The University of Michigan had a 30 percent increase, while Western Michigan had a 62 percent increase, the Michigan Daily reported.

Assistant Director of Residence Life Kim Voisin said she believes most students don’t actually realize the amount of work it takes to keep an RA position, and that might be why numbers are down.

“While RA and MA positions offer a great opportunity for professional development for a wide range of careers, not everyone wants to or can live up to the requirements of the position,” Voisin said.

Campbell Residence Hall Director Edward Span said students look at more than just the free housing when making their decision to apply.

“I think CMU’s numbers may be lower than other institutions because our students are more careful in their deliberation about whether to apply,” Span said.

Saxe Residence Hall Director Ben Witt said it is not necessarily a bad thing that fewer students applied.

“Quantity does not always equal quality,” Witt said.

Span said the current recruitment methods serve the system well.

“Our department has implemented a system that is candidate-focused, promotes sustainability and offers each applicant a fair chance at being offered a position as an RA or MA,” Span said.

Every spring semester, vacant RA and MA spots need to be filled because of those who leave after the fall semester. The applications decreased going into the fall semester, but when there was a large turnover after the end of the semester, Voisin said the applications had a bigger response than normal this past spring semester.

“We received almost three applications for every vacancy filled in our selection process this spring, which is a very good response rate,” Voisin said. “We had more hireable applicants than positions.”

CMU hosts perspective staff nights every fall and every January to recruit students who want to become part of the RA or MA staff.

Both Witt and Span have encouraged those who they thought would be good candidates to apply in the past.

Span said he uses his current RA and MA staffs to help recruit new candidates.

“I’ve realized the benefit of using my current RA/MA staff to assist me in identifying current residents who may have what it takes to do the job,” Span said.

university@cm-life.com

“I grew up here and my dad is a professor here,” Nichol said.

Nichol, a Mount Pleasant junior, and Brittany Mouzourakis, a Garden City junior, were elected as SGA president and vice president Friday evening. The pair beat five other pairs of candidates, taking 33 percent of the vote.

There were 2,081 students who voted in this year’s election, a 359-vote spike more than the 1,722 votes cast in 2008. Six tickets ran for the SGA top spots this year.

“I was hoping there were going to be more votes this year, even though we finished with a higher total than last year,” said Laura Rynbrand, SGA election coordinator and Grand Rapids freshman. “Having six tickets I thought more students would be involved.”

Nichol and Mouzourakis beat a field of six tickets for the head of the body’s executive branch:

Kentwood senior Tim Popma and Pittsford senior Bob Simmons; Kalamazoo freshman Stephanie Glidden and Flint junior Sarah Lechota; Clarkston junior Lauren Elias and Allen Park junior Shane Farrell; Sandusky senior Brandyn Lawson and Brighton senior John Reineke; and Chelsea junior Allison White and Bay City junior Victoria Kukla.

“All of the tickets this year made it really close,” said Simmons. “We are happy for Jason and Brittany – they will do a good job.”

Nichol and Mouzourakis ran on a platform of strengthening core academic programs, increasing undergraduate retention, and focusing on in-state recruitment. “It was really good to see all of the competition this year, but we worked our tails off,” Mouzourakis said. Nichol agreed.

“We had a solid core base of people helping us out this year,” Nichol said.

Nichol said he plans to get going on the duo’s platform issues right away, and that he wants to make sure that everyone is involved in the process.

“We want to continue to build what was started and have an impact on campus,” Mouzourakis said.

Inauguration for the candidates is April 13. Rynbrand said that Nichol and Mouzourakis will have until then to observe the current president and vice president, Montgomery senior Paul Pridgeon and Kingsford senior Brad Sjoquist.

university@cm-life.com

Jason Nichol and Brittany Mouzourakis will be the new president and vice president of Student Government Association at CMU after taking 33 percent of this week’s vote.

Nichol, a Mount Pleasant junior, and Mouzourakis, a Garden City junior, were announced the winners at 5 p.m. today during a press conference in Powers Hall.

“We’re excited for the future of the university and finding a new president,” said Nichol.

There were 2,081 students who voted in this year’s election.

Nichol and Mouzourakis each said that they wanted their platform goals to go into effect as soon as possible.

The two ran on a platform of strengthening core academic programs.

