Gonzalez brings experience, passion

Michigan Tech prepares for pandemic,reluctant to share specifics

K-Day Snapshots

3A2A 6A

The Michigan Tech LodeServing the Michigan Tech Community Since 1921September 17, 2009

Eve6 Rocks the Rozsa

According to Michi-gan Tech officials, the health and safety of students is a top pri-

ority as the potential threat of the H1N1 (swine flu) virus ap-proaches.

A significant part of Michigan Tech’s H1N1 preparedness plan was the launching of a new web-site: www.mtu.edu/flu. This web-site provides students and faculty with information on the signs and symptoms of the illness, how to limit the spread of the illness and information about the vac-cine. Michigan Tech’s website directs students to a number of different websites for additional information. Among those listed are the websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Preven-tion (CDC), the Michigan De-partment of Community Health and the Western Upper Penin-sula District Health Department. Students are also told to contact The Dean of Students Office or the Office of Human Resources for more information on Michi-gan Tech’s pandemic flu plan. However, when asked for specif-ics on this plan, many University representatives have declined to comment and are instead elabo-rating on the annual campus health campaign.

Travis Pierce, Director of Hous-ing, said students will notice an early emergence of the school’s routine reminders to wash their hands and information on gener-al cleanliness. Pierce was unable to share any precise information regarding the Housing Office’s planned response to a potential

pandemic citing the University’s desire to avoid creating a panic.

“We are ahead of the game be-cause this is normal procedure,” Pierce said. “We are just a few months early this time. We’re getting an early start on the nor-mal student health campaign.”

New posters are being cre-ated and will be placed across campus. A conscious effort was made to put a positive spin on normal hygiene reminders. The posters will remind students to wash their hands regularly and to carry their own hand sanitiz-er. Students will also notice new hand sanitizer stations appearing in high-traffic locations across campus – particularly at the en-trances to computer labs. As a result of their placement in high-traffic areas, these hand sanitizer stations will see a larger number of uses than hand sanitizer sta-tions previously installed at the entrances of the dining halls and will need to be refilled regularly in order to prove useful. Facilities Management will be responsible for keeping the sanitizer stations full.

“We rarely get a student com-plaint that one [of the hand sani-tizer stations] is empty,” Direc-tor of Housing Facilities André Bonen said.

Custodians will continue dis-infecting doorknobs, drinking fountains and handrails across campus on a routine basis.

In addition to the annual dorm health campaign, the residence halls are stockpiling surgical masks and gloves to be used in the event of a pandemic. Pierce said that there are plans in place to bring food from the dining hall to shut-in students for up to three weeks. Portage Health will also

be available to set up a mobile hospital on campus if needed.

Students living in the residence halls are being urged to get the H1N1 flu vaccine once it is made available although there is no of-ficial release date yet. It is expect-ed to be available in mid to late October. The CDC has published a list of high-priority groups who are being urged to get the vaccine. One of these groups are those who are between the ages of six months and twenty-four years. S t u d e n t s are being reminded that the new H1N1 vaccine will not protect against the seasonal flu so students should still also get a regular seasonal flu shot. Regu-lar flu shots will be of-fered to students at the Michi-gan Tech Health Fair on October 13 in the MUB. Information on the H1N1 flu shot clinic will be shared on Michigan Tech’s flu website as it becomes available.

Some professors and faculty have chosen to address what changes will need to be made to their attendance policies in the event of a pandemic. According to Dean of Students Dr. Gloria Melton, the choice to mention these possible policy changes in course syllabi is currently being left to the discretion of Univer-sity faculty. Currently, no plan is in place to make these potential attendance policy changes avail-able to the student body unless the pandemic plan is actually en-acted.

At this time, the only informa-tion being made available to stu-dents regarding the University’s pandemic plan policies can be found on Michigan Tech’s flu information website. According

to the website, “In the event of an outbreak, the University will use its well-prepared pandemic flu plan to separate well stu-dents from those who are ill and step up measures to contain the spread of illness.”

“We hope there is an isolated case where we can isolate a single student,” Bonen said. “There are counseling rooms around cam-pus that would be used.” Bonen also said that there is a quaran-tine lockdown plan in place for

University housing in the event of a pan-d e m i c . Michigan Tech will be in close c o n t a c t with the CDC in the coming m o n t h s . The CDC o f f e r s guidelines on what measures the Univer-sity should take if a c e r t a i n number of s t u d e n t s

become infected.An employee from the Univer-

sity Marketing and Communi-cations office issued an official response regarding H1N1 pre-cautions and requested that it be printed. University officials also suggested on multiple occasions that a student-written article ad-dressing Michigan Tech’s H1N1 pandemic preparedness plan be delayed citing that more informa-tion will be available in the near future. No further information has been released about Michi-gan Tech’s pandemic response plan since these requests to post-pone printing were made.

Jonathan Stone, who has sat on Michigan Tech’s Crisis Man-agement Team board as the Oc-cupational Safety and Health representative and is the chair of the pandemic response subcom-mittee, did not respond to our request for comment.

News EditorDANNY MESSINGER

H1N1 virus fast facts27,717 confirmed and probable

cases in United States

522 deaths in United States

(June 26, 2009)

(August 21, 2009)

655 reported confirmed H1N1

cases in Michigan (June 13, 2009)

10 reported deaths in Michigan(August 10, 2009)

0 reported cases in Houghton

County, Michigan (August 31, 2009)

In the event of an outbreak, the University will use its well-prepared pandemic flu plan to separate well students from those who are ill... ““

- Michigan Tech’s H1N1 information website

Tips to stay healthyWash hands with soap and water frequently.

Cover mouth when sneezing and coughing.

