the lookout volume 53 issue 5

national

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startspostseason

Volleyball

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thelookoutLansing Community College’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

Volume 53, Issue 5www.lcc.edu/lookout

LCC gets

PAGE 7

Oct. 31 - Nov. 13, 2011

Dominick MastrangeloEditor in Chief

For the last 10 years, the Oli-ver Towers property, located directly adjacent to the LCC Library, has been vacant. The City of Lansing announced a proposed land swap deal for the Oliver Towers property with Davenport University in August.

In October, LCC Board of Trustees Chair Larry Meyer, along with other administra-tors, presented the Lansing City Council with a letter ad-dressed to Mayor Virg Ber-nero offering $2.52 million for the Oliver Towers property.

Three days later Davenport withdrew from its proposed agreement with the city be-cause the process to acquire

the prop-erty had be-come “too p o l i t i c a l l y charged.”

LCC Presi-dent Brent Knight sat down with The Lookout Editor in Chief Dominick Mas-trangelo Oct. 25 to discuss the

ongoing process the college is involved in regarding the ac-quisition of the Oliver Towers Property.

D.M: What’s next … what happens next in the process for the college to acquire the Oliver Towers property?

Knight: The Board of Trust-ees adopted a resolution to of-fer $2.52 million to purchase the property. That’s the board’s

official action. We have com-municated to the city that that was the action of the board. Our offer is valid currently, al-though it does have an expira-tion date of June 30, 2012.

D.M: Does the college’s pro-cess to acquire Oliver Towers change given the withdrawal of Davenport?

See Knight, page 2

LCC President Knight discusses Oliver Towers situation

Knight

Shauna StockenNews Editor

Renovations in the Arts and Science Build-ing (A&S) and Gannon Building (GB) on LCC’s main campus are cur-rently in the schematic design phase.

Leaders in the renova-tion process are J. Alexis Kim, interior designer, and Patrick Calhoun, ed-ucational planner for the SHW Group.

Kim and Calhoun led a PowerPoint presentation and discussion on the GB plans in the Adminis-trative Building Oct. 25.

The GB planning meeting was open to anyone who wanted to

learn about the renova-tion process.

The SHW Group stands for Swanson,

Hester and Wilson, three retired architects who started the group, ac-cording to Calhoun.

The group is an archi-tectural design and

See Renovation, page 2

Renovations a reality Homecoming hype is hereNathan WilsonAssociate Editor

LCC is following up last year’s successful Home-coming with another week of prizes, free food, basketball games and fun the week of Nov. 14.

Andrew Lathrop, manager of LCC Alumni Relations, said the return of Home-coming at LCC in 2009 lasted one day to see how it would come across.

“It went so well that we decided to make (Home-coming) a week so we could hit the every day students,” Lathrop said. “We get bigger and better every year.”

Monday, Nov. 14, and

Tuesday, Nov. 15 will jumpstart Homecoming week with the Kickoff Tailgate.

According to Lathrop, the tailgate will include a tent between the Gannon and Arts & Sciences Build-ings with free food avail-

able for students. “The purpose of (the tent) is to in-form the students

a b o u t what ac-

tivities are taking place Wednesday through Satur-

day,” Lathrop said.

S t u d e n t s will also receive a minia-ture calendar of Home-coming events, or a “tick-et,” which can be used as an entry form in special

See Homecoming, page 4

Gannon, A&Sconstructionplans revealed

Patrick Calhoun of SHW architectural design engineering firm shows concept sketches of how the second floor of the Gannon Building will look when renova-tions are completed during a town hall meeting Oct. 25.

Photo by Michael Caterina

The Shrikecomes to

Dart

NEWS2 Oct. 31 - Nov. 13, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

The City of Lansing will give LCC’s offer of $2.52 million for the Oliver Towers property a “fair review,” accord-ing to Randy Hannan, a spokesperson for Mayor Virg Benero.

“We at the same time think it’s pretty likely that we will end up doing an RFP process sometime after the first of the year,” Hannan said Oct. 27. “Our city council has expressed some interest in an RFP process. I think there is a fairly strong likeli-hood that we will end up doing that.”

RFP stands for re-quest for proposal. The

process would be the of-ficial act of opening the property up for offers based on its appraised value.

Hannan said if an RFP were to be submitted, LCC would be eligible to participate in that bidding process regard-less of its previous offer.

“An RFP is open to anyone who wants to take a crack at it,” Han-nan explained. “I think there’s some consterna-tion over the communi-cation between the City of Lansing and LCC … I don’t think there’s been any significant damage done to our relation-ship, however.”

Knight: No. The college has of-fered a certain amount based on the appraised value of the prop-erty. Our offer has not changed.

D.M: Do you think the college’s relationship with the city has been damaged or tainted due to some of the controversy surrounding this property?

Knight: I can only speak on be-half of the college. We think that the city of Lansing is a great place to do business. We remain enthusi-astic about the ongoing economic vitality of the city of Lansing and the region. We will continue to work toward any idea that might be helpful.

D.M: There has been a lot of talk about the necessity of this proper-ty to LCC. How vital is that prop-erty to the future of LCC?

Knight: Would anyone consider

Michigan State University as fin-ished? No. Furthermore, do you think they need to grow by 1,000 more students to add to their cam-pus? Probably not. Trees don’t grow to the sky, nor will LCC nor will MSU. There will be changing needs of the community. I am con-fident that Lansing Community College will build more buildings in the future.

D.M: If LCC were to purchase the Oliver Towers property offi-cially what would the property/buildings/parking lots be used for?

Knight: If we didn’t purchase this property we would jeopar-dize the future of the college. We are locked in. We cannot grow in any other direction. There are his-toric buildings to the west of us. I wouldn’t participate in the demo-

lition of historic buildings or the sawing down of trees in Durant Park. The purchasing of this prop-erty is in the best interest of both the college and the community.

D.M: A lot of people have been wondering where LCC gets $2.52 million, in cash, to purchase the Oliver Towers property. Where does that cash come from?

Knight: The college-operating budget is $130 million. The ques-tion is the relativity of $2.52 mil-lion on a $130 million scale. I do not think the expenditure of $2.52 million damages the fiscal health of Lansing Community College. This is a capital purchase of real estate that has a long life. The board would entertain a number of options on how to pay for the purchasing for the Oliver Towers property. It simply must happen.

engineering firm with an exten-sive background in creating ef-fective, educational facilities.

“We designed LCC’s Univer-sity Center, so we had that to add to our experience with the college,” Calhoun said. “We competed against several oth-er well-qualified architectural firms.

"I think we were selected be-cause of our experiences work-ing on community colleges and working in the state of Michi-gan. That combination helped us.”

LCC students and staff mem-bers who attended the meeting were able to watch the GB de-sign PowerPoint.

In addition, guests could ask questions and gain feedback

from the designers. “It’s all going to be perspec-

tive-based. You’re going to have people that are going to have different opinions,” said Kyle Stanhope, a second-year LCC student. “You’re never going to have agreeable terms speaking from an artist standpoint.”

Calhoun explained during the meeting the renovations to the GB would benefit students over the long term.

“It’s an opportunity for the

GB and its services to complete-ly reinvent student interaction with the college. It’s really rein-venting the student experience when they come into the col-lege when they come to regis-ter,” Calhoun said.

In the beginning off the vi-sion process for the GB, interior design decisions and enlarged room sizes have been proposed.

The GB will feature modern office furniture from Herman Miller, Inc., according to Kim.

The GB rooms will be more spacious with the construc-tion of larger student common areas, work areas and work rooms, according to Calhoun.

“Renovating will allow the GB to be the front doors for the campus, to create a cafeteria and an active student space,” Calhoun said. “Hopefully that will be so popular that they will have to kick students out at night when they want to close the building.”

