INSIDE LIFE
aaron McMann, Managing Editor...................989.774.4343 .......... news@cm-life.com Jessica fecteau, Student life Editor............. 989.774.4340 studentlife@cm-life.com Hailee Sattavara, Metro Editor .................... 989.774.4342 .........metro@cm-life.com Catey Traylor, University Editor ................... 989.774.4344 . university@cm-life.com
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cm-life.com
STATE COMMITTEE:
Wed., Dec. 5, 2012
FOOTBALL:
Rejects health exchange; Snyder looks for federal partnership » PAGE 5
Chippewas excited about bowl berth » PAGE 6
Search firm to find candidates for provost
Knight to brand CMU nationally By Tony Wittkowski Staff Reporter
By Kyle Kaminski Staff Reporter
An executive search firm has been hired and charged with finding a replacement for Provost Gary Shapiro, who will resign at the end of this year to return to teaching in 2014. In an interview with Central Michigan Life on Tuesday, University President George Ross said the search committee is making progress and hopes to name a finalist to the position by April of 2013. Parker Executive Search has been named as the search firm charged with finding the next provost. The firm, based out of Atlanta, has been operating since 1984 and has conducted over 1,000 seniorlevel searches. “We have a search consultant firm found and hope to have advertisements for the position posted by Jan. 1,” Ross said. “We’ll be speaking with candidates this month and hope to have a selection by the middle portion of next semester.” This month, the company assisted in the hiring of head football coaches at both Georgia State and North Carolina State University, and Parker Executive Search will orchestrate the provost search with the help of a 14-member search committee that was formed earlier this month. The committee is composed of a cross-section of campus faculty and staff and will be responsible for posting advertisements for the job opening, processing and viewing applications and conducting interviews with finalists. After finalists have been selected, they will be invited to campus for formal interviews and open forums. “The office of the provost plays a critical leadership role at CMU,” Ross said. “The largest division at the university reports to the provost. I’m literally looking for a partner, someone to be my right-hand. It’s very critical that they have a broad breadth of experience and knowledge.” Shapiro will serve as provost until the end of the year, at which point he will take a transitional leave before returning to campus to teach in 2014. During this one-year period, Shapiro will continue to receive his regular annual salary of $254,000. However, as Associate Vice President of Human Resources Lori Hella previously told Central Michigan Life, he won’t be absent for the transition. “It’s called a ‘leave,’ but the provost will still be actively involved in university business,” Hella said previously. “He will have an office on campus, will be working with the transition of the new provost, working with international education, as well as student learning and preparing to return to the classroom.” university@cm-life.com
ZACK WittMAN/STAFF PhOTOGRAPheR
Ovid-Elsie sophomore Kaitlyn Fabus follows do-it-yourself instructions as she sews together old clothing fabric to make a pair of mittens during the Pinterest Party Tuesday night in the Mackinaw Room of the Bovee University Center.
Pin it yourself Pinterest party attracts about 150 students for arts and crafts Katelyn Sweet | Staff Reporter
A line wrapped around the bottom of the Bovee University Center for the first Pinterest Party on Tuesday night in the Mackinac and AuSable rooms. The Central Michigan University Program Board created a free arts and crafts party based on cybercraze Pinterest. “This is the perfect event for students, because Pinterest is so popular, and they are always pinning things, but they never follow through,” said Nicole Murawski, public relations chair of Program Board. Pinterest is an interactive website that allows users to “pin” different ideas and categorize them onto boards. Murawski created the event thinking bigger scale events would be better for students. The Program Board supplied all the materials to create mittens, headbands, bracelets and coffee mugs. Sophomore Kaityln Fabus said she is obsessed with Pinterest. The OvidElsie native said she has made a lot of projects, including bulletin boards, canvases and mugs. “I think I’m pretty crafty,” Fabus said as she sewed a pair of mittens
ZACK WittMAN/STAFF PhOTOGRAPheR
A line stretches around to the Down Under Food Court as students wait for the Pinterest Party Tuesday night in the lower level of the Bovee University Center. The event included do-it-yourself-crafts that students could make from recycled items around the home.
she was making for herself. Some students were not attending the event for their own personal enjoyment, though. Sophomore Crystal Everett was making gifts for her mother for Christmas. This was the direct intention of Program Board Vice President Mark Fairbrother. “The planning of the event was an intent for the holiday season for students to use their own creativity with a strapped college student budget,” Fairbrother said. Everett said one of the main reasons she was going was because everything provided was free of charge. Also, Everett said she is an avid pinner, and, when she saw the flyer posted in Anspach Hall, she was very excited. “I have over 600 pins on some boards. I’m obsessed,” Everett said. “It’s just fun.”