Other platforms goals included increasing undergraduate retention and sustainability on campus, focusing on in-state recruitment, continued lobbying for higher education funding, and keeping tuition affordable.

“We want to work closely with everyone,” said Nichol.

Mouzourakis said that she hopes to continue projects that current president Paul Pridgeon had started.

“We want to continue to build on what was started and have an impact on campus,” Mouzourakis said.

news@cm-life.com

Each candidate will have two minutes apiece to answer four questions of which they each have seen and prepared for.

They will each get a closing statement at the end of the debate.

Two questions will be about the new university president; one will deal with school budget; and the last will discuss new ways for the SGA to communicate with students.

Grand Rapids freshman Laura Rynbrand said that informing students has been one of the bigger agendas for SGA in the past year.

“We want to convey the message to the whole student body rather than just the RSO groups because we know how busy people are,” Rynbrand said.

If time allows, students will be able to bring up issues to the candidates.

“If there is time within that hour and a half, we will give students a chance to ask the questions that they want to discuss,” Rynbrand said.

Rynbrand said the question regarding the new university president is considered to be of great importance because news on the search process has been scarce.

University President Michael Rao accepted the presidency at Virginia Commonwealth University Feb. 20 and will begin July 1.

“The budget will be part of the discussion, but that will also go along with the discussion on the new president that is coming in,” Rynbrand said.

This will be the final opportunity for students to hear all of the candidates speak before the election begins online at midnight on March 30. Elections end April 3.

university@cm-life.com

The library has been unable to maintain its budget due to increasing prices on subscriptions, officials said.

Subscriptions take up approximately 80 percent of the library’s acquisitions budget. Cuts have already been taking place in library, but use of the journal subscriptions is one of the key factors in deciding the materials that stay and go.

“We decided to recommend for cancellation the titles for which the use is low and encourage users of those titles to request the articles they need through Interlibrary Loan,” said Associate Dean of Libraries Anne Casey.

She said usage over time determined what is getting cut.

“If a print title had less than 20 uses over the four and a half years, or if an electronic title had less than 60 over the same time period, we put them on a default cancellation list,” Casey said.

Since 2001-02, the subscription budget for the library has increased nearly eight percent. Casey said that cancelling subscriptions has actually already taken place, but now they are looking at taking more drastic measures.

The Park Library has asked professors to stop their lower-priority journal subscriptions. Very few have responded, according to a library serials analysis.

Much of the criteria for deciding the materials that leaves or stays at the library will also be determined by the cost versus use ratio.

From March 1 until April 17 the library will seek input from faculty on recommendations to terminate specific titles, according to a library serials analysis.

A list of serials titles to be removed from the CMU 2010 subscription list will be finalized by May 1.

university@cm-life.com

The Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan United Conservation Clubs are seeking public input on an upcoming Strategic Deer Management Plan for the state.

The meetings are intended to give the public a chance to raise issues about current deer population measures. The closest meeting to Mount Pleasant will take place at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday at Northwood University’s Sloan Auditorium in Midland.

“We’re looking at getting all of the topics out there,” said Amy Spray, resource policy specialist for the MUCC.

The MUCC has put a statewide Michigan Deer Advisory Team together to run the meetings and compile the issues brought up by the public.

“We’re not asking for a solution, but rather we are trying to define the problems,” said Rod Clute, director of the DNR wildlife division.

The advisory team is expecting to field concerns from police, hunters, foresters and large-land owners – the groups will most likely be raising issues that will be put into the plan, Clute said.

“We are hoping to have all of the information by March,” Clute said.

The DNR will be controlling the more scientific aspect of the planning, Spray said.

“This is all a way to give the DNR a chance to see what they are going to do on paper,” she said.

The DNR hopes to have a plan ready by March of 2010. Clute said once the issues have been addressed, they can begin to prioritize.

“We are going to take the issues and put them in some sort of order that deals with them locally, regionally and statewide,” Clute said.

One of the issues expected to arise is the number of deer carcasses laying around. In 2007, 61,907 carcasses were picked up off Michigan highways by Michigan State Police.

“By controlling the population, that type of thing will not happen as much anyway,” Spray said. “We could also provide more corridors for deer to cross roads.”

