Monthly Archives: June 2008

And, I’m back…

Posted on June 30, 2008 by | Leave a comment

… in town and updating EMUTalk.org, that is.  Be sure to check out the just approved comments on various topics.

In the next couple of weeks, I plan/hope to roll out some changes to EMUTalk.org.  I know I am going to change the layout of the site, update the version of WordPress I’m running here, add some more EMU/Ypsi/Ann Arbor-oriented links, links to other bloggers (and encouragement for folks to start their own blogs), etc.  I’m also going to figure out how to run some discreet google ads.  I figure I only need to make about $100 a year to pay my bills here, so I am imaging some very small ads.

One thing I am not going to do is return to the experiment in community/collaborative writing that began EMUTalk.org.  I think that experiment failed in two interestingly different ways.  First, instead of it being a “community” and “collaborative” effort with a lot of different folks writing posts, it ended up being a space where only a few posted.  And posted.  And posted.  The other related issue is that a lot of these posts and the subsequent conversation was a lot more like the Jerry Springer show than a discussion forum, and, as I have discussed with many colleagues, I am not interested in being the host of that kind of “show.”

Actually, I think this more restricted format has, paradoxically, started to encourage more participation.  A number of folks have more or less directly told me this, and it seems like I have received more emails from folks for suggestions of posts to EMUTalk.org lately.  I think there’s been a bit more variety in the folks who have commented, and the readership of the site is about what it was last time this year.

Still, I would like to find some ways to get some more folks involved in different ways.  Ideally, I’d like to see links and feeds to other EMU and Ypsi/Arbor bloggers.  For example, EMUTalk.org regular Kayla Potter sent me a link to her blog last week (sorry I am just mentioning it now) that I will certainly be including in a feed here.  As I’ve said before and I will say again, if you have a blog or a web site you want me to link to it, just let me know.  And if you need help getting started making your own blog, let me know that too.

I’m also contemplating the idea of “guest bloggers,” a practice that’s pretty common in other blogs like EMUTalk.org.  The way that would work, basically, is regular readers/commentators/past contributors could have a chunk of time (a week?  a month?) to take a turn posting on some EMU community-related topic.   And then I’ve got some other ideas that are less formed.

Anyway, look for changes sooner than later, and if you’ve got any ideas or complaints or whatever, let me know.

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Posted in EMUtalk.org News

Fork and chicken crime in Ypsi

Posted on June 26, 2008 by | 2 Comments

I am actually going to be out of town and away from my computer (and EMUTalk.org, too) off and on until Monday, but I thought I’d give you all something to meditate quietly about: Police: Man Stabs Mom, Assaults Another Woman With Chicken, via a couple of different places (including the AAN) but this link at channel Click on Detroit. To quote:

YPSILANTI, Mich. — Police said an Ypsilanti man is accused of stabbing his mother with a fork and hitting another woman over the head with a frozen chicken.

Frederick McKaney, 40, was arraigned in a Jackson courtroom on Thursday on two felony assault charges, one count of assault and battery and one count of resisting an officer.

“He stabbed his mother in the back of the neck when she refused to give him money, and then, an hour later, he attacked a neighbor woman with a chicken,” Jackson County Chief Assistant Prosecutor Mark Blumer told the Ann Arbor news.

Say what you want about the whole “how dangerous is Ypsilanti” thing, but I dare you to find another example of fork/chicken violence as blatant.

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Posted in In the media..., Security and Safety, Ypsilanti

Has Pray-Harrold funding been nixed?

Posted on June 26, 2008 by | 6 Comments

I heard a rumor today– mind you, just a rumor since I haven’t seen it reported anywhere, and I’ve been kind of busy wrapping up my spring teaching to do much “investigation” on my own– that the governor’s office has pulled the plug on the funding for remodeling Pray-Harrold and put that money instead into the Detroit Metro Airport.

Again, this is all rumor-land. For all I know, no decision has been made and/or the exact opposite decision was made and the PH renovations begin in the fall. But, the rumor goes, the governor was apparently not amused when her candidate for the EMU President position, Mike Flanagan, didn’t get the job, and she “retaliated” by pulling the plug on the funding. And, this same rumor goes, she also fired Roy Wilbanks’ wife from some kind of state board she was on.

Personally, I don’t buy any of this. If the decision had been made to not fund Pray-Harrold, I would have assumed we would have heard about it in a more public forum by now. And there are plenty of reasons beyond getting even for Granholm to not fund Pray-Harrold renovation– the fact that the state is super broke being but one example. Still, it is an interesting rumor. Anyone out there want to shed any light or guesses on this?

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, EMU President Search

“This is only a drill”

Posted on June 25, 2008 by | Leave a comment

For a moment, I thought about spreading a rumor of a disaster at EMU.  But instead, I’ll just pass along what Ward Mullens passed along in a campus email:

There will be a simulated disaster training session today (June 25), 1-5 p.m., at Goddard Hall and in the Jones/Goddard Courtyard. The Ypsilanti Fire Department will be on site.  This simulation is part of the pilot training program for the first EMU Community Emergency Response Team (CERT).

