Michelle Bearden reported on a pope’s visit to communist Cuba.

Michael Green took photos of Afghan rebels fending off communist Russia.

Sheila Gruber McClean’s reporting on the state’s social services bureaucracy led to criminal charges and reforms.?

Jim Reindl is a widely respected leader in the news business.

Inspired by the Watergate scandal, Randy Lovely helped expose an important presidential search the Central Michigan University board was holding in secret out of the public view at an off-campus hotel.

Lovely went on to become editor of The Arizona Republic, one of the nation’s largest newspapers.?

These three men and two women are some of the best journalists Central Michigan Life has produced over the past half century.?

They were inducted into the CMU Journalism Hall of Fame in October. Dick Milliman, who is not an alumnus but has hired scores of CM Lifers, also was inducted into the prestigious group.

Having been named the Hall of Fame’s Young Journalist of the Year, I got a chance to attend the dinner and meet these wonderful people.?

I idolize them and want to carry on the torch they have yielded so proudly in the name of CM Life.

For Michelle, Michael, Sheila, Jim, Randy and myself, the drive to tell stories, report the news and have a positive impact on people’s lives began at CM Life – in the basement of Anspach Hall where CM Life reporters and editors used to reside when they weren’t in class or at The Bird.

After accepting my award at the banquet, I sat and listened to these Hall of Famers talk about their careers in the field and their experiences at CM Life.

Green’s work has taken him to nearly every continent. He’s photographed everything from presidents to NFL games to the AIDs epidemic in Africa. Vice President Dick Cheney even asked him to be his personal photographer for the second Bush term, and he politely said no.

He would rather be a journalist than vice photographer-in-chief.

“You have to have a passion for storytelling, passion for people and (passion) for the news business itself,” Green was quoted as saying in a profile story written by CM Life senior reporter Sarah Schuch.

In reporter Andrea Rockafellow’s profile of Reindl, the former editor in chief who led the paper to national prominence put the true value of his career in context.

“It might seem like there is nothing better than reading your name in print on the front page, but the true satisfaction is found in shaping how the rest of the world is learning about events,” said Reindl, an Associated Press executive.

What is so great about CM Life is the next Reindl or Green is currently walking through the paper’s office on the fourth floor of Moore Hall. Who knows, it may be you.

Every journalism student has the potential to write their own ticket at CMU. It’s a place where mistakes are made and learning takes place every day from the reporters and photographers to the editor in chief.

It’s the ultimate training ground for a complex world of self-absorbed politicians, loudmouth football coaches and life’s little problems.?

But best of all, it’s a place to grow up and meet lifelong friends. Three years after graduating, I keep in almost daily contact with some of my closest CM Life colleagues and CMU professors.

Sheila Gruber McClean put it best: “We looked out for each other and we continue to today – there is an instant bond with people you meet when you know they have worked with CM Life.”

Chad Livengood is a former editor-in-chief of CM Life and 2005 CMU graduate. He is now the Springfield (Mo.) News-Leader’s state capitol reporter. He can be reached at clivengood@gmail.com.

Daniel Abbey

During the month of September, employees at the Student Book Exchange
noticed one particular student seemed to have a lot of books to resell.

He had so many books to resell, that he frequented the Bellows
Street bookstore 13 times, often selling back the same books.

Then John Belco, owner of the SBX, picked up the phone and called
the CMU Bookstore.

Turns out the student had been buying books at the CMU Bookstore on
his student account and selling them at the SBX.

Belco, whose company will buy back books from anybody, blames the
problem on the unlimited spending power students now have with their
campus accounts.

“The university is basically acting as a lending institution,” said
Belco, who was manager of the CMU Bookstore before buying the SBX three
years ago.

Granted, somebody had to pay the student’s bill — be it Mom or Dad,
federal financial aid or scholarships.

But this is a serious flaw in the university’s quest to let students
charge anything at the CMU Bookstore to student accounts.

It’s dangerous to students because it’s like having a credit card
with no credit limit. That is, until Mom and Dad see the bill or, even
worse, the student’s classes are dropped.

It also brings to light the heavy-handed business practices of the
university over its private sector counterparts.