Avoid touching nose, eyes and mouth.

Avoid contact with sick individuals.

Tips courtesy of www.mtu.edu/flu

Online exclusives Check it all out at: www.mtulode.com

SportsMichigan Tech Football game live blog versus NorthernGame Recaps

Husky Hodgepodge

She said/he saidresponse videos

PDF Archives of all issues this year

Sports EditorSTEPHEN ANDERSON

2A Thursday, September 17, 2009Michigan Tech LodeNews

Extreme Makeover: Campus Edition

Perhaps the most noticeable change on campus is the new median dividing the east- and west-bound lanes of US41 be-tween Wadsworth and McNair Halls and campus. “There has been a lot of debate over the years about how to make crossing the highway safer,” said Dr. Les Cook, Vice President for Student Af-fairs. “There was talk of building a bridge over the highway be-tween Wads and Fisher and some people wanted an under-road op-tion. The median was the com-promise.” According to Cook, feedback has been positive so far.

The noticeable downside to the widened highway is the reduc-tion in parking. Part of the solu-tion was to move some graduate students into Lot Nine, the part barricaded off and closest to the Rozsa Center. Some faculty was

moved into Lot Eight behind Walker as well.

Countless commuters had al-ready voiced displeasure about university parking, and now there are even fewer easily acces-sible parking spots for them. The university is currently putting to-gether a task force to closely ex-amine the parking situation and suggest possible solutions.

Jess Turuc, the Interim Assistant Director of Student Activities for Greek Life and Leadership, said, “I think we have to remember that things can always be worse. For example, other schools don’t have parking that’s so close. They typically have to walk a mile min-imum to get to where they need to be. We’re lucky. Students can always car pool.” Stay tuned for the Lode for further investigation into parking on campus.

Many students who are actively involved in student organizations will notice the nearly completed student organization office space on the second floor of the Me-morial Union Building. While it looks nice, many complaints have surfaced, given that the space was supposed to be completed prior to the school year. How are stu-dent organizations supposed to operate during the construction phase, and when will the space be done?

According to Theresa Cole-man-Kaiser, Director of Memo-rial Union and Rozsa Center Operations, “We recognize that some student orgs are anxious to

move back in, and that they are at a disadvantage in conducting their business…we hope to get this back up and running within a couple days.”

Of course that has been the story for a couple weeks now, but delayed furniture delivery, health issues among contractors and tight preliminary deadlines to be-gin with have set the project back. When all the dust settles and the office space eventually does get completed, student organizations will have much more square foot-age, better overall floorspace, a student lounge, external lighting with window access and a confer-ence room.

With a tough economy, more and more students are being forced to delay their college plans due to increasing tuition prices. While tuition has in-creased another five percent at Michigan Tech, enrollment con-tinues to increase as well, this year to 7,132, up 118 students from last year.

“We always worry when we raise tuition, and we know there will be needy students that can-not afford college, but when the state doesn’t come through, and we’re already increasing our re-search efforts, there is not much we can do…We are always trying to keep tuition reasonable.”

According to Michigan Tech President Glenn Mroz, Tech is educating 40 percent more stu-dents than 40 years ago with the same amount of state support. Research profits and budget cuts are the primary variables of funding aside from state alloca-tions and tuition.

Dr. Cook stressed how much of an overall investment a college education is, especially one from Michigan Tech, where gradu-ates average more than $50,000 a year in salary and approach the $100,000 range near the peak of their careers – plenty to make up for the expense of a college education.

In early May, Michigan Tech named Daniel Bennett the new director of Public Safety and Po-lice Services. “Because Michigan Tech employs sworn law enforce-ment officers, adding the moni-ker ‘Police Services’ to the name erases all ambiguity and informs the public that we are a law en-forcement agency,” said Bennett, who comes to Michigan Tech from the College of Southern Ne-vada in Las Vegas, where he was deputy chief of police.

According to Dr. Cook, who led the search committee that landed Bennett, “Dan has a lot of ideas and has brought progressive thinking to Michigan Tech. The officers have really embraced him

and they’re working well together as a team.”

More specifics will be shared in a comprehensive article next week, but Public Safety and Police Services is offering more services and support across the Michigan Tech campus than ever before.

“While we constantly strive to provide the best services pos-sible, campus safety is truly a team commitment in which all facets of the community should be involved,” added Bennett. “It is important that everyone take re-sponsibility for their own vested interest in helping create a com-munity where everyone feels safe, happy and secure.”

US-41 Median and Parking

Memorial Union Buildingrenovations

Tuition, Enrollment andAdministrative changes

Public Safety changes

Why is Lot Nine a divided parking lot? What is going on in the ice arena? How

are student organizations supposed to function without com-pleted student organization office space? Who is the new Public Safety director? Needless to say, many things have changed over the summer at Michigan Tech. If you have questions about what has been going on, then the Lode has answers. We will spend several weeks giving you the lowdown on many of the spe-cifics, but this week allow us to provide a brief summary to bring you up to date on all the major changes on campus at once.

K-Day Snapshots

Photos by Alex Cotton

3AThursday, September 17, 2009Michigan Tech Lode Pulse

Eve6 Rocks the Rozsa CenterOn Friday September 11th,

Eve6 performed their much-anticipated show at Michigan Tech’s Rozsa Center for the Performing Arts. Mixing in some of their notable hits from the past with a few new songs, they performed an excellent show, appearing to be extremely well received by those in attendance.

Songs performed during the performance include an extended version of their earlier hits, including their 1998 hit “Inside Out,” their reflective, introspective “Here’s to the Night,” as well as “Leech.” Mixed in along with these songs were some new songs as well, including “Little Tiny Everything” and “Sunset Strip Bitch.” In addition to these songs, Eve6 also performed a cover of Tom Petty’s “Running Down a Dream”, as well as an unreleased project song that they have dubbed “Lumber.”

