February 2020

THE

PULSE

Fe b r u a r y 2 8 , 2 0 2 0 • I s s u e 5 Vo l u m e 7 • t h e s a u p u l s e . c o m facebook.com/saupulse twitter.com/saupulse instagram.com/thesaupulse

ILLUSTRATION BY Jared Boeken-

PREVIEW

TABLE O F

CONTENTS S G A UP DAT E S PAG E 4 NEW ALMOST CHAPEL HOST PAG E 7

C A R D I AC AWA R E N E S S M O N T H PAG E S 10-11

I N S TAG R AM U P DAT E PAGE 15 AT H L E T E O F THE MONTH: JASMINE HARPER PAG E 1 6

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thesaupulse.com • February 28, 2020

Jared Bokenhauer | Associate Editor

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s St.Patrick’s Day approaches, many people prepare for celebration by getting out their green clothes, preparing traditional dishes and prepping for local St.Patrick’s Day parades.

According to History.com, St.Patricks Day is a day to celebrate St.Patrick who is believed to have died on March 17, 461 AD. Who was this man who is now celebrated?

History.com says that St.Patrick was born in Scotland, but was captured by Irish raiders and sent to work in Ireland. He later worked as a herder where he found Christianity during his time feeling alone and scared. He would eventually go on to work in missions, planting many churches and turning thousands of people in Ireland to Christ.

However, who actually knows our lives better than our Creator? As many adults know, and college students are learning, life does not always get easier and more simple, it often gets more difficult.

EDITORIAL

Editorial

St.Patrick shows us that in our times of greatest discomfort and uncertainty, we must look to God for our strength and our guidance.

During those times when we feel lost and uncertain, pray to God, journal, talk with a trusted friend or adult or even take a walk, whatever helps you listen to God’s voice.

As St.Patrick teaches, our times when we feel weakest, God is the one who can give us comfort.

What can be learned from St.Patrick’s life?

In his time of discomfort and uncertainty, St.Patrick turned to Christ, not the world, for solace. College can also be a time of discomfort and uncertainty. For some students, the idea of living away from home is gutwrenching. Seniors who are getting ready to graduate may be facing the uncertainty of life after graduation.

During these times, it becomes tempting to ignore God, and rely only on ourselves to make these decisions.

The Pulse Staff & Contributors 2016-2017 Editor-in-Chief Caralyn Geyer Associate Editor Jared Boekenhauer Designers Caralyn Geyer Marissa Auxier Jared Boekenhauer

Staff Writers Chris Cherian Sarah Williams Ellie Bruger Brittany Roemer Sales Manager Kaelyn Hale

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

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News

SGA Updates

By Jubilee Jackson and Andrew Phelps

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appy February SAU!

It is hard to believe we are already approaching March! We hope you have all had a great start to your semester and we wish you luck throughout the rest of it!

Speaking of the rest of the semester, SGA has lots planned for the next couple of months and we hope you are as excited as we are! We encourage you to come out, enjoy the events and engage in the community that surrounds us. Coming up we have Prophetic Insight, Lip Sync and a showing of the film Black Panther hosted by OIR in the RCF! Later in the Spring we will have a couple of performances by SAU alum, Arbor Ninja Warrior, a spring dance and Let’s Fly hosted by Spiritual Life!

We are also continuing Vitality classes and Deeper and you will not want to miss those! Be sure to visit the events tile on the app for more details.

serve and represent you, the SAU community, as best as we can. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, feel free to email springarborsga@gmail.com, stop into the SGA office or catch one of the SGA members around campus!

We would also love to grab lunch or coffee and chat with you, so we encourage you to reach out!

Have a safe and fun spring break!

Facebook: Spring Arbor SGA Insta: springarborsga

Many blessings, The 2019-2020 SGA P.S. If you do not already, follow us on our social media pages to stay up to date!

After Spring Break SGA will host the SGA election forum where students will have a chance to hear from the SGA President and Vice President candidates and ask questions. That is March 12th at 9:45pm in the RCF! This is a great chance for you to learn more about the candidates and the visions they have for SGA next school year.

SGA is continuing to listen,

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PHOTO from Google

thesaupulse.com • February 28, 2020

PHOTO from Facebook

Twitter: springarborsga

News

Beautification Projects Continue on Campus with Sarah Williams | Staff Writer Executive Vice President Doug Wilcoxson said the new signs being built in front of Spring Arbor University came out of a master planning committee 18 months ago.