Students can charge books and sweatshirts at the CMU Bookstore. The
SBX doesn’t have that convenience, or monopoly.

Belco said he’d ideally like to get an agreement with the university
to let students swipe their CHIP ID cards over at his store.

“I don’t mind competing, but a level playing field is all I ask
for,” Belco said.

Allowing the SBX to tie into CMU’s student account charging system
is the only solution to giving students a choice in how and where they
spend their money.

But CMU is not about choices.

University officials, who have opened the floodgates by allowing
anything to be charged on student accounts, will moan all day about how
they need the revenues.

There are other things in the works. Top officials have expressed
interest in taking control of all ATM machines on campus so CMU can
reap the benefits of every $1.50 surcharge. If they gain control of the
ATM machines, what’s to stop them from raising the surcharge fees?

The university already has an unfair business advantage over the
Broomfield Road 7-Eleven with its fancy C3 Store in the new Towers
residence hall complex.

CMU also recently mandated that all printing jobs under $20,000 be
conducted in-house by CMU Printing Services.

There are able businesses in this town that could take care of those
services, many of which do it for much cheaper. Why wouldn’t CMU want
to use our money more wisely by having competitive bids for work?

These mounting examples of impropriety on the university’s part is a
factor in the increasing division between CMU and the Mount Pleasant
community.

Last spring I wrote a column about how the city of Mount Pleasant
gave me an obnoxious $7.50 ticket for having my car’s tires on the
sidewalk of my driveway at my house on the corner of Locust and Pine
streets.

Board of Trustees Chairman John Kulhavi complained to me during a
meeting last spring that my column (“Time for students to fight back
against city,” April 15) was hurting in his efforts to strengthen
communities ties.

What Kulhavi and Warriner Hall don’t get is the gigantic wedge
they’re driving between themselves and the community with their unfair
business practices.

Talk about division.

Chad Livengood can be reached at editor@cm-life.com.

The days of voting on standard paper ballots, punch cards, pulling
mechanized levers and touching digital recorded screens will be
finished by 2006.

By then, all precincts are required by federal law to be converted to an optical scanning system.

The office of the Secretary of State is taking part in an initiative
that was sparked by a law adopted last year which requires states to
convert all voting systems to one uniform mechanism.

“It was done so that all Michigan voters would vote on the same
system and share the same experience,” said Kelly Chesney, spokeswoman
for Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land.

Isabella County has no optical scanning machines and continues to
utilize punch card ballots throughout its 27 precincts, said County
Clerk Joyce Swan.

Swan said counties with punch card systems are the state’s top priority in the conversion process.

“We will be the first ones to transfer over to the optical scan,” Swan said.

Clarkston sophomore April Samson said the new law requiring states
to have one standard system of voting is a good idea, though it may not
accomplish all the goals the Secretary of State hopes it will.

“It’s more efficient, but I don’t think it will make people vote more,” she said.

Samson said despite a faster and more efficient system, people will still believe their vote doesn’t count.

“It’s common sense — I think it’s a stupid reason not to vote,” Samson said.

Prior to passing the law, the department found two-thirds of all precincts reported using optical scanning voting machines.

“Optical scan systems are very advantageous,” Chesney said.

The systems consist of a standard paper ballot that is similar to a Scantron test sheet, she said.

“Voters indicate their ballot choice by filling in a small circle next to each candidate’s name,” Chesney said.

When voters complete their ballots, they put them into a secrecy sleeve, then run the ballot through scanning machines.

“It gives the voters the opportunity to view and change their ballot before casting,” Chesney said.

The Secretary of State began accepting bids from qualified vendors for the optical scanning replacement equipment Oct. 1.

“We’re looking for vendors so that each county can collectively
decide which of the vendors meet the needs of their voters,” she said.

Chesney said a set number of vendors will be in place by
mid-December, which will allow many precincts to beginning updating in
time for the upcoming 2004 presidential election.

Swan said the county would like to be converted for the November election and if possible the August primary.

“For those jurisdictions or precincts wishing to do that, we will have a mechanism to do so,” Chesney said.

