October 16-23, 2013

7.5 percent

WSU BLACK GRADUATION RATE SLIPS SEE FEATURES, PAGE 7 JON ADAMS/THE SOUTH END

OCTOBER 16 - OCTOBER 23, 2013 | WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY’S STUDENT NEWSPAPER SINCE 1967 | THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU | DETROIT, MICHIGAN | FREE

NEWS

Shutdown drama

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It’s Godzilla vs. Mothra, and no one’s budging

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CHRISTINA CLARK Staff Columnist What kind of job can a person have where they stop doing their job for two weeks and continue to get paid?

What is ...Speaker of the House, Alex?

According to the Washington Post, the annual salary of Speaker of the House John Boehner (R) is $223,500, and yes, he has continued to receive his paychecks over the last two weeks while the government has been shut down.

Boehner isn’t the only government official that still receives his paycheck while the federal government is closed.

According to the Washington Post, by law, all members of Congress continue to be paid, though at least 248 of them have begun to refuse or donate their paychecks during the shutdown.

President Obama continues to earn his $400,000 annual

salary throughout the shutdown as well.

Why did the government shut down?

According to CNN, each year the government must decide on a fiscal budget for the next year. This year, the Republicans and Democrats could not agree on a spending plan. Disagreements about the Affordable Health Care Act, more commonly known as Obamacare, also contributed to the shutdown.

“Opponents of Obamacare say it’ll hurt employers and amounts to overreach by the federal government. Some have also criticized the medical device tax that’s part of the law, saying that by imposing such a tax, it’s basically sending jobs overseas,” according to CNN.com.

Meanwhile, proponents of Obamacare claim the law will expand access to health care and help rein in the rising costs of coverage.

Obamacare prevents those with pre-existing medical conditions from being denied health insurance, and proponents say those who have health insurance “will no longer have to indirectly pay for those who show up

in emergency rooms uninsured,” according to the same CNN article.

While this shutdown continues, national parks, zoos, bike trails, free museums, the national archives and federal websites will be closed. Also, the Food and Drug Administration inspectors will stop working, and Veteran Affairs disability benefit programs will also likely be affected by the shutdown, according to the CNN. Officials who can’t work will not receive pay during the shutdown, but a bill that would have guaranteed these workers receive back pay once the government resumes operations has been held up in the Senate, according to the Huffington Post.

In addition, families of fallen soldiers that were promised benefits were denied these benefits because of the shutdown.

The Fisher House Foundation has stepped in to provide these families with the benefits they were promised, and the Pentagon has promised to reimburse the foundation once the shutdown has ended, according

to CNN. With all of these things happening in the U.S. and to the American people, one would think that Boehner and Obama would be working to end this shutdown as quickly as possible, but it doesn’t seem to be happening that way.

According to the Huffington Post, Boehner has enough votes to pass a bill that would end the shutdown, but he would first have to push the vote through, which he seems to have no intention of doing.

Obama has announced several times on national television that he is willing to work with Boehner and other members of Congress if they approve a short-term spending budget and debt increase, terms which Boehner refuses.

Yes, Obama could give in to Boehner, but if he does, he sets a precedent that anytime the speaker doesn’t get his or her way, they can simply shut the government down.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Godzilla versus Mothra battle and it appears that neither side is going to budge unless we make them.

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2 I OCTOBER 16 - OCTOBER 23, 2013 I THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU

This week we’re bringing back our “People on the Street” feature, where we go out and ask you relevant questions to today’s news and culture. Check it out here every week, and online at www.thesouthend.wayne.edu!

BY JON ADAMS

THIS WEEK’S TOPIC: THE GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN- HAS IT IMPACTED YOU DIRECTLY? TONY ROBINSON Pre-Nursing Major

I feel they should probably get something done, because it’s been a few weeks with people out of work. How are you going to take care of your kids with no income?

CLAIRE FASTIGGI Photography Major

I’m planning a trip up north and all the national parks are closed. I was gonna go to Sleeping Bear Dunes, but it’s closed, so we’re not sure.

MOHSEN DOURRA Biology Major

Not directly, it’s just all coming apart. As the years are going by it’s just corrupt now. They’re supposed to be our leaders, and if they’re fighting what’s gonna happen to the people?

ASHLEY BRYANT Accounting Major

Personally no, but I do think they need to come to some type of conclusion soon because it’s affecting people.

THESOUTHEND.WAYNE.EDU I OCTOBER 16 - OCTOBER 23, 2013 I 3

NEWS

PHOTO COURTESY WALTER P. REUTHER LIBRARY

Wayne’s overlooked library gem Parks collection highlights activist’s life, racial divide BRIAN MAINZINGER Contributing Writer Many students may be aware that Rosa Parks made her home in Detroit during part of her life, and worked for Congressman John Conyers. They may be aware that Rosa Parks Boulevard is named in her honor, but what many may be unaware of is Wayne State’s special connection to Parks’ history.

The Walter P. Reuther Library is home to a collection of Rosa Parks’ papers.

The Parks collection is made up of items that range from birthday cards and pamphlets to handwritten notes on her days at the Highlander School.

