Saturday’s foot­ball against Grand Valley showed what is great about Ferris State

As my now 10-week-old puppy, Horton, and I walked around the park­ing lot in the hours before the foot­ball game, the atmos­phere was dif­fer­ent than games past.

The lanes were crowded with peo­ple and activ­ity. Students and alums played games, grilled out, played music and gen­er­ally enjoyed the com­pany of one another. GVSU fans were inter­spersed around the crowd, shar­ing in the pre-game fes­tiv­i­ties as well. In the dis­tance, the music of Big Daddy Fox and the Krewe per­form­ing at the Blues and BBQ com­pe­ti­tion cre­ated a dull but dis­cernible roar between the thuds of bean bags on home­made ply­wood boxes.

This was not the cacoph­ony of a school already resigned to defeat by the Lakers. These were stu­dents, staff, fac­ulty and alumni excit­edly wait­ing to watch live col­lege foot­ball action. They were ready to argue the con­tro­ver­sial calls of the offi­cial and praise the heroes of the grid­iron. This was how I’d like to see Ferris State before every major sport­ing event; care­fully styled in crim­son and gold and eager to jeer those in the oppos­ing hues.

I can only hope the vibe out­side the sta­dium served as a cat­a­lyst for the foot­ball team’s per­for­mance that night as they made Grand Valley earn each yard. Grand Valley out-ranks us in sta­tis­tics too great to men­tion. Nationally ranked and extremely well funded, the Lakers were expected by many to dom­i­nate the Bulldogs on their home turf. While the pre­dic­tion of a loss came to fruition, it was not the win Grand Valley may have expected.

And in the defeat, though bit­ter as our prox­im­ity to vic­tory was, the Bulldogs, fans and foot­ball play­ers alike held their heads at an angle appro­pri­ate to a winner.

That is the Ferris State that I cheer for. That is the Ferris State that makes me proud to be a Bulldog.

Nearly two thirds of all sex­ual assaults are com­mit­ted by some­one known to the vic­tim, accord­ing to the Rape Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN).

“Very few sex­ual assaults are the ones where some­body jumps out of the bushes,” said Renee Douglas, a coun­sel­ing ther­a­pist here at Ferris. “That is kind of the myth, that when we hear the word rape it is auto­mat­i­cally asso­ci­ated with a vio­lent act.”

While many cases of assault go unre­ported, Douglas also said that there has been an increase in peo­ple com­ing for­ward who are will­ing to talk about what hap­pened to them, both to the coun­sel­ing cen­ter and the police.

In a pre­vi­ous arti­cle pub­lished in the Torch on sex­ual assault, an FSU male, who was involved in a case of alleged rape, stated that he felt what­ever the female says goes, and that there is a bias in the sys­tem against males.

In rela­tion to this issue, Douglas said, “the vic­tim can also be a male, and we don’t want to for­get that…but the way (the sys­tem) is set up, if a female comes for­ward and says she was sex­ual assaulted, based on the legal def­i­n­i­tion and our def­i­n­i­tion, it is assault.”

Douglas had also said that in almost every case of acquain­tance rape that occurs here on cam­pus, alco­hol is a fac­tor. She said that when sub­stances are involved and there is any ques­tion of whether or not con­sent is present, don’t do it.

Another case that Douglas dis­cussed involved two stu­dents where the male hon­estly believed that there was con­sent, but the female dis­agreed. She said that peo­ple are gen­er­ally telling the truth, but there is a bias against the pur­suer, regard­less of gender.

National sta­tis­tics reported from RAINN state that one in six women will be sex­u­ally assaulted in their life­time, while only one in 33 males will be the vic­tim. RAINN also stated that col­lege women are four times more likely than any­one else to be assaulted. The age range of 18–24 cur­rently has the high­est risk.

While Ferris has many pro­grams set up to help a vic­tim of rape get through their sit­u­a­tion, there are also pro­grams that attempt to raise aware­ness in hopes of pre­vent­ing sit­u­a­tions like these from happening.

For more infor­ma­tion on these pro­grams and other sta­tis­tics, check out the resources on the Ferris web site as well as the RAINN Web site at rainn​.org.

Editor’s Note: This is the sec­ond part of a two part series con­cern­ing sex­ual assault on cam­pus. You can read the first part here.

Rinpoche offers words of empowerment

The Tibetan lama, Khenpo Rinpoche, made a rare visit to FSU Monday evening for a pub­lic empow­er­ment bless­ing for “Loving Kindness and Compassion.”

