12-5-2011

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December 5, 2011 Vol. 56, Issue 5

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The anatomy of a ‘Brony’ - Pg. 6

Mandi DavisAgora Staff

Students aren’t just discussing professors and their classes in the college’s halls anymore, they’re taking their opinions online.

Rate My Professor, a website which al-lows students to rate professors at their college on a scale of 1 to 5, is becoming a popular resource for students.

Students not only have the option of rating their professors, they also get to rate their campus.

The site currently has 253 MCCC pro-fessors available for rating. Of those, students have posted opinions on 223 professors, with a grand total of 1,603 ratings.

MCCC itself has an overall rating of 4.0 with a 4.8 student happiness rating

Ratings of professors are available in a variety of areas, such as easiness or clar-ity. The rating for the school is derived from fields such the reputation or the general atmosphere of the campus.

Students aren’t the only ones aware of the site; professors have started logging on to see what their students have to say about them.

Dr. William McCloskey is an assis-tant professor of English at the college. McCloskey’s classes encompass a wide spectrum of subjects, ranging from basic English Compositon classes to more ad-vanced literature classes, such as British Lit or Shakespeare.

McCloskey to date has a total of 15 rat-ings with an overall quality rating of 5.0. The overall quality rating consists of his 5.0 helpfulness rating and the 4.9 clarity rating.

He said he is pleased with his rating and does his best to make his classes in-teresting.

“I try to tell the stories. I try to make them follow the material. I try to make it seem real,” McCloskey said.

Aleksandr Martinez, one of McClo-skey’s students this semester, endorses

McCloskey’s rating.“I would highly recommend every

student take a class with McCloskey as the professor. He is amazing with his lec-tures,” Martinez said.

Professor John Kuriwchak teaches CIS-130: Introduction to Computer In-formation Systems. He has five ratings, for an overall quality rating of 4.8.

Kuriwchak sees Rate My Professor as a helpful tool for students to use.

“I like it — gives me ideas to keep im-proving the class,” Kuriwchak said.

Ryan Smith has been using the website since spring 2011 and finds it to be a use-ful resource.

“I think the site is beneficial to students because no one likes a bad professor. You

learn more with someone you like,” Smith said.

After signing up for a class, Smith usually checks the professor’s score to make sure he finds the professor best suited to him.

Shana Kritzer is a student who is no stranger to the website. She has been using it since starting at MCCC two years ago.

“I think it helps me choose a professor who will suit my needs. I learn so much more from a professor who has a teach-ing style I understand,” Kritzer said.

Smith and Kritzer recommend students use Rate My Professor.

“It can save you time, money and a lot of headaches,” Kritzer said.

There appears to be about the same number of students who have heard about the website and use it as there are students who have not

heard of it or don’t use it.Many students who don’t use the web-

site are swamped with projects and as-signments, or worried about making sure they get every source right to get a good grade, making it difficult to find time to check out the site.

Many students just revert to the word-of-mouth method of checking out profes-sors. They turn to a fellow classmate to get their view of a certain professor.

Joyceelaine Cutliff is a student who sticks to the word-of-mouth method.

“Word of mouth tends to be more use-ful,” Cutliff said.

But when it comes to word-of-mouth versus using the website, MCCC student Kris Lampson worries about the perma-

nence of the Web site ratings.“Word of mouth can easily change,

from having a student change their mind about a professor at the last moment,” Lampson said.

“Something on the website is perma-nent and never changes,” he said.

Another reason students may not know that Rate My Professor exists could be the fact that it is not linked on the college website.

Cutliff argues against linking Rate My Professor from the college site.

“Most students I know hardly ever ac-cess the school website,” Cutliff said.

Lampson thinks a link from the college site could generate more users and pro-fessor reviews.

[ ]“After being out of school for 7 years I was ner-vous to get back into things but going to Monroe was a great decision. The professors really help you out and make sure you understand whats going on!”

[ ]“Great school but there’s not enough park-ing and I haven’t heard about the food... Minor is-sues. Great school, good teachers and office support.”

Rating your professors

(both on and offline)

Taylor PinsonAgora Staff

Site work has begun on the Career Tech Center, MCCC’s newest building.

The initial stage began with the closure of part of the main road located between the H and L buildings on campus. The road is being altered to make room for the CTC, and will not reduce the number of parking spaces in the adjoining lots.

The new building will cost $17 million, with half of the funding coming from the state government and the the rest from MCCC.

The construction site will lay dormant during winter, with construction beginning in spring with a groundbreaking ceremony, as soon as the weather permits.

The CTC will contain state-of-the art work spaces for several programs currently available at MCCC, including nuclear, au-tomotive, welding, and mechanical engi-neering. There also will be larger doors to allow the moving and storage of equipment too big to house in the E and W buildings currently used by the programs.

“Our current facilities lack the basic in-frastructure to support the next generation of Industrial Technology programming and related equipment, in terms of utili-ties capacity, room and lab size and ceil-ing height, and access,” said Josh Myers,

MCCC’s Coordinator of Development and External Affairs.

“In some cases these limitations are in-hibiting current program updates and or expansion.”

The CTC has been designed to also in-clude several multi-purpose areas.

“This facility, like other areas on campus, will be a college resource,” Myers said.

“The building is being built in such a way that it can be used by other areas of the college. There are six general classroom spaces that may be used for purposes other than housing Industrial Tech courses.”

The CTC also will house several green projects, including solar panels, a geo-thermal heating and cooling system, and a green roof project.

If they prove successful, similar projects may be implemented elsewhere on cam-pus.

“All of the sustainable systems designed into the building will serve as a pilot proj-ect for future building and renovation proj-ects,” Myers said.

“The college will be able to monitor and analyze over time how much these systems reduce energy consumption and minimize environmental impacts.”

The first classes held in the CTC will begin in fall 2013, barring any unexpected delays.

[“You learn more with someone you like.”]

Site prepared for Career Tech Center

photo by Lorrie Mayzlin

More than a dozen trees were cut down and removed from campus.The area between H and L buildings, which is the site of the new building, has been excavated for construction. The site will lay dormant through the winter, with construction begin-ning in spring, when the weather permits.

photo by Mandi Davis

Dr. William McCloskey, seen teaching British Lit Anglo Saxon - 18th Century, is rated high consistently throughout the popular website Rate My Professor.

The sounds of bluegrass invade MCCCCommunity packs Meyer Theater, watches The Grascals

p. 7

2 THE AGORA Opinion Dec. 5, 2011

EditorTyler Eagle

Assistant EditorNicki Kostrewza

DesignerMorgan Hofbauer

AdviserDan Shaw

StaffMandi DavisMichelle DanglerLorrie MayzlinMatt MullinsTaylor PinsonTyler RogoffJacob Thompson

Staff Members

The Agora Editorial PolicyThe Agora is published by the

students of Monroe County Com-munity College, 1555 S. Raisinville Rd., Monroe, MI, 48161. The edito-rial office is located in Room 202 of the Life Sciences Bldg., (734) 384-4186, [email protected].

Editorial policy: Unsigned editori-als represent the majority opinion of The Agora staff. Signed columns represent the opinion of the writer. All letters to the editor must include a signature, address and phone number for verification purposes. The Agora reserves the right to edit for clarity, accuracy, length and li-bel.

