) contains all of the material published in print.

Central Michigan Life is is under the jurisdiction of the independent Student Media Board of Directors. Articles and opinions do not necessarily reflect the position or opinions

of CMU or its employees.Central Michigan Life is a member of the Michigan Press Association, the Michigan

Collegiate Press Association, the Associated Collegiate Press and the College Newspaper Business & Advertising Managers Association.

Central Michigan Life’s operations are totally funded from revenues through advertising sales. Editions are distributed free throughout the community and individuals are entitled

to one copy. Each copy has an implied value of 75 cents.Non-university subscriptions are $1 per mailed edition. Copies of photographs published

in Central Michigan Life or its online edition (www.cm-life.com) are available for purchase at http://reprints.cm-life.com

Central Michigan Life’s editorial and business offices are located at 436 Moore Hall, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant, MI 48859, telephone 774-3493.

Hilary Farrell Columnist

Response to cohabitation in last week’s advice column

Page 5: March 24, 2010

www.cm-life.com[News]

Central Michigan Life || Wednesday, March 24, 2010 || 5A

By Theresa Clift Staff Reporter

Sometimes, it can feel like doctors are speaking a different language.

The Communication and So-cial Action Conference wants to offer suggestions for how to better understand the health world. The conference takes place today and Thursday in Moore Hall’s Townsend Kiva and is free and open to the public.

The event’s committee had specific goals it wanted to achieve when planning began for the conference.

“We wanted to look at com-munication, social action, health issues and how they relate,” said Mary Ann Renz, event coordinator and profes-sor of communication and dra-matic arts.

The conference will kick off with a keynote speech by Neera Tanden at 7 p.m. today. Tanden is the chief operating officer for the Center for American Prog-ress. She was formerly Hillary

Clinton’s senior adviser.Her speech is titled, “Big

Change, Big Challenges: Com-municating Health Reform in an era of 24-hour news.”

At 9:30 a.m. Thursday, speak-ers will address the issue of health literacy. The session “From Vaccines to Viagra: So-cial Implications of Health Communication Campaigns” will take place at 12:30 p.m. Then, at 2 p.m., Nancy Eddy, an assistant professor of com-munication and dramatic arts, will present “Ending the Silence about Mental Illness.”

The WaiTing RoomThe final event begins at 5

p.m. Thursday and is a theatre performance of “The Waiting Room,” co-written and directed by Jill Taft-Kaufman, professor of communication and dra-matic arts. The performance is based on interviews with can-cer survivors, their loved ones and their doctors.

Taft-Kaufman’s husband had brain cancer for 19 years.

“For me, personally, after my husband’s death, I had been thinking a lot about what it means to live and what it means to have that sort of interruption of living thrown on you,” Taft-Kaufman said.

As time when on, she real-ized how many people are di-rectly affected by the discovery of cancer among loved ones or among themselves.

The script itself features six characters whose lives have been touched by cancer in a major way, based on personal narratives and fictionalized a bit.

“We ended up using almost all their words directly because they were so incredibly in-sightful and compelling,” Taft-Kaufman said. “We took down a script that reflected those interviews, so it’s about the ex-periences of various people in a hospital waiting room; their past, their present and their hopes and fears for the future.”

There also will be a discus-sion after the play. Two other performances will take place after the conference that are in-dependent of the communica-tion conference: one at 2 p.m. Sunday and another at 4 p.m. Tuesday.

“This conference addresses very important health issues,” said Salma Ghanem, College of Communication and Fine Arts. “Especially now, because of the universal health care bill.”

[email protected]

Health conference kicks off todayPlay based on cancer survivors to cap two-day event

By emily PfundStaff Reporter

The Michigan Senate Appro-priations Committee will visit Central Michigan University on April 19.

Interim Provost Gary Shapiro revealed the visit Tuesday at a meeting of the Academic Sen-ate. He said the committee is charged with developing the budget for state allocations to higher education.

The committee will hear a presentation by University President George Ross and any other university presidents who choose to attend.

Shapiro said CMU also is look-ing for as many as five students to give three- to five-minute pre-sentations to the committee on their experiences at Central.

“(The committee members) enjoy hearing from students,” he said.

Any interested students

should contact a faculty mem-ber, the dean of their college or the provost’s office directly.

Student presenters will be chosen within the next 10 days.

oTheR a-SenaTe buSineSS

The ad hoc committee re-sponsible for advising Shapiro on posting the results of the Stu-dent Opinion Survey on the Por-tal held its first meeting Monday.

Due to a communication er-ror by the provost’s office, the student representatives for the committee were not informed of the meeting and did not attend.

“We never got any e-mails about it,” said Dave Breed, Mus-kegon senior and Student Gov-ernment Association represen-tative to the senate.

Shelly Hinck, professor of communication and dramatic arts, gave a presentation on the progress of the new COM 555: Special Topics in Communica-

tion and COM 255: Special Top-ics in Communication classes.

COM 555, offered for the first time this semester, is a training course for students to become facilitators for the COM 255 course.

The COM 255 course will con-sist of lectures by an instructor and dialogue with small groups of classmates facilitated with students trained in the COM 555 course.

Hinck said the two courses were created to give students the opportunity to engage in dialogue with students from backgrounds different from their own.

“Research has shown that our students want more opportuni-ties to talk with different indi-viduals,” Hinck said.

This semester, 10 facilitators are being trained in the COM 555 course.

[email protected]

Appropriations committee visitingin April to hear from students, Ross

no ViSTaCMU decided not to

switch to Windows Vista when it was released in 2007.

“Vista just had too many problems and hurdles in implementation to over-come,” said Tim Gramza, the manager of technology at the College of Humani-ties and Social and Behav-ioral Sciences.

Gramza, who also worked with DCSC, said the CHS-BS is planning to have its classrooms and computer labs changed by fall.

Faculty members’ desk-tops will be upgraded only at their request to avoid disrupting their work. Some

of their staff systems have already been upgraded and the response has been posi-tive so far, Gramza said.

He said users were espe-cially impressed by the new look and feel of the system and many felt it was more user-friendly.

Mike Reuter, director of distributed computing at the College of Education and Human Services, said now is a good time to begin making the switch.

“If we wait another year, we could start running into troubles with Windows XP,” he said.

The CEHS is pursuing a similar plan as the CHSBS and will have its labs and classrooms ready over the summer and its faculty in transition on an on-de-mand basis.

Any older computers

used for programs incom-patible with Windows 7 will simply be left at XP, Reuter said.

The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions is upgrading faculty members’ comput-ers, but is waiting on class-room and lab PCs.

Gary Wroblewski is the coordinator of applications at the College of Health Professions.

He said several classes in the college teach ap-plications which rely on Windows XP and, thus, the upgrades cannot proceed until those courses are up-dated.

“The goal, ultimately, of a migration like this is not to have too much negative effect,” he said.

[email protected]

windows |continued from 3a

for “Inspire Michigan” at 7 p.m. today in the Education and Human Services Build-ing’s French Auditorium.

