The Lookout Issue 13

Artists collaborate

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seasonunderwayPAGE 7

Baseballopensat Dart

Pentacost

for peacePAGE 9

thelookoutLansing Community College’s Independent Student Newspaper since 1959

March 28 - April 10 2011

Volume 52, Issue 13www.lcc.edu/lookout

Nathan WilsonNews Editor

The Annual Transfer Fair drew crowds of students in the Gannon Building lobby March 21 through 24.

The fair was hosted by the University Center and Transfer Initiatives Depart-ment, and over 40 colleges were represented.

Attending students en-tered for a chance to win a Kindle, iPad, Ipod or gift bags. The winners will be announced during the week of March 27 on http://www.lcc.edu/uc.

Julie Hanna, the pro-gram administrator for Northwood University,

said the college looks to see where a student is academ-ically and how to adjust their path to transfer.

Patty Spagnuolo, direc-

tor of the University Cen-ter, said, “We had this set up so that LCC students

See Transfer, page 2

Program cuts not finalized

David VanlerbergheStaff Writer

AFL-CIO affiliated unions and various sup-porters marched on the Capitol March 16 to protest the budget presented by Gov. Rick Snyder.

“The whole idea for sav-ing our jobs and taking away our rights for collec-tive bargaining boils down to no middle class between the rich and the poor,” said protestor Nick Dee.

The budget presented is proposing to make considerable cuts to gov-ernment workers’ sala-ries and pensions.

“My dad worked for

the state and my mom is a teacher, so we’ll be hit hard,” LCC student Chris Hoyt said.

Snyder proposed cutting the Michigan Business Tax

as a way to help businesses build jobs.

“Michigan business tax is a job killer,” Snyder said.

See Union, page 2

Democracy in action: Hundreds of people gather in the State Capitol building March 16 to protest budget cuts. In the know: Mechanical engineering student Damen

Bradley speaks with an MSU adviser March 23.

Photo by Michael CaterinaPhoto by Michael Caterina

40 colleges in four days Unions protest at Capitol

Sarah SandersEditor in Chief

College leadership an-nounced plans of possibly eliminating the landscape program on Feb. 24.

“We had program re-view in 2008 and we had the second best ROI (return

on investment) of any pro-gram within the college,” Welch said. “We had to laugh a little bit when the provost said (at the board meeting) the data was all complete and sent out be-cause that was not true.”

See Horticulture, page 2


The LCC Board of Trustees’ meet-ing March 21 featured 75 speakers addressing issues, including the elim-ination of several programs.

Provost Stephanie Shanblatt an-nounced the college will move for-ward with state officials to ensure the Sign Language Program will remain open at LCC.

Local businesses were represented by their owners within the truck driv-ing, automotive tech., collision repair, fashion tech. and landscape indus-tries.

Each program will present the board with plans for getting their pro-gram back on track by April 7, after faculty union MAHI asked the board for a one-week extension to make up for time lost on spring break.

Kevin Johnson, lead flight instruc-tor for the LCC Aviation Program, presented a budget that would allow the department to break even.

While faculty from all the pro-grams said they understand the need for a reevaluation of the programs, they do not want to see the programs

eliminated before they are given a chance to remedy the problems iden-tified by the administration.

Many faculty asked the board for a two-year extension, hoping this will give them the amount of time needed

See Cuts, page 2


College administration announced plans of possi-bly eliminating the Interior Design and Fashion Tech Programs Feb. 24.

Faculty and students

alike were gathered at LCC Board of Trustees monthly meeting March 21.

Lead Faculty Christine Conner said the Fashion Tech faculty is currently working on a proposal to

See Fashion, page 2

Photo by Courtney BakerTough choices: The LCC Board of Trustees listen to members of the commu-nity speak at a meeting March 3.

Horticulture program couldbe uprooted from college

Fashion tech, interior design programs could both be cut

“This mindset that we have to provide a benefit for businesses to come to Michigan is passive,” Lieu-tenant Governor Brian Cal-ley said.

One of the major themes chanted by the protes-

tors was, “Workers get the shaft; Wall Street gets the goldmine.”

In addition to this, taxes were raised more severely for lower income house-holds than they were for those in the higher income tier. Funding for the public school district was cut $300 per student.

The budget proposed attempts to remedy fears of state officials collabo-rating with lobbyists. “This culture of picking winners and losers isn’t

conducive towards fu-ture job growth,” said Calley.

“We eliminated 452 mil-lion dollars,” Budget Direc-tor John Nixon said.

can learn how to transition easily to a four-year college or university.”

Douglas Peacock, the admissions officer for Ma-donna University, said he wants to meet with any prospective students who are interested in the institu-tion’s programs.

“We have over 75 pro-grams at Madonna,” Pea-cock said.

Students interested in

transferring to Madonna need a GPA of at least 2.0 and 24 transferrable cred-its.

Erica Michaels, enroll-ment specialist and senior regional coordinator for Life University, explained the institution is well known for its chiropractic program.

“(We’re) providing in-formation about what chiropractic is, how they can benefit and how they can help others,” Michaels said.

present to the board. A part of this proposal

will be addressing how to raise their enrollment, get their budget on track and what they feel needs to be adjusted within their pro-gram so it continues.

According to Conner, faculty members are pro-posing to offer summer, online and evening classes in place of some morning classes in order to build their enrollment and in-crease revenue.

Merging some of the sketching classes into the art program Conner said, might be helpful for stu-dents while also address-ing budget concerns.

Conner explained ad-justing teaching methods would help the program maintain a viable degree for Fashion Tech students.

“Another thing we are looking at is doing more project-based learning,” Conner said.

Sisters and fashion tech students, Andrea and Sam

Bartlett attend LCC’s pro-gram because it is more affordable than other pro-grams within the state and also because they view the faculty as valuable assets to their success.

“We always knew we wanted to be in fashion,” Andrea said.

The two plan on open-ing a boutique after they graduate. “We would like to take some more busi-ness classes before we are through here,” Sam said.

The sisters said their plans are to stay in Michigan.

According to Conner most of her students have entrepreneurial plans be-cause the fashion industry is currently growing here. In response to college ad-ministration’s claim that there are only two fash-ion designers in Michigan right now, Conner said there are several other titles students can obtain once they graduate.

“Whether LCC wants to come along for the ride or not, the fashion industry is going to grow in Michi-gan,” Conner concluded.

Horticulture classes are completely full this semes-ter and only one class was not full last semester ac-cording to Welch.

“The data they are work-ing with has a lot of errors in it,” Welch said. “They’re not reflecting the growth that has taken place espe-cially within the horticul-ture program.”

Faculty, students as well as local businesses within the landscape and horti-culture industries attended LCC Board of Trustees meeting March 21.

College leadership also questioned its viabil-ity in Michigan’s economy though local businesses

claim there is nothing to question.

Many students within the landscape program are planning on opening busi-nesses of their own.

Jeanine Neumann is two classes away from graduat-ing with her Horticulture Degree. She said she plans to work in a nursery when she graduates.

“One of the things I had read was the college was eliminating this because it does not amount to high paying jobs. It made me extremely angry and made the college look bad,” Neu-mann said.

“I wanted to do this be-cause it makes me happy. What is the most impor-tant thing? It’s not always money, but happiness.”

to address budgetary prob-lems.

Interior design and fash-ion tech. faculty addressed the administration’s asser-tion that Michigan’s econ-omy does not support the fashion industry.

Aviation faculty ex-plained to the board the need for pilots in coming years exceeds the amount of students eligible to grad-uate. Johnson said the pro-gram’s current enrollment will increase as a result.

