Aquinas Women’s Lacrosse is gearing up for what is sure to be an amazing season.

The season starts for the Saints on March 2 in a game against Olivet College’s club team. Following that match, the team will participate in a five game tournament in Louisville, Kentucky. over spring break. The team hopes that the stiff competition in Louisville will prepare them for the season.

 “With how we have been playing in practice, I think Kentucky will be a big success for us and a great way to kick off our season,” said team co-captain, sophomore Annie Parks.

Freshman co-captain Brianna Shefferly hopes the trip will bring the team even closer.

“The trip should be very beneficial. It will also help us to get a good jump into the spring season for all of our games,” said Shefferly, a midfielder. “It will be nice for all of us to play on a real field and the full size again.”

The snowy field has been an issue for the team. “We’ve been trying not to let the massive amounts of snow get in our way but naturally it does cause problems for us,” said Parks.“We love our beautiful turf field and are looking forward to the day that we can actually see it and play on it, but until then we will continue to wear our boots to practice.”

The winter practices have given the ladies not only time to improve upon their skills, but also their sense of teamwork.

“When go out on the field we completely forget about everything else and do everything we can to walk off the field feeling accomplished,” said Parks.

Students will have a numerous opportunities to catch the Women’s team hit the field after break.

When it comes to describing a team’s attitudes, no one says it better than lacrosse player Brett Barnes.

“To quote Rihanna: we go hard and we just don’t let up,” said the junior defenseman. This is a statement that is sure to be proven true in the upcoming Aquinas Men’s Lacrosse season.

Last fall, the Saints hit the field for a series of scrimmages. “The fall was a lot of fun. Coming in as a freshman it was a great time to jump in and meet the old guard. Also, we got to beat up on Ferris State, which is nice,” said freshman defenseman Connor Sutton.

“We had a huge win and I hope that momentum carries over into the spring,” said junior midfielder Matt Schousen.

Sophomore Midfielder Jacob Jeffers also felt the fall helped the team saying “The fall scrimmages gave us some time to see where the incoming players fit into all our game plans so we should be ready to go when the actual season comes around.”

Men’s Lacrosse, though a relatively new team to the Aquinas landscape, is attracting a following.

The team has been scrimmaging since the return from break, and will begin official game play March 6 against Appalachian State. The game will take place in Boone, N.C., far from the chill of Grand Rapids. Other games that week will be against Southern Virginia and Coastal Carolina. “I have always loved the idea of traveling together early in the season,” said Head Coach Luke Griemsman.

The players seem to be looking forward to the trip south as well. “We will definitely come out of it with a winning record and make a name for AQ outside the conference,” said Sutton.

Look for the Saints winning attitude to lead them to a successful season this spring.

Have you ever wondered what Dan Brooks would look like in a brown monk’s habit? Or what Ralph Vunderink does in his free time? Luckily for you, Aquinas College offers a venue for faculty, staff and students  to learn what their professors are up to. That venue is the Aquinas Lecture Series.

The most recent reading was by Chair of the Humanities Department, Dr. Dan Brooks, who read from his book “Beyond the Cloister Walls: Readings from a Franciscan Memoir”, a first person account of his time spent in the Franciscan Order.

The Series began in 1991 as the brainchild of Dr. Brooks and a fellow professor in the English Department, Dr. Brent Chesley. When discussing the series with Chesley, he said, “Dr. Brooks and I disagree about whose idea the series was in the first place.  I’m sure it was his idea, but he insists that it was mine.”

Dr. Brooks is only one of many Aquinas professors who have shared their work.

In past years, lectures have covered a wide range of topics from a diverse group of faculty and others. In the past there have been presentations on the Kennedy assassination, women and the Holocaust, technology and “Star Trek”, gender issues in math and science learning, the honor code, the math of “Deal or No Deal” and a reflection on religious traditions in Western Ukraine.

This year’s series allowed Dr. Kati Gross, for example, to share her extensive and personal research involving identity in post unification Germany. “In my case: the enormous and dramatic changes that were brought on by the historical events surrounding the Fall of the Berlin Wall, the demise of the former East Germany/the Eastern Bloc and with that the socialist way of life. The further changes that not only impacted Eastern and Western Europe, but can certainly be felt and experienced today on a global level,“ Gross said about her reason for picking the topic.

