A Yahoo colum­nist recently posted the top five use­less col­lege degrees, includ­ing agri­cul­ture, fash­ion design, the­atre, hor­ti­cul­ture and ani­mal science.

Intrigued with this arti­cle I decided to Google “use­less col­lege degrees.” I was sur­prised to see jour­nal­ism as num­ber one, which doesn’t bode well for the author of this arti­cle. Well, isn’t the arti­cle being posted about use­less col­lege degrees con­sid­ered “jour­nal­ism?” (more…)

One of my favorite things about liv­ing in America is our free­dom to openly express our­selves through many dif­fer­ent mediums.

I love that Americans can protest poli­cies, write to our sen­a­tors, wor­ship our own gods, dis­agree, debate and dis­cuss. This incred­i­ble free­dom we have was really brought to my atten­tion recently through all the dis­cus­sion of the SOPA and PIPA bills. Through tools such as the news­pa­per, Internet and tele­vi­sion, it has never been eas­ier to broad­cast one’s ideas to a wide audi­ence. (more…)

Tim Tebow.

With this name I feel many are divided. You have the devoted fans–those who think the Broncos quar­ter­back is really pulling some­thing off–and you have the haters who think he’s garbage. I can respect those who don’t like Tebow as a quar­ter­back. As sports fans, we are enti­tled to our opin­ions about each player’s per­for­mance and con­sis­tency. The player is fair game. But for those who don’t like Tim Tebow as a per­son, I have to ask what their idea of a like­able or good per­son is. (more…)

Dear Editor,

I feel the need to set the record straight your arti­cle in the January 11th issue about the Mecosta County Animal Shelter. I have vol­un­teered at the shel­ter for two years and am won­der­ing where this notion of a “grim future” is com­ing from. Granted, the shel­ter does not have the capac­ity to accept cats, and that is a def­i­nite short­com­ing. However, the dogs taken in by the shel­ter receive food, fresh water, fresh air, some­one look­ing after their health, and a clean blan­ket to sleep on every day. (more…)

It’s been another year since she has been gone. In fact, it’s been at least four or five years since a for­mer stu­dent in my high school passed away.

It is weird to think about because many of my friends still post com­ments on her Facebook page after she died. (more…)

Any Ferris State University stu­dent watch­ing the news can see a large amount of polit­i­cal cov­er­age and social action.

From web­site blocks and occupy move­ments to another pres­i­den­tial elec­tion, we are wit­ness­ing a promi­nent power-struggle between every­day peo­ple and gov­ern­ment. Controversial bills such as the Stop Online Piracy Act seem to have Americans fear­ful of a poten­tial George Orwell “1984” future soci­ety. (more…)

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…)

A deci­sion to can­cel classes at Ferris State University dur­ing the recent bomb threat would have been an inap­pro­pri­ate method of ensur­ing cam­pus security.

Shortly after being informed of the bomb threat via phone mes­sage at the Timme Center for Student Services’ Business Office, pub­lic safety offi­cials began inves­ti­gat­ing cam­pus build­ings. After a com­plete inves­ti­ga­tion of cam­pus build­ings, uni­ver­sity offi­cials did not find any evi­dence of explo­sives nor did they receive any more com­mu­ni­ca­tion regard­ing the bomb threat. (more…)