The Circle K International orga­ni­za­tion is putting on a hair drive around the Big Rapids area to give back to the community.

For 11 years, this “hair har­vest” has been tak­ing place at nearly 20 salons in the sur­round­ing area. The Circle K International orga­ni­za­tion chose to start an annual hair drive to help chil­dren with med­ical con­di­tions, or treat­ments, who are suf­fer­ing from hair loss. (more…)

Throughout the past six months there have been numer­ous changes in the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning.

Last sum­mer, the cen­ter moved to the fourth floor of FLITE and added two Faculty-in-Residence team mem­bers, as well as two Instructional Technologists. (more…)

At the entrance to cam­pus sits a sign indi­cat­ing that Ferris is a storm-ready cam­pus rec­og­nized by the National Weather Service. The web­site for the National Weather Service describes a “storm-ready” insti­tu­tion as one which “uses a grass­roots approach to help com­mu­ni­ties develop plans to han­dle all types of severe weather.” (more…)

MIP at Miller

Jan. 22 at 12:45 a.m., offi­cers assisted hall staff at Miller Hall con­cern­ing loud sub­jects. Four peo­ple were tick­eted for MIP.

Marijuana com­plaint

Jan. 22 at 3:10 a.m., offi­cers assisted hall staff at Hallisy Hall for a mar­i­juana com­plaint. Two sub­jects were tick­eted MIP. (more…)

Renee Douglas named Interim Director of Birkam Health Center

Renee Douglas, Interim Director of the Personal Counseling Center, was named as the Interim Director of the Birkam Health Center.

Douglas was the Director of Non-Residential Clinical Services at the YWCA Center for Women in Grand Rapids prior to com­ing to Ferris. Before that, she was the Public Affairs Director at Planned Parenthood Centers of West Michigan. (more…)

Festival of the Arts

Festival of the Arts is set to begin its fifth year next week with numer­ous activ­i­ties tak­ing place in down­town Big Rapids.

On Monday, Jan. 30 at 6 p.m., Artworks will host the festival’s kick­off event, which is free and open to the pub­lic, cater­ing is pro­vided by the Blue Cow Café and Great Lakes Office Products. The month-long event holds work­shops and per­for­mances that fea­ture local cre­ative tal­ent in addi­tion to vis­its by regional and national artists and inno­va­tors. (more…)

Sean Duchaine
Senior, biology

“I back the can­di­dates and ideas which have the most com­mon sense. I have some feel­ings that sway demo­c­ra­tic and some that are more repub­li­can, but over­all I’d con­sider myself more of a lib­er­tar­ian because of their free-market ideas, empha­sis on civil lib­er­ties and non-intervention over­seas. I think we need to end the Federal Reserve, con­trol the mil­i­tary indus­trial com­plex, legal­ize mar­i­juana and research into more health ben­e­fits of mar­i­juana. Ultimately, we need a smaller and more constitution-oriented gov­ern­ment.” (more…)

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…)

According to uni­ver­sity offi­cials, Ferris’ stu­dent pop­u­la­tion has increased by 162 stu­dents since the spring 2011 semes­ter, mak­ing the cur­rent pop­u­la­tion 13,705 students.

Dean of Enrollment Services Kristen Salomonson explained that the major­ity of growth between the spring semes­ters is in online edu­ca­tion, where that num­ber of stu­dents has increased by 147, mak­ing a total of 789 stu­dents for spring 2012. (more…)