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cm-life.com
Monday, Oct. 1, 2012
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Affordability remains an issue in higher ed.
club hockey team dealt five-year suspension
By Annie Harrison Senior Reporter
By Justin Hicks Sports editor
Editor’s note: This is the fourth story in a series regarding higher education.
The Central Michigan club hockey team received a five-year suspension Friday for violating the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities and Disciplinary Procedures, according to the Office of Student Life. The team was charged with a violation of section 3.2.13 (alcohol policy), section 3.2.19 (hazing) and section 3.2.25 (violations by a registered student organization), Tom Idema, assistant director of Student Life said. “There was a hearing this morning, and the men’s club hockey team at CMU was found in violation of all charges,” Idema said. “As a result, (the team) has been suspended for five years, or until fall 2017.” Team president Matt Cinader, a senior from Ortonville, and team adviser Robert Gergehl met with Idema and other members of the Office of Student Life Friday morning for the team’s hearing, said senior captain Ricky Jones. “There were four of us and our faculty adviser, but only the faculty adviser and Matt Cinader went into the hearing,” Jones said. “It lasted about an hour and each side told their side.” Jones said the team went into the hearing wanting a one-to-two year probationary period, with weekly meetings with the Office of Student Life, community service hours and meetings with the community’s youth to promote abstinence from alcohol and hazing. “The university proposed a four-year ban, but, somehow, it became a five-year ban after the hearing,” he said. “They said they wanted every person involved in the organization to be gone by the time the team came around again, including the freshmen.”
University officials have high hopes for higher education. University President George Ross said in an email he believes affordability is mounting pressure on higher education in Michigan and across the nation. He said affordability is a concern for students working to earn their degrees, as well as a concern for universities to maintain costs while offering quality academic programs. Access, accountability and having more students attain graduation are other pressures facing higher education, he said. Ross said academic programs have always been driven ultimately by the needs of the society it serves. He said the recent prioritization of more than 400 programs is evidence that the diversity of programs at Central Michigan University will continue to evolve. “As we prepare students for meaningful careers and also prepare students to be conscientious and active citizens, the quality of our programs must, and will, remain high at CMU,” he said. Steven Johnson, vice president for enrollment and student services, said in an email the rising cost of education will mostly impact student choice of educational institution. “The higher education landscape is becoming more competitive, and many institutions are becoming increasingly aggressive in their efforts to attract prospective students to their institutions,” he said. “More students may also consider attending community college first and then transfer to a four-year institution in order to manage costs.” It is important for families to start planning for higher education expenses as soon as possible, preferably when the student is still in middle school, Johnson said. Students should also consider on-campus jobs to help offset A HIGHER ED| 5A
JeFFrey SMITH /Staff PhotogRaPheR
Leslie senior Danny Fancher poses Sunday afternoon where he was involved in an accident on his moped more than a year ago on Broomfield Road.
Near death Student recovers from serious moped accident By Charnae Sanders |
Staff Reporter
Picture this: You awaken in an unfamiliar room without any trace of how you got there. You are lying down on top of a bed looking down at your arm and notice you are wearing a name tag. However, it does not spell out your name. Instead, it reads John Doe.
Leslie senior Danny Fancher shows the location of the accident.
