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Lansing Community College’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

PAGE 9Dec. 13 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011 thelo koutVolume 52, Issue 8www.lcc.edu/lookout

Strike a pose

Photo by Michael CaterinaSmile big: Photo Club members Lynette Rohrbacher (left) and Haylee Price check the exposure of the holiday portrait setup Dec. 2. The club will hold another photoshoot selling 5-by-7 prints for $3 on Feb. 14, Valentine’s Day and March 17, St. Patrick’s Day.

Board of Trustees to vote on increasing parking ratesDominick Mastrangelo News Editor

LCC’s Board of Trust-ees is expected to vote Dec. 13 on a plan that would extend hours the

college charges for park-ing.

The meeting begins at 6 p.m. in the Adminis-trative Building’s board room.

The proposed hours

to charge for parking would be from 6 to 11 p.m. Mondays through Thursdays.

The new plan does allow for parking to re-main free on Friday eve-

nings and weekends. The plan would in-

clude charging StarCard users past 6 p.m.

In fall 2010 there were more than 22,000 stu-dents enrolled at LCC,

an influx of approxi-mately 6,000 students since the year 2000, ac-cording to The Lansing State Journal.

The college plans to build a 125-space lot on

the northwest corner of Saginaw Street and Cap-itol Avenue next sum-mer at an estimated cost of at least $270,000.

The meeting is open to the public.

LCC receives $9.97 million to upgrade A&SDominick MastrangeloNews Editor

The Michigan Leg-islature has approved $9.97 million in the 2010 Capitol Outlay Bill for LCC’s proposed renova-tion project for the Arts and Sciences Building.

Planning for the reno-vation is set to begin af-ter the first of the year.

“It was literally years

in the making,” LCC President Brent Knight said. “A team of LCC staff from across the campus did an excep-tional job working very hard to make this a re-ality.

“We will all ben-efit from their achieve-ment.”

LCC will match the money given by the state legislature to bring

the total for the project to $19.95 million.

The project will in-crease the number of science labs, allowing LCC to accommodate for enrollment growth.

According to infor-mation from Campus Communication, the college plans to build learning labs that will

See Upgrade, page 2 Photo by Courtney Baker

Funding: Students work on projects in a science class in an A&S classroom. The college received $9.97 million from the Capitol Outlay Bill that LCC plans to use to upgrade the A&S Building.

Federal government impacts Financial AidNathan WilsonStaff Writer

A recent change in the financial aid policy set for Spring Semester 2011 will affect stu-dents who have earned less than 30 credits.

Students who have earned less than 30 credits and have nev-er borrowed a federal loan will receive half of their loan disburse-ment by Feb. 14, 2011, according to the LCC Financial Aid website.

The second half of the loan will not be re-ceived until March 12, 2011.

Dean Evan Montague, Ph.D., explained the federal government implemented these changes in response to LCC’s loan default rate over the past three fis-cal years.

LCC’s two-year av-erage default rate for 2007 and 2008 exceed-ed 10.9 percent while the national average for two or three-year

public colleges hov-ered at 10 percent.

“That’s something we’re very concerned about,” Montague said. “We want to con-tinue to focus our en-ergy and efforts on that.”

LCC was required by federal regulations to enact these financial aid policy changes as a re-sult of the default rate.

Montague said, “We look forward to working

See Aid, page 2

NEWS2 Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

AidContinued from page 1

UpgradeContinued from page 1

closer with students to try to help in terms of managing your money, managing the funds throughout the semester, and that’s part of the principle behind it.”

According to Mon-tague, part of the principle behind the federal requirement is to disburse the loan in two separate dis-bursements, rather than give out the en-tire loan at once.

“Let’s have this 30-day period at the beginning to help the students get into classes, start making

progress, and then let’s split the install-ment so the student gets part up front and part at the midpoint,” he explained.

“If you got a loan in the fall and applied for a full-year loan, you get the second in-stallment of your loan in the Spring Semes-ter,” he said. “It’s real-ly for a new borrower or for somebody who in the spring is apply-ing for one semester only loan.”

Montague said continuing students should not be affected as much as new bor-

rowers.“If they decide to

apply for a spring-only loan, then we would send them a notice saying, ‘Here are the requirements about your spring loan,’” Montague said.

He added, however, “We have thousands of students receiv-ing financial aid right now that this change has no impact on – they are perfectly fine.”

The first refund will be available Jan. 12, 2011, and the sec-ond March 12, 2011.

“rival the best in the nation.”

In addition, general classroom expansion is expected.

“It’s going to be a little inconvenient for a while, but something tells me it's going to be worth it,” said Pat

Mckerr, a student at LCC who will have a class in the Arts and Sciences Building twice a week next semester.

“Maybe a class or two will even get can-celled,” he joked. “On second thought, I probably couldn’t get

that lucky.” The renovation will

update classrooms left largely untouched since the building was constructed in 1968. College officials esti-mate the project will start in 2012 and finish by summer 2014.

Photo by Michael Caterina


Financial flux: Students talk to financial aid representatives at LCC. New regula-tions make it so first-time loan recipients must wait to receive payment until Feb. 14 for the first disbursement and March 12 for the second and final disbursement.

Improvements: Students walk in and out of the Arts and Sciences Building, which LCC received $9.97 million dollars to restore and expand.

Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

NEWS3

IN BRIEFNEWS

Dominick MastrangeloNews Editor

LCC and the Ameri-can Marketing Asso-ciation (AMA) held their annual Toys for Tots kickoff Dec. 6 outside the Welcome Center in the Gannon Building.

The kickoff was in partnership with the Lansing Leathernecks Motorcycle Club. Sev-eral present and past Marine service people were in attendance.

“We try and do ev-erything we can to support the commu-nity, especially the little guys,” a retired Marine who called himself “Checkmate” said. “These toy drives have been hap-pening over and over again for a reason.”

Last year, LCC col-lected 130 gifts on Main Campus alone. This year the collec-tion will be held on West and East Cam-pus as well.

“I know we can do a lot more (this year),” said Jody DuBeau, co-vice president of communication for LCC. “The main focus of the kickoff is to re-ally get the students involved. We wanted to be very acessible to

them.” Drop boxes for toy

donations will be in the main lobby of ev-ery building on Main Campus from Dec. 1 to Dec. 15.

After Dec. 15, mon-etary donations will be accepted at the H o l e - i n - t h e - H a l l store, located in Gan-non Building room 133.

Toys for Tots was founded in 1947 by William L. Hendricks.

According to the Toys for Tots web-site, Hendricks want-ed to help parents who could not afford Christmas gifts to ensure their children would have a happy Christmas. 63 years later, the program is still running strong.

Marketing association gives joy through toys

Michael CaterinaPhoto Editor

Imagine collecting enough food to feed 10,000 people in one day.

LCC culinary professor William Nicklosovich, bet-ter known as Chef Nick, collaborated with Down-town Lansing, Inc. on Nov. 30 in front of the Capitol Building to do just that.

According to Chef Nick, the second annual Down-town Lansing Food Fight: Fight Against Hunger is an event created to collect donations from local area businesses and individuals to give to the Mid-Michi-gan Food Bank.

The participants who donate the most walk away with more than just a sense of giving back.

“We’ve got a traveling golden trophy award that we give to the different

businesses,” Chef Nick said.

“All businesses compete in a friendly manner to see who can raise the most food per poundage and monetary value, and then they get to keep the trav-eling trophy until the next year.”

This year’s winner, Ap-petites for Change, a group of 12 city of Lansing em-ployees, took home the trophy for donating 42.25 pounds of food per person. Last year’s winner, The Lansing Housing Commis-sion, donated 40.9 pounds of food per person this year.