The Agora is a student-managed newspaper that supports a free student press and is a member of the Michigan Community College Press Association, the Michigan Collegiate Press Association, the Michigan Press Association, Col-lege Media Advisers, Associated Collegiate Press and the Student Press Law Center.

Story suggestions are welcome. Let us know what you’d like to see in The Agora - it’s your newspaper.

Submissions of stories or photos also are welcome. E-mail them to [email protected] or bring them to our office.

Two months ago I learned that my mother had been di-agnosed with cervical can-cer. It was devastating.

Suddenly, in the midst of considering moving out of the state (and maybe even out of the country) with my partner to finish my degree, I was faced with so many questions that had never occurred to me previously, questions I thought I would never have to answer.

What if she doesn’t make it, I thought? What will happen to my sister and my father if she doesn’t? How can I possibly move away and leave her behind when she needs me the most?

In a way I had always thought of my mother as be-ing immortal, as if she would permanently be around for me to call for support, as if her shoulder would never cease to be there for me to cry on. With her di-

agnosis, all of that changed; the rug had literally been pulled out from underneath me.

I have since become conscious that my mother’s death, though highly undesirable, is inevitable. It will continuously loom above me, like a brewing storm waiting to unleash its hellish fury when I least expect it. Though she has been treated for and cleared of can-cer now, the dark, ominous cloud of recurrence will never dissipate.

As a result of this and various other recent occur-rences in my personal life, I have become a Unitarian Universalist. I took my mother with me to a church service the Sunday following her recovery. It was the first time she had ever been, and the first time we had been to church together in almost thirteen years.

The sermon was given the day before Halloween in the spirit of harvest, and focused on honoring loved ones who had passed. Candles were lit, one by one, by every person in attendance and placed in a pit of sand in a symbolic gesture of remembrance and the resilience of life.

As I lit my candle with the flame from hers, I real-

ized that I could have been lighting it for a very dif-ferent reason. I was there sharing my life and time with my mother, but I could have been there to grieve, mourn and honor the memory her life, rather than cel-ebrating her successful bout with a known killer.

In this day and age, it is far too easy, commonplace and guiltless to take loved ones and friends for grant-ed. There is so much to do, and so little time with which to do it. Finding the right balance between per-sonal endeavors and opportunities to spend time with loved ones is difficult, but I insist: find a way.

Life is a precious gift, too short and far too fragile to take for granted. If there’s one thing that speaks to readers from this piece, I hope it’s the sentiment to love and deeply cherish their souvenir of time with their friends and relatives.

So, this holiday season, in the drudgery of family dinners and pageantry, make the time to tell someone, a friend or a loved one, how much their presence and friendship means. As I have recently learned, there may not be another chance.

There has been a lot of con-struction around here lately; from here on this very cam-pus to the downtown avenue.

As many of you know the community college has closed the road between H and L buildings so they can start construction of the Ca-reer Technology Building. Which, might I add, has cre-ated a slight headache for stu-dents to bear; traffic is more hectic than it was before.

Then there’s the traffic on

Raisinville and M-50, from the bridge closing. That wass a major annoyance for some students who use the bridge to make it back and forth from school every day.

Even for students who don’t have to cross the bridge it was still a pain. Constant construction, roads and lanes closed, safety cones/barrels in the way, it’s a large inconvence. Some students were told it would only take three weeks max for this project, and I’m sure we all know it was longer than that.

Now let’s talk about the construction in town, which is mainly on Monroe Street. That is no picnic on a good day! When driving through town the other day I didn’t feel very safe as these construction workers were swinging around equipment like they could hit

someone. They seemed to be taking their sweet time too, like the slower they went the easier it would be.

Now the thing that upsets me the most is why would you wait till fall to start all these projects!? It’s go-ing to rain and be cold, isn’t that bad for the roads as they’re being built? Not to mention that it’s also prob-ably bad for the equipment needed for these projects. So let’s just waste our resources and call it a day, huh.

All these projects should have been started and done a long time ago. It would have made the new additions to the college and city last longer. It would also keep the conditions of the equipment the work-ers use in a better shape; causing everyone a little less heartbreak and frustration.

In 1983, PBS Frontline broadcasted a program called “The Russians Are Here.”

This program focused on the life of Russian im-migrants in New York City and their views on conflict-ing values of American and Soviet societies.

In one of the segments, the narrator asked a Russian cab driver why he immigrated to America.

The 50-something, bald-ing, slightly overweight, modestly dressed cabby, with his heavy Russian ac-cent answered:

“I came to America to be free.” When he was asked what he meant, the Russian

said: “I have freedom here. I can do what I want, when I

want. I can be successful if I choose to be successful,

and if I don’t become that, I have no one to blame but myself because I am free.”

Driving a cab in New York City has never been a very profitable job, but the mere fact that this im-migrant had freedom to select this occupation on his own free will is priceless.

I am not sure what happened to this gentleman after the PBS show aired, but lately, I am reminded of this interview every time I read the news, watch TV, or listen to others talk about the current state of affairs in this great nation of ours.

It is a known fact that we, as Americans, have a very short memory span and sometimes tend to for-get history. Ask any social studies professor, and they will also tell you that, through history, we do not always know what we want.

Those same intellectuals and in my opinion most of America, however, will also tell you that we always strive to be great capitalists.

Generally, I do not know many people who do not want to be successful and make a comfortable living for themselves and their families. This is a primary concept that this country was built upon.

The Russian cabby from PBS is a perfect example of what America was, is, and hopefully always will be: a land of freedom and opportunity, the kind of freedom and opportunity you will not find in any other non-capitalist society.

I do not understand the need of some of our fel-low Americans to promote anarchism, socialism, and even communism to replace capitalism in the United States, of all places. I also do not understand the au-dacity of the same people who are guaranteed to be free and vocal by our Constitution to rally against the same system that enables them to do so.

America is a civil, democratic society. America is still a superpower and a land for freedom-seeking people from all over the world to come, contribute, and establish themselves in society.

Americans are free to make personal and political choices. Americans have freedom to achieve almost anything, even in today’s economy.

And in case you’re not happy with what you have, talk to anyone who emigrated here from a former (or current) communist country about what it means to be free. America is still a great place to live.

Capitalism allows Americans to dream

Take a moment to appreciate loved ones

Construction causes inconveniences

Michael MayzlinContributor

Ryan SmithContributor

Nicki KostrzewaAgora Staff

Briefly: Humanities/Social Sciences gains new dean

Dr. Paul Hedeen has accepted the po-sition of Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences at MCCC.

Hedeen was one of five finalists, and completed an interview via Skype before visiting the college.

He is currently employed by Wartburg College, located in Iowa, where he is a full-time English professor and the coor-dinator of Interdisciplinary Humanities.

Hedeen holds a Ph.D. in English from Northwestern University, a master’s de-gree in English from the University of Akron and a bachelor’s degree from Kent State University.

He will continue to work at Wartburg College through April. He officially be-gins at MCCC on May 1.

He was the unanimous choice of the selection committee, which consisted of dean Vinnie Maltese, human relations coordinator Molly McCutchen, profes-sors Bill McCloskey, Lori Jo Couch, Tim Dillon, Dan Shaw and Lana Shryock, and Math/Science administrative assistant Laurel Johnston.