Automotive students gathered around the Ad-ministration Building with signs to get their message across to the board.

Local businesses claimed the truck drivers gradu-ating from LCC’s truck driving program are more likely to be hired then other potential employees be-cause they are safer drivers

across the board.Shanblatt is currently

holding open forums on Fridays throughout the month of March.

On March 18, a group of faculty members met with the provost in the Gannon Building. During this time Shanblatt addressed con-cerns among faculty on a variety of issues.

Christine Conner, lead faculty of fashion tech., claimed that moving for-ward, collaboration and communication between faculty and college leader-ship are needed in order to make the best decision for the college.

Russel Earls, a student at LCC spoke to the board about all of the elimina-tions and its impact on his life here at LCC.

“Everyone should feel the pinch but no one should feel the cut,” Earls said to the applause of the board members.

NEWS2 March 28 - April 10, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

Cuts Fashion

Transfer

Horticulture

Union

Continued from page 1 Continued from page 1

Continued from page 1



NEWS3 March 28 - April 10, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

Preserving sparks of history at LCCNathan WilsonNews Editor

LCC hosted the sec-ond annual Iron and Steel Preservation Conference at West Campus March 7, 8 and 9 to educate oth-ers about historical metal-working processes.

The first day primarily consisted of lectures. March 8 and 9 featured hands-on work demonstrations.

Retired MSU professor Frank Hatfield explained the conference has attract-ed engineers, steel fabrica-tors, educators and histo-rians who are interested in restoring historic structures and bridges.

The conference included demonstrations of riveting, heat straightening, pack-rust removal and more. Students and participants were outfitted with goggles and protective equipment

before handling machinery during the sessions.

“Riveting disappeared from construction in about 1950,” Hatfield said. “When we wanted to re-store a bridge historically, keeping the historic integri-ty, no one could put in bolts or rivets. So we’re teaching contractors to do riveting.”

Jeff Pucillo, a producer and actor, and Russell Pflueger, a writer, also at-tended the conference to learn more about riveting.

They plan to produce a TV series about a rivet gang constructing the Eiffel Tower, and they are involv-ing LCC in the process.

“It’s just been an extraor-dinary experience with the quality of people that LCC has put together,” Pflueger said.

Experts have helped teach them about riveting and reviewed their 12-min-

ute short film for historical accuracy, Pflueger said.

“Only by being im-mersed in this community of people that LCC seems to be the epicenter of, do you get that kind of insight from people that can help make the kind of difference between being accurate and kind of close," Pucillo ex-plained. "And we’d like to be accurate.

“We’re finalizing a part-nership with a production company that has a very big director attached to it."

He said he hopes to start shooting the series in fall of 2011.

“It’s pretty rare when making something for film or television that you get to do something that’s never been done ever in the his-tory of film or television,” Pucillo said, “and this is one of those things. This story has simply not been told.”


LCC hosted the 27th Regional Science Olym-piad, a competition fea-turing robots, fossils, ve-hicles and tests on main campus March 19.

A total of 12 middle schools, 13 high schools and two alternative teams tested their knowl-edge and scientific skills in competition for prizes.

Among the spectator sports was Sumo Bots, a contest between ro-bots developed by stu-dents. During the match, two teams attempted to knock one another's ro-bots off a platform.

Representing Holt High School, Coach Heather Peterson said, “Holt has been fortunate enough to be in every Science Olympiad event there has ever been in the state of Michigan … We’re entered in every event, hoping to do well, (and) having fun.”

Storm the Castle tested students' knowledge of physics, during which they used hand-crafted launch devices in the Gan-non Building Gym. The

trebuchets launched rack-et balls into a target box.

Tim Periare of LCC said, “It’s a great thing to allow the community to get involved and bring a lot of different schools together for science-re-lated activities.”

Teams also answered questions about prehis-toric life and examined fossil specimens at the

scientific event.In Division B, Has-

lett Middle School was awarded first place. Dansville Middle School took second and Holt Junior High School took third. In Division C, St. Johns High School won first place, Holt High School earned second and Haslett High School was awarded third.


Women attended a free self-defense class at the Gannon Building Gym March 12.

LCC Police Officer Rod-ney Bahl, LCC dispatcher Kristy Rogers and LeAnn LaFay from Physical Plant

instructed the women on self-defense techniques to prevent victimization.

“We thought it would be useful to bring the class to our staff, students and their families to help build confidence in wom-en,” Bahl said, “(and) to also provide them with many tools they can use if

they’re ever in a situation where they need to de-fend themselves, whether it’s rape, abduction or just an assault.”

Availability for the class fluctuates depending on the instructors, and a year has passed since LCC last offered this class.

The class is intended

predominantly for adults, but Bahl said women can bring their children to learn self-defense.

“We teach ways to avoid the situations … We talk about ways to eliminate the opportunity to reduce your own chances of vic-timization,” Bahl said.

Students and adults

practiced defensive stanc-es, strikes and blocks dur-ing the class. Bahl also demonstrated a power-ful strike called a “power fist,” in which one strikes the radial nerve or medi-an nerve on the forearm.

Rogers and Lafay circu-lated among the class with punching pads while the

women practiced striking.“If you believe you’re

going to survive no mat-ter what, you’re not going to quit,” Bahl said. “Re-gardless of your physical skills (or) your skill level for self-defense, (if) your mindset is ‘I will survive anything’ ... you’ll make it.”

Photo by Michael Caterina

Riveting technique: LCC Welding Instructor Jeff Haines, right, shows a student how to remove a rivet during the third day of the second annual Iron and Steel Preservation Con-ference March 9 at West Campus.

Students explore science

Photo by Michael CaterinaScience in motion: Dansville seventh grader Jacob Kad-luboski, left, watches as his teammate Eric Moser pres-surizes the bottle rocket they constructed out of two-liter bottles at the Science Olympiad March 19 at LCC.

Women learn self-defense techniques in free class

March 28 - April 10, 2011www.lcc.edu/lookout

NEWS4

IN BRIEFNEWS

— Infallible Rhetoric —

Representative Peter King called a congressio-nal hearing on March 10 to discuss the growing threat of radicalization of Ameri-can Muslims.

King claims there is not enough cooperation from Muslims in fighting terror-ism and there is a rampant amount of radicalization in mosques.

How many mosques has King been to and lis-tened to an imam preach hate? Probably zero.

According to ABC World News, most terror-ists charged in America are radicalized online, overseas or in prison. Only three of the 49 terror-ist suspects arrested in the past two years in America may have been influenced by imams.

I consider homegrown terrorism to be a serious threat, but I think the tone of the hearing was un-fair and concealed a deep rooted fear and misunder-standing of Muslims.

I am in no way sug-

gesting that terrorism is insignificant — I believe it should be pursued relent-lessly and eradicated.

But I have no reason to believe American Mus-lims are conspiring against the FBI and police and se-cretly brainwashing youth in mosques.

I believe the majority of Muslims are opposed to jihadist ideology and will help law enforcement.

The solution to home-grown terror isn’t political theater where lawmakers criticize the Muslim com-munity and spread dis-trust.

If America is serious about preventing terror,

the federal government should strengthen rela-tions with the Middle East and recruit countries to seize terror groups hiding overseas.

Sources should also continue to investigate websites online that are recruiting anti-America extremists.

Furthermore, people can reach out to the Mus-lim community in Ameri-ca and build positive rela-tions.

King could have held a hearing examining the threat of terror, in which he also praised the efforts of Muslims who have helped.

