windows 7 | Campus computers upgrading in coming months, 3A which qb will step up? 6A
Meals on Wheels serves as vital part of the community, 1B
women’s week Discussion, poetry among events, 8A
Central Michigan Life
Monday, March 24, 2010
Mount Pleasant, Mich.
[cm-life.com]
HE A LTH C A R E R E F O R M SI G NED INTO L A W
In-state movement petitions against bill Voters could be asked to exempt Michigan in November By Maryellen Tighe Senior Reporter
Petitions circulated in Michigan to exempt the state from the U.S. health care bill before the House of
Representatives even voted on it Sunday. The bill, which the House eventually approved, was signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama. But the Michigan Citizens for Health Care Freedom is seeking to get an exemption from the bill on the ballot for Michigan voters next November, a task requiring 450,000 signatures before July 4. “You need the extra sig-
natures because there are always signatures that will not be accepted,” said Joan Fabiano, organizer at Grassroots in Michigan. If the signatures are collected, the petition would present the bill as a violation of the 14th Amendment, Finance and Law Assistant Assistant Professor Tom Anthony said. “There are lawsuits already being filed to declare the whole thing as uncon-
Inside w See the timeline of health care reform, 5A stitutional,” he said, “and I think they have a case.” There are some states, such as Nebraska and Louisiana, that have been promised no increase in health care costs, Anthony said. The Nebraska exception is being called the “Cornhusker Kickback,” which al-
lows Nebraska to not pay for its expansion of Medicaid, but other states are forced to pick up the tab, according to a news release from the office of Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox. This could total more than $100 million. There also are deals for drug companies and federal employees, Anthony said. Federal employees are alA health care | 2A
Transition team meets Thursday with Ross
What’s on
the Web
cm-life.com A look at what you can find off the printed pages
List of members not finalized; meeting is closed-door
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Check cm-life.com for a video on the psychic fair. sean proctor/staff photographer
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Farmington Hills sophomore Chris Plotzke exhales after taking a long drag from a hookah pipe Monday night at the SIX Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St. “I grew up around a lot of hookah shops. They were a great hang out spot,” Plotzke says. “I enjoy the taste and the atmosphere of the bar.”
hookah smoke rising Specialized lounges growing in popularity at CMU
By Jaimie Cremeans Staff Reporter
H
Brittany Mouzourakis
Evan Agnello
JOIN US at 8 p.m. Monday and Wednesday for live streams of SGA presidential candidates Brittany Mouzourakis and Evan Agnello! Mouzourakis (Monday) and Agnello (Wednesday) will speak with the CM Life editorial board and answering questions. We invite you to log on and submit questions during the livestreams!
ookah lounges are becoming increasingly popular in Mount Pleasant. Two recently opened businesses are offering students options so they can choose the atmosphere that works best for them. The Smokers Club, 100 S. Mission St., is adding two rooms to its establishment that will be used as hookah lounges and should be open by the end of the month. The S.I.X. Lounge, 1901 S. Mission St., opened last fall. Smokers Club owner Dave Sprunger said he thinks hookah is becoming more popular because it is the cleanest way to
smoke. He said as people become more aware of the dangers of smoking tobacco products, they are turning to hookah as a safer option. “You still get the nicotine, which is why people smoke,” he said. “But it uses steam and water vapor, so there’s no tar.” Some college students, he said, might see it as a way to get around smoking bans in apartments. Sprunger knows a lot of students who smoke hookah because it does not leave stains and a strong smell like tobacco does, and users can choose from a variety of flavors. The Hookah Lounge, inside the Malt Shop, 1088 S. University St., is Mount
University President George Ross’ transition team will have its first meeting Thursday. It will be a closed-door meeting for the president and team members, said Mary Jane Flanagan, executive assistant to the president. Flanagan said the meeting will be “very organizational.” “One of the main things is it is an opportunity for the president to interact directly with the team,” said Phil Squattrito, co-chairman of the transition team and chairman of the Academic Senate. “Ross will go over what he’s looking for.” What Ross would like to see from the George Ross team’s reports also will be discussed, said Kathy Wilbur, vice president of government relations and public affairs and co-chairwoman for the transition team. Three or four reports will be presented to Ross throughout the process, she said. The team consists of six subcommittees — administrative/staff priorities, academic priorities, student priorities, alumni priorities, community/ business priorities and public affairs/communications. Each subcommittee will include 12 to 14 people, Squattrito said. Ross wanted each subcommittee to have a combination of students, staff and faculty,
A hookah bar | 2A
A Ross | 2A
Marquee board at Kelly/Shorts Stadium making up to $450,000
By Amelia Eramya Senior Reporter
Seven people suggested to the Senior Staff Budget Advisory Group that Central Michigan University shut off Kelly/Shorts Stadium’s marquee board during the week and overnight. The answer from the SSBAG said: “Already implemented. The video board is shut down every night between the hours of 12 a.m. and 6 a.m.” The Kelly/Shorts stadium marquee board is contributing between $400,000 and $450,000 to the Athletics Department’s approximate $5.5 million an-
nual revenue. Although it may seem the marquee board requires a lot of electricity, it’s actually saving energy and creates more revenue than expenses, said Derek van der Merwe, senior associate athletic director. “There’s no expense to the university for the scoreboard,” he said. In addition, about $300,000 more is generated from the marquee boards in Rose Arena and the softball and baseball fields along with $1.2 million in private and alumni donations, van der Merwe said. A total of $750,000 comes in from adver-
tisements and sponsorships from all the marquee boards, he said. About $17,000 to $20,000 was used to operate the power of the stadium lights and marquee board for the 2009-10 school year. The revenue from the boards is generated from advertisements and is the most important part of the board, van der Merwe said. “The board is the most prolific and significant revenue stream that (we) receive,” he said. The revenue helps pay for traveling costs for competitions
within athletics, recruiting expenses and several sports-related costs. Energy conservation While the marquee board was being installed in February 2007, the athletics department followed several guidelines. One of the most important was to conserve energy. “The plan was to find some sort of way to power down the board,” van der Merwe said. A program costing $10,000 was installed to automatically turn off the board between midnight and 6 a.m. “There’s not a lot of need to
have the board running between midnight and 6 a.m.,” said Nick Williams, associate athletic director. While working with Daktronics, the department also chose to use LED lighting, which uses the least amount of power, Williams said. “The board itself is fairly efficient because of LED lights,” he said. Another guideline was to not conflict with the Brooks Observatory, on the roof of Brooks Hall. The athletics department worked closely with the physics department to determine if the
marquee board would affect the night sky. “The athletics department was very sensitive to the possibility that the light from the board would be a problem for the observatory,” said Physics Professor Glen Williams. Glen Williams said based on the times the board would be on, the physics department determined there would be no serious impact on the observatory. “In our normal use of the observatory, we haven’t found it to be a problem,” he said. university@cm-life.com