Student Government to host movie night

Student Government will be hosting a movie night on Thursday, Dec. 8, at 7 p.m. in the Little Theater.

The Little Theater is located in C3, in the basement of the C Building. Pop-corn will be provided. The event is free to attend.

The selected movie will be A Night-mare Before Christmas.

Meyer Theater to host several events

MCCC’s choir, The Agora Chorale, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 6. The event is free to attend.

The musical ensemble The Saline Fid-dlers will be performing holiday music with hints of American folk fiddle, blue-grass, jazz, western swing and Celtic tra-ditions on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets will be $15 for general admission, and $25 for VIP seating.

The Symphony Band will be per-forming Monday, Dec. 12 at 7:30 p.m. Admission to this event is free and open to the community.

Two and a Half Comics, which fea-tures Bart Rockett and Scott Woodl, is a comedy skit which utilizes ventrilo-quism. The event will take place Friday, Jan. 13, at 7:30 p.m. Tickets cost $10 for children and $20 for general admission.

Cartoons (above: “North Custer Rage” and to the right: “it’s MCCC Man!”) are by

Jacob Thompson.

Jacob Thompson’s cartoons can be

found at The Agora website: www.mccca-

gora.com/media.

Dec. 5, 2011 Campus News THE AGORA 3


Student Services Counselor Steve Mapes has produced a report profiling students at MCCC.

The report says a decline in enrollment is affecting many community colleges. At MCCC, enrollment is down from last year by 283 students, or about 6 percent, but this year’s numbers were still the

fourth highest in MCCC’s history, with 4440 students enrolled.

“That’s quite a few students for a small institution,” said Mapes. “We were start-ing to stretch the seams of the institu-tion.”

The report attributes the decrease in enrollment to several factors, including a smaller Monroe County high school graduating class; fewer occupational re-

training grants, which was caused by a lack of government funding for displaced workers; and the new Federal healthcare legislation, which allows parents to keep their children on their family’s health in-surance plan until they turn 26.

“We anticipated a decrease in enroll-ment. There are a lot of factors,” Mapes said.

Numerous statistics were presented

in the report, including the gender, resi-dence, and race of students.

There are significantly more female students at MCCC, with 60 percent fe-male and 40 percent male.

These percentages have remained the same within a few percent for more than a decade.

Out-of-district and out-of-state enroll-ment is up by 2 percent, making it a to-

tal of 16 percent of students enrolled at MCCC who come from out-of-district.

“I think it’s just a percentage shift,” said Mapes.

“A lot of them are coming from down-river: Taylor, Woodhaven, Flatrock.”

Mapes’ report also shows that the en-rollment of African American students at MCCC has nearly quadrupled since 2002, and now sits at 163 students.


Monroe Public Schools has reached a deal to sell Dream 97.5, the college radio station, to Monroe Public Access Cable Television.

The deal will allow MCCC students to continue to use the station as the labora-tory for radio classes.

The partnership between MCCC and Monroe Public Schools dates back to 2005. The college has paid all costs as-sociated with operating and maintaining Dream 97.5 in exchange for students in the college’s radio broadcasting program using the station.

Citing declining revenue over a three-year period, MCCC chose not renew its partnership with Monroe Public Schools earlier this year and eliminated funding for Dream 97.5 from its 2011-2012 bud-get.

Monroe Public Schools spent the sum-mer months seeking a new partner to maintain the station, considering several offers before accepting a proposal from MPACT.

“The decision by the Monroe Public School District to sell the high school radio station to the local public access television studio is a big win for MCCC radio and television broadcast students,” said MCCC President David Nixon.

Nixon said he also thought having the radio station housed at MPACT would be more convenient for students, citing bet-

ter hours and off-street parking.“It’s good for MCCC and Monroe

High School students,” said Milward Beaudry, MCCC’s adjunct broadcast instructor and MPACT studio engineer. “It’s good for the community.”

Reaction to the sale from MCCC’s Broadcasting Club was generally posi-tive, although several students expressed frustation that the months of uncertainty over the summer prevented them from accomplishing as much as they had wanted.

“I think overall it’s a good thing,” said Broadcasting Club President Kaitlin Bereczky. “It gives us a lot more oppor-tunity to do a lot more things.”

“The sale to MPACT has cost us a lot of time, but overall we’ll get to do a lot more,” said Miles Lark, a member of the club. “We’ll be able to expand our hori-zons as a club.”

The sale is still awaiting approval from the FCC, but Beaudry expects it will happen.

“We don’t see any problems in getting this sale,” said Beaudry. “Usually there’s not a big deal with these things. They usually go over quite smoothly.”

The radio station’s sale has had an ad-ditional effect at MCCC. Courses for the college’s radio and television broadcast-ing program will be taught this winter semester.

“The college is donating all of its ra-dio equipment to MPACT,” said Joe

Verkennes, MCCC’s Director of Market-ing. “MCCC will continue to offer radio courses, utilizing MPACT’s facilities and the station, based on student demand for

such classes.”Because MCCC had been waiting

for an outcome on the station, the radio courses were not placed in the winter se-

mester course catalog. Students interest-ed in taking the classes can register using Web Pal via MCCC’s website.

MPACT purchases Dream 97.5

photo by Taylor Pinson

The Broadcasting Club, which uses Dream 97.5 extensively, is up and running again. Due to the uncertain nature of the radio sta-tion and the college’s future involvement, the club was placed on a temporary hold. Since MPACT purchases the station and since MCCC will continue to offer broadcasting classes, pending enrollment, the club has once again become active.

Annual student profile data released by counselors

X-TECH: Industrial Tech division showcasesprograms, careers in open house

photos by Mandi Davis

The welding program at MCCC was on full display. Welding

grant instructor Jason Karamol (above) was present to discuss

and answer questions regard-ing the college’s program or the field of welding. (Right) Karamol

displayed some of the equip-ment the program utlizes, and showcased some of the things

the welding can be used to make (below).


X-Tech, held Nov. 10, exhibited the various fields of study in the Industrial Technology division that are available at the college, as well as some of the activi-ties available to students. The robotics club displayed its robot (left) while the automotive program (top) and green energy (above) were highlighted.

4 THE AGORA Campus News Dec. 5, 2011

Nicki Kostrewza Agora Staff


Students interested in the field of law enforcement had a chance to experience what it feels like to stand in the legal spotlight when the Criminal Justice Club hosted a mock trial.

The concept of a mock trial was brought to club advisor Penelope Dunn by a local attorney. When the idea was presented to the club, they were on board with the ac-tivity.

“I think they learned the court room process better then what we could ever teach in a classroom,” Dunn said.

After roles were assigned, each group met many times to rehearse their parts. The witnesses who would be used by the prosecu-tors knew what questions would be asked, but had no idea what would come from the defense.

Other club members who didn’t have roles helped out in other ways: setting up, presenting ideas, and supporting those who were participating.

“It’s a lot different from the movies. There were a few ques-

tions that could have been worded better. Also a few could have been taken out all together,” student Emily Green said.

It took about two months for all the information and steps to get together before they could actu-ally present their cases.

