One night in October, I grossly underestimated how much alcohol I consumed at a 21st birthday party and waited less time than I thought before getting behind the wheel.

It didn’t occur to me until the red and blue lights of a CMU Police car flashed in my rearview mirror what a huge mistake I had made. I was arrested and since, it has snowballed into one of the most depressing and embarrassing experiences of my life.

The incident has consumed much of my daily thought. The two court visits have soaked up my time, and I’m positive the consequences will drain my bank account substantially.

But really, it is not even about me. And until this happened, I hadn’t realized that my job as editor in chief isn’t either.

Most everyone here at CM Life knew I was arrested and faced what has now been reduced to a Driving While Impaired charge. I’ve discussed it at length with our adviser and I came clean to the Student Publications Board of Directors, which reappointed me as editor next semester.

It’s been no secret and I have answered all inquiries about it honestly.

The real question: Should CM Life have run a story about my charges to notify the public?

Am I considered to be in the public eye? Is it anyone’s business? Should I really set a precedent that any other future CM Lifer who gets in trouble publish a story?

I chose to write this column.

It is my first offense and, to paraphrase what a CMU professor recently said, I’m not exactly walking around with horns and a tail because of it.

That night, I unfortunately decided to drink and drive. But it’s about the people I could have hurt.

Throughout CMU, I’m sure there are plenty others like me — first offenders shocked and ashamed they could ever let such a thing happen.

Like being editor, the consequences for certain decisions can become much more political than they actually are. I have learned more this semester than how to manage a newsroom.

My charges have surfaced to those who do not have all the facts. Construe your own conclusion, it’s your right.

I came to CMU to be a journalist with the hope that one day I will find a purpose that helps people, whether it be reporting what is important or putting together a thrice-weekly product with some attempt at a vision.

Still, every day I catch flak. My staff’s victories are their own, but their mistakes are my responsibility. It’s the nature of the beast.

The job of editor in chief is about making tough decisions. It isn’t to be well-liked by the masses or to sway how you feel. It is to present you with the truth.

And the truth is what I did that night is wrong. I am grateful for those who have understood the situation and respect those who question my integrity.

Perhaps this might stop others from making similar mistakes.

No matter how much you think you have had to drink, always assume you have had too much. And that decision could just save a life.

“The last day is May 25,” said Catherine Rhoades, an assistant communications specialist for Gap Inc., the owner of Old Navy. “I just got confirmation that the store is closing.”

The local Old Navy location, located at 4170 E. Bluegrass Road, is in Union Township’s Indian Hills Plaza east of Mission Street. There are 28 Old Navy outlets in Michigan and 1,003 nationwide, according to the Gap Inc. Web site.

Rhoades said deciding to close a store is on a case-by-case basis and depends on factors such as store location or how a business is doing financially.

“We just try to make sure we have the right number of stores in the right place,” Rhoades said.

Sydney Walsh, a Royal Oak junior, said she heard it was closing through a friend who applied for a summer job at the store.

“I shop at Old Navy a lot, but not up here a lot,” she said. “Most of the time, I clothes shop at home, so it’s not too big of an impact. But once and a while I do, so it is sad.”

For other people like Jessica Vantoll, Old Navy was a money saver, because “$20 goes a long way.”

“It’s a little sad because I always forget it’s here,” the Westland freshman said. “They have the best flip-flops.”

Rumors of other establishments in Indian Hills have circulated, as the majority of people who work on the property say they have not only heard Old Navy will close, but that Kroger, at 4080 E. Bluegrass Road, was moving to a different location.

Kroger management and corporate communications, however, confirms the store has no current plans to close or relocate.

Woody Woodruff, zoning administrator for Union Township, said regardless of the rumors of closing stores, developments for the property seem to have begun.

“I just had a call from a contractor asking questions about permits and stuff they need to renovate the old Wal-Mart,” he said. “My explanation was if they were not adding new space, they would just have to apply for a building permit to tear walls and put up new walls.”

Woodruff said he did not know who the call was on behalf of, but they would not have to come before the township planning authority for approval.

Indian Hills Plaza is owned and leased out by Developers Diversified Realty. Betsy Keck, director of public relations and corporate communications, said in an e-mail the company currently is negotiating leases with two retailers, which involves facility space that totals 34,000 square feet.