Knight

Renovations

Continued from page 1

Continued from page 1

City to review LCC’s offer

NEWS3

IN BRIEFNEWS

On Tuesday, Nov. 8, I will walk through the doors of the Mason City Hall to vote in the 2012 Presidential Election for my very first time.

Every year as my election fantasy pick, I choose a Democratic nominee; this year, however, my alliance has changed.

I have an opinion about everything, and in years past that was my Democratic values.

I now feel like a major hypocrite for harassing my Republican friend for her strong, long-running Republican be-liefs (sorry, Marie).

Current President Barack Obama has not held up to the hype and “change” I thought he would.

What kind of change did he actually create?

Many Americans feel Obama’s health care re-form feels more like a system that takes away freedom of one’s own medical care rather than a healthcare plan that serves people’s needs.

The new health care reform benefits those who can’t already af-ford health insurance; those who meet the requirements pay into the plan with their own personal funds.

Through Obama’s complicated healthcare reform one loses their freedom to decide the medical care they want and are subject to what the government feels people qualify for based on their prior medical history.

Even if a patient has the money to pay for a procedure out of pock-et, the new health care reform can deny the pa-tient’s request.

When Obama won the election, I expected maybe too much from him during his time in the White House.

In my opinion, the healthcare plan is only one example of the failure I feel took place throughout Obama’s first years in office.

The healthcare re-form is only one aspect of Obama’s presidency that I am disappointed with, but not the sole reason I am “trading teams.”

Every person has the right to vote in Ameri-ca once one reaches the age of 18.

Voting takes place on a secret ballot to pro-tect individual rights, but for the sake of this column, I feel it is nec-essary to not only tell readers that I am vot-ing Republican, but to say for whom I am vot-ing.

My vote will to to Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2011 Republican nomi-nee who previously ran in 2008.

I am not the typical Romney follower, if you will, but I will vote for him and support him based on his past resume.

Besides his experi-ence as a businessman, he has experience run-ning in the presidential campaign for President of the United States.

Romney’s drive will keep him in the race be-cause he knows how it feels to watch his dream of the White House slip away from him.

He not only has the courage to run a second time with the chance of failure, but also has turned that desire to win into what it takes to create actual change for the American peo-ple.

People, you should know— Stocken Speaks —

Shauna Stockenand Meagan Beck

LCC’s Physical Fit-ness and Wellness De-partment (PFW) was among the organiza-tions present at the Union Missionary Bap-tist Church in Lansing Oct. 19 for the Capital Area Health Alliance (CAHA) healthy life-style rally.

“Our department is involved a lot with the community, helping them become healthy and learn new exercise habits and eating hab-its,” said Amy Stokes, director of Physical Fitness and Wellness at LCC. “We teach a lot of physical fitness activi-ties at LCC, as well as a lot of nutrition and healthy lifestyles class-es.”

Stokes said the LCC PFW Department was attending the event to promote the college’s

new community swim-ming pool membership opportunities.

“We just started this semester and we are the only pool in the downtown area so that might be appealing to the business and com-munity members and so forth,” Stokes said.

Zonya Foco, best-selling cookbook au-thor and PBS TV host

of Zonya’s Health Bites, was the inspirational keynote speaker for the event.

“Sometimes we are not active because we are so well convened and so about comfort,” Foco said. “We are go-ing to be overcoming those obstacles and realizing how we can beat such diseases as diabetes.”

Physical fitness faculty members attend CAHA rally

Graduation deadlines for fall as-sociate’s degrees and certificates are quickly approaching.

Applications are due Nov. 15 to the Enrollment Services Office in Gannon Building 203 or electroni-cally at www.lcc.edu/admissions/graduation.

Hard copies of the graduation application are available in the En-rollment Services Office or can be completed on the admissions grad-uation website.

In order to submit graduation ap-plications, program requirements must be met along with a $25 fee submitted to the Student Finance Office in GB 214.

Requirements differ depending on the program a student is gradu-ating from; whether the application is being submitted for an associate degree or certificate is also taken into consideration.

Associate degrees require the fol-lowing attachments: a curriculum guide and a signed course substitu-tion and waiver authorization form, if necessary.

Certificates require the following attachments: curriculum guide and certificate Pre-Audit; they must be completed, signed and stamped by the program department.

Additional questions can be answered by Lori Meyers in the Administration Office at (517) 483-1269.

LCC set graduation deadlines and processes for fall

Apply now to receive 2012 spring semester financial aid.

Financial aid can help students receive assistance to pay for the cost of tuition and books.

In order to receive financial aid, an electronic Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) appli-cation must be submitted no later than Nov. 15.

LCC must receive the FAFSA no later than the Dec. 1. deadline.

Students can apply forspring semester financial aid

The LCC Library in the TLC Build-ing on the second floor is now offer-ing second generation iPad tablets for faculty and staff rentals.

The LCC Library has three second generation iPads that LCC faculty and staff members can reserve and checkout.

Checkout for an iPad can be done in the library Monday-Saturday.

iPads are allotted to each person for no more than 168 hours at a time.

The iPad should be returned to the library checkout desk. Drop-ping an iPad off in the library drop off box will result in a $15 fine placed on the library account of the iPod renter.

Check out the new technology for faculty and staff at LCC

Beginning Nov. 16, students sub-mitting a new admissions applica-tion for eight of LCC’s programs will be charged.

The application fee will cost $50.Programs selected for the applica-

tion fee include:

For information on the programs se-lected to be charged, contact Nancy at (517) 483-1254.

New application fee forselect LCC programs

• Dental Hygienist Program • Diagnostic Medical Sonography • Fire Academy • Mid-Michigan Police Academy • Nursing in all tracks • Paramedic • Radiologic Technology • Surgical Technology

Processing time after the electron-ic FAFSA is completed and submit-ted takes between 14-21 days.

The Financial Aid Office at LCC can assist students in completing the online application by visiting the STARLAB, located in the Finan-cial Aid Office in GB 203

Attendees at the event received goodie bags about healthy living. Several booths were set up through-out the church offering pamphlets on how to make healthier choices.

Smoothies, popcorn, Subway kids’ meals and Jimmy John’s subs were among the choices of healthy food given out to event at-tendees.

Some of the organi-zations in attendance included Potter Park Zoo, Ingham Regional

Healthcare Founda-tion, Walgreen’s and NorthWest Initiative.

While pre-register-ing for the event was not necessary, doing so provided incentives for attendees such as additional chances at winning door prizes.

A membership to LCC’s pool, a signed Mark Dantonio foot-ball, gift cards to Kroger and Hall of Fame Café gift cards were some of the priz-es that could be won by those who attended

the event. According to event

organizers, this was the first rally held, but they hope to continue helping people in the Lansing area to make healthier choices.

“This is a fantastic organization that has a range of services for people in need,” said Laura Sager, a repre-sentative from North-West Initiative. “There is a range of services right here in the com-munity where people need them.”

Oct. 31 - Nov. 13, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

Laura Sager from NorthWest Initiative now distributes free bread donated by Panera Bread in Frandor every Thursday at 3 p.m. at 530 W. Ionia, Suite D, Lansing.

Photo by Shauna Stocken

NEWS4 Oct. 31 - Nov. 13, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

Dominick MastrangeloEditor in Chief

A curtain in LCC’s Dart Auditorium caught fire Oct. 14 dur-ing a rehearsal for the LCC music program “Soundscapes.”

The blaze was rela-tively small and was extinguished within minutes; however, this may not have been possible without the steadfast dedication of LCC’s Police and Pub-lic Safety Department (DPS).

Sgt. Rodney Bahl handles many of the daily happenings with the LCC police depart-ment. He explained the instance in Dart was one of the many chal-lenges the department faces on a daily basis.

“You can’t plan on things like this happen-ing,” Bahl said. “But you can prepare your-self to be ready when

something like this does happen.”