Michael Erlewine, Director of the Heart Center Karma Kagyu Study Center, started off with an intro­duc­tory speech. “We’re very lucky to have him here,” Erlewine said in his speech. Ferris stu­dents and mem­bers of the Big Rapids com­mu­nity alike attended the cul­tural event.

Erlewine said the bless­ing was not usu­ally done in pub­lic places, but in small groups.

Rinpoche, one of the most dis­tin­guished Tibetan lamas in the United States, agreed to offer the tra­di­tional empow­er­ment of ‘Loving Kindness and Compassion’ as a bless­ing to peo­ple of all faiths.

After Erlewine’s intro­duc­tion, Rinpoche came on stage and began in prayer to estab­lish a peace­ful envi­ron­ment. During each prayer, Rinpoche spoke in his native Tibetan lan­guage. A trans­la­tor, who was a Buddhist Monk, was present to inter­pret his words into English for the audience.

“Today, we are receiv­ing a bless­ing in empow­er­ment,” Rinpoche said to the audi­ence as he began the pub­lic empow­er­ment bless­ing. The intent of the bless­ing was to gen­er­ate more love and kind­ness into the hearts of others.

In one of Rinpoche’s bless­ings, he “visu­al­ized a pro­tec­tive cir­cle all around the cir­cum­fer­ence (of the audi­ence) so that all of the sick­nesses and demonic sources had been pacified.”

Members of the audi­ence placed their hands together in prayer and closed their eyes each time Rinpoche chanted mantras and prayers. He incor­po­rated a mantra, known as the Six Syllable Mantra, which con­sisted of the chant “Om Mani padme hum”. The audi­ence was instructed to recite the chant and mem­o­rize it.

A Monk stepped down dur­ing the chants and walked around the audi­ence wav­ing an incense wand in the air as a form of puri­fy­ing the minds of those present at the ceremony.

After sev­eral chants, the audi­ence formed a line around the room to receive a bless­ing. The bless­ing was also part of a vast empow­er­ment ges­ture using a vase filled with water meant to heal and cleanse the entire body. Each indi­vid­ual chanted the mantra in unison.

When each attendee reached their turn to receive bless­ing from Rinpoche, they were instructed to drink the cleans­ing water from the vase, which was poured into the palm of their hand. After drink­ing the water, they were told to rub their hand over their head as a part of the cleans­ing process. Every per­son in the audi­ence received the blessing.

“If we can all have a com­pas­sion­ate love for each other, the world [will] be a bet­ter place for all of us,” said Rinpoche after the blessings.

Several stu­dents who attended the event had shown interest.

“It was very inter­est­ing, I feel like I have broad­ened my per­spec­tive to this reli­gion,” said weld­ing & engi­neer­ing tech­nol­ogy stu­dent, Edward Escher.

“I thought it was inter­est­ing,” said Psychology stu­dent James Schaeffer.

At the con­clu­sion of the cer­e­mony, Rinpoches’ trans­la­tor said “He is delighted to have met all of you and has formed a con­nec­tion with all of you.”

Rinpoche came to Big Rapids to make a bless­ing, but he also came to start a new dharma cen­ter, the Heart Center KKSG Karma Kaoyu Study Group. The Big Rapids Dharma Study Group spon­sored the event.

Over the last 33 years, Rinpoche built a large monastery near Woodstock, NY and a com­plete three-year retreat cen­ter for both men and women, where he is the abbot and retreat master.

Disc golf is a form of out­door enter­tain­ment that is rapidly grow­ing in popularity.

Disc golf was invented in the late ‘60s by a man named Ed Headrick. The game is played using fly­ing discs and an above– ground wire bas­ket target.

You begin at a des­ig­nated area and pro­gres­sively work your way closer to the bas­ket tar­get by throw­ing the disc with the objec­tive of stay­ing under par, just like in golf. Many dif­fer­ent types of discs are used for dif­fer­ent dis­tances and a typ­i­cal course is usu­ally 18 to 24 holes.

In 1975, the game’s pop­u­lar­ity lead to the cre­ation of the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA). Clubs and groups want­ing to play the game have also sprung up, includ­ing a Registered Student Organization (RSO) here on cam­pus called the Disc Sports Club. A Big Rapids Disc Golf League is also avail­able for stu­dents and cit­i­zens to join.

Students are not the only peo­ple on cam­pus inter­ested in this up and com­ing sport. The FLITE library took advan­tage of disc golf’s recent pop­u­lar­ity by hold­ing an indoor tour­na­ment for stu­dents to par­tic­i­pate in. FLITE employ­ees thought this would be a great way to get stu­dents acquainted with the library at the begin­ning of the school year.

