2 || Friday, Nov. 9, 2012 || Central Michigan Life
EVENtS CALENDAR TODAY w American Red Cross Blood
Drive will be from noon to 5:45 p.m. in Kulhavi Room 142. w The fifth annual Chippewa
Band-O-Rama is at 7:30 p.m. in the Music Building’s Staples Family Concert Hall. It will feature the Symphonic Wind Ensemble, Chippewa Marching Band and more. Tickets are $5 for students and seniors, $8 for the general public. w The Grey will be shown
from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. at the Wesley Foundation.
TOMORROW w Bowling for a Better Future
will be from 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. at Riverwood Bowling Alley. The cost is $12 a person for two games. Proceeds benefit Push America.
SUNDAY w University Theatre and
School of Music will present The Scarlet Pimpernel from 2 to 4 p.m. in the Moore Hall’s Bush Theatre. The tickets are $10 for the general public and $8 for students and seniors.
CORRECTIONS The women’s soccer team plays against Michigan at 6 p.m. Saturday, not Friday as reported. Please e-mail news@cm-life.com. © Central Michigan Life 2012 Volume 94, Number 34
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citizens in an effort to improve the lives of our neighbors and friends and meet the needs of this community.” Michael McArthur was among those who put their dancing skills on display for the sake of charity. McArthur is currently a graduate student at CMU and received his undergraduate degree in Broadcasting and Cinematic Arts at CMU as well. “I originally was supposed to be paired with the assistant director of Multicultural Academic Services, but when President Ross wasn’t going to be able to make it, I was informally told that I would be paired with Mrs. Ross,” McArthur said. McArthur said he enjoys dancing with friends and family,but had yet to perform a choreographed or organized dance. “I was a little nervous at first, because I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” McArthur said. “We were fortunate enough to have a great dance teacher, and Mrs. Ross was
cm-life.com
[NEWS]
chippewa marching Band, ensembles to perform in Band-o-rama today Sean Bradley Senior Reporter
The Chippewa Marching Band is usually seen by students on the field in Kelly/Shorts Stadium out in the open on game day for football. For the Band-o-Rama “Prisms” event, though, they will perform inside Staples Family Concert Hall today for the fifth-annual Band-ORama concert along with a few different ensembles. “The idea is for each of the bands to play a portion of the program,” CMU School of Music Director of Music Events John Jacobson said. “In between each of the bands, a small ensemble will play.” Jacobson said all sorts of musical styles are covered during the event, which is from 7 to 9 p.m. and is $5 for the public and $3 for students and senior citizens. Tickets will be available at the door. “People look forward to it because it’s the only time each year that we get the different bands together,” he said. He said people come to the event to get the chance to hear a group like the march-
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Meeting the numerous people who are also interested in bettering the community has been Kilmer’s favorite part of his experience on city commission. Kilmer said getting to know Central Michigan University officials, tribal officials and business owners was the best part of his job as mayor. “I’m going to continue to go to various events so I’ll get to still see people and talk to them,” he said. “It’ll be different, because I won’t see them as often. I think I’ll miss that the most.” Kilmer said he will not miss long meetings into the night trying to balance the budget. Dealing with the budget
ing band in a different setting. “It’s a different sound inside,” he said. “It’s a treat.” The decision to move the event into Staples Family Concert Hall instead of it occurring at Plachta Auditorium was for a couple of reasons, Associate Director of Bands James Batcheller said. “To provide a little more intimate setting,” Batcheller said. “To give it a try in our own space. We have some stage pieces that might work better in the hall.” He said some of the pieces are more suited for playing indoors than outside. The marching band, who will be conducted by Batcheller, will be performing a Jonathan Nichol arranged “Revolution” by Marc Mellits along with Ambidextranata part one “Souvenir” by Gary Shocker. “The way we’re doing the alma mater (fight song) is much quieter than what people would expect to hear out on the field,” he said. He said there will be students from different area high schools attending the event. “There are students in high schools who come, and they
see what we do here,” he said. South Lyon junior Tony Jokinen, who has played in two previous Band-O-Rama events and will be performing in his third Friday, plays the center snare in the Chippewa marching band drumline. Jokinen said the band does a lot of preparing for the event, and the band has played many of the pieces they are playing at the event before for different occasions. “The week leading up to Band-O-Rama, we review the various songs we will perform to refresh our memories,” he said. Jokinen said the drumline makes a few adjustments when playing inside. “We bring all of our stick heights down, making it a lot quieter, when we play inside,so it’s not too overwhelming,” he said. He said he enjoys the event because of the closeness between the band and audience. “Band-O-Rama is really exciting because the crowd is up close, and it makes the performance that much better,” Jokinen said.