Bahl said the DPS is always taking sugges-tions on how to make campus safer for stu-dents faculty and staff.

“We can’t do any-thing without a person reporting issues that they're having,” Bahl said. “We want every-one to feel as safe as possible … a lot of peo-ple take night classes … we want people to feel safe at all times.”

Bahl said DPS keeps records of each report-ed incident. Based on the frequency and lo-cations of such reports, the staff focuses more heavily on some areas of main campus than others.

“There are some shady parts of down-town Lansing, and we’re right here,” LCC freshman Katie Downs said. “I guess I feel safe. I just have a big fear of being on my own.”

DPS works hand in hand with the LCC Emergency Manage-ment and Safety Ser-vices Division (EMSS).

LCC Emergency

Management and Safe-ty Services Department is separate from DPS. They are responsible for safety and emer-gency preparedness skills and procedures for the college as well as training faculty and staff.

“We act like a shield of protection to the campus,” Director of EMSS Paul Pirrotta said. “We are the peo-ple who check your fire alarms and sprinkler systems. We protect the college in countless ways.”

Both the EMSS and DPS work very closely with the large number of law enforcement agencies present in the Downtown Lansing area.

“We try to have as much communication with the city of Lansing Police, as well as the state and MSU police,” Bahl said. “We are here to protect and to serve. We all make that a goal everyday.”

For more information on LCC Police and Pub-lic Safety visit www.lcc.edu/police.

Police and Public Safetyensures campus is secure

HomecomingContinued from page 1

drawings throughout the week.

Wednesday, Nov. 16 will include a pep rally from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the A & S Kennedy Cafeteria.

At the same time as the pep rally, LCC’s Athletic Department will host a contest for students only. More details will be an-nounced as Homecom-ing approaches. The TLC Building will feature LCC alumni authors during the ongoing pep rally and gym contest.

“We’re bringing back over 10 of our alumni au-thors from all over the state and having a book signing and meet and greet with students,” Lathrop said.

Students can earn a checkmark on their ticket from all three locations and turn it in for entry in a drawing for StarCard gift certificates and an eight-gigabyte iPod touch.

The Lady Stars’ basket-ball team will host its first home game of the season against Calvin College in the Gannon Gym at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 16 as part of the Homecoming festivities.

According to Lathrop, LCC TV’s video game

show Double Jump will of-fer a free Mario Kart Wii tournament in the 3D The-atre in GB 131 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday, Nov. 17.

Lathrop said students don’t need to sign up for the tournament but there will only be room for 24 players, making it first-come, first-serve.

“We chose that room be-cause there’s a 9-by-16 foot screen so people have the ability to play video games

on a theater-style screen,” Lathrop said. Game Hits Gamestore from Lansing is sponsoring the event, pro-viding prizes for winners.

Nov. 17 will also feature an alumni business panel for students interested in hearing success stories of LCC graduates. The panel will be in TLC 127 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.

According to Lathrop, Homecoming Week will end with a men and wom-en’s basketball double-

header on Saturday, Nov. 19. The Lady Stars will face Henry Ford Community College at 1 p.m. and the men’s game will begin at 3 p.m.

“I want (Homecoming) to get to the point where students are naturally talk-ing about it at student ori-entation,” Lathrop said. “Like somehow they heard that there’s a cool Home-coming Week at LCC. So really we’re trying to brand it.”

Departmentprepares forall incidents

File photos by Michael CaterinaAlumni Relations Manager Andrew Lathrop, above, draws a winner during a 2010 Homecoming basketball game. LCC cheerleaders, at right, root the Stars on during halftime of the game.

Shauna StockenNews Editor

Lansing Community College announced it was receiving a $772,348 National Science Foun-dation (NSF) Grant Oct. 18 to educate and train students in smart build-ing technology.

The grant will sup-port Michigan’s green building industry in a program called “Build-ing Smart: New Career Pathways in Building Science,” according to an LCC public press re-lease.

“We look forward to using this money to bet-ter the future of Lansing Community College,” President Brent Knight said.

The number of sec-ondary and post-sec-ondary students will increase due to the grant, which is based on educating students in

project-based learning skills in green building industries.

Students will be trained throughout a three-year academic program.

During the program, students will learn how to rebuild existing buildings, making them high performance and more energy efficient.

“The growing force in the focus in the U.S. on green building is not limited to new construc-tion,” said George H. Berghorn, dean of LCC’s Technical Careers Divi-sion and principal in-vestigator of the project. “There is increasing de-mand by businesses and homeowners to make energy efficiency gains in existing structures.”

Berghorn said often engineering companies and architectural firms do not realize the effect they have on the envi-

ronment. “There has been such

a singular focus on ener-gy generating technolo-gies,” Berghorn said. “We often lose sight of how much impact we can have through ener-

gy efficiency and energy management technolo-gies to control costs and reduce our reliance on nonrenewable energy sources.”

The project is sched-uled to begin this fall

and continues until the summer 2014. The pro-gramis aimed to meet meet the demand for a skilled workforce in Michigan’s green build-ing industry.

“The college is happy

to be involved in the growing and changing nature of human engi-neering and science,” Knight said.

Editor in Chief Domi-nick Mastrangelo contrib-uted to this report.


NEWS5

Grant promotes smart building technology

Amber GlombStaff Writer

LCC’s International Club holds true to its motto, “Bridges the Cul-tural Gap,” as the club includes both interna-tional and domestic LCC students.

According to former International Club Presi-dent Carlos Lecaros, the student organization extends far beyond its physical name.

“The International Club is a stress relief from classes, a stress relief from work and a stress relief from sociey,” Lecaros said. “The Inter-national Club is a friend, a doctor, and sometimes even family to those stu-dents who don’t have

these things in the United States.”

Upon joining the club, international students are given the opportu-nity to make the transi-tion to the United States easier.

The club has a diverse group of members that international students can relate to.

The international stu-dent members are not the only students who benefit from the club. Domestic students are given the opportunity to experience cultures out-side of their own.

“(Experiencing other cultures) is by far more than traditional domes-tic students are exposed to,” said International Club Vice President Tiz-

ita Daniel.Outside of granting

domestic students the chance to experience other cultures, the In-ternational Club partici-pates in many different activities.

“Over the last year and a half we went to Chicago, Ford Museum and Uncle John’s Cider Mill,” Daniel said. “We frequently go out for a movie as a group.”

On top of outside ac-tivities, the International Club meets every other Friday in GB 262.

Interested students can contact the club ad-visor Ana Mari Woehr at [email protected] or Inter-national Club President Charifa Hajase at [email protected].

Club offers diversityInternational Club ‘bridges cultural gaps’

Interna-tional Club

members gather

around a cutout at Uncle

John’s Cider Mill in

St. Johns as part of a

field trip the group took.

LCC President Brent Knight talks during the announcement of the $772,348 National Sci-ence Founda-tion Grant that LCC received to educate and train students in smart build-ing technology.

Courtesy photo

Photo by Kevin Fowler

LCC receives $772,348 fromNational Science Foundation

One of French’s up-coming projects in-cludes a film in de-velopment titled The

Stranger, in which he will act as a model who is secretly a serial killer.

French is also plan-ning on being cast in The Science of Cool, a film centered around two high s c h o o l n e r d s who ac-c i d e n -tally dis-cover the scientific formula for being cool.

“When I first started at LCC, I wanted to get into the directing side,” French said. “I quickly realized this was not a good match … So I re-ally appreciated the fact that I could inexpen-sively narrow things down and focus on oth-er things.”

French said the class-es LCC offered and its teachers were very helpful.

“LCC hires really good, solid professors,” French said. “So I was able to explore some different career options and limit my career choices.”

He recalled that his

film teacher had expe-rience in Los Angeles and his acting teacher worked with American

a c t r e s s M e r y l Streep.

