Up ‘til Dawn is a fundraising event for the hospital from 5 to 9 p.m. in the Rotunda of the Bovee University Center.

“The name signifies the many hours the parents are up with their sick children,” said Karen Arthur, adviser to the Up ‘til Dawn registered student organization. “The hospital in Memphis is a world-renowned treatment center.”

Arthur said students should try to get 50 addresses of family or friends.

“St. Jude provides a letter and the students just address it,” Arthur said.

Students can register in teams at the organization’s website.

“It’s a social event. Just come and hang out and have fun,” said Algonac sophomore Stacy Rix, the RSO’s executive director. “We’re only asking for an hour of people’s time.”

The event will have a carnival theme with food and games. The team to address the most letters will get a plaque from St. Jude and a Buffalo Wild Wings party, Rix said.

“The whole concept is that we want the kids at St. Jude to have the same experiences we did, like graduating from high school and having their first day at college,” Rix said. “It’s all about how many people we can save.”

Rix said the RSO has been on campus about five years and raised more than $68,000 in that time.

Central Michigan University is one of many schools in the country that holds a fundraising event for the organization, he said.

“Last year everybody together raised $7 million. That can run the hospital for an entire week,” Rix said. “It’s a nonprofit hospital so it relies on donations.”

Last year the event raised more than $10,000 with a $20,000 goal for this year, Rix said.

“We want to get as many people as possible,” Rix said. “It’s a great group that actually makes a difference.”

The letter begins, “Dear CMU Faculty and Staff, we would like to express our deep and sincere gratitude for your efforts in the last couple of months and acknowledge the struggles you have been facing.”

“After the restraining order on Monday and knowing the faculty couldn’t do anything more, we tried to think of what we could do,” Diaz said. “We saw a lot of students using their time to yell about President Ross, who has awoken a sleeping giant. Rather than keep putting people down, we wanted to bring the faculty up.”

Burnham and Diaz said they both study anthropology, schedule the same courses at the same time, are roommates, finish each other’s sentences and are planning on attending the same graduate school.

“Justin and I met by accident last year after parking next to each other,” Diaz said. “I said ‘Hey, boy in the yellow shirt!’ to get his attention because he looked like someone I’d be friends with. Together, we’ve been taking over the world ever since.”

Diaz and Burnham began their latest mission Monday, by deciding to write and distribute personal letters to the professors with whom they are the closest.

“When you think of a really great professor that you’ve had and will remember 20 years from now — that’s who we wrote them to,” Diaz said. “I wrote one of my letters to a fierce, passionate professor of theater, Sadie Chandler, who’s not a part of the FA (Faculty Association). She changed what I thought a powerful woman could be and look at me now doing this.”

After writing about 10 personal letters each, the duo said they decided they wanted to do more.

“Justin and I aren’t the emotional type; we’re the ‘grab life by the balls and run with it’ people,” Diaz said. “But we were raised in the same way, where we realize the need to respect teachers and education, and we wanted to say thank you to everyone.”

So, the duo set out to meet and thank every faculty and staff member on campus.

“Whether you’re tenured or not, everyone deserves to be thanked,” Burnham said.

There is not a professor here that doesn’t care about students, Diaz said.

Burnham said they spent all of Tuesday passing the letters out, finishing Wednesday evening.

“We checked every building, from top to bottom, inside every nook and cranny to find faculty and staff,” Burnham said, who walked over campus for eight hours passing out letters with Diaz.

The two said they handed out well over 1,000 letters to faculty, staff and graduate assistants, and used up their CMU printing quota in the process. They also put the letter on their Facebook page “Props to our Professors.”

Cathy Willermet, assistant professor of sociology, anthropology and social work, received a personal letter from Burnham and Diaz.

“These letters are phenomenal, something I’ll keep forever,” Willermet said. “It is emotional to see all of these students supporting us. The students have our backs- they’re holding us up and also walking with us arm in arm at the same time. It really shows that we’re all in this together and makes us feel like we’re not alone.”

Professors read the letters aloud in meetings, and each has a special meaning, she said.