“While it was going on it seemed like a lot of work, but I re-ally think it was truly worthwhile and am hoping to continue this event,” Dunn said.

Attorneys from the community also made themselves available to the students for assistance and mentoring in order to prepare their cases.

“I thought it was well played. Students had an understanding for the legal jargon. It was very edu-cational and a fun way for those who’ve not seen a trial, to see how it was run,” student Danielle D’Anna said.

The main point of the exercise was to get the students involved, showing them what it feels like to be in front of a jury, Dunn said. It also gives them a chance to start thinking and playing a role in the court room.

“I think they did tremendous,” Dunn said. “I mean, it is a lot harder than people realize.”

NOT GUILTY


Above: Steven Songalski played Robin Banks, a young man who was on trial for arson and murder. Judge Frank Arnold was the presid-ing judge for the trial.

Far left: The event was held in the little theatre in the C Building. The jury was unable to reach consen-sus, which resulted in Songaliski being proclaimed innocent.

Left: Travis Adams and Alex Hawes were the prosecuting attorneys.

Mock trial inspires MCCC students

Ryan SmithContributor

The Occupy Wall Street movement has come to a crossroads.

Founded in September on issues of social and class inequality, the Occupy movement began as a response to corpo-rate power and greed.

Now the movement is searching for di-rection and practical application.

Andre Damon of the Word Socialist Web Site, in a public forum titled “Oc-cupy Wall Street and Beyond: Equality And The Fight For Socialism,” spoke to a small crowd at Monroe County Com-munity College about what socialism means and how it applies to the Occupy

movement’s goals.“This is part of a global response by

working people to the economic crisis,” Damon said.

Damon presented figures that showed poverty rates in the United States have risen from 11.7 percent in 2001 to 15.1 percent in 2010, while median household incomes also fell from $53,252 in 1999 to $49,400 in 2010.

“Still, the percentage of total national income received by the upper .01 per-cent of the population doubled over the course of 10 years,” Damon said.

According to Damon’s statistics, American wages have fallen 2.7 percent, yet corporate profits have risen by 8.7 percent, with the wealth of the top 400 families in America also going up by 12 percent.

“The occupy movement, in its essence, saw the impetus to do something about this,” Damon said.

The response to the Occupy move-ment, however, has been mixed. In Sep-tember, police arrested 400 protestors at the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and

later dispersed tear gas and rubber bullets at California’s Occupy Oakland in Octo-ber to deter protestors.

“All of this is feeding on the central point that there is a crisis or crossroads in the movement itself,” Damon said.

Where does the movement go from here? The Socialist Equality Party, which Damon represents, believes that the

movement must be won by the working class, and for socialism.

“The way to have a political movement that has real strength is to place it on a social class,” Damon said.

“When you talk about the ‘99 percent,’ you have people who work for a living, who are struggling to get by, who have no prospects, whose wages are falling every year, and then you have people who are pretty well off. People who re-ally want a somewhat cosmetic change in society.”

The Occupy movement, in the eyes of the SEP, has to focus on socialism and the working class, the true ’99 percent,’ if it hopes to succeed and have real po-litical pull.

“There’s no party of the working class, as of yet, in public view. In fact, the working class, if you had to categorically define it, is probably 85 to 90 percent of the American population,” Damon said.

Damon discussed three ways to cor-rect social inequality in America. The rich could be taxed, or all of the wealth in America could be redistributed. How-

ever, Damon acknowledged that both methods are vulnerable to personal greed and proposed a third solution: socialism.

“This is a mass movement of working people that basically takes political pow-er and enacts laws that say ‘OK, the ma-jor corporations like Disney and Apple, we’re not going to destroy them, because they do useful things,’ ” Damon said.

“But right now they’re being misman-aged, in the interest of generating profits for the rich when there are instances of mass unemployment. They should be taken over and run democratically, so that everyone has a real genuine vote on all issues.”

In Damon’s vision of Socialist Ameri-ca, the aim of society, as opposed to mak-ing a profit as it is now, would be to make sure that unemployment is gone, and to make sure that everyone has enough of what they need and what is necessary for survival.

“The only way to achieve equality un-der the present set of circumstances is so-cialism, to take over major corporations and run them democratically,” he said.

Local attorneys, newly elected judge offer guidance, help

OWS represenative occupies MCCC

Whitman Center hosts conservation lecture

Economy and financial crisis discussed by socialist speaker

Autumn JacksonContributor

Shock was the theme of the evening Nov. 16 during Conservation Night at the Whitman Center.

The crowd was startled by statistics offered by each of the featured speak-ers – Amy Gilhouse, of the Michigan Agriculture Environmental Steward-ship Program (MAEAP), Al Norwood, district conservationist for Monroe County, and Jamie Dean, Recycling and Green Energy director at the Mon-roe County Health Department.

Gilhouse discussed the importance of testing water in households.

“Well water should be tested once a year for contaminants,” Gilhouse said.

She said there have been some alarming results from contaminant testing in the area.

“Over 15 pesticides have been found in Monroe County,” Gilhouse said.

She said county residents can visit www.semcog.org for steps to protect water.

Dean discussed recycling, and what happens when people don’t.

“Each person produces 4.43 pounds of trash a day,” Dean said.

She also explained the economic benefits of recycling.

“Each piece of recycled material could create up to 36 jobs,” Dean said.

Residents looking for information concerning recycling can visit Ecov-ille- an online destination that provides info on recycling - at www.myecov-ille.com/monroecounty.

Ecoville also contains a Groundwa-ter Quiz, which tells a resident the risk they face for contamination in their area.

Norwood took residents on a virtual tour of the Web Soil Survey on the website www.mi.nrcs.usda.gov, under

the resources tab.This survey describes the types of

soil on resident’s land. Residents can also find out soil components on any land in most parts of the U.S.

Norwood also spoke about water in-formation.

“Most people are amazed to know Cape Town, South Africa has the third best water, with the U.S. only having the eighth best,” Norwood said.

Norwood also spoke on the impor-tance of farming around the world.

“Farming is our bread and butter,” Norwood said with a chuckle.

People looking for more information on conservation, green energy, and re-cycling can pick up available flyers in the Whitman Center office or contact the Monroe County Environmental Health Division at 2553 South Custer Road Monroe, MI 48181 or by phone at (734)-240-7909.

“This is part of a

global response

by working people to

the economic

crisis.” Andre Damon

World Socialist Website

A larger-than-life exhibit, “Soil: The Foundation of Life,” has filled the lobby of the Whitman Center since mid-October.

Dec. 5, 2011 Features THE AGORA 5


Summers are starting to be warmer and hotter and spring is coming weeks earlier ,with chirping birds and sunny skies.

Peter Sinclair presented “Climate Deni-al: Crock of the Week” at MCCC on Nov. 14. Sinclair is a long-time environmental and energy activist and the producer of the YouTube series of the same name of his presentation.

Sinclair got involved in the environment and climate change movements in the 1980s. He works with a panel of nine oth-er environmentalists on issues pertaining to the environment and climate change.

Sinclair discussed with students and participants the importance of global warming. He also worked to educate the audience on solutions that could delay the impact of global warming.

Global warming has been receiving the blame for most of the world’s wacky weather; 2011 has been the chart topper for the oddest weather in memory.