According to William LeFevre, a reference archivist at the library, “the notes from her time at The Highlander School where she learned a lot about civil disobedience -- are really sig-

nificant, really a gem. You can see the formation of the thought process in her mind that leads to the bus strike.”

The Highlander Folk School, according to the Stanford University website, was situated in the hills of Tennessee and in its early days focused on labor and education. By the 1950s its focus became race relations. The website notes, “Rosa Parks attended a 1955 workshop at Highlander four months before refusing to give up her bus seat, an act which ignited the Montgomery bus boycott.”

The handwritten pages by Parks reflect the focus of the school. An outline written by Parks in 1955 begins, “Necessary Education Accompanying Education -- A. Educate the Board of Education.” More notes written by Parks impart the focus of the days lesson. From July 31, 1955, Parks writes: “Desegregation proves itself by being put in action. Not changing attitudes.

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Attitudes will change,” and, “Education in human relations should go on even though actual integration will not take place within a school.”

Newspaper clippings in the collection relate entirely to race relations or directly involve Parks. The clippings often indicate the nature of race relations and reporting styles of the time.

Parks has pen marked an article

by Ned Touchstone in which she is mentioned. The article reads, “Here is proof that the secretary to a United States Congressman hovered with top communists at a mountain retreat in Tennessee.” The article continues with Touchstone making a call directly to Parks and asking her about communist involvement in the school. Parks response is written as such, “I jes don’t know, Mr. Touchstone, you’ll have to ask Mr. Myles Horton who run the school.”

The papers were deposited in the

library in the 1970s, and were then donated by Parks. LeFevre says these papers are significant to the library because they “add to the prestige of the archives.”

“The Rosa Parks collection is important, and if you are studying the racial divide in America you might want to come and look at the Parks collection,” he says. “But more globally than that, students should come and look at all the collections. We have a gem here that seems to get overlooked by students.”

Students may walk in and have access to the papers and other collections in the library, but LeFevre recommends calling and speaking with him directly to get guidance on specific collections, as well as the Parks collection.

The library is located at 5401 Cass Avenue. William LeFevre can be reached at 313.577.2789, or by email at william.lefevre@wayne.edu.

A&E

Belles bring game to Detroit New album coming soon JESSICA FREEDLAND Contributing Writer The band whose sound has been called “indie-rock at its best” is coming to town at the end of October.

The Canadian dark pop band The Belle Game formed five years ago, with lead singer Andrea Lo, Adam Nanji and Alex Andrew. The band came together in pieces as the three of them sought out other musicians to play with. The group now also includes Katrina Jones and Rob Chursinoff.

“I think, with the way we’re currently set up with all our members, I’d say we’ve been together about four years,” Lo said. “Adam, Alex and I,

we go way back. We’ve known each other since high school. Adam and Alex have known each other since elementary school.”

The Belle Game gained some attention from Indie Shuffle earlier this year with the release of their newest album, “Ritual Tradition Habit,” which came out in April.

“It’s refreshing to find a band with a female vocalist that delivers a fresh point of view and a new sound. The Belle Game does this well, altering the confines of modern music while relating effortlessly with their audience,” the blog said.

Their album was also praised by Pitchfork Magazine: “Ritual’ is unerringly tuneful and tasteful, with confident vocals, meticulous crafts-

manship and no fear of being seen as middlebrow. In short, it could’ve come out any time in the past decade and sound just as good as it does in 2013.”

Lo gave some insight into the concept behind the album, saying that “Ritual Tradition Habit” is about “growing up, shedding your layers, getting rid of some of the rituals, traditions, and habits that had been imposed upon you — through the way you’ve been brought up or the people that you’ve met — and deciding if you want to keep those things around anymore.”

The Belle Game is playing music from their new album while on tour this fall.

“I like to call it our ‘big trip’ tour

because we’ve never been on the road longer than 13, 14 days,” Lo said. “It’s going to be about 6 weeks that we’re out (on tour).”

The band is taking a zigzagging route across the United States and Canada on their North American tour.

The tour kicks off at the Banff Center in Calgary, Canada, on Oct. 12, and ends in Vancouver, Canada on Nov. 9.

You can catch them when they make a stop in Detroit to play The Magic Stick on Thursday, Oct. 31.

Ticket information can be found online at http://majesticdetroit.com/ majestic-upcoming-events/bearmountain-the-belle-game.html.

Additional information about The Belle Game can be found on their website: thebellegame.com.

Grandpa’s been bad ‘Jackass’ brings comedy and a real plot TIM CARROLL A&E Correspondent “Jackass” is back, but this time, the movie has a plot.

Johnny Knoxville returns to the big screen in his latest movie “Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.” The movie, the fourth “Jackass” film, is unlike every other movie before it because, according to Knoxville, this one has a story.

“We’re trying to service a story as well. We have a story and we’re doing pranks on people but sometimes we’ll try to work story points into the pranks,” Knoxville said. “Everything has to connect and make sense. It was very unique to this film.”

The plot involves 86-year-old grandpa Irving Zisman (Knoxville) who is traveling across the country with his eight-year-old grandson Billy, played

by Jackson Nicoll. They encounter male strippers, biker bar patrons and even a beauty pageant.