By reaching 2,244 pounds of food and $1,145 in cash, enough for 10,000 meals, donations from this year’s event surpassed the first year’s by far.

“Last year was one of the most successful food drives

for the Mid-Michigan Food Bank to date,” Chef Nick said.

According to Betsy Rueckert, the financial de-velopment officer of the Mid-Michigan Food Bank, events like this are very im-portant to the success of the food bank.

“(Food drives) are huge for awareness. They are huge for community in-volvement,” Rueckert said.

With need growing each year, the Mid-Michigan Food Bank needs the sup-port of the community.

“In 2008 across our seven counties, we served 75,000 individuals,” Rueckert said.

“In 2009, it was 112,000.”Anyone interested in

competing in next year’s event should contact Downtown Lansing, Inc. at www.downtownlansing.org to sign up.

Fighting hunger downtown

Food fight: LCC culinary professor Chef Nick (from left), Peppermint Jim Crosby and Financial Development Officer of the Mid-Michigan Food Bank Betsy Rueckert talk with Loraine of Lansing as she donates a 4.7 pound to the donation to the Downtown Lansing Food Fight: Fight Against Hunger Nov. 30 in front of the Capitol.


Dominick MastrangeloNews Editor

Lansing Community College held a blood drive in conjunction with the American Red Cross on Nov. 29 in the Health and Human Services (HHS) Building.

Students, faculty and staff had the opportunity to give blood from 11 a.m. until 1 p.m. on the first day of classes after Thanksgiving break.

“We were very busy from the get-go,” said Sal Wilson, a representative from the American Red Cross and the supervisor for this particular blood drive. “Donors have not been hard to come by.”

The drive started ap-proximately 30 minutes later than expected due to short staffing, according to Wilson. The volunteer help offered by LCC com-pensated for the late start.

“We’re all human,” Wilson said. “However,

it didn’t set us back one bit.”

Each donor went through specific screen-ing processes. Accord-ing to the American Red Cross’ website, all donat-ed blood is tested for HIV, hepatitis B and C, syphi-lis and other infectious diseases before it can be released to hospitals.

Nathan Bruno is a 19-year-old liberal studies student who gave blood

for the first time at LCC. “I’ve always thought

about giving,” he said. “This was right on cam-pus, so it was easier to finally donate.”

It is estimated that more than 38,000 blood donations are needed ev-ery day. It’s still not too late to donate. Log on to http://www.redcrossblood.org/ to see how to donate and make a difference in another person’s life.

Photo by Nathan WilsonQuick prick: A blood drive worker prepares a student to give blood at an American Red Cross Blood Drive Nov. 29 in HHS 209.

Giving back: American Marketing Association Vice President of Community Service Jennifer Hennings (right) talks with Leatherneck President “Checkmate” at the Toys for Tots kick off Dec. 6 on the second floor of the Gannon Building.


LCC hosts blood drive

Nature center to hold open house

Toys for Tots accepting donations

Guinness Book of World Records signing is Dec. 14

LCC’s Banner Web Self Service system upgraded

The Fenner Nature Center will hold an open house on Dec. 18 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. The event will feature Santa Claus and his elves, fun games, crafts and the op-portunity to learn more about the role that Fenner Nature Center plays in connect-ing local communities with the environ-ment. The event is sponsored by FOFNC (Friends of Fenner Nature Center) and supported by the Lansing Park Board.

LCC will continue to collect Toys for Tots through Dec. 15. Drop-off lo-cations will be in the main lobbies of the Administrative, Arts and Sciences, Gannon and Health and Human Ser-vices buildings. Monetary donations may be made at Hole-in-the-Hall (Gan-non Building 133).

LCC Professor Chef Nick (Wil-liam Nicklosovich) and Peppermint Jim from the Crosby Mint Farm in St. Johns, are featured in the 2011 edition of the Guinness Book of World Records because the duo broke the world record for creating the larg-est slab of fudge. On Tuesday, Dec. 14 starting at 7 p.m. the two will be at Schuler Books and Music in East-wood Towne Center to sign copies of the book. All are welcome.

The LCC Banner Web Self Service sys-tem was successfully upgraded to version 8.3. Testing of a laptop data encryption software product is underway. The In-formation Technologies Services’ disaster recovery plan has been updated and the redesign of the Division’s web site has be-gun. The IT Governance Information Tech-nology Advisory Council has been formed and monthly meetings are being held.


NEWS4

Sarah SandersEditor in Chief

There are several scholar-ship opportunities available to LCC students through the LCC Foundation.

Scholarships to be awarded for the 2011-12 academic year include: Foundation Scholarships, Honors Awards, Occupa-tional Awards and Student Leadership Awards.

The Foundation Scholar-ships are funded through the Foundation while the Honors Awards, Occupa-tional Awards and Student Leadership awards are funded through the college.

Peggy Hellwig, coor-dinator of Foundation Scholarships, explained the application process avail-able to students through the foundation has only one application process for the wide variety of awards available.

In addition to this, the scholarships are offered only to LCC students, making the competition pool smaller than what can be found elsewhere.

“The Foundation Schol-arships cover a broad range of programs and residency status,” Hellwig said. “It

is not just the Foundation Scholarships, but all of the scholarships available through the LCC scholar-ship awarding process.”

To prove the value of this process, Hellwig ex-plained students were awarded $786,000 for the 2010-11 school year.

Applications, as well as any other documents re-quired per the award stip-ulations, must be filled out and turned in to the Finan-cial Aid Office no later than 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 28, 2011. Applicants will receive news of their award status in early April 2011.

As a recipient of a Stu-dent Leadership Award, LCC student Mindy Cart-wright offers students ad-vice about scholarships:

“The Student Leader-ship Award has given me the opportunity to go to LCC without the financial difficulties of paying for school with a student in-come.”

Information about scholar-ships can be found at www.

lcc.edu/scholarship or in the 2011-2012 Award and

Scholarship booklet available at the Financial Aid Office in the Gannon Building or from

the program coordinators.

Apply now for 2011 scholarship opportunities

Senior Vice Presi-dent of Academic Af-fairs Stephanie Shan-blatt, the provost of the meeting, explained the new layout was de-signed to incorporate “how we can best serve

(students) in — and I know you don’t want to hear this — the most efficient way possible. We also think that by moving some of the programs around, we can create excitement.”

The meeting con-cluded with a question and answer period where several teachers raised their concerns over the new layout.

Among those taking issue with the Para-legal Program’s shift from the Business De-partment to the Public Service Department was Paralegal Profes-sor Bud Shulman.

“There is a huge cultural difference between law enforce-ment and legal assis-tant, (though) they both have something to do with the law,” Shulman said. “Lump-ing them together is

rather shallow, and in fact, some of the worst years I had at the col-lege were during that configuration.”

He added the issue of departments being too broad for a depart-ment chair to be able to properly represent the programs within has always been a concern.

The English Pro-gram, however, re-ceived perceivably good news that there will now be an English Department.

This division will include the current English Program in ad-dition to the Writing Program including the developmental writing course WRIT 117.

“English is a human-ities program, but Eng-lish is now a separate division,” said Eric Snider, department chair for the newly ti-tled Social Science and Humanities Depart-ment, “in part because there are so many Eng-lish and writing cours-es that the size of the

program itself is large enough to justify its own department.”

One teacher com-mented on the inclu-sion of WRIT 117: “I am not really clear on how moving a developmen-tal writing course out of an area that is spe-cifically called Devel-opmental Writing will do much good.”