each year has been one of the most difficult things as a commissioner, he said. “This has been a real extreme time with the state cutting back on revenue and our property values being level and not rising,” Kilmer said. “We’re trying to deal with the loss of money and still provide services, and we’ve been able to do that so far without raising taxes and without cutting services too drastically, although we have had to cut some.” Vice Mayor Kathy Ling said Kilmer has been a steadying hand for the commission. “He does a nice job running meetings, and I think he tries to make sure the commissioners are informed on what’s going on, which I think is a very important role,” Ling said. “He always gives careful thought to the issues. I’ve enjoyed working with some-
one who was knowledgeable and represented the city very well.” As his time on the commission is coming to an end, Kilmer is focused on balancing the 2013 budget with the rest of the commission by December. His hopes are to make sure the city is stable and has a stable income for the future with a good budget. Another issue that is important to Kilmer for the commission to maintain is the sister city relationship with Okaya, Japan. “To me, it’s expanding our vision,” he said. “It goes along with us being a welcoming city where foreign students can be happy and welcome here at CMU.” Kilmer has visited Okaya twice and said the experiences were fascinating. During his visit on the 40th
Check out video from last night’s United Dance on cm-life.com very easy-going and fun to be partnered with.” As part of the deal involving McArthur being partnered with Elizabeth Ross, University President George Ross requested to meet with McArthur prior to the event. “(Ross) mainly just wanted to wish me luck and take some of the pressure off of the whole thing,” he said. “Yeah, he may be the president of the university, but he’s just an ordinary guy like you and me, and I enjoyed the opportunity to meet with him.” In preparation for this event, McArthur said he and Elizabeth Ross met six or seven times to practice their routine, meeting for at least an hour each time. “Mrs. Ross is really a great dancer; she had a pretty quick learning curve, which challenged me to step up my game to make sure I was keeping pace,” he said. Although he was initially unable to attend, George Ross was able to watch his wife and McArthur perform.
“It was great to see CMU come together to raise money for the United Way programs here in our community,” he said. Elizabeth Ross was also pleased by the event and said she was glad to be part of it. “It was a very successful event,” she said. “I see it growing in the years to come.” Other couples who participated in Dance United were Director of the CMU Leadership Institute Dan Gaken and Assistant Director of Admissions Erin Smith; Mount Pleasant city commissioner Jim Holton and wife Karen Holton; Goodyear, Az. senior Alexandria Kennedy and Grosse Ile junior Zach Kowalski; Fremont senior Sammie Paine and Hesperia senior Killian Richeson; and Farmington senior Grace Stevenson and Wyoming graduate student Jason Vasquez. The Fund Drive officially ends Dec. 31. university@cm-life.com
studentlife@cm-life.com
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Monday afternoon. He will be paid during his leave, as the university gives him his “due process,” Knight said during a Thursday afternoon news conference. “We take this matter very seriously and have strict policies against this kind of conduct,” Knight said. “Public safety is an absolute priority at CMU.” Knight said Merrill, whose office is located on the fourth floor of the EHS Building, is not believed to have had any contact with children in the first-floor Child Development and Learning Laboratory. Merrill taught four classes — two undergraduate and two graduate — before his suspension, Knight said. His classes are being taken over by another professor. According to court documents, Merrill checked himself into the psychiatric ward at MidMichigan Medical Center-Gratiot, where he remained Thursday. It is unclear when he will be released. Court documents say police served a search warrant and found more than 10,000 files, most of which were child pornography. Police also seized CDs that contained 230 files of still photographs of
children with adults and other children, documents said. According to his bio page on cmich.edu, Merrill specializes in “censorship and the Internet, impact of children on advertising in society, integration of the Internet into instruction to enhance teaching and learning and using technology to enhance teaching and learning.” CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley remained mum on details, saying the investigation remains ongoing and referred afternoon inquires about the police report to Isabella County Prosecutor Risa Scully. Scully declined comment. Michael Reuter, director of distributed computing and technical operations for the College of Education and Human Services, declined a query from CM Life Thursday relative to computer work orders on Monday, forwarding all calls to University Communications. An arraignment of Merrill hasn’t been set, court officials said. Dale Elizabeth-Pehrsson, dean of the College of Education and Human Services, did not return calls seeking comment. Calls made to the department were referred to the dean and University Communications. university@cm-life.com
“He always gives careful thought to the issues. i’ve enjoyed working with someone who was knowledgeable and represented the city very well.” Kathy Ling, Vice Mayor anniversary of the sister relationship formation, Kilmer said the people of Okaya treated Kilmer and other visitors like royalty. Kilmer said he has faith commissioners will keep the relationship intact and prepare for the upcoming 50th anniversary celebrations in 2014 and 2015. At the first commission meeting in January, commissioners will appoint a new mayor and vice mayor. Over the past six years, Kilmer said he thinks his overall influence has been
strong leadership and encouraging the commission to push on to new things. That is also the message he hopes to leave the commission with. “Even though we’re in difficult economic times, don’t hunker down,” Kilmer said. “Just deal with it and still take some risks, because, if we take those risks, we can overcome these economic difficulties more easily.” metro@cm-life.com