Smith started his own nonprofit organization, Cleat Repeat, which focuses on collecting and donating used sports equipment to needy children. He said the “Inspire Michigan” event will give students the op-portunity to share their sto-ries.

“This will definitely give young entrepreneurs a chance to get their ideas out there; the event is a good idea, this is a really great thing,” he said.

May said students that

attend will learn about the profound needs that all hu-mans share.

“One of which is to see our-

selves helping others realiz-ing these needs,” she said.

[email protected]

cultures |continued from 3a

Page 6: March 24, 2010

CMU has a ques-tion mark at the quarterback po-sition for the first

time in four years.After setting school, Mid-

American Conference and NCAA records, four-year start-er Dan LeFevour exhausted his eligibility from CMU to enter the NFL Draft and pursue a professional football career.

Waiting in the wings are sophomore Ryan Radcliff, junior Derek Rifenbury and redshirt freshman A.J. Westen-dorp, all of whom were on the roster last season.

“(Dan)’s stretched the stan-dard very high,” said coach Dan Enos. “He’s been a tremendous role model for these guys to watch in how he’s handled his pressure and himself.”

While not officially naming a starter, Enos said Radcliff’s experience has put him ahead of the other two at the position right now.

“They’re all in the mix — it’s really too early to tell,” said Enos. “They’ve all done some good things. If I had to say any-thing, Ryan’s probably a little ahead of the other two just in terms of poise and his ability to function within the offense.”

RADCLIFFRadcliff, a 6-foot-2 sopho-

more from Sherwood, Ohio, is

in his second year of eligi-bility. He redshirted in 2008 and served as LeFevour’s backup in 2009.

As a sophomore, Radcliff went 10-of-21 for 115 yards and two interceptions in seven games. Most of his action came at the end of CMU’s 48-0 win against Al-corn State on Sept. 19 and 31-10 loss at Boston College on Oct. 31.

“It’s definitely a plus,” said quarterbacks coach Jay Johnson. “Anytime you’re in that type of environment and you have to go out and take snaps, that enough is

going to help you.”Thus far, Radcliff has tak-

en snaps with the first team and took more snaps than Rifenbury and Westendorp at the three CMU spring practices.

“I’m doing all right,” Rad-cliff said. “Right now, it’s just a big learning process of trying to get used to all the terms and match them up with concepts. It’s nice to have other people in the same boat as you.”

RIFENBURYRifenbury, a 6-foot-3 ju-

nior from Deerfield Beach,

Fla., is CMU’s longest ten-ured quarterback on the roster. Now in his fourth year with the team — he also redshirted his freshman year — he has not taken a single snap in a game.

Despite the inexperience,

Andrew Stover, Sports Editor | [email protected] | 989.774.3169

sports6AWednesday, March 24, 2010

Central Michigan Life

[cm-life.com/category/sports]

SEan Proctor/staff photographerSophomore quarterback Ryan Radcliff practices Tuesday during the CMU football team’s spring football sessions at Kelly/Shorts Stadium. CMU coach Dan Enos said Radcliff has a slight edge to replace former quarterback Dan LeFevour because of the experience he picked up while playing extensively in two games last season.

When opportunityarises

By Aaron McMann | Staff Reporter

Radcliff, quarterbacks compete to replace Dan LeFevour

B a s e B a l l

file photo by matthEw StEPhEnSSophomore left-hander Rick Dodridge gets the start against Bowling Green on Wednesday at Bowling Green, Ohio. His Saturday start was canceled because of inclement weather.

When:8 a.m. today

Where:Indoor Athletic Complex

The lineup:QB Dan LeFevourWR Antonio BrownWR Bryan AndersonDE Frank ZomboDE Larry KnightCB Kirkston EdwardsCB Josh GordyLB Tim BrazzelOL Allen OllenburgerFS Eric FraserK Andrew Aguila

*Wayne State Division-IIAll-American Joique Bell (RB)

*Former CMU defensive back (‘06) Pacino Horne

CMU Pro Day

JakE may/staff photographerCMU football coach Dan Enos talks to his team at Tuesday’s spring football practice at Kelly/Shorts Stadium.

A Leader | 7a

By Matthew ValinskiStaff Reporter

The CMU softball team looks to add to its three-game winning streak today in a doubleheadeer against the University of Detroit Mercy.

The Chippewas (10-7) have won eight of their last nine games heading into Game 1 of the doubleheader at 2 p.m. at Buysse Ballpark in Detroit.

Junior Amanda Patrick said one of the keys to the win-

ning streak has been the players’ abil-ity to rally around each other.

“Our team chemistry is just 100 per-cent better (than last year),” she said. “Last year, losing got to us. This year, everyone is pick-ing each other up.”

Sophomore Molly Coldren has led the way offensively, hitting .377 with four home runs thus far.

The past weekend, Cen-tral outscored its opponents 20-7 — it played Indiana twice and Southern Illinois-Edwardsville once — and

coach Margo Jonker said team has excelled at getting timely hits.

“We have had numerous people come through in key situations,” she said. “And we have done a great job of moving runners and doing the little things.”

The Titans (2-6) have had a slow start to the season, but earned their second victory of the season Friday dur-ing a doubleheader against the University of Michigan-Dearborn. They won 9-2 be-fore losing the second game 10-2.

Jonker said her pitchers need to continue to stay ahead of the batters in the count if they want to con-tinue doing well.

“For pitching, we always need to get ahead in the count,” she said. “It is all about location and being re-laxed so they can get the ball to move.”

Junior Kari Seddon and freshman Kara Dornbos have led the way for Cen-tral’s pitching staff, going 10-5 combined.

Seddon has struck out 51 batters this season in 10 appearances while holding batters to a .234 average.

ThE oppoNENTThe Titans have their own

pitching combo with fresh-man Anna Bondy and soph-omore Kara Spinelli.

The two have not fared as well as Central’s combo, go-

ing 2-6. Bondy has allowed batters to hit .370 against her, and Spinelli has allowed a .426 batting average.

Offensively, the Titans are struggling, hitting .191 on the season. Senior Jessica Liebner is hitting a team-best .350 with one home run, and fellow senior Erica Houthoofd is hitting .333.

Besides Liebner and Hout-hoofd, only two other hitters are hitting better than .200.

The Chippewas have been a lot more active on the basepaths, going 30-of-35 on stolen-base attempts. Senior Christina Novak has been caught just once in 11 attempts.

Detroit-Mercy has been more conservative, with five steal attempts all (three suc-cessful).

[email protected]

softball team looks to add to three-game win streakUp next:vs. Detroit Mercy; 2 p.m. today

Who’s hot?Sophomore Molly Coldren leads CMU batters with a .377 batting average and four home runs.

The pitching duo of Kari Seddon and Kara Dornbos is a combined 10-5.

What’s on tap:CMU can add to successful start vs.struggling Titans

Molly Coldren

By Aaron McMannStaff Reporter

The CMU baseball team looks to bounce back at 3:05 p.m. today when it travels to Bowling Green, after losing a series against Illinois State last weekend.

While both teams are members of the Mid-American Conference, the game is not a sched-uled conference game and serves as a lead-in to MAC play this weekend.