“The planning of the event was an intent for the holiday season for students to use their own creativity with a strapped college student budget.” Mark Fairbrother, Program Board Vice President Junior Lauren Brennen said she came to the event because she wanted to take a little break from the stress of finals and do some arts and crafts. The Port Huron native said she was interested because she doesn’t make most of the things that she sees on Pinterest. “It’s a free event and that is nice, because I typically don’t have the time or money to do the crafts on my own,” Brennen said. Murawski planned the event to not have specific leaders at each art and craft station but people just floating around if stu-
dents had questions. There were also instructions on the table of printed pictures and words describing what to do. “I want students to use their own creativity,” Murawski. “We don’t want to take away from that.” The event had students there smiling and singing along to the Christmas music that was playing in the background. “We will definitely do it again,” Fairbrother said. “We base our activities on the interest of the student body.”
Associate Vice President of University Communications Sherry Knight impressed University President George Ross during her time as interim. Knight was appointed to the full-time position by University President George Ross after serving as interim since May, following the public resignation of former VP of University Communications Renee Walker, who had been at CMU since 2008. Knight assumed full duties Monday and will earn a salary of $140,000. Ross said Knight’s tactics for handling the incident involving former CMU Professor of Teacher Education William Merrill being charged with counts related to child pornography proved she was well-fit for the permanent position. “(That incident) demonstrated to me her strength and her communicative role,” Ross said. “Sherry played a key role, but there were a number of people who played key roles, starting with those technicians from IT.” Until recently, Knight ran an executive communications firm, Knight Writers of Saline, which she is now closing. “I had pretty much wrapped it up anyway, because, bottom line, even though it was interim position, it was still full-time. So, I have a gentleman who took over most of my clients,” Knight said. “I communicated with them last May that, being in my interim role, my availability would be very limited to them, and they were all understanding and supportive.” Accepting the full-time position has a toll on Knight’s home life as well. Knight’s husband, Jim, has worked at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor as the manager of Human Resources of Communications since March, so the couple has had to learn to balance home and work life. “I have an apartment here, and, with the interim role, I was here three or four days a week, and now I will be here primarily five days a week,” Knight said. “So, it is just one of those things where you have two working people: you do it, you manage it.” In 2008, Knight was in a similar position when she served in an interim role in Philadelphia and had to be there one week every month. She considers that commute tougher, because plane travel was involved. “In this case, I’m two hours away, so it’s really worked out well,” Knight said. “Jim and (my daughter) have helped; all of us have just come together, and we are making it work.” One of Knight’s main focuses has been building culture on campus to make CMU a brand name that can A KNIGHT | 5
studentlife@cm-life.com
Isabella County records 1.6-percent increase in per capita personal income in 2011 By Elizabeth Benson Staff Reporter
Per capita personal income has been on the rise in Michigan the last year, and Isabella County saw a 1.6-percent increase in 2011. The Detroit Free Press reported 88 percent of all counties in Michigan experienced some increase in personal income — personal income divided by population — between 2010 and 2011, according to data released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis on Nov. 26. Personal income for Isabella County residents in-
creased to $27,960 in 2011, up from $27,519 in 2010. Economics Professor Christopher Bailey said this is potentially good news for the economy. “In general, the expectations are that the economy will improve somewhat in the next year,” he said. “It does depend on what Congress and the President come up with as far as taxing and spending policies. If those are resolved in a satisfactory way, then the economy should be somewhat stronger next year, although probably not back to normal.” Bailey said there is a bet-
ter job outlook for students, but there are also more job openings throughout the market. “I don’t know if I would link that necessarily to the starting salary they might be getting, but there are certainly more jobs available than before,” Bailey said. As previously reported by Central Michigan Life, Michigan added 165,000 new jobs since 2009; about 40 percent of which were in automotive manufacturing, Assistant Professor of Economics Samuel Raisanen said in November. Bailey said Michigan’s
economy is strongly based in the manufacturing industry. “For the state in particular, Michigan is more dependent than most states, probably more so than any state, on manufacturing,” he said. “How well manufacturing does depends partly on our exports, and that is determined partly on how strong the dollar is.” Bailey was hesitant to make any concrete predictions, as so much of the economy depends on so many different factors, but A INCREASE | 5
PER CAPITA PERSONAL INCOME 2010
2011
Isabella County:
$27,519
$27,960
Kalamazoo County:
$35,652
$35,933
Washtenaw County:
$39,730
$40,821
Ingham County:
$34,580
$34,450