In the case of a machine breaking down and losing previously counted
votes, Chesney said election officials still have a tangible paper
ballot.

“It provides a paper audit trail for conducting recounts,” she said.

The machines also will allow election officials to compile results
quicker — with the hope of attracting more voters to show up to the
polls, Chesney said.

“It should make it much more easier for our voters,” she said.

When asked about the possibility of voters being able to cast their
vote on the Internet, Chesney said the federal government is
considering launching a pilot version of an online voting system for
members of the military.

“At this point we’re not far enough along with security features to do that,” she said.

There also is talk of allowing voters to apply for absentee ballots online, Chesney said.

When asked about the idea of voting online, Taylor freshmen Jessica
Mudge said she likes the idea of military members voting online.

“That’s a good way to start it,” Mudge said. “I think the Internet would allow people to vote faster.”

The Help America Vote Act will provide more than $45 million in
federal funding for the state conversion to the new voting system.

Michigan’s 15 state universities saw the elimination of almost 1,400 positions after last year’s budget cuts.

The eliminations were partly because of the universities $200 million cut in state funding.

At CMU, 82 positions were eliminated, said David Waymire, executive vice president of Marketing Resource Group in Lansing.

The eliminations were part of a $14.3 million budget reduction process for the current fiscal year, which began July 1.

Of CMU’s lost positions, 55 were full-time and 27 were reduced to
less than full-time, said Mike Silverthorn, Public Relations and
Marketing executive director of news services.

Silverthorn said 13 employees were formally laid off.

Of the eliminations, 63 were staff members taking an early retirement plan offered by the university.

State universities received an average cut of 10 percent in state
funding last year, which came from two executive order cuts issued by
former Gov. John Engler and Gov. Jennifer Granholm.

Waymire said the elimination of a campus shuttle busing system,
various library periodicals and the CLAS testing center are examples of
how services provided to students have begun to disappear from cuts.

“It’s a convenience to students but its not a necessity to students,” Waymire said. “It still has an impact on students.”

Waymire, whose firm represents the Presidents’ Council — a group of
presidents from each Michigan university — said this past year’s budget
cutting has helped the universities reassess their priorities.

“There is a certain amount of belt-tightening that helps,” he said. “After a while it starts to affect students.”

Amanda Papke

Student mentoring and his wife’s political agenda were top priority for the First Gentleman’s visit to CMU.

Daniel Mulhern, Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s husband, spoke with students
from the Volunteer Center and the Student Government Association
Tuesday.

He told the students about past mentoring experiences he and the governor have had. The students also shared their experiences.

“It gives me great opportunities,” Mulhern said.

Mulhern said programs like Big Brothers, Big Sisters provide guidance to at-risk children who lack parental attention.

“We know that mentoring has a huge impact on their lives,” he said. “It’s just a magnificent program.”

Ryan Fewins, Volunteer Center graduate assistant, said his involvement
with the America Reads program provides a great opportunity for
students to set a good example.

“It’s such a strong component that these CMU students are involved in
these children’s lives,” said Fewins, Gaylord graduate student.

Mulhern said many politicians lose sight of the real problems affecting underprivileged children.

“So much policy gets made without people knowing what real life is
about,” he said. “There’s an element of truth between Republican and
Democrat view of life.”

The governor’s husband also discussed his wife’s “Cool Cities” initiative.

The initiative’s goal is for Michigan cities and universities to
develop plans to revitalize, in hopes to entice youth to stay in
Michigan.

Mulhern said the governor is emphasizing the need to bring culture and excitement back to Michigan’s downtowns.

The group of students agreed that Michigan’s cities — especially
Detroit and Grand Rapids — aren’t the most attractive cities to live in.

Mulhern said the problem with getting people to move into a city like
Detroit requires “people that are young enough to take a risk on the
city.”

He said the new Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the building of Ford Field
and Comerica Park to downtown Detroit have begun to jump start the
city’s liveliness.

“If the Tigers and Lions ever get good, the pull and magnitude of
people down there is going to rival anywhere,” he said. “People are
going to go nuts.”

The challenge, Mulhern said, is developing enjoyable atmospheres for youth in the cities.