“We don’t have enough weekends to play a three-game series against every-body,” said coach Steve Jaksa. “We play everyone in our own division and, in crossover play, we play four of the six (teams) on the other side. So there’s a two-year span where we don’t play two teams and it rotates after that every two years.”

Sophomore left-hander Rick Dodridge (1-1, 1.93 ERA) gets the start for CMU after his last start, Saturday’s game against Illinois State, was canceled due to rain.

Dodridge gave up two earned runs on three hits in six innings in his last outing, an 11-5 win against Davenport on March 16.

Jaksa said Dodridge’s pitch count will be moni-tored so he is still available this weekend when CMU begins conference play at Miami (OH).

“He’ll probably go the first 75 pitches or so,” Jaksa said. “We want to get him some innings and work in so he’s ready to go by Sun-day.”

CMU (7-8) upset No. 1 seed Bowling Green 6-2 in the first round of the MAC

tournament last season. The Chip-pewas lost the regular-season se-ries (1-2).

B o w l -ing Green ( 6 - 8 - 1 )

comes off a 10-7 loss against West Virginia on Tuesday, snapping a five-game unbeaten streak that included a three-game sweep of Eastern Kentucky last weekend.

“We know each other re-ally well so, therefore, we want to make sure we’re ready to go,” Jaksa said. “It’s conference play, basi-cally, even though it’s not a game that counts in your (MAC) standings. You want to put your best foot for-ward, no question, in this particular game.”

CMU leads the all-time series 59-31.

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CMU plays non-MACgame vs. conferenceopponent BGSUSchedule dictatesteams play four of six in MaC

Steve Jaksa

Up next:vs. BGSU;3:05 p.m. today

Who’s hot?w Sophomore left-hander Rick Dodridge, who gets the start today, has a 1.93 earned run average in three games started (1-1).

w Sophomore first baseman Nate Theunissen is batting .302 with two home runs and eight RBIs, while senior catcher Dale Cornstubble is batting .333 with 11 RBIs.

w Senior shortstop Rob-bie Harman is batting .333 in five games since joining the team after basketball season.

What’s on tap:

s p r i n g f o o t B a l l p r a c t i c e

Page 7: March 24, 2010

By Nick ConklinStaff Reporter

CMU gymnastics coach Jerry Reighard considers the week of practice prior to Sat-urday’s Mid-American Con-ference Championships the most crucial of the season.

Tuesday’s and Thursday’s practices involve nearly the same amount of prepara-tion as an actual conference championship — because that is what they are supposed to represent.

“We simulate exactly what will happen, and try to make as many distractions,” he said. “We feel like that is the only why we can prepare for that meet.”

Reighard employed several different techniques to pre-pare his team in what he calls “MAC Week,” which essen-tially means performing in the style of an official conference championship.

All of the intricate aspects of a meet are carried out, and the gymnasts are judged and scored during every rotation. Their entrance into an event also is critiqued, as Reighard hopes to simulate as closely as possible the situations the gymnasts will face in at the Stroh Center in Bowling Green.

The intense nature of these meets helps prepare the team,

e s p e c i a l l y some of the younger gym-nasts who get a small glimpse of the atmosphere they will face, R e i g h a r d said.

Sophomore Kristin Teubner competed on the big stage of the MAC Championships last year, and she is an advocate of “MAC Week.”

“It just prepares you for what could happen at a meet, because you never know what could happen,” she said.

CRowD NoIsEAn unfamiliar part of com-

peting on the road in the championship is the crowd noise.

With all seven MAC teams involved and four compet-ing in the gym at one time, the noise and distraction is as loud as it will be all sea-son.

It is the reason why Reighard began to include fan participation in the week of practices several years ago. He invites fans to come to the gym to help create noise by performing oppos-ing team’s cheers and creat-ing general distractions.

He said it tests his gym-nasts’ mental strength, and he likes his athletes to prac-tices under these conditions before the actual meet.

“We have to really push that mental rock because, if we make a mistake in this meet, there is no tomorrow, and we as coaches have to get the athletes to take it to heart,” Reighard said.

TUEsDAY pRACTICEThe distractions were no-

ticeable while the gymnasts performed the beam rota-tion during Tuesday after-noon’s practice. Several fans and gymnasts cheered loudly and waved pom poms, while crowd noise was funneled through the gym’s speaker system.

Junior Andrea de la Garza said it is important to be

prepared to perform under intense scrutiny with many distractions in the gym.

“This is a really chaotic meet, there are a lot of dis-tractions,” she said. “You have to stay really focused and stay within your team.” 3 p.m. ThURsDAY

Reighard said he encour-ages fans and students to at-tend the team’s 3 p.m. Thurs-day practice to help provide a realistic meet atmosphere.

Thursday’s practice is the last “MAC Meet” practice of the week before the team departs to Bowling Green.

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central michigan Life || Wednesday, March 24, 2010 || 7A

CMU uses ‘MAC Week’ in search for better ending

Johnson considers Rifen-bury the most mobile quar-terback of the group.

“It’s what I’ve been wait-ing for the entire time. I don’t want to get cocky or anything, I just want to con-trol what I can control and do what I can do,” Rifenbury said. “It’s a lot of new stuff and I think I’m doing pretty well. I just have to continue learning it and carrying out what I got to do to make plays.”

wEsTENDoRpA.J. Westendorp, a 6-foot-1

freshman from Holland Christian High School, red-shirted last season after committing to CMU as a late signee to former coach Butch Jones’ 2009 recruiting class.

“This system has a lot more versatility, but it’s going to be a lot more complicated,” Westendorp said. “Instead of learning one drop from shotgun, you got to learn every play with two different drops. You have to be ready for either one, which keeps the defense on its heels, but it forces the quarterback to

thing a little bit more.”Enos said whoever wins

the position should focus on what they do best rather than trying to match LeFe-vour’s productivity.

“These guys can’t try to be him — they’re not him — and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Enos said. “Everybody’s got to be their own personal-ity. Ryan may have to make plays differently than Dan did, and that’s OK. As coach-es, we have put them in a po-sition to be successful.”

pRo DAYAside from LeFevour

and wide receiver Antonio Brown, other seniors will take part in CMU’s Pro Day event Wednesday at the In-door Athletic Complex.

Scouts from almost every

NFL team are expected to be in attendance, along with several members of the local media.

LeFevour will throw to receivers for the first time since competing in the Col-lege All-Star Challenge on Feb. 6. He was named Most Outstanding Player for the North in the Senior Bowl on Jan. 30 in Mobile, Ala., the same location where CMU defeated Troy 44-41 in the GMAC Bowl earlier in the month.

Several scouting Web sites have LeFevour listed as a possible third-round draft pick, while Brown a fourth- or fifth-round pick. Brown has said he hopes to get drafted early, possibly as soon as the third round.

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leader | continued from 6A

file photoLast year’s senior class of Jessica Neel (left), Vanessa Rodriguez, Jenna D’Alie and Kyla Krygier show somber faces as they accept the 2009 Mid-American Conference runner-up plaque.