“Spring is starting to come about two weeks earlier, with birds chirping and flowers growing,” Sinclair said.

This past summer was said to be among the warmest in recorded history, with an average of 87 degrees.

It is no shocker that the United States has recently seen weird weather patterns. In Monroe County, a tornado hit Dundee in June 2010, and then just last summer pavement buckled from the heat.

“Earth doesn’t rotate exactly in a circle,

more an elliptical circle,” Sinclair said. “This cycle differentiates every 1,000 to 2,000 years, causing ice ages.”

Scientists have been studying the peren-nial ice caps, glaciers of ice that are locat-ed in the pole regions, which have been shrinking in recent years.

Sinclair touched on two solutions that could help delay the effects of global warming – solar and wind energy.

Solar energy is captured by solar pan-els that can be seen across the country, in local neighborhoods and even on some household items.

An experimental solar energy field is lo-cated behind the MCCC campus.

In some parts of the country, houses that are powered by solar panels are be-ing built.

There are also companies that offer solar leasing to those who would like to switch and make their houses energy efficient.

Wind energy is captured by wind tur-bines, which are beginning to spring up in the Midwest but are more commonly found in the western states, such as Cali-fornia.

“Wind turbines are starting to be seen more in Michigan,” Sinclair said.

In 2010, Gratiot County was approved for a wind turbine development; 135 tur-bines will be distributed around the coun-ty.

This development alone created jobs for Michigan, from assembling the turbines to maintaining them.

The wind industry also is offering stu-dents another career opportunity.

People have been starting to understand climate change and have been coming around to making their own changes to help save the planet, Sinclair said.

It is not too late to try out solutions that could help make the planet last a little bit longer, he said.


Mark Dushane has taken health and fitness to a new level.

He teaches weight lifting and training at MCCC, and also a walking and jogging class; next semester he plans to take students to the ski slopes.

He’s a walking billboard himself for the value of physical fitness.

“I think it would be a great way for people to stay in shape and keep their body and mind sound and that’ll help them with their academics,” Dushane said.

“Coaches will let me talk to their players in the spring time and try to get them to think about, now that their baseball career is over, to consider a career

in officiating,” Dushane said. Dushane is also going to be starting a new course

in the upcoming semester. It will involve the work-ing on and improving one’s ability of skiing and snowboarding. Class will be held for five weeks up at Mount Brighton; students will meet at the college around 4:30 and car pool up to the mountain.

The class starts at 5 p.m. and will end at 10:55 p.m.; it also counts as a one hour credit. There will also be a fee of $175-$195, depending on whether students have their own equipment.

Through all this work, Dushane continues to show his belief of how important exercise and being ac-tive is to students.

“It’s great for me, it’s really helping me working with them because I’m doing a lot of the stuff my-

self,” Dushane said. Dushane is continuing to go to great lengths to

show how important fitness is not only to one’s body, but to one’s mind.

“I’ve talked to a couple of my students in my classes about how a great stress reliever it is,” said Dushane.

Before Dushane became a part-time teacher at MCCC, he taught at an elementary school in Sum-merfield for 33 years. He also has officiated high school football and baseball for 27 years.

Through Lifelong Learning, he also teaches classes on officiating football and baseball, as well as boys’ high school baseball and girls’ high school fast pitch softball. Anyone interested should contact Dushane at [email protected].

Lorrie MayzlinAgora Staff

Tyler RogoffAgora Staff

The Veteran’s Club at MCCC seeks to unite military members and veterans, providing a place for them to connect with each other.

The club, which hopes to offer sup-port and cameraderie for vets, is still in the formation stages.

The club’s first meeting was held in early October. Only three veterans at-tended, and two were MCCC counselor Steve Mapes and retired history profes-sor James DeVries.

At this meeting, it was decided that brainstorming was needed on how to reach more military members and vets. More than 60 students are using military service educational benefits this semes-ter.

On Oct. 13. Colonel David Suther-land, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, met with MCCC students, faculty and the community in the college cafeteria. He spoke about the issues that affect veterans in higher edu-cation.

According to Sutherland, veterans and military members face a myriad of chal-lenges when pursuing their degrees. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, anxiety, unemployment, homelessness, and various dependencies on drugs and alcohol topped the Colonel’s list.

While these issues have always affect-ed service members, they have become more prevalent following the conflicts in the last ten years.

Colonel Sutherland spoke passion-ately about military members returning with brain damage, having flashbacks and dealing with isolationism within their communities and higher education facilities.

Colonel Sutherland struck a nerve when he spoke of isolationism, because MCCC’s Veteran’s Club witnessed this first-hand the previous month.

The question then was how do stu-dents, faculty, and the community ad-dress the needs of our returning military members? How can these military mem-bers, who don’t want to be different — but are — be reached?

From boot camp forward, it is in-

stilled in every member how to rely on the military family. Boot camp breaks down personal identity and builds re-cruits into service members.

Isolationism from the outside world begins from boot camp and continues throughout military service. Bases are cities within cities, offering much of what a regular town has to offer.

Colonel Sutherland first suggested that in order to attract military members to

club meetings, beer should be brought on to campus. If the Veteran’s Club was promoted as a place for vets and military members to relax and connect, rather than as a support group, more military members may seek it out.

Knowing that his suggestion would be met with opposition, Sutherland then suggested sports team be used as a way to attract military members.

Wrestling, football, basketball, soccer and hockey, he explained, are things that bind all military members together. It is one of the pastimes of home that mem-bers use to cope with being overseas.

To date, MCCC has few sports teams available for students. Students can par-ticipate in athletic clubs, such as bowl-ing, volleyball and running, but none compete in regular, competitive intercol-legiate leagues.

Linda Lauer, a member of the MCCC Board of Trustees, is an advocate for sports teams. But she says there are sev-eral hurdles to overcome before sports are a viable option.

According to Lauer, one of the main reasons that sports are not a part of the college currently is the lack of funding. The college general fund is struggling right now, and there is no current way to add funding for sports teams.

To even start the discussion of sports, the college would have to implement a policy change that involves some sort of registration fee, such as a $25 addition to tuition per student, she said.

In a poll of students, over 50 percent supported a small fee to add sports to campus, Lauer said. Currently, sports clubs only receive $100 for the entire year from the college.

When past high school graduating classes were polled, about 50 percent said they would be more interested in at-tending MCCC if the college had sports

teams. “Sports give people a sense of belong-

ing,” Lauer said.The only way sports could be added at

MCCC would be if the Board of Trustees approved a student fee, Lauer said.

Although she brings up the idea at ev-ery meeting, the issue has never gone to a vote.

“Students have to organize and be vo-cal to the board,” Lauer said.

If a majority of students want sports and suggest it at every board meeting, the trustees will not be able to continue avoiding a vote on it, she said.

Even if a vote passed, starting sports teams would likely includ financial chal-lenges.

Teams may have to do fund raising to pay for equipment and travel fees, or may have to pay some out-of-pocket, as current teams do.

MCCC also could implement a pay-to-play fee, such as local high schools have, to raise extra money for teams.

