Plastic surgery seems to be the cure for all the ugly parts our cre­ator gave us.

Everyone has their own opin­ion about these cos­metic pro­ce­dures; how­ever, most peo­ple are agree­ing that real­ity star Heidi Montag went too far. (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 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…)

The Ferris State University Recyclers do more that pick up garbage; they’re help­ing save the campus.

Litter on col­lege cam­puses is not only an eye­sore, but can also reduce an institution’s enrollment.

Recyclers, with the help of Allied Waste, col­lect recy­clables from 14 recy­cle bins in Puterbaugh/Henderson and Brophy/McNerny halls every other Wednesday. (more…)

Student government’s third annual “Coming Together for the Holidays” food drive con­cluded Dec. 3 with full cam­pus participation.

“Thanks to every­one for par­tic­i­pat­ing,” said Liz Cottrell, stu­dent gov­ern­ment event coor­di­na­tor. “This will mean a lot to fam­i­lies in need.”

A total of 30 cam­pus orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing every res­i­dence hall, par­tic­i­pated in the food drive that began Nov. 9. All pro­ceeds will be donated to Project Starburst and the greater Big Rapids area.

According to Western Michigan Food Banks, over 38 mil­lion Americans do not have enough to eat. Western Michigan Food Banks are also antic­i­pat­ing a multi-million pound short­fall between the need for food and food inven­to­ries this year.

Students, fac­ulty, and res­i­dents brought non-perishable food items to var­i­ous loca­tions includ­ing the stu­dent gov­ern­ment office, Rec Center, Timme Center, and FLITE dona­tion boxes. (more…)

The rela­tion­ship caste sys­tem, com­monly known as dat­ing “out of one’s league”, is a sys­tem that most try in vain not to believe in; how­ever, it is still widely practiced.

My pre­vi­ous arti­cle, Sex and the City gives bad rela­tion­ship advice, briefly men­tions dat­ing out of caste.

Sex and the City char­ac­ter Miranda Hobbs, a Harvard edu­cated New York City lawyer, falls in love, has a baby with and mar­ries bar­tender turned bar owner, Steve Brady. This made-for-TV fairy tale was not so cut and dry though. Hobbs and Brady’s rela­tion­ship had sev­eral road blocks: (more…)

Student gov­ern­ment and the Department of Public Safety (DPS) are work­ing to improve cam­pus cross­walk safety.

Prior to the recent death of a stu­dent at a cross­walk, stu­dent gov­ern­ment and DPS’ Traffic Safety Team (TST), that has been in effect since 2003, is reley­ing on three E’s: engi­neer­ing, edu­ca­tion and enforcement.

The engi­neer­ing por­tion of TST is seek­ing to add cross­walk sign upgrades, cross­walk speed bumps and strobes to dis­play dri­ver speeds in order to enforce cam­pus speed lim­its. Morrison Street, next to Burger King, was also turned into a one-way street because of TST. Likewise, shrub­beries in the medi­ans have been added to dis­cour­age jay walk­ing.
(more…)

Although quit­ting smok­ing frees peo­ple from cig­a­rettes, many peo­ple gain weight…lots of weight sometimes.

Quitting smok­ing is a smoker’s great­est lib­er­a­tion. Kicking the habit can take years and over­com­ing the huge chal­lenge is part of what makes being released from nico­tine bondage feel so good. No more wor­ry­ing about can­cer, heart dis­ease and an early death from the count­less other dis­eases peo­ple acquire from cig­a­rette smoking.

I have been a smoker for seven years. At my worst, I smoked a pack and a half of cig­a­rettes per day. I did not know I was addicted to smok­ing until I began try­ing to quit cold turkey three weeks ago. Since then I have chewed on straws, bit­ten my nails and fid­geted a lot. I have also inhaled food like a vac­uum. I went from hav­ing three small meals a day to eat­ing every­thing in site all day long. In three weeks, I have gained nine pounds.

Weight gain is one of the many rea­sons why peo­ple have a hard time quit­ting smok­ing, espe­cially women. A female friend of mine said weight gain is the very rea­son she has not attempted to quit because she’s strug­gled with her weight all her life that she would rather risk can­cer than be fat.