Notable aspects of the performance include the heavy

amount of interaction between the band and the crowd, including the band encouraging audience members to jump in the air and, at one point, encouraging the audience to take 15 seconds of silence. In addition, the concert e x h i b i t e d excellent guitar work by lead guitarist Matt Bair.

O n e n o t e w o r t h y m o m e n t d i s p l a y i n g the heavy use of crowd i n t e r a c t i o n during the performance came halfway into the concert, upon their performance of “Here’s to the Night.” Max Collins, bass player and lead vocalist for Eve6, asked the crowd to use their cell phones, Ipods, lighters, or anything else that could emit light and wave their hands during the performance of the song. This led to many students taking pictures

with their phones, prompting a sharp response from the Rozsa Center staff, including the confiscation of cell phones and other devices.

The Rozsa Center later cited their policy regarding the use of lighters and electronic devices as the chief reason for their response.

“In future shows, we will do a better job to warn ahead of time about the use of phones and

camera’s during performances,” said a Rozsa Center spokesperson. “Additionally, lighters are not allowed to be used during performances.”

Overall, the concert was a success, complete with an excellent and passionate performance by Eve6, as well as a very active and engaged audience.

Pulse EditorLUKE GUBLO

HOUGHTON, MI, September 04, 2009 - - Which Urban Leg-ends are rock-solid, and which are nothing but a lot of hot air? Join MythBusters Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara at the Rozsa Center on Saturday, September 19 at 7:30pm for a light-hearted look at modern misconceptions and the bizarre claims of Urban Legends. Tory and Grant discuss, in lecture format, the making of the Discovery Channel’s popular and quirky show.

Tory Belleci first walked into Jamie Hyneman’s workshop in 1994 as a fresh-faced young film student from San Francisco State University looking to start a career in movie special effects. Jamie quickly put him to work buying lunch, sweeping the shop floor and running errands. But a determined Tory quickly learned all he could and moved up the ranks. Three years later he land-ed a job with George Lucas’ spe-cial-effects division, Industrial Light and Magic; one of his big-gest projects there was building models for the most recent Star Wars trilogy. The Federation battleships and podracers you see in The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are some of Tory’s finest pieces of work. Tory’s other special-effects work can be seen in the Matrix trilogy, Van Helsing, Peter Pan, Starship Troopers, Galaxy Quest and Bi-centennial Man.

Before becoming a Myth-buster, Grant Imahara was an animatronics engineer and mod-el-maker for George Lucas’ In-dustrial Light & Magic in Marin County, California. He special-ized in electronics and radio control at the ILM Model Shop, and has credits on numerous movies, including Jurassic Park:

The Lost World, Star Wars: Epi-sode I - The Phantom Menace, Galaxy Quest, AI: Artificial In-telligence, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Matrix: Reloaded and Revolutions, and most recently, Van Helsing and Star Wars: Episode III.

Grant developed a custom circuit to cycle the Energizer Bunny’s arm beats and ears at a constant rate. He performed all electronics installation and ra-dio programming on the current generation of Bunnies. He later became the Bunny’s driver and the Crew Supervisor on numer-ous commercials in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Mexico, and New Zealand.

Grant has a Bachelor of Sci-ence degree in Electrical Engi-neering from the University of

Southern California. He picked up his mechanical skills from the machinists at the ILM Model Shop, many of which date back to Howard the Duck (1986).

It’s a tough job separating truth from legend, but the Myth-Busters are here to serve. Join Tory Belleci and Grant Imahara on Saturday, September 19 at 7:30pm and learn how they sepa-rate fact from fiction!

Sponsored by the Michigan Tech Student Entertainment Board.

Ticket prices for the general public are $25 and $20; MTU student prices are $20 and $15 (MTU student ID required). To purchase tickets contact the Roz-sa Box Office at 487.3200, The Central Ticket Office (SDC) at 487.2073, Tech Express (MUB) at 487.3308 or go online at tickets.

906-482-4550

Check out:

www.mtulode.edu

Did you know?gained inspiration for their band name from an episode of the X-Files.

Eve6

Photos by Alex Cotton

Press ReleaseROZSA CENTER

Mythbusters this Saturday

Jammin: Local artist Gary Tunstall performs at K-Day this past Saturday. Photo by Annti Knutas

Mythbusters’ press release photo

Big Splash: Michigan Tech students cliff jumping at Canyon Falls on a recent warm weekend. Photos by Alex Cotton

4A Thursday, September 17, 2009Michigan Tech LodeFeature

At Thursday’s Outdoor Ad-venture Theater event, there were only a few people in the audience. However, according to Noah Marach, that is not al-together surprising.

“Sometimes there are only about ten people at these things, and sometimes we have about a hundred,” Marach explained.

Marach is a member of Michi-gan Tech’s Outdoor Adventure Program, which sponsored the event. Students attending were shown a film, titled “Never Enough,” which Marach and fellow OAP member Michael Blanchard described as an “epic of mountain biking.” After the film, each person in attendance had the opportunity to win a gift certificate to the OAP’s Rental Center.

According to Blanchard, the primary objective of the pro-gram was to raise awareness of the Outdoor Adventure Pro-gram among the student body. In addition, students had the opportunity to meet others with interests in outdoor activities.

“We want to be the out-door community hub,” said Blanchard.