“We could not have found any kid more gifted than Jackson. He is eight years old and completely fearless,” Knoxville said of his co-star. “You know, we’ve done pranks with kids in the past and sometimes they just freeze up, but never do we enter a situation where he was intimidated or frightened. He just looked forward to it.”

Knoxville and Nicoll get into an as-

sortment of misadventures. The duo visit a funeral, take on retail shops and Nicoll is even dressed in drag and entered into a beauty pageant.

They, of course, get out of every situation in the classic Jackass way, ticking off a lot of people in the process.

The pair has great chemistry and work together to prank as many people as they can. But that’s not the only thing this movie is about.

“I think you’ll be surprised at how much you’re going to be invested in the relationship between me and my grandson,” Knoxville said. There’s a loose narrative in the movie; you know take my grandson across country, deliver him to his father and across the way, we prank people.” Knoxville said the pranks add to the movie, but the movie really has a lot more to it. “The reactions we get in the pranks are really surprising but I think the most surprising will be how much you like our relationship,” he said.

Yet, fans can still expect the same style of pranks from this film as its prequels.

The movie was written by Knoxville and longtime Jackass member Spike Jonez.

It was also directed by Jeff Tremaine, who has been director and executive producer of every other Jackass film.

“Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa” will have its premiere on Friday, Oct.25 and will open at most theaters nationwide.

For show times call your local movie theater.

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A&E

CHASTITY BELT

PONY TIME

Friends and tour partners Chastity Belt, Pony Time play The Old Miami Oct. 29 GABRIEL CAMERO Contributing Writer Seattle bands Pony Time and Chastity Belt are playing a 21 and older show at The Old Miami Oct. 29 at 10 p.m. for $7 as part of their first national tour.

Lead guitarist and vocalist of fourpiece Chastity Belt, Julia Shapiro, said the name, “originally was just me and (guitarist) Lydia Lund ... yelling it at parties and destroying frat houses ... screaming ‘Chastity Belt!’”

This humor is central to a lot of Chastity Belt’s work, especially the YouTube documentary “Unlocking Chastity Belt.” Although the punk-garage band jokingly dubbed themselves “vagina rock,” their catalog pertains to fighting oppression and repression more than female sexuality, further extending the symbolism of their name.

Their influences range from Be-

yoncé and Fiona Apple to The Pixies, and that’s reflected in a style change of adding softer songs — like “Black Sail,” featured on NPR’s “All Songs Considered” — to their edgy repertoire.

“I feel like even some of the newer songs we’re working on sound different ... I sing differently depending on what song we’re singing,” Shapiro said.

Pony Time, a two-piece garage-rock band that met while moving a friend’s stereo in 2009, is also developing a more complex sound but with less emphasis on lyrics.

Vocalist, bassist and baritone guitar player Luke Beetham said, “What’s more important to me is the syncopation of how the words fit into the music more than the words themselves.”

This comes from the idea of world music vocals and results in Beetham’s frequently altered lyrics live and instudio.

Beetham said his composition style

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is heavily influenced by The Milkshakes, an ‘80s London punk-rock group he compared to the Beatles in Hamburg. Pony Time’s two albums on Bandcamp demonstrate a maturing sound with increasingly complex riffs and beats, perhaps resulting from the duo’s on-the-job musical education.

The Temp Agency represents both bands on the tour, but the booking and planning was the work of friends Shapiro and Pony Time drummer Stacy Peck.

“I just looked at the map and tried to put us in smaller towns on weekend nights, make sure we never drove no more than 8 hours and took it from there,” Peck said.

Although everyone is excited, Beetham, who was exhausted by the end of a rigorous South by Southwest tour, said, “I’m really looking forward to some shorter drives and maybe see a little bit.”

Peck visited Detroit while selling merchandise at the Magic Stick, but as

a performer she anticipates a different experience. About Detroit, East Lansing native and Chastity Belt drummer Gretchen Grimm said, “It’s pretty wild — driving down abandoned streets but there’s also a lot of cool places.”

Vietnam veteran Danny Overstreet runs The Old Miami, located at 3930 Cass Ave., providing a vet hangout filled with military memorabilia and couches that give a warm 1970s living room feel — aside from the pool table and two pinball machines, that is. The stage is small and the dance floor can cram about 75 people, but the backyard is larger than most, containing lawn chairs, another bar, a fishpond and more decorations.

If you want to buy the bands drinks during or after the show, it’s a round of vodka Red Bulls for Chastity Belt; soda water and a lime for Peck; and a Hamm’s, Pabst Blue Ribbon or Black Label for Beetham. If you have a loose Winston or Marlboro for Beetham, he would probably appreciate that too.

FEATURES

Left behind

COVER STORY

Black WSU students graduate at lowest rate in U.S. SYDNEE THOMPSON The South End On any given weekday, the Wayne State campus is the epitome of diversity — black, white and brown faces, some wearing hijab, others wearing suits and ties and more still wearing the standard college attire of T-shirts and sweats — milling about Midtown, learning and growing together.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be any issue of inequality here, but the statistics provide a more troubling story: According to the WSU 2012-13 Fact Book, 50 percent of undergrad students are white and roughly 23 percent are black, but many of those black students may never graduate.