Although sport teams may cost the col-lege money at the start, it is possible that the increased pride in the college could actually lead to increased enrollment, which could end up bringing in extra revenue to the college, Lauer said..

photo by Lorrie Mayzlin

Colonel David Sutherlandl, assistant to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, cites the lack of sports teams as being the roadblock to getting more military service members involved in the community.

Military members face isolationism Colonel Sutherland suggests sports teams as solution

photo by Mandi Davis

Peter Sinclair delivered a lecture regarding the concept of global warming. Several students and faculty members were in at-tendence.

Professor stresses physical fitness, offers instruction

Expert decries climate change crocks

“S tuden t s have to or-ganize and be vocal to the board.”

Linda LauerMCCC Board

of Trustees member

Global warming, green energy discussed in MCCC presentation

“I think it would be a great way for peo-ple to stay in shape and keep their body and mind sound and that’ll help them with their academ-ics.”

Mark DushaneMCCC Fitness instructor

6 THE AGORA A&E Dec. 5, 2011

Michelle DanglerAgora Staff

When you think of ce-lebrities coming to Mon-roe, you often think of the big name tickets that float through during one of the summer events, like the Jazz Festival or the Mon-roe County Fair.

But on Nov. 19, MCCC played host to The Soci-ety for the Preservation of Bluegrass Music of America’s 2010 band of the year, The Grascals.

The Grascals, founded in 2004, gained a level of notability by playing on the Grand Ole Opry and bluegrass festivals across the country.

The Grascals are Terry Eldredge (guitar/vocals), Jamie Johnson (guitar/vocals), Danny Roberts

(mandolin), Terry Smith (upright bass/vocals), Kristin Scott Benson (ban-jo), and Jeremy Abshire (fiddle).

They have produced seven albums to date, and have had three albums peak at number one on the United States Blue-grass charts: “Long List of Heartaches (2006),” “Keep on Walkin (2008),” and “Country Classics with a Bluegrass Spin (2011).”

Approximately 250 guests filled Meyer The-ater for a two hour perfor-mance by The Grascals, with a local band named Flatland Grass opening.

The Grascals are a Nashville based sextet, and their instruments and voices blended to create a great introduction to the

historic and rural genre of bluegrass.

They graced the stage with only two guitars, an upright bass, a fiddle, a banjo and a mando-lin and performed songs from their latest album. Their song, “I Am Strong” brought tears to many in the audience.

The song is a dedication to children who are sick (St Jude’s patients); it is their words to the world.

“Know in your heart, when you see me, I am strong. I wear a mask, I have no hair, I may be sick, I may be scared, but I know God, he answers prayers, and I am strong.”

They also sang their rendition of Louisiana Saturday Night (original by Bob McDill, 1981), which can also be found

Twangy sounds of bluegrass music fill Meyer Theater

The Grascals perform at MCCC

Michael MayzlinContributor

Just like its predecessors before, 2011 had a lot of good and down-right ugly music come out from the midst of the record labels, indepen-dent producers, and rapidly deterio-rating airwaves that we call radio.

First, the good. 2011 from its in-ception looked promising for the mere fact that The TingTings finally put some new tracks together.

After a two year hiatus and three overplayed songs, The Ting Tings fi-nally released “Hang It Up.”

This awesome song combines an electrifying Billy Squire-esque guitar riff set in the background of Katie White spitting out some edgy rhymes.

This was also a huge year for elec-tronic producers, DJs, and re-mixers. I can’t say enough about the quality of the groundbreaking “Group Ther-apy” album by Above And Beyond. Their single “Sun And Moon” is full of exciting and futuristic synthesizer lines, sharp and intelligent lyrics.

Dash Berlin, a Dutch DJ, had a myriad of hits starting with mysteri-ous “Disarm Yourself” that featured the vocals by non-other than an Aus-tralian dance diva Emma Hewitt.

Dash Berlin is considered to be one of the top DJs in the world at the moment along with Armin Van Buuren, who never disappoints, and 2011 was no different. Armin col-laborated with Nadia Ali to produce “Feels So Good.” which automati-cally took the reins in most of the dance charts around the world and became an instant classic.

Adele had a good year. Her current album “21” already produced two hits: an overplayed “Rolling In The

Deep” and “Someone Like You.” The latter, however, is a great, emo-tional, and sultry song that doesn’t seem to get old no matter how many times you listen to it.

Also, on a lighter side of music, LMFAO sounded pretty amusing with “Party Rock Anthem” and their latest, sillier “Sexy And I Know It.” Not only did they provide a soundtrack for a Kia commercial, but their hits were also made into light hearted, comical music vid-eos. Also, some of the successes of 2011 included Foster The People “Pumped Up Kicks,” and Katy Per-ry’s “Last Friday Night”.

Commercially, Latin Hip-Hop came out to light in 2011. Out of Colombia, Bomba Estereo’s Liliana Somet yelled “Fuego” all the way down to the record studio, and Lili-ana’s collaboration with Nina Dioz on “La Cumbia Prohibida” is a hip-hop match made in rhythm heaven.

Lastly, the award for the worst song of the year goes to (drum roll): Kelly Rowland feat. Lil’ Wayne “Motiva-tion.” It’s actually not so much the song that is bad, but the lyrics that Lil’ Wayne managed to spit out.

Every sentence is a simile that just doesn’t make an iota of sense. It’s not worth repeating the entire gib-berish, but he ends it with “When I’m done she hold me like a con-versation.” Possibly, Kelly Rowland can “leave him like an argument“ and find herself a more talented artist to work with.

The answer to my last month column’s trivia about a relation-ship between a pencil and a cassette tape is simple. Insert a pencil into a tape and with a circular motion the tape gets rewound manually. Happy 2012 everyone!

2011: Year in MusicA look at the best and worst music of the year

photos by Michelle Dangler

The Grascals is a band based out of Nashville. Its music has a bluegrass influence. Many attendees were moved by a song en-titled “I Am Strong.” The song is a tribute to children who face diseases such as cancer.

Dec. 5, 2011 A&E THE AGORA 7

Jacob ThompsonAgora Staff

In June 2011, the television station Adult Swim began running one of its signature ‘bumps’ during commercial breaks, which read the following:

“New word we just learned that we wish we could unlearn

Brony [bro-nee] n. An adult male fan of the children’s cartoon My Little Pony

Updated all-time list of creepy weird things that scare us:

1. Furries.2. Bronies.3. The word “moist.”Adult Swim wasn’t lying, this phe-

nomenon actually exists; a group of men, self deemed as bronies, seeking to be the ultimate hipsters, liking what nobody else possibly could: My-Little-Pony. No, really. No, really!

In 2010, a Hasbro owned television

station The Hub, recruited Lauren Faust, creative mind behind “The Powerpuff Girls,” to create a televi-sion adaptation of its new My Little Pony toy line, premiering October that year.

The website Cartoon Brew re-leased an article attacking the show with a surprisingly alarmist tone, claim-ing that the ‘creator-driven’ era was over, and this was a show with no substance outside of promoting toys. 4chan, the largest image board on the web, caught wind of this article, and decided to watch and see what all the fuss was about.