Let me be clear: We should differentiate be-tween Islam and the radi-cal jihadist ideology. Islam does not support terror.

This hearing may alien-ate the Muslim commu-nity. Worse, it may be used by terrorist groups to de-pict an America hostile to Muslims, and only inspire more hatred.

Targeting Muslims


LCC’s American Market-ing Association (AMA) pre-sented an evening of music and art during the MI Fu-ture Art: A Powerful Tool for Peace at the Black Box Theatre GB 168 March 21.

The event is part of Art-ists as Peacemakers, an ef-fort by artists to bring peace to the world through their art, which was displayed in the Gannon Building lobby March 13 to 19.

Among the audience at MI Future Art was Valentin Pulido, an emerging artist involved in the Art Council of Greater Lansing. He has a series of photos and an acrylic painting on display in the hall near GB 152.

“My pieces are all about childhood and memories because I was trying to re-late something with the peace theme,” Pulido ex-plained.

During the art presenta-tion, Corey Scheffler pro-vided vocals and guitar with George Harrison’s “Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth).”

While Scheffler per-formed, Nicole Johnson painted using a Chinese watercolor technique she learned at LCC.

“I just wanted to be a part of this and support Jennifer (Hennings) because I do think it’s important for us to celebrate peace in this crazy

world,” she said.Hennings, the American

Marketing representative, said, “I felt it was really important to do what we could to market artists.”

AMA Vice President Dusty Price announced the winners of the exhibit, whose art was displayed on stage.

Andrea Burg won first place with her painting “Watching You” and was awarded a gift certificate of $100 for art supplies.

Other students recog-nized for their excellence in art include Kimberly Skor-

na, Joo Yeon Yi, Michael To-manica, Jamie Rogers and Kook Hun Lee.

After the audience came on stage to view the win-ning pieces, LCC student Nick Pounder played the piano for the audience. He described his passion for music and how it enriched his life even while listening to it during work.

“Peace doesn’t stop here over one day,” Price said. “You want to keep it going, do your art, do your music and pass along peace to the next person.”

Promoting peace through art

Beginning summer semester 2011, new students are required to attend orientation before registering for classes.

This requirement applies to stu-dents seeking associate degrees, transfer programs or certificates of achievement.

Orientation helps provide students with information as they begin their transition to LCC. Orientation is free and offered online and in person.

During the 2011 summer semester, online orientation begins Friday, April 1.

Sign-up for in person sessions for the upcoming summer and fall semes-ter begins April 1. The deadline for orientation is May 31.

During the 2011 fall semester, on-line orientation begins May 1. The ori-entation deadline is Aug. 16.

For more information, visit lcc.edu/orientation.

FastTrac New Venture is a course that will meet once each week for 10 weeks, providing business information for busi-ness entrepreneurs. Currently scheduled sessions of FastTrac New Venture in Re-gion 8 are March 4 to 13 from 8 to 11:30 a.m. at the MI-SBTDC Region 8 Office.

For more information about registration, call 517-483-1921.

College implementsmandatory orientation

Course for entrepreneurs set

Photo by Michael CaterinaTranquil performance: Corey Scheffler strums a song while Jennifer Hennings paints a Chinese watercolor during the Artists for Peace opening at the Black Box Theatre March 21.

Police officer helps save life

Officer James Terrill, a graduate of LCC’s Police Academy, helped save a woman’s life March 3 after she jumped into the Grand River. Terril threw a rope bag to the woman but she did not respond.

Lansing Police Sgt. Guy Pace swam toward the woman and when he took hold of her, Terrill began to pull them both to shore. When they were close enough, Terrill jumped into the river to pull the victim up onto the river bank. The victim was transported to the hos-pital after her rescue.

Check out The Lookout online @ issuu.com/lcclookout

Kaitlin LutzAssociate Editor

Jerome Vierling of Soundsgood Entertain-ment is partnering with Journey Twentyone, a Holt youth group, to bring a hip-hop concert event to Holt High School Friday, April 22.

Opening the concert for Vierling are DC the General and Holt High School teacher and fresh-man football coach Robert Dozier, aka KnowDoz.

“You should expect a packed-out venue with awesome music,” Journey Twentyone Youth Pastor Ben Schartow said.

There will be a live band on stage with Vierling and also some beat boxing.

The show will be a mul-timedia experience.

“It’ll have some sweet lights and videos follow-ing the whole event,” Schartow said. “It should be something like you’ve never seen before.”

The doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the show will be-gin at 7.

The first 300 students who come in the doors will receive a free copy of Vierling’s CD, “Second Coming.” Students will also have a chance to win

a $200 Visa Card.Journey Twentyone’s

goal in having this concert is to reach out to students in the area and to let them know “there are people here who care,” Chris Neal, a Journey Twentyo-ne leader, said.

“It’s to build that com-munity relationship … and offer alternatives for students other than go-ing out and partying ev-ery weekend, or sitting at home watching TV.”

Journey Twentyone is a youth group that is there

for students, in a positive way.

“We want to convey that this is a hip-hop/rap concert with a different focus.” Schartow said. “We’re going to hope-fully help provide some answers to life’s questions and help give comfort in hard times.”

For more information about Journey Twentyone check out http://www.jour-ney21.org/ and for informa-tion about Soundsgood En-tertainment check out http://soundsgoodrecords.com/.


5 FEATURES

Aikido is a form of martial arts that focuses more on personal growth through mental discipline and physical training and less on conflict and physi-cal strength.

“It’s about understand-ing that no fighting is better than fighting,” said Jerome Helton, instructor of Aikido Club. Helton has been the instructor at LCC for the past 30 years.

Helton started instructing Aikido Club 30 years ago when he became a physi-cal education professor for LCC. Prior to Helton’s be-ginning his career at LCC, he already had 15 years of

experience in the art of Ai-kido.

Aikido is a form of Japa-nese Buddha that is a modern practice by people of all ages.

According to VanOebern, many parents have inquired about enrolling their chil-dren in Aikido Club. How-ever, due to the minimum one course requirement to join Aikido, children and anyone else who is not en-rolled at LCC are unable to join the club.

Interested and qualified participates can join the club at any time throughout the year by talking to either VanOebern or Helton dur-ing a scheduled club time.

Aikido meets every Tues-day and Thursday in The

Gannon Building, room 252 on LCC’s main campus

Graphic courtesy of Chris Neal

Packed-out venue expected for local artist Vierling in Holt

Martial arts at LCC promotes safety

In addition to many popular forms of martial arts, Aikido Club offered at LCC

gives a different approach to martial arts.“Karate and Judo are good arts but some

people are not competitive or (do not) have the aggression,” said Robert VanOebern, adviser of the club.

from 10 to 11 a.m.“We come in twice a week

and train. It gives an oppor-tunity for people in the club to move beyond the basic classes offered through LCC, by using the club as a first step,” VanOebern said.

In years past the Aikido Club had about a dozen members. This year due to students who have trans-ferred to other colleges the number of club mem-bers have dropped to 3 or 4 members, according to VanOebern.

A fee of $25 is collected per month from each Ai-kido member. The member-ship fee is to help offset the cost of the instructor’s ex-penses to park at LCC and cover the cost of his trans-portation.

“Wearing a T-shirt and sweats are fine,” VanOe-bern said. “There is no obli-gation to get a uniform un-less you are sure you want to join the club. People are welcome to visit and check out what we do before they join.”

Martial arts: Dan Ewart performs a wrist-lock technique on Lisa Neumann during a meeting of LCC’s Aikido Club. The Aikido Club meets Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10 to 11 a.m. in the Gannon Building room 252.

