The Bulldog hockey team is third in the CCHA stand­ings, behind only Michigan State and Miami.

Ferris is 8−2−2−2 in con­fer­ence play this sea­son and 13−3−2 over­all. The Bulldogs are unde­feated in their pre­vi­ous 10 con­tests, includ­ing a pair of shootout vic­to­ries over nation­ally No. 1-ranked Miami.

The 12 teams in the CCHA are ranked by the num­ber of points they have earned this sea­son.  A team earns three points for a win in reg­u­la­tion or over­time and two for a shootout win. A team earns one point for a tie and zero points for a reg­u­la­tion or over­time loss.

On Saturday, Ferris will com­pete in the 21st annual Badger Hockey Showdown in Madison, Wis. Ferris has the oppor­tu­nity to make a state­ment out­side of the CCHA with a show­down against Yale University, ranked ninth in the nation.

The Bulldogs will either play nation­ally No. 7-ranked Wisconsin or Merrimack on Jan. 3, depend­ing on the out­come of the first two games of the tour­na­ment. In their only two appear­ances in the tour­na­ment, the Bulldogs won in back-to-back sea­sons in 2003–2004 and 2004–2005.

Kendall College of Art and Design (KCAD) is look­ing for­ward to newly ren­o­vated facil­i­ties as Ferris con­tin­ues with plans for the Old Federal Building in down­town Grand Rapids.

The plans went to the next level after approval by the state House and Senate for $10.6 mil­lion in tax cred­its for the project, leav­ing around $20 mil­lion to be raised.

Constructed in 1911 and home to the Grand Rapids Art Museum in recent years, the Old Federal Building needs repairs includ­ing a new roof, foun­da­tion repairs and updates to the mechan­i­cal systems.

Upon com­ple­tion of the ren­o­va­tions by the Christman Company, the build­ing will be used for class­rooms, admin­is­tra­tive offices, stu­dio and exhi­bi­tion space for KCAD, which has grown by 49 per­cent in five years to amass a stu­dent pop­u­la­tion of 1,385.

The city of Grand Rapids and the Christman Company will hold the deed for the build­ing for five years and Ferris will lease it until the five-year term has expired and full own­er­ship is handed over to the university.

The build­ing, located at 155 N. Davison Ave., will receive numer­ous updates includ­ing sus­tain­able design changes, said Ferris State University President David Eisler.

Architectural plans have not yet been final­ized, but efforts are still under­way. Marc Sheehan, uni­ver­sity spokesper­son, believes work could begin as early as next summer.

The Ferris hockey team tied the school record for the best home start with an 11–0 record

With a sweep of Western Michigan, Ferris is 11−0−0 at home this sea­son, tying the school record for the best home start ever and ranked 11th in the country.

The Bulldogs, nation­ally ranked 11th by uscho​.com, improved to 8−2−2−2 in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association (CCHA) and 13−3−2 over­all. Ferris remains third in the con­fer­ence stand­ings, just one point behind Michigan State and six points behind first-place Miami.

The Bulldog hockey team will look to make his­tory on Jan. 15 as the No. 1-ranked Miami RedHawks visit Big Rapids. Ferris defeated Miami in con­sec­u­tive shootouts ear­lier this sea­son in Oxford, Ohio.

Senior left wing Blair Riley said the teams’ defense, along with a strong power play and penalty kill, are big rea­sons why the Bulldogs have been suc­cess­ful this sea­son. (more…)

Neuroenhancers are very preva­lent, both legally and ille­gally, on the Ferris campus.

It’s finals week and there are chem­istry and cal­cu­lus exams loom­ing the fol­low­ing morn­ing. To help study, will you turn to cof­fee, soda…or pre­scrip­tion drugs?

Students on col­lege cam­puses across the nation are look­ing to Adderall and sim­i­lar pills com­monly pre­scribed for Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) to help them con­cen­trate on their school work. This issue is present at Ferris just as it is on most other campuses.

Matt McCoy, a Ferris junior in the con­struc­tion man­age­ment pro­gram, recently shared his thoughts about Adderall, which has been pre­scribed to him since he was in junior high.

“I took it today and was in the library for about six hours study­ing,” said McCoy.

Adderall is a form of amphet­a­mine that keeps the mind awake and alert. McCoy com­pared it to drink­ing a cup of cof­fee in the morn­ing, only tak­ing a pill that lasts for ten to twelve hours. He said he will usu­ally take his pre­scrip­tion in the morn­ing so that it does not keep him up at night.