A disc golf course is located in Big Rapids. It is an 18-hole course in Northend Riverside Park. With only a few weeks of good weather is left, I sug­gest peo­ple take advan­tage of these last weeks of out­door weather and get some out­side enter­tain­ment around town. Disc golf would be a great activ­ity to start.

Campus Fun

Sept. 23

5-Star Speaker C.L. Lindsay: “How to Throw a Police Free Party,” 7 p.m. – 8:30 p.m., Williams Auditorium

Sept. 24

Career Advantage Series: “Networking: Learn What to Say and How to Grow your Networks,” 6 p.m. – 7 p.m., FLITE 214

Latin Night Club, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., Miller Residence Hall

Sept. 26

Marcus Belgrave’s Jazz Experience with Charlie Gabriel and Joan Belgrave-Bow, 8 p.m., Williams Auditorium

Sept. 29

Brain Dominance Learning, 11 a.m. – 11:50 a.m., SCI 102

Hispanic Meal, 4 p.m. – 7 p.m., Westview Dining

International Coffee on the Quad, 10 a.m. – 12 p.m., Quad

Bring a Little, Taste a Little, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., FLITE 438

Sept. 30

Terri McKay: Defense Finance and Accounting Service, 7 p.m. – 8 p.m., BUS 111

Fall Job Fair Network Reception, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., Rankin Center Dome Room

Hispanic Heritage Month: Tres Vidas, 7 p.m. – 9 p.m., Williams Auditorium

Off Campus

Sept. 21 — 25

CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and The CW’s New and Old TV Shows, 8 p.m. – 10 p.m., your TV

Concerts/Shows

Sept. 27

Tuba Bach Concert 3: Lift Every Voice and Sing, 4 p.m. – 6 p.m., Big Rapids High School Auditorium

Learning each other’s bad habits turns many cou­ples off from marriage

The “move-in” is often a long-term relationship’s next step before marriage.

Most cou­ples believe that liv­ing together will help them get to know each other. By increas­ing time together, cou­ples can learn one another’s quirks, sched­ule, and all of the other stuff you would not dur­ing a Saturday night date.

Also, qual­ity time becomes eas­ier because cou­ples come home to each other.

Even though increas­ing the time a cou­ple spends together can help some peo­ple grow closer, some­times liv­ing together does not always help a rela­tion­ship develop a tighter bond. Living together often teaches cou­ples how to hate each other. When peo­ple are together all the time, all their bad habits are exac­er­bated. Seeing a girl­friend hang her panties over the shower rail to dry or watch­ing a boyfriend trim his nose hairs over the sink may be more togeth­er­ness than some peo­ple want.

Sharing the same space also puts a dif­fer­ent spin on the occa­sional lover’s spat. After a fight, peo­ple who live apart can return to their own apart­ments. However, when a cou­ple shares a home, there are not a lot of places to go….except for the couch.

The Break-up, star­ring Jennifer Aniston and Vince Vaughn, is a per­fect exam­ple of a liv­ing sit­u­a­tion gone wrong. Aniston and Vaughn share a condo in Chicago for sev­eral years, until one-day Anniston becomes unhappy in the rela­tion­ship and wants Vaughn to change. Unfortunately, Vaughn is unwill­ing to change and the two have to suf­fer the fall-out of their rela­tion­ship while liv­ing together.

For most break-ups, peo­ple just go their sep­a­rate ways. When peo­ple share rent and a mort­gage though, break-ups become close to impossible.

Some peo­ple might say that cohab­i­ta­tion is the best thing for a cou­ple after sev­eral years of dat­ing, how­ever most rela­tion­ships tend to have prob­lems after two years. Even more so, liv­ing together can remove the fun and excite­ment peo­ple have for each other dur­ing peri­ods of sep­a­ra­tion. Absence truly does make the heart grow fonder. When peo­ple live together that fond­ness turns into for­get­ful­ness because a per­son does not remem­ber how it feels to miss someone.

Now, I’m not say­ing that liv­ing together is a curse, but I am say­ing that it is a big step in the pro­gres­sion of a rela­tion­ship and should not be taken lightly. People should make sure that they want to be together for the long run before they decide to play house.

More than one mil­lion peo­ple visit tan­ning salons a day, accord­ing to the American Academy of Dermatology. I admit I am among those one million.