Others on topics list for this year are Brad Winkler’s “Coming to America: The ABC’s of Visas and Study in America by Students and Faculty”, Kurt Kaiser’s “Teaching Spatial Logic in 3-D Design; or, Art Is Not As Scatterbrained As You Might Think” and Ralph Vunderink’s “Richard Wagner’s Courageous Return to the Forgotten Middle Ages.” Dr. Vunderink’s presentation will be “interspersed with music by the composer.”

This year’s Aquinas College Lecture Series has given students, faculty, staff and the community an opportunity to hear firsthand about much of the research or writings that AQ faculty is involved with. The Series allows all those who attend to gain not only new perspectives, but also to broaden their horizons, and, Gross said, “to further stimulate the intellectual climate on our campus,” which is essential for a Liberal Arts College like Aquinas.

Heed the words of Vunderink: “It is enriching to go to these lectures.”

As philosopher/poet Dwayne Michael Carter Jr. would say, the Pistons are ‘down like the economy. 

Almost a quarter of the way through the season the Pistons find themselves with a less than superb record, 7-12. More disappointing is the fact that 8 of the 12 losses have come on the road, including the ill-fated road trip out west where they lost 4 straight to LA, Portland, Utah, and Phoenix. Adding insult to injury, these losses came smack in the middle of a 7 game losing streak.

This year has brought old and new faces to the Pistons, after some huge off-season roster rearrangements.  Defensive specialist Ben Wallace returned to the squad along with Chucky Atkins. Maceo Baston, Ben Gordon and Charlie Villanueva were also signed. Only 6 players from last year are on the team this year, being joined by 10 new (or old in the case of Atkins and Wallace) players.

This years draft has turned out extremely well, with an unexpected 2nd round pick of the “fightin’ Swede”, Jonas Jerebko, who started his NBA career in pure Detroit fashion, by punching a foe in the face.

Miami Heat’s Jamaal Magloire was on the receiving end of a retaliatory strike in the preseason, which landed both players suspensions. “He got me on the nose, and I got him back,” Jerebko said. “What can I say?”

But Jerebko posesses more qualities than just a strong right hook, the rookie got his first double-double with a season-high 11 rebounds and 10 points against Atlanta. He is a constant force under the basket, playing 10 games with 5+ rebounds. Jerebko could also learn a thing or two from veteran Ben Wallace, who has had 37 games with 20 or more rebounds.

Jerebko and fellow rookie, Austin Daye, have been starting this year. The Pistons have been plagued with injury: Richard Hamilton and Tayshaun Prince are both out,with a right ankle sprain and ruptured disc. Gordon recently reentered the lineup after he suffered his own battle with a sprained ankle. While Villanueva joined his teammate, Hamilton, by donning a custom fit mask to protect his nose from further injury.

Pistons President Joe Dumars also hired John Kuster, making him the 6th head coach this decade.  Kuster has been a well-respected assistant coach since he began in 1995 with the Boston Celtics.

“John brings a wealth of NBA knowledge as a long-time assistant coach, including championship experience as an assistant coach with our club in 2004,” said Dumars after the hiring.

Five Pistons have been listed on the 2010 NBA All-Star Ballot: Rip Hamilton, Tayshaun Prince, Ben Gordon, Rodney Stuckey and Charlie Villanueva.

The stats show the Pistons win games when they pass the ball, being 3-1 this season when they rack up over 20 assists. Hopefully, that information will find its way into the locker room and the Pistons can share the rock to right the ship.

Pirate Latitudes did not mark the first foray into historical fiction for late author Michael Crichton, but it may be his best. The novel was found shortly after his death, by his assistant, as a completed manuscript. Another novel, the second in a two book deal with Harper was also discovered. Less then half was written.

Even before publication, Steven Spielberg bought the rights to turn the book into a feature film. Spielberg and Crichton had worked together before on Twister, Jurassic Park, The Lost World, and ER.

Although the book is without some of Crichton’s trademarks; computers, authors notes, thorough bibliography and an introduction, it does contain his world famous story telling and twists.

The novel reads as a straightforward pirate novel ought to read. Simple characters, sword fights, sea monsters, Spanish Silver and stormy seas.  It goes by rather quickly and will not leave the reader with any deep philosophical quandaries to deal with.

The book follows a small band of privateers in 1665 as they attempt to heist a Spanish treasure galleon. It touches on nationalistic tensions, greed, lust and a score of other topics, but only briefly.