Laura Cochrane, assistant professor of sociology, anthropology and social work, said she has taught at different universities and the students’ support shows solidarity between faculty and students — something unique to CMU, she said.

“We’re always working in the classroom to make students our colleagues one day and students are showing that they already are,” Cochrane said.

Burnham said the general reaction from professors was full of tears, hugs and gratitude and many professors display letters outside their doors on bulletin boards.

The letter ends, “Your courageousness and perseverance is not overlooked … Thank you for making us proud to be your students.”

Take Tylenol to cure a hangover? Good luck avoiding permanent liver damage. Taking Tylenol or other similar painkillers to cure a hangover has serious consequences. It isn’t something in which you can just say, “Ahh, don’t worry about it, man. It’s all good.”

To start off, Tylenol contains a pain-killing compound called acetaminophen and, when you’re hungover, your liver is often too worn out to break it down.

On top of this, your body is dehydrated and flushed of liquids and electrolytes your body uses to produce every function you need to move or think.

If you want potassium, do you honestly think a $2 Vitamin Water is going to provide more potassium than a good ole 30 cent banana? And do you think you’re replacing your vitamins and minerals by drinking a room-temperature coke?

Think about it. You drink something, your body breaks it down, and you eventually sober up. So what is used to aid in breaking down the alcohol? Vitamin B3, also known is niacin. (Just a hint … Coke doesn’t have any B3).

If you want to “avoid” a hangover, or at least reduce your chances of feeling like you’ve been hit by a truck the next morning, at least mix your alcohol with B vitamins. Get these in pill form. A $5 bottle of B vitamins will give you more B-vitamin supply than 50 gallons of any flavor of Vitamin Water … per pill.

To get more specific, there is a compound that basically puts your liver into hyper mode. It’s called N-acetyl-cysteine and is a harmless supplement that can be purchased anywhere.

This is an antidote for alcohol poisoning, among other overdoses, and any biochemistry professor would agree.

If you want advice on preventing hangovers, talk to a biochemistry professor, not an avid partier, who is simply more tolerant to alcohol than the average person. I certainly hope that no students follow the hangover advice in your article, unless they want to seriously damage their health.

by Anthony Crawford, Biomedical Science

He was a smart and polite kid. My wife found him lying in our yard at 3:30 p.m. Saturday. He didn’t know where he was, so I walked him the six blocks home, across High Street. It was a slow walk and he talked most of the way there. I was confident when I left him, he would be okay after a little nap and some time to sober up.

I wasn’t surprised to find his friends in pretty much the same shape. He shook my hand, thanked me profusely for getting him home and promised me that he would be smarter for the rest of the day.

This situation may be an unintended consequence of the new tailgating policy at CMU. Kyle and his friends should have been at the football game Saturday afternoon. If they had been at the tailgate and the football game, they would have been under observation of professionals instead of wondering around the neighborhood between downtown and campus.

While it may be more convenient for the CMU officials to try to enforce arbitrary standards for alcohol consumption within a specific tailgating area, is it really safer for the students and the neighborhoods?

I have walked kids such as Kyle home most falls for the 26 years we have lived in our neighborhood. I call the police when I think they are in danger. These kids are good people, but they are kids. They have to learn how to handle themselves and we should help them do that.

CMU is a great neighbor, a great institution and mindful of the safety of the students most of the time. I urge them to rethink and revisit the new tailgating policy. Make enough room for the tailgaters, make them keep their music under control and get enough personnel on hand to manage the situation. I think I’d rather have the f-rap south of the football field than blaring across Gaylord and Franklin.

Just one townie’s perspective.

Joe and Jenny McDonal
Mount Pleasant residents

Student tailgating is one a fantastic tradition that helps make Chippewa Football Saturdays special. Tomorrow, we all have the opportunity to participate as we kick off another season of exciting Central Michigan football.

The pre-game and postgame activities that create an event for the entire university, as well as the game itself, are great opportunities to celebrate the people, history, traditions, and special relationships that make up the fabric of this great institution.

As we saw last weekend with a great win at Michigan State, Central Michigan is on a regional and national stage each time it plays a football game.

