Two shootout upsets count as a tie, but feel like a win for Ferris

The Bulldogs pulled out two shootout wins against the Red Hawks of Miami University of Ohio in CCHA action.

Ranked num­ber one head­ing into the matchup, the RedHawks fought the Bulldogs through two over­times and two shootouts in the series. For full game review and a look ahead as Ferris con­tin­ues to bat­tle for league stand­ing, visit the Sports Section.

Photo Ratem: Student gov­ern­ment pres­i­dent Claire Gould addresses atten­dees of last week’s stu­dent gov­ern­ment meet­ing. The major topic of dis­cus­sion was the issue of traf­fic safety. Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

Prior to the recent death of a stu­dent at a cross­walk, stu­dent gov­ern­ment and DPS’ Traffic Safety Team (TST), that has been in effect since 2003, is reley­ing on three E’s: engi­neer­ing, edu­ca­tion and enforcement.

The engi­neer­ing por­tion of TST is seek­ing to add cross­walk sign upgrades, cross­walk speed bumps and strobes to dis­play dri­ver speeds in order to enforce cam­pus speed lim­its. Morrison Street, next to Burger King, was also turned into a one-way street because of TST. Likewise, shrub­beries in the medi­ans have been added to dis­cour­age jay walk­ing.
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With a focus on recent traf­fic inci­dents, new uni­ver­sity task­force is look­ing to increase pedes­trian safety

In light of the recent stu­dent death and other vehicle-pedestrian related inci­dents on cam­pus, the uni­ver­sity has begun tak­ing mea­sures to ensure bet­ter stu­dent cross­walk safety.

Robert von der Osten, Chair of the Strategic Planning and Resource Council (SPARC), said, “The coun­cil iden­ti­fied the need for a task force to inves­ti­gate how we can improve the safety of the cam­pus, espe­cially the inter­ac­tion of vehi­cles and pedestrians.”

He added that the Facility Master Plan, which was devel­oped last year based on input from the cam­pus com­mu­nity, has a long-range plan for the cam­pus design and dis­cusses the need to address trans­porta­tion issues. Continue Reading…

Board of Trustees approves new degree to pre­pare stu­dents for sus­tain­able, green design

A new bach­e­lor of sci­ence in archi­tec­ture and sus­tain­abil­ity degree was approved at the Nov. 6 meet­ing by the Ferris Board of Trustees.

According to a press release, the bach­e­lor of sci­ence in archi­tec­ture and sus­tain­abil­ity degree will uti­lize exist­ing course­work from degrees includ­ing the asso­ciate in applied sci­ence degree in archi­tec­tural tech­nol­ogy, bach­e­lor of sci­ence degree in facil­i­ties man­age­ment and com­mu­nity stud­ies minor.

Tom Oldfield, Dean of the College of Engineering Technology, said the pro­gram will edu­cate stu­dents on real-world issues of green build­ing and pro­vide them edu­ca­tional expe­ri­ences that embrace sus­tain­able build­ing tech­nol­ogy prac­tices. Continue Reading…

Bond Hall Date Auction

On Nov. 18 Bond Hall will be host­ing its Date Auction. It will take place in the Bond Hall Lobby from 7 to 9 p.m. All pro­ceeds from the event will ben­e­fit the American Heart Association. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Rachael Bradford at bradfor@ferris.edu.
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Going Global: IRC 120 was over­flow­ing last Thursday with stu­dents com­ing to hear Professor Lars Rensmann from the University of Michigan speak on issues relat­ing to glob­al­iza­tion. Photo By: Kristyn Sonnenberg | Photo Editor

Rensmann, a vis­it­ing pro­fes­sor from Germany who teaches in the Political Science Department at the University of Michigan, defined cos­mopoli­tanism as “the recog­ni­tion and accep­tance of diverse others.”’

Prior to Rensmann’s pre­sen­ta­tion, Rebecca Sammel, pro­fes­sor of eng­lish lan­guages and lit­er­a­ture and project leader for “Critical Encounters with Globalization”, said, “We started a speaker series to dis­cuss glob­al­iza­tion issues around the world.”

“We want Ferris stu­dents to be pre­pared to go out into the world,” said Sammel of the presentation’s pur­pose of edu­cat­ing stu­dents on issues relat­ing to cul­ture and diversity.

Professor Rensmann said the crowd that gath­ered in IRC 120 to view his pre­sen­ta­tion stunned him. Continue Reading…

The uni­ver­sity has decided to pro­vide fund­ing for the Mich. Promise Grants and Competitive Scholarships for the fall semes­ter through fed­eral stimulus

Although the state has cut or reduced fund­ing to the Michigan Promise Grant and Michigan Competitive Scholarship pro­grams, Ferris has decided to replace fund­ing for both the pro­grams for the fall semester.

Late last week the Ferris Board of Trustees voted to replace the fund­ing for both pro­grams and plans on using fed­eral eco­nomic stim­u­lus funds to cover the award­ing of the grants and schol­ar­ships for the fall semes­ter. Continue Reading…

A round up of this week’s crime across the FSU campus

Rumble in the Rock Café

On Nov. 11 at 8 p.m., there was a report of a fight at the Rock Café. The two sub­jects were iden­ti­fied and referred to the Office of Student Conduct.

