Are bow ties coming back? 1B
Central Michigan Life
Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2010
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
[cm-life.com]
Grade distribution nixed from Portal Provost finds opinion surveys more helpful By Emily Pfund Staff Reporter
Interim Provost Gary Shapiro said at the Academic Senate meeting Tuesday that student grade distributions have been removed from the Central Michigan University Portal. However, he approved the posting of results from completed Student Opinion Surveys in their place and aims to have them online by fall 2010. “The big question I asked myself was, ‘What would be the impact on student learning?’” Shapiro said. In a statement distributed at the meeting, Shapiro stated, concerning the grade
distributions, he “can find no compelling argument that such posting would enhance learning.” Shapiro said his main concern is students would use that information to shop for “easy A’s.” Spring 2009’s grade distributions, which allowed students to view the grades professors issued in past semesters, were posted on the Portal with the approval of then-provost Julia Wallace in response to a request made by the Student Government Association. A group of department chairs voted Oct. 21 to approve a resolution to remove the data, however. SOS forms The Academic Senate voted 26-19 on Feb. 2 to support publishing the SOS forms on A Academic Senate | 2A
board of trustees
nathan kostegian/staff photographer
Budget could be discussed Thursday Medical school also to get formal name, groundbreaking By Sarah Schuch Senior Reporter
Budget reduction suggestions and a formal establishment of the College of Medicine are topics slated for Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting. The meeting will begin at 9:30 a.m. in the President’s Conference Room at Bovee University Center. In a previous interview, Interim University President Kathy Wilbur said she expected to have recommendations for how the university should reduce costs by the time trustees convened.
If you go... w w w
CMU’s Board of Trustees meeting When: 9:30 a.m. Thursday Where: President’s Conference Room, Bovee University Center
Dan Enos, 41, began the position of CMU’s new head football coach on Jan. 12. Enos left his job as running back coach at Michigan State.
‘Pleasant’ settling Dan Enos in stride after recruiting stage, before spring ball
cm-life.com See cm-life.com at 9:30 a.m. Thursday for a live chat from the meeting. She was unavailable for comment Tuesday. Wilbur received the 3, 6 and 9 percent budget reduction recommendations from the cost centers Monday. Steve Smith, director of public relations, said if Wilbur talks about budget cuts, it will be in the President’s Report. But Smith is uncertain where Wilbur is in her review of the reduction suggestions. Central Michigan Life sent a Freedom of Information of Act request to Central Michigan University’s general counsel Feb. 8 for the 3, 6 and 9 percent budget reduction suggestions sent to Wilbur. The request was denied Friday. Also on the Board’s agenda is a proposal to recognize the College of Medicine and make it official, said Interim A Board | 2A
[inside] BIKE LANE COMING Franklin Street getting addition without road construction, 3A
NEW FOOTBALL COACH SETS UP SHOP
CHINA-CMU CONNECTION Student reflects on time covering Beij ing olympics, 3A
By Daniel Monson | Senior Reporter
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an. 12 was an exciting day for Dan Enos. His first day as Central Michigan University’s head football coach was spent meeting his team for the first time, answering questions from the media and taking in his surroundings. But on the car ride home with his family to their Lansing home, it hit him. “I almost had an anxiety attack,” Enos said. “I was thinking about everything that I had to do.” He kept busy the next three weeks, managing CMU’s recruiting class and filling the spots of those who defected to other programs after former coach Butch Jones left for Cincinnati. But Enos is finding his stride a little more than a month later. He has conducted his first on-field workouts with the team, implementing a regimen called the “Fourth Quarter Program,” which consists of four conditioning drills that give the coaching staff a better indication of what they inherited. The program was adapted from a system used by Buck Nystrom, who coached under George Perles at Michigan State when Enos quarterbacked the Spartans in the late 1980s. Nystrom’s son, Kyle, is now an assistant coach in charge of special teams and linebackers under Enos. Coaches have been assigned recruiting roles and players have broken into units on offense, defense and
special teams. So Enos must have all of the more than 80 returning players’ names down, right? “No. I’m working on it,” he said, laughing. “I’ve got tape and I handwrite ‘Coach Enos’ on it and put it on my shirt. EvNick Bellore ery trainer, every coach, every player has got it on there.” Enos focuses on leveling with his players — ensuring their input is welcomed and considered. “Even offensively and defensively, we’ve asked them, ‘What did you do here (before)?’” he said. “We want to empower them, too. We don’t
sit here and claim we have all the answers.” Linebacker Nick Bellore, who returns for his senior season, said Enos has reached out to the players, including meeting with each player on the roster during his first week. “He’s just a really young, energetic guy,” Bellore said. “He’s been a little more laid back, but we really haven’t been through the fire yet in terms of spring ball and that kind of stuff.” Getting settled Enos is not exactly rooted in yet, however. He and his wife, Jane, will close on a house in midMarch and look to move to Mount Pleasant in early April. But he won’t carry on the tradition of living in the for-
more Inside sports w Q&A with Dan Enos about his taste in food, movies, music and more, 6A
mer coach’s abode, such as Jones did when he moved into Brian Kelly’s house after Kelly left for Cincinnati in 2006. “I think I disappointed everybody,” Enos said, laughing. His daughter, Idalia, in third grade, will switch schools at that point and finish the school year in Mount Pleasant. His son, Alex, has yet to begin school. For now, Enos resides in an off-campus apartment complex after calling the Comfort Inn home for three weeks. His family stays in Lansing, but he still receives plenty of visits from Jane, who dropped by his office last week with lunch in hand. He also often makes trips to Lansing on some weekends.
A Enos | 6A
Sapphire speaks in Plachta on ‘Push’ book By Sherri Keaton Senior Reporter
At the age of 12, a child was impregnated by her father. Years later, as a 32-yearold woman taking classes for her GED, she was in need of a babysitter for her 20-year-old daughter with down syndrome. This true story, among many others, was told to Ramona Lofton, the author known as Sapphire, who later wrote the novel, “Push.” “I felt like (I was) hit by a truck,” said Sapphire, recalling
the experience of hearing the woman’s story. “Air escaped my body and that incident became the seed for the novel, “Push.” Tuesday evening in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium, a crowd of about 400 people listened as Sapphire read excerpts of “Push,” among other readings from writers who influenced her book. The poem “Moonchild” by the late Lucille Clifton inspired Sapphire to step out of restrictions that once confounded her. “That poem helped women
cm-life.com See the Web site for a video recap from Tuesday’s event. step out of boxes that have been prepared for by black men and white women,” she said. “That path to literature was no longer closed to me.” She discussed how African American sexual violence can be different than white sexual violence because of historical effects such as masters raping through slavery, even though
See “Precious” The Central Michigan International Film Festival will screen the film adaptation of Sapphire’s novel, "Push." w Noon March 20, 21 at Celebration! Cinema both acts are deplorable. “African Americans have the highest HIV rates, silence will not save African Americans and that work begins with A Push | 2A
paige calamari/staff photographer
Sapphire, the Black History Month keynote speaker, laughs after an audience member asks about her personal life Tuesday night in Warriner Hall’s Plachta Auditorium. Sapphire spoke about her book, “Push,” which transpired into the Oscar-nominated movie, “Precious.”
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