The Outdoor Adventure Pro-gram is a non-profit organiza-tion that promotes outdoor ac-tivities such as hiking, camping, skiing, snowshoeing, canoeing, kayaking, biking, rock climb-ing and sledding, and organizes several trips per year. Among these events is a Halloween overnight camping trip at Rob-in’s Pond, where attendees will attempt to view the Paulding Light, a ghost light that appears outside of Paulding, Michigan. The program also plans three major events for Spring Break, including a trip to Costa Rica as well as a canoe trip to the Buf-falo River.

The OAP also has a rental program that operates in the program office in the basement of the Memorial Union Build-ing. For a small fee, the office rents out camping essentials such as sleeping bags, tents, and tarps as well as extra equipment like Dutch ovens and pudgie pie makers. The fee covers the cost of gear, repair, and employee wages. “We don’t have any over-head,” explained Blanchard.

Outdoor Adventure Theater is held once per month, and can be found on the MTU Calendar of Events as well as the OAP web site. The next one will take place on October 7.

OAP brings the outdoors indoorsLode Writer

NICHOLAS BLECHA

The Visual and Performing Arts Learning Community had the chance to sit in on Eve6’s sound check and meet the band afterwards. Photo courtesy Aaron Andersen

Teamwork: Housing and residential life staff member participate in the outdoor challenge course put on by OAP during their training week. Photos courtesy James Buckingham

Wads Learning

Communities

Chill ‘n’ Grill

Cli

ff

Jum ingp

Photos by Alex Cotton

5AThursday, September 17, 2009Michigan Tech Lode opinion

Opinion EditorELIJAH HAINES

Michigan Tech Lode

Imagine a country where the media is not filled with petty arguments, twisted

facts or skewed stories. Imagine reading a newspaper and get-ting only the truth., a truth that is unfiltered by biased writers, editors, or CEOs. What if the television stations all reported the same news without bias or sensational headlines in order to get ratings? Imagine if the news only reported. How could this happen and what effects would it have on our society?

This vision could only ma-terialize if the media was first centralized. Government con-trol over media is one possibil-ity. This would do away with the competition between news sources which produces much of the bias and irrelevant head-lines that attempt to win viewers or readers over. We have seen this modeled in other countries and has often had damaging ef-fects. Censorship and propa-ganda pour out of televisions and websites simply to further the government’s agenda.

But what if it didn’t? What if, like many other government agencies, this news agency did honest unbiased work? Un-like in a dictatorship, our news agency would not be untouch-able by the people. By having a budget funded by the people, this agency would be under

constant scrutiny and subject to change similar to many areas of our government. If you fear this would corrupt media, is it not already corrupted without gov-ernment interference? Perhaps by moving opposite to tradi-tion, we can avoid the corrup-tion which our current system has created.

Please note that this news agency would not silence its constituents. Opinions are still allowed to be voiced and ideas shared freely. What would be eliminated is purely the distrac-tion of competition between news sources and the harm it does to quality of the news.

Propaganda is one of the me-dia evils which would be elimi-nated. In order to further either cultural or political ideals, news sources have mastered the art of “mudslinging.” This is a term used to describe giving false im-pressions and enforcing preju-dices among the media consum-ers which is counter-productive to the purpose of the media: to educate and inform. Although it is hard for any government agency or organization to re-main entirely untainted, the regulation of the people would help ensure its fairness.

It is often true that what the people don’t want to hear is not reported in the media. It is too much of a risk for mainstream media to report unwanted ar-ticles; it’s all too easy to close a paper or change the channel. The news agency would not

have these monetary or soci-etal pressures. On television it would metaphorically become more of an insightful documen-tary rather than an Entertain-ment Tonight extravaganza. It would be less exciting and less interesting at times. Yet at other times it would be more controversial and thought-pro-voking than the latest breaking story on CNN. It would have the bittersweet taste of reality rather than the satisfying post-Thanksgiving-dinner-feeling of most news-casts.

Admittedly, this is an ideal-ist’s dream, a dream of a world where the media is 100 percent unbiased and fair. And it is dif-ficult to mold this dream to the rough framework of our current system. It is certain that this ar-ticle will be met with cries of so-cialism and communism. This is not a plan for a change of ide-ology, but merely a speculation of one possible improvement of our society.

Of course with the pros, there are serious cons of government-regulated media. However, by asking, “what if”, we can analyze options not previously consid-ered; this is a risk, but one of vital importance. As the writer Frank Scully asked, “Why not go out on a limb? Isn’t that where the fruit is?” The impor-tance of honest media is well worth going out on that limb. We may fall from the tree in the process or we may very well get our fruit.

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Editor in Chief ............................... Kayla HerreraVisuals Manager ....................................... Alex CottonBusiness Manager .................................Richard GoodellOnline Editor............................Jeremiah BaumannNews Editor.......................................Danny MessingerOpinion Editor..........................................Elijah HainesSports Editor ..................................Stephen AndersonPulse Editor................................................Luke Gublo Winter Carnival Pictorial Editor ........................... TBDAdvisor ........................................................Kara Sokol

Fads among friends:when to follow trends andwhen to play it safe

The first month of school is well underway and we are all meeting new friends and em-bracing old ones. Schoolyard Olympics is over, frisbockey is starting, and the eager anticipa-tion of broomball is setting in. With so much going on and most of it done in groups, a strong sense of camaraderie is hope-fully building within your group. This development of friendship is an awesome thing and one to be looked forward to. With this friendship come smiles, laugh-ter, and great photographs!

I urge you to get out and be active with your group. Go to that team dinner or hall social. Do not hesitate to step outside your comfort zone and become involved; you will be much hap-pier for it. If someone has a great idea that they want everyone to participate in then be sure to jump at it.

These activities and actions help everyone bond and they raise morale, which in turn cre-ates a more productive team. One way to help bring a group closer together is to develop a common aspect with every in-dividual. Examples of this could be everyone wearing the team shirt on game days or a group cheer. One thing to be wary of is that inevitable urge to follow a trend in your group that may not be beneficial.