Ironically enough, the article brought the board’s attention to a show it may otherwise have ignored. Not only did the show have the same wide-eyed charm which the Powerpuffs used to call our masculinity into question, but the show uses flash animation, resulting in a show with the polish only a television series can

pro-vide, but the visuals and design of a web cartoon one would find on YouTube or New-g r o u n d s . The most w a t c h e d episode one

of the series expecting to be done after 20 minutes, but fell into the devi-

ous trap of a cliffhanger ending, the second half of which would conveniently air a short two days

after the article. The users were hooked; perhaps

too much so. Pony topics

and images be-gan to pop up so

frequently across 4chan, ANY other discussion became nearly impossible. On a NSFW board where literally anything goes, My Little Pony

became the first topic banned outright.

The ponies continue to spread their influence to other sites,

however, like Reddit, Tumblr, YouTube, and even brought to the attention of other media such as Fox News and Game In-former magazine.

On an episode of the “Colbert Report,” Steven Colbert even goes out of his way to give a big shout-out to any bronies who may be watching.

Did we lose you? No? You’re still reading an article about “My Little Pony?” Good! The show follows a uni-corn named Twilight Sparkle and her assistant, a young dragon, as she learns magic and makes friends in Ponyville. You can’t see yourself ever sitting through this can you? When looked at objectively, this show shares many ele-ments with media accepted by people outside the child demographic in the past, such as “Pokémon,” “Adventure Time,” of course “The Powerpuff Girls,” and even “Harry Potter.”


It has been one hard year for Blink-182 to release “Neighborhoods” for diehard fans.

This album is the first one since the band separated eight years prior. Their last album release was “blink-182” or self-titled, which was released in 2003.

Blink-182 gives “Neighborhoods” a new edge while also giving it an old school blink edge at the same time. “Ghost on the Dance Floor” opens the album with a song telling fans that it is okay to miss someone; almost giving hope that not everything dies.

“Up All Night,” the lead single of the album, helps boost the album with ex-citement. The group definitely put forth effort in making this a Box Car Racer of Blink-182. This is class mixed with new beats that each incorporate.

This song was one of four demos the band had produced since the reunion with it being the one near completion. It was originally named “The Night the Moon was Gone,” however as record-ing continued they kept going back to “Up All Night” and the track got to be heavier and harder than before.

“After Midnight” is where Travis Barker starts to add a hippy beat to the drums, giving the song an excellent position on the album given it was the second single. Barker’s hip beat makes for a great tune to go with it, like Tom DeLonge and Mark Hoppus make it known with their vocals.

“Kaleidoscope” definitely describes and makes the album the most exciting. Just in the beat and lyrics it tells the sto-ry in three small minutes, immediately showing signs of transformation of the band during the album’s recording pro-cess.

Blink-182 even gave this album a whole new twist when it came to the composition. With Barker, DeLonge, and Hoppus giving something each to the album, that gives it the new blink edge.

“Snake Charmer” was originally titled “Genesis,” as a reference to the book Genesis. The track tells the bibli-cal tale of Adam and Eve.

A catchy song with a weird title is “MH 4.18.2011” which was initially ti-tled “Hold On.” Instead the group came across the new name that DeLonge thought was catchy like a virus.

Before “Neighborhoods” Blink-182 could be described as a punk-rock band.

Overall the album has a great new twist that gives a whole new edge to blink-182. The album gets a 9/10 with great praise and hope for the future.


Coldplay, a British alternative rock band, has been around since 1996. This is thanks to Chris Martin (lead vocalist) and Jonny Buckland (lead guitarists) meeting during their college years at the University College London.

Coldplay recently released its new-est album, “Mylo Xyloto” (pronounced my-lo zy-letoe) on Oct. 25. Produced by Markus Davis, Daniel Green, and Rik Simpson, with “enoxification,” by Bri-an Eno, this album was Coldplay’s first release since “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends.”

“Mylo Xyloto” is an album that has its ups and downs. One thing that I will point out is that it really seemed like a new sound for them. It was very instru-mental and up-beat compared to some of their usual work; there was also a great mix of vocals in there as well that really made the songs come to life.

The most popular song, according to iTunes, was “Paradise.” It was a nice mix of instrumental with a pinch of techno here and there, making it all to-gether a very well rounded piece.

A decent portion of the songs seemed to match the rest of the album. The songs were really carrying different tunes; however they all seemed to hold

form on one sour subject of love and heartbreak.

The two songs that really didn’t seem to flow in this album. “Don’t Let it Break Your Heart” and “Up with the Birds” were given very low scores because it seems they put too much in-strumental in these songs. They really lacked in beat and flow and just brought things down a bit.

Even though some of the songs felt really over done with sappy words and tons of instrumental work, the album was decent.

All in all “Mylo Xyloto” deserves a 7/10; it was an okay album with a few flaws, but hey no one’s perfect.


Very rarely does a game come around that makes me discard any sort of a social life. I can only remember three games doing so: Halo 2, Mass Effect, and The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim.

Although Skyrim doesn’t have the amazing story that can draw you in like Mass Effect does, the addiction is the same. You are the Dragonborn, a person with the ability to speak the language of the dragons and use words of power to create shouts, which aid you in battle.

Although the story in the main quest it-self isn’t anything fantastic, it’s the other main storylines that draw you in. The mage’s college storyline may be the best side storyline I’ve ever seen in a game, with a couple of plot twists that keep you hooked. Playing through the Compan-ions’ storyline (the Skyrim adaptation of the Fighter’s Guild) is terrific and draws you in through the story.

When it comes to pure fun, though, the civil war quest line may be the most fun I’ve ever had in an Elder Scrolls game. Attacking cities alongside the Storm-cloaks or is a rush.

One of the best things about Skyrim is the fact that almost no battle is scripted. Upon my first arrival to the mage’s col-lege in Winterhold, I talked with one of the members, who gave me a tour. As my tour ended and I walked toward the doors to access the main building of the

college, a dragon landed in the middle of the walkway and started attacking the mages, along with myself. A short fight ensued, and the dragon was defeated.

The whole scenario (which has been uploaded to YouTube by multiple peo-ple) was one of the most exhilarating moments I experienced in the game. I’ve asked some other people who have played through that part of the game, and only one out of eight have said that it happened for them as well.

Nothing is better than a game that is never the same, no matter how many times it is played through. Although Skyrim doesn’t have that main story that draws you in and makes it feel like you’re controlling the character of a virtual book like Mass Effect does, the fact that any-thing can happen at any time keeps you going. It has been a long time since I’ve found a game that I put 70 hours into in two weeks and ignored all other games that I have.

Skyrim left my copy of Modern War-fare 3 sitting on the shelf, collecting dust. It also left my copy of Halo: Anniversary on the shelf with it. Never before have I had two new games get ignored like those two did due to another game be-ing that much better. With me being the huge Halo fan that I am, I still find it hard to believe that Halo: Anniversary hasn’t been finished. That shows how enthralled I have been by Skyrim.

Even though I’ve finished all of the

main storylines, I still have a plethora of random quests to do with an infinite amount left to be found. There is literally no limit to the amount of quests to do, as random ones will always pop up at the local taverns in every town.

The only issues that I have with Sky-rim are the amount of glitches. Shooting a fireball or another spell at a dragon that I killed and watching it fly out of sight at high speeds still entertains me, but when I find myself fighting a dragon that’s in-visible except for a few random spots of skin because I already killed it and it “re-vived” is not fun.