The Master Planning process involved several meetings which were held on campus. The committee was made up of students, faculty members, board members, administrations and community members. The meeting was about the best use of space on campus. The master plan involved projects like lighting, trees and new signs. It also went over creating more attractive and functional spaces for learning, green spots and student areas.

Grissim Metz Andriese Associates is the landscaping company that looked at the property and helped create concepts for the beautification projects. The foundations for the signs were laid down in December.

Wilcoxson said it should be completed by graduation.

The construction workers won’t start the bricks for the signs until warmer weather. The landscape company designed the signs while keeping in mind the aesthetic, functionality and how it will define campus borders.

Wilcoxson said the signs needed to match the other buildings on campus for the next five to 10 years.

The road commission told him that more than 13,000 cars pass SAU and the drivers don’t know where the campus starts or ends. The beautification team wanted the university to be perceived as an open community so they decided to not go with fencing, but to line the sidewalks with lights and trees. They are working to include the other side of the street with the border idea.

To do the projects, the team first had to create a concept that everyone agreed upon. They went through three to five concept ideas

before the finals were chosen. Then, the landscaping company made dimensional drawings. Finally, they started the building process.

Other projects include repurposing Ormston Hall into office space, adding a plaza where Muffitt was to commemorate the building, constructing pedestrian portals and moving a sign that is currently in front of the campus next to the art gallery.

The second phase to the beautification projects includes creating a new parking lot with brick spaces, moving the boulder in front of campus to the circle drive, continuing the tree line corridor to Second Street and constructing a new science building.

The projects’ progress will depend on funding from donors.

PHOTO BY Jared Boekenhauer

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

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Features

Professor Profile: Kevin Brown Christina Cherian | Staff Writer

K

evin Brown worked at Spring Arbor University (SAU) for three years before he was appointed as the Chief Diversity Officer this year. He previously worked as the senior director of Admissions and the Assistant Vice President of Admissions.

Brown earned a bachelor’s degree in Sociology with a concentration in African American studies from Williams College. He is currently scheduled to complete a master’s degree in Strategic Communication and Leadership in March 2021.

He was in charge of “Bridging the Gap”, an event that took place over J-Term. Students from Oberlin College worked with Students of SAU to learn about their differences and how to work together.

He hopes that Bridging the Gap is just the first step to having the courageous conversations that allow us to focus on that unity.

He is the former chief recruitment officer for the Cleveland Municipal School District. He was given the opportunity to lead a U.S. delegation of five urban school districts to India to recruit Math, Science and Special Education teachers. He conducted over 200 teacher interviews that led to 68 teachers making it through the immigration process to teach in America.

PHOTO from SAU portal

His favorite part about his work is the interactions he is able to have with students. He believes the best way to support students is to build an authentic connection with them. This is built by listening to their stories and their concerns. He wants to help them achieve the goals they have for themselves.

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thesaupulse.com • February 28, 2020

News

New Almost Chapel Host: Alex Prater Jared Boekenhauer | Associate Editor

S

ophomore Film Major Alex Prater has taken over the role of host for Almost Chapel.

Almost Chapel is the five-minute videos that are played during the Spring Arbor University (SAU) chapel services every Monday.

some people overthink it a little bit, and [doing this] makes it come off kind of rough,” Prater said.

The position was previously held

by Andrew Sutton who left the position after the fall of 2019.

“Drew was lucky because he never had to go to chapel so he never got to sit there and watch himself and get live audience responses so he kind of was unknown to that, whereas for me, I have to sit there and watch everything,” Prater said.

Before Prater was the host he assisted in making the episodes, showing up to meetings, pitching ideas and anything else that he could help with.

“I wanted to be the host because I really liked what Drew was doing, I thought it was fun. Personally, I like to entertain people,” Prater said.

His character persona will be different than Sutton’s. While Sutton’s character persona was more “stupid” according to Prater, his character will be more of a “delinquent,” getting into more trouble. He says his humor comes more in the form of facial expressions, whereas Sutton’s humor was more “slapstick.”

Prater said he is feeling comfortable on camera because of his time in high school acting in films and on stage.

“As long as you’re relaxed, it’s pretty easy to come by. I’ve noticed

One thing he is most nervous about is watching himself every Monday in chapel.

