Campus Fun

Dec. 4–18

“Dwelling” Art Installation, 11 a.m. — 4 p.m., Rankin Art Gallery

Dec. 2

Bring Your Key and Skate for Free, 9 — 11 p.m., FSU Ice Arena

Dec. 3

Comedian Jessica Kirson, 8 — 9 p.m., Quizno’s in the Rankin Student Center

Mousetrap to Mars, 6 — 8 p.m., IRC 120

Discussion: “Who’s Real Who’s Not?”, 7 — 8 p.m., Rankin Student Center Dome Room

Dec. 8

Art, Drugs and Crime, 7 — 9 p.m., Rankin Student Center 125/127

Band O Rama and Holographic Flip Cards, 11 a.m. — 3 p.m., Rankin Center Student Lounge

Holiday Jazz Band and Choir Concert, 8 p.m., Rankin Center Dome Room

How to Take Exams, 11 — 11:50 a.m., SCI 102

Off Campus

Dec. 5

Holiday Cookie Walk, 10 a.m.- 12 p.m., 323 S. State St., Big Rapids

Dec. 6

Voca Lyrica Holiday Concert, 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., United Church, 120 S. State St., Big Rapids

Concerts/Shows

Dec. 5

Kappa Talent ShowKase Feat. R&B Star J. Holiday, 7– 10 p.m., Williams Auditorium

Comedian Jessica Kirson

Entertainment Unlimited presents come­dian Jessica Kirson on Dec. 3 at 8 p.m. at Quizno’s in the Rankin Center. Kirson has appeared in Comedy Central’s “Premium Blend” and “Fresh Faces,” Nickelodeon’s “Sixth in the Suburbs,” sea­sons two and three of NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” NBC’s “Last Call with Carson Daly,” and “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.” For more infor­ma­tion con­tact EU at eu@ferris.edu or call x2610. ***Mature Audiences Only***

Kappa Talent ShowKase

The Epsilon Tau Chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. presents “Talent ShowKase” fea­tur­ing R&B record­ing artist J. Holiday and host C.P. The Komedian (KAPsi, MSU). Other per­form­ers include Uniquely Defined (FSU Pom Squad), Keenan Bowman (2008 Ferris Idol Winner), Megan Redmond (2009 Ferris Idol Winner), and R.I.B. (Rhythm in BLUE – GVSU). The event will be held on Dec. 5 in Williams Auditorium. Tickets are $5 for FSU stu­dents and $10 for gen­eral admis­sion. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the event begins at 7 p.m. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Eric Andrews at andrewe3@ferris.edu.

Voca Lyrica Holiday Concert

Voca Lyrica’s Holiday Concert will be held on Dec. 6 at the United Church at 3 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Guests include the brass ensem­ble, Con Brio Voce. Tickets are $7 and are avail­able at The Old Pioneer store, Patterson’s Flowers, from Voca Lyrica mem­bers, and at the door. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Helen Sobers at sobersh@ferris.edu or call x3695.

Art, Drugs, and Crime

On Dec. 8 at 7 p.m. the Association of Ferris Forensic Students presents speaker Shelia Meese in the Whitney Young Room (Rankin Center 125/127). Meese is a foren­sic artist and drug ana­lyst from the Michigan State Police Crime Lab. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Kevin Shaw at shawk3@ferris.edu.

Holiday Jazz Band and Choir Concert

The FSU Jazz Band and Choir are hav­ing a con­cert on Dec. 8. This free event will take place on Dec. 8 at 8 p.m. in the Rankin Center Dome Room. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Cate Arroe at arroec@ferris.edu or call x2070.

“Who’s Real and Who’s Not”

On Dec. 3 Alpha Phi Alpha (Zeta Beta Chapter) will be host­ing an open dis­cus­sion on African American images in soci­ety and the media. The event will take place at 7 p.m. in the Rankin Center Dome Room. For more infor­ma­tion con­tact Brandon Cole at b_cole_228@yahoo.com.

The first five peo­ple to cor­rectly iden­tify the loca­tion of this photo will have their names printed in the next issue of the Torch. Email answers to torch@ferris.edu with your name.

Shopping early in the morn­ing on black Friday is more than a waste of time

Black Friday rep­re­sents the mate­ri­al­is­tic side of American soci­ety that shows its true col­ors on the national shop­ping day of the year.

All the “great deals” peo­ple get by wait­ing out­side in the cold at mid­night or in some cases, a few days before, is a waste of time. I just do not under­stand what the hype is all about. If you are will­ing to stand out­side in a line for hours to save a hun­dred dol­lars on a flat screen TV, then you deserve to save the money.