Photo by Courtney Baker

Shauna StockenStaff Writer

I hate to say it, but I think we all saw this coming. Michigan State men’s basketball was inconsistent all year long and a loss in the first round to UCLA was a very fit-ting end to a season most accurately de-scribed as lifeless.

MSU barely made the NCAA tournament this year, posting a regular season record of 19-15 on its way to claiming the “10 seed” in the Southwest Di-vision of the national tournament bracket. U of M, meanwhile, held an eight seed in its di-vision. That’s right, Michigan basketball was better than State basketball this year.

In what proved to be the last game of his ca-reer as a Spartan, Kalin Lucas scored no points in the first half against UCLA.

He might as well have just watched the game from the bench. Oh, and I do not feel like hearing excuses about his poor little ankle anymore. And don’t even get me started on that Sum-mers kid, talk about a flop.

Looking toward the future, Michigan State

has a few things to feel pretty good about. Ju-nior Draymond Green is fantastic. If he can keep his mouth shut and stay out of foul trouble, he could be a contender for player of the year next year.

Also, I don’t think enough can be said about freshman guard Keith Appling. That kid has got heart. If you don’t believe me, just talk to his coach. Tom Izzo will be just fine and the Spartans will be back, I’m sure of it.

Meanwhile, this en-tire tournament has been incredibly fun to watch. How about Vir-ginia Commonwealth making the sweet 16? And who had Moore-head State beating Louisville in the first round?

Duke escaped with a one-point victory over Michigan in the third

round. Watching that made up for seeing Sparty fall short, sort of.

Pittsburgh, Syracuse and St. Johns all lost in the early rounds. I think it is fair to say the Big East has been weeded out.

My prediction: UCo-nn wins it all. While I understand the senior leadership that Duke possesses and am aware of the talent and momentum of the Ohio State Buckeyes, UConn presents virtually no flaws as we head to the end of the tournament. I really think they have what it takes.

We watch the tour-nament because it is so unpredictable. Every-one has an opinion and nobody is correct.

One thing that can be said in 100 percent certainty is that the team that cuts down the nets, as national champion, deserves it. You have to acknowl-edge how hard it is to win this tournament, and watching each team try to get to that championship game is … well … just too much darn fun.

March wouldn’t be the same without the madness.


SPORTS6

— A New York state of mind —March madness meltdown


The men’s and wom-en’s cross-country Stars were awarded an Academic All-Amer-ican status for their excellent overall grade point averages.

The National Junior College Athletic As-sociation (NJCAA) awarded the women’s team for its 3.76 over-all GPA and awarded the men’s team for its overall GPA of 3.72.

LCC is the third larg-est community college in the state of Michi-gan with more than 30,000 students in at-tendance each year.

Recipients for the award from the NJCAA must meet a qualifica-tion that includes pass-ing 45 credits or more, within three semesters with a 3.6 or better cu-mulative GPA.

“We have mandatory studying and tutoring sessions,” said Kim-berley Killips, a for-

mer Holt High School cross-country runner and second year LCC cross-country team member.

Killips and team-mate Lyndsey Prether, a graduate of Has-lett High School, are exempted, however, from partaking in the mandatory academic help due to their 4.0 GPAs.

Killips’ and Prether’s GPAs contributed to the high achievement for the women’s over-all GPA.

Killips said she was motivated to join the LCC team for a multi-tude of reasons.

“Both of my other sisters ran (at LCC); plus, two free years of college is pretty good. I’d run anyway so might as well get paid to do it,” said Killips.

The men’s and wom-en’s cross-country teams are led by Head Coach Chuck Block and Assistant Coach Jim Robinson.

Killips said it takes a level of skill to manage a college work load while being a part of college athletics.

Along with Killips and Prether, the NJ-CAA gave GPA awards to other LCC runners, including: Kaylin Be-lair, a graduate of Mason County High School; and Paige Terbush and Alexis Roe, both of whom are graduates of Caro High School.

Honorable mention for the men’s team went to Ryan Konen, a graduate of Grand Ledge High School, who earned a GPA of 3.72.

Other NJCAA award winners include: An-drew Dike, a gradu-ate of Okemos High School; Josh Perkins, from Maple Valley High School; Wes Greene, a graduate of Haslett High School; and Kevin Barry, a graduate of Waverly High School.

Cross-country: Speed and smarts earn awards

Dominick MastrangeloSports Editor

LCC officially can-celled its 2011 softball season March 14.

In a statement issued by LCC’s media depart-ment March 21, Athletic Director Scott Latham ex-plained the reason for the cancellation.

“Based upon the re-sponses that we have re-ceived from the players, there is an insufficient level of support to have a team this spring,” Latham said in the statement.

Latham added LCC intends to field a team for the 2011-12 school year and beyond and is committed to the softball program.

“I’m still going to be playing ball over the summer,” Kasandra Gra-ham, an LCC freshman infielder, said. “I’m not going to let something as upsetting as this stop me from doing what I love to do … play softball.”

Graham was one of about 13 past and present players who attended an unofficial team workout on March 23 with former LCC Head Softball Coach Bob Every.

“This workout is very therapeutic for the girls,”

Every said. “They have been through a lot and I am still here for them.”

Every was fired on Feb. 22 from both his position as head softball coach and his position as a full-time administrator at the college.

Every was placed on leave after allegations of violation of the NJCAA code of conduct were brought forth to the Ath-letic Department. Every denies many of the al-

legation and told The Lookout March 22 he had filed a grievance with his union representative.

“We’ll take it to civil court if we have to,” Ev-ery said at the workout. “I’m going to do what-ever it takes to clear my name. No one deserves to be treated the way I’ve been treated.”

LCC women’s softball was ranked third in the nation entering the 2011 season.

Softball season canceled; fired Every files grievance

Photo by Dominick MastrangeloCoach at heart: Former softball head coach Bob Every talks with an employee at the Lansing Indoor Sports Arena March 23 during an unofficial team workout.

A+ Season: The LCC women’s (top) and men’s cross-country teams display their MCCAA championship plaques. Both were awarded Academic All-American from the NJCAA with team GPAs over 3.7.

File photos by Michael Caterina


SPORTS7


The LCC men’s bas-ketball team entered the NJCAA Region XII Tour-nament semifinals at An-cilla College on March 4 with high hopes, and even greater expectations.

After a season full of controversy, last-second victories and undying commitment, the Stars had every reason to be-lieve they could take home a regional cham-pionship.

“I think we’re in a good place,” sophomore guard and team leading-scorer Alvino Ashley said as he waited for the bus to Ancil-la with the rest of his team-mates. “We’re not trying

to think too much about anything. We just want to go out there and do what we do.”

After an 85-74 victory over Kellogg Community College in the first round, the Stars were pitted against rival Jackson Com-munity College on March 4. LCC kept its momentum and knocked Jackson out of the tournament with a 93-80 victory.

Guard Michael Martin — who averaged just over 19 points per game dur-ing the regular season — continued his dominance, scoring 21 points and mak-ing an incredible 17 of 18 free-throws. Martin was fouled nine times in the game.

“They were all over me,”

Martin said as he described his feelings at halftime. “I guess I’ll just have to keep knocking (the free throws) down.”

After their victory in the semifinals, the Stars played the next afternoon (March 5) in the Region XII Cham-pionship Game against the Kalamazoo Valley Cou-gars.

The Stars’ season end-ed as LCC fell to KVCC 88-59. The Stars’ three leading scorers – Ashley, Colin Ward and Mar-tin combined for only 19 points in the defeat.