Mike Nealon, dean of the newly titled Arts and Sciences Division, responded to this by claiming when they evaluated the content of the WRIT 117 course, they found the main difference between the developmental course and other writing courses was a lack of a citations page require-ment.

Nealon did assure faculty, however, pro-gram analysis will not become the focus un-til after they become settled in the new lay-out.

Talk of the change has shifted since the meeting from its im-

pact on faculty to the impact on students.

“I don’t see any dis-advantages for stu-dents,” Snider said. “It might be indirectly better for students be-cause there might be more equitable manag-ing of the teachers and teaching resources.”

“There could be some interesting things that we will learn from each other as we move along,” Snider added.

College Leadership maintained an opti-mistic approach to the new layout despite the concerns of other fac-ulty members.

“I not only recog-nize that faculty mem-bers may be straddling what some might see as boundaries, but I am delighted in that.” Nealon said.

“We have really one mission, and we serve one student body. We should not put our-selves into boxes and see ourselves in re-strictive allegiances.”


5 FEATURES


College Leadership at LCC has finished a new department

and division layout to be effective Jan. 1, 2011. Professors at LCC were told what the new layout will be on Dec. 6 during a meeting held in Dart Au-ditorium.

LCC announces new three-department format

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A wise Dagobah creature once said, “Excitement, adven-ture, a Jedi craves not these things.”

I prefer, “Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his pas-sion for adventure.”

The choice is yours, but the latter is hu-manistic. It’s realistic.

Ladies and gents, it’s been real. It’s been an adventure. But all good things do that thing they do.

This will be my last column and, moreover, the last time my by-line will appear in The Lookout.

I have met interest-ing and patient people in the last few months, but that is not what this column is about.

No, this article is not about football or basketball or hockey. It’s not about scandal or controversy in the sports world. Nope. I think this time, I’m

going to loosely talk about a sport few sports editors have likely ever talked about.

Ice-fishing.If you’re a fisher-

man, then you know that there really is no such thing as an off-season. If you’re not, don’t stop reading.

What would Nick Adams do?

When we consider sports, as defined by ESPN, limitations are often placed on the big, fast and strong. Watch-ing a man look into a hole in the ice is never going to be primetime television and in no way am I attempting to make synonyms of ath-lete and adventurer.

Then again, what is an athlete? That’s not the point.

It is easier to keep the interest of an au-dience with play-by-play and statistics and controversial calls that keep the Lions from winning two games in a season than it is to talk about the motives of Dick Proenneke or Christopher McCand-less.

Sometimes real life is just not that interest-ing. At least not to the masses.

As winter draws nearer and the bit-terness of the season sets in, just as most are dreading the walk to their vehicles, I am cheering on the cold.

Because life is a con-tact sport.

And as I leave this paper and venture into the cold and desolate wilderness that is the unknown future, I will take with me the pa-tience and persistence of a man, sitting over a hole in the ice, seizing my dinner.


SPORTS6

Zach BellingarSports Editor

LCC has nearly a dozen athletic sports clubs, from martial arts to break danc-ing, with potential for more. While the LCC Soccer Club has been up and running since the 1970s, it has expe-rienced its own share of ups and downs.

The Soccer Club starts fresh every se-mester. According to head of the club, LCC instructor Jorge Gon-zalez, the Soccer Club recruits members from all over the world.

“I get a lot of inter-national students,” Gonzalez said. “People from Africa, Central and South America. It’s like an international club.”

All of the club’s games are played at multi-sports facility The Summit, west of Lansing. It competes in a coed league and has no eligibility stan-dards or age limit.

The only limit for the Soccer Club is avail-able practice time and space.

During the fall, with varsity sports like vol-leyball and basketball

occupying the gym in the Gannon Build-ing during the day, it is very difficult to get in. In turn, attendance throughout the semes-ter experiences a drop.

“We started with

18,” Gonzalez said. “Then it went to nine, then eight.”

If the club were a varsity sport, the hard-ships it experiences now would be cush-ioned with additional

college backing and security.

The odds of that, ac-cording to Gonzalez, are slim.

“With three different athletic directors in the last 20 years, nobody

has been able to do anything. Every time we try … there is an economic crisis.”

The club is planning to pick up strong with new members, expert or novice, at the start

of the Spring Semester.

Anyone interested in joining the Soccer Club

can contact Jorge Gonza-lez by phone at 483-1227

or by email at [email protected].

Soccer Club seeks membership increase

File Photos by Michael CaterinaKickin’ it: Soccer Club member Haris Avdic goes for a shot during a 2009 Soccer Club game at The Summit.

Leader: Head of LCC’s Soccer Club Jorge Gonzalez in-structs his players during a 2009 club game.

— What in the wide world of sports? —

Excitement, adventure, ice-fishing


SPORTS7

Zach BellingarSports Editor

Eight games in, with a 7-1 record and a fourth-place NJCAA Division II ranking, the LCC men’s basketball team is on track to com-pete strong in opening league play.

The team’s one loss was at the hands of the sixth-ranked Tri-ton College Trojans at home in the “Stars” Thanksgiving Classic on Nov. 27, 85-80.

Sophomore forward Mike Martin said of their loss, “We came into the game and thought we were going to win it just because we were there. We weren’t prepared men-tally.”

Martin’s typical preparation has earned him fourth place in both individual scor-ing and rebounding in MCCAA individual standings, contribut-ing nearly 20 points and nine rebounds per game.

“It’s just the hard work paying off,” said Martin, who defined hard work as pick-ups with friends, working out, lifting and running on his own time.

Sophomore guard Troy Aubrey had his own thoughts on the Triton game. He said, “That one loss, it woke us up. We just can’t take any teams for granted from now on.”

Aubrey’s contribu-tion has earned him fifth in assists in MC-CAA standings, with 41 total at just over five per game.

“It’s a point guard’s job to get all of his teammates involved,” Aubrey said. “That’s what I look to do com-ing into each game.”

The Stars followed their loss with a win against Olivet’s JV squad on Dec. 3, 93-74 in the first of two games in the Muskegon Invitational. The Stars defeated Cornerstone JV on Dec. 4 in a blow-out, 98-43.

Playing under-matched junior var-sity teams is not high on LCC’s agenda, but Head Coach Mike In-gram said the invita-tional came at just the right time.

“Coming off a loss, it wasn’t a bad thing to do because we need-ed to work on some things,” Ingram said. “We needed to have some success. We need-ed to have some team bonding and I thought that helped us.”

On paper, the start-ing five post strong stats, but the success of the season would not be without the depth of Ingram’s bench.

“Nate Duhon had a big weekend last week and Jordan Davis has played well coming off the bench,” Ingram said. “I also think Ma-son Maurer has kind of found himself. In the last few games, coming off the bench, he’s real-ly pounded the boards.

“Marcus Cain had several dunks over the

weekend. Our bench guys are starting to play well with us and getting a little more confidence coming into the game.”

With a target on their backs, the Stars, for the rest of the season, will have to continue to show strength in all as-pects of their game.

“Everybody comes in and plays well against us,” Ingram concluded. “Everybody’s coming in here, blowing steam out of their ears; out of their nose. They’re giving us everything they’ve got.

“They know we’re not only a good men’s basketball program but a great athletic pro-gram, and so teams try to get ready to play us, and as coaches, we have to let our players know that and keep them ready to go.”

The Stars traveled to Flint to play a strong Mott CC team on Dec. 11. Results will be posted in the next issue of The Lookout.