Current-ly, French is working with a lit-

erary management firm in Palm Beach, Fla.

“I decided I wanted to get back into the cre-ative side of things,” French said. “Because sometimes when you’re acting, especially in magazine writing, you’re not being cre-ative. You’re just doing what people tell you to do.”

He explained most of his inspiration comes while taking walks on the beach.

“One of the best things you can tell someone in the entertainment in-dustry is … when you don’t have time for a day job, you’re on the right path,” French said.

Nathan WilsonAssociate Editor

“I started getting a lot of press junkets in Chicago doing ce-lebrity interviews,” French explained. “I started working briefly for City Pulse. And I started covering a lot of entertainment, so that was sort of the back door in for me. I was starting to get ac-cess and networking through my journal-ism.”

French also ap-peared in two epi-sodes of scripted real-ity show South Beach Tow, produced by Jen-nifer Lopez. He re-

6www.lcc.edu/lookout

Features Oct. 31 - Nov. 13, 2011

LCC alumnus Blake French is starring in the upcom-ing film, The Stranger, and is planning on being cast in The Science of Cool.

Courtesy photo

In addition to being an LCC alum-nus, Blake French has made a suc-cessful career in modeling, acting

and writing. French began to get involved in local

theaters during high school before get-ting a job at a small company that even-tually became AMC, a cable television channel.

cently participated as a precision driver in a stunt situation for the movie, Parker, filmed in Florida.

French said one of the highlights of his life was seeing his im-age on Las Vegas bill-boards, buses, maga-zine covers and mall posters as part of a campaign.

“My face was even on the Stratosphere Hotel as you’re walk-ing into the elevator,” French explained. “That was one of my highlights because of all of the exposure.”

I decided I want-ed to get back

into the creative side of things.

“”

LCC alumnus explores acting and publishing


SPORTS7

Spikers end regular season above .500 Ben DoaneSports Writer

The regular season ended for the Stars’ volleyball team on Tuesday, Oct. 25 with a loss against Kellogg Community College.

The women from Kellogg took three straight sets to win the match. The set scores were 25-18, 25-15 and 25-22.

The Stars ended the regular season with an overall record of 16-14 and a conference re-cord of 6-8. LCC placed fifth out of eight teams in the Western Confer-ence of the NJCAA.

“We ended up fifth in the conference, which isn’t where we hoped we would finish,” LCC Coach Stephen May said. “But I will take most of the blame for that, being a first-year college coach.”

The Stars were near-ly as successful on the road as they were at home season. They fin-ished with a 3-4 home record and a 3-5 road record. The women fared best on neutral

courts; they had a re-cord of 10-5 in those games.

Conference tourna-ment play began on Friday, Oct. 28 and the playoffs will begin the first weekend of No-

vember. The Stars will have a week between the conference tourna-ment and the playoffs to prepare for their first-round opponent, which was unknown as of Oct. 25.

The evening of Satur-day, Oct. 22 might have been the greatest night of my life.

I have made a habit of attending every Michi-gan State University home football game the past two seasons. However, a conflict with my work schedule that night left me peer-ing over a cubical at the Lansing State Journal, anxiously watching the Spartans take on the (at the time) sixth-ranked Wisconsin Badgers.

Thankfully my shift at the Journal was over by the time the teams headed into the locker rooms at halftime. It would be pretty ac-curate to say I did not obey the speed limit on my way home.

As I walked in the door to my apartment in East Lansing’s Ce-dar Village, I felt fairly confident with Sparty’s lead. The Spartan’s special teams had put them up big at the half, 23-14.

“Did you see that blocked kick?” My roommate asked me as I took my coat off and turned the volume up on my television.

“Which one??” I joy-fully replied.

After falling in the hole 14-0 to start the game, the Spartan de-fense buckled down. They did not allow an-other score in the first

half.However, the Wis-

consin offense pos-sessed some of the rawest talent in the Big Ten. The Badgers were not going down with-out a fight.

When MSU senior quarterback Kirk Cous-ins hooked up with star receiver Keshawn Mar-tin, the Spartans took a 31-17 lead. I figured I would take a shower and order some pizza.

By the time the Gumby’s pizza had ar-rived, the game was tied. The last thing on my mind was Pokey Sticks.

Wisconsin quarter-back and Heisman can-didate Russell Wilson had led the Badgers from 14 points down in the fourth quarter to tie the game with 1:26 left on a to two-yard touch-down pass to Montee Ball.

As far as I was con-cerned, we were doomed. The Badgers had all the momentum. If the game were to go to overtime, many

people in the stadium would have been brac-ing themselves to watch their beloved Spartans come up short.

They never got the chance. On the last play of a game that was, without a doubt, the best I’ve seen in my life, Kirk Cousins somehow, someway, connected with fellow senior Keith Nichol on a 44-yard “Hail Mary” touchdown pass to give the Spartans a 37-31 victory. The entire city of East Lansing lost its mind.

By this point there were roughly 15 peo-ple in my apartment. We all couldn’t believe what we had seen. Af-ter a couple looks on instant replay, the call was ruled a success-ful touchdown and the Spartans had knocked off the Wisconsin Bad-gers. Again.

Couches were burned, intersections were blocked off and the fight song was sang loud and clear all down Grand River Avenue. It was magical.

That’s about the last thing I remember. Des-tiny: that is the only word for this team.

I still am not very sure how this all happened. But I can say without a doubt that night was a perfect representation of everything I love about MSU. Go Green.

Photos by Michael Caterina

Sophomore Lindsey Limonoff and freshman Danielle Morris go up for a block dur-ing the Stars’ 3-1 (25-11, 25-17, 17-25, 25-21) loss to KVCC Oct. 20.

A night to rememberSpartan’s photo finish revives editor’s spirit

Freshman Kate Witaszck digs a ball during the Stars’ 3-1 loss to KVCC Oct. 20.

— A New York State of Mind —

- Compiled by Amber Glomb


8 SPORTS

Dominick MastrangeloSports Editor

For LCC Coach Ervin Brunson, this year’s women’s basketball team is unique compared to the Lady Stars he has coached in the past.

“I have a couple different types of girls this year,” Brunson said. “I have some (girls) that will require some more patience … These girls are fresh out of high school.

“However I have some girls that have taken to the way we do things here very quickly. It’s a very diverse team we’re putting together.”

The team will begin its season Wednesday, Nov. 17 at home vs. Cal-vin College.

Brunson has been coaching wom-en’s basketball at LCC for 17 years. This year he took his team down to Toledo, Ohio, to compete in a variety of scrimmage games.

“We won three out of the four games we played in Toledo,” Brun-son said. “We’re seeing some really positive things early.”

The Lady Stars have six returning

sophomores this year and only four freshmen.

“We’re just going to take the sea-son one game at a time,” sophomore point guard Denay Kelly said. “It’s a good feeling to be playing with so many of my teammates from last year … We’ve already got some chemistry going in.”

Kelly will likely be the leader of the Stars this year, Brunson said. And rightfully so.

Kelly averaged 12.5 points per game in the 2010-11 regular season along with recording 56 steals.

“We’re going to look to her to do some big things for us this year,” Brunson said.

Not to be forgotten, however, is the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed flair the four freshmen bring to the team.

“I guess you could say I have a little bit of a chip on my shoul-der,” said freshman Carli Reid, who played her high school basketball at Waverly High School. “I want to eventually be starting every game but I know that’s going to take hard work. “

The Lady Stars have 13 home games scheduled this year. They hope to take home a win in all of them.

“I know we will win here,” Reid said. “That’s what LCC is all about.”

Lady ballers readyfor winning seasonSix sophomores, four freshmen fuel team

File photo by Michael CaterinaReturing sophomore Denay Kelly puts up a shot during a 2010-11 game against Kel-logg Community College in the Gannon Gymnasium.