Females Fighting

On Nov. 11 at 2:25 p.m., there was a report of a domes­tic assault in Pickell Hall. The par­ties were located and the females were lodged in the county jail.

Students Stealing Papers

On Nov. 11 at 11:40 a.m., there was a report of peo­ple remov­ing Torch news­pa­pers from build­ings around cam­pus. Officers searched the cam­pus and did not locate the sub­jects. Investigation con­tin­ues.
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Steven Neshkoff is a vet­eran of Iraq and Afghanistan, and is now a full-time Ferris student

Securing the Premises: Steven Neshkoff checks the roads for IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) on the road­side while on duty in Iraq. Photo Courtesy of Steven Neshkoff

Neshkoff joined the United States Air Force in July of 2002, and served for six years. He is a vet­eran of the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I did nine months in Iraq, and a quick three month stint in Afghanistan,” said Neshkoff.

Neshkoff also worked secu­rity for dig­ni­taries includ­ing the United States Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, mem­bers of Congress and the House of Representatives, the first lady and President Bush.

“Anywhere they needed to fly, I pulled secu­rity for their air­craft while they were on the ground,” said Neshkoff.

He had the oppor­tu­nity to meet many high-ranking American offi­cials at the time and trav­eled the world. Neshkoff said he has now seen 22 per­cent of the world.

While in Iraq, he was sta­tioned in the south­ern end, only a short chop­per ride away from Kuwait.

While those serv­ing in the armed forces have many dif­fer­ent rea­sons for their deci­sion, Neshkoff said his was not a polit­i­cal one.

“You can pick a side, but a pres­i­dent gets elected and he is your Commander in Chief and you do what he says,” he said. “You can like him or dis­like him, but he is still your boss.”

He is now a sopho­more at Ferris and runs for the Ferris track and cross coun­try teams. At first, he had a hard time adjust­ing to col­lege life.

“Going from being told this is where you have to be at this time, look like this…now going to col­lege you are told ‘be who you are,’” said Neshkoff of his ini­tial strug­gle adjusting.

He is very pos­i­tive when look­ing back on his time in the Air Force. He talked of the ben­e­fits that he now receives, which includes a full ride to col­lege. He is a his­tory edu­ca­tion major with a minor in geography.

Neshkoff is also the pres­i­dent of the Veterans RSO here on cam­pus. He said that he wants to help oth­ers like him to not go through what he did in strug­gling to adjust to college.

“I’m glad I did it (joined the Air Force), it made me who I am today,” said Neshkoff. “If you see a vet, thank him. These guys lay their lives on the line…and some of them didn’t come home.”

The Veterans Club became an offi­cial Registered Student Organization last spring, which is open to all stu­dents who wish to join.

The pres­i­dent of the Veterans Club is Steven Neshkoff and the vice pres­i­dent is Brian Nanko.

Jean Bennett, Advisor of the Veterans Club and for­mer vet­eran, said not only can stu­dents who have served in the mil­i­tary branches join, but all stu­dents on cam­pus as well.

Bennett said there are cur­rently 10–15 mem­bers in the Veterans Club. She also said the num­ber of mem­bers varies from meet­ing to meeting.

“We started last week, every­one is wel­come to come to the meet­ings and join us,” said Bennett.

The Veterans Club holds their meet­ings on the last Monday of the month at the AMVETS Post in Big Rapids at 5:30 p.m. and on cam­pus in the Supportive Education for Returning Veterans (S.E.R.V.) room in the Rankin Center on Thursdays in the last week of the month at 6 p.m.

SERV is a pro­gram the Veterans Club just started this semes­ter, said Bennett. She added that the pro­gram orig­i­nally began at Cleveland State University.

“It enables vet­er­ans com­ing onto cam­pus to assim­i­late into the aca­d­e­mic envi­ron­ment more eas­ily,” said Bennett.

The over­all ideas of the orga­ni­za­tion are to help out stu­dents who have served in the mil­i­tary by doing things like mak­ing sure they receive all of their G.I. benefits.

“They have more things in com­mon with each other than other stu­dents,” said Bennett. “Their out­look on life is dif­fer­ent than others.”

Bennett said since some have served in Iraq and Afghanistan, it’s good for them to talk and be able to relate to each other.

During meet­ings, Veterans Club mem­bers plan events and hold gen­eral dis­cus­sions such as what they did dur­ing their time serv­ing in the military.

Currently, the Veterans Club is plan­ning upcom­ing events that they will be coordinating.

“They’ve been talk­ing about doing things in the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and local vet­er­ans,” said Bennett. The mem­bers have also dis­cussed ship­ping care pack­ages to those who are cur­rently serv­ing in the military.

Bennett said the idea to start a Veterans Club at Ferris was brought up by cur­rent pres­i­dent, stu­dent and for­mer vet­eran Neshkoff. Veteran Coordinator Paul Langdon also helped out with set­ting up the organization.

“It’s a way to honor our vet­er­ans,” said Bennett of one of the organization’s purposes.