His favorite part of being the host so far is being able to have a more creative say in the making of the episodes.

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PHOTO from Facebook

I wanted to be the host because I really liked what Drew was doing...

Personally, I like to entertain people Alex Prater

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

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Features 8

February

thesaupulse.com • February 28, 2020

Features

Poll

What is the craziest thing that happened on a cross cultural or on campus during January 2020?

“I slept in once” “The Florida trip” “Dr. Hopper jumping off a merry-go-round at an orphanage in Jamaica” “4 South shenanigans” “Dr. Edwards bought a headless Winnie the Pooh riding a Spiderman fourwheeler”

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

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Features

The Seconds that made a Difference Caralyn Geyer | Editor-in-Chief Jared Boekenhauer | Associate Editor

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lex Anhalt paced out how far it is from Andrews Hall to the nearest automated external defibrillator (AED): 800 meters. In an ideal situation, even with Spring Arbor University’s (SAU) record setting 800-meter runner, assuming the exact location was known, it would take 2 minutes to get the AED back to Andrews Hall, with the chance of survival dropping 20 percent, 10 percent every minute.

On December 13, 2018, a situation like this happened to Alex’s younger brother, Luke Anhalt. While at a high school basketball practice, Luke suffered from cardiac arrest. A teammate ran for the AED and his coach administered CPR. After two shocks from the machine, Luke was stabilized as the EMT’s arrived four minutes later.

At the hospital, Luke received surgery for an implanted defibrillator.

He said now, he doesn’t have to worry about a situation like that repeating itself, but other people still do, as the chances of survival after having a cardiac arrest are under 10 percent.

Looking back on the month of February, being designated Cardiac Awareness Month, the Anhalt brothers said they have very close feelings associated with this month because of what happened less than two years ago.

Both are fighting for more awareness, especially on SAU’s

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campus.

In the aftermath of his brother’s cardiac arrest, Alex found that there are two AEDs on SAU’s campus: one in front of the Holton Health Center in the downstairs student center and one in the gymnasium.

Alex said SAU has gone above and

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It sort of feels like we have entered into a new world and a new perspective through this.

Alex Anhalt

beyond meeting requirements for AEDs on campus because technically, the regulations do not require having an AED. However, he and his brother still have concerns.

“I think what’s really concerning is that when it comes to an emergency situation, yes, you want somebody calling 911, but if you could do one thing and that person doesn’t have

thesaupulse.com • February 28, 2020

a pulse, you want somebody getting an AED...that should be your priority,” Alex said.

He said what is most important is having people know where the AEDs are, what they are and how to use them. Alex polled students on campus and found that only 15 percent knew where the closest AED is, and a large number don’t know what an AED is at all.

While the ideal situation would be to have AEDs in every building on campus, awareness and training for everyone on campus, especially the student leaders, making this happen can be a time-consuming and expensive process.

Buying and installing an AED, as well as upkeep with the batteries, is very expensive. Alex estimates the price is about $1,200 to $1,500.

Alex has had discussions with administrators about training more student leaders in CPR to provide more care in an emergency situation, he said administrators have been open to suggestions.

Alex stresses the importance of people understanding how to use them, and he said they are “very easy to use.” Directions in English, and a growing number in Spanish, are placed on the cases of AEDs to guide people through using them.

AEDs cannot cause further harm to someone; even if the adhesive pads are applied to a person, it will

Features

only deliver a shock if it does not sense a pulse.

Luke’s incident made waves, being covered by multiple newspapers.

Luke’s high school principal wrote a blog post that was read 100 times in Russia.

Schools within the area sent gifts to Luke during his recovery process.

They also began taking a closer look at cardiac safety. With schools incorporating CPR and AED training, as well as having AEDs on hand during games and practices.

“It’s been really cool to see the effects of that, and again the spreading of faith,” Luke said.

Luke said his recovery was unusual.

He spent only five days in the hospital, most of which was spent awaiting surgery. He had no brain damage, was back to playing basketball six weeks after the accident and is now on the SAU soccer reserve team.

“You can’t really do all that without some supernatural intervention,” Luke said.

Luke said his initial struggle following the incident was wondering if he would play again, now it is living the same life as before.

“It sort of feels like we have entered a new world and new perspective through this,” Alex said.