Even though Skyrim has a lot of glitch-es (some that make the game almost unplayable at points, such as when a Companion member follows you around the world talking to you every two sec-onds in an attempt to arrest you when he doesn’t have the ability to), the game is still a must play for any RPG fan, and any gamer in general. Once a patch comes out to fix the majority of the glitches that can frustrate you to the point of turning the game off, this game will easily win game of the year. Even with the glitches, Skyrim should still win GOTY.

In the end, I have to give Skyrim a 9.5 out of 10, only missing perfection due to the glitches. I have not been as enthralled by a game as I have been with Skyrim since Mass Effect 2 was released almost two years ago. A game like this comes out maybe once a year and it should not be missed by any gamer.

Men flock to children’s showMy Little Pony reboot creates generation of “Bronies”

Skyrim offers online interactive gameplay

Music Reviewsblink-182 delivers first album in years

Coldplay releases album with great sounds

8 THE AGORA Sports Dec. 5, 2011


As the season progresses, MCCC’s bowl-ing team is taking steps to a better season.

The MCCC Bowling Club recently par-ticipated in two tournaments sponsored by the American Heartland Intercollegiate Bowling Conference, in Wickliffe, Ohio .

MCC’s team, the Huskies, included Kyle Suttles, Don Jones, Jake Falzon, Chad LaF-leur, and Jeffrey Kaminski.

“The second tournament, they knew bet-ter what they were getting into, they had a better idea of what was coming, and they responded,” Jones said.

On Saturday, Nov. 5, the team beat one varsity team and three sub-varsity teams, finishing 22nd for national ranking points.

Suttles placed 82nd out of 230 in the men’s individual standings.

The next day, the Huskies gained victories over two varsity teams and two sub-varsity teams.

This resulted in a 21st place finish in na-tional ranking points. Jones placed 65th out of 230 in the men’s individual standings.

The next tournament for the Huskies is Saturday, Feb 3, in Cincinnati.

The Huskies are continuing to improve as the season goes on, Jones said.


North Carolina and Michigan State faced off in the Carrier Classic on Nov. 11 on the USS Carl Vinson.

It was the first annual Carrier Clas-sic, a college basketball game played on Veterans Day on a United States aircraft carrier.

This was the first ever game played on an active U.S. warship. Adding to the drama, the USS Carl Vinson was the ship that buried Osama bin Laden at sea ear-lier in the year.

The Carrier Classic was a morale boost to the entire crew of the Vinson. Having President Barack Obama on board was an added honor for players and crew members alike.

Seating for 7,000 spectators was con-structed, to be filled by mostly military members with no tickets being sold pub-licly.

The entire basketball set up took about ten days to build, and only a few days to take down and remove from the ship. If the ship had been needed to launch, the ship could be set up for military use in two days.

Other events involving the game it-self included every referee being retired military members, a stoppage of play for the daily retiring of the colors, and the big screen showed crew members taking down the flag and folding it, carrying it onto the ship.

Although this was a night meant to

honor the military, a basketball game was still played. Early on, it was a game of runs, with UNC taking off to a quick lead, then MSU coming back.

MSU destroyed UNC early with of-fensive rebounds, ending the game with 19 offensive boards to UNC’s 6. But the inability to convert on second chance points was an early sign that MSU may be outmatched.

Even with the rebounding advantage, MSU could not score. They only mus-tered 25 points in the first half, and en-tered the second half down 11. At the start of the second half, the UNC that everyone expected to see this season emerged.

North Carolina expanded the lead to 20 at one point in the second half, when Michigan State started to whittle down the lead. But whenever the lead shrank to around ten, UNC went on another run and spaced the game back out.

The ending was never in doubt, as UNC had a comfortable lead all the way to the finishing score of 67-55.

Harrison Barnes, a player of the year candidate, put UNC on his back offen-sively. Barnes finished the game with 17 points, leading both teams in that catego-ry, to go along with two assists and five rebounds.

John Henson was a defensive mon-ster throughout the game, blocking nine shots, one off the UNC single game re-cord. Henson also had a solid offensive game, scoring 12 points.

“It was fun. My excuse was sometimes I felt like the boat moved a little bit when I shot,” Henson joked. “That’s why I missed.”

Michigan State’s Draymond Green

ended the game with 18 rebounds, seven on the offensive boards. But Green shot 6-19 from the field, which was on pace with MSU’s horrific shooting, going 22-72 for the game as a team.

Even though his team lost, Green con-sidered it an honor to play in front of the military and the President.

“That was phenomenal,” he said. “It’s not every day anyone gets to do that.”


Detroit Tigers’ starting pitcher Justin Verlander has added the Most Valuable Player award to his growing collection, to go with his Cy Young trophy this season.

Verlander won the Ameri-can League MVP award after receiving 13 out of 28 first place votes and 280 points, as announced by the Base-ball Writers’ Association of America.

Boston Red Sox center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury fin-ished second with 242 points and four first place votes, while Toronto Blue Jays out-fielder Jose Bautista received five first place votes and 231 points.

Trailing them were Yan-kees center fielder Cur-tis Granderson with 215 points and Tigers first base-man Miguel Cabrera, who amassed 193.

Verlander is the first pitcher to win the MVP award since Dennis Eckersley in 1992 and the first starter to win the award since Roger Clemens in 1986.

“I think that a starting pitcher has to do something special to be as valuable or more so than a position play-er,” Verlander said. “Obvi-ously, having the chance to

play in 160-some games in the case of Miguel, they can obviously have a huge im-pact every day. That’s why, I’ve talked about on my day, on a pitcher’s day, the impact we have is tremendous on that game. So you have to have a great impact almost every time out to supersede [a position player] and it hap-pens on rare occasions, and I guess this year was one of those years.”

Verlander won the de facto AL pitching Triple Crown, leading the league in wins, with 24, strikeouts, with 250, and an ERA of 2.40.

Verlander joins the Brook-lyn Dodgers’ Don New-combe as the only players in MLB history to win the Cy Young, MVP, and Rookie of the Year in their careers.

The only other pitchers to win the Cy Young and MVP in the same season are Sandy Koufax, Bob Gibson, Denny McLain, Vida Blue, Rollie Fingers, and Willie Hernan-dez. McLain and Hernandez both pitched for Detroit when accomplishing their feat.

“He deserved it,” Tigers general manager Dave Dom-browski said. “He should have won it, but I didn’t know how voters would re-spond because the talk of some people not wanting to vote for a pitcher.”

Huskies begin to improve gameMCCC Bowling Club participates in two tournaments

photo by Nicki Kostrzewa

The MCCC Huskies bowling team competed in two tournaments in November, and is preparing for a tournament in Cincinatti on Feb. 3.

courtesy of Eva Alvarado

The basketball court was constructed in ten days and torn down a few days later. Had the ship been needed for combat, it could have been ready to deploy in two days. Tickets were distributed to military members and their families.

Michigan State plays in Carrier Classic

Justin Verlander wins AL Most Valuable Player award

courtesy of CUInternational

Verlander is one of two baseball players to ever win the MVP award, the Cy Young Award and the Rookie of the Year award.

12-5-2011

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