Mr. Crichton was not known for his character development. When asked about this in a 1999 interview with Playboy Magazine he said, “I was interested in situations in which individual personality didn’t matter. Once an oil spill starts, I don’t think it matters who the president of Exxon is, whether he’s a good or bad guy. The truth is, he can’t do anything about it. I was interested in the oil spill itself. Like in Andromeda Strain, the only thing to do about a disaster is never to have it happen. Once it happens, almost everything you do is going to make it worse. In such stories, the personalities of the people don’t matter.”

After three years as an alternative housing assignment for Aquinas students, Aquinata’s time in the Residence Life Department is coming to an end.

Located a mile from Wege, on the Marywood campus, Aquinata has been open to upper-class female students. Residence Life began its official housing relationship with the Dominican Sisters three years ago, when the groups signed a two-year deal with an option to extend for a third. Come spring 2010 that contract expires, and as it stands, neither party is going to the table to re-negotiate a new contract.

According to Area Coordinator Alex Lentine, Aquinata has space in its floor plan for 50 or more students, but currently only has 35, and that number is expected to go down at the semester.

When students would opt into Aquinata, they also joined the Veritas Program. Director of Housing Randy McGeorge said, “The program was originally developed as a community introduction to living the Dominican Charisms. Participation in the first two years was not as active as we had hoped, and the program focus settled on providing community opportunities to introduce and promote the Dominican Charisms.”

Sophomore Aquinata Resident Assistant Rachel Kieras said, “Aquinata has the potential to be one of the most exciting places to be ‘on-campus,’ which it is often not known for. As of now I think that Aquinata is a great place to live, it just has the potential to be even better.”

Talks between Residence Life and Admissions led to the creation of Aquinata in order to accommodate an expected increase in enrollment. According to the plans and the numbers, enrollment has increased, and Aquinata has served its purpose, but now enrollment has reached a plateau. What was not planned was the economic downturn.

“We knew there would be a decline, but not coupled with an economic disaster,” said Lentine.

The furniture from Aquinata is planned to be moved into Hruby to refurnish the some of the rooms there.

When asked, Lentine said there would be no way to know if Aquinata would be an option in the future if the economic and enrollment pictures look differently.

“If they still need space or ever will in the future they should absolutely go back to Aquinata.  They should look into ways of taking full, hands-on, advantage of what Aquinata offers,” said Kieras.

“I love Aquinata.”

Once upon time there was a really good disaster movie. Then there were dozens of others, some good, others bad. Then there is 2012 (Columbia Pictures 2009), which puts them all together to make a somewhat nothing-just a movie. Written, directed, ruined and produced by Roland Emmerich, the film attempts to deal with the world’s end. Based on a Mayan Prediction and some kooky science, the two-hour-plus film somehow manages to escape answering any deep questions about what happens to humans under pressure like the films before it did. Instead it blows things up, throws in campy family and love scenes, and ultimately leaves the viewer feeling empty and used inside.
Emmerich is the king of blowing up American and world landmarks, and people love paying to see him (or rather his computer) do it. Since his first major hit, 1994’s Stargate, Emmerich has increased his dependence on computer-generated images and consequently decreased his time actually writing movies. Despite some snappy one-liners from John Cusack and co., the film’s dialogue falls relatively flat, amounting to nothing more then things to listen to as the Vatican gets destroyed. While dodging disaster after disaster (by seconds mind you), Cusack remains ever-sassy and ex-wife Amanda Peet is…there.
The star studded cast features favorite Danny Glover, playing Morgan Freeman playing the president in Deep Impact. The rest of the big names play what amounts to little more than stock characters: Oliver Platt stars as the bad guy, Chiwetel Ejiofor as the smart guy, Woody Harrelson as the crazy guy, and George Segal as the old guy.
Aside from the cavalcade of cataclysm, the film acts as a shameless self-promotion and product placement vehicle, with the name Sony in every possible scene.
A rather key element of this disaster film was also lacking – the music. Composed by co-writer Harold Kloser, the hyper-dramatic score was in your ears and cheesy, effectively taking the viewer out of the movie for a second here and there to roll their eyes when they should be gasping or clutching the arm rest.
Do not be mistaken, the visuals and sound effects are stunning, the best in a film yet, but without a good plot or dialogue it seemed senseless.
Entertainment Weekly reported that Emmerich is in talks to make 2013: not a sequel, but a television show based around the survivors rebuilding, which may prove interesting in a Lost sort of way.
In another interview with the Sci-Fi Channel, Emmerich talked about why he destroyed certain world symbols and not others. The Kaaba, a cube-shaped building at the heart of Mecca which serves as destination for the Hajj was left off the list of things to get demolished.
“Well, I wanted to do that, I have to admit,” Emmerich says. “But my co-writer Harald said, ‘I will not have a fatwa on my head because of a movie.’ And he was right. … We have to all … in the Western world … think about this. You can actually … let … Christian symbols fall apart, but if you would do this with [an] Arab symbol, you would have … a fatwa, and that sounds a little bit like what the state of this world is. So it’s just something which I kind of didn’t [think] was [an] important element, anyway, in the film, so I kind of left it out.”