1. Kent State 6-0 MAC, 8-3 overall2. CMU 5-1 MAC, 11-2 overall3. BGSU 4-2 MAC, 5-7 overall4. EMU 2-4 MAC, 7-9 overall5. NIU 2-4 MAC, 10-7 overall6. WMU 1-5 MAC, 7-11 overall7. Ball State 1-5 MAC, 5-11 overall

Worth mentioning:

w Senior Katie Simon was awarded MAC Gymnast of the Week after posting a career-best 39.475 all-around score, including two scores of 9.9 or higher and all four scores above 9.8. w CMU’s 196.35 it posted against BGSU was the fourth-highest score in team history.

MAC Standings

Kristin Teubner

g y m n a s t i c s

Team uses meet-likepractices, looks to banish 2009 finish

“it just prepares you for what could happen at a meet, because you never know what could happen.”

Kristin Teubner, sophomore

Page 8: March 24, 2010

are and making others aware of it,” Bennett said.

Mentoring and developing one-on-one relationships are important too, she said.

Wilbur said professionally, she has worked at places that were challenging and interest-ing. And though it was mostly men who hired her, it was the women there who helped her thrive, she said.

“Women really do rule — they have your back and I be-lieve, in a different way, men do in the workplace and so-cially,” Wilbur said.

Panelists also touched on how women can overcome diversity.

“You do have to balance when

you do feel that our rights are violated. Stand up for yourself,” she said.

Mara D’Amico, OWL presi-dent, noted the diversity of the panel.

“They provided great sto-ries and a lot for people to take

away,” the Kentwood senior said. “These events will help us to connect with strong and suc-cessful women on campus and learn about issues facing wom-en across the world.”

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8A || Wednesday, March 24, 2010 || Central Michigan Life www.cm-life.com[News]

By Rachel MaterStaff Reporter

Mary McConner and the men of the RHO Delta Chapter of Alpha Phi Alpha would like to dedicate this week to women.

The group is hosting Women’s Week 2010, a week-long series of events for Women’s History Month.

“I feel it’s nice to show you ap-preciate them, and I just think of great programs to help spread a message to all the women here,” said McConner, a Detroit gradu-ate student.

“The Portrayal of Women in the Media” takes place at 7:30 p.m. today in Pearce Hall 126 and is an open discussion of how women appear in the me-dia.

“Message to my Sisters,” seven monologues about differ-ent women’s issues, takes place at 8:15 p.m. Thursday in the

Education and Human Services Building’s French Auditorium. Doors will close once the event begins.

McConner wrote the mono-logues, and each one will be performed by a female student.

Bath junior John Ketchum ex-pects Thursday’s event to be the most enjoyable.

“It’s about different issues women go through. It’s more interactive and a lot more en-tertaining because it’s women’s emotions shown through a play,” Ketchum said. “They’ve worked so hard on it; they’ve been work-ing on it for two months.”

The week-long program closes with a poetry contest for poems about women at 7:08 p.m. Friday in Saxe Hall’s base-ment.

McConner said men are en-couraged to participate through-out the week.

“Just because the events are about women doesn’t mean that men can’t take part in the con-versations,” she said. “We have some great events; some have never been done before. They’re absolutely free, you will learn a lot and it’s educational.”

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‘Women’s Week’ schedule startsDiscussion, poetry among the events planned

Women’s Empowerment Week

w Wednesday: - Women’s Empowerment Celebration, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Main Library Corridor- Operation Beautiful, 8 p.m., Saxe/Herrig/Celani Lobby

w Thursday:- Acoustic Jam, 9 to 11 p.m., Carey Hall’s Real Food on Campus

w Friday:- Pancake Breakfast Fundraiser, 10 p.m. to 1 a.m., The Wesley Foundation

w Saturday:- Day of Action, 8 a.m. to 12 p.m., throughout Mount Pleasant

women |continued from 3a

Libby MarCh/staff photographerFlushing freshman Andrea Conquest pulls a card from Anne Karpiak’s deck during a psychic fair Tuesday in the Bovee University Cen-ter’s Down Under Food Court.

By Jaimie Cremeans Staff Reporterand Connor sheridanSenior Reporter

Students in the Down Un-der Food Court may have received a glimpse of their futures Tuesday afternoon.

A psychic fair there fea-tured five psychics hosted by the Central Michigan University Program Board.

They used various forms of divination to read for-tunes, including palm read-ing and tarot cards.

Flushing freshman Andrea Conquest said it was eerie to have her fate foretold by psychic Anne Karpiak.

“It wasn’t her directly tell-ing me — it was figuring stuff out on my own,” Con-quest said.

Karpiak let Conquest draw her own meaning from the stones spread across a sheet of runes — ancient Norse symbols.

It was the first time she had ever experienced for-tune telling.

Conquest said she en-joyed herself and would like to come back for a palm reading, though much of the psychic wisdom likely comes from good old-fash-ioned observation.

“I think she takes what you say and builds upon what you think,” Conquest said.

Foxfire, a psychic from In-diana, said she uses a com-bination of tarot cards; psy-chometry, the use of senses and psychology; and clair-voyance, the use of spiritual and paranormal senses, to tell fortunes.

Each student had 10 min-utes for their reading, she said, and they could ask one question about any aspect

of their life.With limited time, the

psychics had to gauge their energy before using the tar-ot cards to hurry the process along.

“We had to rely a lot on clairvoyance,” she said. “Usually, a sense comes through before they even walk up to the table; it’s an energy exchange.”

Russell Pfafflin, the spe-cial events chair for Program Board and an Allen Park ju-nior, said the group has been bringing psychics to campus for three years.

Pfafflin said they are al-ways popular with stu-dents.

“We usually have around 200 to 250 people,” he said. “It’s been busy.”

The group of five was part of Psychic Caravan, an orga-nization that sends psychics to events throughout the country.

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Fortunes told in new ways TuesdayPsychic fair attracts dozens to Down Under

Page 9: March 24, 2010

[cm-life.com/category/news/metro]Wednesday, March 24, 2010

Central Michigan Life

CoMMunityB

March 19 - 28

Central Michigan

INTERNATIONAL

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COMISSION ON AGING

photos by libby march/staff photographerMount Pleasant resident Jeanette Homan, 83, laughs while her husband, Art, waits in the car as she prepares to bring a meal to a patron in February for Isabella and Gratiot County’s Home Delivered Meals Program in western Mount Pleasant.

By Ryan CzachorskiSenior Reporter

Recreational use of pre-scription pills is on the rise in Mount Pleasant.

Prescription pills are now the third most-sold drug on the streets in Isabella County just behind cocaine, accord-ing to the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team.

Lt. det. Amado Arceo, of BAYANET’s North Team, said approximately 20 percent of the 197 arrests BAYANET made in Isabella County in 2009 were for prescription drugs.

The 20 percent figure does not reflect the availability of prescription drugs, he said, because it can be hard to tell if the person obtained the drugs legally.

“A car is stopped by any cop, and you’ve got mari-juana — that’s easy. You’re going to jail,” Arceo said. “You’re not doing anything

wrong by having (prescrip-tion drugs). What that per-son does with them is the hard part.”