The two of them are currently trying to compile stories of the people involved in the situation, because Luke was unconscious through the whole experience. They do not want to forget the stories of the people involved.

As conversations are occurring, Alex said the most important thing for students to do is to learn where the AEDs on campus are and how to use them. He also said that if you believe you are at risk for cardiac arrest, confirm it with a doctor, and let your friends and roommates know.

PHOTO from by MLive

PHOTO from by MLive

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

A&E

Music Review My Chemical Romance Christina Cherian | Staff Writer

M

y Chemical Romance is a New Jersey based band that broke up in March of 2013 but recently ended their hiatus. They formed in 2001 and took the world by storm in their twelve-year reign over the punk music scene. The band’s front man, Gerard Way, started the process that led to their creation.

Before writing music, Way worked in Hoboken, New Jersey designing action figures where he was an eyewitness to 9/11. The first songs he ever wrote for the band were related to his emotions regarding what he saw. He enlisted Ray Toro and his brother Mikey, who provided the name for the band, and they began

creating a repertoire of music. They began touring and recording their songs professionally. Frank Iero later joined them as the fourth member of the band.

In their time working together, they created four albums, evolving from punk to alternative pop. They frequently toured, being able to interact with the crowds and the fans.

Spring Arbor University (SAU) student Olivia McRitchie started listening to them at a young age and continues to listen to them today. She remains a steadfast fan because My Chemical Romance was able to help her through hard times.

Another student, who asked to remain anonymous, did not have such an easy relationship with My Chemical Romance. It was difficult to reconcile some of their controversial messages with their Christian upbringing. Beyond the initial concerns of the morality of the music, they slowly began to realize they didn’t have to agree with everything that the band stands for to appreciate their music. They felt especially connected to the third album, The Black Parade, and feels that the music “faces you with death and tells you to keep going” in an inspiring way.

“We’ll carry on!”

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February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com thesaupulse.com • July 31, 2018

Elizabeth Brugger | Staff Writer

Someone crying in a library study room Singing in communal bathrooms

Stir Fry Day

Couple clearly on a date in the DC

Tour Group

Roommate sleeps through class

Alumni Comments on SAU memes page pretending to know what’s going on

Solemn references to Ormston or Muffitt Halls

Free Space

Girl taking picture of sky

Seeing a new student from your old high school

The kid late to class is carrying Sacred Grounds

Instagram post Chapel with picture of Speaker the clock tower spotted in the DC Longboarding accident (watching or participating)

A&E

BINGO!

Lounge Couple spotted outside of the lounge *gasp*

Hearing “hey girlie” from across the plaza

Boy wearing shorts with the temperature below freezing

Friend from COR100 getting engaged

Freshman boy carrying acoustic guitar

Squirrel jumping out of trash can

Back row chapel sleepers

String lights as primary décor in dorm room

When the event prizes are SAU merch

First hammock of spring

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

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thesaupulse.com • February 28, 2020

The Pulse is on Instagram!!

Follow us at: saupulse Stay up to date with happenings around campus and how the Pulse staff is working on the next issue!

February 28, 2020 • thesaupulse.com

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Jasmine Harper Athlete of the Month Brittany Roemer | Staff Writer As the end of her junior year arrives, Jasmine Harper is in her third year of running both cross country and track at Spring Arbor University (SAU).

Harper started running track and cross country eight years ago after watching her parents and two older siblings. She decided to try cross country in middle school.

“It was the first sport I realized I could actually be good at,” Harper said.

Since joining the women’s crosscountry team, Harper has competed at NAIA Cross Country Nationals in Vancouver,Washington,andrecently finished in the top third of runners.

She is motivated to run when she is around her teammates and coach.

Harper said she also listens to her mom’s advice who says,“You are not what you do.”

“I can put a lot of pressure on myself to do well, so it is freeing to be reminded of my mom’s words,” Harper said.

She also looks to 2 Corinthians 12:9-10.

Throughout the seasons, Harper dealt with an injury to her right leg.

“I want to thank Coach Bryan Burk for being so patient with me as my body has been recovering the past couple of years. A lot of coaches wouldn’t have shown as much grace as he has,” Harper said.

PHOTO provided by Chris Bauman

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I can put a lot of pressure on myself to do well, so it is freeing to be reminded of my

PHOTO Provided by Jasmine Harper