Our game day environment and experience should reflect the University’s mission and commitment to current and future students.

To us as administrators of that experience, that means finding ways to maintain our strong student tailgating tradition, but doing so in a safe and secure environment for all who attend.

I am confident the expectations recently outlined by the university will enhance your game day experience, improve the service you receive as our fans and ensure everyone’s safety.

Each and every university official and event employee is dedicated to assuring that we continue to provide you with one of the best game day experiences in the nation.

Saturday is your opportunity to enter this year with an open mind and evaluate the overall impact of these expectations.

We can, by working together, preserve the student tailgating tradition at
Central Michigan University. I encourage you to “Hold The Rope” this Saturday and support your Chippewas. I hope all students will attend the tailgate and enjoy themselves in a responsible manner, reflective of the championship culture that we have on the field.

So purchase your reserved tailgating spot today, enjoy a great atmosphere on Saturday and cheer your Chippewas on to another victory.

Fire Up Chips!

Dave Heeke
CMU Director of Athletics

I rubbed my eyes and looked again, but it was still there, and the caption claimed that this occurred on CMU’s campus. How is this possible? Are public displays of racism normal and accepted at these events?

Since I know also that the vast majority of CMU’s students of all races would not want to have someone wave a Confederate flag over their revels, I have to wonder why this particular flag was tolerated.

What was it in the mind of the person who unfurled it that day in April that made him think the crowd would approve?

Because of what I know about the students at CMU, I must conclude that the public display of this flag was an aberration, the act of one or two fellows they all hoped would just go away soon.

Daniel Patterson
Department of English

There was a glaring problem with it, namely the fact that most people that were interviewed were too young to even begin to understand what happened on 9/11, let alone know the true repercussions of it.

I would even venture to guess that most of those people did not even know what the World Trade Center was prior to 9/11.

While I was only 14 at the time of the attacks, I managed to carry at least a basic understanding of what had taken place on that day.

I had a knowledge of what the Trade Center actually was, having grown up with movies during the 90s that made the towers famous (Independence Day, Men in Black, Armageddon, among others).

I just fail to see the point in interviewing people who really had no idea about what was happening on Sept. 11.

Of course they were all “confused, unsure of what was happening,” because I highly doubt that these elementary school children were even allowed to watch the attacks from their classrooms, much less discuss them in a constructive manner.

I remember the television being turned on just in time to see the South Tower collapse during a live broadcast, and several of my classmates had even seen the second airplane hit the same tower some 55 minutes ago.

Up until that point, the media was considering the first hit on the World Trade Center to be an accident.

Once United 175 struck the South Tower, anyone who was capable of understanding what was happening knew that times were going to change.

You have a campus full of people who might offer a more meaningful opinion on the 9/11 attacks.

Let me just say that I appreciated the commentary from the journalism professor CM Life presented.

It gave insight on how the Sept. 11 attacks fit into the U.S. historical scale.

Professor Hartman drew interesting parallels between the attacks and the assassination of John F. Kennedy.

These were two events which shaped the direction America went.

For better or for worse, the American populace must accept the idea that the Sept. 11 attacks were glaringly significant, if not integral to American history, much like the JFK assassination was.

It seems as though most news agencies are afraid to relive the day, to bring out people’s true feelings about Sept. 11.

It appears that the goal of modern journalism is to sweep the tragedy under the rug, while the dates of other national tragedies (like Pearl Harbor) are commemorated yearly in the most patriotic of fashions.

Your article helps people forget.

Chris Hopcraft
Albion Senior

To start an article with ”The Beatles suck.” is a rather bold statement to make unless you plan to really back up your premise. It seems that the article is made up of many bold statements, not very intelligent, but bold and unsupported nonetheless. Mr. Stephens may want
to take note that if you want to make a persuasive argument, don’t talk down to your readers.

To assume you know more about music is to be ignorant to the people who both study and play music at a professional level, including those of us who go to the same university as the author of the article. If you would like to be musically humble Mr. Stephens, there are quite a few students that would love to talk theory, history, and general practice of music with you.