“We are working with tenants that have shown interest in the balance of available space,” she said. “The center is very attractive to retailers for its existing tenant mix, as well as its easy access and position in the market.”

metro@cm-life.com

Cam Enarson, a professor of anesthesiology and health policy and ethics at Creighton University, will begin consulting part-time May 1 and commence official dean duties July 1. His annual salary, including deferred compensation, is $308,000, $5,643 more each year than University President Michael Rao’s salary approved by the Board of Trustees in December.

Enarson will carry out the one-year contract with up to $70,000 in performance incentives.

Ray Christie, vice provost of academic administration and medical school program director, said he does not believe Enarson’s position and the initiative during development stages will extract any resources or funds from undergraduate academic programs.

“There are not plans to reallocate existing base funds away from existing colleges and departments,” Christie said. “Other medical schools have reported various impacts. One certainly is a greater image which has led to greater interest in other existing programs.”

After February’s Board meeting, university officials were given directions to carry out a search for an interim dean.

Provost Julia Wallace said the search began after the Board’s permission and a discussion in January with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education, the accrediting body of the more than 100 medical schools across the country and in Canada.

“Typically you would actually go to the college … to talk about what they thought would be important in the interim dean process and then get some feedback,” Wallace said. “Now in this particular case, we don’t have a college of medicine, so it’s harder to do.”

She said CMU searched for someone with a strong medical education and LCME accreditation experience.

Despite looking at individuals who recently retired or were unsuccessful in other dean searches, Wallace said CMU was recommended to Enarson, as he was Creighton’s vice president for health sciences and school of medicine dean for five years.

“We knew the characteristics that we wanted,” she said. “There was no question that Cam stood out.”

Enarson also was on numerous LCME site visits, Wallace said, and can introduce new methods of achieving accreditation given his expertise.

“He could very well be the foremost authority on LCME accreditation standards in this country,” Christie said. “We are at a point where we need someone with the expertise that Dr. Enarson has.”

Christie said to determine Enarson’s salary, he turned to the Association of American Medical Colleges.

According to AAMC records, Enarson’s contract is in the 25th percentile of medical school deans nationwide and up to $200,000 less than the median salary from the 2007-2008 academic year.

Christie said Enarson will be responsible for curricular, administrative and facility developments.

Wallace said quarterly reports will be given to the Board, informing them of Enarson’s progress in achieving accreditation and that he will somewhat maintain an on campus presence throughout its duration.

university@cm-life.com

City Commissioners discussed and postponed decision of approving a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services for lethal removal of a rising nuisance deer population in southwest Mount Pleasant.

For neighborhood residents near Veits Woods and Chipp-A-Waters Park , damage to landscaping, discovery of deer droppings and numerous close-calls between deer and vehicles is cause enough to implement some form of safe and lethal removal of deer.

“It’s been a problem for that neighborhood. It’s really obvious when you look at where that neighborhood sits,” said City Manager Kathie Grinzinger. “Part of it is that it’s so easy in the city parks. There’s no hunting. There’s a tremendous amount of food supply because you have all the low growing shrubs and stuff.”

The Southwest Association of Neighbors is the body to experience the negative results of the increasing deer population.

Tom Moffit, SWAN president, said what was estimated by city officials to be just a few troublesome deer is probably closer to 100, and that despite past attempts to approach the issue, it has gotten steadily worse.

“We think the number of deer that were counted is sadly undercounted,” he said. “Those of us in the area can recognize the fact we have herds of deer, 10, 15 at a time running through our back yards.”

USDA Wildlife Services, along with Mount Pleasant’s department of public safety, recommended the use of sharpshooters to control the deer population. Two visits from these shooters at $4,000 each would remove 10 to 15 animals, if eventually approved.

Commissioner Sharon Tilmann said she understood that there might be a safe record in other communities with sharpshooters using guns to kill deer inside city limits, but is concerned over the safety and legal matters of the situation.

“I have to tell you, it kind of makes me cringe,” she said. “I wonder our insurance carrier, what their take on this is. Where is the liability? Sharpshooters may be sharpshooters, but they could miss.”

Given that any harvest of hired sharpshooters would not begin until the appropriate hunting season roles around, commissioners decided to utilize their time to better understand the issue and to make a decision at a future meeting.

metro@cm-life.com

During a work session Monday, city staff presented the commission with potential policy revisions. Discussion over where licenses would be permitted, what events would be granted a license and how those events would be contained, all resulted from staff recommendations.