Erik StiemStaff Writer

After defeating the Indi-ana Institute of Technology on Dec. 1, the LCC Lady Stars headed to Muskegon for the weekend to com-pete in the Holiday Classic.

The Lady Stars defeated Hope College on Dec. 3, 73-61. Though outsized, the Stars played tough defense and physically took control of the game.

Going on a 12-2 run with four minutes left opened the game up, and the Stars cruised to victory. Denay Kelley led the way with 18 points and 21 rebounds.

On Dec. 4, LCC’s wom-en faced Delta College in a game that Coach Ervin Brunson described as, “physically, our toughest game so far.” The 72 free throws taken between the two teams definitely at-tested to that.

It was a see-saw game that finally began tipping in the Lady Stars’ favor af-ter a 16-3 run toward the end of the game. However, due to the physical nature of the game, two of LCC’s starters fouled out.

Delta cut LCC’s lead to four, but time ran out be-fore any successful come-back could be completed.

Denay Kelley put up 14 points and pulled in 14 boards, while Tornisha

Jones went 18 and 10, on the game. Jennifer Wilson also contributed 11 points.

Brunson credits the team’s success to the physi-cal defense his team plays: “They have that no-quit at-titude,” he said. “Rebound-ing is the key.”

The stats certainly back up Brunson’s comments. Though often smaller in size than their opponents, the Lady Stars have yet to be outrebounded.

Denay Kelley, now the league’s leading rebound-er, credits her success to boxing out.

“I love to hustle,” Kelley said “(and) give my team possession any time I can.”

Brenda Davis talked of the success of the Lady Stars in the key: “They do a good job of getting open,” the point guard said. “And making themselves seen and known.”

The Lady Stars played their first conference game Dec. 8 at home game against Ancilla College and took their first loss, 70-59.

Look for results from the upcoming games over winter break in issue 9 of The Lookout.

Cagers improve to 7-1, ranked fourth

Physical play lifts lady ballersStopped

short: Freshman

Tornisha Jones

pushes her way to the basket during the

Stars’ 59-70 loss to An-

cilla College. Jones had 10 points and nine

rebounds.


Photo by Michael CaterinaFlying high: Sophomore Vino Ashley puts one up for the Stars during their 74-57 victory over Kirtland CC Nov. 17.


SPORTS8

New year brings new hopes for Stars hockey teamZach Bellingar Sports Editor

Entering the 2009-10 Di-vision III Nationals ranked fourth in its division, the Lansing Stars hockey team had high hopes for the 2010-11 season.

After 11 games and a 1-10 record, the Stars have struggled to find light at the end of the tunnel.

“It’s been rough,” goal-tender Bob Butterfield said of the Stars’ season. “(We’ve been) short-benched and had a lot of adversity to push through. It puts a lot of stress on the team; on the players.”

The Stars’ win came on Nov. 12 against North-wood University with a final score of 3-1. In that game, Butterfield saw 45 of his 403 shots on the season.

“Looking at the good side of it, I’m putting up good numbers,” the goal-tender said.

Even with 31 goals

against, Butterfield still holds a .920 save percent-age.

The team’s other goal-tender, Zac Smith, has relieved the starter of his duties six times, with 265 shots against and a .860 save percentage. Accord-ing to Butterfield, the com-petition between goalies is anything but.

“It’s friendly. I wouldn’t even call it competition,” Butterfield said. “It’s not necessarily that we’re com-peting but more that we’re encouraging each other to play at the top of our game.”

Many of the Stars’ hard-ships have come from keeping a full bench. With-out the funding a varsity sport receives, the team struggles to keep up with costs, maintain members and work with the resourc-es it has. For example, the team practices at 10 o’clock at night.

The Stars took on Jackson

Community at The Sum-mit, west of Lansing, on Dec. 10. Jackson has had its own problems finding wins this season and entered Lansing with a 1-14 record.

As far as maintaining Jackson’s leading offensive player Christopher We-grzyn, Butterfield said the best way to prepare is to not prepare.

“Just go about your nor-mal routine,” Butterfield said. “There’s nothing spe-cial about any day. It’s just another game.

“It’s just another player, he’s not any better than the last guy you saw.”

Results from the Jackson game will be posted in the next issue of The Lookout.

As far as the rest of the

season, adding to the roster is a main concern.

“The team is short on players,” Head Coach Tony Zerkle said. “The second half of the season begins Jan. 1. We’re look-ing for players with some hockey background, hock-ey experience.”

General manager Bill Westen added: “We’re not

going to have any formal tryout, but what we’ll do is invite them to practice and see if it’s a good fit for them and for us.”

For now, the Stars will fo-cus on one game at a time.

“Everything evens itself out,” Butterfield said. “It will all come together even-tually. We just have to keep on pushing through it.”

Tough start: A 2009 LCC hockey player takes a shot during practice. The team looks to improve on its current 1-10 record.File photo by Michael Caterina

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

The LCC Percussion Ensemble and Guitar Ensemble teamed up Dec. 5 to present both of their year end con-certs at Dart Audito-rium as part of “The Sounds of Winter” con-cert series.

The stage was covered with a myriad of instru-ments. Xylophones, ma-rimbas, trap sets, snares, toms, steel drums and multiple other percus-sion instruments glit-tered under the stage lights.

The first song the ensemble played was “Technology,” a piece written by Jim Casella and inspired by techno music. Various solos set against a constant back-beat with periodic uni-son lines mimicked the electric genre surpris-ingly well.

Next, the ensemble transitioned into “Mov-imiento,” by Tony Hart-man. “Movimiento” featured Molly Cryder-man-Weber on the new-ly acquired steel drums and had a groovy island feel, probably product of those drums.

“Fugue” in C minor, written by Bach, was probably the most clas-sical song played. It was performed by a xy-lophone quartet.

The rest of the en-semble then re-entered the stage and treated the audience to a different kind of classic: “Linus and Lucy,” straight from everybody’s favorite animated television spe-cials.

After the final note had finished ringing and most of the ensemble had left, three men with

snares were left stand-ing tall in the middle of the stage. Their song, “G-Force” was some-thing reminiscent of a drumline performance.

Another xylophone quartet then took the stage to perform “Rain-bow Ripples,” which Director Beth Lewis ex-plained is an American ragtime tune composed by George Hamilton Green. The song sound-ed like a carnival falling into a black hole – in a good way.

The final song was one of the stranger looking performances I’ve seen, but the body percus-sion in “Rhythm Net #1” gave the song a unique and delightful character.

Nobody sold snacks during intermission. I was disappointed.

After intermission, Director Christopher Rollins of the Guitar Ensemble talked a little

about the group, which played two folk songs, “Sevilanas” and “Mo-renita,” as an ensemble before breaking into smaller performances.

Rollins, Dallas Oli-ver and Kent Hooker then played “Passepied I,” which sounded like something someone might play at RenFest.

Next, a second trio comprised of Ben Nance, Phil Stefanelli and Josh Talo played “El Roble,” another Span-ish folk song. The piece sounded almost mourn-ful, which is weird be-cause “El Roble” trans-lates into “The Oak.”

After “El Roble,” Ken-ton Horstman, the lone bassist, played the most interesting song by the group, Bach’s Inven-tion No. 4. Utilizing a looping pedal, Horst-man played a bass duet with himself, first play-ing one hand of the

original piano score into the loop, then repeat-ing back the loop while playing the other hand.

“Ornithology,” per-formed by Rollins and Tim Hayes, came next. The song had a jazzy, almost lounge-like feel with some elements re-sembling blues.

