Open Grove Society seeks religious equality, understanding on campus, 11A
Friday, Oct. 29, 2010
Soccer team captures MAC championship, 1B
Central Michigan Life
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
[cm-life.com]
65% of 2008-09 CMU grads employed
men’s basketball
CMU picked to finish 2nd in MAC West By Aaron McMann Sports Editor
Majority has job in field of study, survey says By Kurt Nagl Staff Reporter
Nearly two-thirds of 2008-09 CMU graduates have found a job post-graduation. Sixty-five percent of that year’s alumni reported having a job and 21 percent said they were in graduate school, according to the graduate survey, which was conducted shortly after the 2008-09 academic year. Graduate surveys from universities in Michigan show a decline in the number of graduates with jobs. Career Services Director Julia Sherlock said the rate of post-graduation employment has probably been declining because of the economy, but she thinks the number will soon be on the rise because of new job opportunities. “Employers love recent graduates because they are fresh, talented, and economically reasonable,” Sherlock said. About 87 percent of those employed had a job in their field of study, according to the survey. Though the number of graduates staying in Michigan is decreasing, almost 70 percent did. Grandville senior Mike Mueller will not be looking for a job in Michigan or anywhere else after graduation. He plans on attending graduate school. “CMU doesn’t just focus on classes, but also the well-rounded development of a person,” he said. In an online survey of 2008-09 Western Michigan University graduates, employment rates were divided for each major. WMU reported an employment rate 10 percent lower than CMU in the business field, which made up a large portion of majors. Grand Valley State University has also seen a decline in employment after graduation, from 75 to 72 percent from 2007-08 to 2008-09, according to its post-graduate employment report. The survey suggests GVSU students have a higher rate of employment than those from CMU, but a lower rate of students attending graduate school. A grads | 2a
[inside] NEWS w New law effective Sunday with stricter penalties for drunk drivers, 3A
sports w CMU’s volleyball team loses to EMU, 1B
CM-LIFE.com w Watch our video coverage of ‘Factor Out Your Fear’ and a tour of CMU’s underground tunnels
Ben Weissenborn/staff photographer
Brent Fisher, 24, of Mount Pleasant, tips back his daughter Taegen, 2, in Justice Records, 617 N. Mission, which Fisher co-owns with his best friend, Rorik Brooks, 23. Fisher and his wife Alisha, 24, are about a third of the way into the pregnancy of their second child. “I get to hang out with friends and family and do music,” Brent Fisher said. “It’s the perfect life.”
punk papa
Maybe Ernie Zeigler was being modest. During media day Wednesday, the Central Michigan men’s basketball head coach picked his team to finish “in the middle of the pack” of the Mid-American Conference West Division. “The conference usually leans toward seniority,” said Zeigler, who went on to place Ball State and Eastern Michigan ahead of his young Chippewas team. But a day later, league coaches and members of the media spoke, tabbing a young CMU team near the top. In the MAC preseason poll released Thursday, CMU was picked second, earning 122 points and eight first-place votes — just two points and four first-place votes behind first place Ball State. BSU, who finished 15-14 and 8-8 in the MAC, a game behind the Chippewas, picked up 12 votes to get the West Division nod. The Cardinals return nine players from last season, including four starters. CMU, meanwhile, welcomes in its largest and most touted recruiting class in program history. Even with all the hype and hoopla early on, Zeigler is quick to remind others that his team has just four players with Division I playing experience. “It’s going to be a work in progress early on,” Zeigler said. “Hopefully we can get our new guys to embrace our motto of ‘Think Tough, Be Tough’ and how we go about doing things and the expectations that are out there for us.” Eastern Michigan, Western Michigan, Northern Illinois and Toledo rounded out the division. The Chippewas also finished third in MAC tournament voting, garnering four votes. Ohio, the 2010 MAC tournament winner, was picked to repeat this year, earning 12 first-place votes to win the East Division and 10 votes to win the conference tournament. The Bobcats finished 22-15 and upset Georgetown in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. Trey: Great expectations The accolades for CMU freshman
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Justice Records owner Brent Fisher balances straight-edge lifestyle, family By Michael L. Hoffman | Staff Reporter Brent Fisher didn’t find much of a place growing up in Mid-Michigan. So he built his own. Fisher, who grew up in Ithaca, is co-owner of Justice Records, 617 N. Mission St. On his right wrist is a tattoo reading “Straight XXX Edge,” illustrating his choice of the drug-free and alcoholfree lifestyle. “There is an abundance of hicks and bros in this town, man,” Fisher said. “I wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. They drank so I didn’t.” Fisher, 24, said he was first introduced to the hardcore punk scene when he was 14 or 15 at local shows. “I used to go see my friends’ bands play,” he said. “And I just got sucked in.” It wasn’t the music that first drew his attention, but the sense of community, which he is trying to
integrate into his own Mount Pleasant business. “I really wanted to open a (do-it-yourself) venue in town,” he said, “and that is why we opened the record store.” Fisher’s business partner Rorik Brooks said originally Justice Records was a means to an end in terms of funding a venue. “We wanted a venue, but we had to find a way to pay the rent,” the Shepherd resident said. “So we landed on the record shop.” Fisher said one of the main reasons he and Brooks wanted to open a venue was to give teenagers a place to go and hang out with their friends instead of just conversing on Facebook. “When we were kids, we would call each other and go somewhere,” Brooks said. “Not creating a community in an imaginary world.” Justice Records doubles as an all-ages venue where admissions are based off of attendees’
aaron mcmann/sports editor
CMU freshman Trey Zeigler answers questions from the media Wednesday during basketball media day in the Student Activity Center.
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Group leaves postive, anonymous messages By Nora Naughton Staff Reporter
In a bathroom stall, there is a note that says, “You’re beautiful.” That note was not put there by the average bathroom vandal, but by Taylor Boyle and her Operation Beautiful team. “I found a note in the bathroom last year, and at the bottom was the Operation Beautiful website, so I Googled it,” Victoria Zegler/staff photographer the West Bloomfield freshman West Bloomfield freshman and Operation Beautiful President Taylor Boyle, right, hands Bay said. “I thought it was great, City freshman Kersten Bond a new member form during the first Operation Beautiful meeting so I started leaving my own notes around campus and it of the semester Thursday night at Boyle’s house.
just grew from there.” The Operation Beautiful at CMU Facebook page states “the goal of Operation Beautiful is to end negative self-talk, educate people about some of the issues that we face and learn to love our bodies and ourselves.” Boyle and her team leave notes all over campus. Some notes are left in random places and others are more strategically placed. “We might put notes that say something like ‘you don’t need this, you’re beautiful the way you are’ on the back of a bottle of diet pills,” Boyle
said. Greenville freshman Kelsey Scheidel said the organization should be beneficial to CMU’s students. “I think college girls especially need a program like this on campus,” Scheidel said. Boyle also receives notes sometimes. She said she once discovered one on her mirror from her roommate that said, “You’re a great leader and you look fabulous.” “I think bringing Operation Beautiful to Central is a great idea,” said Petoskey sophomore Casey Burkhart. “College students face enough
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stress with classes, so I think it’s awesome that Operation Beautiful can help us learn to not stress over our image.” Leaving notes isn’t the only way Operation Beautiful plans to help people. “We will also have group therapy at some of our meetings that focus on a certain group of people each time,” she said. Operation Beautiful is not officially an RSO yet, but its popularity has already exceeded Boyle’s expectations with over 500 fans on Facebook. studentlife@cm-life.com