“It’s really unfortunate we came this far and had to come up short,” Ward said. “Nothing, not even this bad a loss, can take away from the awesome season we had.”

The Stars had a final record of 14-14 which in-cludedeight forfeit-loss games during the first two months of the season.

The Stars were forced to forfeit those games due to the participation of ineli-gible student athletes.

In response to the im-mense adversity, LCC Head Coach Mike Ingram told The Lookout he was as proud of this year’s team as he was of “any team he’s ever coached.”


The LCC men’s baseball team began its season on March 5 with a road game at Rappahannock Com-munity College in Virginia.

Freshman pitcher Eric Davis pitched two in-nings, surrendering six hits and three earned runs as LCC defeated RCC 14-3. Sophomore Nick Kis-sane drove in five runs, picking up where he left off last season. Kissane had a batting average of .321 in 2010.

The Stars traveled to Mott Community College next on March 19. Kiss-ane was at it again, driv-ing in three more runs to increase his total to eight on the season, as LCC lost 8-5.

“We’ve been doing al-right,” freshman Dylan Betcher said at a practice on March 23. “It’s way too early to tell how the sea-son is really going to go.”

The baseball team has been practicing at the Lan-sing Indoor Sports Arena due to inclement weather for the past two months.

Once the weather becomes warmer, the team will move practice to West-side Park in Lansing. This location will also serve as LCC’s home field.

The baseball team was scheduled to play its first home game on April 7 ver-sus Mott before playing host to Jackson on April 9.

“Once we start playing

some ball games at home, we’ll be able to settle in,” Head Coach Ed Pow-ers said. “I have a feeling we’re going to do really well once the weather gets

nicer.” Powers missed much

of the 2010 season due to illness but said he feels great and “looks forward to getting back into the

full swing of things.” “It’s awesome to have

coach back,” Kissane said. “It’s going to be an awesome year, I just know it.”

Baseball season underway with a win

Cagers end season withtournament finals loss

File photos by Michael CaterinaTo second: An LCC catcher winds up to throw to second base during a 2010 season game at Westside Park in Lansing.

Returning heat: Current sophomore Nick Kissane throws to first during a 2010 game.

Lifting drug free at LCC

Strong showing: Judges and spotters look on as Jason Botbyl, above, struggles with the bench press event of the Ameri-can Drug Free Powerlifting Federation National Single lift competition in Gan-non Gymnasium March 5. Participants competed in a variety of categories ranging from bench press to squatting. At left, Antonio Sora presses 170 pounds in the 100 kilogram and over division.

Playoff run: Michael Martin

struggles for posession dur-

ing the Stars last home

game Feb. 23. LCC defeated Kellogg CC in the first round of the playoffs but lost 88-59 to Kalamazoo

Valley in the finals.

Photo by Michael Caterina

Photos by Courtney Baker


8


9 ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

Lee RumlerA&E Editor

The LCC fourth se-mester Studio class’ performance of the Da-vid Edgar play Pente-cost premiered March 25, 26 and 27, and it is coming back to Dart Auditorium Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2, at 8 p.m.

According to director Chad Badgero, Pente-cost revolves around a mysterious painting, located in a church in an unnamed European town.

“They find a fresco on the wall, and they are unsure of its provi-

dence,” he said. “If it’s what they think it is, it will completely revo-lutionize the history of art.”

The mural in ques-tion brings about a great deal of controver-sy and conflict, includ-ing a hostage situation that calls not only the art but also the people’s lives into consideration.

“The first half is very much about art, art history and how we preserve pieces in our society,” Badgero said, “and the second half sort of revolves around culture and how we preserve and treat other cultures in our society.”

The title isn’t explic-itly referenced in the play, but its metaphori-cal undertones are felt

throughout.“In the Christian reli-

gion, (Pentecost) is large-ly seen as the miracle or

a sort of enlightenment that people are waiting for,” Badgero said.

“In the play ... it plays out in how this painting might be what people are waiting for or some kind of mes-sage or savior because of what it can do for their culture,” he said. “From the refugees’ standpoint ... there is a sense of waiting for something to come and save them.”

The painting on stage is actually an original, hand-painted fresco by scene painter Kim Len-nox.

“(Pentecost is) a huge challenge, probably

one of the most diffi-cult shows I’ve directed at LCC, both as a direc-tor and also, I think, for the students,” Badgero said.

“People are speak-ing completely differ-ent languages, and they have to do that authen-tically, and that is a huge, huge challenge,” Badgero said. “I have been so impressed with how the students and the actors in the show have tackled that chal-lenge.”

Tickets are $5 at the door for faculty, staff, alumni and students, and $10 for the general public.


LCC’s Music Scenes class, MUSC 233, is giving its annual per-formance, this year ti-tled Sidewalk Fairytales, Friday and Saturday, April 8 and 9 at 8 p.m. and Sunday, April 10 at 3 p.m. in Dart Audi-torium.

Every year since 2004, the Music Scenes class performs a mu-sical revue, a collec-tion of songs compiled by Director Janine Noveske Smith un-der a common theme. But this is no ordinary choir concert.

“It goes from one song to another, to another, and as it evolves, it tells a sto-ry,” Noveske said.

The coolest part about the show is that the class creates it themselves, from scratch, each year.

“What I do is I choose a topic, and I spend about nine months ... brainstorming ... of possible titles and pos-sible songs, and then it all kind of ties in to-gether,” Noveske said.

“After the auditions, I knew the personali-ties and the voices I had to work with, and then that helped me start whittling down the songs,” she said. “And then you try to figure out a way to make it all make sense, so that you’re not going from one random song to an-other song.”

Without a script,

the cast is assigned to create their own roles and blocking that fa-cilitate the story the music tells. The only spoken word is writ-ten into the songs themselves.

“The cast, the stu-dents, they’re all just as integral a part as I am in making this show happen,” Noveske said.

This year’s theme is “a combination of reality and what you wish,”she said.

Audiences can ex-pect some familiar songs, from “Some-where over the Rain-bow” to “Dream on,” by Aerosmith.

“We’ve got a five piece band, 19 people singing, lights, audio, costumes,” Noveske said. “Very cool.”

According to Noves-ke, out of the 19 cast members, 16 are either current or former LCC Performing Arts ma-jors.

Former perform-ing arts major Racheal Raymer has been in the show all eight years, and she’s not alone. About half of the cast is coming back from last year.

The show is techni-cally free, but $10 do-nations will be accept-ed at the door.

Art-inspired art performs at Dart

Original musical comes to campus

Photo by Courtney BakerSpring performance: Leo (Matt Land), from left, Ga-briella (Becky Owens) and Oliver (Scott Crandall) are taken at gunpoint by Nico (Tony Nelson), in LCC’s pro-duction of Pentecost by David Edgar.

Photo courtesy of Theatre Department


Punks like me re-joiced March 15 as Rise Against released its newest CD titled “End-game.” Let me warn you right now, this review sounds rather radical.

For anyone out of tune with punk music, this probably isn’t the album with which to jump into the scene. Although the album’s intent is in fact quite positive, the album highlights the massive disparities in justice found in America.

For someone who isn’t familiar with the ethical logic behind punk music, the state-ments may seem a lit-

tle extreme, especially the album’s thesis – I mean, that’s even ex-treme for me.

But anyone can enjoy the album after they accept certain realities of the world; although accepting them will lead people to label that person as “radi-cal,” i.e. dismissible.