Standing in long lines and wait­ing out­side to shop is ridicu­lous. Maybe I feel this way because I’m a man and do not “under­stand” what it is all about, but shop­ping is one of my least favorite activ­i­ties and I would never sac­ri­fice sleep to par­take in it. (more…)

The last few weeks of the semes­ter can be a real beast

After a much needed scholas­tic inter­lude, it is easy to fall prey to a mean case of the “I don’t wanna’s.”

Being around fam­ily and friends, as well as hav­ing the lux­ury to spend your time how­ever you like, can eas­ily lure even the most seri­ous stu­dent away from the books.

Although a break from classes is wel­come for the most part, hav­ing the main fall break this late in the semes­ter is detri­men­tal to stu­dents as it can lure us into a false feel­ing of completion.

This is a major con­cern, espe­cially since expec­ta­tions for stu­dents seem to sky­rocket dras­ti­cally in the last thirty or so days of the semes­ter. (more…)

The women’s bas­ket­ball team dropped its con­fer­ence opener to Grand Valley

The women’s bas­ket­ball team split their first two home con­tests of the season.

Ferris started off the home sched­ule with a 74–66 win over the Lewis Flyers on Nov. 24.

Ferris jumped out to a five point lead early in the first half and took a 30–25 lead into the half on 54.2% shoot­ing from the field.

After hold­ing the lead for the begin­ning of the sec­ond half, the Flyers bat­tled back to force a 50–50 tie with 7:42 left to play. The Bulldogs proved to be too much as they went on 24–16 run at the end to seal the victory.

Leading the way for Ferris was junior guard Becci Houdek, who dropped in 14 points and six assists. Sophomore guard Lindsey Pettit put up 13 points and junior for­ward Amy Joostberns added 12 points and six rebounds. Pettit said the team was deter­mined to start the home sched­ule on a pos­i­tive note. (more…)

Gregory Karp, MCT

ALLENTOWN, Pa. _ College stu­dents grad­u­at­ing in December and May are likely to be the first in a gen­er­a­tion to enter a job mar­ket fea­tur­ing double-digit unem­ploy­ment. That has col­leges and uni­ver­si­ties across America scram­bling this fall to revamp their career-placement offer­ings to help new grads land jobs.

Autumn is one of the cru­cial recruit­ing sea­sons, espe­cially for stu­dents who want to find employ­ment at Fortune 500 companies.

But the out­look for com­ing col­lege grad­u­ates is decid­edly grim. On top of a 22 per­cent decline in college-grad hir­ing last year, employ­ers expect to chop those entry-level hires by an addi­tional 7 per­cent this year, accord­ing to the National Association of Colleges and Employers.

“What we’re see­ing is they’re really being cau­tious,” said NACE spokes­woman Andrea Koncz. (more…)

Suspicious Male

On Nov. 12 at 6:28 p.m., offi­cers responded to Lot 24. A male was spot­ted check­ing car doors. Everyone is advised to lock their vehi­cles upon leaving.

Hit and Run

On Nov. 16 at 4:40 p.m., there was a report of a hit and run in Lot 32. No suspects.

Stolen Signs

On Nov. 16 at 6:00 p.m., there was a lar­ceny com­plaint of street signs in Lot 5. Someone took all of the signs off of their posts. No sus­pects.
(more…)

The Bulldogs man­han­dled Grand Valley for their first vic­tory of the sea­son at Wink Arena

The Ferris State men’s bas­ket­ball team earned their first win of the young sea­son in dom­i­nat­ing fash­ion on Monday night.

The Bulldogs ended their three-game los­ing skid as they won their home opener 67–41 over Grand Valley State. Ferris improved its record to 1–3 over­all and 1–0 in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (GLIAC). This was the first GLIAC con­test of the sea­son through­out the entire league.

Junior forward/center Justin Keenan paced a bal­anced offen­sive effort for the Bulldogs with 15 points and seven rebounds. Keenan was only 1–7 from the floor, but was 13–18 from the free throw line. Junior guard Darien Gay shot 5–8 from the field en route to 13 points and three assists. Ferris had eight play­ers score five or more points in the con­test. (more…)

Ferris ath­letic teams have shown why they deserve as much fan sup­port as possible

Ferris State ath­let­ics have given sports fans some­thing to cheer about this semes­ter and the stu­dent ath­letes, coaches and staff deserve loyal fans.

Fans of all sports should embrace the tri­umphs the Ferris ath­letic teams have had so far this year. If the team did not do as well, they still deserve sup­port. Teams will be more apt to play well if they have a large crowd behind them.

All sports deserve more fans and more sup­port, but the men’s golf and the women’s cross coun­try teams are at the top of the list. I under­stand that these sports only com­pete at home once each sea­son, but that is why they need fans behind them. (more…)