On Sept. 23–24, Ferris State University stu­dents, staff and fac­ulty mem­bers were dunked in North Quad.

Student Ambassador Nicholas Campau, as well as Resident Advisor Byron Williams were among the par­tic­i­pants who sat atop dunk tanks to raise money for the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund. The annual stu­dent and fac­ulty dunk tank event report­edly raised over an esti­mated $113 for the emer­gency response orga­ni­za­tion. (more…)

Recently, Congress voted to reduce fund­ing for the Pell Grant by sev­eral bil­lion dol­lars, which means col­lege stu­dents will no longer be able to receive the grant for the sum­mer 2012 semester.

This deci­sion has adversely affected my plans to take sum­mer classes, and I’m sure it has done the same for many other Ferris stu­dents who relied on the Pell Grant as their main source of fund­ing for the sum­mer semester.

Two weeks ago I received an email from the finan­cial aid office telling me that Congress had elim­i­nated the Pell Grant for the sum­mer semes­ter in order to keep it funded at the cur­rent rate of $5,550, which is $2,775 for the fall and spring semes­ter. (more…)

On Oct. 1, Ferris State University will use 2,500 pink discs to set a new world record.

More impor­tantly, both the uni­ver­sity and local com­mu­nity will be mak­ing a dif­fer­ence in the lives of mil­lions of peo­ple who have been affected by cancer.

Paint Big Rapids Pink is a com­mu­nity event allow­ing stu­dents to donate time and money to the Susan P. Wheatlake Cancer and Wellness Center. (more…)

Update: Power will be shut off at 2pm until 5pm and as result, all classes have been can­celled for the remain­der of the day.

Half of the cam­pus has been with­out power since the early morn­ing hours and crews from Consumer’s Energy are work­ing on get­ting it restored.

A bro­ken switch leg on the power lines that feeds the cam­pus’ main power is the source of the out­age, accord­ing to a cam­pus wide mes­sage from the phys­i­cal plant.
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Mom always told you to wash your hands. Around a col­lege cam­pus where every­one lives in close quar­ters, that’s prob­a­bly not a bad idea. But if her warn­ing isn’t enough to scare you, maybe “Contagion” is. This movie will have you con­stantly apply­ing hand san­i­tizer and cov­er­ing your cough.

The movie begins with busi­ness woman Beth Emhoff (Gwyneth Paltrow) return­ing from Hong Kong. Home in the U.S., she begins to develop a set of eerie flu-like symp­toms. Within a cou­ple days, she’s dead with­out a diag­no­sis. (more…)

Why do some teach­ers feel the need to be referred to as doc­tor or professor?

We all under­stand that every edu­ca­tor is dif­fer­ent; how­ever, thoughts about the learn­ing expe­ri­ence and teach­ers around cam­pus dif­fer­en­ti­ate between each stu­dent. Some enjoy the very warm and invit­ing pro­fes­sors who have per­sonal attach­ments to stu­dents and oth­ers may learn best by a strict busi­ness approach to a class and to learn­ing the mate­r­ial. This begs to answer a big ques­tion: What type of teach­ing by an edu­ca­tor is the most effi­cient? (more…)

The Outer Vibe– Demo CD

The Outer Vibe is a band hail­ing from Grand Rapids that aims to make a room shake and shimmy. Their quasi-ska style mixed with a hint of punk-pop allows them to make just about any­thing a happy tune. They’ve played numer­ous venues in Michigan, and cur­rently have two albums out. The demo CD sent to The Torch was full of well put together and talent-filled songs. The depth of the lyrics was lack­ing, but for the genre it is appro­pri­ate. Most of the gui­tar solos failed to impress me as any­thing com­pli­cated, but the horn solos were well accom­plished and mixed well with the over­all com­po­si­tion. After about five songs the lead vocal­ist began to sound a bit whiney and monot­o­nous. More vari­ety in vocal styling would have been appre­ci­ated. All around the CD sent to The Torch was impres­sive, and thor­oughly enjoy­able. If a party is start­ing to drag, put on The Outer Vibe and you’re sure to get it going again. (more…)

Breaking and entering

Sept. 9 at 12:30 a.m., offi­cers assisted the city police in the area of Michigan Avenue and Chesnut Street for break­ing and enter­ing. A sub­ject was found run­ning from the scene and the offi­cer found the sub­ject near Subway. The sub­ject was lodged in county jail. (more…)

After a tough loss to one of Ferris State University’s biggest ten­nis rivals, Northwood University, the Bulldogs redeemed them­selves over the weekend.

Though the Bulldogs dropped a 9–0 loss at Northwood University Sept. 20, they still remain in the top five of the Great Lakers Intercollegiate Athletic Conference.

“After the tough defeat to Northwood, we have become re-energized and more focused, and I believe the effort we are cur­rently putting into our prac­tices will pay off with a few more big wins before the end of our sea­son,” FSU head coach Alex Palladino said. (more…)

New PGM coor­di­na­tor named

Following Matt Pinter’s retire­ment this month, the College of Business recently announced his replace­ment. Aaron Waltz has been named the new Professional Golf Management Coordinator. The pre­mier PGA pro­gram at FSU was the first of its kind sanc­tioned by the Professional Golf Association of America in 1975.
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