The primary truth, which is highlighted in “Disparity by De-sign” is that America has a social caste sys-tem where money determines power. Although becoming “something” from “nothing” is theoreti-cally possible within the system, it’s almost unfeasibly difficult.

Another truth, high-lighted in “Survivor’s

Guilt,” is that the wars, though fought by the weak, have nothing to do with them.

The line, “And I fought with courage to preserve / Not my way

of life but yours,” says it all.

If all this sounds cra-zy, radical and untrue, that’s because capital-ism was built to give the illusion of equality.

The reality, as lead singer Tim McIlrath-wrote, is “The fast lanes they (the rich) rode / In which access depends / On who you know / Or where you came from.”

However, these points are just a pre-lude to the main point of the album: That the world is collapsing around us, and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

Sound depressing? Strangely enough, that’s not the intent.

Rise Against isn’t trying to fill listeners with despair over the collapse of the great human civilization; in-stead, the members try to find hope in what may come.

In the lyrics of the fi-nal track, “Endgame,” McIlrath paints a por-trait of a world better than the one we live in: “She watched the world crumble away / ‘Is this the end of yes-terday?’ / ‘Lord, I hope so,’ is all he said.”

This leads listeners to wonder, would nothing be better than this?

Punks, anarchists and revolutionaries will love this album. Supporters of the cur-rent system will hate it.

To them I would challenge: “Think of the homeless. Think of the rich. How differ-ent are they from each other? How different are they from you?

“Does everyone tru-ly deserve their lot?”


A&E10


When I first saw the advertisements for Rift, I became very excited. Not only was a new mmorpg entering the arena, but it looked freaking awesome – and it was calling out World of Warcraft.

It was one of the ballsi-est moves I’ve ever seen in the gaming industry.

So now that Rift has been released and seen a massive influx of players, the question has become:

Will Rift kill WoW?Who knows? And

quite frankly, who cares?The first thing I want to

say about Rift is that it’s still a traditional mmorpg that follows the Everquest formula, which means that if you despise kill-ing X number of identical enemies for Y arbitrary reason so you can get Z new equipment (rise and repeat), you won’t like the game.

However, Rift steps outside the Everquest for-mula too.

One of the main appeals of Rift is obviously the Rifts. Rifts are instanced gameplay opportunities that open up all over the game. They’re like mini-raids anyone can walk into and contribute to.

Within each Rift, play-ers join large public groups that fight invad-ing forces from other planes. Rifts open up everywhere to break the monotonous grind to level 50, which is fun but also kind of annoying.

The developers have also incorporated large zone events where an invading force tries to take over a zone. Every-body has to join a group, fight to close the rifts and repel the invaders. Seri-ously, it’s not a choice – if you wander alone, you will die.

(Enemies are a lot more powerful in Rift than in many other mmorpgs, especially in the early levels. Death happens a lot.)

Probably the coolest aspect of Rift is the “As-

cended Soul System,” which is a fancy way of saying class system. No longer are players bound to the traditional, con-stricting classes of old.

Characters each have a primary class – warrior, thief, cleric, or mage. At any time, a character has three (of eight) sub-class-es that they pick specific skills from.

These sub-classes sometimes don’t even re-semble the primary class. Want to play a thief-tank? Go ahead. How about a warrior that slings spells? They have that too.

But that’s not all. At level 13, characters can complete quests to gain the five sub-classes they didn’t choose at character creation. Then players can swap between combina-tions of sub-classes any time they’re out of combat.

All of this means no one is ever stuck in one role.

Rift is a huge, com-plicated and awesome game. If you’re looking for a new, fun mmorpg, you won’t be disappoint-ed.

However, if you were hoping for a game that would completely rede-fine mmorpgs for years to come, Rift isn’t your game.

Rift sets out to dethrone WoW

Photo courtesy of wikipeda.org

Photo courtesy americannoise.com

Rise Against imagines end of society

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

King Crossword


A&E11

In the Kitchen withChef Nick

Fried Plantains with Steak Sauce

and Honey Bourbon Sauce Arts & Entertainment

IN BRIEF

My name is Lee Rumler. I received a 32 on the ACT and had a 3.9 GPA in high school. I have an IQ over 140.

During my college search, I was honored with interviews from Princeton and MIT. With sufficient effort,

I excel at everything I attempt except for-eign language and re-membering names.

Today, I pay full tu-ition to LCC.

I don’t say this to brag or complain, but to prelude my discus-sion on politics.

Yes, politics. Last year I swore to my-self that I would avoid politics whenever I can because it’s bad for my health and stress levels. However, I’m side-stepping my usu-al series this column because of the recent, harsh political atmo-sphere down the street and around the coun-try.

But before I get into that, I want to talk about politics’ absur-dity in general.

The game of politics is a soap opera. I com-pare the two often, but most people I talk to overlook the ridicu-lous similarities be-tween them.

In every soap opera, everyone has an agen-da. Everyone wants something, but nobody is willing to compro-

mise or help anyone else out.

In politics, everyone has an agenda. The Re-publicans want money, power and justice. The Democrats want ev-eryone to have money, power and justice.

The NRA wants chil-dren to own handguns, and PETA wants every-one to mate with goats.

Both soap operas and politics are filled with distrust and betrayal. Someone always goes behind someone else’s back to further their own gains.

Neither ever actu-ally move anywhere. Issues that seem to be settled in one episode are completely undone by a new, shady char-acter whose interests are suspect at best.

The new characters and politicians prom-ise their absolute per-fection – they promise that everything they do will make every-thing better (usually that vaguely) – but then either their true intentions come out

or they just weren’t the people we thought they were.

I could go on, but I don’t like to think of the implications.

We are the audience to this soap opera. We know what’s going to happen three episodes in advance. We know what’s right. We know what’s wrong.

People deserve what they work for, not what they’re born into.

Without a system to ensure balanced pow-er, those with money will repress those without it. No matter how much they de-serve it, they will be denied what they’ve worked for.

This is why we need unions.

I’m not saying it’s a good system, but it’s better than nothing.

Unregulated capital-ism will descend into a system of masters and slaves, which leads to an economic collapse (see Waddill Catchings and William Trufant Foster’s theory behind the Great Depression, a simple theory that influenced John May-nard Keynes’ revolu-tionary theory of mac-roeconomics).

Honestly, I hope we can have a revolution soon. I’m getting tired of Capitol Hill. A soap opera shouldn’t run our country.

Fried Plantains:3-5 large ripe plantains1/2 cup vegetable oil.

Cut plantains at an angle and fry each side in the oil until golden brown.

Steak Sauce:1/4 cup seedless raisins8 ounces can tomato sauce1 cup water3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 tbsp brown sugar1 tbsp apple cider vinegar1 tsp salt1/2 tsp black pepper

Soak raisins until plump. Drain and put into blender. Add remaining ingredients. Mix well and enjoy.

Honey Bourbon Sauce:3/4 cup Ketchup1/3 cup honey 1/4 cup vegetable oil1/4 cup bourbon 2 tbsp cider vinegar 2 tbsp Dijon-style mustard

Mix all ingredients together and serve.

The Lisa Loomer play Distracted is coming to the Peppermint Creek Theatre Company in Old Town. The play follows the tribulations of Jesse, a 9-year-old boy whom everyone seems to see a problem in. The play premiered March 24 and is finishing its performance Thursday through Saturday, March 31 to April 2. The shows start at 8 p.m. each day. Cost is $15 for general admission, $10 for students and seniors (55-plus). Tickets can be pur-chased by phone at 517-927-3016 or online at http://www.peppermintcreek.org/store/.