The graduation gap between white and black has played out at universities all over the country, but the problem is exacerbated at WSU. In fact, according to a 2010 report by The Education Trust, only 10 percent of black undergraduate students who started school in 2004 were able to graduate within six years.

The six-year graduation rate for whites? 43.6 percent. A year later, in 2011, the gap grew worse, with only 7.5 percent of blacks receiving a degree in six years, making WSU one of the worst universities in the nation for African-American graduation overall and the worst among public colleges, according to a 2012 Bridge Magazine article.

Twenty-two-year-old Diyamond Thompson isn’t surprised by the statistics. She started at WSU as a freshman in 2010, but stopped attending in November 2012. If she had continued, fall 2013 would’ve been the start of her senior year.

“I stopped going because of the lack of support from home,” she said, “and then just overall, Wayne State I felt was just overpriced.

There’s nothing to help you, in general, as far as going to class. I remember times when I couldn’t even find a parking space … and there’s no type of free parking for students, so that stopped you from going to class.”

In addition to the financial strain, Thompson said her home situation only compounded the stress that made it difficult for her to continue attending classes.

“At home, I was with my mom,” she said. “My mom is really young; we’re only 17 years apart, so I

don’t know if she feels like it’s a repeat of her, but it’s just like everything I did, it was, ‘oh, you have a job, you pay’ or ‘where is your dad?’ … there wasn’t really support like, ‘OK, Diyamond, we’ll get through it.’ It was always some type of negativity. I never really had positive — well I’m not going to say none, but there wasn’t a lot of positive feedback with her.”

Thompson said she paid her own car note and phone bill while at WSU and held a part-time job at Bath & Body Works in Westland.

Sometimes she didn’t have money to get to school, so at one point she stayed with a friend who lived on campus in order to make sure she could make the trip.

At the same time, though, she was racking up parking tickets because she didn’t have a parking pass. Although she said she did consider scholarships or loans, she thought that winning a scholarship was “unrealistic” at the time, and her mother strongly discouraged her from taking out any more loans.

“It kinda put me in a situation to where I was, ‘OK, Diyamond, either you need to put school to the side and get things together and get a better job, or you need to stop working and focus right on school,’” Thompson said. “Like I said, not having a lot of support at home, (not working) wasn’t an option.”

Thompson, however, said she believes another issue is responsible for the low graduation rate for African-Americans.

“Honestly I think more AfricanAmericans students go to school, go to college, for fun — the majority,” she said. “They go for the parties, they go to compete with each other … you never see Indians or Caucasians — I’m not saying all, but the majority — nobody gets up and gets fancy to go to class, you know? So that could be part of the problem; people think it’s just a show or people think it’s for fun.

I’ve seen people get up and go to class just to go to class and come back to the dorms and go to sleep, not even really doing anything — just there to be there. I don’t think they take it as serious as other people. I mean, that’s just what I’ve seen as far as going to Wayne State.”

Corinne Webb, associate vice president for enrollment manage-

ment at WSU, said she’s not sure what in particular the low rate could be attributed to, but she pointed out that the data used to formulate reports like those from The Education Trust are from a very small pool of students.

“It’s only localized to first-year students who are enrolled fulltime,” Webb said. “And what the government says (is), ‘I want you to tell me how many students that was. I now want you, one year later, to tell me how many of those students … came back one year later. And that will be your firstyear retention rate. Then I want you to tell me how many of those students that started with you, how many of those students graduated in four years.’”

Webb also said transfer students are not included in the stats, whether they transferred to WSU or transferred from WSU to finish their degree elsewhere. The graduation and retention rates also don’t include graduate or professional students, and if at any point a student drops to part-time during their college career, they are considered to have dropped out.

“Life has changed, the environment has changed,” she said.

“Work requirements have changed, so students, sometimes what they do is they have to pause, they have to step out, and what happens is time continues to tick.”

Webb also co-chairs the Strategic Graduation Action Committee, a partnership of administrators, college deans, advisors and staff members in the Office of the Registrar and Student Accounts Receivable that focuses on giving “individualized attention” to students who are just shy of graduating.

If a student has not applied for graduation, a WSU staff member will call them to encourage them to do so, as well as lift any registration blocks if the student agrees to commit to a payment plan.

Students who have finished their coursework will not receive their diploma until after they’ve paid their debts in full, Webb said, but the university is happy to send certification to employers that the student has finished all their courses.

According to Webb, in the year that the Strategic Graduation Action Committee has been actively advising students, the six-year graduation rate of the 2007 class

has increased from 28 percent to 32 percent, and now any current student who doesn’t register for the next semester receives a phone call.

“In order to move that metric, in order to move it from 10 to 50 or 45 to 60 — whatever it’s going to be — it’s going to take individualized attention and focus on every student, and that’s what the university is doing,” Webb said.

Thompson said more attention needs to be focused on AfricanAmerican students in particular.