9 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Kaitlin LutzA&E Editor

Many different and unique sounds filled Dart Auditorium Oct. 23 dur-ing the entertaining pro-duction of Soundscapes.

Despite the lack of a curtain, the crew was able to keep things run-ning smoothly, said Molly Cryderman-Weber, music faculty.

“Our stage manager, Lisa Whiting-Dobson, was great,” Cryderman-Weber said. “I think she was part of the reason everything ran so smoothly. She was such a great stage man-ager.”

First to enter the stage was the percussion en-semble directed by LCC faculty member Beth Lew-is. The piece they played, called “Lost Souls,” was a great start to the afternoon of music.

The ensemble also did a creative piece using bas-ketballs to create different rhythms.

Cryderman-Weber per-formed in both percussion

pieces during the event. As a faculty member, Cry-derman-Weber said, “It’s always fun to play.”

The concert choir did an excellent job and I loved listening and watching them sing their last song

called “Little David, Play on your Harp.” I could tell that each choir member re-ally got into the song.

The LanSwingers Vocal Pop & Jazz Ensemble, di-rected by Bill Bastian, gave an inspiring soulful per-formance with its songs “Melba’s Blues” and “Ng-iculela-Es Una Historia–I

Am Singing.”The experimental mu-

sic ensemble performed a vocal and instrumental improvisation. Ensemble members, directed by Ce-sar Potes made different noises and sounds, some using instruments and others their voices.

“What they did to cre-

ate that piece was … a number of improvisation exercises in class,” Cryder-man-Weber said. “Then they create(d) as a group throughout the semester a piece based on those im-provisations exercises.”

Their performance was, I have to admit, a bit odd at times. Then there were points when they each burst out in laughter – that was pretty entertaining.

One of my favorite parts of the concert was the Jazz Ensemble directed by Jonathon Gewirtz. They saved the best for last. The ensemble gave a wonder-ful performance showcas-

ing the talents of differ-ent individual musicians. They also played the song “Beyond the Sea” with guest singer Gino Federici.

“Gino … is one of our music majors and it was fun to see him,” Cryder-man-Weber said. “He’s been a performer in Ve-gas for the last couple of decades. So he has a great way with the crowd, and it was a lot of fun to see him do his thing on stage.”

Soundscapes show-cased well the hard work and effort put in by mu-sicians, and the talent the Music Program at LCC has to offer.

A trombone players, above, uses a mute during an LCC Jazz Band rehearsal Oct. 12. Members of the LCC Concert Choir, right, sing during a rehearsal for Soundscapes, which was held in Dart Auditorium Oct. 23.

Photos Kevin Fowler

IN BRIEFArts & Entertainment

LCC’s American Marketing Asso-ciation presents its 4th Annual Rock vs. Rap Battle of the Bands Nov. 16 at 9 p.m. at Mac’s Bar 2700 East Michigan Ave. Admission is $10 at the door.

Rock will compete against rap in Battle of the Bands

The big book Bash, Nov. 4-12, is LCC Library’s annual used mate-rial sale. Materials include books, movies, music, software and games. Money raised at the event will go to the LCC Library.

LCC students and staff will re-ceive half off all items for sale when they present their StarCard, Nov. 4-6.

All items will be 10 cents each on Wednesday, Nov. 9.

Visit art galleries in the Lansing area the first Sunday of every month as the galleries host opening receptions for new art exhibits. The next Sunday gal-lery walk is Nov. 6.

Get Old Town ready for the holi-days by helping decorate the streets, Nov. 13, from 12 - 3 p.m.

For more information, email Kelly Id-zikowski at [email protected].

Buy used books and more at the Big Book Bash

Walk through art galleries in Old Town first Sunday of the month

Give Old Town holiday spirit

On Friday, Nov. 11, bring a paper grocery bag and pay $2 for as many paperback books that will fit inside a bag.

For more information, contact Vic-toria Meadows at [email protected] or call (517) 483-1648.

LCC concert showcases musical diversity

Review

Amber GlombStaff Writer

LCC’s rendition of the psychodrama play The Shrike by Joseph Kramm first exposes its elements to the public beginning on Friday, Nov. 4.

These elements begin with Jim Downs, played by LCC student Michael Banghart. Downs has been admitted into a state hospital after a failed at-tempt to commit suicide. The play opens in a hospi-tal with the audience hav-ing a vague idea of what is going on.

“The audience has to find out why he’s seen in the hospital, who he is, and what’s going to hap-pen to him there,” said Ken Beachler, who plays Dr. Schlesinger .

The Shrike will have five performances at Dart Au-ditorium.

These performances are Friday, Nov. 4 at 8 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 5 at 8 p.m., Sunday, Nov. 6 at 2 p.m., Friday, Nov. 11 at 8 p.m. and the final show is on Saturday, Nov. 12 at

8 p.m. Each performance is $5 for students, seniors, LCC faculty or alumni. General admission is $10.

The casting of The Shrike was not limited to LCC students. LCC alumni are also cast as characters in the play.

According to Beachler, this is so LCC students can gain something from experienced actors. LCC

alumni can gain from the energy the students bring to the play.

“Everyone is a new ad-venture, so this will be like nothing you’ve ever seen before,” Beachler said.

With expectations run-ning high, the cast feels as if the show will be a hit.

“It’s been a collabora-tion of a lot of people put-

ting in a lot of time for something that has really struck me personally as a script and I think that we are conveying it very well,” Banghart said. “It’s going to be an amazing show.”

Tickets can be pur-chased at the door in ad-vance by going to www.artslansing.org or by call-ing (517) 372-0945.


A&E10

This week’s puzzle is sponsored by:

Hocus-focusKaitlin LutzA&E Editor

The LCC Communica-tion, Media and the Arts Department is hosting Dance Visitation Week Nov. 14-17 for any student who wants to learn more about the dance classes of-fered at LCC.

Classes that are avail-able for students to check include beginning ballet, modern dance, jazz and tap and intermediate ballet.

“Dance Visitation Week is a chance for people to come in and see what dance is all about here,” said Vickie Diebold, lead dance faculty at LCC.

Diebold has been teaching dance for ap-proximately 30 years and has been dancing even longer.

“Sometimes it’s a little in-timidating to know what a class is all about or to sign up for a class,” Diebold said. “It’s also kind of hard to know what level maybe to place yourself in so we open all the classes up you can come in and see.”

Diebold mentioned that some teachers al-low visitors to partic-ipate in class.

According to Diebold, any ques-

tions students have about a particular dance style will be answered after attend-ing and/or participating in a class.

“Maybe you’ve always wanted to take modern dance, but you don’t know what modern dance is, so you go watch it,” Diebold suggested.

For more information on dance classes at LCC, contact the Communication, Media and the Arts Department at (517) 483-1564.

Find the right dance classBeginning Ballet with

Vickie Diebold: Mon. & Wed., 8:10 - 9:30 a.m. in Gannon

Building 372

Beginning Ballet with Roberta Otten: Tue. & Thu., 12:10 – 1:30 p.m. in Gannon

Building 372

Beginning Ballet withElzbieta Alabuszew-Kutek: Tue. & Thu., 7:40 – 9 p.m. in

Gannon Building 372

Beginning Modern Dance with Roberta Otten: Tue. & Thu., 10:10 – 11:30 a.m. in

Gannon Building372

Beginning Jazz with Vickie Diebold: Mon. & Wed., 12:10

– 1:30 p.m. in Gannon Building 372

Beginning Tap withD’onna Jacot: Mon. & Wed.,

10:10 – 11:30 a.m. in Gannon Building 372

Intermediate Ballet with Elzbieta Alabuszew-Kutek: Tue. & Thu., 5:40 – 7:30 p.m.

in Gannon Building 372

Classes to visit:

Actor SpotlightManipulating the beauty of insanity

Michael Banghart (center) as Jim Downs is consoled by his wife Beth Martin (right) as his doctor, Ken Beachler (left) watches on in a scene from The Shrike.

