Student e-mail a neglected service
By Nicholas Macdonald
Collegiate Staff Writer

Recently GRCC has changed the e-mail service to Gmail.

The new e-mail at GRCC offers many new and improved features over the old e-mail system.

For those not familiar with Gmail, it is an e-mail service introduced in 2004, according to the Google Web site.

Some of the new features include being able to search by keyword using the same search engine Google became popular with.

Another organizational tool includes being able to archive old e-mails for later reference. Google has integrated many tools into their e-mail service.

Integrated into Gmail is a chat program that logs and stores conversations. If someone logs off, it stores the conversation as e-mail. Further information can be found at grcc.edu/gmailhelp.

Most recently, AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) was integrated into Gmail. Instant messengers such as AIM constitute 28 percent daily usage by teenagers, according to the Pew Internet Study

The study also shows 93 percent of teenagers use the Internet. Colleges are changing services to students as technology changes.

Today, communication among teens is a mix of Instant Messaging, Social Networking sites such as Facebook, text messaging, phone calls, e-mail, and other more traditional means.

While professors at the college may be used to e-mail as a personal and professional tool, it is ranked last among teenagers at 14 percent on the Pew Internet and American Life Project.

The Pew Internet and American Life project report states that 55 percent of teenagers use a social networking site.

Colleges are starting to use social networking sites as well.

A recent article in San Francisco State University’s magazine highlights how a student can check the college’s Myspace page or talk to an advisor on Yahoo or AOL Instant Messenger.

At GRCC, teachers have a number of ways to communicate with their students.

While there are no statistics available from GRCC on e-mail usage, “I almost never check my (student) e-mail.” GRCC student Aziza Slater said.

Nine out of 12 students gave a similar response when asked if they check their student e-mail.

When J. Russel, a photography professor, wanted to tell his students he would be missing a class he chose to e-mail them a few days in advance.

“That’s scary,” Russell said when students in his class said they never check their student e-mail.

As there is no school policy on what methods are used to communicate with GRCC students, professors use a variety of methods.

Gmail offers a lot of features and good reasons to use it for e-mail, but with no standardization, students have no incentive to use it.

Early birds get the cash
By Jackie Prins
Special to the Collegiate

TThe key to financial aid success at GRCC is turning in the FAFSA as close to the priority deadline of Mar. 17 as possible.

The FAFSA is a federal form only available online at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov. Financial aid for the fall, winter, and summer semesters is awarded based on filing this form.

As Mary Kay Bethune puts it, “The early bird gets the worm in many cases. Not all, but many.”

Mary Kay Bethune is the customer service manager in GRCC’s financial aid office. She encourages students to complete their FAFSA before the deadline of Mar. 17. If this is done, there are two major benefits for the student: more funds are available, and if any corrections need to be made to the application, there is plenty of time complete them.

Often, students can have their financial aid package all set before they leave school for the summer. Ideally, the process is easier if students get their FAFSA done early, but financial aid is still available to those late bloomers.

“Should you apply after March 17? Absolutely, all in capital letters, absolutely!” Bethune said. The next deadline is the GRCC tuition deadline, Aug. 6 for the 2008 fall semester.

If the FAFSA is completed by this date, there is still time to receive some type of financial aid. Financial aid is still available after tuition is due, but students will have to pay for their classes even if their financial aid has not arrived yet.

If this happens, they can sign up for a payment plan online, or through the cashier’s office. When their financial aid arrives, they can cancel the plan and may be reimbursed.

The transformation from a paper application to a complete online process may complicate matters for some students who do not have access to a computer. Fortunately, students can use computers in the financial aid office or one of the computer labs on campus.

Constantly, students come in during the “two week crunch,” as Bethune puts it, before classes begin. This leads to frustration on behalf of the students, who by that time may have to wait in long lines, and receive less attention than they may have gotten had they come in earlier.

GRCC has also introduced a new Foundation scholarship. The application is available online at http://www.grcc.edu/financial. A number of different scholarships are also available on the Web site.