According to the Mayo Clinic, most peo­ple typ­i­cally gain between 5 to 10 pounds. within the first three weeks of quit­ting. The myth is that there is con­stant weight gain. However, once the first cou­ple of weeks are in the can, the urge of the oral fix­a­tion of smok­ing dies down and so does weight gain.

The rea­son why so many peo­ple gain weight while quit­ting smok­ing is that nico­tine is an appetite sup­pres­sant. Nicotine slightly increases metab­o­lism and assists in burn­ing calo­ries. When peo­ple quit smok­ing, their appetite and metab­o­lism return to nor­mal, which may leads to weight gain. Also, people’s abil­ity to smell and taste food improves dur­ing this process, mak­ing food more appealing.

Quitting some­thing you like to do really sucks. The truth is, I did not quit smok­ing because I wanted to improve my health. I decided to quit on a bet with my boyfriend and since I hate when he is right, I will just have to suffer.

Even though quit­ting often means weight gain, exer­cis­ing seems like not too hard a task to incor­po­rate into one’s life. Unfortunately, the U.S. Department of Human Health and Service’s Weight-Control Information Network advises that peo­ple not try to lose the weight while quit­ting smok­ing because it will lead to smok­ing relapse. Although doing both things at the same time would be the ideal, I sup­pose I will have to sup­press my van­ity. I guess I’d rather be chubby than have cancer.

Several Ferris State University stu­dents are imper­son­at­ing the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity that has been sus­pended from cam­pus for 10 years.

The alleged stu­dents in ques­tion include Marvel Pridgeon, Timothy Hogue, Marc Powell, Joshua Jones and Dion Davenport, for­mer Omega mem­bers, who have been seen wear­ing Omega Psi Phi para­pher­na­lia. This apparel includes gold boots, army pants along with pur­ple or gold shirts wield­ing the Greek let­ters of Omega.

Davenport was released from the fra­ter­nity for his involve­ment with the non-Omega mem­bers. The Omega Psi Phi Fraternity invoked a self-imposed sus­pen­sion in 1999 after the last Omegas grad­u­ated from Ferris.

“We sus­pended our chap­ter to reduce imposters since there were no act­ing Omega mem­bers on cam­pus for awhile,” said Alvin Walker, offi­cial Omega Psi Phi mem­ber and 1987 FSU graduate

Walker heard rumors dur­ing sum­mer 2009 that these stu­dents were per­pet­u­at­ing a fake fra­ter­nity under the Omega name. Walker, along with other Omega mem­bers, con­tacted the false pledges and informed them that pro­ceed­ing with their activ­i­ties would result in rather severe reprimanding.

“We asked the young men if they had been involved with the fake Omega fra­ter­nity, and they denied it,” said Walker. “However, at the Ferris Ice Breaker Dance in September, the same stu­dents per­formed wear­ing Omega apparel and per­form­ing a tra­di­tional Omega ‘step dance’.”

Omega Psi Phi began a for­mal inves­ti­ga­tion to stop these per­pe­tra­tors. Climent Edmond, 10th District Representative for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity and the Michigan State Representative for Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Fionn Williams, offi­cial Omega mem­ber and Walker met again with the stu­dents to dis­cuss the issue. The men also tried to gather infor­ma­tion from the stu­dents about which offi­cial Omega mem­ber had encour­aged them to cre­ate an unap­proved pledge process.

“The young men are very tight-lipped about an offi­cial member’s involve­ment; how­ever, we do not know who would encour­age their behav­ior,” said Walker.

Walker sus­pects that Davenport’s expul­sion from Omega for his involve­ment with fake Omegas is a likely expla­na­tion for the stu­dents’ por­trayal of the fraternity.

Walker also sought to pledge the fol­low­ers full mem­ber­ship; how­ever, none of the stu­dents met the fra­ter­nity aca­d­e­mic require­ments, and some were not offi­cial Ferris stu­dents at the time.