Photo by Courtney Baker

Ken BeachlerRole in The Shrike:

Dr. Schlesinger Favorite Actor: Ken-

neth BranaghFavorite Movie: Dances

with WolvesFavorite Play: Sweeny

ToddFavorite Previous Role

Played: Malvolio in Shakespeare’sTwelfth Night

Favorite Part of Acting: The “pretend” factor

Pre-Performance Ritual: The warm-up

Most Embarrassing moment while acting:

Sliding on stageon wet spots

How to recoverfrom mess-ups: Keep

talking

Michael BanghartRole in The Shrike: Jim DownsFavorite Actors: Edward Norton and Hugh LaurieFavorite Movie: Chum ScrubberFavorite Play: Wicked Favorite Previous Role Played: Teach in The American Buffalo or Ellard in The Foreigner Favorite Part of Acting: Creating something out of thin airPre-Performance Ritual: Physical, body and voice warm-upMost Embarrassing moment while acting: Destroyed the stage in front of crowd How to recover from a mess-up: Keep breathing and listening -Compiled by Amber Glomb


A&E11


Deus Ex: Human Rev-olutions is one of the few games that creates a multifaceted, ethical dilemma with so many titillating layers.

It paints a brilliant scenario wherein the world has made ex-plosive progress in technology, more spe-cifically, biotechnology and cybernetic human augmentation.

The plot revolves around a conspiracy that begs more ques-tions with every piece of the puzzle you as-semble.

As security special-ist Adam Jensen, it is your mission to inves-tigate the terrorist at-tacks against biotech

corporation Sarif In-dustries.

Augmentation pres-ents an excellent op-portunity to customize your abilities, including a cloaking system that renders you invisible by bending light, im-munity to toxic gases, and of course, blades in your arms.

Human Revolutions also depicts a convinc-

ing wave of prejudice against humans en-hanced with technol-ogy.

Should humanity ever have the chance to integrate technology with their bodies, I can imagine a new breed of prejudice arising.

After all, humanity has an extraordinary talent for obsessing over our differences and dis-criminating against each other.

In the game, hu-man augmentation has transformed into a hot button, political issue due to its lack of regu-lation and accelerated rate of progress.

Everything from slea-zy politicians, anti-aug-mentation coalitions, criminal syndicates and domestic terrorists will intervene in your path.

Human Revolutions features a rich, inspir-

ing soundtrack that melds perfectly with the dark atmosphere. Visually, Human Revo-lutions is astounding, portraying a culture combining elements of Renaissance and cyber-punk.

Choice is a vital as-pect of the game that can drastically affect the outcome of your journey.

The only flaw was the gameplay felt repetitive at times, and I wanted to see more locations explored besides De-troit, China and Mon-treal.

It was tedious be-ing stuck in the same regions instead of ex-panding the world and unlocking new loca-tions.

I would have cher-ished the opportunity to install an assault rifle in my arm.

Deus Ex revolutionizes gaming

Kaitlin LutzA&E Editor

Remember those fai-rytales you read as a kid? The ones with Snow White, Prince Charming, the evil witch and more?

Remember how they always had happy end-ings?

Such happy end-ings have vanished in the new television se-ries Once Upon a Time, (NBC, Sundays at 8) when the fairytales be-come reality.

This show has ev-erything from a Prince Charming (Joshua Dal-las) reviving Snow White (Ginnifer Good-win) with a kiss, to an evil queen (Lana Par-rilla) who is out to ruin the happiness of every-one’s life.

The show starts out like any good ole’ fairy tale. Prince Charming rescues Snow White and just as they are about to say their “I do’s,” in walks the evil queen who threatens to bring a curse on ev-eryone.

When Snow White becomes pregnant,

she finds out that their only hope is in her daughter.

Sounds cheesy, I know, but the script actually works.

The show flips back and forth from fairy-tale land to reality in the opening show. The characters have all been sent to a place where there are no more happy endings–our world.

Once there, they no longer remember any-thing about who they are.

Their only hope of being rescued is in Emma, Snow White’s daughter.

On Emma’s 28th birthday, her 10-year-old son comes to find her after she gave him up for adoption.

He has a book full of fairytales and tells her they are all true and she is in them. She un-derstandably doesn’t believe him.

He even lives in a town called Story Brook, Maine. This is anything but ironic be-

cause that is where all these characters have been sent to.

Somehow this kid knows his book of fairy tales is more than just make believe. Even more, he believes his birth mom is the “savior” these stories allude to.

Sounds a bit far-fetched, but I still en-joyed the show.

Once Upon a Time brings a nice twist to the oh-so-cheesy and familiar fairytales that we know.

Show brings a twist to fairytales

Photo courtesy of poptower.com

Photo courtesy of deusex.wikia.com

Lee RumlerStaff Writer

Ever since I first saw Rowan Atkinson in Rat Race, I’ve wanted to like him. And af-ter watching his latest movie, Johnny English Reborn, I’m still stuck wanting.

Something about Rowan Atkinson just screams, “I’m hilari-ous.” I’m pretty sure it’s his face.

And even beyond that funny mug, he’s a talented actor in his own brand, which I take as a sort of an older slapstick, closer to Charlie Chaplin and The Three Stoog-es than most modern variations.

Yet despite his ob-vious comedic talent, I’ve never found my-self actually enjoying one of his movies for the entire movie.

I guess maybe I’m just not one for physi-cal slapstick comedy.

It can work to supplement a good character, but when the comedic value of a movie rests solely upon physical slap-stick, it comes off as a bit shallow.

On top of the shal-lowness, some of the ridiculousness seemed a bit too forced.

Specifically, in an early scene, Atkinson pretended to pet a cat far too dramatically and for far too long for comfort.

I actually started fidgeting in my seat over how awkward the scene looked.

I understand that the exaggerated over-

reactions are part of Atkinson’s characters, but I’d like to see them toned down a bit.

Because, if it weren’t for a few painfully awkward scenes, I’d have really enjoyed the movie.

If it weren’t for a few painfully forced comedic habits, At-kinson would prob-ably be one of my fa-vorite actors.

That being said, Johnny English Re-born definitely had its good parts.

I’ve always been a fan of spy mov-ies. Adding com-edy to that genre has spawned some of my favorite movies to date (Austin Powers and Get Smart come to mind.)

Every time English gets in a fight, expect the best. His fight-ing style is not only admirably effective but also wonderfully amusing.

The wheelchair scene was one of the most; no, it was the most epic and hilari-ous chase scene I’ve watched to date.

And the romance that blossoms halfway through the movie was just the right bal-ance of blissfully cute and remarkably odd. It was perfect for Mr. English.

Johnny English Re-born was a pretty good movie with its fair share of letdowns. If you’re a fan of Atkinson, by all means, see it.

However, if you’re as big of a fan of phys-ical slapstick as I am, you might want to skip it.

Slapstick comedyfails to impress

Photo courtesy of blackmannrobin.com

According to darkestnight-movie.com, the film was in-spired by events that oc-curred Nov. 1, 2003, in an isolated place in the Cam-eron Highlands of Malaysia.

A Chinese family held a gathering there to celebrate Chinese New Year and the following day, the locals only found the ruins of their wealthy mansion and no sign of the family.

“(Darkest Night) is about an American brought to his soon-to-be-wife’s home at Christmas to meet her tra-

ditional family,” Perry ex-plained. “You want to talk about a real nightmare before Christmas. This is a ground-breaking mix of East meets West filmmaking and I think audiences will dig it.”

Perry also explained the importance of education in his career.