Rollins, Horstman, Hayes and Brooke Bowker then joined with Jacque Baldori, the gui-tar ensemble’s percus-sionist and Cryderman-

Weber and Lewis of the percussion ensemble to play “Choro,” another Spanish-sounding tune.

The concert concluded with a Carlos Santana piece, “Europa,” featur-ing an excellent bass solo by Horstman and an equally moving gui-tar solo by Rollins.

Over all, the concert was excellent, like most at LCC. I would recom-mend the Percussion and Guitar Ensembles to anyone.

Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011

www.lcc.edu/lookout RTS & ENTERTAINMENT9

10-inch unbaked pie shell8 ounces cream cheese1/3 and 1/4 cups sugarTwo dashes salt4 eggs1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts1 cup Karo syrup

Mix cream cheese, 1/3 cup of sugar, a dash of salt and one egg together. Add 1/2 teaspoon of vanilla and spread the mixture on bottom of crust. Sprinkle nuts on top.

Beat three eggs, 1/4 cup of sugar, a dash of salt, syrup and one teaspoon of vanilla together and gently pour over the nuts and cream cheese. Bake at 350° F until set, approximately 45 minutes.

Serves 8-10

* Photo by Rogerray FryeChef Nick is a culinary professor at LCC.This recipe is from HMFS 251, Gourmet American Cooking.

Walnut Pie

In the kitchen withLee RumlerA&E Editor

LCC’s Performing Arts Department recently put on “The Sounds of Decem-ber” concert series starting Dec. 2 and ending Dec. 12.

According to Melissa Kaplan, Production Coor-dinator for the Humanities and Performing Arts De-partment, “The Sounds of December” did not require ensembles to perform any holiday music, although some did.

“At the end of every se-mester, all our music en-sembles have a final perfor-mance, and this semester, since they happened to all fall in December, we called it ‘The Sounds of Decem-ber,’” Kaplan explained. “But it’s not so much a spe-cific series as each ensem-ble performing their final concert for the semester.”

The first weekend of performances began with the Experimental Music Ensemble performing at Old Town’s Mica Gallery on Dec. 2.

Named “Experimentain-ment,” the concert featured pieces ranging from “Pen-dulum Music,” where mu-sicians hung swinging mi-crophones above speakers to create musical feedback to a salsa, written by mu-sic faculty member Molly Cryderman-Weber.

Also joining the Experi-mental Music Ensemble that night was the MSU Klezmorim.

The second and third concerts, entitled “I Be-

lieve...” took place in Dart Auditorium on Dec. 3 and 4. LCC’s Concert Choir joined with Sistrum, Lan-sing Women’s Chorus and The Greater Lansing Gay Men’s Chorus.

According to Kaplan, each chorus sang four or five pieces before joining on stage to perform four pieces together. “There were (about) 100 singers on stage, and it was re-ally beautiful,” Kaplan de-tailed.

The next performance, Dec. 5, combined LCC’s Percussion and Guitar En-semble into one concert at Dart.

The Percussion Ensem-ble laid down every kind of beat from classical to avant garde, while the Guitar En-semble focused mainly on classical and folk pieces.

After a week’s down-time, the series kicked back off with the LanSwingers Vocal Jazz and Pop En-semble on Dec. 9 in Dart Auditorium.

According to Kaplan, the 13 member vocal ensem-ble, accompanied by their rhythm section, focuses

on classic vocal jazz such as “What a Wonderful World” and “When I Fall in Love.”

Next, the LCC Jazz En-semble performed at Dart on Dec. 10. The 19 member band played big band, sal-sa and classic jazz pieces.

The LCC Faculty Jazz Quartet, featuring Jon Ger-wirtz, Ed Fedewa, Mike Daniels and Dennis Ther-rian, played the final con-cert on Dec. 12 at Dart. The band didn’t create a program in advance, but instead announced their program from the stage. Kaplan said the quartet usually performs some clas-sical jazz and original com-positions and is also work-ing on publishing a CD.

Overall, “The Sounds of December” was a suc-cess, with LCC ensembles demonstrating their skill; however, every semester, every ensemble needs new members.

If you’re interested in joining one, apply for the class in Banner (auditions may be required). Classes can be taken for credit or non-credit.

Review

Island jams: Director Beth Lewis ends “Movimiento,” fea-turing Molly Cryderman-Weber on steel drums, Dec. 5.

Photo by Lee Rumler

Chef Nick

It sounds like December

Strings and beats rock Dart; audience awed

LCC sings swing: The LanSwingers vocal jazz and pop ensemble perform “Chili Concarne,” at Dart Auditorium Dec. 9.


Kaitlin LutzAssociate Editor

Richard Paul Evans, author of The Christ-mas Box and The Walk, brings readers another heartwarming novel about learning to love.

Promise Me is written from the perspective of a woman telling a story that took place 18 years earlier.

The book begins in present day 2008 on Christmas Eve, but the narrator quickly tells the reader that her sto-ry actually begins in 1989.

The narrator, Beth Cardall, is the wife of a salesman and mother

of 6-year-old Charlotte. She discovers that her marriage is a lie and in the midst of her marriage troubles, her daughter comes down with an unknown sick-ness.

After the death of her husband, while life seems to be crashing

down all around her, something unexpected happens: Beth meets a stranger who changes her life and perhaps saves her daughter’s.

It is from this strang-er, Matthew, that Beth learns how to trust and even love again.

Evans does a fine job bringing the story to life and even adds a twist toward the end of the book that makes ev-erything that happened prior in the story fall into place.

Although the idea he places in front of the reader is a little far fetched and definitely different from his other books, it plays out well

in the story. The reader is left try-

ing to solve the mystery of this stranger and it encourages them to keep reading to find out what it is about Mat-thew that makes him so hard to figure out.

In the beginning, Beth warns her audience by telling them that they probably won’t believe her, but it is their choice whether they want to believe her or not.

The story is centered around two promises, one kept and one bro-ken, and this is the sto-ry of how Beth Cardall learns from one man that love is possible again.

A&E10 Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

Before I tell you why League of Leg-ends is one of the best games I’ve ever played, let me warn you that you should not begin playing the game until finals’ week finishes be-cause this game will eat your life.

League of Legends is a Massively Multiplay-er Online Real Time Strategy (MMORTS) game inspired by a Warcraft III map and developed by Riot Games. Now I know what you’re thinking: RTS? Boring.

That’s exactly what I thought too, until I played the game.

I have never played an RTS that raised my heartbeat as much as this one; in fact, I’ve never played a video game that raised my heartbeat as much as this one.

You know that feel-ing when you’re play-ing Call of Duty, and you run into a mob of opponents with noth-ing but an assault rifle and a couple grenades, praying for dear life that you’ll cap a few before they get you?

Playing League of Legends feels like that, all the time.

Ganking two ene-my champions, rush-ing their turret, tak-ing focus fire until finally their assassin in the bush takes you out, screaming in an-ger, buying power-up items, shaking as you wait to respawn so you can kill that squishy little jerk – that’s League of Leg-ends in a nutshell.

It’s so intense, and it’s so fun.

Unlike most MMO’s, how well players do in League of Legends isn’t deter-mined by the number of hours they play the game; it’s deter-mined by how much skill they play with.

And some people got mad skillz – but more on that later.

Each of the 60+ characters take a unique playing style, which means no mat-

ter who you are or what type of charac-ter you like, you’ll be able to find one that fits your natural bat-tle strategies.

Don’t be afraid to check out different characters either. Variety on teams is always helpful; how-ever, I’m not saying you shouldn’t refine one character. I’ve played with people who carry an entire game and completely annihilate the entire enemy team with one character they’re great with.