Many group fads can be good, such as a team wearing yellow spandex or an entire house getting mohawks. These fads can help unify the group and build morale. However, sometimes someone will come up with an idea that might seem great at the time but will have harmful effects later on. Van-dalism or pranks fall into this category. Mohawks, while uni-fying your team and creating a fierce image on the frisbockey field, might not be a good idea two weeks before a career fair. It is up to the individual to deter-mine whether or not to partici-pate in these types of events.

I urge you to think hard be-fore you take part in any activ-ity that seems sketchy, even if everyone else gung-ho about it. Think about the future before you take part in any activity you are unsure about and calculate the risk. In short, make sure you know ahead of time the effects of your decisions even if every-one else blindly goes along. Be wary.

I am all about having fun with your friends; team building and group activities are a must in my opinion. But every now and then a “brilliant” idea comes out of nowhere late at night that every-body jumps on. Before you rush into it, stop, think, and weigh the risks. You might find that you would rather stay home than go get the team logo tattooed on your arm!

Big Brother is watching you...and writing your newspaper? Exploring the concept of government regulated media

Lode WriterJACK AMMERMAN

6A Thursday, September 17, 2009Michigan Tech LodeSports

By

numberthe#This week’s online content - mtulode.com

Game recaps posted online the same day•

Exclusive features not in print issue•

Commentary box with each article/feature•

NMU/MTU Football game live blog•

Multimedia content throughout the week•

Editor’s Shootout

0turnovers

gained and lost by the Huskies football team (Findlay has gained 11, Tiffin has given up 11)

1loss in 23 combined singles and doubles decisions by Tech’s Victoria Zhilkina

2QB’s ahead of Steve Short in total offense ( H i l l s d a l e ’s Weatherhead and Ashland’s Cundiff )

3.33service aces per set by the Huskies in volleyball conference play (leads GLIAC)

7 of the top 8 finishes earned by Michigan Tech in men’s cross country at the Laker Invite

Tune into WMTU 91.9 FM each

Saturday from 10 a.m. to noon for

the Lode Sports Talk Radio Show

Lode WriterLAUREN WIZA

Spiking hard: Sophomore outside hitter Alex Schwalbe spikes into a double block attempt by LSSU’s Janelle Balkwill (obscured jersey) and Sara Hess (#6).

Photo courtesy of John Shibley, LSSU

Volleyball Huskies (2-0 GLIAC) finally return home

The Editors Shootout is a competition of knowledge, luck and wits between sports editor Stephen Anderson, business manager Richard Goodell, pulse editor Luke Gublo and online editor Jeremiah Baumann. Stephen won two years ago with former opinion editor Rob Devaun winning last year. This will be a weekly fea-ture where each editor picks his winners of the three biggest games/series of the week and backs up his decisions with a short rant. THIS WEEK:Dallas Cowboys vs. New York Giants, Virginia Tech Hokies vs. Nebraska Cornhuskers, Minnesota Twins vs. Detroit Tigers

Since the Giants let a nice lead slip last week, I have to go with the Cowboys in their new Hi-tech stadium for the win this Sunday. Virginia Tech and Nebraska both had high scoring games last week, but Virginia Tech will take their home field advantage for the win. In baseball, the Twins are chasing down the Tigers and will pull out a 2-1 series this weekend.

Cowboys 28-23Hokies 35-34Twins 2-1

Romo won’t quite repeat last week’s performance, but he’ll still light up the G-Men at home. Va-Tech may have the advantage, but Zac Lee will keep his hot streak going, this time against a legit opponent as the Husk-ers defeat the hometown Hokies. While the Tigers likely have the division sealed, and never perform well in the Dome, Porcello will gain a solid series-opening win for Detroit, and the teams will split the remaining two.

Cowboys 28-24Huskers 30-20Tigers 2-1

Sunday night provides us a bitter NFC East rivalry. The Giants are clearly the better team, so I have them winning. Virginia Tech is at home in Blacksburg for this matchup of ranked foes, and they will have a clear ad-vantage. The Twins just lost Justin Morneau for the rest of the season, but they are playing in the Metrodome, so I’ll give them the edge in against the Tigers this weekend

Giants 34-21Hokies 34-24Twins 2-1

3-0 Last Week, 3-0 Overall

STEPHEN ANDERSON

Sports Editor

2-1 Last Week, 2-1 Overall

RICHARD GOODELL

Business Manager

1-2 Last Week, 1-2 Overall

LUKE GUBLO

Pulse Editor

1-2 Last Week, 1-2 Overall

JEREMIAH BAUMANN

Online Editor

Schedules/ResultsFootball (0-2, 0-2 GLIAC)

Volleyball (4-7, 2-1 GLIAC)

W. Tennis (1-1, 1-1 GLIAC)

Cross Country

Saturday vs. NMU, 1 p.m.

Friday vs. Ferris St., 7 p.m.Saturday vs. GVSU, 4 p.m.

Ashland 34-28 Michigan Tech

MTU 3-0 Saginaw Valley StateNMU 3-1 Michigan Tech

Fri.-Sun. @ ITA Regional

MTU 9-0 Saginaw Valley StateNorthwood 7-2 Michigan Tech

Sat. @ Midwest Colleg. Open

Men, 1st of 4, Laker InviteWomen, 2nd of 4, Laker Invite

Gonzalez brings experience, passion to Husky volleyball

Passion seems to be the only word that can describe new women’s volleyball head coach Orlando Gonzalez’s feelings about the sport. After 10 years of working with USA Michigan Volleyball (competitive high school volleyball club) as both a coach and regional coordinator, Gonzalez found his way to the GLIAC, working for Northwood University’s team as an assis-tant coach. The Timberwolves were successful in claiming the South Division Championship and joining Michigan Tech in

earning an NCAA tournament berth in 2008.

