CONTENTS2 — Around Campus

6 — Student Voices

10 — Reflections

1

You didn’t think the semester would end without The Compass getting the last word in, did you?

I know, I know, I should probably bite the bullet and give up my claim to power — please forgive us for pushing out this final issue. It’s just that, after halving our production times, doubling our social media footprint, increasing our readership rates by 30%, renovating our branding (twice) and launching two multimedia branches, we feel like we have a bit to celebrate.

In any case, this is my last From the Desk for The Compass. From here-on I’ll be restricted to writing for normal publications, running my own website, and continue pitching in tech and lifestyle.

See you later, LSSU. Keep an eye out for my byline.

M. Asher

Victory Lap

2

This past Tuesday, the 21st of an inhospitable April, a noble experiment continued. The experiment in question is LSSU’s shared governance committee, which has held regular meetings for some time under the auspices of oversight. At each such meeting, we may assume, issues of note were debated and subject to vote. At each such meeting, the future direction of the university changed.

Shared governance acts in a purely advisory capacity, it must be said; but no administrator, however autocratic, can ignore all recommendations. This chance at influence has not been enough to draw in participants with any consistency. Even this, the best-attended meeting of the University Senate to date, was almost entirely composed of

faculty.The following is a report on what

the student body, conspicuous by its absence, has been missing.

Professor Kelso, representing T h e D i s t i n c t i o n by D e s i g n committee familiar to many of us from blackboard, gave two proposals: a condensed term, and a sustainability emphasis.

The former would add a special three-week period to the fall and spring semesters in which specialized short-term courses, or condensed versions of certain prerequisites, might be taught.

The latter is a more broad-reaching if initially less dramatic change, positing numerous areas of eco-friendly change: a 100% recycling rate, increased use of biodegradable materials, and movement toward a paperless university. New courses or

Shared Governance: Silent Voices By Andrew Gilroy

Population Problems Plague Plebiscite

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C A M P U Sexercises in existing courses meant to bolster the initiative are also aspects of the proposal.

Debate was brief but lively; the majority of queries were practical objections raised by faculty who feared having to accommodate increased course loads, find space for classes in the wake of scheduling changes, and so forth. After a span of perhaps fifteen minutes, felt by some to be far too little time, votes were summarily collected.

The merits of these proposals are now for the voting public, such as it was, to decide. Both, however, have a clear potential to impact the university experience extensively, to make practical changes in the lives of students.

And both were voted on overwhelmingly by faculty members.

To t h e s t u d e n t b o d y : i n semesters to come, do what you so far have not, whether from apathy or lack of knowledge: Attend. Vote.

Shared Governance is not a high-protocol committee, but a public forum. It is not an arm of student government in which you must trust to a representative, but a true plebiscite.

D i s t i n c t i o n by D e s i g n i s accessible to all on blackboard, and Shared Governance has a n o p e n i s s u e s u b m i s s i o n process. These meetings, these committees, represent an unusual and underutilized means to make one’s voice heard.

Should they continue to receive so little attention, how much longer will such opportunities exist?

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4

Class rings are a symbol of honor displaying that one has graduated. Class rings originate from West Point, where it is simply an honor to be accepted let alone graduate.

N o w a d a y s , g r a d u a t e , undergraduate, high school, and even elementary and middle school class rings exist. Rings for those leaving elementary or middle school seem a little strange, though. Lake Superior State University does offer class rings from Signature Announcements,

but other places offer class rings specialized for LSSU as well.

A class ring can be pricey depending on the design and any extras placed on the ring. The prices for a class ring vary on the ring being designed.

To keep things constant, prices listed are for a ring with a girls century design (or something very similar to it) the cheapest metal, a starburst cut ruby gem, no encrusting on top of the gem, different designs on both sides of the ring, engraving on the band,

Class Rings

By Miranda Emaus

5

C A M P U Sand an antique metal finish.

Jostens is a company that specializes in anything graduation. They made my high school ring and I was pleased the quality of their product. Their LSSU rings, however, are not as nice. The list of majors for their premade designs groups several majors together.

The company neglects to have designs for common programs such as chemistry or geology, and does not offer designs for iconic majors such as fire science or fisheries and wildlife.

At the same time they offer designs for theology and law. Does Lake State even have a theology program? One advantage to Jostens, however, is that they show what the ring is going to look like as it is being designed. The ring cost $319.00.