Trending in collegePrescription drugs used to

treat attention deficit disor-der are particularly popular on college campuses, with students selling the pills to other students looking to aid their studying.

San Diego State Univer-sity research found that 11.2 percent of students at an unidentified southern Cali-fornia campus used unpre-scribed stimulants within a 12-month period. The same study found 36.6 percent of fraternity and sorority members used unprescribed stimulants.

Dave Sabuda, public infor-mation officer for the Mount Pleasant Police Department, said the development local-ly has not gone unnoticed by the MPPD, and the sales normally come in bunches.

“It’s an activity that has significantly increased the

Illegal use of prescription pills on the riseNarcotic now third most-sold drug behind cocaine

Homan said she was prompted to take a position as a delivery driver after she heard a radio announce-ment.

“We saw how needed our service was,” she said. “We just felt like we were contrib-uting a very essential service and, who knows, we might need it ourselves one day.”

The program works to provide nutritionally bal-anced meals to home-bound residents of Mount Pleasant and Isabella County ages 60 and older, said Nutrition Program Director Caramel Slebodnik.

Slebodnik said the home-delivered meals program has an operating budget of $246,118 in Isabella County a decrease from last year’s budget of $258,678. It is funded by several different sources, including the state and county, millages, funds from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and donations.

Slebodnik said the de-creased budget is a result of losing state funding and donations from meal recipi-ents.

To cope with the decreas-ing budget in the past, the program avoided purchas-

ing high priced food items and has worked to cut em-ployee hours.

come geT your mealDrivers spread out at noon

each day.Homan said she and her

husband have been deliv-ering meals for about eight years. When they first began, the Homans delivered about 27 or 28 meals every Mon-day.

Since then, the two have switched to a different part of Mount Pleasant, and now deliver about 12 meals every Monday.

Homan’s 12 patrons are just a few of the 438 home-bound seniors who utilize the meals program.

Slebodnik said the baby boomer generation is aging, meaning there is a foresee-able increased demand for home-delivered meals. This increase could cause a po-tential problem for the pro-gram’s dwindling budget.

Slebodnik said the worst outcome would be a de-creased amount of meals available for those who need them.

Meals on WheelsDespite a decreased budget, county home delivery program keeps rolling

Jeanette Homan, 83, of Mount Pleasant walks back from delivering a meal to meet her husband, Art, in February in western Mount Pleasant. The Homans volunteer every week for Isabella and Gratiot County’s Home Delivered Meals Program.

By Randi Shaffer | Staff Reporter

Jeanette Homan spends her Monday afternoons a little differently than most 83-year-olds.

The Mount Pleasant resident and her husband, Art, are delivery drivers for Isabella and Gratiot Coun-ty’s Home Delivered Meals Program, managed by the Isabella County Com-mission on Aging.

Ginny Cain, director of the commis-sion’s Gold Key Volunteer Program, said the Homans are two of more than 60 volunteer drivers for the Home Delivered Meals Program.

By Ryan CzachorskiSenior Reporter

John Tellis has always con-sidered Michigan his home despite living out of state for 34 years.

He found his opportunity to return once the under-

sheriff position at the Isabella County Sheriff’s Department opened.

Tellis, 56, replaced Laude Hartrum, who became police chief in Pentwater, after work-ing more than two decades in the Portland, Ore. Police Bu-reau.

Michigan has remained a home for Tellis because he has a sister living in Alma, and his other sister and father live in Mount Pleasant.

His family played a major

part in him accepting the job.“I’ve retired from Portland,

and family is important to me,” he said.

“Michigan is still home. I’ve always had a fondness for the Great Lakes.”

Tellis’ post as commander at the Portland Police Bureau left him in charge of training 1,300 employees.

His new position is responsi-ble for helping the day-to-day activities. Tellis took over as undersheriff March 1.

a pleasanT fiTTellis has fit right into life in

Mount Pleasant. He spends time with his fam-

ily, and has joined a local group of dulcimer players, a pastime of his. He also likes golfing and building furniture. He said he is looking to buy a house with a wood shop.

The new personal activities and smaller office have kept Tellis busy.

jake may/staff photographerJohn Tellis was appointed as Isabella County’s new undersheriff in January, starting March 1. Tellis, an MSU graduate, served as a police officer in Portland, Ore. for 25 years.

From the big city to Mount PleasantUndersheriff returns home after 26 years in Portland

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By David VeselenakOnline Editor

City officials are unsure how much money the upcoming U.S. Census count will bring in for the next 10 years.

But one thing is certain: they hope the city’s popula-tion remains above 25,000.

“In 2000, when we jumped to the 25,000 mark, we went to a new formula and that’s what we’ve been relying on,” said Nancy Ridley, Mount Pleasant’s director of Finan-cial and Administrative Ser-

vices. “Just in that one year, because our population went over that bracket, we got al-most a million dollars.”

The city’s state-shared revenue in 2000 was about $3.018 million.

In 2001, that number in-creased to $3.782 million.

“We don’t want to go back the other way,” she said. “Our fear is if we go under 25,000, we may lose a million.”

If the city does fall below 25,000, it can go through an appeals process if the num-bers are close, said Jeff Gray, director of Planning and Community Development.

Gray noted, however, he does not anticipate the

c i t y o f m o u n t p l e a s a n t

Funding from Census count uncertainCity officials hope to keep population count above 25,000

A Census | 4B

Page 10: March 24, 2010

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2B || Wednesday, March 24, 2010 || central michigan life cm-life.com/category/news/metro[Community]

“If there was money for the demand, it wouldn’t be an is-sue,” she said.

Brenda Upton, executive director of the County Com-mission on Aging, said the meal recipients were split evenly between Isabella and Gratiot counties.

Slebodnik said each meal contains a protein source, in addition to a vegetable dish, a fruit dish, bread and milk.

“Some of the clients that

we deliver meals to are home bound and very isolated,” Cain said. “We’re filling a very basic need — a nutritious meal.”

Cain said many of the fami-lies of the meal recipients count on the delivery drivers to check on the safety of their loved ones.

This is one of the reasons, Slebodnik said, the meals program is valuable.

“It’s so important to so many people ... the person receiving the meal and their family members,” she said.

[email protected]

meals |continued from 1B

past few years,” he said. “All of a sudden, you’ll just get hit. They come in groups.”

Sabuda said officials have received calls from doctors concerned when the number of people requesting certain prescriptions spikes.

One factor contributing to the reselling of prescrip-tions are people who do not know what to do with the drugs when they no longer need them. Arceo said a few pharmacies have started programs where they will take customers’ unused pills back.

“If you flush them down the toilet, you’re putting those drugs in the water sys-tem,” Arceo said. “How do I get rid of this stuff?”

Taking acTionBAYANET uses sting op-

erations and fake transac-

tions to catch people selling prescriptions, said Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mio-duszewski. Suspects also are apprehended with help from other dealers.

“Most of the arrests come from people caught with il-legal drugs,” he said, “and work with the police to re-duce their sentences.”

When working with buy-ers and setting up deals, informants say prescription drugs are available about 90 percent of the time, Arceo said.