“I feel the GLIAC is a great conference to coach in and MTU has tremendous resources to build a great program. It just needs to be done right in order to be realized. And of course, I love snow. Who doesn’t?” said Gonzalez as he explained his reasons for applying for the head coaching position.

Gonzalez most looks forward to “making a significant impact on the lives of the kids and the sport of volleyball.” He has plans to improve and bring out the talents of the team through instituting his coaching phi-losophy. “You cannot execute

tactically what you cannot do technically. I try to teach my players perfection in technique in order to maximize what we can do tactically. I believe we need to be accountable and responsible for our choices on the court and off. Everybody on this team, through their demonstrated, measured per-formance, has a chance to con-tribute.”

Husky fans can head to the SDC gymnasium this Friday, Sept. 18, at 7 p.m. when the women take on Ferris State University, to see the new head coach doing what he knows best, teaching elite volleyball play.

Orlando Gonzalez

Lode WriterLAUREN WIZA

“You cannot execute tactically what you can-not do technically. I try to teach my players perfec-tion in technique in or-der to maximize what we can do tactically. I believe we need to be account-able and responsible for our choices on the court and off. Everybody on this team, through their dem-onstrated, measured per-formance has a chance to contribute.”

Coaching philosophy

Fun Fact: Favorite professional volleyball player“Karch Kiraly was a tremendous influence on me in the 80s, a phenomenal

talent that we will most likely see only once in our lifetime. Even more so, I got the opportunity to meet him in person as we both were speakers at a coaches conference. We had dinner, talked volleyball, family, and the experiences he has had as an Olympian and professional player. I’ve been really lucky with my ex-periences in volleyball.”

Bio BriefKalamazoo, Mich. native17 years coachingDiv. I Rutgers - 3 yrsUSA Mich. Vball - 10 yrs

Visit gliac.org for full standings

A loss against the Wildcats of Northern Michigan University Tuesday night saw the women’s volleyball team drop to 2-1 in the GLIAC. Despite the loss, Michi-gan Tech is already preparing for what is sure to be some tough competition this weekend as they take on Ferris State University and Grand Valley State Univer-sity at home.

“They’re both ranked pretty high. If we take them, we can be in the top 25,” said senior Alicia Schneider of the Bulldogs and Lakers.

Ferris and Grand Valley battled out a five set match Tuesday

night in which not one game was separated by more than a three-point margin at its finish, and the final by just two points. While Grand Valley came out on top, Ferris State put up impressive numbers with 68 assists, 70 kills, and 80 digs over the course of the match.

Looking to this weekend, Sch-neider said, “We need to pass bet-ter, and we’re a really good pass-ing team. Passing will help a lot to win the games this weekend. We just need to get our passes, serve receive, and free balls to the set-ter so we can get quality hits.”

Needless to say, the volleyball team will have a challenge on their hands, so head up to the SDC Friday night at 7 p.m., and cheer on your Huskies!

The Giants continue their dominance of the NFC East. The Cornhuskers rout Virginia Tech as the Hokies continue their fall from grace. Finally, the Twins lose all hope of a postseason berth as the Tigers take 2 out of 3 and slowly shut the door.

Giants 28-13Huskers 38-23Tigers 2-1

Fresh off their opening GLIAC weekend in which they knocked off the Saginaw Valley Cardinals and fell to the Northwood Tim-berwolves, the women’s tennis Huskies hit the road this weekend to take part in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Midwest Re-gion Tournament in Indianapo-lis, IN.

Last season, senior Silvia Oliveros made a serious run at the tournament crown only to fall to the eventual winner and top-seeded Darina Berkova, of Northwood, in straight sets in the semi-finals.

The Huskies enter the tourna-ment with only sophomore Vic-

toria Zhilkina finishing in the Top 50 in the country last season at No. 38 in the ITA Rankings. She will likely receive a high seed this season, but perhaps not as high as Oliveros’ seventh seed last season.

The tournament format has four to five singles players from each regional team bracketed a la the NCAA Basketball Tourna-ment.

Typically the top one or two players from each squad will be seeded and the rest of the spots are picked at random.

The doubles side of the tour-nament works in much the same way, with the top duo from each squad being seeded and the rest randomly distributed.

Huskies Earn Split to Open GLIAC Play.

Sophomore transfer Ploy Suthijindawong was the only Huskies’ player to earn wins in both of her singles matches as the Huskies cruised to a 9-0 win over the Cardinals and dropped a 7-2 decision to the Timberwolves.

On Saturday, all three dou-bles squads earned wins before Zhilkina, Suthijindawong, ju-nior Nathalia Rondelli, junior Asel Otunchieva, senior Danielle Stoll, and sophomore Kira Eck all earned wins in singles.

On Sunday, the doubles pair of Otunchieva and Zhilkina cut the Timberwolves’ lead in half, but only Suthijindawong could earn a win in singles.

For more complete recaps of the individual matches, look for our match recaps on our website, http://mtulode.com.

We continue our new feature in the Lode Sports section where each week we will continue to highlight a different club sport team in effort to expand the awareness of some of the great sports we have here at Michi-gan Tech on the club level. This week we highlight the Men’s Soccer Club of Michigan Tech.