Herff Jones offers Lake State class rings, and they have at least most general majors. The downside there is that customers do not know what their ring will look like. A customer can know what one side of the ring looks like by going to other pages on the site, but the other side of the ring is unknown, though the assumption is that it’s the LSSU

emblem. There is no extra cost for an encrusting on top of the gem, but these rings were more costly with the ring I designed at $401.00.

The Ring Company had a decent site for designing rings. Customers could see what their custom ring will look like, and they had an extensive library full of designs ranging from sports, majors, and hobbies. They had all the basic majors and for a student with an different major like fisheries and wildlife, forensic chemistry, or fire science they can submit a custom design to the company for their ring (this costs extra though). There was no Lake State emblem in their library although it can be custom added as previously described, but the school name circles around the gem. The ring was not too costly at only $209.00.

For a broke college student it is hard to fork over two hundred dollars for a piece of jewelry from their diminishing food fund. To those who take pride in the school and their achievements here it might be worth the investment. For those who are tight for funds it might not be worth it. Besides, there is always the option to get a ring a few years down the road.

6

Once winter is over, the snow melts and people don’t have to wear thirty layers of clothing, Sault Ste Marie, Michigan is beautiful.

Not only are there flowers and growing green things everywhere, but there are also dozens of activities and events to take part in during the warm months. So here are three fun things to do in the Sault Ste Marie sun:

• Music in the ParkThe Soo Locks Park every

Wednesday from 7pm-8:30pm will host bands and artists who have played all across the world. Included in the lineup are the Petoskey Steel Drum Band and Errant Late-Night Gardeners. For the full schedule, look here.

• Farmers’ MarketFor the fresh taste of summer,

check out the weekly Farmers’ Market every Wednesday from 4pm-6:30pm. From fresh veggies

to baked-that-morning bread and homemade jam, there’s something for everyone to check out at the local market. You can get to know the people who make the food, and find a recipe or two to try on your own.

• Soo Theatre Project, Inc.During the year the Soo Theatre

Project puts on several high-quality productions, including well-known plays like Annie and dances like Get Rhythm. This summer they also have several productions in the works, like Camelot and the Festival Orchestra Concert. Check out their website, where you can find tickets, information and their full schedule.

If you would like more insight for Soo events , chec k out saultstemarie.com for the details on events happening locally and to keep up with what’s to come

Sault Ste Marie Summer Events

By Jana Luurtsema

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C A M P U S

This year, movie sequels and reboots are taking over and making 2015 the year of unoriginality, but the good news is that all of your favorites are coming back. From superheroes to male strippers, 2015 is bringing the action.

Starting this summer you can find quite a few superhero movies with Avengers 2: Age of Ultron leading the way, being the summer’s biggest blockbuster. Size isn’t everything though because Ant-Man is being brought to life starring Paul Rudd as the hero who can shrink. Another superhero movie that is not a sequel is Fantastic Four which is being rebooted for today’s audiences.

Straying away from superheroes, summer favorites from last year are at it again. The Bellas are back with Pitch Perfect 2 bringing the laughs on May 15th to a mostly female audience. Another fan favorite is Magic Mike XXL, widely

favored by a female audience. In June, Seth MacFarlane is bringing more Ted to theaters with Ted 2 starring Mark Wahlberg and Amanda Seyfried.

H o r ro r i s a l s o m a k i n g a comeback this year with a remake of the popular 1982 classic horror movie, Poltergeist. Other horror movies that are not remakes, but in fact sequels are Sinister 2 and Insidious: Chapter 3.

Just like Poltergeist, other classic movies are being sequelized and remade. The most anticipated sequel in 2015 is Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Coming out at the end of the year, the movie is hoping to bring in fans of the original and a newer generation of fans. Next, is Jurassic World. This one takes place after Jurassic Park and is re-generating the idea of a dinosaur theme park. The highly anticipated Terminator: Genisys is bringing Arnold Schwarzenegger back into the spotlight and continuing the

2015: The Year of Sequels and Reboots

By Jordyn Muskovin

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C A M P U STerminator franchise. Alongside the futuristic theme of Terminator, Mad Max has been remade from the original Mel Gibson classic, both directed by George Miller starring Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy.

Sequels and Reboots are everywhere but don’t fear because there are some originals headed to the big screen. Inside out is an animated movie about a girl who is battling her emotions as she grows up. Aimed at families and children, this stars Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, and Bill Hader. Not so family friendly is The Hateful Eight, directed by Quentin Tarantino. It being Tarantino, you should expect a mass amount of violence and blood which makes it all the more exciting. The Hateful Eight heads out around Christmas.