I’ve also been that person, normally with Xin Zhao or Jax.

All in all, League of Legends is a fun, ex-citing and addicting game, and if you de-cide to check it out after finals, don’t be afraid to add me as a friend: The name’s leerumler.

Oh, and did I men-tion it’s free?

Photo courtesy of mormontimes.com

Another promising story


I went into 127 Hours to watch a movie that was one scene of the gorgeous James Franco for a full hour and a half.

After I watched the trailer, I knew the drill. I knew there was one set-ting, one situation and one character.

I assumed that since this story was about a man’s remarkable triumph over his near-death experience it would be super dra-matic, leaving me in awe. It was, but it was also in-credibly funny.

Through attention to cinematic detail, great act-ing and the magnificent job capturing the story, the movie changed my focus from pretty James Franco to the most connectable survival story I have ever seen.

From the start, the cin-ematography had me captivated. The screen was split three ways for a good duration, and every-thing was set at a fast pace to offset the fact that the main character stood still for a total of about four days.

The film went on, vary-ing its cinematic pace. Use of the split screen came back through Franco’s flashbacks and odd se-

quences of film while he was stuck. There were se-quences of Franco filming himself, leaving me pon-dering the different levels of performance present.

Only when leaving the movie did I think about the crappy situation he was in because the fo-cus on his emotional and physical responses to the crappy situation were portrayed so captivat-ingly. The story was about only Aaron, so the pro-duction crew designed the movie so all you could think about was Aaron.

Everything was shot with intent.

127 Hours is based on the true story of Aaron Ralston. He had his hand stuck between a boulder and a canyon wall for 127 hours with limited amounts of food and wa-ter. Oh, and the ending, yeah, that’s true too.

Franco spent time with Ralston while they were filming, even watch-ing the tapes Ralston had made while stuck in hopes that his family would be able to watch them even if he died be-fore being found.

During the trailer, the production crew ex-pressed the goal was to keep this story as true as possible and make a mov-ie that seemed to be im-possible to make. I believe they did so.

127 Hours of James Franco League of Legends shines

Photo courtesy of cinemablend.com

Photo courtesy of curse.com

King Crossword

Puzzle solution can be found at www.lcc.edu./lookoutThis week’s puzzle is sponsored by:

It has always amused me how lawmakers cite music and various out-lets of entertainment as encouraging violence.

Critics often blame entertainment as a cor-rupting influence on youth and demand that various musicians, TV shows and books be censored.

First of all, Ameri-can youth are exposed to violence on endless levels in movies, televi-sion and music. I have also been exposed to the most disturbing, shocking acts of vio-lence ever imagined, courtesy of the news—not by music or video games.

The news typically consists of crime and the latest death count overseas.

So should we cen-sor the news for fear of corrupting innocent children’s minds with violence?

The entire notion of

art influencing teenag-ers so profoundly that it will induce criminal behavior is an insult to adolescents who have independent thoughts and a moral conscience.

No doubt there will be disgruntled and dis-turbed persons who reference a song or book as their motiva-tion in violent crime, but critics cannot de-mand artists to censor themselves for these exceptions.

Unless a musician or author explicitly stated their intention was to provoke crime or vio-lence, it is juvenile to

blame them as a source of gross irresponsibil-ity.

Furthermore, is it public personalities’ duty to condemn art as destructive to youth and shield them for fear that within every child lurks a potential homicidal maniac?

No. If a teenager commits crime, it is likely the parents are accountable for poorly raising their child, or the juvenile in question suffers from psycho-logical problems.

It is not a song, movie or video game’s fault. Using music or televi-sion as a scapegoat is not an appropriate ex-cuse for utterly failing as a parent to instill morals in a child.

Perhaps instead of blaming the latest CD or episode of Dexter for crime, we should ac-knowledge that some people are just psycho-pathic.


Arts & EntertainmentIN BRIEF

A&E11

Culture of scapegoating— Clever Column Title Goes Here —

Google is taking over the world.

According to Wiki-pedia, Google pro-cesses over one bil-lion searches a day, but Google’s reign doesn’t just include searches.

Although Google posted on their cor-porate information website that one of their company phi-losophies is “It’s best to do one thing really, really well,” Google has branched out to offer over 100 servic-es, many completely unrelated to search-ing.

YouTube, Android OS, Gmail and Blog-ger all belong to Google, and so does just about everything else on the Internet.

So Google owns my computer, basically. And Google runs my cell phone, okay. What’s next? Are they going to take over my TV?

Yes, in fact, with Google’s new Google TV, they can run my television, about five times better than Dish Network can.

But am I afraid of the fact that Google runs everything I

care about?Not really.Normally people

in our country fear monopolies because almost every mo-nopoly, as it’s form-ing, tries killing ev-erything around it to maximize profits, but Google is a different story.

Another philoso-phy Google operates by is “You can make money without doing evil,” which they’ve lived up to.

When China told them they had to censor search results to operate within its borders, Google decided they didn’t need China’s support. When users opened a class action lawsuit against Google Buzz for violating user pri-vacy, they apologized and donated money to teaching about on-line privacy.

They’re just plain nice.

But the awesome thing about Google is that they don’t force users into anything, like another recently successful technol-ogy company does, (I hate Apple.)

I don’t need to buy

a phone with a bro-ken antenna to use the Android OS, and I don’t need to have Google’s glitchy mu-sic player to put mu-sic on my phone ei-ther.

Maybe Google’s ethics can be a bit shady at times, espe-cially when it comes to their views on copyrights. Maybe they aren’t the easi-est to cooperate with from a coding stand-point (which is why I use Firefox over Chrome on my Linux-powered computers), but every company has its flaws.

I’m just saying someday, some com-pany is going to take over the world – it’s inevitable with a Red Congress – and if I had to pick one, it’d be Google.

I’m not too worried.

— Shouting a Nuance —

Google rules the world

LCC’s dance classes are joining together to hold an open house in Dart Auditorium Friday, Dec. 17 at 7 p.m. Admission is free and open to everyone.

The Humanities and Performing Arts Department will hold a stage combat open house in Dart Auditori-um. The free demonstration will take place Saturday, Dec. 18 at 11 a.m.

This semester’s Contemporary Re-alism Studio Theatre class is putting on the A.R. Gurney play The Dining Room, directed by Paige Dunckel. The free show will be on Friday and Sat-urday, Dec. 17 and 18 at 8 p.m. in the Black Box Theatre, Gannon Building, room 168.

Four by Eight, the combination of Four Men and Tenor and J&J Sounds, will perform a special holiday con-cert in Dart Auditorium on Dec. 18 at 7 p.m. Tickets are $25 for general ad-mission and $15 for attendees ages 12 and under. Proceeds will benefit LCC scholarships.

The Photo Imaging Education Association International Exhibit came to LCC Dec. 8 and is staying until Jan. 20 as part of its three-year world tour. Located in the Gannon Building’s first floor display cases (across the hall from rooms 137 through 152), the gallery is free and open to the public during normal LCC hours.

LCC TV’s newest show, Capitol Comeback, focuses on economic and workforce development with serious, non-partisan discussions led by host Bo Garcia. The first show, aired on Nov. 21, had Governor Granholm as a guest.

Dance to hold open house

Stage combat open house on tap

Studio presents The Dining Room

Four by Eight to perform at DartPhotography exhibition at LCC

New television show premiers

Club President Chifara Hejase said she formed many friendships at the International Club while learning about other peo-ple’s countries and cul-tures.

Mistie Nesbitt, another member of the club, said she likes that the group brings people together and builds a bridge be-tween different cultures.