“My personal opinion, for me, maybe they could try to put something together … try to focus more on the graduation rate of AfricanAmericans there at Wayne State,” Thompson said. “Not to make us feel bad or degrade us, but so they can start to realize: ‘look guys, we already look bad to the whole world or the U.S. or wherever; they already think we are below everyone else. Let’s try to set this goal higher to get where we need to be in life.’ Maybe set up programs … (and say) ‘OK, here’s our statistics versus this ethnic group,’ you know? And tell them, ‘Like, look: we’re here, but we are not doing what we’re supposed to be doing while we’re here. You made it to college but where’s the progress?

Nothing’s happening.’”

Today, Thompson works full-time in the Henry Ford Health System downtown as a contact center advocate. She has almost paid off her car and has moved into her own apartment, but college is still on her mind.

“Now that I’m out of school, I can’t wait to be back in school,” she said. “It wasn’t that I didn’t like it, but I wish I would’ve took more advantage of maybe study groups or the resources at the databases on the Pipeline and stuff like that, versus just getting up, going to class and trying to get it done on my own.”

“Please come talk to us when you have any trouble,” Webb said. “Let us know before you leave. Please don’t be shy; please tell us. Ask us what you need. And to the extent that students receive an answer: ‘well this is the way it is, too bad,’ that’s what has to change. We have to say, ‘I’m here to help you.”

“I may not have all the answers, but I want to keep you in my circle and get you to the right person who can help you.’”

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FEATURES

Exploring Fisher Canyon Park reclaims city’s barren landscapes JON ADAMS/THE SOUTH END

LIZ SCUTCHFIELD Contributing Writer These days, when you hear art, parks and Detroit in the same sentence, it’s understandable if the first thing that comes to mind is loss.

Thanks to some creative, hardworking and resourceful people, that’s not the whole story.

Just south of New Center is Fisher Canyon, a park recently born of this spirit. It was for decades essentially a dumping ground in an alley, or canyon, between a pair of railroad viaducts. Now it’s an unlikely urban park with a view of the golden tower of the Fisher Building that can best be compared to the land of Oz. Before becoming a park, it was just space between the Lincoln Street Art Park and an informal gallery of graffiti under the viaducts. Actually, it’s hard to think of them as separate. In many ways they aren’t.

That’s because of Green Living Science, a neighbor and “parent” of L.S.A.P. and Fisher Canyon. G.L.S. evolved from Recycle Here, a center originally created to accept residents’ recyclables in a city that doesn’t. Soon they were going into schools and businesses to teach about recycling and

hosting field trip tours at the Trumbull location.

Following those tours of the facility, Rachel Klegon, G.L.S. executive director, would take the students outside to see the park, and then to see the graffiti on the viaducts. “When we’d go on the tour we always walked past there,” Klegor said, speaking of the alley. “We’d stop and have them look to see the view. Over the years I’d think, we should do something.”

A lack of funds kept it just a thought until some people at Blue Cross Blue Shield expressed an interest in finding a project for their summer interns.

“Things really happen when someone takes the lead,” Klegon said. “They wanted something that was really their own, something that they could see start to finish.”

She seized the moment. Work began on Fisher Canyon with an Earth Day event this past spring. Student volunteers came out and started the cleanup process.

Three more days of hard work by Blue Cross Blue Shield workers, and they got the space cleaned down to the cement walls the viaducts create, and the original bricks that line the alley.

Other volunteers built benches and planted flowers.

After the clean-up was done, Klegon

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said they put the word out through a few street artists about what areas were now prepped and available as canvas. Now, both sides of the canyon are lined with paintings by some of Detroit’s best street artists like Fel3000ft, Malt, Patch Whiskey, J. Lapham and Carl Oxley III. As a visitor, Fisher Canyon seems to be a part of Lincoln Street Art Park.

The park is bordered by the railroad viaducts, Lincoln Street and the Green Science Living building. The building’s walls are covered in murals, cleverly stacked phone books create a raised bed for an herb garden and an eclectic collection of art is scattered throughout the park.

Frank the Dinosaur dominates the space. He started out as display at the Detroit Electronic Music Festival and was brought to the park when it ended and he had no other home.

Like most of the other art in the park, the enormous Frank is made of repurposed materials. Three plastic lawn chairs make up just part of his tail. His nose includes a cooler and a dozen other things. It seems like using recycled materials to make art in a park alongside a recycling facility is a theme, but Klegon said, “it is purely coincidence that what shows up is usually made of that stuff.” G.L.S.

doesn’t have any control over the art that goes in the park, nor do they want any.

In a corner formed by the building and the viaduct is a bonfire pit surrounded by a circle of seats. Like the rest of the park, it is meant to be used by whoever wants to use it. Just bring your own wood, and let anyone who wants to join in. Sharing seems to be the primary rule of these parks. You can use the space to have a party, you can’t exclude anyone from participating in any part of it.

The park has been a success, too.

This summer the park has been used for a Father’s Day brunch, a wedding shower and a wedding. On the weekends families come to drop off their recycling, visit the park and have a bonfire. But, according to Klegon, the most common visitor is there to take pictures.

Klegon recommends that the artists take pictures of their work too, before it’s gone. Not because it’s under threat of being sold off to help pay the city’s debts, each work is created with the artist knowing that at any time another street artist could come along and paint right over it.

Klegon said her favorite thing about the parks is “going out there and never knowing what’s going to be there.”

