America and media mis­in­ter­pre­ta­tion about social­ism con­tinue to fuel mis­con­cep­tions about President Barack Obama’s administration

Dr. Thomas Jorsch, Ferris State University his­tory instruc­tor, gave a speech enti­tled “Why Barack Obama is not a Socialist”.

Humanities Department Colloquium series put on the speech to edu­cate the cam­pus about media mis­con­cep­tions of President Barack Obama and social­ism. Jorsch’s speech on Oct. 22 com­pared and con­trasted the Obama admin­is­tra­tion with social­ist views.

Socialism can be defined as an eco­nomic orga­ni­za­tion advo­cat­ing pub­lic or direct worker own­er­ship, admin­is­tra­tion of means of pro­duc­tion and resource allo­ca­tion. Socialist soci­eties are char­ac­ter­ized by equal access to resources for all indi­vid­u­als with a method of com­pen­sa­tion based on the amount of labor expended, while democ­racy is defined as a sys­tem in which gov­ern­ing is car­ried out by either the peo­ple or an elected representitive.

Although Jorsch claims that Obama is not a social­ist, he believes that democ­racy and social­ism are closely related.

“Socialism is democ­racy, there is no dis­tinc­tion,” said Jorsch. “But Obama is a lib­eral who hopes to use gov­ern­ment to reg­u­late the abuses of capitalism.”

Obama’s auto and bank bailouts were one of Jorsch’s com­par­isons. Jorsch said that Obama’s actions do not add up to social­ism because social­ism would not have given money to pri­vate busi­ness own­ers; rather, it would put the power into the work­ers’ hands.

“Socialism is the pub­lic run­ning busi­ness for the ben­e­fit of the pub­lic, not the ben­e­fit of pri­vate enti­ties,” said Jorsch.

Healthcare reform was another issue that Jorsch dis­cussed. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Obama’s reform plan will cre­ate more secu­rity for those with health care, make health care afford­able, cre­ate cov­er­age for the unin­sured and reduce the profit of insur­ance companies.

According to the U.S. Census Bureau sta­tis­tics from 2008, there are 47 mil­lion unin­sured Americans. 18,000 peo­ple die yearly because they can­not afford med­ical bills. Jorsch believes that Obama’s health­care tac­tics mir­ror his pre­de­ces­sors, Presidents Herbert Hoover and Franklin D. Roosevelt, more than socialism.

Jorsch, who con­sid­ers him­self a social­ist, believes that America could oper­ate eff­i­cen­tily under a social­ist regime.

“Our present cap­i­tal­is­tic sys­tem is based on greed,” said Jorsch.  “What we need to do is demol­ish that sys­tem and cre­ate one based on cooperation.”

Socialism may appear to cre­ate utopian soci­eties; how­ever, some peo­ple think that America could fall under such a sys­tem. Many audi­ence mem­bers ques­tion the incen­tives for indi­vid­u­als to excel when every­one is con­sid­ered equal.

The dif­fi­cult Michigan econ­omy has many grad­u­ates con­cerned about job­less­ness post graduation.

Ferris State University stu­dents eagerly await grad­u­a­tion to break into the work­force, how­ever the tur­bu­lent Michigan econ­omy has forced pre-graduates to rethink their employ­ment strategies.

Finding a job post grad­u­a­tion is dif­fi­cult enough but even more so these days. According to the Michigan Department of Energy, Labor and Economic Growth (DELEG), Michigan unem­ploy­ment rate reached 15.3 per­cent in September, one of the high­est com­pared to the nations aver­age of 9.4 per­cent. Nevada fol­lows closely with 13.2 per­cent, fol­lowed by Rhode Island, 12.8 per­cent and California and Oregon with 12.2 per­cent each. According the United States Department of Labor Oct. 2009 sta­tis­tics, nation­wide unem­ploy­ment is most acute among white males (10.3 per­cent) and African-Americans (15.4 percent).

Although the Michigan unem­ploy­ment rate has remained steady since June 2009, the 6.4 per­cent increase in unem­ploy­ment from the last year’s is still daunting.

Staying in Michigan is longer an option for many FSU grad­u­ates. Richard Howes, weld­ing engi­neer­ing tech­nol­ogy (WET) grad­u­ate and process engi­neer at Wabash Steele, relo­cated to Princeton, Indiana, after his May 2009 grad­u­a­tion. Howes felt con­fi­dent that he could have found a job in MI based on FSU WET program’s 100 per­cent employ­ment place­ment rate, how­ever the cost of liv­ing in Michigan would have dimin­ished his resources.