“If you have any pre-conceptions of different races, it’s good exposure so you can understand ev-erybody more,” she said.

People of all citizenships are invited to become members, as the only re-quirement to join the In-ternational Club is being an LCC student.

Carlos Lecaros, who has

been involved in the club for four years, explained, “This is a very diverse group. We have cultures from all over the world. To fit in, you have to be open to different diversities, cul-tures and religions.”

Club member Darek Lewandowski explained he joined the club because he wanted to meet more people.

“We want to socialize and we want to be togeth-er because our families are so far away.”

Woehr said club mem-bers travel to various plac-es to expose foreign stu-dents to the Midwest. Last year, International Club members raised money to travel to Chicago for the weekend.

The International Club is a stu-dent life organization that has

existed at LCC for nearly 15 years. Adviser Ana Woehr explained the club is a place to share experiences and it is a support system for stu-dents with different backgrounds.


FEATURES12

Nathan WilsonStaff Writer

International Club offers support

Cultures convene: LCC International Club members (above) socialize during a meeting. Below, Adviser Ana Woehr (right) brings brownies for Club President Chi-fara Hejase’s birthday.

Photos by Nathan WilsonAccording to Woehr, the club is considering a visit to Greenfield Village dur-ing spring semester.

The International Club recently featured a game night for fun and attended Silver Bells in the City.

Woehr said she en-courages students to join the International Club because it is like a home away from home for for-eign students.

Club meetings are every Friday at 4 p.m. in Gannon Building room 308.

For more information re-garding International Club, contact Ana Woehr at [email protected].


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An Ordinary Life

Desktop Blues

Did you know there are only eight Christ-mas songs? That’s not actually true, but after working a Christmas season in a retail store, OfficeMax, it seems that way.

I served my time at the Max through the ’08 Christmas season, every Friday and Sat-urday night until 10 p.m., mind you. One year of corporate car-oling was enough to scar my ears for life.

The music in the wonderful office sup-ply store was delivered by a corporate radio station, which employ-ees had no control over … bad news bears.

We were forced to listen to at least five different versions of

“Jingle Bells,” “Silent Night,” “Walking in a Winter Wonderland,” “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas” and a few others.

This would have been bearable if it had been for only a cou-ple of weeks, but the Christmas carol am-bush started in the be-ginning of November.

Now, I know that is when the Christmas

season starts these days, but for the sake of the people who are straightening up af-ter the messy custom-ers, let them hold off the timely tunes until within a month of the holiday.

It has taken me al-most two years to be able to listen to an en-tire Christmas song without freaking out and switching the song, but I still don’t like it.

I am hoping that my recovery continues and that someday I can sit back on Christ-mas Eve, listen to the cheerful tunes and en-joy them.

But until then, it’s jingle all the way … to the next song.

Christmas carol overload— Fully Flippin’ it —

In response to the let-ter from Craig Prether on page 15:

I think we should start with understanding that morality takes two forms within an individual —one being, the idealistic, or what that person be-lieves to be their absolute moral code, the other be-ing the level of morality at which the person op-erates.

I think both are deter-mined differently and they both need to be analyzed in order to un-derstand a person’s true moral makeup.

Everyone seems to hold the same morals in an idealistic sense while their behavior and capi-talization of said morals differs from person-to-person.

I would think that a person’s idealistic moral code could be influenced by a number of factors including environment, as a person’s ideals are subject to their upbring-ing and also the evolu-tionary influence of spe-

cies preservation. The idea that people make choices that reflect a need for the preservation of their own species.

I would think that the ideal set of morals is based on what is best for social progression. Cheating, lying, stealing ... none of these things – long term – are good for society and none of these things are considered moral behaviors.

To understand is not a simultaneous call to action. If this is true, it would make sense that morality is only used when helpful, and over-looked when not.

Instead, if we look at whether a solid de-

termination of right and wrong helps form the level of morality we choose to exhibit, I would say no. I do look to self gain as a clue for why this is.

For instance, how does the person benefit in each instance based on the level of morality they choose? By lying what do they gain; through truth what do they gain?

I think we will find that the level of moral-ity one operates at varies from their own concep-tual ideals of right and wrong, at the will and to the benefit of the indi-vidual.

We all have amoral behaviors from time-to-time and I think the per-ceived doubt of a moral path leading to riches, fame or status, can influ-ence a person to make an amoral choice.

When people begin to lose hope that moral behavior will help them achieve their long-term goals, they become much more susceptible to the

lure of easy short-term gain made by sometimes amoral choices. This idea allows one to accept that a person can commit an amoral behavior with-out necessarily being an amoral person.

I think for a person to be truly good he/she would need to look more at the long-term effect of their actions, thereby living a life that ben-efits others, while subse-quently truly benefiting the individual.

I think most people resist this urge to fight solely for themselves, even when they doubt the reward, because they feel regret or remorse if they do not live up to their moral standards.

Perhaps the key to judging morality is just that: regret or remorse. This makes a person’s reaction to a discrepancy in the morality present in their behavior versus the morality described by their ideals, the biggest insight about how moral the person truely is.

My life has changed, dramatically. Living in New York for 17 years sure has made me come to ap-preciate a little peace and quiet, but not like this.

I still remember read-ing the sign “Welcome to pure Michigan,” as I trav-eled north on route 23 to-ward Ann Arbor. As I read the sign, the carcass of a “smoked” deer lay strewn across the side of the road. Immediately, I thought, “Yeah, real pure.”

Apparently, it snows here – a lot. This is some-thing I’m used to (yes, I know what a snowman is.) But here’s something I did not realize: It’s cold. So cold. The temperature here these last few weeks has made me miss the New Jersey shore, a place I hated going as a child, more than ever. People say Lake Michigan is nice in the summer; I guess I can check that out.

This is a red state. Es-pecially west Michigan

(where my family is). Billboards for gun shops with sayings like, “Protect yourself” and “Keep you and your loved ones safe” are completely foreign to me. The politics out here are beyond conservative, except in Detroit. Go fig-ure.

Sports are huge out here, too. Although the Lions stink, the Tigers always seem to come up short, and the Pistons just can’t seem to find their magic, Michiganders are some of the most passionate sports fans I have ever met. Oh and by the way, who knew hockey was so awesome? Go Wings!

It has now become commonplace for peo-ple to utter out of their mouths a certain greet-ing around this time of year; “Happy Holi-days.”

Now I understand that you may say “Hap-py Holidays” when you want to include Hanuk-kah, Kwanza and New Year’s Eve along with Christmas, but it seems as if it’s not OK to wish someone just, “Merry Christmas.”

To my understanding, the problem is more that this is a Christian holiday and people of other religions who celebrate different holi-days around this time of year will be offended — or perhaps they don’t want to celebrate any holiday at all.

However clichéd this may sound, the real meaning of Christmas has truly been lost — lost in society’s endeavor for polit-

ical correctness. Lost in our world’s overly self-centered culture where everyone is me-me-me, now-now-now.

I would like to take a moment and refresh your memory on the true reason for the cel-ebration of Christmas.

You see, as found in the Bible, there was this baby born to a virgin, Mary, and then there were some sheep, oh yeah, and magi came and gave presents to this baby.

Why did these magi give gifts to a baby, you might ask? Because even they understood the im-portance of this baby.

Well, this baby was Jesus and an answer to many prayers for a sav-ior. So you see, Christ-mas is supposed to be a celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ because to many he was a mira-cle. Here are a few sta-

tistics in c a s e

you didn’t get my point. In a poll taken by

USA Today in Decem-ber 2008, “93 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas.”