FEATURES

Flying without wings DEBANINA SEATON Contributing Writer Have you ever seen Cirque du Soleil live?

Have you ever been to the circus to see feats of aerial tumbling, twists and twirls that leave the audience breathless?

Did you know someone on campus does this on a tree? Chelsea Stauffer is that aerialist. The Ann Arbor-bred freshman came to WSU just recently and is already gaining an audience.

Stauffer began this high-flying hobby with gymnastics around the age of nine, when a friend of hers encouraged her to join. But Stauffer only did it for about a month or two, she said.

“I don’t know why I stuck with it; I liked it,” she said.

It wasn’t until high school when a friend of hers introduced her to aerial arts.

Her friend told her about Flojo and gave her two options: Tuesday evenings from 9 to 12 p.m. that offer a circus inspired “shebang” or Wednesday evenings that offered aerial silks in his friend’s apartment. Because she still went to school, she said being out late

wasn’t possible, so she went to Wednesday evening aerial sessions.

“I started going with him every single week and after the first time that I did it, I looked up a lot of stuff up for aerial silks – so I got really involved with it.”

She began aerial arts her second semester of her senior year in high school and first performed her acts in her hometown. She performs with a group in the summer called the Silks in the Diag on University of Michigan property.

Her performances with the group have never had an issue, but she has not had the same luck on WSU campus. Around Deroy, at WSU’s art fair, she said public safety stopped Stauffer from performing aerial acts on a tree.

“I went out to perform and they shut me down then and two or three other occasions they shut me down,” she said. “They just say ‘this is a liability issue; we own the tree and if the tree breaks there are a lot of issues and you’re not insured.’ Wayne State’s taking a lot of responsibility by allowing me to do that, that’s why they don’t allow me to do that.”

Stauffer said she knows it’s not allowed

and not technically legal. Near Deroy, it is more populated and so public safety will tell her to go away.

But the liability issue is only a matter of safety. Stauffer said she is very aware of her body and her movements so she is not too concerned about getting hurt. Stauffer said she used to climb trees a lot as a child and very high at that. She said she is trusting blindly but said she feels she isn’t in that much danger.

It is interesting Stauffer would leave Ann Arbor, the location of U of M, where she is allowed to perform aerial acts when on WSU property it’s a liability. But Stauffer said she didn’t come to WSU for the chance to swing from trees but for a bigger reason.

“I wanted to come to Wayne State for the diversity,” she said. “Detroit seemed like a cool place to go. A lot of people from my town went to Michigan or Michigan State – especially being from Ann Arbor – it’s kind of expected that everyone just follows in the same path to go to Michigan and I just wanted to leave Ann Arbor and experience another community.”

Not only does she bring diversity, she also

brings something other college students face: she doesn’t know what she wants to do for her major.

“I’m undecided,” she said. “I think I’m going to go artsy; I’m not sure, though. Besides the arts, I really like African-American studies; my philosophy class is pretty cool; I sew but that’s artsy.”

If you do catch her performing, you’ll only get the aerial acts. Stauffer said she doesn’t do gymnastics anymore because her age group and skill level caused her to drop out if she didn’t compete. But she said she likes aerial more. She said gymnastics is nice because there is a student-teacher structure, where in aerial she has to teach herself or learn from other aerialists.

Liabilities, undecided majors and all, it seems like Stauffer is feeling good with the wind beneath her wings, or in this case silk, and it doesn’t look like she’s coming back to ground level anytime soon.

“It’s cool because there’s no ground,” she said. “That’s the coolest aspect of it; anything you’re balancing on is not substantial. It’s a very different feeling. It’s fun to be above people; it’s fun to be suspended in air.”

WSU offers ‘lifesaving’ treatment LYNN LOSH Contributing Writer Earlier this year, former WSU photography student Tanya Britt was faced with a problem many Detroiters have: being sick with no medical insurance.

Britt started getting symptoms of what she thought was a sinus infection in January.

By April, Britt was diagnosed with nasopharyngeal carcinoma, also known as throat cancer.

“When I would eat or swallow, some of the fluid or food would go up my sinuses instead of down my throat,” Britt said of her initial symptoms.

When her ailments persisted, she looked up her symptoms on the internet.

“When I googled my symptoms and throat cancer came up, I never really gave it any thought, because I’m not a smoker or a drinker, that I could have throat cancer,” Britt said. “Any symptom that would warn me what the danger was, I would dismiss it because I’m not a highrisk person for throat cancer.”

After a few weeks and some over-the-counter medication, the symptoms stopped. New ones quickly surfaced.

“I started having post-nasal drip, which is where you have a lot of mucus,” Britt said.

“That was the second symptom. Whenever you eat, you’d have a lot of mucus built up.”

Her symptoms increased over the course of a few months. She had blocked sinuses, swollen lymph nodes, a constant earache and she was gargling up blood, on top of losing her voice.

“She (kept) telling me that she felt like she was underwater,” said WSU Professor Marilyn Zimmerman, friend and former teacher of Britt.

Britt tried to seek out medical care, but every clinic kept telling her to go to emergency. Being uninsured, Britt was nervous about going to emergency due to its high cost.