“I could have earned 20 per­cent more money in Michigan,” said Howes. “But liv­ing here (Indiana), I have about 40 per­cent more dis­pos­able income.”

National salary of weld­ing engi­neers is between $50,000 and 100,000 yearly. Michigan weld­ing engi­neers could earn up to $20,000 more com­pared to Indiana. Although a welder could earn more, the jobs are sim­ply not in Michigan.

Howes also worked at Bradford and White in Caledonia, MI for nearly two years, and could have had a job there, how­ever he felt that work­ing at Wabash would ben­e­fit his career more. And even though Michigan is not the only state strug­gling with unem­ploy­ment, Howes feels secure in his occupation.

“WET taught me well and I have proved to be invalu­able to my com­pany.” Said Howes.

A Detroit News April 2009 arti­cle said that 53 per­cent of University of Michigan grad­u­ates left the state after grad­u­a­tion. And more than half of Michigan State grads relo­cate, specif­i­cally to the Chicago area.

The News also stated that from Michigan Future Inc. Survey that Michigan pub­lic uni­ver­sity grad­u­ates that grad­u­ated in 2007 left the state within one year. This arti­cle also stated that 63 per­cent of Michigan grads, that relo­cate had no inten­tions of mov­ing back.

Post–grad unem­ploy­ment also largely depends on career. According to an arti­cle in the Detroit Free Press, September 2009, phar­macy tech­ni­cians are the most in demand jobs in Michigan. Likewise, jobs in the health­care fields also remain in demand. Students pur­su­ing med­ical, engi­neer­ing, and infor­ma­tion tech­nol­ogy degrees are more likely to find a job nation­wide com­pared to other degrees. Meanwhile, auto­mo­tive and print jour­nal­ism careers are rapidly leav­ing the state.

The Flint Journal, The Saginaw News and The Bay City Times have reduced the amount of their daily news­pa­pers, while the Ann Arbor News closed its doors in July 2009, becom­ing a strictly online news source. Several General Motors (GM) and Chrysler com­pa­nies have also closed their doors statewide. GM most recently closed their Pontiac, Mich. plant while Chrysler closed down Sterling Heights’ plant.

In addi­tion to stu­dents’ dif­fi­culty in find­ing a job on their own, many job recruiters and intern­ships have reduced their fund­ing and pro­grams. This occur­rence is due to numer­ous com­pany lay-offs and reduced bud­gets. According to a March 2009 arti­cle in the Michigan Daily, intern­ships and entry– level jobs in many fields have been reduced to unpaid work.

Although some stu­dents plan to take their chances of employ­ment dur­ing the reces­sion, oth­ers plan on extend­ing their edu­ca­tion via grad­u­ate school to dodge the eco­nomic reces­sion. A Dec. 2008 Michigan Daily arti­cles said that 45 per­cent of University of Michigan grad­u­ates had applied for grad-schools to avoid the job market.

Whether stu­dents plan to face the uncer­tain econ­omy or pro­long edu­ca­tion with grad-schools, Hughes has one advice for stu­dents in all fields.
“Look for a job before graduation!”

A 1972 issue of the Torch played a role in bring­ing two fresh­men strangers together. They have been hand-in-hand ever since

Stevie Miller, 54, and Greg Bovee, 55, were fresh­men and strangers until one fate­ful photo lead to a romance that has lasted 37 years.

In 1972, dur­ing what was known as the “Three day Wonder” fresh­man ori­en­ta­tion pro­gram at Ferris State University, Miller, health optics major, met Bovee, a phar­macy major, weeks before the fall semes­ter. The two met for only moments in the Ward Hall cafe­te­ria. They were in the same ori­en­ta­tion group and had to ask each other questions.

“I saw her sit­ting down and just walked up to her and asked her what she was doing,” said Greg.

They were then approached by a Torch news­pa­per pho­tog­ra­pher as they exited the cafe­te­ria. They posed by a flight of stairs in between Ward Hall and what is now the Rock café.

Greg, who was 18 years old, recalls an imme­di­ate attrac­tion to the 17-year-old blonde.

