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Applause
Walz Receives Peterson Pride Award
Sueann Walz, the 2005 "Pete Peterson Pride Award" recipient, has a long history of University and community service.
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Sueann Walz has been selected the 2005 recipient of the "Pete Peterson Pride Award" presented annually by the Athletics department. The award, named in honor of former Ferris Athletics Director and Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Commissioner Pete Peterson, recognizes outstanding service and support of Bulldog Athletic programming.
The assistant vice president and manager for the Big Rapids branch of Independent Bank, along with her husband, Kenneth, have been longtime Ferris supporters. Walz serves on the Ferris Foundation Board of Directors and is president of the Friends of Ferris, a political action committee supporting the University. Sueann and Kenneth recently established an endowment to fund a renewable scholarship for a Ferris varsity hockey player in good academic standing.
Walz served as a co-chair of the Ferris Bulldog Hockey Locker Room fundraising campaign and has been an active member of the Mecosta County Chamber of Commerce, serving as its president in 1996. Her support of the hockey program dates back to the early 1970s when the icers were still a club team. Her dedication earned Walz the Blue Line Club Recognition Award for the 1998-99 season.
"Sueann is extremely deserving of this award," said Hockey Coach Bob Daniels. "Not only is she a good friend and supporter of Ferris Hockey and Athletics, she is also a tremendous supporter of the University as a whole. Moreover, she has done this over a long period of time."
After a seven-year hiatus, Athletics reinstated the award following the 2002-03 season to recognize outstanding service and support from those outside the Athletics department staff.
Granger Center Garners Construction Award
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The Granger Center for Construction and HVACR's design is eye-catching, functional and award winning.
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The Engineering Society of Detroit honored Ferris' Granger Center for Construction and HVACR with one of its 2005 Outstanding Achievement Awards for Building Construction and Design.
ESD cited the Ferris project for demonstrating outstanding team achievement and integrating innovative technologies. One of seven projects to receive the award, the Granger Center outranked several other noteworthy projects in the state. Accepting the award was Michael Hughes, Ferris' assistant vice president for the Physical Plant, Alan Cobb of Albert Kahn Associates and Glenn Granger of Granger Construction.
Albert Kahn Associates designed both the Granger Center
and the University of Michigan's Campus Hill Auditorium renovation - the
other educational project honored. The project manager for both jobs was
Vitas Bagdonas, a Ferris alumnus. In addition, both Hughes and his UM
counterpart, Henry Baier, are Ferris graduates.
The Granger Center features a number of mechanical
systems-including geothermal heating and cooling-that are open to view,
making the entire building a hands-on learning facility. Four rooms that
are study carrels and student offices also double as "environmental test
chambers," able to be heated and cooled by students using state-of-the-art
industry standard equipment. The University dedicated the Granger Center's
45,000-square-foot addition to the former Construction Technology Center
on May 7, 2004.
Cards Establish Wildlife Center Scholarship
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Roger and Debra Card have established a new scholarship to support the Card Wildlife Education Center.
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Roger and Debra Card have taken steps to ensure the continued success of the Card Wildlife Education Center at Ferris with the establishment of the Card Scholarship.
The fund helps staff the CWEC by awarding students $2,500 a year for four years, beginning with their freshman year. Each year a new freshman is selected to receive the scholarship. The students work at the center, serving as tour guides, caring for the collection and assisting with outreach programming while they attend Ferris.
"We are just pleased to have the opportunity to make these scholarships available," said Roger Card (T'63). "It's important to the operation of the Center that we can have students committed to help during their years at Ferris."
Thus far, four students have received Card Scholarships. Candidates for the award, in addition to meeting academic requirements (which include a high school GPA of 3.25 or higher and an ACT score of 23 or higher), must have excellent verbal communication skills. Consideration is also given to participation in extracurricular activities such as involvement in clubs, sports and volunteer work.
"Roger and Debra have made it possible to do amazing things," said Matt Klein, College of Arts and Sciences dean. "With 4,000 visits each year, the Center is one of the most accessed facilities we have on campus, and the Card Scholarships have provided students with meaningful educational experiences."
The 5,000-square-foot CWEC opened in 2000 in the Arts and Sciences Commons and has more than 160 specimens of animals from around the globe. The facility serves as an educational resource for K-12 students, the Ferris community and the whole mid-Michigan region. The Wildlife Center focuses largely on North American mammals, especially those from Michigan.
More information on the Card Wildlife Education Center is available at www.ferris.edu/card. Any students interested in applying for the scholarship may contact Bruce Beetley, center supervisor,
at 231-591-5633 or beetleyb@ferris.edu.
Ferris Community Helps Hurricane Victims
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A Student Alumni Gold Club drive to cover the Ferris seal in coins netted $1,716.26 for hurricane relief.
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During the fall semester, Ferris faculty, staff and students have coordinated a variety of fund-raisers to help victims of Hurricane Katrina. The University also offered to open its doors to students displaced by the disaster.
"Like Americans everywhere, we have been stunned by the devastation and personal suffering caused by Hurricane Katrina. Ferris State University and the members of its campus communities want to help students displaced by Katrina and provide support to the victims of this natural disaster," said President David Eisler soon after Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast region.
According to Dan Burcham, vice president for Student
Affairs, in the first day after University officials announced plans for
relief efforts, more than $1,000 was collected. The Ferris community quickly
added to that total. Thanks to such fund-raising events as donation buckets,
a dance-a-thon, a fund-matching challenge from the Association of Welding
Students and a drive to cover the Ferris seal on the quad with coins,
the University community raised more than $6,000 - a thousand dollars
over goal.
"Covering the seal in coins and the other events were really community-building experiences," says Burcham. "We didn't just raise money, we did some good things for campus at the same time. Student expertise in these events is just getting better and better."
Additionally, students in the Law Enforcement Academy in Ferris' School of Criminal Justice donated 300 khaki uniforms for Gulf Coast police officers in three Mississippi counties, including Hancock, Jackson and Harrison, said Frank Crowe, School of Criminal Justice director. The uniforms went to officers who lost everything in the disaster, but who continued to help their friends and neighbors.
"I am very proud of our students who worked hard to provide uniforms for our law enforcement personnel who continued to work together after losing everything themselves in one of the greatest natural disasters in our history," Crowe said.
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