Distracted in Old Town

Peace Now! stays at LCC

Dart holds Pentecost

The Peace Now! exhibit opened March 21 at LCC and it is staying until April 2. Student and staff pieces are in the first floor display cases in the Gannon Building, near room 145. Art is located in the Dart Audi-torium second floor display cases.

Chad Badgero is directing Pente-cost at Dart Auditorium. The play kicked off March 25 through 27, and continues Friday and Saturday, April 1 and 2 at 8 p.m. Tickets are $5 for faculty, staff, alumni and stu-dents. They are $10 for the general public. See page 9 for more details.

The Music Scenes class, MUSC 233, is performing a musical revue at Dart Auditorium April 8, 9 and 10. Named Sidewalk Fairytales, the original re-vue was arranged by director Janine Smith under the common theme of a “mix of everyday reality and what we wish for.” According to the LCC website, $10 donations will be ac-cepted at the door. See page 9 for more details.

LCC creates musical revue

New characters, old show—Shouting a Nuance—

Classified AdvertisingAPARTMENT FOR RENT295 Arbor Glen Drive, East Lansing. Five miles from downtown LCC campus. Two bedrooms, $880 per month. Price includes air conditioning, dishwasher, parking, washer, dryer and water. Smoking and pets allowed. Contact Megan at 517-351-5353.

WANTEDBaseball cards from 1970 or before. Will pay cash for cards I need, or for large lots. Particularly need Detroit Tigers in excellent shape. Call 517-483-1291.

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. Next issue will be published Monday, April 11. Deadline is April 6 at noon. Call 483-1295 to place an ad.

PINBALL MACHINEGame Plan 1979 “Sharp-shooter” solid state game. Old western theme. Very fast and fun. Four-player machine. $525. Call 517-589-5273 and leave a message.


FEATURES12

“We kept it as similar as a regu-lar car so that anyone could get into it and drive it,” said Tricia Schnee-berger, one of the students in the Electric Conversion class.

Maynard L. Nitz Jr., another student in the class, added, “The only exception is that you don’t hear the noise from the en-gine.”

The Electric Conversion class meets every Tuesday and Thursday from 8:10 a.m. until noon. It is instruct-ed by Professor Mar-vin Argersinger.

“It was great, just

great. Everyone was eager in the class,” Argersinger said. “They liked getting their hands dirty,

they have ownership in the truck and they are proud. I think we should have more class-es like this one.”

What makes this vehi-cle so unique is its ability to run for approximately 40 miles without the use of any gasoline, Argers-inger said.

The alternative power vehicle runs on 24 batteries. Each bat-tery contains six volts, totaling 144

volts altogether.“We chose these batteries because

they last longer and have a better range,” said Shaun Cole, a member in the automotive field at LCC since 2004. Cole has been enrolled in courses such as automotive technol-ogy, advanced technology vehicles, and high performance courses.

According to Schneeberger, the idea to create an alternative fuel vehicle was presented to the auto-motive department by LCC, which gave the department the grant to complete the project.

“I own an S10, so it was really easy to rebuild it because I have had experience with my own car,” Cole

said.It took 14 weeks before the vehicle

was ready for show. Under the hood of the car are blue lights that illumi-nate the inside as a feature to pres-ent at car shows.

From Feb. 25 to 27, the Electric Conversion class took a trip to a car show called Autorama at the Cobo Center in Detroit. The class returned to LCC with a first place award in the Mild Mini Pickup cat-egory for its work on the alternative fuel vehicle.

“We built a lot of camaraderie being together so long and being so successful with the vehicle,” Schneeberger said.

From the ground up: the electric truck

Since the beginning of fall 2010 semester, automotive students in the Electric Conversion class at LCC’s West Campus have been designing and building an

alternative fuel vehicle.The vehicle looks no different externally from other 1998

Chevy S10 pickup trucks. However, the truck’s sound and power source couldn’t be more different.


The juice: The electric truck runs on 24 six-volt batteries, some of which are stored under the bed of the truck.

Fossil fuel free: The truck the Electric Conversion class made is on display in the lobby of LCC’s West Campus. The truck is powered by 24 six-volt batteries and is almost com-pletely silent when it is running.

Making it happen: Lance Drager, from left, Renee Johns, Maynard Nitz, Billy Sweet and Jeff Wait display the first-place Mild Mini Pickup award they won at the Detroit Autorama Feb. 27. Group members not pictured: Kelly Malkin, Tricia Schneeberger and Shawn Cole.

Photos by Michael Caterina

Under the hood: The truck runs with a modified engine to accommodate the electric power it receives.


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Desktop Blues

An Ordinary Life

Response to Nathan Hinkle’s Letter to the Editor on Page 15:

First off I would like to apolo-gize for offending you in my last column; it truly was not my inten-tion. If you would please read my statement completely, I stated that some people understand evolu-tion in that way, not all.

I looked at numerous websites, blogs and documentaries aimed at generating and proving a col-lectively sensible definition of cre-ationism. The disparity amongst its own proponents led me to be-lieve there is no definite definition of what is meant by creationism.

It must be noted there is cer-tainly not a definition up to the scientific standards implied by the term: scientific theory.

The messages portrayed showed their understanding of evolution varied immensely. They also led me to find distinct differences in their understanding of creation-ism.

With evolution the evidence is testable and provable. With cre-ationism, neither is true and there-fore it is not a scientific theory and therefore not science.

In my last column you contest-ed my assertion that the scientific theory of evolution was held in general consensus amongst sci-entists when you stated that 761

scientists recently claimed coun-ter-evolutionary theories be given more consideration.

You failed to consider there were 91,300 jobs held by biological scientists within the United States alone in 2008, none of whom were educators but researchers, accord-ing to bls.gov.

One can see that 761 scientists (of whom not all are specifically researchers, many working as ed-ucators) do not affect the general consensus by a long shot.

In your letter you stated that I did not spend enough time de-fending evolution. Here I will do so:

In all of the countless excava-tions performed by archeologists a creature has never been discov-ered to go against the grain of evo-lution. The first fossil remains are of extremely simple living organ-isms. The variety and complexity

increase exponentially the young-er a fossil is. This increase in com-plexity explains how macroevolu-tion is possible.

People have difficulty conceptu-alizing how long organisms have been evolving and therefore have a difficult time understanding how something so awesome could pos-sibly have happened; but it did.

It is true that scientists cannot recreate macroevolution at the mo-ment. However, if you look simply at the diversification with the dog species over the last 200 years, you can get a better idea of how evolu-tion works within our lifetime.

This is not an example of natu-ral selection but rather the results of humans mimicking the concept. The vast difference in size one dog breed can be from another is amazing, with selective breeding only becoming popular within the past 200 years or so.

You ended your letter by asking me when mud stopped being mud and started living.

That is the question, Nathan Hinkle, a question that can only be answered through science. The thing with science is, it is testable and therefore provable.

With science you only stand to gain more knowledge and a better understanding of life on earth and its origin.

Ever heard of the saying, “People are like tea bags – you don’t know how strong they are until you put them in hot water?”

Well, one thing you should know about me is that I love tea. I am a tea-aholic, espe-cially so during the colder seasons of the year. And the fact that tea can be used as a simile in life is pretty awe-some.

My love for tea started when I drank my first cup of chai tea. I was hooked. It is undoubtedly my favorite kind of tea, to say the least.

To me, Chai tea is the epit-ome of fall, which is also my favorite season (see the con-nection?) with its aromas of cinnamon, cardamom, gin-ger and clove.