“There was def­i­nitely a lot of flirt­ing dur­ing the photo shoot,” said Bovee. “I liked her from the start.”

However, Stevie does not recall sparks so quickly in their relationship.

“He was just such a goofy guy,” said Stevie. “But he was really nice and a gentleman.”

After Greg, who lived in Henderson Hall, dis­cov­ered that their photo had been pub­lished in the Torch, he looked for Stevie, Lima, Ohio native and Bond Hall res­i­dent. The two were insep­a­ra­ble from then on.

“I looked out the win­dow and watched her walk away,” said Greg to his room­mate. “And I said to him, ‘I’m going to marry that girl.’”

The love­birds had their first date at the A&W just after the issue came out and had their first kiss near the Riverwalk. Students from 72–77, Greg and Stevie mar­ried only a year later when they were sopho­mores and lived in the mar­ried hous­ing on west campus.

“He pro­posed Feb. 14 in Henderson Hall in his room,” said Stevie “He sold his hunt­ing rifle to buy me a ring.”

They both say that they knew that there was some­thing spe­cial between them. They were mar­ried on Nov. 24, 1973. Stevie grad­u­ated a year before Greg, and waited while he fin­ished the phar­macy pro­gram in 1977. Although their sched­ules were very intense, they never felt that had made a mis­take. n

The two moved to Lansing, Mich. after Greg’s grad­u­a­tion where they both worked at Greg’s fam­ily phar­macy Westside Drug. They later bought the phar­macy, chang­ing the name to Westside Pharmacy. Although the two are retired and have sold Westside Pharmacy, Greg still works part-time at the Westside Pharmacy. They have two daugh­ters, Angie Riley, 31, and Brooke Bovee, 28, and three grandchildren.

Although the cou­ple was young, they still have advice for lovebirds.

“Take your time, because school is still very impor­tant.” said the Bovees.

Kanye West may be many things, but dumb is not one of them, which is why he is such a mean guy

Kanye West is one of today’s musi­cal geniuses.

The for­mer hip-hop pro­ducer turned multi-platinum artist has influ­enced and col­lab­o­rated with artists Fall out Boy, Jamie Foxx, Jay-Z, Sting, John Mayer, and Janet Jackson. The Chicago native even has time to open a restau­rant chain, Fatburger, and cre­ate a cloth­ing line called Pastelle. He even brought back tacky male 80s fashions.

Even though West is a super tal­ented and eclec­tic guy, he is also a huge jerk. Most peo­ple would agree that Kanye is a bit on the mean-spirited side; how­ever, I think there is a method to his meanness.

Everyone knows about the Taylor Swift inci­dent dur­ing the 2009 MTV’s Video Music Awards (VMAs). But in case you missed it, West abruptly inter­rupted the coun­try starlet’s accep­tance speech for best female video award by tak­ing the micro­phone out of her hands mid-speech. He then said that Beyonce had a much bet­ter video and deserved to win. West left the stage as quickly as he came, leav­ing the teary-eyed Swift in shambles.

Even though I am a fan of Kanye’s work, and it was kind of funny that he would be that bold, he was really wrong for doing that. Swift deserved her award and Beyonce already has many under her belt. The truth is, West prob­a­bly does not care about either artist in the best female cat­e­gory; all he really wanted was the atten­tion. After all, he did not win any awards that night. West promptly appeared on the Jay Leno show the fol­low­ing night, not Beyonce or Swift. Very sneaky, Mr. West.

Another occur­rence of Kanye’s mean streak was when he called President George W. Bush a racist by spout­ing the ever famous, “ Bush does not care about black peo­ple,” while stand­ing along­side Mike Meyers for a 2005 Hurricane Katrina benefit.

I have to agree with West, that Bush’s poor han­dling and the Bush family’s lack of inter­est in help­ing the bulk of the vic­tims, who were poor minori­ties, was wrong. However, I would not have been bold enough to say it out loud on live tele­vi­sion stand­ing next to Austin Powers.

Sure, the Bush admin­is­tra­tion could have han­dled the Katrina aid bet­ter, but as unpre­dictable as the storm’s dam­age was, so was the huge amount of the aid resources actu­ally needed.

After that inci­dent, Kanye’s album Late Registration cat­a­pulted to dou­ble plat­inum suc­cess, won West a Grammy and added a few mil­lion more Google searches to his fame. Regardless of whether West really thinks that W is a racist, the desired effect came to fruition as all eyes were on Kanye.

