President's Letter
From the Alumni Director
On Campus
Applause
A Glimpse Behind the Scenes
Get "Serious" About Summer
Homecoming Roundup
The Ultimate Measure of Success
Because of the Paws
Museum of Hateful Things
Bulldog Bites
Bulldogs on the Rampage
An American in Pontlevoy
Black Sea Resorts, Dracula and 2,500 Years of History
Class Notes
Timothy James Bazzett: Reed City Boy
Alumnus Wins "Ultimate Tailgate Party"
In Memoriam
Alumni Events

Crimson & Gold Homepage

Applause

Students Help on World Water Monitoring Day

Ferris students (clockwise) Eric Lee, Jon Heethuis, Tyler Wolfe, and Josh Schroeder collect and record water quality samples in conjunction with World Monitoring Day.

    Last fall, almost 60 Ferris students helped monitor water quality in the Muskegon River under the direction of Biology department faculty member Cindy Fitzwilliams-Heck.
    America's Clean Water Foundation and the International Water Association invite citizens and organizations around the globe to conduct such testing for World Water Monitoring Day. The Muskegon River Watershed Assembly has sponsored this program in the watershed in 2003 and 2004. Fitzwilliams-Heck is a member of the MRWA's education committee.
    Volunteers gather water samples and test for dissolved oxygen, temperature, pH and turbidity. The results are sent to the MRWA, recorded in a database and inputted in the World Monitoring online database at
www.worldwatermonitoringday.org.
    Ferris students collected numerous samples at three Big Rapids sites: Northend Riverside Park, Hemlock Park and Mitchell Creek near the Big Rapids Community Pool. They not only gathered and submitted the results, but by analyzing the data they collected discovered the sites have good water quality.
    Fitzwilliams-Heck says she will continue to coordinate annual water monitoring in future years. Ferris partners with the MRWA in such efforts by providing office space in the College of Allied Health Sciences.
    More information about the MRWA is available at its Web site, www.mrwa.org.

Sixth Anniversary Foundation for Excellence Benefit Swings

    Approximately 300 friends of Ferris State University turned out for the sixth annual Foundation for Excellence Benefit on Nov. 12 at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel in Grand Rapids, Mich. This year's benefit set a new record in sponsorships of $59,700. Net proceeds were $68,861. The funds support the Foundation for Excellence Scholarship Endowment, the Exceptional Merit Grants Award program and other University endowments.
    Guest speakers were Emily Zoller and Sara McPherson, student recipients of the Foundation for Excellence Endowment Scholarship along with Dean Krager, assistant professor of Manufacturing Tooling Technology, who represented seven recipients of the faculty and staff Exceptional Merit Grants Award.
    Marcus Belgrave's Octet, a jazz group from Detroit, had the house swinging with a "Tribute to Louis Armstrong."

The annual Foundation for Excellence Benefit set fundraising records at its Nov. 12 event in Grand Rapids.

    The University and the foundation would like to express their gratitude to the following businesses and individuals for their support:
    Platinum Star Sponsor: Barnes & Noble College Booksellers, Inc.
    Gold Star Sponsors: Fifth Third Bank; Ice Mountain;
    Silver Star Sponsors: Diane and Brian Brady; Chevron Energy Solutions; Consolidated Vendors Corporation (CVC); Carol and David Drake; Feyen-Zylstra, Inc.; SunGard SCT.
    Bronze Star Sponsors: A.G. Edwards & Sons, Inc.; Big Rapids Realty, Inc.; Capitol National Bank; Central Vending; Chemical Bank West; Clark Construction Company; Commerical Equipment Company; Essilor Lenses; Fund Evaluation Group, LLC; Hubbell, Roth & Clark, Inc.; Huntington National Bank; Independent Bank; Isabella Bank and Trust; Marie and Gary W. Kadlec; Lerner, Csernai and Fath Financial Group; Rhonda and Brian McDonald; Mika Meyers Beckett & Jones PLC; Plante & Moran, PLLC; Barbara and Kenneth Reuther; Rogers Printing, Inc.; Saga Communications, Inc.; Trans-Matic.
    Table Sponsors: Jennifer and Richard Cochran; Patsy and David Eisler; Granger Construction Company; The Granger Group; Linkfield and Cross Agency, Inc.; Shelley and Kevin O'Brien; Nancy and Randall Phelps.

Grahek Honored for 45 Dynamite Years

Rudy Grahek, as Dynamite the Clown, helps lead the 1999 Homecoming parade.

    It's 1959. Alaska is admitted as the 49th state; the Barbie doll makes its debut; the St. Lawrence Seaways and the Guggenheim Museum both open; Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest premiers; and Rudy Grahek (a.k.a. Dynamite the Clown) appears in his first Ferris Homecoming parade.
    As with these other auspicious beginnings, Grahek's first appearance proved to be the beginning of something big. For 45 consecutive years, Dynamite the Clown has been a part of Homecoming at Ferris. To celebrate this milestone, the Homecoming Committee last fall honored Grahek for his commitment to the annual event.
    Grahek originally took the name "Rudy the Clown" while working for the Clyde Beatty and Cole Brothers Circus from 1952-54 after serving in the Korean War. He continued working summers with the circus during his student years at Ferris. His later name came after some kids said his costume looked like it had "been blasted with dynamite."
    In addition to his unbroken stint with the Homecoming parade, Dynamite has appeared at a number of other University events, including calming children's fears at a University-sponsored Dental Health Fair. He also was Grand Marshal (along with the Bulldog mascot) for the 1999 Homecoming parade.
    "Dynamite the Clown is as much a part of Ferris' Homecoming celebration as the King and Queen, football game and the dance. He is an amazing asset to the success of the Parade. His dedication to Ferris and Homecoming is very inspiring and heartwarming," said Mary Cairns, 2004 Student Homecoming Committee overall chair.
    "I am highly devoted to Ferris," Grahek said in receiving his honor.

Tech-Savvy CLS Students Excel

Senior Susan Swan-Tagg works on the CellDyn 3500.

    Students in the Clinical Laboratory Sciences program at Ferris continue to be able to learn some of the most up-to-date equipment in the nation. Recent donations to the CLS program include an Abbott CellDyn 3500, which enables students on campus to perform automated blood counts and white blood cell differentials with instrumentation used by highly automated clinical laboratories across Michigan and the nation.
    Such state-of-the-art technology helped Medical Technology students take top honors at the 2004 statewide competition at the Michigan Society for Clinical Lab Sciences annual meeting. Katherine Jones won top individual honors, beating out more than 60 students. The team of Sarah Barnes, Molly Haigh, Amy Klenk and Lynn Tyckoski finished first among the approximately 20 teams in a competition testing knowledge of clinical laboratory science.

Bulldog Radio Expands Operations

    The University's student-produced radio station has begun broadcasting on Charter Communications cable outlets in Mecosta County and the Internet with the help of more than $6,000 of new equipment allocated by Student Government.
    Zack East, president and general manager of Bulldog Radio spearheaded the expansion project.
    Started by forerunner AM stations WHFR, WFRS and WRKX, as well as WFSU-TV, the station became Bulldog Radio in 2003 as the group began a drive toward FM broadcasting. The station arrived at its current decision to broadcast over cable and Internet after the Federal Communications Commission decided against accepting low-power FM licenses.
    The station is completely student-run, with approximately 25 members producing and hosting their own weekly on-air shows.
    On-campus residents can hear Bulldog Radio on their cable system by tuning to Channel 22, while Charter Communications cable customers in Mecosta County can listen on Channel 21. Others can access Bulldog Radio's broadcasts through their Web site at www.bulldogradio.org.