“The governor has asked the mayors in 200 cities to create ‘Cool Cities’ commissions,” Mulhern said.

The other challenge, Mulhern said, is to not only bring in youth-centered attractions, but also stable businesses.

“It’s a system to get a vibrant downtown,” he said.

Mulhern said the effort will require high-tech jobs and better schools in order to get people to live downtown as well.

“You can’t just focus on this coolness,” he said.

Whitehall senior Brianna Schultz said the “Cool Cities” initiative is a
good idea and might bring more business and life to the state’s cities.

“He’s right in saying that Michigan does not really have fun cities,”
said Schultz, a member of the Volunteer Center who attended the
luncheon.

Lawmakers must cut almost $1 billion from the state budget to eliminate a projected year-end deficit.

Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committee, as well as
the directors of the House and Senate fiscal agencies, met Tuesday and
agreed the shortfall was $920 million.

Rep. Sandy Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, said the possibility of
additional cuts to state appropriations for higher education is an
alarming possibility.

“The big concern I have is I feel higher education took their fair share of cuts,” she said of last years budget woes.

Caul said students and parents bore the brunt of the 6.1 percent cut in appropriations CMU received.

More than half the deficit — $569 million — originates within the
general fund and the remainder lies within school aid, said Gary Olson,
director of the Senate Fiscal Agency.

“The legislature and governor are going to have to go back and make
some substantial cuts in fiscal year 2004, or new revenues will need to
be made,” Olson said.

The budget deficit figures don’t look good, said Mike Silverthorn,
Public Relations and Marketing executive director of news services.

“Every time we hear a new report, it seems to get worse,” he said.

Silverthorn said the idea of increased cuts in higher education is still speculation.

“We’re still in a wait-and-see mode,” he said. “The state is going to have to make some decisions on how to deal with it.”

Caul said the burden of cuts cannot continue to be placed on
students and parents, most of whom did not see an increase in income
last year, Caul said.

“I just really think we have to look to other line items,” she said.

Kathy Wilbur, Governmental Relations and Public Affairs vice
president for CMU, said at some point the cuts will begin to hinder the
academic quality of the state’s 15 public universities.

Last year, higher education experienced a 10 percent cut — “a very significant cut,” Wilbur said.

Caul said the new estimate resulted from a decrease in tax revenues
as well as concessions Gov. Jennifer Granholm made in her budget
proposal last March.

“When Gov. Granholm put her budget together she promised $240 million in state employee concessions,” Caul said.

In a Sept. 15 memorandum to members of the Senate, Olson wrote, “As
of today, the state’s labor unions have not agreed to any employee
concessions.”

The concessions Granholm has proposed would require state workers to
work regular 40 hour weeks, but only get paid for 38 hours, Olson said.

The hours that employees would not be paid for would be added to individual worker’s personal time-off hours, Olson said.

Furthermore, Olson said the workers would have five additional furlough days off without pay under the plan.

In the absence of union agreement to the concessions, the $240 million Granholm promised is a deficit builder.

“It’s a great concern, because it takes and expands our budget shortfall,” Caul said.

Bill Rustem, an economist with Public Sector Consultants in Lansing,
said the state’s biggest problem with this newest shortfall is that it
continues to lose manufacturing jobs.

“We’ve lost 33,000 since the end of the recession in the fall of
2001,” Rustem said. “It’s those high-end jobs — the loss of those —
that’s causing the problem.”

After cutting $1.4 billion from this year’s budget, Rustem said the state is running out of choices.

“You pretty much have two choices — you either raise taxes or you make additional cuts,” he said.

Greg Burghardt

Registered Student Organizations are leading the way in this year’s Homecoming parade.

Parade Coordinator Adam Michels, Owosso senior, said this year there are about 20 RSOs participating in the parade.

“There’s a lot of RSO’s,” he said. “Probably the most we’ve had in quite a few years.”

The parade begins at 10 a.m. Saturday morning in Lot 22.

It will snake down Washington Street through campus to Bellows and turn toward downtown on Main Street, Michels said.

From there, the parade will turn onto Broadway, Michels said.

The parade ends at Fancher Street at Sacred Heart Parish, 302 S. Kinney Blvd., he said.