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds

Cleaner colleges make smarter students

Posted on June 23, 2008 by | 1 Comment

Here’s an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that made me think about at least one building at EMU:  “Survey Finds Cleanliness Is Key for Student Concentration.”  Here’s a quote from the opening paragraphs:

Findings of a new nationwide survey show a connection between cleaner college facilities and academic achievement, according to the survey’s sponsors, with 88 percent of students saying they are distracted from learning in even casually or moderately messy environments. In addition, 84 percent of students surveyed said good learning environments should be spotless or very tidy.

Not surprisingly, the poll of 1,481 students was conducted by the Association of Physical Plant Administrators, whose members are educational-facilities managers, and the International Sanitary Supply Association, an organization of cleaning-product companies.

I have to say that grimy and kind of smelly buildings like Pray-Harrold hardly inspire good study habits.  Still, the study does seem to be kind of bogus/rigged in an effort to hire more janitors, physical plant folks, etc.  And some of the offices of my very studious colleagues are far from tidy and neat; fire hazards is more like it.  And for that matter, the words “spotless” or “tidy” have never been used to describe my own school or home offices….

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, Faculty Life, In the media..., Student Life

Congrats to Miss Michigan!

Posted on June 22, 2008 by | Leave a comment

That’s right, more in the theme of “kinda slow news around here:” my news feeds tell me that this year’s Miss Michigan is Ashley Baracy, who is a graduate student at EMU, according to this and other news reports.

Update:
The Ann Arbor News has this article today that provides more information about Baracy.

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Posted in College Fun, In the media..., Student Life

Charlie Batch as face of EMU

Posted on June 21, 2008 by | 2 Comments

I’m not entirely sure if this is “news” or not, but a regular EMUTalk.org reader/contributor sent me this link from the Freep.com, “Charlie Batch in running as ‘face of EMU.’” Basically, this is about a “contest” over on ESPN, presumably to promote the college football season.  It’s an award, I guess, but it’s mostly a way of ESPN to promote itself.  Which I suppose is true with most awards.  Nonetheless, congrats to Batch; whatever happened to him, anyway?

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Posted in College Fun, In the media..., Sports

“Drug search in Mich. nabs criminal justice student”

Posted on June 20, 2008 by | Leave a comment

This falls into the category of a post that shows up during a kind of “slow news cycle” around here at EMUTalk.org: “Drug search in Mich. nabs criminal justice student,” which appeared in the Chicago Tribune but which probably showed up on wire services all over the place. Here are the opening paragraphs about a student who is probably not one of our shining stars:

WEST BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Authorities say an Eastern Michigan University criminal justice student is getting some real-life experience that might not improve his resume.

Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte says the student at the Ypsilanti school was arrested Tuesday after firing a shot through a door as the sheriff’s tactical team helped execute a federal search warrant in Oakland County’s West Bloomfield Township.

No one was injured.

I don’t know, but I am pretty sure that the criminal justice profs suggest to their students to not shoot at the cops pretty much on the first or second day of class. Anyway, thanks for sharing, Chris!

Update:  Another regular/loyal EMUTalk.org reader sent me this link to a more complete story of the incident from the Livingston Daily. I don’t know, but there’s something about this that reminds me a little of the scene in Pulp Fiction where the guy bursts out and fires at Vincent and Jules and miraculously misses them.  Of course, it turns out a lot worse in the movie.

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Posted in In the media..., Security and Safety, Student Life

Campus cops likely to get new headquarters

Posted on June 18, 2008 by | 2 Comments

I’m listening to a story on WEMU about how the Board of Regents approved a plan to move Public Safety (the campus police and such) out of the first floor of the parking deck to a refurbished version of the Hoyt Conference Center (I think that’s over by the towers, right?).  Here’s a link to a PDF describing the project in a paragraph or so.

I’m all for it, but I am curious about one thing.  This is going to cost $3.9 million, and WEMU is reporting that EMU is going to pay for this with “University funds.”  Did EMU budget for this as something they assumed they were going to do, or is this an example of how EMU can “magically” just come up with money for projects like this if they need to?

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Posted in Board of Regents, Buildings and Grounds, Security and Safety

Barack and EMU

Posted on June 17, 2008 by | 6 Comments

There’s been a quasi-bit of EMU news lately about Barack Obama’s rallies here in Southeast Michigan the last couple days.  As has been reported– for example, here, here, here, and in the AANews– there was a question and response from Obama about student aid, the role of higher education in the future, college success, and (for lack of a better way of putting it) sucking it up.  Here’s a quote from the AP version of the story:

Part-time student Stephanie Baker talked to Obama about her daughter who is at risk of losing financial aid due to slipping grades at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.

Baker, 43, of Detroit, said tuition concerns are part of the problem.

“It’s not optimal to be going to school and have to worry about money,” Obama told Baker. “I think my main message to your daughter would be to stick with it, because the cost of not getting through school and not keeping your grades up are so much greater.

“There is a million dollars’ worth of difference in the lifetime earnings of somebody who has a high school education and a college education.”

I don’t know; I guess I don’t expect Obama to be intimately aware of the plight of a lot of our students, of the sort of catch-22 of having to work too much to pay the bills and college tuition, which in turn means there’s less time to study and succeed at school.  But I think it’s a more nuanced and complex problem than just “work hard and you’ll succeed.”

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Posted in In the media..., Student Life