Category Archives: College Fun

“Time to Fly for the EMU Football Team”

Posted on May 17, 2013 by | 25 Comments

Here’s a kind of strange one:  according to this on the athletics page, the EMU football team is trying to raise $60,000 with its annual golf outing this year and through donations.   There are different prizes for different levels of donation, too; so if you donate $5,000, you can skydive with coach Ron English; if you donate $50, you can get the “ultimate EMUFB Fan Experience.”

What charity will be benefiting from this you ask?  Why, the EMU football team, of course!

This year for our 10th Annual EMU Football Golf Outing we decided to try something different. Coach really wanted to finish his facility projects which already consist of a new indoor practice facility (The Bubble), an updated outdoor facility, completely upgrading the team room and most recently, with last year’s Golf Outing contributions, revamped the locker room.

Fundraising efforts will go to improve:
- Player Locker Room // Coaches Locker Room Bathrooms
- Player’s Lounge
- Team Building // Training Room
- Coaches Offices
- Equipment Room Upgrades

I guess this is the sort of thing EMU football has to do since we don’t have the fan or alumni-base to raise contributions more easily. But considering how much money we’re dumping into the football team as it is, it strikes me myopic and maybe even a little silly that the athletics program is having a fund raiser to get even more money so they can make the bathrooms in the locker room that much nicer.

By the way, when I hear the catch phrase for this campaign, all I can think of is REO Speedwagon from way back when:

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Posted in Budgets, Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, Sports

The Color Run is coming to town again on Saturday

Posted on May 9, 2013 by | 9 Comments

Geoff Larcom just sent an email reminding us that the color run is back in town. Here’s a map of the locations around campus, downtown, and Depot Town that are going to be impacted by the run. The short version is getting to campus on Saturday during the race is going to be quite a bit more challenging than usual.

I’m at a loss as to why this is appealing to people, and it is apparently very appealing. There are over 100 cities hosting color runs this summer through this one entity/company that is a charity, I guess. Maybe it’s kinda pretty. But I have to say I have the same question as Mark Maynard did here last year.

Maybe I’ll walk down to Depot Town Saturday to take in the spectacle. I’ll be sure to wear something dark.

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Posted in College Fun, Ypsilanti

Congratulations, graduates!

Posted on April 27, 2013 by | Leave a comment

It’s graduation weekend here at EMU, and according to this article in annarbor.com and this much longer press release on the EMU homepage, this is the largest graduating class in EMU’s history.  Congrats to everyone and their families!

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

Say, when is EMU going to sell the naming rights to its stadium and such?

Posted on April 23, 2013 by | 8 Comments

I ask this question because of this piece I found via Gawker, “Chick-fil-A Almost Had Its Own Football Stadium to Not Be Gay In.” Apparently, Florida Atlantic University was going to sell its stadium naming rights to the GEO Group, which is the world’s larget for-profit prison operator. There were objects to that, and so FAU almost made a deal with Chick-fil-A– or not. The article is a little murky about that.

But it did get me to thinking: how come that isn’t a route EMU has gone down for either either the football stadium or the basketball arena? Domino’s Center, for example?

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, In the media...

“A Different World: How One Small College is Quitting Sports– and Might Lead a Revolution”

Posted on April 19, 2013 by | Leave a comment

With all of the real (and tragic, of course) news this last week, I have kind of gotten behind on things worthy of EMUTalk.org.  So here on the last regular day of classes for the winter 2013 term, I have several stories to share, starting with “A Different World:  How One Small College is Quitting Sports– and Might Lead a Revolution” by Luke Cyphers in SB Nation. It’s a good weekend read about how Spelman College is getting out of all sports and using that money instead on fitness programs for its students, students like Danyelle Carter who has already gone from 340 pounds to 220 pounds with the money spent on student health instead of student sports. Here’s a good couple of paragraphs:

Our great nation was just inundated with the Caligula-worthy circus that is the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament. College kids who won’t see a classroom for weeks perform hard, physical labor (for free, at least as far as the IRS knows) on behalf of an American audience that doesn’t give a rat’s ass whether players can read so long as they convert some timely threes, cover the spread and bust someone else’s bracket. The tournament epitomizes what our century-old interscholastic athletics system is all about. March Madness-a tiny, televised group of elites moving at high speeds to entertain great, couch-clinging masses that don’t move at all-is the way sports lives now.