By the numbers

Deer carcasses picked up around the state by Michigan State Police:
- 2000 – 65,005
- 2001 – 66,993
- 2002 – 63,136
- 2003 – 67,760
- 2004 – 62,707
- 2005 – 58,741
- 2006 – 60,875
- 2007 – 61,907
Source: Michigan State Police

If you can go …

Mid-Michigan deer management meeting dates

- Feb. 17, Northwood University, Sloan Auditorium, 4000 Whiting Dr, Midland

- Feb. 17, Carl T. Johnson Hunting and Fishing Center, 6093 M-115, Cadillac

- March 3, Avalon Lansing West Hotel (formerly Best Western-Midway Hotel), 7711 W. Saginaw, Lansing.

metro@cm-life.com

The updates to the online course and financial management system include tools like blogs, wikis and surveys.

The changes are a work-in-progress and are meant to be an easy transition for the students and faculty, said Information Technology officials.

“It is our goal to make it very transparent for everyone,” said Director of Application Development John Rathje.

Over the next few months, the existing Portal will be transferred over to Microsoft Sharepoint 2007, an actual portal system itself.

Students that use the My Site feature on the Portal must transfer their existing My Site material over to my.cmich.edu by April 5.

Some may have already noticed changes in the past couple of weeks in the looks of the my.cmich.edu Web site.

Not only is that the Web site which students must transfer their data to, but it will act as a public gateway for Sharepoint users.

“While it functions almost identically to the previous login screen from an outside perspective, it is a necessary building-block to future single sign-on integrations,” said Help Desk Manager Jeff McDowell.

The new My Site will allow students and faculty to communicate in groups and use the site on a more individual basis, Rathje said.

As changes are continuously being made to the new My Site, the goal is to attain better organization and efficiency with the new technology.

“Sometimes you have to have a migration path to stay current,” Rathje said. “We will gain feedback from everyone and see what changes need to be made and to see what works.”

Faculty and staff at Central Michigan University will also have upgrades to their current team sites already existing on their portals.

The Sharepoint team sites are structured for more corporate use, Rathje said.

The upgrade to Sharepoint will not hurt the wallets of CMU either. Sharepoint has been included under Information Technology’s campus agreement.

“The only potential costs would be additional hardware,” McDowell said.

Rathje said that the overall use of the Portal is not expected to shift very much.

“A lot of it is what we can do in the future,” Rathje said.

university@cm-life.com

“I shot a seven-point with a ten-inch spread,” said the Weidman sophomore, who sat with a friend who bagged a six-pointer on opening day.

The kill count was slightly lower than last year according to the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The drop was slight, approximately 1,000 below the 273,000 total in 2007.

Numbers for 2008 were expected to be lower because of the new baiting laws, said DNR Northwest Wildlife Manager Larry Visser.

The state banned all deer and elk baiting in the Lower Peninsula in August to prevent the spread of Chronic Wasting Disease after an infected deer was discovered in Kent County.

“We didn’t see a significant change in the harvest because of the new baiting laws,” Visser said.

Many hunters felt the DNR overreacted to the disease and worried the ban would make it difficult to get a deer within shooting range of blinds and tree stands. At least one lawsuit was filed challenging the ban.

Mid-Michigan had a nearly 6,000 deer harvest increase over 2007 according to the DNR. The southern Lower Peninsula had the largest harvest at 149,000, while the Upper Peninsula – where there was no baiting ban – had the only decrease this year, down nearly 22 percent.

“It seems like southern Michigan harvest numbers were up a little bit, but it was definitely up in our area,” Visser said.

Schafer said he was pleased with not only the hunting season, but with the results around mid-Michigan.

“I didn’t expect to see that many deer, and areas with more crops were better this season due to the new baiting laws,” Schafer said. “A lot of local areas shot decent bucks.”

Archery deer season ran Oct. 1 through Nov. 14 and Dec. 1 through Jan. 1. Firearm season was Nov. 15 through 30.

Isabella County Sheriff Leo Mioduszewski said it was a good hunting season from his standpoint.

“This is one of the few years that I can recall that there were no injuries to report,” Mioduszewski said. “Previous years, we had people fall out of their tree stands.”

Law enforcement and DNR officials had to deal with a minimum number of law violations as well, Visser said.

“There were some violations and tickets were written like always,” he said.

Visser also said tickets written dealt with common violations during the hunting season including license issues, trespassing and a few baiting violators.