Michels said the parade will feature a number of returning participants as well as new floats and groups as well.

“We will have probably somewhere between 70 to 80 (participants),” Michels said.

The number of participants is an increase because of an increase in participation in RSOs.

Former CMU faculty member Dick Allen will be the grand marshal of the parade.

Allen, who taught Interpersonal Communication at CMU for 29 and a half years, will travel in a convertible with his wife, Jean.

Dick Allen said he has enjoyed watching the annual parade for years.

“Now we’re in it,” he said.

Allen, who was the announcer for men’s basketball, baseball, and
football games for 31 years, is now the announcer for the CMU Marching
Band.

“I’ve done a lot of things with the sports and music here and thoroughly enjoyed 29 and a half years of teaching,” he said.

Parade officials have positioned the grand marshal’s car right behind the color guard and in front of the band, Allen said.

“Being grand marshal is like the frosting on the cake,” Allen said.

A Celtic bagpipe band, sponsored by the White Pine Celtic Arts
Council in Midland, is among many of the new groups that will be
featured in this year’s parade, Michels said.

The Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and a number of non-profit
community philanthropic groups will round out the field of participants.

Michels said it is important that all parade participants are in Lot
22 at 8:30 a.m. Saturday prior to the beginning of the parade.

The parade should end between 11 and 11:30 a.m.

Lynn Wloszek

Kalamazoo junior Alice Grau and Ewen junior Heidi Kuehnl say they understand
the importance of raising money to fight world and local hunger.

To help the cause, the Fashion Association of Merchandising and Design
members participated in the CROP Walk for Hunger in Island Park Sunday.

“It’s important to think of its advantages for groups like ours that are
considered a little more materialistic to get involved in events that involve
the community,” Grau said.

More than 190 area residents came out for the walk, sponsored annually
by the Mount Pleasant-area CROP walk committee, including many CMU students
and faculty members.

Kuehnl said she has been walking in CROP for five years and when she came to CMU she wanted to continue helping with the cause.

Local CROP Committee Coordinator Cil Lorand said the organization was
expecting a turnout closer to 300 — the approximate number of participants
in last year’s walk.

“I’m very concerned about people who don’t have enough to eat,” she said. “We need to share and make the world a better place.”

This was Lorand’s sixth year of involvement with CROP.

Rep. Sandy Caul, R-Mount Pleasant, and her husband Bill, also walked in the event.

“This is our fifth year in participating in it here, Midland and Clare counties,” she said.

The Cauls pledged for CROP in partnership with their church, Sacred Heart Parish of Mount Pleasant.

“We try to partner with a different group each year,” Caul said.

Broadcast and Cinematic Arts Professor Mark Poindexter said the issue
of third-world impoverished citizens requires more than just donations from
the more privileged developed countries.

“People in these third world countries need our respect, not just our
handouts,” said Poindexter, who teaches BCA 300: African American/African
films. He has a vested interest in African culture and societies.

Poindexter, whose family participated in the event for the second year
in a row, said world hunger will continue in third world countries until
economic and political issues are eased by the developed countries.

“It’s not the peoples’ fault that they’re living in these conditions,”
he said. “You have a world economic system that puts them at a terrible disadvantage.”

Poindexter said organizations like CROP are unique in that they let participants
choose from international non-governmental organizations to which to donate
their pledge proceeds.

“I think a lot of it goes to try to help give people a lot of basic necessities,” he said.

Each of the participants were required to get monetary pledges to go toward the CROP fund.

Sixteen area businesses helped pay for Sunday’s event, which included
clowns, face painting, pizza and refreshments for participants after they
completed either the one-, three- or five-mile segments of the walk.

The CROP fund will allocate a quarter of the proceeds to local organizations
geared toward fighting the 16,000 hunger-related causes of death to children
younger than 5-years-old each the day in the United States.

The Isabella Soup Kitchen, Salvation Army, Red Cross Food Pantry and the
Isabella County Health Departments “Project Flesh” are among the local organizations
that will receive support from the pledges.

The rest of the proceeds will go toward international organizations aimed at fighting hunger in third world countries.