As developed by the Downtown Development Board, the policy was originally suggested to make licenses accessible to events held any where downtown in order to attract more people to the Central Business District, located in downtown Mount Pleasant.

“I’ve had business owners downtown say that we don’t need alcohol to bring people downtown,” said Commissioner Sharon Tilmann. “However, I don’t want to preclude someone from applying for a one-day liquor license.”

Available locations for non-profits to obtain a one-day liquor license and hold an event on public property is currently limited to Island Park, 331 N. Main St., though some commissioners discussed support of eventually expanding the policy citywide.

Others advocated adding more location options in small steps, which Director of Public Safety Bill Yeagley said was within his comfort level because of a safety frame of reference in containing events that offer alcohol.

“While my comfort is pretty conservative, I think if we follow what has been laid out here so far in philosophy, that we’ll be well protected, that we won’t allow an event to occur in a location we feel is not safe for this community,” he said. “So it’s the details of the location that make it either work or not work. Not just the location, but the plan to take place in that location.”

Commissioners agreed to take applications for a licence on a case-by-case basis, but were split when it came to fees being required when an event is held out of compliance on public property. City staff recommended a change to in cash bond amounts from $1,000 to $5,000.

Though most matters were postponed to a future meeting, commissioners agreed the policy ought to lower the 90-day waiting period for an application to be approved to 60 days.

“I think taking longer than 60 days on anything is ridiculous,” said Commissioner Jeffrey Palmer. “It’s a long stretch.”

metro@cm-life.com

Salma Ghanem, chairwoman of the communications department at the University of Texas-Pan American, accepted the position last week and was selected by Provost Julia Wallace over fellow position finalist Jack Bowman, who is dean of the School of Fine Arts at the University of Minnesota Duluth.

“I’m joining a great college,” Ghanem said. “Everything I’ve heard about CMU has been nothing but positive.”

Ghanem said she received an e-mail from CMU media relations Tuesday. Director of Media Relations Steve Smith confirmed Ghanem’s appointment to the position Tuesday afternoon.

When she comes to CMU’s campus, Ghanem said she will work to maintain the quality of students’ education through transparency.

“That has been the way I operate,” she said. “I really want to have an open door policy.”

Quick to plant her roots, Ghanem said the difficulty in coming to Mount Pleasant has nothing to do with CMU.

“I’ve lived in Egypt, in New York, Texas and now Michigan,” she said. “It’s a very bittersweet move. Everybody’s been congratulating me, but there’s been tears.”

Sharon Valdes, Ghanem’s assistant, said she has worked with Ghanem for the last year-and-a-half.

She said Ghanem has gotten along well with students, staff and faculty alike, and they have run a “well oiled machine” in their department.

“We work with her very close everyday,” Valdes said “I love her and I’m going to miss her, but I’m happy for her … she’s going to be the most awesome dean you’ve ever had.”

Ghanem has been at the University of Texas-Pan American for 14 years and has been in her current position for eight. She said she will begin duties at CMU in early August.

Former CCFA associate dean Diane Krider has been interim dean since the beginning of the semester when Sue Ann Martin stepped down.

university@cm-life.com

“The last day is May 25,” said Catherine Rhoades, an assistant communications specialist for Gap Inc. “I just got confirmation that the store is closing.”

Gap Inc. is the owner of Old Navy, Banana Republic and The Gap. The local Old Navy location is in Union Township’s Indian Hills Plaza east of Mission Street.

There are 28 Old Navy outlets in Michigan and 1,003 nationwide. Rhoades said deciding to close a store is on a case-by-case basis and depends on factors like store location or how a business is doing financially.

“We just try to make sure we have the right number of stores in the right place,” she said.

Check cm-life.com for more updates.

It is a constant juggling act for Central Michigan University administrators to work out the way temporary and tenured faculty positions are financed.

According to data kept by Faculty Personnel Services, the number of regular faculty positions have fallen 4.6 percent over the last five years and the number of unfilled regular positions have increased 102 percent.

As the national recession continues, increases the number of temporaries is often the solution rather than decreasing regular faculty positions and the university’s economic woes.

“Very candidly, the economy is not real good and we’re struggling, just like all our competitor institutions are struggling, in terms of what positions are we able to fill, what positions do we most need to fill and how best do we go about doing it,” said Bob Martin, associate vice provost of Faculty Personnel Services.

