Ferris State University auto­mo­tive man­age­ment pro­fes­sor Greg Denny was involved in the mak­ing of the film “Youth in Revolt.”

Denny and his fam­ily rent out a camp­site in the Lake Leelanau RV Park in Lake Leelanau, Mich. He received a call from the RV park owner, Don Wilson, in March of 2008 ask­ing if he would be will­ing to give up his camp­site for part of the sea­son because the film com­pany Revolt Inc. wanted to use it.

“He called me before we went camp­ing and ini­tially I thought it was a joke because we have good friends up there,” said Denny. “Turns out it wasn’t a joke at all.”

Denny said that after receiv­ing the call he was excited even after hear­ing how much time it would take. He talked it over with his wife and they decided within ten min­utes that they were will­ing to give up their camp­site for a period of time. The com­pany had to pay him a cer­tain amount of money for the site, which he can­not dis­close, because he had signed a con­tract that made the site his for a year.

“It was the first time our camper moved since we started rent­ing there years ago,” said Denny.

Denny said that they did about 10 actual days of film­ing at his camp­site, but the process took about two months due to set build­ing and demo­li­tion. He was able to be there for only the last three or four days of film­ing because he had to teach in Big Rapids and Detroit dur­ing the week.

Even though he missed some of the film­ing, he said that he and his fam­ily were up there a lot before the film­ing started and they got to know the painters and car­pen­ters very well. They were not able to get to know the actors and actresses as well, though.

“A funny story about Portia Doubleday, the main girl in the movie, is that she wouldn’t talk to me for the rest of the time she was film­ing because I told her that she shouldn’t smoke,” said Denny with a laugh.

Denny saw the movie when it came out in the­atres on Jan. 8.

“It was a typ­i­cal younger per­son movie,” he said. “I was try­ing to rec­og­nize peo­ple, trucks, the beach and other things dur­ing the movie so I wasn’t really pay­ing atten­tion to the actual movie too much.”

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true mean­ing of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are cre­ated equal,’” said Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech that immor­tal­ized the ral­ly­ing cry of the civil rights move­ment and fur­ther pow­ered the wheels of progress.

Each year Ferris State University, and the rest of the coun­try, takes time to honor the life and legacy of Dr. King. He was a man who spoke not just for African-Americans, but also for men, women and chil­dren of all eth­nic­i­ties, demand­ing equal­ity and tol­er­ance, jus­tice and peace. He dreamed of a day when those pil­lars would sup­port our coun­try, stead­fast. (more…)

The optom­e­try build­ing project at Ferris State University has been using local resources and work­ers to keep Michigan tax dol­lars in state.

“It just made more sense to use local and Michigan resources,” said Michael Hughes, Associate Vice President for the phys­i­cal plant. “Ferris fig­ured that if we were going to use Michigan tax dol­lars, it would be best to keep those dol­lars in state.”

The phys­i­cal plant defines the term “local” as com­pa­nies and resources within a 60 mile radius of Mecosta County. 63 per­cent of the project was awarded to busi­nesses within the 60 mile radius, while 25 per­cent of the project was awarded to statewide busi­nesses, only 11 per­cent of the project will come from out of state. (more…)

The Ferris State men’s bas­ket­ball team will be trav­el­ing to Wayne State and then Northwood to wrap up a five-game road trip.

The Bulldogs will be in Detroit tomor­row as they look to extend their win­ning streak against the 8–6 Wayne State Warriors. Only one of their six losses has come at home as they are 6–1 at Wink Arena this season.

On Saturday, Ferris will travel to Northwood to wrap up its road trip against the 7–7 Timberwolves. After a quick start to their sea­son, Northwood has lost their last three games and six of their last seven. (more…)

The Pedestrian Safety Task Force hosts the final sched­uled dis­cus­sion forum to receive input on improv­ing pedes­trian safety.

Vice President for Administration and Finance, Jerry Scoby, and Claire Gould, pres­i­dent of Student Government, will be host­ing a series of three dis­cus­sion forums in the hopes of rais­ing aware­ness on the on-going issue.

“Basically we will have a big map of cam­pus and we will out­line and write down all areas of con­cerns the cam­pus com­mu­nity has,” said Gould. (more…)

The 2010 elec­tion may still be months away, but the governor’s race is heat­ing up as both the Democratic and Republican can­di­dates are prepar­ing for the long polit­i­cal bat­tle ahead of them.

Numerous names con­tinue to appear, all pos­si­ble con­tenders to replace Governor Jennifer Granholm and right now the Michigan guber­na­to­r­ial race looks like a free-for-all with no clear front-runner from either party emerg­ing with just over six months until the pri­mary elections.

As it stands now, the race is a toss-up. Neither party holds a solid lead or advan­tage in the polls lead­ing up to the elec­tion, nor has a stand-out can­di­date emerged for either party’s nom­i­na­tion. (more…)

After an earth­quake shook the island of Haiti recently, many global lead­ers came together to pledge sup­port for the coun­try that had just been destroyed by a nat­ural disaster.

Rush Limbaugh, the infa­mous out­spo­ken con­ser­v­a­tive radio host, and Pat Robertson, the TV evan­ge­list, have made names for them­selves by say­ing what oth­ers won’t or, in this case, what no else could even think. They have become car­i­ca­tures for their causes and draw out a shock value reac­tion from the lis­ten­ing pub­lic. (more…)

Editor’s Note: The fol­low­ing arti­cle dis­cusses only my opin­ion toward smok­ing leg­is­la­tion and does not reflect my opin­ion on the choice to smoke or my stance on the effects that second-hand smoke has on pub­lic health.

The quickly approach­ing smok­ing ban has evoked a mix­ing pot of emo­tions from Michiganders. I have found my own opin­ions to be com­plex and occa­sion­ally con­flict­ing, but they have led me to a con­clu­sion on my stance: I am not in favor of state-wide smok­ing ban leg­is­la­tion. (more…)

The Tunnels of Ferris State are attached to many rumors.

Some stu­dents say that the Tunnels are caves that hold secret trea­sures, while oth­ers believe the Tunnels were once a place where peo­ple were tor­tured. Whatever the lat­est rumor, the Tunnels are not to be explored and are highly dangerous.

Michael Hughes, asso­ciate vice pres­i­dent for the phys­i­cal plant, said the main func­tion of the tun­nels is as under­ground util­i­ties. These tun­nels have been around since the 1950s and house sev­eral hun­dred steam, elec­tri­cal and main water lines. The two tun­nels cross inter­sect: one run­ning north to south and other east and west. (more…)