The Huskies have had a hard transition this year after gradu-ating a large amount of play-ers last year. Yet they have a handful of very talented young freshman who are going to be a big help to the team this year. Talking to Matt Browne, the Vice-President of the Club, he mentioned “We haven’t had the chance to really practice that much, but it seems like we are starting to come together as a team.” Matt also mentioned

that the team looks to be strong up top at the center midfield and striker positions

When asked about the sea-son expectations and goals for the Husky soccer team, the response was typical of a club with very young players. “I would expect that our new players will need to take some time to adjust to the speed and physicality of the college level. I think it is a realistic expectation for us to finish .500 though, and

I expect us to finish the season especially strong.”

The Club has set the goal of making the playoffs this year, and getting the opportunity to play against perennial powers of Club Soccer, Michigan and Michigan State. On top of that, the Men’s Soccer Club has a mission to serve as an outlet for campus soccer players who are looking to get better and make friends at the same time.

Anyone interested in play-

ing for the Men’s soccer team is welcome to come out and join their practices, regardless of your standing at Michigan Tech. Practice for the club oc-curs Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays 6-8 PM. All prac-tices occur on the Upper Soccer Fields. Anyone who is interest-ed in more information about the Michigan Tech Soccer Team is encouraged to email drjen-kin@mtu.edu or mcbrowne@mtu.edu.

Head coach Mike Axford of the women’s tennis Huskies has the unenviable task of replacing two prolific winners in former co-captains Silvia Oliveros and Samantha Jang-Stewart. For-tunately, junior Nathalia Ron-delli appears poised to take on a more important role this season after going 10-1 in the number two singles slot last spring.

“Nathalia is a re-ally good athlete,” said Axford. “She’s a complete play-er. There are no weaknesses in her game.”

Rondelli’s 29 singles wins over her first two sea-sons are second only to fellow ju-nior Asel Otunchieva’s 31 victo-ries among returning players for Axford’s squad this season. She will return to the number three singles slot in the lineup, where she went 7-4 last season.

“Last spring, she was able to mix the game up and make it re-ally difficult on her opponents,” said Axford. “She’s also a really good defender. She’s able to run the balls and always make her opponent play one more shot to win the point.”

The lineup spot paid off for Rondelli and the Huskies right away on Saturday, as Rondelli earned a straight set victory over Cortney Heileman of Sag-

inaw Valley State.Born in Belfold Poxo, Rio de

Janeiro, Brazil, Rondelli grew up with the opportunity to play tennis both in her home country and in the neighboring coun-tries of Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina. This competition ex-perience prepared her for life in the GLIAC.

Rondelli will be expected to take on a leadership role in doubles this season as well.

She will start the season partnered up with sopho-more transfer Ploy Suthijindawong. Over two seasons with Oliveros as a partner, Rondelli racked up 31 wins.

“Doubles and singles are differ-ent. You don’t nec-essarily have the same confidence in both,” said Ax-ford. “Silvia and

Nathalia worked well together. Ploy and Nathalia need to talk a lot and they need to work to-gether.”

The duo has opened the sea-son 1-1 after defeating Debra Hammond and Yunjiao Shang-guan of Saginaw Valley State.

On top of being an outstand-ing player on the court, Rondelli is strong in the classroom set-ting as well. A psychology major, Rondelli carries a grade point average over 3.0.

“At Michigan Tech, we want athletes who are students first,” said Axford. “Those kinds of players are good fits in a lot of places.”

7AThursday, September 17, 2009Michigan Tech Lode Sports

Sports EditorSTEPHEN ANDERSON

Club Sport Spotlight: Men’s Soccer Club

Cross Country teams look to build on early season success

Lode WriterDAVER KARNOSKY

Lode WriterMARC SANKO

Women’s tennis teamWomen’s netters off to ITA RegionalLode Writer

DAVER KARNOSKY

Lode WriterMARC SANKO

It was a great day for the Hus-ky Cross Country Runners this past weekend in Sault Ste Marie as both the Men’s and Women’s clubs ran in the Laker Invite hosted by Lake Superior State University. Both clubs would see very similar results to the UP Invite, which was hosted here at Michigan Tech.

The Men’s club was led again by Brian Stetter who finished twenty seconds ahead of the entire pack at 15:56. The Men would do extremely well and take 8 out of the first 10 spots, only dropping the 4th and 9th places, leading the team to a

first place finish. The Women would be paced by Jill Smith who finished second overall at 19:27. She would be joined by 3 of her teammates in the top ten, leading the Huskies to a sec-ond place finish with Northern Michigan University taking first place in the Women’s race.

The Huskies will travel to University of Wisconsin – Park-side this coming Saturday to compete in the Midwest Col-legiate Open, giving them their first tests outside the Upper Peninsula.

The tournament will feature teams from the NCAA II and the NAIA from around the Midwestern states and should give our runners a good idea of how well they are performing.

Tune into mtulode.com for a live blog of Saturday’s action

MTU vs. NMU

Sherman Field

Saturday, 1 p.m.

After two tough road losses, the Huskies will finally return home this weekend. More than just the Huskies first win of the season will be on the line, as Michigan Tech faces archrival Northern Michigan, in the an-nual bout for the Miner’s Cup. Michigan Tech claimed the trophy last year with a domi-nant 47-21 win in the Superior Dome.

Michigan Tech quarterback Steve Short, who is third in the GLIAC in total offense (280 yards per game), said that “the tradition, being from the UP and having the bragging rights” makes this Saturday’s rivalry game very special to him. Run-ning back Phil Milbrath, who is third in the GLIAC in rush-ing yards (104 yards per game), echoed Short’s sentiments: “I have friends that play for NMU, so it is important to win and claim bragging rights.”