While the MPPD and sher-iff ’s department occasional-ly make arrests for reselling prescription drugs, BAYA-NET is the leader in arrests for all drug busts.

oTher drug acTiviTyDespite the rise in sales of

prescription drugs, marijua-na still accounts for the ma-jority of BAYANET’s arrests.

In 2009, BAYANET’s Mount Pleasant branch arrested 216 people, with 197 arrests tak-

ing place in Isabella County. Fifteen were in Clare County, and four in other counties.

Arceo said there also has been a slight increase in heroin sales.

“It’s an old-school drug,” he said. “Not just here in Mount Pleasant, but the other three teams are seeing that as well.”

He noted the increase was small and not significant enough to consider a trend.

[email protected]

pills |continued from 1B

By Carisa SeltzStaff Reporter

Bill Caul’s six-year tenure as the area’s state representative will end in December — and the turnover has some questioning the effect on Central Michigan University’s future capital im-provement projects.

Rep. Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, has sat on the state’s joint Capi-tal Outlay Committee through-out his three consecutive terms. The committee hears requests from officials at the state’s 15 public univer-sities and 20-some commu-nity colleges each spring to draw funding for campus projects.

Caul helped lobby for $37.5 million for CMU’s Education and Human Services Building, an amount which cov-ered 75 percent of the project’s estimated total cost.

Toby Roth, director of Gov-ernment Relations, said Caul has been “very accessible” and a “good friend” to CMU.

“He’s really been a huge advo-cate for us in Lansing,” he said. “It does hurt when you lose a member who has the experi-ence that he’s gained over six years and, now, you have to try to start over.”

Roth said the next local rep-

resentative will likely have an open door to campus as well. Caul maintains it is something he will encourage.

But more specifically, Caul said he will urge the represen-tative-elect to request a spot on the Capital Outlay Committee.

“It’s critically important that we continue to have quality fa-cilities to draw students to the university,” Caul said.

In the last ten years, two other construction projects at CMU were partly funded by Capital Outlay funds: the Charles V. Park Library and the Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow College of Health Professions Building.

For each, Ray Christie, vice provost of Academic Admin-istration, said Capital Outlay funded 75 percent of the proj-ects’ total cost.

Caul said his wife Sandy, who represented Mount Pleas-ant from 1998 to 2004, was on the committee when officials sought funds for the library and health professions building.

Caul also played a role when CMU vied for funding for its pro-posed biotechnology building two years in a row. The proposal, so far, has been unsuccessful.

Caul attributes this to CMU’s recent “education project,” or construction of the new Educa-tion and Human Services Build-ing. Persuading the committee to allocate additional funds to CMU so soon was difficult.

“We kind of needed to wait our turn,” he said.

However, Caul saw some suc-cess advocating for Mid Michi-gan Community College when he was first elected in 2004. He supported the construction of MMCC’s Student Orientation and Academic Readiness Build-ing and helped secure Capital Outlay funds to finance 50 per-cent of the $14.5 million Herbert D. Doan Center.

MMCC President Carol Churchill said Caul and his wife understand the role MMCC serves.

“They understand our mis-sion and they understand that our programs lead to jobs,” Churchill said, noting Sandy currently serves as chairwoman to Mount Pleasant’s Advisory Committee for MMCC.

Caul said he has not given up on bringing the biotechnology building into another Capital Outlay bill.

He said it is possible a bill could come after the November elections and the “new” legisla-ture takes office.

“Those people that are elect-ed in November will be taking office in January so it’s possible,” he said. “But we’ll have to wait and see on that.” So far, just Christine Alwood, CMU’s direc-tor of Stewardship and Donor Relations, has thrown her name in the ring to take Caul’s place.

End to Caul’s term couldaffect CMU capital projectsState Rep. says successor should join Capital Outlay Committee

By Edward SchutterStaff Reporter

A two-millage increase could find its way on the ballot in Isa-bella County next November.

On April 6, the Isabella County Board of Commission-ers will hold a public hearing to consider the potential increase, which would generate $2.3 mil-lion over the next eight years for work and maintenance of county roads.

The city of Mount Pleasant would receive approximately $860,000 of that money.

Isabella County Road Com-mission Manager Tony Casali said county roads are quickly falling apart and, without fund-ing, they will get worse.

“It is still not going to fix ev-erything that we need, but this is going to bring us to a stan-dard of where we need to be,” Casali said.

Since 2004, the Road Com-mission has lost more than

$910,000 from its budget. County Commissioner

George Green said this plan has been really well thought out.

“It is a pretty viable plan that they have come up with,” he said. “It is an aggressive plan.”

Currently, the county has 1,166 miles of road, 495 of which is paved. Board Chair-man David Ling said the coun-ty might not have a lot of other choices.

“If we are going to address the problems that we have, then I really don’t see any other options for us,” he said. “The revenues are simply not going to be there.”

According to the Road Com-mission, the county currently has 149 miles of paved road it considers to be in poor condi-tion. This is compared to 65 miles of paved road it considers to be in very good condition.

Out of the 114 bridges in the county, 36 are structurally deficient. Ling said he thinks

funding would be good for the county.

“The roads are deteriorating rapidly, so I am personally sup-portive of this,” he said.

Ling said he does not know if this is likely to be favored by voters if approved by commis-sioners. But he said the smaller townships could make a differ-ence.

“For those people in smaller townships, a two-mill increase is quite a significant impact on them,” he said.

The state’s primary source of transportation funding comes from the gas tax. Casali said that is a huge reason the Road Commission is losing so much money.

“As long as the gas prices go up, there are going to be people that just don’t go anywhere,” he said. “It looks like it is going to be over three dollars again this summer.”

[email protected]

Millage increase could decide fate of county roads

“It’s critically important that we continue to have quality facilities to

draw students to the university.”Bill caul, state representative

Rep. Bill Caul

Page 11: March 24, 2010

cm-life.com/category/news/metro [Community] central michigan life || Wednesday, March 24, 2010 || 3B

By maryellen tigheSenior Reporter

Working downtown has been a part of Tammy Ger-main’s life for more than 25 years.

The owner of Stan’s, 220 E. Broadway St., started as a ca-shier in 1983 and bought the store in 2000. Now her three children, Joshua, Samantha and Tara, work there with her.

“Ever since I started here, I knew I wanted to be the own-er of Stan’s,” Germain said. “Throughout the years, I went through a couple owners, three maternity leaves and the opportunity came up in 2000 to buy it.”

She is the fourth owner of Stan’s, including Stan himself, who she worked for. The store has been around since the 1950s — first as a bakery, later as Paul’s and now as Stan’s.

The feel has been the same over the years, and so have some of the customers. Bev-erly and Vernon Acker have been coming to Stan’s since Stan was the owner.

“It’s sort of followed the same pattern on everything,” Beverly Acker said. “We like the food, we like the home atmosphere — homemade bread, homemade soups ... they usually make everything

from scratch, which is nice.”

keeping iT in The familyKnown for its breakfasts,

the restaurant’s formula has worked, as Germain said she has seen more customers over the years.

Everybody loves breakfasts, but the store is just as famous for their homemade turkey and other foods, Germain said.

