Gaming is an activ­ity that plenty of stu­dents at Ferris par­take in.

In fact, Ferris offers a dig­i­tal ani­ma­tion and game design major at its Grand Rapids cam­pus as a part of the School of Digital Arts in which stu­dents get to develop a game hands-on as a part of their junior project.

A cur­rent team of stu­dents is work­ing on Timberwood, an upcom­ing adven­ture game for mobile devices. Plain Concepts, a Spain-based com­pany, is devel­op­ing the game. (more…)

Recently, the U.S. News and World Report ranked Ferris State University’s online mas­ters of nurs­ing pro­gram the num­ber one pro­gram of its sort in the nation. This is cer­tainly good news for all those who have worked to make this pro­gram great and for all the stu­dents who are cur­rently enrolled in it.

Behind Ferris ranked Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas in sec­ond place and University of Michigan-Flint tak­ing third place. Other Michigan uni­ver­si­ties included Michigan State University which ranked 43rd. (more…)

Martin Luther King Jr. is a man who, upon see­ing injus­tice in the world, took a stand while refus­ing to resort to vio­lence. He was a man who was more than mere inten­tions; he was one who brought actual change to the world.

For over two decades, Ferris State University has been com­mem­o­rat­ing Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy. The tra­di­tion con­tin­ues Jan. 21 — 23 with the “We Are” cel­e­bra­tion in which a vari­ety of events will be under­taken across cam­pus to honor and remem­ber Martin Luther King Jr.

“I enjoy the Freedom March because it is sym­bolic of the marches that occurred dur­ing the civil rights move­ment,” Vice President for Diversity and Inclusion David Pilgrim said. “It hon­ors the peo­ple who were beaten and jailed because they marched for basic rights—for exam­ple, the right to vote or use pub­lic trans­porta­tion. When we march, we sym­bol­i­cally relive their struggle—a strug­gle that ben­e­fits us today.” (more…)

Student Government is one of the many orga­ni­za­tions on cam­pus in which stu­dents are encour­aged to take an active role.

The mis­sion of Student Government is “to rep­re­sent stu­dent inter­ests in all aspects of cam­pus life as well as main­tain open chan­nels of com­mu­ni­ca­tion between stu­dents, fac­ulty, staff, admin­is­tra­tion and the Big Rapids community.”

There are many dif­fer­ent ways for stu­dents to become rep­re­sen­ta­tives includ­ing through their col­lege, reg­is­tered stu­dent orga­ni­za­tion (RSO) or fraternity/sorority. (more…)

In 1969, Neil Armstrong walked on the moon, and Dr. Daniel Burcham was hired by Ferris as an English professor.

In the years that fol­lowed, NASA has con­tin­ued its con­quest of the last fron­tier, and Burcham served as vice pres­i­dent of stu­dent affairs. After a 43-year career, Burcham announed his retire­ment effec­tive March 31, 2013.

During his time at Ferris, Burcham served in a vari­ety of posi­tions includ­ing devel­op­men­tal edu­ca­tion depart­ment head, asso­ciate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, dean of enroll­ment ser­vices and act­ing provost. (more…)

Hunting has to be one of the old­est activ­i­ties in which mankind has par­taken. For mil­lions of years man has relied upon this tra­di­tion for sur­vival pur­pose and it con­tin­ues to thrive to this very day. Michigan is cer­tainly no stranger to hunters and many stu­dents here are very excited to get back out into the wilder­ness and hunt once more.

Students should, of course, make sure to stay safe while hunt­ing. Hunters are advised to remem­ber the “Ten Commandments of Firearm Safety” and wear their orange. There were 12 hunt­ing acci­dents in 2011, 5 of which were fatal.

While weapons are not per­mit­ted on cam­pus, stu­dents are allowed to reg­is­ter and store them with the Department of Public Safety dur­ing hunt­ing sea­son how­ever. (more…)

Most of us are aware of how the cloth­ing we choose to wear sends a mes­sage to oth­ers. Be it friends, strangers, teach­ers or poten­tial employ­ers, how we choose to dress has quite an impact.

This is why pro­fes­sional attire is so cru­cial in send­ing the cor­rect mes­sage to poten­tial employ­ers in a job inter­view. Being well dressed shows that you are con­fi­dent and capa­ble, some­one who an employer wants to hire.

Of course, we don’t all have a mas­sive wardrobe full of pro­fes­sional cloth­ing ‚and stock­ing up on this is eas­ier said than done. One will quickly dis­cover these clothes tend to get rather pricy pretty quickly. Stores such as Goodwill are cer­tainly less expen­sive, but there is no guar­an­tee they’ll have what you need in stock. In response to this prob­lem which many stu­dents may face, the First Lady’s Attic was put together. (more…)

The Office of Student Conduct. The very title may send shiv­ers down the spines of some stu­dents. What is this Office of Student Conduct and what can stu­dents expect if sent there?

The Ferris web­site con­tains the mis­sion state­ment: “The mis­sion of the Office of Student Conduct is to edu­cate stu­dents about their rights and respon­si­bil­i­ties as com­mu­nity mem­bers, help stu­dents under­stand the bal­ance between indi­vid­ual and com­mu­nity rights, and help main­tain a com­mu­nity atmos­phere con­ducive to aca­d­e­mic suc­cess.” (more…)

Tim Skubick, host of “Off the Record” and con­trib­u­tor to mlive​.com, recently came to Ferris to speak to stu­dents about issues sur­round­ing the November elec­tion in a man­ner that was lively, humor­ous and informative.

After a brief intro­duc­tion by President David Eisler, Skubick went on to give his speech.

He began by try­ing to dis­cern the mem­bers of the audi­ence who had already made their deci­sion regard­ing the November elec­tion and those who were still con­sid­er­ing their options. Of course, the vast major­ity of the audi­ence had already decided who they were sup­port­ing in the upcom­ing elec­tion. (more…)

Recently, four dif­fer­ent pro­fes­sors at Ferris were awarded fac­ulty research fel­low­ships from the Office of Academic Research. These research fel­low­ships are designed to allow pro­fes­sors to remain able to inter­act with their stu­dents and class­rooms while still being able to devote time into aca­d­e­mic research.

These research fel­low­ships are awarded to pro­fes­sors of dif­fer­ent aca­d­e­mic pur­suits includ­ing math­e­mat­ics, phi­los­o­phy, chem­istry and art history.

“The breadth of pro­grams avail­able at Ferris has brought fac­ulty here from a wide range of dis­ci­plines and research areas,” said Director of Academic Research and Grants Karen Strasser. (more…)