There is money available if you look for it, Bethune points out. On that same note, when looking at scholarship Web sites, one should always be careful of scams. Never pay anyone to complete

FAFSA or search for scholarships. Bethune recommends http://www.finaid.org as a reliable, national scholarship search Web site. For more information on any of these topics, stop in the financial aid office, located on the first floor of the Main Building.

“Every student who comes here, who does the FAFSA, can get a student loan,” she said, “If they complete school, they’ll be able to pay it off.” Bethune said the saddest situation is those that don’t apply. If you don’t apply, you’ll never know if you were eligible or not.

On the average day they see about 125 students. During the two weeks before school begins, that number jumps up to over 300 on some days. “Come see me before all those little green chairs are full,” Bethune said.

Family matters at GRCC
By Emily Allore
Collegiate Staff Writer

With fun for children and resources for families, the sixth annual Family Matters at GRCC will be in the Ford Fieldhouse Feb. 23 from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

The birth of this event started when the Student Life office provided Valentine’s Day and Halloween parties for GRCC staff members, students, and their children.“The events started to grow,”

Director of Student Life Eric Mullen said. “We wanted to give it a more pulled together community feel.”

Over 50 exhibitors will be involved this year, with child fingerprinting kits, summer camp programs, community agencies, and businesses supporting children and their families. The event is being sponsored by GRCC, the Heart of West Michigan United Way, Child & Family Resource Council, WOTV 4, and WOOD TV 8.

Maranda, the local celebrity television host, supports this event by saying family is very important to her as well as the communities of West Michigan.

“I wanted to be involved in this event. It connects people and serves local families with resources that otherwise they may not be aware of,” she said.

WOTV 4 and WOOD TV 8 have selected Family Matters at GRCC as a Top Pick for the weekend of Feb. 22-24. They have also helped in promoting the event.

The Heart of West Michigan United Way is the largest monetary donator. This is their second consecutive year sponsoring.

“Our organization brings community awareness of different organizations that have hands in the community.” Vice President of Community Investment at the Heart of West Michigan United Way Tony Campbell said.“One thing that I would like to see improved from previous years is GRCC student body involvement.”

Campbell would also like to introduce more GRCC student volunteers to a new program called Schools of Hope. This is an in-school program through The Heart of West Michigan United Way for students to have a 30-minute tutoring session by a volunteer who has guided instructions.

Although awareness of resources is a major goal for this event, family fun is what it’s all about. Obstacle courses, face painting, and Guitar Hero strike a chord.

“I have a five-yearold, and it’s good to get out of the house this time of year,” Mullen said.“Seeing all the kids with their parents is the best part of the event for me,” Maranda said. “The more people who come out the more fun it is.”

Admission is free to the event. There is a parking fee of $3 in the GRCC ramp. There will be food available for purchase.

Student Congress launches Spirit Week
By Rebekah Young
Opinion Editor

Student Congress launched GRCC Spirit Week event to increase school pride and student involvement on campus.

The event addressed the issue of low student involvement in campus clubs and organizations, and was a Student Congress initiative to encourage participation.

Eric Williams, president of Student Congress, said student organizations typically have low involvement because of difficulties gaining student support and interest. Apathy is a hurdle many student organizations face.

He said Spirit Week was a project Congress planned to attempt to connect to those people who don’t usually get involved.

“We want people to get involved on campus, and not just with Student Congress,” Williams said.

The Student Congress Recognition and Involvement Committee planned the event, which ran from Feb. 4-8, ending with Student Congress-spondered basketball games on Feb. 8th.

According to Melinda Graham, the committee’s chairperson and the Student Congress Director of Communications, one goal of the weeklong event was to promote the men’s and women’s basketball teams. However, she said Spirit Week was also meant “to increase awareness of opportunities to be involved on campus and help create a greater sense of campus unity and Raider pride.”

Spirit Week began slowly, due to difficulties with advertising and planning, but Williams said first-year projects are often hard to get going.

“There’s a lot of trial and error,” he said. “We’re testing the water for future things we could possibly do.”

During the week, Congress requested staff and faculty to participate in campus-wide theme days. Congress members also handed out candy and promoted its Rock, Paper, Scissors Tournament, which was held in Winchester Alley on Wednesday night.

