Vol. 119, Issue 21 March 16, 2015
Kathryn Kellar, Editor-in-Chief
The Black & Magenta
WMCO gives back during Weekend Kathryn Kellar Editor-in-Chief WMCO, Muskingum University’s radio station, is hosting its eighth annual WMCO Weekend. The events for WMCO Weekend will be “Shave to Save,” an obstacle course with free samples of Muskie Wellness products and health and fitness trivia, and The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s “Animal Encounters.” WMCO Weekend originated in March 2008. WMCO started hosting WMCO Weekend when Student Senate charged senators with creating an original event. The group that won was given the extra $10,000 from Funding Allocations. WMCO won the contest and received the money. In 2008 Associate Professor of Communication and WMCO Station Manager, Lisa Marshall was a new professor and wanted to work with WMCO on creating an event that would spread the word about the radio station and its mission. Before being a Muskingum University Professor, Marshall was a Muskingum University undergraduate student. While an undergraduate student Marshall was a WMCO DJ and has noticed similarities between DJs when she was a student and her current stu-
dents now. “Something that has never changed is the excitement that the students have and that’s what makes me excited to come to work every day is that you never know what’s going to happen,” said Marshall. “You always enjoy conversations with students and I enjoy the impromptu teaching moments of ‘hey, I’m working on a project can you help me with this?’ And then the student ends up learning something new and that’s gratifying for me as well. So the passion for radio, I think, has always been the same.” Currently, the station has 38 radio DJs on staff. One of the main elements of WMCO Weekend is donating to charity. Every year since WMCO Weekend was started WMCO has donated to The American Red Cross, The Muskingum County Animal Shelter, and Operation Feed. This year with the “Shave to Save”
event WMCO is donating partial proceeds to another charity, CancerCare. “Part of being in the media is giving back to the community, and I want to make sure that our students understand that being in the public eye means that you need to give back,” said Marshall. “I’m always impressed by the way that the community steps up, particularly through “Animal Encounters.” The New Concord community graciously donates to our charities.” Since WMCO Weekend has originated, the event has donated $2,797 to The Muskingum County Animal Shelter and The American Red Cross and 2,232 lbs. of food to Operation Feed. “The main thing is raising money for charity and getting students on campus involved in a variety of activities that are funded by Student Senate that we can put on for the campus and kind of get our name out there as well,” said Brian Clements, WMCO Program
Director. WMCO Weekend 2015 will be Thursday, March 19 to Saturday, March 21. Donations of non-perishable food or money are appreciated at entry for all events. Thursday, March 19 at 11 a.m. WMCO will host the “Shave to Save” event on the Quad. The Muskingum community can bring spare change to the event starting at 11 a.m. to place in jars for each campus group. The top three groups who have the most money raised at the event will have to choose members to shave their head or cut their hair significantly shorter at noon. On Friday, March 20 the obstacle course will be held from 4-5 p.m. in both John Glenn Gym and the Quad. Also on Friday there will be free Muskie Wellness samples and health and fitness trivia on the Quad. The final event is on Saturday, March 21. The Columbus Zoo and Aquarium’s “Animal Encounters” will be presenting an interactive presentation of animals at 2:30 p.m. Another part of WMCO Weekend is a free smart TV giveaway. On Friday, March 20 the TV will be given away from a drawing at the obstacle course that students had to fill out a game piece to enter by watching Orbit TV. More details are available at orbitmediaonline.com.
encourages seniors to do online exit counseling because it is beneficial. “The most helpful piece is I think [is that] they find out who their loan servicer is so they know who to get a hold of when they have questions,” said Gump. The website consists of basic information that students will need to know including different types of loans and time limitations. There are five stages of the exit counseling including, understanding your loans, planning to repay them, avoiding default, making finances a priority, and repayment information.
New technology offers different payment plans available to students. “We recommend that they go ahead and go onto that servicer’s website and set up an account with them,” said Gump. “That way they can get email updates. They can go ahead and set up automatic payments out of a checking account so that payment just comes out and they never have to worry about it.” The purpose of the exit counseling is to get students familiar with the financial territory so they aren’t overwhelmed with loans after they graduate. “There are different repayment
plans available, and I think sometimes that is a comfort to know,” said Gump. “I have some options and they’re going to work with me to make this something manageable.” Going into default on loans occurs after a loan is in its delinquency stage for a period of 270 days. A loan can become delinquent after it has gone unpaid for a day. Default rates can be measured by college institutions. Muskingum University’s website lists the default rate at 6.7 percent, which is less than the national default rate of 14.7 percent.
Kayla Rausch/Black & Magenta
Online exit counseling required for students Brenna Busby Orbit Media Reporter
Online student exit counseling is a federal requirement for all senior college students in the United States before they graduate. The purpose of online student exit counseling is to inform and educate students about paying off student loans. Exit counseling is available through the same website students used to get their loans before their first year, www. studentloans.gov. Amber Gump, Senior Associate Director of Student Financial Services
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