Zimmerman, concerned about Britt’s health, began looking for free clinics for uninsured patients. She found the Robert R. Frank Clinic, a WSU student-run free clinic that operates in collaboration with Mercy Primary Community Care Center.

The MPCC currently provides free care to 50,000 uninsured patients in Detroit with the help of the student-run clinic. Due to students’ school schedules, the clinic is only open on Saturdays, from 9 a.m. to noon.

After calling and finding the clinic was booked with appointments, Zimmerman sent an email and Britt made a phone call and she got an appointment in April.

The medical students examined her and asked her questions about her medical history.

After the examination, the students, concerned by what they had seen in her throat, called in a professional doctor.

“They couldn’t diagnose it because they’re students,” Britt said.

The cancer that originated behind her sinuses had moved to her tonsils and was visible behind them during examination.

The doctor referred her to the MPCC. She was again examined and then taken to St. John’s Hospital for CAT scans.

Britt was told by doctors that they were “99

percent sure it was a cancerous tumor.”

“I was very shocked when they told me it was 99 percent,” Britt said. “The first thing I said was ‘I guess I need to go home and get my things in order,’ because I assumed when you get cancer, you’re going to die.”

Nasopharyngeal carcinoma is rare in the United States, but very common in southeast Asia and Africa. It also occurs more often in males than females.

Britt’s throat cancer originated from the Epstein-Barr virus, a virus that causes mononucleosis. It is known to be a factor in almost all cases of throat cancer, but nasopharyngeal carcinoma can be treated by surgery, chemotherapy or radiation.Britt’s treatment is a mixture of chemotherapy and radiation.

Surgery was not an option due to the tumor’s proximity to her skull and the lack of negative space around it.

“The treatment that they’re giving me originated at a WSU medical facility. It was just confined to WSU, but now it’s universally available to treat this type of cancer,” Britt said.

The treatment began in June and will continue to the end of the year. Doctors will monitor Britt for five years after she is cancer free to make sure there aren’t signs of the cancer returning.

Though the type of cancer Britt has is considered curable, she has faced some costs in her fight for her life. Britt will have some permanent hearing loss and there is a possibility of kidney damage.

Britt has taken her experience and tried to make the best of it by advocating for throat

cancer awareness.

“It’s more important to save lives than be private,” Britt said. “An estimated 42,000 Americans will get diagnosed with throat cancer every year, and in five years time, a little more than half will be alive.”

Britt, who graduated with a BFA in photography and a minor in media arts in May, can’t work because of her illness. She periodically writes articles for Examiner.com and she lives with family members.

Britt, her family and her friends credit the student-run Robert R. Frank Clinic for helping her with her diagnosis.

“The WSU free clinic is a lifesaver. It has been Tanya’s lifesaver and salvation,” Zimmerman said. “The WSU free clinic offers an invaluable service, hope and healing to those who would otherwise not have a chance for such services.”

Britt has now applied for Medicaid and her insurance is pending, but a crowd-funding page is being set up to help offset her extensive medical bills.

Although Britt still has to go through treatment and still has a rough road ahead, she remains positive and spreads awareness wherever she goes.

“During my treatment all summer, I met some beautiful people all going through different forms of treatment for their individual cancer and they all said the same thing, they couldn’t believe it was happening to the them.

And you know what? It could happen to you,” Britt said. “Don’t dismiss it, because it can happen to anyone.”

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FEATURES WSU Pharmuseum pays homage to industry’s past Gallery hosts artifacts that recreate 18th century MICHAEL LEWIS II Contributing Writer Home to rich history and artifacts, Pharmuseum located at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences is seldom used, but greatly revered on campus.

“They’ve recreated a pharmacy in the past and it’s good to see how things used to be done,” said Ali Alsaden, one of the 2013 School of Pharmacy class presidents. “Prior to the 1900s, pharmacists played a huge role in society.”

During the late 19th century, pharmacists were more essential to

public health. Pharmacists administered diagnoses as well as prescribed medicine. Each individual patient needed their own specific medicine back then, so pharmacists used much of their time figuring out and creating what their patients needed. They would keep big books of medical records to keep track of patients and their prescriptions, a task that was made easier by computers.

“It looks interesting when you see the old tools,” said Eric Upshaw, a senior program records clerk for the Wayne State School of Pharmacy. “It’s pretty cool to think about old chemists using compounds to make medi-

cine from scratch.”

Wayne State’s Pharmuseum is filled with artifacts that recreate an 18th century pharmacy lab. Items like mortars and pestles, which were used to break down and mix ingredients, are just a couple examples of old pharmaceutical lab equipment. In addition there are jars, bottles, vials and chemicals used to create medicine by hand.

Although the creation of multi-purpose medicines and treatments has diminished the role of pharmacists in health, Ali Alsaden is confident in their future and takes pride in their past.

“This museum pays homage to what pharmacy used to be,” Alsaden said. “But I believe that with the way health care is evolving in America, pharmacists will play a bigger role in the future.”

It remains open only when visitors or tours are present in the building. However, medical students and visitors are both known to request a quick look around inside the museum.