At the basketball games, Spirit Week culminated with face painting, popcorn, free T-shirts, and more. The Pep Band was also present, and students had the opportunity to win prizes and money.

Congress members also held a student club contest at the game, where the club who had the most students attend the game to cheer on the Raiders won a $100 pizza party for their organization. According to Graham, it was another step to encourage participation.

With Spirit Week, Student Congress was laying the groundwork for more involvement. Members hope to transition the event from a concept into a tradition.

Williams said if Spirit Week becomes a tradition, it will grow to encourage and inspire more involvement and pride across campus.

GRCC is using technology to encourage students and staff to interaction with each other.

According to the college Web site, the Learning Academy for faculty and staff incorporates the physical elements and systematic approach to staff and faculty development.

“We’re implementing more than hardware: GRCC has a new enhanced YouTube channel (http:// www.youtube.com/grcc), our classes are on iTunes, in fact GRCC is one of the earliest community colleges in the nation to become an iTunes U,” professor of Law and director of Distance Learning and Instructional technologies Garret Brand said.

Faculty members are using technology aides to help students better grasp a difficult concept.

“In recent years, I have increasingly integrated the use of projected PowerPoint presentation in each of my classes. This allows me to include a great deal of visual materials (paintings, photographs, maps, etc.) into each class,” associate history professor Dr. Robert Hendershot said.

Brand said a recent survey done by the Distance Learning and Instructional Technologies department indicates almost 63 percent of students (1,300 surveyed) use Facebook for communications. More than 800 students are getting announcements and other Blackboard course information through a Facebook application called Course Feed.

According to the college Web site, the primary responsibility of the Learning Academy for faculty and staff is to provide learning experiences that support GRCC’s development as a learning college.

“I have begun to collect and play music files in my history classes to bring context and texture to many topics. I also use Blackboard to make the course’s visual materials and talking points, as well as other items such as the syllabus and assignment guidelines, available to students throughout the semester,’’ Hendershot said.

Brand said new tools are being implemented to help faculty. More pc tablets are being deployed to faculty.

More classrooms are being updated with state-of-the-art projection, sound, and multimedia podiums. Wireless access is available all over campus.

“Using these and other kinds of technology helps to promote learning and interesting discussion of course themes. Many students have commented on the helpfulness of using the classroom’s technology equipment,” Hendershot said.

“Faculty is using a variety of Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with their students and help them learn. Some of these Web 2.0 technologies are available to faculty and students inside Blackboard,” Brand said.

Documents show cover up was approved
By Jim Schaefer and M.L. Elrick
MCT Wire Service

DETROIT - Documents made public Thursday show Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick personally approved a cover-up of explosive text messages between him and his top aide Christine Beatty as part of an $8.4-million trial settlement last year.

City officials had denied the existence of secret documents since October, when the Free Press first requested them under Michigan’s Freedom of Information Act. The paper wanted to know more about why Kilpatrick suddenly agreed to the settlement of lawsuits brough by three former Detroit cops who claimed they were retaliated against because they were investigating the mayor’s security team, a probe they said would have exposed Kilpatrick’s affair with Beatty.

The key record that came to light Thursday, when attorneys for the city said they would no longer oppose its concealment, is a Nov. 1 document marked“Confidential Agreement.” It is signed by Kilpatrick and Beatty, along with the excops’ lawyer, Mike Stefani, and outlines how the damaging text messages were to be kept secret.

In return for the money, the agreement specifically requires Stefani “to surrender” to Kilpatrick’s representatives“all original records and all copies of such records made by them of records obtained by SkyTel,” the city’s communications provider, according to an attorney for the Free Press.

The full confidentiality agreement of Nov. 1 remains in the hands of Wayne County Judge Robert Colombo Jr., who ordered it and other documents sealed until the city had an opportunity to appeal.

The text messages had been secret until late January, when the Detroit Free Press published excerpts from nearly 14,000 texts received and sent from Beatty’s city-owned paging device.

The messages show Kilpatrick and Beatty lied under oath last summer at the police lawsuit trial when they denied a sexual relationship. The agreement requires Stefani and his clients, former police officers Gary Brown, Harold Nelthrope and Walter Harris, to never speak of the messages again.