It is no ques­tion that using tan­ning beds can increase one’s chance of pre­ma­ture aging, skin can­cer, etc. Just as there is a neg­a­tive to this con­cept, there is a pos­i­tive. After a few vis­its to the tan­ning salon and two or so skin tones darker, I get a boost of con­fi­dence. Not to men­tion the emit­ted UV rays aid in clear­ing up acne. It cer­tainly clears up my skin and oth­ers have men­tioned it does the same for them as well.

Aside from receiv­ing a “glow” that helps me main­tain a healthy appear­ance, tan­ning uplifts my mood, espe­cially dur­ing the dark, dreary months in the win­ter when the sun is absent much of the time. I enjoy not hav­ing to pile make-up on my face when my com­plex­ion is, well, darker.

I can become as pale as a ghost, and I just don’t feel like I look healthy. I’ve had peo­ple ask me if I was ill, when I was feel­ing just fine; I was only pallid!

I’ve been going tan­ning since I was 15. Certainly, I don’t visit the salons year round. I usu­ally resume my ses­sions around late fall-early win­ter. When late spring comes around, those ses­sions come to an end, as the sun is avail­able to pro­vide me with some Vitamin D and a “sun-kissed” glow.

In accor­dance to the Indoor Tanning Association, the media focuses on the neg­a­tives of indoor tan­ning, and cre­ates a lot of hype over the down­side of this habit. If it is done in mod­er­a­tion, what’s the big deal? Yes, over­ex­po­sure can increase the risk, but mod­er­a­tion is the key.

I am aware of the dam­age that I may be doing to my skin accord­ing to stud­ies on tan­ning and tan­ning beds. I choose to go tan­ning because I see it as a form of pam­per­ing and relax­ation. There are plenty of habits peo­ple indulge in that are asso­ci­ated with risks and neg­a­tive con­se­quences. For me, one of those habits is tanning.

I have con­sid­ered the risks involved in tan­ning and accepted them.

As the sum­mer comes to a close, it’s time for me to grab the gog­gles, the bronz­ing lotion and hit the salon once again.

The Bulldogs lost 17–10 to No. 1 Grand Valley in grid­iron battle

Ferris fought tooth and nail for 60 min­utes, but came up short against No.1 ranked Grand Valley State, 17–10.

With the loss, Ferris falls to 1–3 over­all and 0–3 in the con­fer­ence. However, Head coach Jeff Pierce is happy that the team played as hard as they did against Grand Valley.

“It’s dis­ap­point­ing, but I am very proud. We fought hard until the end,” said Pierce.

Even though the defense gave up 400 total yards, it made big plays when needed and held the tal­ented Laker offense to only ten points in the first half. Grand Valley had the ball inside the Bulldogs’ ten-yard line on three sep­a­rate occa­sions in the first half, but scored only ten points.

The Bulldog defense used many dif­fer­ent schemes, which enabled them to keep Grand Valley off bal­ance. The Bulldog’s cor­ner­backs were tested on sev­eral occa­sions as the Lakers threw the ball deep. Each time, how­ever, the sec­ondary answered the call, as Grand Valley was never able to con­nect on a big play.

“We just wanted to keep them off guard as much as pos­si­ble,” said Pierce.

In the first half, the Bulldogs had a tough time keep­ing the offense on the field, as Grand Valley pos­sessed the ball for 20:11, to just 9:49 for the Bulldogs.

Ferris kept its upset hopes alive as Tyler Thomas tied the game 10–10, with a two-yard touch­down run with 12:44 left in the fourth quarter.

In the end, it was not enough as Grand Valley scored the go-ahead touch­down on a nine-yard pass with 4:13 left, which proved to be the game winner.

Sophomore D.J. Freeman ran for 70 yards on 11 car­ries to pace the Bulldog offense. Freeman thought the Bulldogs should have come away with a victory.

“We def­i­nitely feel like we let one get away,” said Freeman.

One of the rea­sons why Ferris was so com­pet­i­tive is that they were able to elim­i­nate spe­cial teams mis­takes and turnovers, which have haunted them in the past.

The Bulldogs will be look­ing to get back on track as they travel to the Upper Peninsula for their next con­test against Northern Michigan University. Northern Michigan is 2–1 in the con­fer­ence after a 48–16 rout of Michigan Tech on Saturday.

Last sea­son, Ferris defeated Northern Michigan 31–24 at Top Taggart Field. The Bulldogs lead the all-time series 16−13−6. Pierce said he believes the team will get bet­ter as the sea­son continues.

“We made huge strides from last week and we will con­tinue to improve,” said Pierce.