In January’s presidential update, University President Michael Rao said that Provost Julia Wallace’s consultation with CMU’s deans had developed several ways to ensure regular faculty vacancies would be filled.

Deans under the update would write vacancy reports every year in June, providing a search process timeline for Wallace with a goal of hiring faculty for the subsequent academic year. The provost would approve search requests based on program reviews, priorities or needs within a college and simple budget principles.

In a November interview, Rao said this type of process would help him determine where regular positions are awarded.

“What we need to do more of is determine the pathway of what’s happening to those positions,” he said. “Right now, one of the ways I’m doing it is I’m awarding those positions with the provost, but I’m holding the money until they fill it. We didn’t do that before.”

Martin said he has been harping CMU college deans to begin searches early in the fall to identify potential candidates.

“I will tell you one thing I sense we’ve found … where our faculty and our deans working together make their regular faculty opportunities known,” he said. “We get out with our advertising and our promotion of opportunities in a timely way.”

Adjunct advantages

Temporary faculty have also become a more instrumental part to CMU balancing its check book, said Dean of Students Bruce Roscoe, because they will teach more courses and help keep class sizes down under one-year contracts.

This large advantage, he said means they’re much cheaper.

“The benefit of having the person being a temporary is we can cut our losses,” Roscoe said. “If the market dries up and we don’t need these folks, we’re not locked into them for the next 30 years.”

Gary Shapiro, dean of the College of Humanities and Social and Behavioral Sciences, said centered management at CMU’s six academic factions shifts economically back and forth between temporaries and tenures.

“So if there’s certain money allocated for regular faculty, and if the expenses are less because there are fewer regular faculty, we can spend that dollar on temporary faculty,” he said.

Mark Freed, associate professor of English, Language and Literature, attests to the fact that temporary faculty offer CMU flexibility, but that administrators “cut corners” around the issue, and in the cases where temporaries stay longer than a contracted year, it is often because their qualifications are of a terminal degree.

“Do you want the reputation that your university (hires) faculty cheap?” he said. “It may be financially necessary, but it comes at a cost.”

university@cm-life.com

Every facet of Central Michigan University’s campus seems affected by the rise of temporary faculty, most of all the students.

But the majority of them don’t pay attention to the ranking of their professors.

In a Central Michigan Life survey of more than 300 randomly selected undergraduates, 44.2 percent say they don’t see a difference between temporary instructors and tenured or tenure-track professors when asked if they have a preference between the two.

“I would say that the majority of students, especially freshmen and sophomores, they don’t have any idea at all as to whether their faculty is temporary,” said Bruce Roscoe, dean of students.

Tenured faculty favored by students

Some students prefer tenured professors because of their qualifications. In fact, 22.4 percent of polled students said so.

Chrissy Fritsch said she has had 100-level courses taught by temporary instructors, which resulted in a less than satisfactory education.

This partially leads to her preference of tenures because they do have terminal degrees.

“I figure the teachers I have that have had doctorate degrees have been here for awhile,” the Midland freshman said. “They better know how to interact with students. They also seem like they know the information better because they’ve been teaching longer.”

Troy senior Kenny Brezenski said he prefers tenured professors over temporaries because temporaries aren’t bound to stay at CMU.

“I just think (tenures) are more committed,” he said. “Temporary instructors are just here and then they’re gone.”

However, of the students surveyed, 19.6 percent prefer temporaries because they define themselves as teachers.

Roscoe said there can be real benefits to being strictly a classroom educator, as opposed to a researcher like tenures are.

“They often have a lot of experience in the classroom,” he said. “Because they’re temporaries, they understand the pressure of performing well year to year in order to be rehired.”

Shannon McEown said it seems like temporaries have something to prove and that they are beneficial because some come from the professional world to teach on a part-time basis.

“They work harder in order to make it so students will like them and recommend their classes to other students,” the Mount Pleasant sophomore said. “I don’t pick my classes based on my professors. I just found the classes taught by temporary professors to be more fun.”

Adjunct drawbacks

Students are affected in several ways as more of their classes are instructed by temporaries, regardless of the quality of that instructor.

John Curtis, American Association of University Professors director of research and public policy, said having large numbers of instructors not participating as regular faculty members can have negative effects on students.