A violation of the confidential agreement would require the former cops to pay back the money. This document, which city officials repeatedly said did not exist, was withheld from the Free Press until its release Thursday.

The newspaper had sued for the records last month, prompting the city to ask a judge to keep them sealed. Late Thursday afternoon, city attorneys dropped plans to appeal release of some of the documents but did appeal against the release of others.

The state Court of Appeals could rule on the records still under seal as early as Friday.

Kilpatrick’s lawyer Sharon McPhail stated Thursday that Detroiters have heard only one side of the story.“No secret deals exist or have ever existed,” McPhail said on behalf of the mayor. She added: “None of the documents involved in this case were the SkyTel messages.

Yahoo rejects the big, but deal still looms
By Elise Ackerman and Pete Carey
MCT Wire Service

SAN JOSE, Calif. _ Microsoft’s bid for Yahoo took on the air of inevitability Monday, even as the Sunnyvale search firm’s board of directors officially rejected the offer.

That decision, first reported over the weekend, was widely viewed on Wall Street as an effort to get Microsoft to raise its $44.6 billion, or $31 per share, proposal, or at the very least give Yahoo time to look at other options. Yahoo’s stock rose 2 percent in regular trading to close at $29.87, up 67 cents.

“It’s good negotiating tactics to try to get a higher price from Microsoft,” said Laura Martin with Soleil Securities Group.“But if they really reject the offer they are going to have a litany of shareholder lawsuits. It’s clear there are no other bidders for anything close to this price.”

In the coming weeks, Microsoft will try to raise the pressure on Yahoo. It has indicated it is prepared for a nasty takeover battle that could include nominating its own slate to Yahoo’s board of directors or making its offer directly to Yahoo’s shareholders.

Meanwhile Yahoo, which began laying off 1,000 employees this week, will continue scrambling for an alternative that would enable it to survive as an independent company. It is considering everything from outsourcing search advertising to Google to making its own bid for AOL.

In the end, tens of billions of dollars are betting that Microsoft and Yahoo will find common ground somewhere between the $31 per share that Microsoft offered on Feb. 1 and $35 per share, which analysts believe Microsoft could afford to pay. Yahoo and Microsoft issued dueling statements that veterans of corporate takeover battles said were full of code words indicating Yahoo was willing to sell at the right price.

Yahoo said Microsoft’s proposal was “not in the best interests of Yahoo shareholders” and “substantially undervalues” Yahoo’s assets, including its brand and large worldwide audience.

“We remain committed to pursuing initiatives that maximize value for all shareholders,” Yahoo’s release stated.“That means, `We’ll do what we can to get the highest price for our company,’” said an arbitrator who is playing the spread between Yahoo and Microsoft shares.

The trader noted that Yahoo’s tone had softened since the weekend, when a source told the Wall Street Journal that Microsoft’s offer “massively undervalues” the Sunnyvale, Calif., company and suggested it would not consider an offer below $40 a share.

Yahoo became a takeover target on Jan. 29, when Chief Executive Jerry Yang warned Wall Street that growth for 2008 would be slower than expected - and costs would be higher - as Yahoo continued to struggle to compete effectively with Google.

Investors had been waiting more than two years for Yahoo to install new advertising software that was supposed to help the company close the gap with Google, which earns as much as 50 percent more for search advertising.

After that, Yahoo’s shares sank to their lowest level in more than four years, and Microsoft swooped in.

A number of analysts agree Microsoft made a lowball offer that does not take into account Yahoo’s valuable stakes in three fast-growing Asian Internet companies: Yahoo Japan, Alibaba and Gmarket. According to Lehman Brothers, which is advising Yahoo, the market value of Yahoo’s investments in those companies is more than $13 billion.

David Garrity, an analyst with Dinosaur Securities, said Yahoo could defend itself by selling its stakes in those companies and using the money to buy back shares from investors.

“While we are skeptical that Yahoo is intrinsically worth $40 per share, we believe Yahoo’s strategic value to Microsoft is substantial,”

Speak Out! Have something to say? Sound off to The Collegiate at grcc_collegiate@yahoo.com for your tips or views on the current news, sports, arts & entertainment and opinion.