Mmmm, I can just smell it now. It’s the kind of tea that just warms the soul and is definitely what I enjoy drink-ing during the autumn sea-son.

Another excellent brew of tea is Darjeeling, which always brings to mind the lyrics to a song by Vampire Weekend, “English Breakfast tastes like Darjeeling,” which I have not actually tested. I

just like the song. Darjeeling tea is a “light

,golden black tea from the foothills of the Himalayas,” as written on the box of Twin-ings Tea. They make it sound so intriguing.

In the spring and summer I like to enjoy lighter teas, like pomegranate green tea or passion tea and lemonade mixed together – delicious.

I do have to say that cold tea, although it is good in the summer, just isn’t the same and definitely doesn’t warm you up on a cold winter’s day.

It is undoubtedly true that a hot cup of tea with a little bit of honey is the perfect com-panion to a good book, like Pride and Prejudice or even a cold day.

I think I am going to go drink some tea now.


OPINION14—Everyone should read George Orwell—— The Collected Klutz—

Evolution: Still scienceI’m in love with tea


OpiniOn15

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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

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In our own words | Staff Editorial

The downtown area of Lansing has been fraught with chaos as of late. Union workers and passersby gath-ered round as hundreds thumped the pavement March 14-18 to protest Snyder’s recent plan to cut educa-tion funding, dissolve unions and fire elected officials with the voter’s input.

Snyder has proposed to cut gov-ernment funding by $300 per stu-dent within the public school system. Needless to say, the cuts have been adding up over the past decade, and to cut $300 more per student will be devastating for students, faculty and the community.

We are questioning Snyder’s motiva-tion for these cuts. After all, it should be noted that if the governor can declare a financial emergency or hire a private company to declare a financial emer-gency, he will have the right to boot out elected officials and replace them with hired emergency managers.

The bill has passed, meaning Snyder has the right to fire local officials, break locality contracts, seize or sell city as-sets, eliminate services, school districts and even entire city governments with no input needed from taxpaying vot-ers.

Furthermore, we are upset about the tax increases for Michiganders pro-

posed by the governor. While taxes are needed for government services and, although it is painful, it is no secret that Michigan must raise its tax revenue to stay viable and further progress, the added taxes for Americans is not even-ly distributed.

While the gap between classes is growing at an alarming rate since the 1970s, it is unfortunate that Snyder wishes to increase the taxes on lower to middle class Americans while offer-ing cuts for businesses and increasing the higher class’ taxes at a much small-er percentage.

In the past we have felt that the Michigan business tax is something that should be looked at, as it is anoth-er expense for employers who are the job creators in our community. None-theless, if Snyder proposes cutting taxes for businesses, he should have heightened the taxes more severely for those who are in the higher tier of income than those for whom making ends meet is extremely difficult.

Educators and other public officials do not have the right to strike in Michi-gan. While we understand how ex-tremely frustrating it must be for them right now, we urge them to act with professional tact. We also urge Sny-der to reevaluate his anti-democratic policy.

For the Snyder, by the Snyder

Hello Sarah,I read your article “Evolution: not just a theory” and I wanted to make a comment. I don’t

see a contradiction between evolution and the existence of a creator, why not both at the same time?

I am sure that life today, even humans, does not look the same as life millions of years ago. No doubt that evolution happened over the course of years.

Another point is my understanding of what Darwin said: He did not say that we evolved from monkeys, but he said that humans and monkeys came from the same origin. Anyway I think life is a big question that we will always try to answer.

Thank you for your article, I liked it.Amr Samy Abdelmohsen

Letter to the Editor:I’ve known Bob Every for a long time. He’s a great man.Basically, everything he did was right. Hopefully, LCC will be able to survive

without him.Steve Gochberg

Dear Sarah Sanders, Editor in Chief:Your argument for evolution really disappointed me. It seemed to be more of an attack on

creationists than an argument on the facts of evolution. I am a believer in Creation, and you have offended me with statements regarding the intelligence of creationists, i.e. the comment about the derivation of men from monkeys and how we haven’t taken the time to learn anything about the theory. Well, as an uneducated creationist, I have found a few flaws in your argument.

1. “Scientific Theories must be held as true in general consensus amongst scientific experts.” According to you, the Theory of Evolution cannot be a real theory. In 2001 and updated in 2008, over 761 scientists from hundreds of universities signed a Dissent from Darwinism stating “We are skeptical of claims for the ability of random mutation and natural selection to account for the complexity of life. Careful examination of the evidence for Darwinian theory should be encouraged.” http://www.discovery.org/articleFiles/PDFs/100ScientistsAd.pdf This is a link to the document.

2. “They must be testable theories which can produce consistent reliable results….” Yet again, an unfounded claim. There are no experiments that have been done or could be done to reproduce evolution. Scientists have failed to create life from the base elements necessary for life to exist. There is also no proven way to monitor the transition of one species of animal to evolve into an entirely different being, i.e. a mouse to a bat. Microevolutional changes have been witnessed, but these are nowhere near the evidence needed to support macroevo-lution, which is the really the theory of evolution itself.

I hope that you consider my arguments and really think about what the outdated theory of evolution lacks.

Most importantly, I hope that you consider this: If we did evolve, what did we evolve from? When did mud stop being mud and start living?

Nathan Hinkle

To The Lookout:One of the lessons that we work hard to teach here at LCC is to know and acknowledge

the sources of information that you use in your writing. The March 7-27, 2011 Lookout has an article, “Creation: an intricate design,” that has as its central evidence a quote attributed to Sir Isaac Newton, cited as coming from a secondary source, the creationist and geocentrist book “The Truth: God or Evolution?.” Ms. Lutz is to be commended for providing this refer-ence in her article.

However, neither the authors of this book nor any others have been able to identify source of this quote among Newton’s writings. The Newton Project ,which is cataloguing all of his writings in searchable form, has no record of this remark among the 4.2 million words ar-chived there. In addition, numerous variants of this story, using different names and slightly different wording, have been circulating for decades. The Newton version is frequently quoted in creationist literature, always without identification of the primary source. Until such time as better evidence for the accuracy of this quote comes forward, using it as a key argument for the “design implies a designer” argument is inadvisable. We should all take this as an object lesson in why careful scholarship is essential to clear understanding.

Thomas L. DeitsChairperson, Science Department

Dear Kaitlin,I thought your article was magnificent. It was so simple yet so powerful. I have asked

people what they would conclude if someone found a chair or desk on another planet.We would assume there was life! We would not believe that a simple chair could

come into being by random chance. Yet we want to believe that our world and life that is so complex just happened. You did a great job.

Craig Prether LCC Counselor

To The Lookout:Last week’s Lookout contained three articles regarding evolution, its role in the classroom

and its relation to atheism. LCC students should be aware that a great many clergy, includ-ing His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI and the 13,000 clergy who have signed the Clergy Let-ter (Google “Clergy Letter Project”), state that there is no contradiction between religious faith and an acceptance of evolution by natural selection.

As to the argument that evolution is exceedingly unlikely due to its random nature, stu-dents should understand that evolutionary change is not random; natural selection is a key element to evolutionary change, and natural selection is far from random.

This misconception and many others are discussed in detail at a number of excellent web-sites including for example, the National Center for Science Education (ncse.com) and the Talk Origins (talkorigins.org) websites. We agree with noted biologist Theodosius Dobzhan-sky, who said “Nothing makes sense in biology except in the light of evolution.”

Prof. Robin WagnerLead Faculty, Biology

Letters to the Editor


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The Lookout Issue 13

Documents

Transcript of The Lookout Issue 13