Oddly enough, West is a huge phil­an­thropist and an advo­cate for gay rights. In 2005 dur­ing an MTV spe­cial appro­pri­ately titled “All Eyes on Kanye West,” he pro­fessed that he has a gay cousin whom he loves and that rap­pers should reduce their dis­crim­i­na­tion against gays. He also likened the civil rights strug­gles to gay rights. West also opened the Kanye West Foundation in 2003, which aids strug­gling African-American and Latino grade school chil­dren in Chicago.

Many peo­ple think that Kanye West is a racist, a chau­vin­ist, and a down­right arro­gant twit. My pick: Kanye West is an arro­gant twit; how­ever, he is not a dumb man. He is painfully aware of how to screw with people’s minds and metic­u­lously shift the atten­tion to him­self. Even though he leaves many angry peo­ple and bruised egos in his wake, piss­ing peo­ple off is the best way to get atten­tion. After all, there is no such thing as bad press.

Students plan to erect a wall of hate in the quad in order to smash it to bridge the gaps of diver­sity on campus

The stu­dents of Brophy & McNerney Halls want to do more than reduce hate­ful words on cam­pus; they want to tear them down.

The Writing’s on the Wall project con­structs a real wall for the com­mu­nity to write racial slurs and other dis­crim­i­na­tory terms. The wall is then torn down to sym­bol­ize that the com­mu­nity will no longer tol­er­ate oppres­sion and hate.

Project enforcers Bryan Lochan, biol­ogy and optom­e­try major, and Cristina Daniel, mar­ket­ing major, are cur­rently recruit­ing stu­dents to prime the con­crete bricks for the six by twelve foot wall. Students, fac­ulty, and the Big Rapids com­mu­nity are free to write a deroga­tory term on the wall Oct. 5 to Oct. 7 from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. The wall will be fin­ished by Oct. 17 and unveiled in the quad the next day.

The two res­i­dent advi­sors (RA) par­tic­i­pated in a smaller scale wall project dur­ing RA train­ing. The impact of that expe­ri­ence and the lack of cam­pus diver­sity prompted them to expand their expe­ri­ence into a campus-wide event.

“Diversity isn’t just a racial issue, but issues of gen­der, sex­ual ori­en­ta­tion, and cul­tural dif­fer­ences,” said Daniel. “There is a need for diver­sity aware­ness on many levels.”

The wall was post­poned for a year because of the University Physical Plant’s con­cerns about injuries. However, after review­ing other cam­pus walls across the coun­try, includ­ing the University of Kansas, the University of Tennessee at Martin, Ohio State University, University of Utah. At the per­sis­tence of Lochan and Daniel, the project is finally hap­pen­ing here at Ferris.

The National Organization for Woman, International Student Organization, Asian Student Organization, Student Government and The National Resident Hall Honorary are also assist­ing with the con­struc­tion and demo­li­tion of the wall.

Although Daniel and Lochan have appre­hen­sions about the project, both feel the expe­ri­ence will help impact the Ferris community.

“We don’t know what’s going to hap­pen with the wall,” said Lochan. “But that’s the best part of this expe­ri­ence and adds to the event.”

Lochan, who hopes that the wall will become an annual cam­pus event, believes that whether the reac­tions are good or bad, peo­ple will learn from each other and have the oppor­tu­nity to voice their opinions.

Some of the stu­dents involved with the project have wit­nessed oppres­sion on cam­pus and hope to change people’s minds. Talaya Gordon, pre-criminal jus­tice fresh­man and Brophy res­i­dent, said she has wit­nessed dis­abled peo­ple need­ing assis­tance on cam­pus and no one helps. Gordon is also one of the few women in her pro­gram and feels that male per­spec­tives out­num­ber those of females. Even though Gordon is in the minor­ity, she feels that stereo­types go both ways.

“It’s not a woman, white peo­ple, or gay thing,” said Gordon. “It’s a peo­ple thing.”

Krystal Whitely, crim­i­nal jus­tice major and McNerney res­i­dent assist­ing with prim­ing bricks, does not think that the FSU cam­pus is seg­re­gated; how­ever, she does not like the use of slurs and wants peo­ple to see the impact of the words.