Customers would like the store to expand and often have to wait for a seat on the weekends. But there are no plans for expansion, Germain said, though she does hope to renovate.

“Our major goal is ... just overhauling the kitchen be-cause the equipment is so old,” she said.

Her daughter, Tara, has a lot of experience working with the equipment and every oth-

er part of the business. “When I was in fifth grade, I

started helping the old owner out,” she said. “I started out bussing tables and grabbing cash — I had a little stool up there because I couldn’t reach, but someone taught me how to do it.”

When she started working, she looked forward to being a waitress, and is now wait-ing tables to raise money to go to Mid Michigan Community College.

Her children’s interest in the store is not news to Tammy Germain. Only her youngest, Tara, is expressing interest in leaving.

“It’s definitely a lot of work, and we need our whole family to run it,” Tara said. “I love it, but I’m going to explore other stuff too.”

[email protected]

From cashier to ownerLocal resident runs Stan’s restaurant with her children

photos by nathan kostegian/staff photographerTammy Germain, owner of Stan’s, 220 E. Broadway St., works the kitchen Sunday morning. “We’re going to stay constantly busy today,” Germain said about the flow of morning customers.

Riverview junior Brittany Redmond, right, and Northville sophomore Megan Knoth, enjoy breakfast Sunday morning at Stan’s, 220 E. Broadway St. “We just recently started com-ing here. It’s cheap and has good food. It’s our breakfast spot,” Redmond said.

By Randi ShafferStaff Reporter

Gasoline prices nation-wide are expected to top $3 per gallon within the next few weeks, according to a re-cent oil and gas analysis.

The national average for gasoline rests at $2.75 per gallon, analysts say, up 81 cents from a year ago. Tabitha Rulapaugh, shift manager at Shell gas station, 718 S. Mission St., said she is not surprised by the projec-tions.

“I actually personally do believe (gas prices are) going to hit three bucks,” she said, “if not more.”

The state average gas price Tuesday afternoon was about $2.80, as reported on michigangasprices.com. For many students at Cen-tral Michigan University, the

potential spike in fuel costs could cause some financial difficulties.

Austin Denton is one of those students. The Clark-ston freshman’s 1999 Ford Taurus SE gets roughly 22 miles per gallon.

“I don’t like (the rising gas prices),” he said. “I can bare-ly afford gas as it is.”

Denton said the situation would prompt him to walk and bike more, instead of driving his car. Even now, Denton says he drives only about three times a week. He also is considering a Flex Fuel vehicle to help counter the amount he spends on gasoline.

“You gotta deal with it — what can you do?” he said.

Marysville sophomore Chris Dunham also has con-cerns.

“It sucks,” he said. “It costs a lot to fill up my truck as is.”

Though Dunham is un-happy about the potential rise in gas prices, he said the rise would not cause him to change his current driving

routine.Sarah Holey, assistant

manager of 7-Eleven, a dis-tributor of Citgo gas at 2397 S. Mission St., does not think many people will cut back on driving despite rising fuel costs.

“People will still buy gas, no matter how much it costs,” she said. “People will pay anything you put out there.”

Holey said she thinks the timing of the increase is pe-culiar, and this type of in-crease normally comes clos-er to summer.

Though a quick spike may be on the horizon, recent reports indicate there is no evidence the high prices will stay.

“(The price of gas) goes down, then it comes right back up,” Rulapaugh said.

Senior Reporter Ryan Czachorski and the Associ-ated Press contributed to this report

[email protected]

Gas prices expected to hit $3Students looking for ways to counter increases

“It’s going from being a spe-cialist to being a generalist,” he said. “It’s a much broader range of activities. I am busier in Mount Pleasant than I was in Portland.”

Tellis, a Harper Woods na-tive, joined Volunteers in Ser-vice to America (VISTA) in 1976 after graduating from Michigan State University. His work with VISTA, now part of AmeriCorps, had him doing social services and working with runaway youth.

After his time with VISTA,

he spent some time working in the logging industry before joining the Portland Police Bu-reau in 1984. Since he joined, he rose through the ranks to commander, gaining experi-ence that was valued when the department hired him for the vacant undersheriff position.

“He has a very good re-sume,” said Det. Sgt. Dave Patterson, who sat in on Tel-lis’ oral presentation. “He’s got a lot of experience. The hard part for him is learning the Michigan law.”

Tellis said his goal is to use that experience to help the

sheriff and the department.Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski

said Tellis has fit right in at the department and his personal-ity draws people to him.

“He’s getting along with ev-erybody,” Mioduszewski said. “I think he’s going to make a great undersheriff.”

Despite being new to the area, Tellis wanted to stress the importance of being a part of the community.

“I’m definitely a communi-ty-oriented person, as polic-ing is a community-involved activity,” he said. “I don’t want to be viewed as an outsider with ideas that aren’t commu-nity ideas.”

[email protected]

undersheriff |continued from 1B

Page 12: March 24, 2010

4B || Wednesday, March 24, 2010 || central michigan life cm-life.com/category/news/metro[Community]

By David VeselenakOnline Editor

Mount Pleasant City Com-missioners again tabled a decision Monday on loans for distressed property.

The commission post-poned the transfer of $100,000 to the city’s Down-town Development Au-thority to loan money for purchase of distressed, or unoccupied, property along Mission Street.

Commissioner David McGuire said he felt un-comfortable approving the transfer, noting the lack of enforcement language in the proposal may compli-cate the city’s efforts to get its money back.

“The whole idea of post-poning this was to make sure our ducks were in a row,” he said. “It sounds to me that all the research

hasn’t been done.”Commissioners post-

poned the transfer at a meeting Feb. 8, citing eco-nomic times the city is facing. On the same day, the commission approved $300,000 to be transferred for low-interest business loans along Mission for fa-cade and site enhancement and new operations.

Rich Morrison, director of Community Services, said there are no prospec-tive buyers of any of the distressed properties, in-cluding the former Roosters Restaurant, 1329 S. Mission St.

“I don’t think we’ve made a commitment on the funds,” he said.

The proposal states, “As there may be additional parties with an interest (loan) in the property pur-chase component, we are working on the remedy that will best protect the city’s funds. As there may be ad-ditional parties with an in-terest (loan) in the property purchase component, we

are working on the remedy that will best protect the city’s funds.”

City Manager Kathie Grin-zinger said the city had not drafted the loan language yet.

“The work that is remain-ing is the loan documents ... including penalties for not paying,” she said.

McGuire said the uncer-tainty of repayment is too risky for approval.

“‘Likely’ and ‘working on’ sounds like they’re not done,” he said.

“If we don’t have anyone standing around for it, why rush it?”

Commissioner Kathy Ling initially voted the transfer down and vowed to do the same Monday, saying zero-interest loans may not be the way to stimulate busi-ness along Mission Street.

“There has been a fair amount of research that says they’re not as (help-ful),” she said. “I’m just not sure it’s worth the risk.”

metro@cm-l ife.com

Distressed property loans postponed againCommissioner: Repayment language is too vague

population dropping below 25,000.