Sequels and reboots always come with a certain hesitation, but the idea of a favorite movie coming back is always exciting even if you just want to watch it crash and burn. So the big question is, “will it succeed or will it suffer from sequel and rebootitis?”

Disney’s Big Hero 6 is one of those movies that you fall in love with immediately, but unlike other movies, it also hold your attention through a third or fourth screening of it.

Some would say that it was the subtle nods to animators like Nathan Greno and Byron Howard and voice actress Betty Lou Gerson. Other prizes which links Big Hero 6 to other Disney

BIGHERO

6 By Jana Luurtsema

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O P I N I O Nmovies like Tangled, Frozen, Bolt, Wreck-It Ralph, Chicken Little, and The Incredibles can also be seen throughout the movie.

What many people don’t know is that Big Hero 6 is a Disney and Marvel collaboration, so there are also places where The Amazing Spider Man makes an appearance. What the internet is drooling over, however, is the Stan Lee cameos, especially the post-credit scene.

Besides the moments which obviously pander to our inner child, the motion of Big Hero 6 is always moving. This movie doesn’t sit still, and even when it has quiet moments, there will always be something to make you sit up and pay attention.

Similarly, the color is amazing. The texture on every surface is different and the way the animators manipulated color to portray each difference really made the movie leap off the screen.

Our main character Hiiro is actually very engaging and likeable. His struggle is one that the audience can connect with and his way of coping with his loss seems very accurate to what a young teen would do. The other characters, unfortunately, fell a little flat. They all had their specific quirks, of course, but there was never anything substantial that an audience member could connect with so they all ended up being a group of sidekicks.

Baymax is the shining star of this film. While he is a robot, there is more character and heart jn him than many of the human characters the movie introduces. Besides that, he’s just so darned cute. It should be illegal to be that cute, but he and Hiro make a fantastic duo the way they work off of one another.

Overall, Big Hero 6 is a great film to watch at any age, and a must-have for any animation collection.

10

If you have already chosen a degree, you may feel like you finally have a set direction, and all you have to do is follow it to the end and you’ll be on your way to success. In some cases, that’s true, but for most people there will be slight hiccups that can turn into big problems for your eventual graduation.

F o r e x a m p l e , s o m e

classes are only offered every other or even every two years. If you’re on a strict “4-year” schedule this could pose quite a problem, especially if your advisor isn’t attentive enough. They do have quite a lot on their plate, after all.

It’s possible that you’ve missed your chance to take one of these elusive classes and now you have to stay

Barista Advice: Loopholes

By Jana Luurtsema

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O P I N I O Nfor another year or two in order to take it.

But wait!There is another option

available to you: substitute the class you need for one that’s similar but that you can actually fit in your schedule. While not a foolproof plan, it’s the best option if you don’t want to stay at the university longer than you have to. This loophole and many others are available to you if you talk to the right people, like the Dean.

While very busy, the Dean is one of the first people to talk to if you need help with classes. Often times, advisors are too overworked to really give you individual attention because they also have to teach full time. The Dean, on the other hand, doesn’t have the additional stress of teaching and can instead focus on helping students individually.

How would you like to get another degree on top of the onel you’re already getting, with no extra classes needed? The Dean is also one of the first people to know of these opportunities, and will advertise them to students before the university changes them. For example, one student in her senior year was able to get an Associates’ degree in liberal arts on top of her Bachelors’ degree in a different field simply by filling out a couple pieces of paperwork.

So, find out who your Dean is — they are the people who can have the greatest impact on your education, and the first person you should talk to if you’re having class problems.

12

Going Pro: Actually Using Your Degree

By M. Asher

You’re a STEM Major. Your Grades are good. Your extracurricular activities are professionally enriching. You have a year left, and then you’re off into the workforce.

One year later. You’ve just finished your senior presentation. You did everything your senior advisor told you to, you followed every step, read every guide, and matched that rubric perfectly. You just graduated with a 4.0 semester.

One year later. You’re unemployed.

With the way college is structured, passively

consuming information is easy. Half the time, you don’t even need to go to class. Grab the slides from Blackboard, show up on review day, read the book once a week, and graduate Suma Cum Laude.

Getting an A and actively processing and applying what you’ve learned in the classroom are two entirely different things. Good grades won’t get you a job all on their own; independently pursuing your own education in the face of fluid objectives and complex obstacles will.