Corey Potter, psy­chol­ogy and foren­sic biol­ogy major, also works on the Brophy/ McNerney staff and par­tic­i­pated as a medi­a­tor dur­ing small groups test­ing for the wall project.

“I didn’t think it would have a big impact but it does, and peo­ple were both­ered by these words,” said Potter. “People don’t believe how pow­er­ful words are until they say and see them all at once.”

Transfer stu­dents also think that the peo­ple on cam­pus are not lack­ing in diver­sity because of hate but, rather an inabil­ity to step out­side of their own cliques

The two-sided wall will be destroyed Oct. 22 in the quad with a dis­cus­sion in the Rankin Dome after­wards. “Everyone’s a minor­ity at some point in their life,” said Lochan.

The pos­si­bil­ity of a skate park in Big Rapids is still rolling.

After sev­eral city com­mis­sion meet­ings and plans with the City of Big Rapids’ Recreation Department, moth­ers Cyndi Burnett and Laura Hinkle plan to begin fundrais­ing for the city’s first skate park.

The City of Big Rapids, local busi­ness own­ers, and skaters stand behind the idea that started one year ago. Burnett and Hinkle devised skate park plans after their teenage sons Dan Burnett, 14 and Tyler Hinkle, 13, were repeat­edly stopped by city and Ferris State University police for skate boarding.

Skate board­ers, along with BMX bik­ers, are pro­hib­ited from rid­ing on the city side­walks, parks, and the FSU cam­pus, which has had a ban on skate board­ing since 1991.

“Big Rapids has tons of skate board­ers with no out­let for fun,” said Burnett. “These kids need a legit­i­mate place to go with­out get­ting into trouble.”

The Skate Park is esti­mated to cost between $150,000 to $200,000 for con­struc­tion, equip­ment, and labor. Although the city has donated land for this project, the eco­nomic reces­sion hin­ders the city in pro­vid­ing funds for the Skate Park project.

Burnett and Hinkle plan to have sev­eral fundrais­ers, includ­ing a coupon book to be sold in the next com­ing weeks.

“We hope to raise $50,000 on our own so we get more finan­cial sup­port”, said Hinkle. “If we can get more com­mu­nity sup­port, we can begin the grant process.”

Jill Buse, city recre­ation direc­tor, will be set­ting a fundrais­ing account for the project dur­ing the first week of October.

The Tony Hawk Foundation (THF), which pro­vides up to $25,000 of grant money for pub­lic skate parks for low-income areas, is one of the grants the moth­ers are con­sid­er­ing. As of August 2009, THF has 450 grant pro­pos­als, so it is urgent that the Big Rapids Skate Park receives com­mu­nity involve­ment. The moth­ers want to encour­age res­i­dents, stu­dents, and local busi­ness own­ers to donate funds, time, and labor for this project.

The American Ramp Company (ARC) is the pri­mary com­pany the moth­ers plan to use for blue­print designs and equip­ment. ARC, which has been cre­at­ing skate parks world­wide for 20 years, has sev­eral prod­ucts that pro­vide pro­fes­sional and durable skate park equip­ment and designs. Although Burnett and Hinkle are unsure what the park size and equip­ment will be, they are sure that the park will be multi-functional for BMX bik­ers and roller bladers.

The Skate Park is expected to be located near the River Walk on River Street, but loca­tion plans are not yet con­firmed. The park plans to oper­ate like other local parks and will be closed at night.

For more infor­ma­tion about the Skate Park or dona­tions, con­tact Cyndi Burnett or Laura Hinkle at brskatepark@yahoo.com.

The iconic and suc­cess­ful HBO series Sex and the City (SATC) changed the way women approach life, love and fashion.

Like most women, I am a huge fan and con­stantly try to choose among my friends which one of us is Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte, or Miranda. It’s fun to go out with your girl­friends and talk about men and sex, and after the show ended, guys knew that we talked like them too.

Although SATC is an awe­some show and rev­o­lu­tion­ized people’s atti­tudes about love and sex, the show is like that girl­friend who gives really, really, really bad advice about relationships.

Every per­son has a friend that gives bad advice about love. Not because they want to, but because they don’t know any bet­ter. This per­son is the friend who tells you that a guy is going to call you even though it’s been three months. This per­son is also the friend that tells you that kiss­ing is not cheat­ing. This friend is also deluded enough to tell you to re-date a com­plete idiot or jerk because he or she is just play­ing hard to get.