This was the reality of senior Danny Fancher on Memorial Day in 2011. Awakening in a hospital, the 23-year-old found out he had been in a moped accident and flown to Saginaw Covenant HealthCare Hospital, 700 Cooper Ave. Within the first 18 hours
of riding his new silver 2003 LRX moped, it was believed Fancher collided with another vehicle on Broomfield Street right in front of Celani Hall. The employees from 7-11, 302 W. Broomfield St., heard the crash and dialed 911. As the police arrived on the scene, Fancher was 60 feet
JeFFrey SMITH /Staff PhotogRaPheR
away from his vehicle. Covered with road rash and a scab stretching from his face to his neck, the police automatically assumed Fancher was a dead man. “They think that somebody hit me,” Fancher said. “Maybe a drunk driver, maybe a kid, maybe an elderly person. I
don’t know, but they never ended up finding them or having any real evidence to that. Other than that, it was just plausible. Whatever happened, my moped ended up hitting a light pole.” A MOPED| 2A
A CLUB HOCKEY| 2A
Student Government hosting events for Wednesday’s crucial u.S. presidential debate By John Irwin elections Coordinator
President Barack Obama and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney will square off in their first debate Wednesday night, and political groups on campus are gearing up for it. The Student Government Association will be hosting two events during the 9 p.m. debate at two different locations on campus. One panel at the Towers will feature members of the College Democrats and College Republi-
cans, and another, at the Bovee University Center auditorium, will feature graduate assistants from the College of Communication and Fine Arts. The political groups and the graduate assistants will be there to spark talk and debate among those in attendance, SGA President Justin Gawronski said. “They’ll be there to facilitate discussion, make students as informed as possible and take any questions from audience members,” Gawronski said. Those from the CCFA will
also be conducting research at the UC event. The SGA will host two events, one in a residential building and another at an academic building, for every debate, including the vice presidential debate Oct. 11 when two discussions will take place in the East Campus residential buildings and in Anspach 161. Wednesday’s debate will likely be one of the most pivotal moments of the 2012 campaign season. The debate will center solely
on domestic politics, meaning the still-sluggish economy will be in the spotlight. College Republicans Chairwoman Megan Gill said the debate could be one of Romney’s last chances to pull ahead of Obama. “The poll numbers have not been as good as we might have hoped over the past couple weeks,” Gill said. “Anything can happen, but it’s getting down to the wire.” Romney must successfully tie the economy, the national
debt and other issues to Obama during the debate if he hopes to gain traction from it. Otherwise, it might be difficult (for) him to recover. Recent polls show support for the president surging nationally and in key swing states like Ohio and Florida in the wake of the Democratic National Convention and Romney’s muchdiscussed claim that 47 percent of voters are “dependent upon government.” That comment, made at a private five-figure fundraiser,
played right into the Obama campaign’s narrative that Romney is an out-of-touch elitist who is unfit to help the middle class. Gill said Romney has to take a stand during the debate to win over voters. “He has to come out with strong stances on the issues and show he can lead on those issues,” Gill said. “He has to be somebody who can energize his base and can reach out to independents.” studentlife@cm-life.com
Proposal 5 would require a two-thirds majority or a public vote to raise taxes By John Irwin elections Coordinator
Michigan Conservative groups are hoping voters approve the Nov. 6 ballot’s Proposal 5, which would require a two-thirds majority in both houses of the Legislature to raise taxes. Should the proposal pass, any new taxes, tax base expansion or tax increase would have to pass both the State House of Representatives and the State Senate with a two-thirds majority.
Taxes could also be raised if a majority of voters approve of a proposed tax increase at the polls. The Michigan Alliance for
Prosperity, the political group behind the proposed amendment, says Proposal 5 would require bipartisan action on taxes. “This initiative would ensure that one party cannot raise taxes without broad, bi-partisan support and public consensus,” the group says on its website. “We’ve seen what happens in Washington when one party tries to ram through its agenda on a party-line vote.” A group of mostly conservative politicians, including Oakland County Sheriff and
2010 Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Bouchard and Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate Scotty Boman, backs MAP. “We are taxed too much already,” Bowman said on the group’s site. “Any initiative that makes it harder for politicians (for) raise our taxes is a welcome step in the right direction.” The group says even the prospect of tax increases holds back Michigan’s economy. “It’s about having a more stringent legislative requirement on tax increases, because
tax increases can have such farreaching and long-term impact on the state’s taxpayers and economy,” the group says. For all the group’s talk about bipartisanship, it appears the initiative is driving a wedge between Michigan Republicans. Gov. Rick Snyder came out against the proposal in a YouTube video released a couple weeks ago, because he says it would lead to gridlock on any tax issue. “The problem is, when you look at it, things aren’t that simple,” Snyder said. “In many
respects, this could hold us back from reducing taxes in the future, and I’m not talking theory here — I’m talking a very serious situation.” Snyder said the repeal of the Michigan Business Tax could not have happened under the proposed amendment, because it did not get two-thirds support. Michigan already has a law in place that requires a threefourths majority in both houses to raise property taxes. metro@cm-life.com