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Friday, April 12, 2013
cm-life.com WAITING HIS TURN
‘WE ARE ALL SEXY’
Jordan Adams brings senior leadership to youthful CMU baseball team » PAGE 7
Drag show a night of many firsts, including a student who admitted he was gay » PAGE 3
Track & field program in disarray, Randolph under fire by players Five players leave, assistant coach fired, current athletes say program in ‘downward spiral’ By Justin Hicks Senior Reporter
Five members of the Central Michigan men’s track and field team have left, an assistant coach has been fired, and now some current athletes are unhappy with program director Willie Randolph,
Witnesses: FBI raids apartment on Gaylord
according to a week-long investigation by Central Michigan Life. Following the indoor Mid-American Conference championships last month, senior Greg Knaus and juniors Ross Parsons, Cory Noeker and Ryan Brooks quit the team within two weeks of
each other. Redshirt freshman Derek Thornton left two weeks prior. Knaus, a former captain, said Randolph has shown a lack of respect for his athletes, implemented poor training with a lack of results and believes more athletes will soon follow suit in leaving.
“Things are going so poorly at the top that I believe we won’t be the only ones to leave the Willie Randolph team,” Knaus said. “I think more people will leave at the end of the season.” Parsons, another former
captain, said he signed his letter of intent on Sunday to transfer to Michigan State to continue his track and field career. Noeker has been offered a preferred walk-on spot at MSU and says he has committed to run track there. “While I have enjoyed competing for Central (Michigan) and cherish the great friendships I have developed, for personal reasons, it is time to take my passion for the sport elsewhere,” Parsons
$374 per credit hour CMU increases undergraduate tuition 2.47 percent, room and board rates 2 percent
By Tony Wittkowski Senior Reporter
FBI agents raided an apartment in Franklin Village on Gaylord Street Thursday morning, but the agency isn’t talking, and witnesses aren’t sure why. Several witnesses heard loud knocking on the door of apartment 4E, located at 1333 Gaylord St., before noticing FBI vans outside of the apartment building. “There were FBI officers down in the parking lot using their walkie-talkies,” Farmington senior Nicole Spencer said. “They kept knocking, and I heard one of them say, ‘We don’t have time for this. Open up,’ so I guess there must have been some kind of exchange, because they got into the apartment.” Spencer lives next door to the raided apartment but said she did not know the man who lived there and had only seen him on moving day. “He had a grill on his porch, and he was never out there, plus there was no light that ever came through his door,” Spencer said. “I only saw him once when he was moving in.” Shortly after Spencer and her boyfriend heard the knocking, they looked outside and saw men with the letters “FBI” on the front of their bulletproof vests, with some sitting in a van. “We did go out and ask the officer in front of the door what was going on and if everything was OK,” Spencer recalled. “He said, ‘You’re really safe,’ and ‘We can’t say what is going on,’ and ‘It is just an investigation right now.’ We saw a police car leave, but we didn’t see anyone in the back of it.” Spencer’s boyfriend, Novi senior Colin Bart, said it was just after 9 a.m. when they heard the first knocks. “It was around 9:10 a.m. when we first noticed that there were FBI agents. They had the whole building surrounded, and they saw us in the window,” Bart said. “You could tell there were vans surveilling the area with tinted windows. I only saw two or three (agents) who were outside and the one outside the door.” Bart said he thought it was odd that the blinds were always drawn shut in the neighboring apartment and that they never had any lights on. “We did hear noises sometimes that seemed like it was coming from their bathtub, but we just thought they were into some weird activities,” he said. The FBI Detroit Division’s Media Coordinator Simon Shaykhet was unable to find any information in connection to the raid that took place in Mount Pleasant. Olivieri Management, which owns the apartment complex, declined comment. metro@cm-life.com
said Tuesday. Parsons will be eligible in the fall and will have two years of outdoor eligibility and one year of indoor eligibility remaining. All five former CMU athletes were members of the sprints and hurdles group — one of the largest on the track and field team, with 32 total members — before their leave. A RANDOLPH| 2
CMU POLICE
Officer caught playing on his computer reprimanded By Tony Wittkowski Senior Reporter
“I testified before the House subcommittee on higher education appropriations a month or so, and I was asked that question,” Ross said. “I don’t know where the budget will end up ... but our decision had nothing to do with tuition restraints.” Two years ago, the tuition restraint limited increases to below seven percent. CMU increased tuition by only 3.47 percent. Last year, the restraint was reduced to four percent. CMU raised tuition by only 1.96 percent —the lowest increase in the state.