I know I sound like a hyp­ocrite but I am still real­is­tic enough to real­ize the major­ity of sex­ual escapades and rela­tion­ships in that show are com­pletely fac­tious. Unfortunately, most women will con­tinue to believe SATC has all the answers to their lack lus­ter love lives, dat­ing ruts, and end­less ideas that women can change men.

For exam­ple, the series hero­ine, Carrie Bradshaw has a tor­rid on/off romance with Mr. Big. There’s noth­ing uncom­mon about this how­ever, here’s where it gets tricky. Carrie and Big’s rela­tion­ship lasted for ten years. During this time, Big gets mar­ried to a young model whom he cheats on with Carrie. Carrie gets in engaged to Adian and breaks up with him twice and then she even­tu­ally runs off to Paris with a Russian artist. Like most cheesy loves sto­ries, Big fol­lows her to Paris and brings her back home to the Big Apple.

In the fea­ture film Carrie and Big plan to move in together and wed. However, Big gets cold feet on their wed­ding day and stands her up at the altar. After months of being apart (for obvi­ous rea­sons) they ran­domly see each other in the apart­ment he bought for them and while dis­re­gard­ing logic fall into each other’s arms and get mar­ried at the cour­t­house. The moral of the story is: if you wait half your life, the man of your dreams will even­tu­ally come around.

Even though I enjoyed every minute of the Carrie and Big saga, this is the most ridicu­lous story I’ve ever heard. In real life, this romance would have been over in six months, two years max. Most peo­ple would agree that no one is worth all that work.

Another exam­ple of really bad advice is Miranda, the red­headed cyn­i­cal Harvard lawyer love story. Miranda has a one night stand with Steve, a bar­tender. Like Carrie and Big, the two have an on/off rela­tion­ship. During their third go round, Miranda gets knocked up with Steve’s baby. The two even­tu­ally get mar­ried and live some­what hap­pily ever after until Steve cheats on her in the movie. After ther­apy they get back together. The moral of this story is: It’s okay to date and marry beneath social sta­tus and never mind adul­tery, when love is involved.

This story is a load of crap. Not only is Miranda dat­ing under her caste, but also she allows her cheat­ing hus­band to return to her with com­plete for­give­ness. I have three syl­la­bles for that: Bo-lo-gna!

The truth is, women can­not change men and wait­ing for a man to change will take an eter­nity. Woman should lis­ten to their instincts more often when it comes to men and not a tele­vi­sion show that seems to have all the answer. Fairy tales do come true, how­ever women need to weigh the pros and cons and deter­mine if their happy end­ing is really worth the fuss. SATC is fic­tion, not a ver­sion of the truth.

Officer Jesse, beloved patrol horse for the Department of Public Safety (DPS), died Sept. 14, 2009 after suf­fer­ing a stroke.

Jesse, who was owned by Officer Erik Little, became ill in Feb. 2009 with an unknown dis­ease that caused intesti­nal dam­age. The 1,600-pound Percheron and Quarter-Draft horse lost 600 pounds dur­ing his illness.

With sev­eral months of med­ica­tions to heal the wounds to his intestines, Jesse regained a weight of 1,360 pounds, but had lost much of his mus­cle mass.

Although Jesse recov­ered in July and patrolled the rest of the sum­mer, he fell on Maple St. while Officer Little was rid­ing him a week before his death. Jesse and Officer Little sus­tained only minor injuries from the fall.

Before his fall, both Jesse and Officer Little had worked 81 hours in an eight-day period in 80-degree weather.

“Jesse had a long, hard week,” said Little. “The vet­eri­nar­ian believed the fall was one of many strokes Jesse endured before his death.”

Jesse became colic, a symp­tom of diges­tive issues, and exhib­ited neu­ro­log­i­cal dam­age and loss of bal­ance the morn­ing of his death. Jesse, 14 years old and in the prime of his life, was put down after sev­eral hours.

During his ill­ness, the city of Big Rapids accu­mu­lated $4000 for med­ical and gen­eral care fees. Carleen Rose, from the Old Pioneer Store and Emporium, headed the Jesse fund.