“LCC played a very vital role in my career and I’m go-ing to tell it to you straight,” Perry said. “I come from a family that always pushed education and, thankfully, reading was something I’ve

always loved … I’ve always excelled and been good at what I truly enjoy.”

Perry said his favorite part of working in the film indus-try is the artists he works with and the places he travels.

“Movies are created by a small army of artists,” Perry said. “They all love their craft and when they are brought together in this controlled chaos, a film is born.”

According to Perry, Dark-est Night will head for release in America in 2012. For more information about Perry’s work, visit http://cdiproduc-tions.com/.


Features12


“LCC offered me the next steps to explore something that I was sincerely passion-ate about,” Perry said. “LCC gave me the first basic tools I could use to turn my passion into a career.

“I am a business artist and I think that Business of Art is a class that should be taught. You can find art classes, but why not require classes in how to build a career.”

According to Perry, he be-gan to explore film at Sexton High School when he cre-ated MTV style and Saturday

LCC alumnus to debut horror film in Philippines

LCC alumnus DJ Perry has many spe-cialties in the entertainment industry: writing, acting and producing. He also

serves as co-owner of Collective Development Inc., a motion picture company based in Lan-sing.

Starring in approximately 30 to 40 films, Perry has explored everything from family faith films (Figure in the Forest and Book of Ruth, Journey of Faith), Lionsgate westerns (Dean Teaster’s Ghost Town), documentaries (OUTSIDE THE WIRE, The Forgotten Children of Afghanistan) and horror films (Darkest Night and The 8th Plague).

Night Live types of shows for friends and family. Thus, he spent much of his time during high school writing scripts, planning shoot dates and gathering help.

Currently, Perry is prepar-ing for the theatrical pre-miere of the psychological horror film Darkest Night, which was shot in the Philip-pines.

According to the national media of the Philippines, Perry is the first American to shoot on a Filipino film pro-duction.

LCC alumnus DJ Perry is starring in the upcoming film Darkest Night, which will be released in 2012 in the United States.

Courtesy photos


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Vincent Mata Who Wants Soup?

ACROSS1. Star of “Truman Show”6. Inquire9. Scientist’s office12. Play13 .Caesar’s twelve14. Pub serving15. Singing voice16. Type of part-nership17. Scrap18. Opp. of false20. Molten rock22. “Oh __!” (two wds.)25. Bar26. Pair27. Gets larger29. Not front or back31. Surface to air

missile32. Asian country36. Microscopic39. Cunning40. Star of “Brave-heart”43. Disastrous45. Excite46. Family fight47. Nothing48. Promissory note50. Heathen gods54. Furniture wood55. Opp. of SSW56. Bottoms of shoes57. Spots58. Hair stuff59. Make a present of

DOWN1. Central daylight time2. Is3. Fled4. Display emotions5. Herb6. Shaft7. Perch8. Cruise’s wife9. One of the Florida Keys10. Remember the __!11. Started19. At the same time21. Ditto22. Disks23. French “yes”24. Modern25. Jew

28. Reservoir30. Compass point33. Chinese season-ing34. Boxer Muham-mad35. Big Apple (abbr.)37. Touching with the toe38. Star of “Top Gun”40. City41. Book by Homer42. Resists44. Annex (2 wds.)46. Gas 49. Less than two51. Aged52. MGM’s Lion53. Opp. of 55 Across

Do you draw cartoons? Bring them toThe Lookout and we may publish them.

Published work earns the cartoonist a $10gift certificate to Gibson’s Book Store!

A potential act of war by Iran was thwart-ed with the arrest of Manssor Arbabsiar, an Iranian-American who claimed to be directed by officials within Iran.

The Department of Justice has charged “fac-tions of the Iranian gov-ernment” with attempt-ing to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassa-dor to the U.S. by deto-nating a bomb in a Wash-ington D.C. restaurant.

Other conspira-tors are still at large in Iran, including Gholam Shakuri, who serves as a special unit of Iran's Revolutionary Guard.

I speculate that Iran may have intended to disrupt ties between America and Saudi Arabia, a valuable ally against terrorists. After all, why would they tar-get a Saudi Arabian am-bassador on U.S. soil?

Naturally, Iran de-nounces the terror plot as propaganda. Well, that's typical. Every-thing is propaganda to Iran; the Holocaust never happened, 9/11 was an inside job, its nuclear program is peaceful, the typical theories of lunatic.

This plot is just an-

other offense in a long line of disturbing events taking place in Iran, par-ticularly its nuclear pro-gram.

According to The New York Times, the director general of the Interna-tional Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Yukiya Amano, doesn’t want to go public with explo-sive evidence about the development of nuclear-armed missiles in Iran because his inspectors will be ejected from that country. Wonderful.

What purpose does the IAEA serve if its ad-ministrators are terrified to report violations of nuclear power?

I wonder how many more sanctions we will attempt to throw at Iran before it's too late.

Maybe Obama can invite President Mah-moud Ahmadinejad

over for tea in his mis-guided attempts at reaching out to terrorist havens. I'm sure a few friendly handshakes and smiles will convince Iran to drop its nuclear ambitions and obsession with annihilating Israel.

For God’s sake, sanc-tion the Central Bank of Iran and black list any country or company en-gaged in business with it.

You have to draw the line at a certain point, not pussyfoot around with rhetoric condemn-ing Iran until you are suddenly confronted by a rogue nation with to-tal disregard for human life.

I do not wish to en-gage in another war, but I'm afraid Iran is work-ing closer to provok-ing a conflict between us, especially with the plot to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassa-dor and blow up Saudi and Israeli embassies in D.C., Buenos Aires and Argentina.

I predict we will be involved in a war with Iran within at least the next 10 years.

In fact, I'm truly be-ginning to fear that Iran wants a war.

You can hear the clock ticking and you find yourself staring at a blank word docu-ment.

Do you tap your fin-gers nervously, trying in vain to think of what to write, or continue on daydreaming of all the endless ways to bring the page to life?

When it comes to writing a research pa-per, the first descrip-tion is normally true for me, but when I am placed with endless possibilities my hands cannot type the words fast enough.

I say this because November is National Novel Writing Month, also known as NaNoW-riMo.

The goal of NaNoW-riMo is to write a 50,000-word novel by the end of November. The 50,000 words is in no way a perfectly ed-ited, finished novel, but the framework for a great one.

Authoring a novel is something high on my bucket list. That is why I have chosen to partic-ipate in NaNoWriMo.

So this year I have de-cided to spend an entire “30 days and nights (of) literary abandon,” as the program describes the month of writing.

I have in years past attempted writing my own novel during this time, but have subse-quently failed.

I think the idea of ac-tually writing a novel in a month was more of a novelty and fun idea in the past years so I tended to lose heart after a week into the

month.But this time I am

determined not to give up. Even if I don’t get to the 50,000-word mark by the end of the month, I want to come away from this experience knowing that I tried my best and, more importantly, didn’t give up.

This next month is going to be filled with drama (hopefully more on the pages I write than in real life), laugh-ter, maybe even some tears and plenty of late nights.

I hope when this is fin-ished I will still have my sanity intact, but who knows. This could be a great social experiment.

Maybe I can write a book about my endeav-ors to write a book in 30 days and craziness that ensues.

I think I already have an idea for my second novel. Now to figure out an idea for this first novel I will be writing.


OPINION14

— ‘I am invincible!’ —

— The Kollected Klutz —

America's empty threats

My 30-day endeavorWhatever happened to

"We the people," to the promises of justice, pro-motion of general welfare and the securing of liberty for not only us, but also for generations to come?

In today’s world of poli-tics, the most important thing to politicians is to win over the vote of sup-porters of their party with complete disregard for the long term.

It is almost as if vot-ers are perpetually stuck in this "what have you done for me lately" state of mind.

