Author Archive

No More Increases, Please

President Obama plans to relieve doubling interest rates

by Published: Feb 1, 2012

President Obama announced in his State of the Union Address he will pro­pose mea­sures to bring relief to almost eight mil­lion stu­dents who will soon see their stu­dent loan inter­est rates dou­ble on new loans.

I want to thank President Obama for tak­ing the wel­fare of col­lege stu­dents into con­sid­er­a­tion. As has been said, col­lege is freakin’ expen­sive. In some cases, stu­dents give an arm and a leg to pay for school. (more…)

 
 

Proper Procedures

FSU Department of Public Safety explains what steps are taken in emergency situations

by Published: Jan 25, 2012

The Ferris State University Department of Public Safety explained to the Torch what the pro­ce­dures and pro­to­col are for a non-specific bomb threat after one was left on a voice­mail in the Business Office at the Timme Center two weeks ago.

Martin Bledsoe, direc­tor of pub­lic safety, said there is an emer­gency response and dis­as­ter con­trol plan. (more…)

 
 

Words @ War: Should Class Have Been Cancelled Due to the Bomb Threat?

The way bomb threat situation was handled was irresponsible

by Published: Jan 19, 2012

When I first heard there was a bomb threat, I was wait­ing to receive a text mes­sage from Ferris’ text mes­sage emer­gency alert system.

I waited for it, and waited. Finally, at 12:12 p.m., the text mes­sage came through warn­ing stu­dents of the threat. But wait, wasn’t the voice­mail left around 8 a.m.? The fact that I received the text mes­sage more than four hours later con­cerns me. (more…)

 
 

Clueless Contenders

The presidential candidates are not fit to run this country

by Published: Jan 18, 2012

If you’ve been fol­low­ing the race to the pres­i­dency, you may have noticed the obvi­ous flaws of the poten­tial candidates.

For exam­ple, one of the run­ners, Mitt Romney, the for­mer gov­er­nor of Massachusetts, came under fire recently for an inci­dent that occurred back in the 1980s when Romney tied his dog in a ken­nel to the roof of his car and drove to Canada, accord­ing to an arti­cle from Reuters. (more…)

 
 

Torch News Briefs January 18, 2012

by Published: Jan 18, 2012

Enrollment increase for spring 2012 semes­ter

Ferris State University offi­cials are report­ing an increase in enroll­ment for the spring 2012 semester.

Ferris’ stu­dent pop­u­la­tion is up by 162 stu­dents from the spring 2011 semes­ter to 13,705 stu­dents, which is a one per­cent increase. According to a press release from University News, the area that expe­ri­enced a major­ity of growth between the spring semes­ters is in online edu­ca­tion, where the num­ber of stu­dents has increased from 147 to a total of 789 for spring 2012. (more…)

 
 
Professor Experience: Ferris manufacturing engineering techology professor Bruce Gregory (far right) traveled to Kuito, Angola, Africa. Gregory helped to train local men on how to drill water wells. Photo Courtesy of Bruce Gregory

A Lesson in Disguise

Ferris professor Bruce Gregory shares his story about an eye-opening trip in Africa

by Published: Jan 12, 2012

Professor Experience: Ferris man­u­fac­tur­ing engi­neer­ing techol­ogy pro­fes­sor Bruce Gregory (far right) trav­eled to Kuito, Angola, Africa. Gregory helped to train local men on how to drill water wells. Photo Courtesy of Bruce Gregory

When Ferris man­u­fac­tur­ing engi­neer­ing tech­nol­ogy pro­fes­sor Bruce Gregory was in Africa dur­ing the sum­mer of 2006, he saw some­thing he described as “remarkable.”

Gregory and his son, Karl, went on a trip to Kuito, Angola, Africa to train six men on how to drill water wells. Prior to tak­ing the trip, Gregory said his pas­tor had taken a cou­ple of well drillers over to Africa to train the men. The pas­tor became ill and could not go, so Gregory and his son vol­un­teered. (more…)

 
 

No Coverage

Having no health insurance is a true pain

by Published: Dec 9, 2011

Like mil­lions of Americans, I no longer have any type of health insur­ance. I found this out when I had to pay for some pre­scrip­tions out of pocket.

One pre­scrip­tion cost over $300, which I was not able to afford. Another one cost $30 that I had to pay for out of pocket. I was not pleased when I dis­cov­ered this. (more…)

 
 

Torch News Briefs December 7, 2011

by Published: Dec 7, 2011

No Torch next week

Due to next week being finals week and Holiday Break com­ing up, there will not be an issue of the Torch pub­lished. The next issue will be avail­able on Jan. 11. (more…)

 
 

The Big Gap for Students

Why income matters and how it affects us as college students

by Published: Dec 1, 2011

College is a priv­i­lege all of us are lucky to expe­ri­ence, but as the gap between the rich and poor widens, the more dif­fi­cult it becomes to graduate.

I am in my third year of col­lege and in the time I’ve been here, I’ve paid for col­lege by myself and with help from finan­cial aid. (more…)

 
 

Torch News Briefs

by Published: Dec 1, 2011

FSU American Marketing Association places first in donor aware­ness move­ment

Ferris’ American Marketing Association (AMA) is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the national organ donor aware­ness move­ment, AMASavesLives.

Ferris’ AMA chap­ter placed first among chap­ters in new donor reg­is­tra­tion and third in social media posts in a com­pe­ti­tion. The aware­ness move­ment requires par­tic­i­pat­ing chap­ters to uti­lize var­i­ous social media out­lets and cre­ate online videos to raise aware­ness about organ dona­tion. (more…)