The Central Michigan University police officer caught playing Solitaire on his computer while on duty has been given a written reprimand. Officer Carl Williams was caught playing the game when a student was nearly hit by a vehicle, CMU Police Chief Bill Yeagley confirmed to Central Michigan Life on Thursday. “The internal review by CMU Police has determined that a Facebook post earlier this week alleging that an officer was playing solitaire while on duty is true,” Yeagley said. “We have addressed the situation and have taken corrective action to ensure it does not occur again.” Yeagley said Williams was given a written reprimand, which is “not a good thing in a profession.” “He was very apologetic, he understands that it was a bad decision and that he shouldn’t have been doing it,” Yeagley said. “There was no trying to defend it; he accepted fully that he should have not been doing it.” Flushing senior Austin Boulter posted the photo of Williams on Facebook Tuesday, which has since been shared more than 900 times. “I did not originally make this post to get a cop in trouble,” Boulter said. “I made it to see what people had to say over the subject matter. Maybe get a couple ‘likes’ on the photo here and there, maybe a couple sarcastic comments or possibly a debate about campus safety.” Still, Boulter said he was surprised by the immediate impact the photo had. “I’ve seen people ‘like’ the comments on it and share it,” Boulter said. “I was surprised how negative and insulting people were acting toward the CMU Police.”
A TUITION | 2
A OFFICER | 2
CHUCK MILLER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Vice President of Finance and Administrative Services David Burdette speaks about tuition rates for the university during the Board of Trustees meeting Thursday morning in the President’s Conference Room in the Bovee University Center. Also discussed during the meeting was a facilities management update and biosciences plan, CMED funding and update and the CMU Gobal Campus Bookstore.
Ross: Snyder budget had no effect on our decision By Kyle Kaminski | Senior Reporter
Undergraduate students will see a 2.47 percent tuition increase next fall, which translates to a $9 hike, bringing rates to $374 per credit hour.
Tuition rates were set at Thursday’s Board of Trustees meeting, and the board approved the increase to undergraduate tuition as well as increases for graduate students and global campus students. On-campus graduate students will see a 1.89-percent increase, to $485 per credit hour, for master and specialist degrees. Doctoral graduate tuition will also increase by 1.82 percent, to $558 per credit hour. Both undergraduate and graduate students enlisted in the military will continue paying tuition at the same rate — $263 and $288 per credit hour, respectively.
“We contemplate these rates with a deep sense of responsibility,” University President George Ross said during his opening remarks. “We’re serious about tuition restraint.” In accordance with cuts being made to the state’s public university system, Gov. Rick Snyder and Republican members of the legislature established bonus payments to schools that kept their tuition increases to under four percent, under Snyder’s proposed budget. But, in a discussion with media members after, Ross said Snyder’s proposed budget had no effect on CMU’s tuition decision.
Students struggle to identify others’ sexual orientation at ‘Gaydar’ By Ryan Fitzmaurice Senior Reporter
Students were tested on their ability to recognize others’ sexual orientation Thursday night, with less than successful results. About 100 students attended the event, “How Good Is Your Gaydar?” Thursday night. It challenged students to guess the orientation of 13 different panelists after asking the panelists a variety of questions. The panelists included a wide variety of people, including President of Transcend and Royal Oak freshman Kai Niezgoda, Ortonville sophomore and President of Students Advocating Gender Equality Hannah Mollet and newly elected Student Government Association President Marie Reimers, a
Saginaw junior. Students were able to identify the participants with several different orientations, including straight, bisexual, asexual, straight and pansexual. Many were surprised when a person’s sexual orientation was revealed. Marissa Woodliff, a Dearborn freshman, said it was much more difficult to identify a person’s orientation that he originally thought. “... You can always put a label on people, but you don’t truly know until you ask them,” Toney said. Troy freshman Adam Toney said he also took away a new understanding of sexual orientation after the event. “I think that it was actually eye-opening,” Toney said. “It’s really hard to understand a person after only a few minutes and
yet we label them anyway.” Contestant Julius Cantuba said he has experienced this problem first-hand. Cantuba said the majority of people instantly label him as straight. “After (I was identified as straight), a lot of people were surprised. Look, just because I like sports doesn’t instantly mean I’m straight,” the Keego Harbor sophomore said. Nicholas Postelli, the former education advocacy chair for Spectrum, said Spectrum held this event to bring awareness to the student body. “We held this event because of the stereotypes people might hold,” Postelli said. “In a nonconfrontational way, we wanted to say, ‘This is what you do every day.’” studentlife@cm-life.com
KAITLIN THORESEN/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Saginaw junior Marie Reimers waits as audience members clap to indicate their guess of her sexual orientation during the Gaydar event put on by Spectrum Thursday evening in the Bovee University Center Auditorium.