working to make ends meet, 3A
ncaa tournament | Check out this year’s bracket, 3B parking | Price increase ‘under consideration’ for budget, 3A
Senior leadership helps gymnastics beat Ball State, 1B
Central Michigan Life
Monday, March 15, 2010
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
[cm-life.com]
School spirit could reap rewards this week for students $25 gift cards awarded to those wearing CMU colors By Ryan Czachorski Senior Reporter
Thousands of students wear Central Michigan University attire to their classes
everyday. But they could be rewarded for their clothing choices at a random time on a random day this week. The Student Government Association’s Traditions and Spirit Committee is launching School Spirit Days, in which a member of the committee will find a student wearing CMU colors or
clothing and give them a $25 gift card to the CMU Bookstore or Down Under Food Court. “The goal is to promote school spirit,” said Eric Jacovetti, chairman of the Traditions and Spirit Committee. “The premise is to be proud of your school. I think this will help people wear Central gear.”
Jacovetti, a Livonia junior, said he plans to show up on campus later in the week on a random day and preferably between classes to find a larger number of students. The idea stemmed from the committee’s yearly working goal to increase students’ school spirit across campus. The committee will look at the feedback to the initial
Student Spirit Day and decide when the next one will be. “The idea is that every single student on Central’s campus is in a contest,” he said. “But they don’t know it.” Feedback tool The event has other benefits besides fostering student spirit, said SGA vice president and Garden City senior
Brittany Mouzourakis. SGA will use the event to get student opinions on what they can do better from the winners. “If more people know SGA is out there and can win a small gift card, they might put on a CMU shirt on a nice spring day,” Mouzourakis said.
A Spirit | 2A
Major county cuts loom
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During a simulation of the Chile earthquake Friday at Mill Pond Park, South Haven freshman Alisa Whiteford lays wounded after running into a tree and was assessed with a concussion during the week-long RPL 365: Wilderness First Responder class. “I got care. It was good,” Whiteford said. “This is life. This is what happens. We’ll be out there with nobody coming. This is a test but, in life, it will be real blood-gushing.”
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Construction on the new Rose Center will continue until its scheduled completion in Fall 2010. The renovations will include an Event Center, a practice gym and new seating, among other additions. Libby March/ staff photographer
By Jackie Smith | Metro Editor
Troy junior Mary Blumka, left, and Haslett junior Kevin McDonald assess the ailments of Indiana junior Rachel Kauffman during a simulation Friday at Mill Pond Park for RPL 365: Wilderness First Responder. Her leg was impaled on a tree limb during the Chile Earthquake in the simulation.
R
achel Kauffman shrieked at the sight of the small tree branch thrust through her leg. The Indiana junior’s pants were stained red and her face, contorted in pain. She and 12 others laid Friday afternoon in the woods at Mount Pleasant’s Mill Pond Park — their bodily appendages bloody and bruised. Two rescuers came to Kauffman’s side and, after a few minutes, took out a knife to saw through the small branch. “Rachel, look at me. This is going to hurt,” Troy junior Mary Blumka said to Kauffman. “Breathe. Slowly. I know it hurts, but you’re going to be OK.”
Fortunately, the blood on Kauffman’s pants and her cries of pain were not authentic. For an hour and a half, she and 12 others played victim in a simulation of the recent Chilean earthquake. Blumka and fellow responder Kevin McDonald, a Haslett junior, were
two of about 25 other students who came to their rescue. The simulation served as a test for two sections of RPL 365: Wilderness First Responder, a sevenday intensive course open to students from Central Michigan University and elsewhere. The class pro-
vided instruction on how to handle anything from frost bite to compound fractures and gave students life-like situations to work with. Other medical issues in the woods Friday included amputated fingers, severe A Wilderness | 6A
The number of departments in Isabella County could be cut by about 60 percent under a plan proposed last week. County Administrator Tim Dolehanty took “a first stab” at accommodating an expected $750,000 to $1 million budget shortfall in the next fiscal year. His suggestion would cut a total of $500,800 and reduce the number of county departments to five from 13. The five departments would include Equalization, Administration, Commission on Aging, Community Development and Central Dispatch. “We need to prepare ourselves for where we need to go,” Dolehanty said. “This is going to be a moving target for several months.” Under this plan, the departments would see a 12.6 percent budget reduction and roughly a 15 percent reduction in employee positions. Dolehanty reminded the county’s Board of Commissioners on March 8 these are just launching points, and discussion is still necessary with all departments, courts and executives in the county. Some of the positions Dolehanty told the board to examine include the Park Supervisor and the Community Development Director. Both positions could absorb other jobs to eliminate other positions if the proposal is approved.
A county | 7A
Events Center renovations taking shape Lobby, practice facility walls up; project on track By Seth Nietering Staff Reporter
Construction at Rose Arena is beginning to reveal what the expanded $21.5-million CMU Events Center will look like. The structural steel and precast concrete walls now in place are the beginning of the lobby
and practice facilities. Steve Lawrence, associate vice president of Facilities Management, said the construction is on track. “The structural steel is up and they’ve erected the precast concrete walls,” Lawrence said. “They are also installing roof trusses on the practice gym. Things are on schedule.” Rose Arena-based athletics teams closed their home schedule Saturday when the gymnastics team beat Ball State, allowing interior work to get under
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way. The lobby and arena portion of the project is still slated for completion in October 2010. The practice gym will be finished in December, Lawrence said. Richard Yoon, a Troy sophomore, said the construction is looking good. “I think they’re doing a great job trying to get it finished before basketball season,” Yoon said. “It’s starting to look like something now.” The mild winter may have offered a helping hand. Lawrence
said weather did not put construction behind schedule. “The construction workers knew they would be working through the winter, but there were actually only a few bad snowstorms,” he said. “It was a much easier winter for construction than we’ve had in the past.”
Fitness expansion The SAC fitness room expansion is not yet under way.
A Rose| 2A
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