The exact amount of fund-ing from the census will be unknown until next year, Rid-ley said. She said funding has decreased by almost $1 mil-lion since 2001.

“The number I’m using for our 2010 budget is $2.7 mil-lion,” she said. “So we’ve al-ready lost a million because of all the cutbacks the state has done.”

gerrymanderingThe census is conducted

every 10 years to count resi-dents, determining represen-tation and federal funding for communities.

Jayne Strachan, an assistant professor of political science, said the redrawing of districts that takes place next year can become “a very political pro-cess.”

“They always try to ger-rymander — it doesn’t mat-ter which party,” she said. “If you have a state legislature that is strongly controlled by Democrats, they will try to draw lines that will favor Democrats. If you have Re-publicans, they will try to fa-vor Republicans.”

Gerrymandering, a term coined by the Boston Cen-tinel in 1812, describes the process in which the party in power draws a political dis-trict to favor that party. The term comes from Elbridge Gerry, the former governor of Massachusetts, who drew a district shaped like a sala-mander.

But Strachan said gerry-mandering could be elimi-nated if the government de-cides to use technology to do the work.

“That’s more fair. Maybe

not a square, but straight lines,” she said. “There are ideas, but it’s hard to take that away from the state leg-islatures, because they lose so much political leverage.”

cmu’s impacTKathy Wilbur, Central

Michigan University’s vice president of Government Relations and Public Affairs, said census information is not used to determine fund-ing for the university.

The effects from census data at CMU usually come indirectly, such as the area’s roads and hospitals, she said.

“The state has never looked at enrollment factors when determining funding. We wish they would,” she said. “It just has the potential to make Michigan look like a poor state.”

Census data also is used to help determine applicant pools, Wilbur said. Enroll-ment was at an all-time high last fall at 20,444, but fresh-man enrollment was down 4.5 percent, according to previous reports.

“There are fewer young people going to Michigan high schools,” she said.

According to a report by the Education Policy Center at Michigan State Univer-sity, the state lost 641,420 residents between 1990 and 2000.

Strachan said the popula-tion is expected to decrease again this census. The de-crease will likely result in the loss of one seat in the U.S. House of Representa-tives, perhaps two.

“The projections for Mich-igan are to lose population for the next 10, 15 years,” she said. “We are educat-ing people at CMU and then they’re leaving the state.”

[email protected]

census |continued from 1B

By maryellen tigheSenior Reporter

Actor Jeff Daniels will per-form in downtown Mount Pleasant on Aug. 21, the Sat-urday of Central Michigan University’s Welcome Week-end.

Max and Emily’s Summer Concert Series aims to bring Michigan talent to perform in Mount Pleasant each sum-mer, said Tim Brockman.

Brockman owns Max and Emily’s, 125 E. Broadway St., and came up with the idea to have Daniels perform.

“I e-mailed his agent and explained what we were try-ing to do with this summer concert series,” Brockman said. “I’ve only spoken with his agent ... but he said that (Daniels) was kind of exited to come and do a show.”

Daniels, who attended CMU in the 1970s, works as a recording artist and actor, appearing in movies such as “Dumb and Dumber,” “The Five People you Meet in Heaven” and “Gods and Gen-erals.”

“I think it’s going to be fantastic to have a headliner with the talent that Jeff Dan-

iels has,” said Downtown De-velopment Director Michelle Sponseller. “By bringing a crowd that size, they’re going to bring 2,000 people to the businesses’ doorstep.”

Brockman thinks the con-cert will bring up to 3,000 peo-ple to down-town Mount P l e a s a n t , but he did not intend for the sum-mer concert series just to draw people to his busi-ness, he said.

Max and Emily’s does not do enough business to cov-er the costs of the concert, Brockman said. It is some-thing it does to offer a whole-some family event.

“It’s just stuff for people to do right now, especially right now, while times are tough for people,” he said. “We have the show right out in the mid-dle of Broadway Street. We’re grilling outside and doing stuff.”

Brockman would like to tie the concert into a donation-centered event. People will be able to donate to the Red

Cross Infant Food Pantry, he said. He hopes to collect 1,000 cases of diapers.

The idea for the summer concert series took root a few years ago, Sponseller said. The downtown sponsored the series, but did not have the budget to bring in large acts because the event was weekly.

Three years ago, Max and Emily’s stepped in as a spon-sor, and it now handles the band and the sound systems, she said. Downtown Mount Pleasant only has to take care of logistics.

Isabella Bank and Trust also is partnering with Max and Emily’s for the concert series.

“It gets people downtown, and we have a nice downtown for people to visit,” said Mary Olivieri, community relations director for Isabella Bank and Trust. “Plus, it is just a ton of fun for anyone who enjoys music.”

The Max and Emily’s Con-cert Series will host Brian Vander Ark, former lead singer for The Verve Pipe, on June 10. There is no date or artist yet in place for the July concert.

[email protected]

Jeff daniels coming to areafor downtown concert series

Jeff Daniels

By David VeselenakOnline Editor

The Ranney well rehabili-tation and the area’s Youth Services Unit were two proj-ects the Mount Pleasant City Commission would like to see 2 percent Tribal funding go toward.

Commissioners tallied their top five projects they prefer to see funded by semi-annual 2 percent al-locations from the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. The amount requested totaled $913,618.

“We’re very hopeful,” Mayor Jim Holton said. “Hopefully, I can accept the check.”

Also included in the re-

quests were energy efficient city streetlights, the Bay Area Narcotics Enforcement Team and street overlays and resurfacing.

The tribe allocates 2 per-cent of its revenue to lo-cal municipalities, namely Mount Pleasant and Union Township, twice a year, and the most recent distribution included about $5.4 million.

Holton said the tribe will usually allocate funding to-ward projects it can benefit as well. The items request-ed, he said, should meet that standard.

“Those are very high on the tribe’s list, too,” he said. “If it has an interest to the tribe, they’re interested.”

Each commissioner listed his or her top five projects, and the top five would be sent to the tribe for approv-al.

Other projects, such as tree purchasing and plant-

ing, parking lot repair at the Mount Pleasant Airport and the Riverview Apartments window replacement were not included in the propos-al.

One reason for not includ-ing the window replacement was because the Housing Commission had stated it had enough funds for the project, said Commissioner David McGuire.

“We were assumed by the board ... that they had the funds for their needs,” he said. “They had made it clear they had lots of money.”

parks masTer planThe commission approved

the parks and recreation master plan in a 6-1 vote, with Commissioner Jeffrey Palmer being the lone dis-senter. The approval marked

the end of a months-long process, which included three public hearings.

Commissioner Kathy Ling said she would like an up-date of the development of a swimming pool, which is included in the master plan.

“Having a few specifics would make me feel better,” she said.

Chris Bundy, director of parks and public spaces, said the biggest problem would not involve the city, but other local municipali-ties. The pool would most likely be created in con-junction with other govern-ments, including the tribe and Union Township.

“Our major roadblock we had is the partnership as-pect,” he said.

[email protected]

City Commission recommends severalprojects for tribe’s 2 percent fundingRanney well, Youth Services Unit among requests