“A lot of people enjoy the history because it shows our importance,” Alsaden said. “Even though it isn’t a part of our intense curriculum, I think all of the pharmacy students find it significant.”

SPORTS

WSU falls in weekend matches Team hopes to rebound Oct.18-19 COURTESY WSU ATHLETICS

ZEINAB NAJM Senior Writer The Wayne State women’s volleyball team went winless over the weekend at home. They lost both matches against Hillsdale College and Northwood University.

WSU is now 5-4 in GLIAC play and 8-9 overall for the season.

In the first match, the Warriors were swept by the Chargers in straight sets.

WSUnever scored more than 19 points in a set losing, 17-25, 19-25, and 19-25.

Hillsdale had control most of the match. They hit .158 for the match compared to WSU’s .038 hitting average.

Madison Reeves led the Warriors with 28 assists on the day.

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The following day, WSU faced Northwood University. The Timberwolves took the first two sets, but the Warriors fought for the third, before losing the fourth set and the match.

The first match was a tight back-andfourth affair but Northwood would win 25-22. The Timberwolves controlled the second set coming out to an early 7-2 lead and would earn the 28-26 victory.

WSU won their only set, the third of the match, of the weekend, 25-23 to avoid a sweep. Northwood would take the final set and the victory.

Reeves collected 37 assists while Macy Steenhuvsen had 19 digs for the Warriors.

WSU heads back on the road to play Grand Valley State and Ferris State next weekend.

SPORTS

t

Tied for ninth WSU golf team battles tough weather at GLIAC Men’s Championship COURTESY WSU ATHLETICS

HUMBERTO MARTINEZ JR. Senior Writer A GLIAC-conference champion was crowned on Monday, Oct. 7, as play at the 2013 GLIAC Men’s Golf Championship, where the Wayne State Warriors men’s golf team finished tied for ninth, concluded. WSU finished with a three-round total of 934.

Fighting through tough weather

conditions on the last two days of the tournament, the Malone Eagles won it with a 903 (293,315,295). Saginaw Valley State’s Wyatt Drost won top medalist honors, finishing with a score of 219 (70,78,71). The event was held from Oct. 5-Oct. 7 at the Eagle Eye Golf Course in Bath, Mich.

Two teams finished tied for second in the tournament – the Ashland Eagles and the Ohio Dominican Panthers. Both teams finished just behind Malone as they finished with

a three-round total of 904.

The Warriors finished the first day of the event in ninth with a round total of 306. Day two saw them drop to 11th as they finished with a score of 314. They matched Sunday’s score, but moved up back up to ninth, tying with the Tiffin Dragons.

WSU was led by Alex LaSerra, who earned a top-20 finish with his three-day score of 230 (76,77,77).

The younger LaSerra, Tyler, finished tied for 27th with a three-

round total of 232 (76,79,77), while teammate Jordan Andrus shot a 236 (77,79,80) to finish in a tie for 38th.

Rob Favaro scored a 242 (77,79,86), which placed him in a tie for 51st, while Reid Dean carded a 244 (78,86,80) to finish 54th.

The Warriors will play in their last fall tournament in the second Midwest Regional of the season, which starts on Monday, Oct. 14. The tournament will take place at Fox Run Golf Course in Eureka, Mo.

WSU pummeled in Hillsdale Turnovers plague Warriors, lead to 35-16 loss FUAD SHALHOUT The South End The Wayne State football team (3-3 overall, 3-2 GLIAC) did not do itself any favors in a 35-16 blowout loss at Hillsdale College, Oct. 12.

A 75-yard opening touchdown drive that resulted in a Dominique Maybanks touchdown was thought to be a sign of things to come for the Warriors’ offense. WSU, however, missed the extra point.

On the seventh play of the game,

Hillsdale responded with a rushing touchdown by Alex Koski that gave the Chargers a 7-6 lead.

A couple plays later, sophomore quarterback Carl Roscoe was intercepted in WSU territory.

Hillsdale’s Isaac Spence scored on an eight-yard carry on the fourth play following the pick putting the Chargers in front 14-6 with 3:27 remaining in the opening period.

Five straight rushing attempts by senior Toney Davis which netted 56 yards helped begin a scoring drive for WSU. Then, three consecutive runs by junior Des-

mond Martin earned another first down before the drive stalled.

Terleckyj made a 32-yard kick for the only points of the second quarter.

Trailing 14-9 at halftime, WSU’s defense had two consecutive stops to open the second half against the Chargers. Looking to get the offense going, on a secondand-10, Roscoe was intercepted by Steven Harding, who returned it 28-yards for a score.

But the Warriors wouldn’t back down. They responded immediately on the following possession,

with a 68-yard drive led by junior quarterback Doug Griffin.

He carried nine straight plays for 50 yards and finished off the series with a five-yard TD pass to sophomore tight end Ethan Walsh. It was Griffin’s first career touchdown pass and Walsh’s first career touchdown catch.

But turnovers killed WSU all afternoon long. On the next Warriors’ drive, Griffin threw an interception, which led to another Koski TD run. WSU turned the ball over on downs on its last two drives.

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PHOTO STORY

“WSU PRSSA FUNDRAISER”

PHOTOS BY KRISTIN SHAW/THE SOUTH END

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