Somehow, Mr. Stephens has gotten confused with how music is perceived. To compare the Beatles, anyone of them, to Jimi Hendrix seems illogical. Yes, Hendrix may have more technical ability, but isn’t sound more important? It is in part, the often poor recording, intonations and subtle flaws that make the Beatles and their studio recordings masterpieces. The whole idea of sound was shown in the punk movement that followed the Beatles, the ideal that anyone could pick up an instrument and play.

I generally don’t care about Mr. Stephens’ opinion by the end of the article, which seems to be the only thing I got out of the article. Nor do I care about his attachment to Picket’s version of “Hey Jude,” I suppose Mr. Stephens was one of the many that liked Across The Universe (the film adaptation) more than the original recordings (take that as you wish).

I imagine that I am submitting to the author’s wishes. Someone who writes an article like such is likely to write only under the basis of getting ridiculous feedback and attention, so I guess I become part of that.

But the next time Mr. Stephens plans to write anything legitimate and worthwhile in regards to music, I suggest he put down the pen and talk to someone who knows something more about music which, based on his article, there are lots of them on campus.

Andrew Walker,
Ohio sophomore

It is wonderful that Schanz feels that working through college is preparing him for the real world. However, I believe I am going to be well prepared also and I worked my first “real” job this past summer.

Many students that are not employed during college are not wasting their time away. I have friends that are in multiple clubs and organizations. I would argue that those clubs, especially career-related ones, are better preparation for life after college than the typical college student job. A job at McDonald’s won’t really help a future lawyer. However, being involved in College Republicans or College

Democrats or the Pre-Law fraternity will give that student the actual skill set he or she needs to succeed in that field.

Organizations like these provide students with networking opportunities, conferences and a better understanding of the field they want to spend the rest of their life in.

Not having a job while I’m in college doesn’t make me irresponsible or lazy. By being involved in other activities, I am learning the exact skills that Schanz is learning at his job. I must manage my time wisely while balancing 19 credit hours, multiple RSOs and an array of friendships. I build my level of responsibility by being involved in e-board and committees.

I can also manage my money wisely. The money I earned over the summer is more than enough to carry me through the school year, with proper management. I have my budget and I stick to it.

My skills are what got me to Central Michigan and I desire to expand my knowledge, not my pocketbook, these four years.

Stephanie Jaczkowski
Clinton Township junior

Some people tailgate with a hot dog and some friendly conversation. Some tailgate with a lot of alcohol and the hopeful possibility of meeting new people. The point of this message, and of all protest against these rules, is to fight for the rights of the students and attendees that make football the number one income of public universities!

I understand that tailgate has different connotations for everyone. But just because tailgating means different things, people don’t have to be enemies or opposites. As I look at it, this is just like freedom of religion (but not equal, nobody pounce on me for that comparison).

Students should be able to tailgate in a manner that they see fit, within reason, of course.

The university takes adequate precautions to make us all safe. I hope that if you saw a fellow tailgater in trouble, you would help them out. Tailgate brings us all together as Chippewas, young and old, men and women.

I will refute these new rules because I believe them to be unnecessary regulations that hinder our abilities to live our lives as the four fathers intended, with the freedom to make choices that follow our own morals and feelings.

Make no mistake, I respect all tailgate styles and all tailgaters. I have been the drunk at the end of the truck looking for a ride out of the student lot. I have been a respectable member of the marching band, just wishing that, for once, the students would quiet down enough to hear us play the fight song for them.

But in no way, shape, or form have I ever let tailgate get in the way of what I really wake up on game-day to do — support CMU athletics.

Whether I am drunk or sober, you best believe that I walk through those gates and get counted as a CMU fan who holds the game-day atmosphere sacred and wish that the university would see it as such as well.

Nobody is looking for a verbal debate here. We are looking for the freedom to express ourselves as fans equally.

Whether that be with a hot dog in hand and a win on our mind, or with a 30-pack driven into us and dreams of a third MAC championship floating through our heads, we all think the same thing on game day.

Chris Mueller
Grandville senior