In all reality, more than just

bragging rights are on the line. With a 0-2 record, the Huskies may have to win out to make the playoffs. While that may seem sensationalistic, Tech’s 8-3 re-cord last year was not enough to earn a playoff berth. All players and coaches who were inter-viewed echoed the one-game-at-a-time approach that has been a staple of Coach Tom Kearly’s club, but the sense of urgency is evident. “We really need to start playing our best football, go 1-0, and get things rolling,” said

Short.For a more comprehensive

statistical breakdown of this Saturday’s rivalry, visit mtulode.com. Kickoff is slated for 1 p.m. at Sherman Field. The Sherman Field attendance record (4,332) was earned in the 2004 home opener against NMU, in a game that Michigan Tech won 45-6. Huskies fans can only hope for a similar result. Perhaps another attendance record will be bro-ken given Tech’s increased en-rollment.

Nathalia Rondelli

shake-up

Photo by Antti Knutas

Football Huskies seek to retain Miner’s Cup

Photo by Alex Cotton

Lode Writer

8A Thursday September 17, 2009Michigan Tech LodeHusky Hodgepodge

Event reminders Student poll On this dayDo you like the Lode redesign?

Vote at: www.mtulode.com

1930

Parade of NationsWhere: Starts at Hancock

Middle SchoolWhen: Sept 19, 11 a.m.

All day event!

Men’s Football vs. NorthernWhere: Sherman FieldWhen: Sept 19, 1 p.m.

MythBustersWhere: Rozsa Center

When: Sept 19, 7:30 p.m.

Student responses are based on our weekly online poll. Please vote on next week’s question:

Bubbler or drinking fountain?

Submit captionyour

You are invited to submit your most cleaver captions. The best response will be chosen by the Lode staff and printed next week. Please keep cap-tions to a PG-13 rating or be-low.

Photo background: Two Michigan Tech students test-ed their skills at Canyon Falls, performing front flips into the water. Submit captions to:media@mtulode.com

Contruction began on the Hoover Dam.

86%

14%

Yes

No

she said he said

That’s

what...

How long does it take you to get ready in the morning?

Ashley KerschenTakes me about twenty

minutes to get ready. Brush my teeth, take a shower, put

my contacts in and stuff.

Faith LambertI don’t get enough sleep

so I get up at 7:50 for work at eight. Im usually there by

8:05. I throw some clothes on and wash my face haha.

Steffanie Pepin

I get up in the morning, shower and do my hair

which takes about an hour.

Benjamin TrojniakUsually about twenty minutes to get ready, ten for showering and ten for everything else.

General EngineeringFirst Year

Civil EngineeringThird year

Civil EngineeringFourth year

Civil EngineeringSecond year

Culture

JUN (MILES) NI

ShockReport #3

Follow the thoughts of one international student throughout the semester as he discovers the ins and outs of life in America

Quinn Haley

Ten minutes...or less.

Environmental EngineeringFirst year

Evan SchaeferIt takes me about an hour to get ready because I hit the snooze button a couple times. I change my clothes like twice.

Chemical EngineeringSecond year

What’s up yo? How was your K-day? I worked on K-day last weekend and I was so happy that I was recognized by some of you and I was told my article on the Lode is not bad. Thank you guys. I will try my best to share more stories with you.

The last two weeks, I talked about my living experience in America. Why don’t we try some different stuff this week? I’m a current student now, and aca-demic experience is more impor-tant to me.

I’m taking 17.5 credits this se-mester and three of them are about teamwork. I never knew teamwork was so significant in America before I came here. We are taught to help each other in China all the time from elemen-tary school, but never work to-gether as a group. At least I didn’t get any chance to do so.

In mechanical engineering, we have two flow charts: one is senior design and another is enterprise. I chose the latter one, which means I have to do a lot of teamwork. Except my limited English, I learn so much from my team members, which I can’t get in lecture and homework.

Last Thursday, I had my enter-prise team class on the challenge course. This is another brand new experience for me. In only two hours, my team finished Nitro Crossing, Whale Watch, Electric Fence, TP Shuffle, Traffic Jam and Infinite circles. These activities are pretty familiar to most American students, but it was my first time to try this. What’s more, I was not playing by myself, but with anoth-er 13 students as a team.

If you ask me which one is my favorite, I think it is the Whale Watch. It is a giant balancing board that the whole team fits on. We also tried different rules to stay on the board. Sometimes stand, sometimes sit or switch people from each side. Everyone tried his or her best to help the whole team keep balance. Because we had 14 people, sometimes we just didn’t know whose suggestion to follow. After a couple times’ failure, Phi, the challenge course facilitator, asked us to keep quiet. And then, an unbelievable thing happened. We completed the most difficult challenge in a minute without any discussion! Discussion is impor-tant in a team, but silence is also necessary. By the way, silence is also a way of communication.

I joined aerospace enterprise program last semester. From that time, I began to learn how to be a good team member. When I’m working on a project, I’m not only doing my part, but should also be communicating with my team and showing my respect. Honestly, we Chinese are not good at team-work. At the Olympic Games last summer, for instance, we did a pretty good job. But most of those gold medals were from individual competition, such as ping-pong and diving. For some reason the Chinese won’t trust others easily, even if they are in the same boat. That’s why we are so bad at soc-cer and never have a chance to develop it.

Since I’m studying in America now, I have more opportunities to improve my teamwork skills. Also, because I’m an engineer, I have to get ready to face more teamwork in my future career.

Photo by Alex Cotton

Last week’s winner

Congratulations to Samantha Schall

Visit www.mtulode.com for these and more student video responses

Courtesy of www.reference.com

1920The American Professional Foot-ball Association, the precursor of the National Footbal League, was formed in Canton, Ohio.

1976NASA unveiled the first space shuttle, the Enterprise, in Palm-dale, California.

“Escaping Alcatraz was eaiser than this.”