THE BG NEWS
Sign up for a new club
ESTABLISHED 1920 | An independent student press serving the campus and surrounding community
Tuesday, September 4, 2012
VOLUME 92, ISSUE 7
University offers 284 student veterans emergency loans Commuter students may have had some trouble finding a parking spot at the start of the school year, but for freshman Andrew Hatfield, getting from his parking spot to his class was the real challenge. Every morning, Hatfield wakes up and makes the 15 minute drive from Grand Rapids, Ohio, to Bowling Green, making sure to leave himself a little extra time to rollerblade from his parking spot at Chipotle on Wooster Street to his first class on campus. “I don’t mind rollerblading, but I don’t like having to park off of campus,” Hatfield said, “There’s no ‘tow zone’ signs, but everyday I’m heading back to my car, looking for it because I’m afraid it got towed.” Hatfield is one of approximately 284 post 9-11 student vetera ns at t he Universit y a f fected by t he Vetera n Administration’s delay in the processing of veteran benefit files. Thanks to a little help from the University, Hatfield will no longer have to rollerblade from Chipotle to his classes on campus. In order to help student veterans like Hatfield, the University is offering student affected short-term loans, which students can pick up Tuesday in the Bursar’s Office. The processing delay means student veterans didn’t receive an expected check for books, living expenses or in Hatfield’s case, a parking pass.
“You know, it’s $100 for a parking pass for both semesters, and it’s just that or books and I chose books over that,“ Hatfield said. While the remaining student veterans can start signing for their loans Tuesday, Hatfield was able to pick up his loan Friday in order to help pay his rent for the month. “The University was able to get me everything and I was able to pay my rent,” Hatfield said Monday. The loan amounts will match the projected amount student veterans would have received for their living expenses and books. Students like Hatfield who have no dependents on them will receive approximately $1,024 from the University in the form of a short-term loan. Students with family or dependents may receive up to $1,400 in a loan, said Barbara Henry, assistant vice president for nontraditional and transfer student services. Altogether the University is prepared to offer up to $360,000 in short-term loans that it expects students to pay back within a “reasonable amount of time,” Henry said. The University originally noticed the processing problem about two weeks ago when Geoff Roberts, a senior and student veteran, didn’t receive a payment. “I’m just trying to tell everybody to stay on top of the VA and monitor what you’re getting until it’s fixed,“ Roberts said.
See VETERAN | Page 2
OBAMA VISITS TOLEDO
WWW.BGNEWS.COM
C F U L P O A F F V U O L R
Veteran Administration’s delay in processing benefit files cause problems for student veterans By Max Filby Editor-in-Chief
The Deaf Culture Club is an organization starting on campus. Read more about it on Page 6
in the Union spouts 130 different flavor o e n i h c a m ption oke By Geoff Burns s New C Reporter Students are able to customize their own soda using the new Coke machine in the new Outtakes at the Union. The new Coca-Cola Freestyle machine has a selection of 130 different flavors of soda, all of which students can mix and match to their liking. The process of making the drink is to pick a base flavor such as Coke, diet Coke or Sprite, and then add a fruit flavor, said assistant general manager at the Union Chad Carper. “There are all kinds of different flavors people can get,” Carper said. “It can get to an almost infinite number of flavors because people can get their soda and mix raspberry with Sprite and then mix that with orange Coke. People’s drink really depends on how much time they want to spend at the machine.” Sara Meyer, the marketing director for BGSU dining, said the new Coke machine hasn’t had any advertising yet, but the usage has been averaging at about 120 cups a day. “This isn’t a huge number, but I think once students realize it is there, and how fun it is to use, the numbers will increase,” Meyer said. “We are always working to provide what the students want. If we see that the numbers using it and the demand is significant, we will evaluate at that time about whether to get more machines on campus or not.” The process in getting the Coke machine on campus presented some obstacles and wasn’t easy to acquire, Carper said. “There aren’t a lot of these machines around in the Midwest right now,” Carper said. “The problem we had was our Coke distribution out of Toledo didn’t have any of the product so we’ve actually had to reach out to another distribution to get the product that we needed.” Freshman Tara Powers has taken a liking to the new Coke machine and said she really enjoys what the product has to offer. “There are a lot of flavors that you See COKE | Page 2
EMILY GORDON | THE BG NEWS
SUPPORTERS of President Barack Obama gather outside Scott High School on Collingwood Boulevard in Toledo on Monday. Obama visited the Toledo area as part of his ‘Road To Charlotte’ tour to the Democratic National Convention.
FALCONS FALL TO FLORIDA BG played Saturday in Florida and stayed with the Gators most of the game, but fell 27-14 in the fourth quarter | PAGE 6
OBAMA BREAKS REDDIT In her debut column, columnist Cassie Sulliven discusses the Internet’s role in President Obama’s campaign last election and the upcoming election. | PAGE 3
WHAT WOULD YOUR FANTASY POP MACHINE SERVE? “Liquid rainbows.” Michael McGinnis Freshman, Psychology