So how do you get a job? By turning your generalized

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O P I N I O N

By M. Asher

education into a specialized skill set that is marketable, translatable across disciplines, and indicative of self-discipline.

With the current job market, recently graduated engineers face an unemployment rate almost identical to that of journalism students. A degree by itself will not speak for itself. The quality of education that we receive is immensely variable and every employer you meet will know that.

Rather than relying on that rubber stamp, you need to show completed self-directed projects which illustrate the specific skills employers look for.

No matter what your career path is, if you can’t leverage your education through writing and conversation you won’t get the job you want. If your CV isn’t well-structured, if your resume isn’t engaging, if you can’t perform well in an

interview, your degree means nothing. Less than nothing, actually, as your possession of it and not a job will illustrate your unemployability as the gaps in your work history yawn ever-wider.

In essence, your application process started the moment you came to college. The degree you walk out of here with only serves as a small portion of your employability, and the only way you can increase your odds is by producing as much as you consume. If you’re faced with an easy route, don’t take it.

If this kind of discipline seems challenging, don’t let it overwhelm you. Learning to become a producer is hard, harder than many of the degree programs offered at Lake State. If you’re searching for a path to that discipline, check out the rest of my material at un-subd.com.

Stay hungry.

14

It’s summer. In the sense that the weather just flipped from Seattle to Almost-Seattle and we all have a three day period to pretend our tans are natural. Given that, we need summer music to listen to and the only way to keep up the fiction of warm weather is to get the chillest palewave soundtrack imaginable up in this.

Let’s hit it.

Tyco, DJ Shadow, and The Avalanches. Skip the dubstep I covered this past year; that’s the wrong vibe. A bit of Dizraeli will help, but don’t over-emphasize it. Kate Tempest? Eh, that’s up to you. When you’re feeling lively — and want to pretend your understanding of latin culture extends beyond going to Chipolte — throw on some Mario y Gabriella. It’ll be good

ALT: The Final Word

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O P I N I O Nfor you.

If you’re really set on the palewave vibe for your soundscape, go school yourself over at SomaFM. If you’re lazy, add Air and Costa Music to your rotations.

Personally, though, all of that’s already a part of my HeavyR. This summer is going to be a minimalistic classical revival, kicked off with The Desert Music and other explorations conducted by Steve Reich.

Since I’m ditching this particular publication in favor of warmer waters (and better pay. Seriously. Minimum wage is not enough to finance my foibles) let me leave you with yet another summation of how to make music work for you:

You need to find the music, not the other way around. The less effort it takes you to get it, the greater the role mass marketing has played in your

consumption of it. The way things are going, the ‘10s and ‘20s will be as homogeneous as the ‘80’s — and that should scare you.

You don’t need to compromise your tastes or turn into a hipster who only listens to soft-wax recordings of road construction, but you should take a serious look at what music (and media as a whole) means to you. It’s a massive industry, but it only treats you like a statistic. If you want your favorite bands to succeed, you need to support them directly.

And buy music. Don’t stream it. Don’t pirate it. Don’t rely on anything ad-supported. If you can, buy that music directly from the artist. If you really like them get some merch, too. But not from an outlet mall.

Now go find some awesome shit and share it with a bunch of people. I’m going to go listen to some stuff.

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HELP WANTED

ISSUE #0Fall semester is closer than you think, and The Compass needs your help to kick off the season. If you want a chance to write about the best of Lake State and Sault Ste. Marie, and make money before the semester begins, let us know at compass@lssu.edu

M A S T H E A D2 014-15 S taf f

WritersDestinee Bruce

Courtney Buzzell

Amanda Cady

James Carpentier

Kaleb Chowen

Ben Eisenman

Miranda Emaus

Andrew Gilroy

Matthew Mehard

Jordyn Muskovin

Kevin Pagels

Jordyn Pillars

Tieler Schick

Cheyanne Shotwell

Olivia Smith

Comic Artist

Ben Bryer

PhotographersYOU.

Editor In Chief

M. Asher Stephenson

Managing Editor

Jana Luurtsema

EditorsJordyn Muskovin

Kaleb Chowen

Cassie Pflanzer

James Carpentier

Want to get in touch with The Compass? Send us an email at Compass@lssu.edu or stop by our office in the basement of the Cisler Center. We’re always looking for more writers, more photographers, and more designers. Send us your portfolio, and we’ll see what we can do.

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