A Rasmussen Reports national telephone sur-vey a year later in 2009 found that, “66 percent of Americans celebrate Christmas as a religious holiday and another 20 percent celebrate the event as a secular holi-day.”

Last I checked, ma-jority rules and, judg-ing by these statistics, the majority of people in America celebrate Christmas.

Let me remind you, Christmas Day has been a federal holiday in the United States since 1870 and remains a federal holiday today. So allow me to exercise my First Amendment Rights in wishing you a very Merry Christmas!

Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011

www.lcc.edu/lookout

OPINION14—Everyone should read George Orwell— —A New York State of Mind—

Migrating tothe Midwest

And a Merry Christmas to you

Another look at defining morality

— The Collected Klutz—

Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011

www.lcc.edu/lookout

OpiniOn15

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Mail: 1000 – The Lookout Lansing Community College P.O. box 40010 Lansing, MI 489401-7210 Email: [email protected]: (517) 483-1290

The Lookout is the independent, biweekly student newspaper of LCC. All opinion/editorial articles are the sole opinion of the writer and may not reflect the views of the staff, students, faculty and college as a whole. Opinion/editorial articles may or may not be located exclusively on editorial pages and may appear on news, sports and arts & entertainment pages.

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In our own words | Staff Editorial

What is your favorite part about Christmas?

“The mistletoe. ;)”“I love spending time with my family!”

“Eating Rally’s with my family on Christmas

Eve.”

“The Charlie Brown Christmas. I look forward

to it every year.”

“My favorite part of Christmas is seeing my

sister Rachel.”

“The best part is not the presents but the prime

rib dinner.”“The lights!” “I love holiday shopping

and Christmas music.”

“I like giving my younger siblings

presents.”

It’s that time of year again — no, not Christmas, fi-nals. It’s the one week college stu-dents across Amer-ica have come to loathe these many years.

One thing comes to mind when con-sidering this infa-mous last week of classes: studying. Most people do not enjoy it, but every-one has to do it.

Inconveniently, this stressful time comes amidst the hustle and bustle of two of the big-

gest holidays we celebrate as Ameri-cans. It’s not just us students who find this time of year challenging. Our professors are get-ting a workload dumped on them too.

The end of the semester means finalizing grades, reading term pa-pers and organiz-ing schedules for the upcoming se-mester.

Educators are people too; shock-ing, we know.

So how can a per-

son better prepare themselves for the monsoon of term papers, textbooks and bottomless cups of coffee that will be ripping through our cam-pus shortly?

It’s simple. Just relax. Everyone is just as stressed as you are, and you are probably going to be fine. It’ll be Jan. 15 before you know it.

After all, you are looking forward to the start of spring semester, aren’t you?

Don’t sweat finalsOK, you have to get to the bottom of this! Where does our moral

compass come from? You are right, none of us are perfect. In fact ALL of us have failed and been immoral at some level.

Does knowing right and wrong mean we can do the right thing? How many people who lie know they should not do it but keep doing it anyway? How many people cheat and steal and just can’t control it?

What is the difference between a person who gets it right most of the time and a person can you can never count on to tell the truth? What is your opinion on all of this? Is it genetics or environment or is it something else?

Craig Prether LCC Counselor

Letter to the EditorIn response to: Issue 7, “Examine you life: eyes open”

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Classified Advertising

LAST LOOK16 Dec. 13, 2010 - Jan. 23, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

Michael CaterinaPhoto Editor

During the day down-town Lansing is all busi-ness. When the sun goes down, however, Lansing is under a whole new light.

Nightlife in downtown has been on the rise and is gaining popularity de-spite a view by some that the city shuts down after 5 p.m.

“That is a percep-tion that we always deal with,” Downtown Lan-sing Inc. Executive Di-rector Mindy Biladeau said.

According to its web-site, Downtown Lan-sing Inc. is a company dedicated to creating a “world class capitol city” by making the area “eco-nomically strong and culturally dynamic,”and it is doing just that.

One of the ways Downtown Lansing Inc. is improving nightlife in Lansing is by partnering up with local companies.

“We have worked with CATA to create The Entertainment Express Trolley that connects downtown East Lansing with downtown Lan-sing,” Biladeau said.

Passing over 70 night

spots, the trolley runs Thursday through Sat-urday from 7:30 p.m. through 2:30 a.m. The route starts in Lansing and departs every 30 minutes. The cost is 60 cents for students and $1.25 for non-students.

“Over the last year, ridership on the Enter-tainment Express has increased by over 50 per-cent, which is huge,” Bi-ladeau said.

With over 50 din-ing and nightlife spots downtown, the expan-sion is not over yet.

“We have nowhere near reached our poten-tial,” said Biladeau “We are on our way, but it is a slow and steady pro-cess.”

Where to goHere are a few of the

many bars that are lo-cated within blocks of LCC’s downtown cam-pus.

Rum Runners

Located at 601 E. Michigan Ave., Rum Runners is two clubs in one. With a dueling piano bar upstairs and a dance bar downstairs,

it has something for ev-eryone. Every Thursday night is college night at Rum Runners, allow-ing those 18 and over to come enjoy all the venue has to offer. For hours and information on spe-cials and events, visit www.rumrunnersusa.com.

X-celLocated at 224 S. Wash-

ington Square, X-cel is a venue that hosts live en-tertainment every Thurs-day and special guest DJs each Saturday, bring-ing the dance floor alive. X-cel is always open to 18-plus and has many contests and themed parties as well as bottle service and VIP areas. For hours and infor-mation on specials and events, visit www.xcel-loungedancebar.com.

The Wild BeaverLocated at 205 S. Wash-

ington Square, The Wild Beaver Saloon is one of the newest bars in downtown Lansing. The venue features a Colo-rado Mountain themed interior, beaver-themed drinks and “Beaver-ettes” who dance on the bar. For hours and infor-

mation on specials and events, visit www.wild-beaversaloon.com.

Harem Urban Lounge

Located at 414 E. Michi-gan Ave., Harem Urban Lounge is a dance bar that brings the feel of Chicago and New York clubs to downtown Lansing. With numerous VIP areas, bottle service and a large dance floor, Harem Ur-ban Lounge is a clubbing hotspot. For hours and in-formation on specials and events, visit www.harem-nightclub.com.

The Tin Can

Also located 414 E. Michigan Ave., The Tin Can offers over 50 dif-ferent beers, all served in cans, starting at $1.75, every day. The bar offers a “$6 Happy Meal Deal” that includes a Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, chili dog and a shot of Jack Daniels. With a laid-back atmosphere and cheap drinks, The Tin Can is a self named “World-class Dive Bar.” For hours and information on specials and events, visit www.tincanbar.com.

On the town; nightlife in downtown Lansing

Get wild: The Wild Beaver is one of Lansing's newest bars. The venue boasts a Colorado Mountain theme and beaver-inspired drinks.

Two for one: The dueling pi-ano players at Rum Runners perform on the second floor of the building for a packed house Dec. 4. Rum Runners downstairs is dedicated a top-40 dance bar.

Get it in the can: The Tin Can (left) offers over 50 dif-ferent beers all served in cans at resonable prices.

Drink and dance: Harem Urban Lounge (right) of-fers reserved seating and bottle service in muitiple VIP rooms. Patrons can also dance to DJ Element on Thursday nights on their large dance floor.

Photos by Michael Caterina

the lookout issue 8

Documents

federal loan

college plans

lccs loan default rate

lcc financial aid website

team of lcc staff

college charges

lcc president brent

financial aid policy