Jesse became a patrol horse in 2005, although Officer Little had intro­duced the idea to DPS in 1999. When gaso­line prices increased to $3.00 a gal­lon, DPS revis­ited the idea of a horse patrol.

“Jesse was an instant hit with every­one,” said Officer Little. “He was a good, strong horse who craved peo­ples’ attention.”

According to Little, Jesse saved DPS $58 per day for each patrol car. Horse patrol was more effi­cient for lower speed streets because the horse patrol­man was not bound by traf­fic rules.

“Routine traf­fic in a car would usu­ally take 8–10 min­utes,” said Little. “With Jesse, it only took 4–6 minutes.”

Little also said he could do more police work in two hours than most cops could do in an entire day in a patrol car.

Although Jesse is gone, Officer Little is train­ing another Draft-cross horse. Midnight’s Gentlemen Bob, or Bob for short, is expected to be ready for patrol in 2010.

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.

FSU has banned skate­boards for 18 years, but stu­dents still skate at their own risk

“It’s ridicu­lous a ban has been set for skate­boards,” said Ian Smith, graphic design major and skate­boarder, about the skate­board ban on Ferris State University’s campus.

Skateboards, along with roller blades, roller skates, coast­ers, and scoot­ers, have been banned from the FSU cam­pus since 1991. The ordi­nance, which is listed in the stu­dent Traffic, Pedestrian, and Parking ordi­nance handb­bok, was placed to keep pedis­tri­ans safe. Captain Jim Cook, assis­tant direc­tor for Department of Public Safety (DPS), is cur­rently rewrit­ing the ordi­nances to com­ply with new state laws con­cern­ing traf­fic code.

“We’re not out to get skate­board­ers,” said Cook. “We’re just try­ing to keep every­one safe.”

The board of trustees will review the new ori­danace and con­tinue the skate­board ban. Cook is unsure when the rewrite and review will be com­plete, or if the new ordi­nance will include roller blades. Although bikes can be equally dan­ger­ous, bikes are not included in the ordi­nance because they have breaks.

The bas­ket­ball courts between Bond and Cramer halls and the West cam­pus apart­ment area are the only des­ig­nated loca­tions skate­board­ers can travel with­out con­se­quence. Skateboarders are not typ­i­cally fined for their first offense; how­ever, per­sons caught repeat­edly dis­obey­ing the ordi­nance will be tick­eted. The fine amounts vary depend­ing upon the sev­ere­ity of their actions.

In addi­tion to pedes­trian safety, skate­board­ers per­form­ing tricks or “grind­ing” can cause dam­age to uni­ver­sity prop­erty. Although skate­board­ers can causes dam­age to prop­erty, Smith feels that the stu­dents pay enough in tution to cover the cost and should be allowed to skateboard.

Legal actions are another con­cern for the uni­ver­sity. If a stu­dent was injured on cam­pus, the stu­dent could sue the insti­tu­tion. Smith also feels this argu­ment is absurd.

“We assume all risks and respon­si­bil­i­ties for our actions when we skate,” said Smith. “If we get hurt, it’s our own fault.”

Although some skaters are out­raged, oth­ers find the ordi­nance reasonable.

“I under­stand the safety issue,” said Kevin Pulaski, pre-pharmacy major. “But it’s a tough call when so many peo­ple use skate­boards as transportation.”

The University of Michigan and Michigan State University also placed skate­board bans on cam­pus in 1991. U of M still fines skaters $25, who accord­ing to offi­cials dur­ing 1991, caused nearly $105,000 of dam­age annu­ally. Unlike U of M, FSU prefers to edu­cate skaters on the dan­gers instead of pun­ish­ing them.

“We talk to skaters and advise them of the ordi­nance,” said Cook. “We try to get them to tell each other about the ordinance.”

DPS is not plan­ning to increase enforce­ment against the ban on skateboards.

Skaters are not the only stu­dents con­cerned with the ordi­nance, many non-skaters do not view the ordi­nance as necessary.

“I don’t mind the skate­board­ers,” said Kyle Strickland, phar­macy major. “I could get just as hurt if a bike hit me.”

Eric Andrews, mechan­i­cal engi­neer­ing major and Kappa Alpha Phi fra­ter­nity mem­ber, agrees that skaters are harm­less and should be allowed to skate.

“If skate­board­ing is what they like to do, that’s what they like to do,” said Andrews. “They’re not hurt­ing any one.”