I say it is a time for re-form, not of the govern-ment, but of the voters' ideas instead.

If the current trends were to continue, our chil-dren and grandchildren will live in a world where state employees such as police officers and teach-ers, people who work for the betterment of all the citizens of this country, will be retiring with no benefits and left to fend for themselves. This is not

just. I think something needs to be done as soon as possible.

Stop hiding behind your computer screens. The reason why there is a system of democracy in this country is so your voice can be heard.

Stop blaming the politi-cians for not having your ideals and start voting for the ones who do.

When the 2012 Elec-tion Day arrives (nov. 8), I challenge you as fellow Americans to not only vote yourself, but invite your friends and family, even your neighbors to vote as well.

The only thing that sick-ens me more than igno-

rance is apathy — people who inform themselves but choose to do nothing with their knowledge.

Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “So much attention is paid to the aggressive sins, such as violence and cruelty and greed with all their tragic effects, that too little attention is paid to the passive sins, such as apathy and laziness, which in the long run can have a more devastating effect.”

I believe in our current society where people can’t find it in themselves to get up off the couch to cast a vote, that has been proven to be true to a disappoint-ingly scary extent.

This is a call to action America to stop simply watching the news and talking about how your choice of a candidate could do better. Go vote for that candidate instead.

In the ever so philo-sophical words of Ma-hatma Gandhi “Be the change you want to see in the world."

A for America, not for apathy— Ben There, Doane That —


OpiniOn15

Policies: all letters should be 200 words or less and signed with a name, address (email or otherwise) and phone number. The Lookout reserves the right to edit letters for grammar, spelling, length and clarity.

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

The Lookout is the independent, biweekly student newspaper of Lansing Community College. 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.

- The Lookout Staff

Write a Letter to theEditor

— In Our Own Words —

the lookoutKaitlin Lutz

Michael Caterina

Dominick Mastrangelo Nathan Wilson

Shauna Stocken

Amber Glomb Ben Doane

Kelly Lehtonen

Larry Hook

Editor in [email protected]

[email protected] [email protected]

[email protected]@[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected]

[email protected] Editor

Photo Editor

A&E Editor

News Editor Advertising Manager

AdviserSports WriterStaff Writer

Change. It’s something every-thing needs. We as a campus community are doing this ev-eryday.

But we as a staff have noticed a recent trend in the planning of Lansing Community College’s future.

There are some major renova-tions planned for LCC’s main campus in the next few years.

The Gannon and Arts & Sci-ences buildings are probably the two most heavily used build-ings on campus.

Both of these buildings are all but set to go under major reno-vations in the coming semesters. The building that houses our newspaper office has changed. The Mackinaw Building is a term that is new to us this fall

semester. We’ve heard rumors of our of-

fice being relocated as well. We want to make it clear we look forward to being involved in the changes coming to this college in the near future.

Many of these renovations cost a large amount of money. The college is committing our tuition dollars to the benefit of

future students of LCC.As always we will be here to

report every step of every pro-cess these changes entail.

If you would like to share your opinion on the changes coming to the college, please feel free to write us a letter. This affects all of us. This is your newspaper, if any voice should be heard it should be yours.

As LCC officials dis-cuss plans to renovate the Gannon and A & S buildings, I think back to the way the college looked when I attend-ed it as a student in the early 1980s.

I attended Lansing Community College from 1979 to 1983, and earned my asso-ciate’s degree on Dec. 11, 1983. I worked as sports editor of The Lookout from the fall of 1981 to the spring of 1983.

Recently I was look-ing through old edi-tions of The Lookout and a 1983 advertisement stirred some pleasant memories for me. It was an ad for Corky’s Restaurant, which was located on the corner of Shiawassee Street and Capitol Avenue. That same building is now the headquarters for Gibson’s Bookstore.

I remember spend-ing my free hours be-tween classes eating

ham sandwiches and drinking shakes at Corky’s. And I fondly remember playing pin-ball and video games at Corky’s during the golden age of arcade games, when Pac-Man and Space Invaders were all the rage.

I can remember peo-ple sitting on blankets and studying in the sunshine on the lawn where the TLC Build-ing now stands. That corner almost looked like a city park in those days.

I recall sitting through government class in Old Central (where the University

Center is now located) and listening to Prof. James McClure’s inter-esting lectures. I also remember the very slow elevator in that old, creaky building.

I remember when the LCC radio station was located right across the hall from The Look-out office in the SPS Building, which re-cently had its named changed to the Macki-naw Building.

Though LCC is changing, growing and improving in the pres-ent, it is fun to recall the good old days at the college.

If you would like to look through old edi-tions of The Lookout to see what LCC was like in yesteryear, stop into our office in room 208 of the SPS, er, Macki-naw Building.

Larry Hook has been adviser of The Lookout since 2004. He may be reached at 517-483-1291 or [email protected].

— For What It’s Worth —

LCC is changing just like everything else

Memories of LCC past

Classified AdvertisingAPARTMENT FOR RENT1238 Turner St., Lansing. One mile from downtown LCC cam-pus in Old Town. One bedroom, $550 per month. Price includes air conditioning, parking, washer and dryer. No smoking, no pets. Second floor. Intercom, off-street parking and secure urban living. Free internet. Contact Lori Fischer at 517-490-7090.

NASCAR MEMORABILIATwo brand new Dale Earnhardt Jr. hats, $7 each. Ten com-memorative miniature racecars from the Michigan International Speedways from 2005 to 2009, all brand new and in box, $5 each. Buy both hats and all the cars for $45! Call 517-483-1291 daytime.

PREMIER LCC HOUSING: Newly renovated apartments offered by Capitol Management, just 50 feet from LCC. Other locations available only a block or two from Downtown LCC campus. One- to four-bedroom units with prices from $545 to $1,200. Includes parking and most utilities. Pet friendly! Also avail-able: additional secure parking for students for $65 a month. No need rush to class when you can reliably park 50 feet from campus, Only 40 spaces available! Call: 517-204-5550 or 517-515-8968.

PLACE YOUR AD HEREAdvertising in The Lookout’s classified section is inexpensive and effective. Cost is just $8.50 for 20 words or less. Additional words are 50 cents. Call 483-1295 to place an ad.


16

Protesters ‘Occupy Lansing’ with musicPhotos by Michael Caterina

Donna Roy in town from Houston, and Jim Williams of Howell hold up signs at the corner of Capitol Avenue and Kalamazoo Street at Reutter Park in downtown Lansing Oct. 22 to protest the distribution of wealth in the United States. Members of the “Occupy Lansing” protest have been camping out at the park since early October.

Michael CaterinaPhoto Editor

Members of the “Occu-py Lansing” movement set up camp at Reutter Park in downtown Lansing during the week of Oct. 10 before the rally at the State Capitol Oct. 15.

The group invited bands to perform at the park Oct. 22 as part of the Solidarity-Saturday event.

The movement is part of the nationwide peace-ful protest, “Occupy Wall-street,” where people have camped out in cities all over the U.S. to express their disagreement with the distribution of wealth in the nation.

According to Occu-pyLansing.US, the official website of the local protest, the participants in Lansing agree with the stance of the nationwide movement.

“We stand in solidarity with the movement at Wall Street and others around the world.” the statement on the website says.

“We are here to stay until a more just, equitable sys-tem manifests itself for the 99 percent of Americans who so desperately need it now. We are strong, we are peaceful, we are united. We are Occupy Lansing.”

Members of the Flint native band QUESTion, above, perform during Solidarity Saturday in Reutter Park in downtown Lansing Oct. 22.

Protesters, right, relax and display signs while bands play at the event.

LAST LOOK

the lookout volume 53 issue 5

Documents

oliver towers property

lcc president knight

lcc library

oliver towers property

renovation process

shw group

city of lansing

homecoming week