Adderall has a pres­ence on many col­lege cam­puses for these effects that stu­dents see as a way to help cope with a work­load. McCoy said that he even saw Adderall being sold in one of his classes between two stu­dents who did oth­er­wise not know each other. (more…)

“I think the team has done a great job of con­tin­u­ing to come to the rink and work­ing hard every day and under­stand­ing what it takes for our team to keep win­ning,” said Wysopal.

Freshman for­ward Matthew Kirzinger scored a short­handed goal with just over six min­utes remain­ing in the first period. Senior for­ward Blair Riley added an empty-net goal with 32 sec­onds remain­ing in the game to ice the vic­tory for Ferris. The Bulldogs out­shot the Mavericks 34–28 and both teams went 0 for 5 on the power play.

Three goals in a five-minute span in the sec­ond period led to a 3–1 vic­tory on Saturday as Ferris com­pleted its sweep of the Mavericks.

Sophomore cen­ter Jordie Johnston opened the scor­ing with his first goal of the sea­son four min­utes, 43 sec­onds into the sec­ond period. Wysopal and senior cap­tain Cody Chupp added power play goals 1:32 apart to the team a 3–0 lead at the mid­way point of the game. Head coach Bob Daniels said Nebraska-Omaha came out hard, but the team responded well. (more…)

Mujeres Triunfando, a new reg­is­tered stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion (RSO) on cam­pus, is offer­ing an evening of free Salsa danc­ing lessons.

Although “Mujeres Triunfando” trans­lates to “women pre­vail­ing,” Lissette Isabel, pres­i­dent of the RSO, explains that the group is “open to any­one that would like to pro­mote women empow­er­ment and Latin aware­ness.” (more…)

College is sup­posed to be a time to learn, grow, and gain new life expe­ri­ences, not end your life.

Sadly, there may be an increase in the num­ber of col­lege stu­dents who have ended their lives. The pres­sure to do well aca­d­e­m­i­cally, the dif­fi­cult econ­omy exac­er­bat­ing pre­ex­ist­ing finan­cial trou­bles and soci­etal influ­ences may be to blame. (more…)

Ferris wins three straight, heads into con­fer­ence matchup vs. Findlay

The Ferris men’s bas­ket­ball team is 3–0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC) for the first time in over 12 years.

After the strong home stand, Ferris now stands at 3–3 over­all in the sea­son fol­low­ing two home vic­to­ries against Ashland and Tiffin over the weekend.

Ferris car­ried a post-win hang­over into the Ashland game and the team got off to a slow start. The Eagles came out shoot­ing 53.6 per­cent in the first half to take a 37–30 lead into halftime.

Halftime proved to be a wake-up call for the Bulldogs, as the team came out fir­ing. Ferris went on a 26–8 run in the first nine min­utes of the half and shot 64.5 per­cent from the field in the sec­ond half.

The Bulldogs also played strong on defense in the sec­ond half, where the team forced 12 turnovers. The strong play on both sides of the ball allowed Ferris to pull away for an 82–72 victory.

Junior forward/center Justin Keenan led the way for Ferris with a game high 21 points, while senior guard Austin Randel posted 16 points along with four steals. Junior guard Darien Gay chipped in a double-double with 12 points and 10 assists. (more…)

For Him

He’s not as hard to buy for as you might think. Just sim­plify what it is he likes, being com­fort­able, hang­ing out and watch­ing movies.

Awesome socks. I don’t mean the white socks that come in packs of 12. I am talk­ing about knit, wool, pat­terned. It doesn’t sound like a great gift, but any guy worth his salt is worth a pair of great socks. Don’t be sur­prised if the cost is in the dou­ble digits.

Flask. Guys secretly dream of being in a sit­u­a­tion where they need a flask. Trapped in an ele­va­tor, on the roof of a sky scraper, on the side of a moun­tain. And to go along with that flask, a fancy bot­tle of alco­hol to put in it, some­thing above $20 is prefer­able for the occasion.

Hammock. Will he try to set it up inside? Maybe. Will both of you enjoy it? Totally.

If all else fails, Caddyshack, Animal House or Dumb and Dumber on DVD. (more…)

With the rough eco­nomic con­di­tions and the wors­en­ing finan­cial con­di­tions that Michigan cur­rently faces, the uni­ver­sity is fac­ing chal­leng­ing bud­get decisions.

Within the past month President David Eisler held three infor­ma­tional bud­get forums to address the state’s bud­get sit­u­a­tion and Ferris’ cur­rent fis­cal con­di­tion as well as to solicit input and con­cerns from mem­bers of the cam­pus community.

The state cur­rently is oper­at­ing on over a bil­lion dol­lars in eco­nomic stim­u­lus funds yet still faces a $1.6 bil­lion bud­get short­fall for next year. In the next three years rev­enues for the state gen­eral fund are expected to decrease by more than 40 per­cent. (more…)