The stu­dents have con­tin­ued to imper­son­ate the Omega fra­ter­nity and are rumored to be recruit­ing more mem­bers. The stu­dents have also begun weekly gath­er­ings called the “Thirsty Thursday” and dis­trib­ute cam­pus fliers about the events, accord­ing to Walker.

“These guys are car­ry­ing on a gang-like men­tal­ity through Omega,” said Walker. “We just want them to stop drag­ging our name in the mud.”

The Michigan chap­ter is cur­rently seek­ing legal coun­sel to pre­pare a law­suit against the stu­dents for false orga­ni­za­tion and slander.

Omega Psi Phi was founded in 1911 at his­tor­i­cally black Howard University by Professor Ernest E. Just and stu­dents Edgar A. Love, Oscar J. Cooper and Frank Coleman. The fra­ter­nity was estab­lished on broth­er­hood and friend­ship among black professionals.

The fraternity’s name is based on the ini­tials of the Greek phrase mean­ing “friend­ship is essen­tial to the soul” and remains the organization’s motto today. Omega is syn­ony­mous with famous African-American professionals.

“We take Omega very seri­ously and will do what­ever we can to pre­serve our good name,” said Walker. “We just don’t want oth­ers to be led astray.”

Attempts to con­tact alleged mem­bers of the fra­ter­nity were not returned as of press time.

Student gov­ern­ment annual food drive helps Big Rapids’ fam­i­lies in need

The third annual stu­dent gov­ern­ment “Coming together for the hol­i­days” food drive hopes to gather 7,500 pounds of food to help fam­i­lies in need.

“Many fam­i­lies are strug­gling even more this year, com­pared to pre­vi­ous years,” said Liz Cottrell, stu­dent gov­ern­ment event cor­di­na­tor. “Even if you can only afford to donate a few cans of soup, that could help feed some­one for a day or so.”

The food drive, which gath­ered 6,100 pounds of food last year, will be held from Nov. 9 to Dec. 3 at 5 p.m. All pro­ceeds will go to Project Starburst and the greater Big Rapids area. According to Western Michigan Food Banks (WMFB), over 38 mil­lion Americans do not have enough to eat. WMFB is also antic­i­pat­ing a multi-million pound short­fall between the need for food and food inven­to­ries this year.

Students, fac­ulty, and res­i­dents can bring non-perishable food items to the stu­dent gov­ern­ment office, Rankin 121, on Nov. 20 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The Rec Center, Timme Center, and FLITE will also have dona­tion boxes begin­ning Nov. 9. The music depart­ment will also assist the food drive by pro­vid­ing col­lec­tion boxes at their fall con­certs for the West Central Chamber Orchestra Nov. 22 at 4 p.m. and at the Band concert.

In addi­tion to mul­ti­ple dona­tion boxes, there are sev­eral res­i­dence halls, reg­is­tered stu­dent orga­ni­za­tions (RSO) and Greek orga­ni­za­tion com­pe­ti­tions. Student gov­ern­ment would also like to get fac­ulty and staff mem­bers involved to com­pete for their colleges.

“We want this to truly be a campus-wide food drive.” said Claire Gould, stu­dent gov­ern­ment president.

Applications for com­pet­ing are to be turned in to the stu­dent gov­ern­ment office Nov. 3 by 5 p.m. Late appli­ca­tions will be accepted the first day of the food drive.

The Black Greek Council, Interfraternity Council, Panhelienic coun­cil, the Residence Hall Assocation and the National Residence Hall Honorary will co-sponsor this project. To find out more about this event or to down­load com­pe­ti­tion appli­ca­tions, visit the “The Coming together for the Holidays” Facebook page or con­tact Liz Cottrell in the stu­dent gov­ern­ment office.

Additional Information

RSO com­pe­ti­tion prizes include: first place, cater­ing credit, sec­ond place, a $50 Meijer gift card, third place, Dominos Pizza Party with dona­tions from Dining Services, stu­dent gov­ern­ment and Dominos Pizza.

Residence Hall Prizes include: $200 for first place, $150 for sec­ond place and $100 for third place. Funds will be donated from RHA and NRHH. Greek Organization Prizes are $100 for first place, $70 for sec­ond and $30 for third with dona­tions from Panhel, IFC and BGC.