The revised Alcohol and Substance Abuse Policy has been an issue of great contention, concern, and unanswered questions for many Aquinas students. The policy maintains the same guidelines found in the Student Conduct Code, and in order to amend them the administration would need approval of the Student Senate. The major change is in the inner workings of the judiciary process, including the appeals process and sanctioning guidelines.

One controversial part of the policy is parental notification in instances of infractions. Students feel the school has no right sending letters home to parents.

A sophomore student living off-campus expressed, “That is totally wrong. Do cops send parking tickets or court orders to parents? No. So what gives AQ the right to do that?”

Another sophomore, Dan Meloy thinks, “The issue I have about it is whether or not the College is being ethical by threatening to call parents when they should just deal with the students.”

The 1998 amendment to The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (know as FERPA [which protects student privacy in regards to most interactions with the college]) allowed schools to disclose any infraction regarding alcohol or drugs to parents if the student is under the age of 21 at the time of the disclosure or if the student is still considered a dependent. But the sanctions as laid out in the document found on the Dean of Students website, also calls for letters to be sent to parents of students over 21 in certain cases, such as selling alcohol to students, or having an open container in public.

Other outrage has been expressed over the amount of the fee/fine, and the first offense penalties. A sophomore who lives off-campus said, “Its really unfair for people who mess up and [screws] over people for one offense. They are trying to scare kids into not engaging in ‘bad’ activities. Its sorta like having a mother goose trying to make their hatchlings not stray, even though they are responsible for themselves.”

Another sophomore, Samantha Swartout thinks the new policy is too tough on first time offenders. “It is outrageous to me that your first offense merits you a $100 fine along with a class. I think there should be a compromise of the old and new policy. The offender should receive a warning write-up for the first offense; add a fine and class for the second. That way the person has time to adjust their actions and consider their thoughts.”

In regards to the class, Junior Ashley Kesselring explained, “I’m for fines, but as for a class, I’m not sure how much that’s really going to help people. I mean, people have been taught the effects of alcohol use before during high school and what not, and they still continued to participate in underage drinking. I don’t think another class will necessarily change their minds otherwise.”

Senior Marcie Graham had a slightly different view: “Does the administration really think that charging and forcing students to attend some AA type meeting is really going to change their alcohol use? The class will probably be early Saturday morning, and attended by a hungover college student dozing off and thinking about the next party they are going to attend.”

An off-campus student took special offense to the fact that the policy, as others, goes as far as her home ­– “if I wanted to deal with Aquinas and their rules I would have lived on campus. It is my home , AQ doesn’t own it in anyway but yet they have a say about what I do and don’t do in my own house? Ridiculous.”

All of these critiques aside, the important question is this: Is the policy working? And the answer is, we the students do not know, and will not know until the federally mandated annual report is published, detailing the number of alcohol and drug infractions, as well as a litany of other crimes stats on campus. But that will not stop student speculation. Meloy said, “from what I can tell I have not heard about students being caught with alcohol, so in that sense the new policy is working.”

When asked, Area Coordinator Terry Keller said, “I feel that it has been very effective, the students going through the program each get something unique out of it based on their own personal experience.”

Graham does not think it has curtailed alcoholic use – “If anything, students are just more secretive about their consumption. I don’t think you’re going to simply change behavior by slapping a larger fine on it.”

Megan Moloney thought “it’s ridiculous, because now the students have a sense of desperation about drinking and take more risks to stay off campus.”

Another freshman resident said, “from what I’ve seen the new policies are mostly just for show.”

Senior Heather Dougherty explains, “I understand what they are trying to do, but I also think they need to keep in mind that we are college students and should be responsible for our decisions and such; nobody likes to be told what they can and cant do…so being treated like adults tends to lean more to responsible adult like decisions.”