Meanwhile, Danyelle Carter might just be the student athlete of the future. A future marked not by madness, but by common sense. One where the goal is not a championship today, but lifelong play, and where the measure of success is not maximum revenue, but a minimum level of health. Spelman College is doing something remarkable. Instead of spending seven figures a year on a few dozen varsity athletes, Spelman will expand its wellness program, funding fitness for everyone on campus.

 

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

“My Pen Is Huge”

Posted on April 17, 2013 by | 4 Comments

IMG_3382

So, you can tell it is the last week of the term with a post like this, which is actually a “two-fer” as it were:

  • A loyal EMUTalk reader emailed me this image taken of Snow Health Center on a lovely spring day where there appeared to be a giant pink inflatable penis being “erected” and decorated by students.  My loyal reader thinks it was some kind of “condom awareness” display of some sort. Lord wonders why they didn’t just go for the Water Tower for that.
  • Also today: I was in the library and I saw a male student who had on a t-shirt that made me look twice and then laugh.  Roughly speaking, it looked like this:

 

And with that, I return you to finishing up your semester in a more tasteful fashion.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, EMU Events, Student Life

Oh, okay: “Go Blue!”

Posted on April 7, 2013 by | 4 Comments

I think the winner of this year’s EMUTalk.org annual NCAA Pick’em pool is the owner of “Gran Mago’s Unreal Bracket,” who has at least 82 points and I think he’ll beat everyone else if Louisville wins tomorrow.  So congratulations Mr./Ms. Mago, wherever and whoever you are.

I finished dead last. But I know that mine is not the only bracket this year that is a bit of a mess, so I guess I have that going for me.

And as a proud alumni of the University of Iowa, this is probably one of the few times I’m going to be writing or saying “Go Blue!” But there, I said it.

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Posted in College Fun, EMUtalk.org News, Sports, University of Michigan

Making sense of the Jewish vote and who cooked all that soup?

Posted on April 4, 2013 by | Leave a comment

Gerstein posterI’m sharing two more interesting lecture opportunities of events being sponsored in part by the Jewish Studies program here at EMU. The first is Wednesday, April 10 in the Student Center auditorium at 7:30 and it’s about the 2012 Jewish vote. The speaker, Jim Gersten, is described as America’s leading expert on Jewish voting patterns.

 

The second is a talk by my colleague Andrea Kaston Tange on Thursday, April 11 at the Jewish Community Center in Ann Arbor called “Who Cooked All That Soup?” which is about 19th century Jewish philanthropy societies like the Soup Kitchen for the Jewish Poor in London. Kaston poster-1

Both are eligible for LBC credit, too.

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Posted in College Fun, EMU Events

“EMU’s ‘Subverting Modernism’ exhibit offers fascinating look at Cass Corridor art”

Posted on April 3, 2013 by | Leave a comment

A loyal EMUTalk.org reader suggested I post a link to this review from annarbor.com, ”EMU’s ‘Subverting Modernism’ exhibit offers fascinating look at Cass Corridor art.” This show is going on in the student center art gallery right now, and because of a project I have in one of my classes, I’ve had a number of students go to this and tell me it’s pretty cool. So read the review and/or go check it out.

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Posted in Buildings and Grounds, College Fun, EMU Events, In the media...

“Forbes Interviews Zach Wigal, Marketing Major”

Posted on March 28, 2013 by | Leave a comment

A loyal EMUTalk.org reader sent me this link to an EMU press release, “Forbes Interviews Zach Wigal, Marketing Major.” As a teenager, Zach started a group called “Gamers for Giving” that still runs various gaming tournaments to raise money for charity. And in the “small world” department of things, Zach was a student of mine in a class a few years ago. Go figure.

Anyway, check it out– it reflects well on EMU.

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