“We had a few trespassing calls, but from a law enforcement perspective, it was a great season,” Mioduszewski said.

Waterfowl season open until Feb. 1

The DNR announced on Dec. 29 that the late Canada and Michigan goose hunting season, which began Jan. 3, will end Feb. 1.

This is only in effect for the southern zone of Michigan, which is south of M-20, and excludes Allegan and Muskegon County’s Goose Management Units.

The daily bag limit will be five. For more information, visit michigan.gov or contact any DNR station. The Bay City DNR office phone number is 989-684-9141.

news@cm-life.com

Clarkston junior Dan Thompson, on the other hand, remembers his first non-kill.

“I was only about 15 at the time, and I was sitting in my tree stand with a tree in front of me that was only about an inch thick,” Thompson said. “A six-point buck turned broadside right in front of me and the arrow from the bow hit that small tree.”

Since he was 14 years old, Thompson has been hunting for deer and small game. He said he plans on going out to hunt a deer this season, but small game hunting is one of his favorite things to do.

“I like to bow-hunt and gun-hunt deer, but I also like hunting small games such as birds,” Thompson said.

Birch Run senior Jake Hartwick had a slightly different experience when he encountered the first deer of his young hunting career.

“Me and a buddy went out, and he stood out on a ridge while he pushed them towards me,” Hartwick said. “I dropped a big six-point buck.”

Both Hartwick and Thompson recalled their emotions after both of those events had occurred. Thompson said he was disappointed, but Hartwick was ecstatic over his first big kill.

“That was the only deer I had ever got in my life, so of course it was exciting, but it is something that I want to experience again, hopefully this season,” Hartwick said.

This season, hunters have new regulations and laws for hunting. New baiting laws top this year’s list. Baiting deer in the Lower Peninsula is illegal, and hunters face a $500 fine if found baiting.

Hartwick said hunters should be aware and follow the new law.

“The new baiting law is going to be a hassle for some this year,” Hartwick said. “But just don’t do it.”

Hartwick said the thrill of the hunt makes it worthwhile.

“You have to be patient, which kind of stinks because it’s cold,” Hartwick said. “When you get that deer, though, it is worth the wait.”

news@cm-life.com

Michigan’s statewide population of deer is more than 1.7 million, the Department of Natural Resources reported in its annual forecast. The Associated Press reports wildlife biologists cautioned that deer are not distributed evenly around the state. The biggest numbers are in southern Michigan, and the smallest are in the Upper Peninsula.

“We have one of the highest deer populations in the state,” said DNR Lt. Ron Utt.

Deer hunting usually contributes about $500 million into the state economy through purchases of food, lodging, transportation and gear, according to the AP. Firearms hunting began Saturday and runs through Nov. 30. Archery and muzzle-loading seasons are scheduled for December.

Some say fewer than the usual 725,000 hunters may participate since the DNR prohibited the long-standing practice of placing beets, corn, carrots and other produce in the woods to lure deer.

The rule was imposed to prevent chronic wasting disease from infecting wild deer. A single case was detected on a Kent County ranch in August.

Utt said it has been a cause for concern with this year’s hunters.

“We have already had a 30 percent increase in complaints, but we will be watching this very close this season,” Utt said.

In order to stay safe this hunting season, it is recommended that hunters always let friends or family know where they are hunting, as well as let those who allow hunters to use their land know what kind of vehicle they drive.

Acquiring the proper tags and paper work is also essential to deer-hunting. Michigan State Police trooper Josh Lator said police will be on the lookout all season.

“I’ve been called to check out a few of the younger local hunters to check and make sure they had proper licenses for their weapons in the past,” Lator said. “It is the hunter’s responsibility to know both the new and old regulations.”

Lator also said police will be paying close attention to the new baiting laws in Michigan this season.

“People really need to take that into consideration because we are looking,” he said.

Students around campus are looking forward to the upcoming deer hunting season, even with the new laws.

Weidman sophomore Kyle Schafer said he expects a great rifle season and some success during the bow-hunting season.

“I think that the laws make hunting that much more of a sport because it makes it a competition to find that one big buck,” Schafer said. “I already shot a seven-point with my bow, and the growth/genes of the animals keep getting better every year.”

news@cm-life.com