Hannah Richter, a junior, contended, “ We’re at college. We’re supposed to have fun. There is drinking at every college, the dean can crack down all she wants. I just feel like we’re turning into a Calvin and if I wanted ridiculous rules, I would have gone there. Next we’ll have curfews…”

A student-administration question-and-answer session about the policy was cancelled on Thursday October 29^th. When questioned if he thought student input would be welcome, heeded, or asked for in the reformation of the policy Keller said,

“Student input is always welcome, I think it is important to realize that the SAAP program is a educational sanction to alcohol violations, we are always working to improve what we do here at Aquinas and I think this is a great move in that direction.”

If you have questions, comments or thoughts on the policy, contact your Area Coordinator or the Dean of Students.

In the immortal words of Karen Carpenter, we’ve only just begun.

“The budget for 2010 is signed, there will not be a government shutdown, but the fight is not over,” Governor Granholm said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. “If there was something in the budget that we didn’t have enough money to fund completely, I vetoed it. If there were special earmarks, mistakes or bad policy, I vetoed them.”

The $44.5 billion budget for 2009-2010 was a result of months of political battles in both the Michigan House and Senate, and ended Friday when Granholm signed the remaining 6 bills, but not after line-item vetoing over 70 items.

The governor also threatened to veto items she felt were underfunded, hoping it would lead to a re-examination by Senate Republicans, but after Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop reported that the veto itemed would not be replaced, she quickly abandoned that approach.

Though the budget has been passed on and signed, Speaker of the House Andy Dillon says, “We’re only in the sixth inning.”

He believes the fight for funding is not over, and will be a main topic of the coming months.

In response to Dillon’s statement, Aquinas College Senior Rob Clark said, “In the economy we have in Michigan right now, I just don’t see how we can increase taxes any more on people that are struggling as it is. This holds true for businesses as well.”

The overall state spending plan includes about $12.8 billion in federal funding, including $1.4 billion from the federal stimulus package, and a possible influx of cash for Standish prison, a 600-bed maximum-security prison, that currently being considered as a potential location for holding terror detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The prison officially closed at the end of October, but is ready to reopen if President Obama decides on it.

Included in the cuts and vetoes are the 7 million from the Michigan State Fair, revenue sharing, and near and dear to most students, the Michigan Promise Scholarship. The scholar ships costs the state 120 million dollars, but will cost students and families over 3,000 dollars.

Besides the Michigan Promise, there will be a 61% reduction in competitive scholarships, grants for nursing students and the work-study program. Many state departments are dealing with on average, a 10 per-cent cut in their funding. Clark believes that despite the hardship brought on by the broken Promise, “cutting the money here is better than cutting primary and secondary education funding anymore.”

Although the final budget has been called a “slash and sign job,” Granholm did keep the agricultural extension and experiment station programs at Michigan State, in a hope to promote Michigan as a state ready to lead the way in the Green Economy.

The State will also be facing an expensive class action lawsuit that seeks to bring Michigan’s Medicaid scheme for adult dental benefits under compliance with federal law.

There is always something amazing cooking in Campus Life, and this Quad will prove to be no different. There will be the old favorites – the Christmas Family Photos (Dec. 1), the Winter Dance (Dec. 6), Exam Breakfast (Dec. 15) and the fantastic Christmas Tree Lighting (Dec. 1), as well as some new fun. This year Campus Life will host Casino Night (Nov. 20), as well as a Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament the first week of December. The holiday season will give us two concerts – AQ Band and Chamber Strings (Nov. 23) and “Music for the Holidays Concert” (Dec. 14), both of which are bound to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

In terms of new Clubs or Orgs on campus, the one Campus Life seems most excited about is PennyBen, a group hoping to raise $10,000 for the American Cancer Society’s Patient Assistance Program. Graduate Assistant and AQ Alum Joey Bishop who will be Co-Advising the Club had this to say: “For me, it’s thrilling to be a part of a group that is so excited to do something good for the greater community. I just wanted to help out in any way possible.”

Also in terms of new clubs, continuing-ed students now have A.C.E., created especially for this vital part of the AQ community.

As most of you have heard, the Moose is now also home to Heather Hall, the new Director of Student Activities and Orientation. Hall is excited about her new job, and seems to be coming in full of energy and enthusiasm. She asks Aquinas students to shake things up and stay creative. She also wants “students who are not in student organizations to take a look around at all that is being provided for them by their college.”

“I encourage everyone to participate in something that they have never experienced before – whether it means attending an AQ athletics event, going to a cultural activity or experiencing the theatre,” said Hall.