“It means for the student they don’t have a chance to develop a relationship with a faculty member,” he said.

Adjunct instructors might also lack the advantages of academic freedom, Curtis said, because the psosition “can’t take on anything that might be controversial or raise something to students in class.”

Temporaries, unlike tenured professors, are also not required to carry out any service to the university, which includes academic advising.

“Students who may like their temporary faculty would like to have that person as their adviser,” Roscoe said. “And the person says, ‘I can’t be your adviser. I’m hired to teach, I’m not hired to advise.’”

In a November interview, Interim Health Professions Dean Thomas Masterson said the funds dedicated to temporary positions in his college have increased.

These are the same funds that pay for anything from department initiatives to paper clips, but he said the funds increased because more temporaries were added to accommodate larger student demands.

Masterson said in the case of over-production, those funds are supposed to be invested in a new program or initiative within the college.

“It’s not to say we don’t do that, we just might be able to do more of that if we didn’t have temporary faculty,” Masterson said. “It’s kind of a double-edged sword because you need the temporary faculty so you can increase the number of classes that you teach.”

university@cm-life.com

The commission approved changes to the 2009 operating budget and city purchasing policy in development of a mini-stimulus package, which would boost the local economy and push future construction projects ahead to this year.

“If you really want to assure that local people are getting the deal, or are getting the money, you have to do two things,” said City Manager Kathie Grinzinger. “You have to not only approve the projects, but you have to do something to the purchasing policy that gives them some assurance that they’ll get the job.”

City staff gave the commission three options. A fourth option was, however, proposed by Commissioner David MaGuire, which first called for the elimination of $1,500 cap on preferred local purchases.

This was something city staff had also recommended be temporarily taken from the policy. MaGuire’s idea additionally adjusted percentage differentials allowed for chosen low bids of a project to 5 percent for in city businesses and 3 percent to in county businesses. This was suggested up from 3 and 2 percent.

MaGuire’s suggestion was approved.

The budget amendment will adjust the version of the operating budget approved last December to clarify the use of $500,000 from undesignated money in the general fund and $100,000 originally budgeted in for new sidewalks. These funds will be dedicated to five types of shovel-ready projects, residents can expect to begin in the coming months.

Projects included the $600,000 mini-stimulus package are a roundabout at the intersection of Main and Mosher Streets, additional parking on Mosher between Main and Court Street, a mini-circle at Mosher and Fancher Street, sidewalk replacements and brand new sidewalks.

Other business

City Commissioners also discussed and postponed decision of approving a contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services for lethal removal of a rising nuisance deer population in southwest Mount Pleasant.

The Southwest Association of Neighbors has reportedly experienced damage to landscaping in personal yards, deer droppings on lawns and several close calls between deer and vehicles.

Incidents have most frequently occurred in neighborhoods surrounding Viets Woods and Chipp-A-Water park.

USDA Wildlife Services, along with Director of Public Safety Bill Yeagley, recommended the city contract the use of sharpshooters to control the deer population.

Two visits from these shooters at $4,000 each would remove 10 to 15 animals.

“I have to tell you, it kind of makes me cringe,” said Commissioner Sharon Tilmann. “Where is the liability?”

Given that any harvest of hired sharpshooters would not begin until the appropriate hunting season roles around, commissioners decided to utilize their time to better understand the issue and to make a decision at a future meeting.

The commission also held a work session during Monday’s regular meeting regarding amendments of the city’s one-day liquor licensing policy.

Discussion over where licenses would be permitted, what events would be granted a license and how these events would be contained, continued from earlier this month.

Commissioners agreed to take applications for a licence on a case by case basis, though the extension of available locations from only Island Park was a different story.

As developed by the Downtown Development Board, the policy was originally recommended to be made accessible to events held any where in the Central Business District.

But proposals of expanding available locations on a city-wide basis appeared.

Yeagley said it was within his comfort level to take it slow in adding more locations because a safety frame of reference in containing alcoholic events is limited to Island Park.

“Any time we try something new, I don’t have that history to fall back on,” he said.

The matter of location was broken down and left for later discussion, whereas the policy was amended to lower the 90-day waiting period for an application to be approved to 60 days.

“I think taking longer than 60 days on anything is ridiculous,” said Commissioner Jeffrey Palmer.

Check cm-life.com for 24/7 updates.