VOLUME #79, ISSUE 2
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 2016
DELTA DOES EUROPE
PLUG IN TO THE IPHONE 7
SPEND LESS BEANS ON COFFEE
HELL'S HALF MILE BURNING PREVIEW
THE RETURN OF SID & IGGY
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New statue joins campus art collection J. Max Schofield
Jason Quigno had started in the early summer on one of many projects. This new statue in front of S-Wing is “Gete Ooloomis,” meaning “Ancient Grandmother.” On Sept. 1, Quigno added the final touches to his statue. “Due to awkward position I have to draw in the rest of the leaves,” said Quigno, while adding the leaf details on the concave side of the statue. “This [statue] represents native women’s strength, beauty, and wisdom.” He and his assistant, Leroy Hall, spent about four months of tedious work on the hunk of North Carolina granite. Both men had stated that this granite is a hard rock and chuckled softly after. The Anishaabe tribe considers stone as grandparents because they were here before us. As many artists do, Quigno kept himself from being bored in his projects by having other projects going on. He had five projects during the Gete Ooloomis build. Now the statue stands proud, wrapped in stone blankets being blown in the wind, as if it is standing on the edge of a cliff, or tip of a boat.
[LEFT] Jason Quigno and Leroy Hall work on finishing up the final touches. [TOP RIGHT] Jason Quigno draws on leaves to the stems to later cut in. [BOTTOM RIGHT] Leroy Hall adds detail to the back of the statue by cutting lines for hair texture.
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information from mlive *2014 was the last enrollment fee hike, and no information was readily available
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DELTA'S ENROLLMENT DECLINE
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f you’re a Delta student, chances are you’ve learned that Delta’s enrollment is down. Additionally, you might know that retention is at 53%, meaning about half of Delta’s students do not finish a two-year degree. This leads to the inevitable question, “Why are retention and enrollment down at Delta?” It turns out there are many reasons for this problem. No one knows these facts better than the Dean of Enrollment at Delta, Russell Curley. One of the problems he sees is the economy. “The economy has an inverse relationship with Delta enrollment,” he claims. “When the economy is good, enrollment is lower. When the economy is bad, the enrollments tend be higher.” This means that at beginning of the recession in 2008, enrollment went through the roof. This was called a “windfall period.” Ever since then, Delta has been trying to get their
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2013
this enrollment. We really want to see those freshman numbers come up, and it looks like they are. So we’re not quite there yet, but we’re starting to turn the corner. Hopefully we’ll see a positive number next year when compared to this year.” Students have shown concern in different ways. One student, Benjamin Englehardt, says he has an idea on how to fix enrollment problems. He says, “[We need] more advertisement to the public about what Delta does and how great of a place it is.” He says further, “I’d like to see the faculty more involved with the student organizations. I feel like if they were a bigger part of those organizations we’d have more people coming to Delta with those student groups being larger.” With students and faculty alike solving the problem of declining enrollment, one is left with a sense of hope and optimism toward the future. With figures showing short-term gains one can rest at ease knowing that Delta will continue to be one of America’s leading community colleges.
My second day encountering the trainer went surprisingly better. For whatever reason, I again felt the rush of excitement
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We’re up to almost 9% compared to a year ago.” There are also problems: “Overall we’re still shrinking a little bit, but we’re down about 2% overall. What that means is continuing students aren’t retaining as much as we’d like.” To meet these challenges, technology numbers up. These last five years, however, is also being harnessed for the problem. have shown a decline in student enrollment. Curley goes on, “We’re employing a new But it doesn’t end there. Curley states, technology. It’s called CRM. It’s a software “It’s true our enrollments have been down program that helps us track prospective about five years, and it will be down this students through the pipeline. If someone year, but we think we’ve turned the corner goes to Delta and says ‘I’m thinking about by turning around those Delta,’ we can start "When the economy is good, freshman numbers for the communicating with enrollment is lower. When first time in five years. them electronically the economy is bad, the If we can continue that through the CRM enrollments tend be higher.” momentum, we’ll have system. It’s mostly Russell Curley a bigger pool, and that e-mails and there’s means we’ll have a better some traditional US shot at the retention rates.” mail and there’s a lot of telephone calls. We But where does he get this momentum? are better able to serve those prospective The plan is as follows, “What we have to students and their families if they have do is put together larger freshman classes questions about financial aid and about the for two or three years in a row and our program they want to study or if they want retention will go up because it’s a bigger to change their program. It’s easier for us pool of returning students. Every time you to communicate with them and it’s easier have that bigger freshman class.” for them to get back to us.” This strategy seems to work, as Curley Though, overall, things look better. states, “Our new students are actually up. Curley says, “We’re pretty optimistic about
Day 1
Day 2
while on my way to clasp up (this time in the comfort of my own home, thankfully). Per my online instructions, I was to wear the waist trainer for four hours this time around. This turned out perfect, seeing that I had a four hour meeting to attend. The downside to this perfect timing was that there was pizza at this meeting. I happen to be a fan of pizza, and the death contraption around my waist made enjoying it a tad difficult. Again, after two hours, I began to feel closed in and panicky. I’m not one who struggles
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My initial thought after squeezing into the trainer was that I could not breath. Short breaths were okay, but trying to take a deep breath was nearly impossible. After going back to my desk, and googling actual safety instructions about the trainer, I learned that an individual is only supposed to wear the device for two hours on the first day. During that time span, here are some things I experienced: Pain, sweating, irritation, and thirst. At the end of the two hours, I couldn’t wait to rip out of the horrendous trainer. So much so, I took it off during the three minute walk to my car in Delta’s parking lot. I apologize to any possible witnesses.
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Receiving my waist trainer in the mail was an experience in itself. To be completely honest, I had forgotten about my planned waist training adventure in the three days it took to arrive, so it was a total surprise to me when it came in the mail. That being said, excitement rushed through me when I got the envelope. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be Kim Kardashian for a day? Actually, probably a lot of people. Putting on the waist trainer was a completely different experience. Out of curiosity, my 110 pound, size extra-small coworker decided to try on the corset first. The scary reality was that it fit her almost perfectly. This was bad news for my size 13 body. So, scared shitless, I retreated to the closest Delta bathroom to shove myself into the size 3x waist trainer. Clasping everything together took about 10 minutes and a lot of swearing, but I felt accomplished.
still sit on the couch and watch “Friends”, you bet your bottom that I’m going to do that. So, with a little ambition, I hit some buttons and ordered the Kardashian-esq garment. But, with skepticism on the brain, I set a small goal of only wearing the waist trainer for five days. Ambitious, I know. My first pinch of sadness came right from Amazon. Shopping smart, I made sure to look at the sizing chart. A regular women's size large was a waist trainer size 5 XL. This was baffling. And, because that just couldn’t be right, I put a 3XL in my cart. That was only the beginning of my body shaming journey. Seeing this made me discouraged and ashamed of my own body. Nonetheless, I became determined to wear it day in and day out, regardless of the health risks.
Delta’s enrollment problem challenges faculty, students Isaac DeVille
Aubrie Smith
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ost of us have heard of the Kardashians. If you haven’t, I’m a little jealous of the life you surround yourself with. But, because I’m a typical millennial female, I spend a lot of time ‘Keeping up with the Kardashians.’ So, when they all started endorsing something called a ‘waist trainer’, I noticed. The waist trainer quickly found its way into the homes of many young adults. Who doesn’t want to eat that extra piece of pizza and still lose five pounds? I can relate. Doritos are my life, and I haven’t been to the gym in weeks. If you tell me I can trim my waist and
Waist trainer is time painfully waisted
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