If you ask me what I miss about high school, my answer is and always will be one thing: cross country. Yes, I was one of those crazy runners that did 5Ks and fartleks and distance training. My team was small but close-knit – pasta dinners, rambling conversations during long runs, rattling bus rides on Saturday mornings to various parks in the Greater Lansing area for meets – and I loved every minute of it. I was by no means a star athlete and I knew my chances at running for a collegiate team were sparse, so I was sad when my final high school season ended in November of 2007. I didn’t have time to dwell on it for long. I had something bigger to prepare for. College.

credit: Lori Blanding

While I applied to a few different schools, I always knew I wanted to go to MSU. My parents both went there, I grew up basically living on campus while my father taught there, and I was incredibly partial to Buckeye Blitz at the Dairy Store (ok that wasn’t a huge factor in my decision-making, but being geographically close to good ice cream is always a perk). When I discovered MSU had a Running Club, I was sold.

What is a “Running Club,” you ask? It’s an organization on campus where students – both graduate and undergraduate – meet in front of IM West, typically 5 days a week, and go for a run. It’s officiated by a student e-board that also collects dues and holds monthly meetings to discuss upcoming races and other RC events. Carpools are arranged on weekends to races in the Lansing area, there’s an occasional team dinner or party, but it’s more than that – it gives students like me, who were used to running with people every day in high school, a chance to relive it. When asked why they joined RC, physiology sophomore Kayle Noble, mechanical engineering sophomore Amanda Boyd and animal science and agribusiness management freshman Rebecca Dow all said the same thing: They ran cross country in high school and wanted to continue running in college.

“I remember going to Sparticipation my freshman year with the intent of finding the Running Club booth. After finally finding it amongst the hundreds of other booths, I joined the club and have enjoyed being a part of it ever since,” said kinesiology sophomore Sarah Parks.

Naturally many of us are only in it now for staying in shape and camaraderie, but there are always a few people that just want to keep racing and didn’t want to deal with the constraints of running at a Big Ten School.

“When I knew I wasn’t good enough to compete at the varsity level, I knew running club was fit for me,” said kinesiology senior Eric Loveland. He’s since been a part of the club for four years. Two fellow teammates, computer science sophomore Jeff Girbach and history and English-secondary education freshman Colin Riley, wanted to continue to train together and do some local races.

credit: Jenny Barlage

“I like running club because it’s a chance to continue competitive running in college even if you aren’t on a varsity team,” said Riley.

MSU’s Running Club is also a member of NIRCA – National Intercollegiate Running Club Association, which is a network of running clubs from all over the U.S. This allows us to race against other colleges such as the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University.

If you want to start running or you like to run but find that you’re lacking motivation, I highly recommend coming out to Running Club. Even if you can’t make it to a practice every day, find someone else on your floor or in your apartment complex and find a nice loop through campus. I’ve found that running with others motivates me to keep going when I might ordinarily stop.

Running for me is not just about keeping my body healthy – it’s a way to keep my mind healthy too. I’m addicted to endorphins – even a quick ten minute jaunt when I’ve had a hectic day clears my head like nothing else can. In all honesty, Running Club has been one of my favorite things about my time at MSU so far. I’ve met some amazing people, I’ve stayed (relatively) in shape and I’ve found something that allows me to hang onto the memories I have of my high school cross country days.

For more information about Running Club, check out their Facebook page.

Elephant Walk

ArtPrize 2010 was a huge success, pulling over 1,700 artists into Grand Rapids from 14 different countries to display art in over 190 venues and over 465,000 community members cast their votes to pick this year’s Top Ten ArtPrize winners.

Started in 2009 by Richard Devos of Grand Rapids, ArtPrize is meant to bring the world’s art community and the Grand Rapids community together as an open forum for conversation and appreciation of art.

• ArtPrize is the only art contest that allows entries from anyone in the world; no art degree required

• ArtPrize provides the largest prize of any art competition in the world

• ArtPrize is the only art competition that is open to a public vote

How it works

There are three elements that make up ArtPrize; venues, artists, and voters.

Venues are businesses throughout downtown Grand Rapids, within a certain geographical limit, that show artists’ work during the two weeks of ArtPrize. Artists are allowed one entry and they must secure one of the almost 200 venues to host their piece in order to be a competitor. Voters are everyday people who attend ArtPrize, see something they like and vote for it through internet, text, or a downtown voting center.

This type of voting system has never before been used for an art contest. Normally there would be a jury of elite art professionals, all with PhD’s and Master’s of Fine Arts (MFA) degrees. MSU Associate Professor of Electronic Art & Intermedia Adam Brown said, “I think it’s a fresh venue. I don’t know if it’s better or worse, but it’s different. It provides the public with a voice.”

In the first week of competition attendees are allowed to vote as many times as they wish. ArtPrize artist, Lesley Van Leeuwen-Vega, says that this practice makes the first week a bit more trivial, and results in a lot of “cake and ice cream” votes from parents attempting to please their children. The first week tends to favor pieces that are a “big spectacle” rather than genuinely good pieces of art. The top ten is announced at the end of the first week of voting.

In the second week of viewing, voters are allowed only one vote, if someone votes more than once, only the most recent vote will be counted. Van Leeuwen-Vega says that despite some criticism from the art community, “people really think about where their one vote will go,” and she added that, “things aren’t less special because you don’t have a Masters of Fine Arts.”

After the second week of voting, the Top 10 are put in descending order and awarded their perspective prizes. The art then remains at the venues for a few more days for the general enjoyment of the public. Some of the entries remain in downtown Grand Rapids even after ArtPrize is over, such as last years’ mosaic on the side of the Grand Rapids Children’s Museum.

Conversations in the Art Community

Recently, Kendall College professor, Deb Rockman, came forward, as she did in 2009, with her concerns about whether the average person knows how to accurately judge art. Rockman is quoted to have said, “It’s great that they have such an interest, but they often don’t have the base of knowledge to make an informed judgment.”

Helping Mom One Penny at a Time

Other professionals disagree with Rockman’s assessment. Former Kendall professor, Harry Kutten, said, “Average citizens can determine if they are moved by [art].” Van Leeuwen-Vega adds that “people know how they feel about things.”

MSU alumni and ArtPrize artist, Bree Gomez said, “I think that everyone is entitled to an opinion. When dealing with public art, people are very important. This isn’t a gallery.”

Gomez also said, “Art doesn’t have to be conceptually so deep that people don’t understand it.”

Kutten and Van Leeuwen-Vega also noted that there are plenty of art competitions that involve paneled judging; ArtPrize is just not one of them. (There is a jury of art professionals who recognize entries from different categories; however, these winners do not receive a cash prize).

ArtPrize offers a unique opportunity to anyone and everyone. As far as ArtPrize is concerned, “Everyone is an artist,” said Kutten.

As some criticize and others praise the system and intentions of ArtPrize, it becomes unclear what the future of the event will hold. “I don’t know if it will [grow] in the art world, the ‘art world’ is complicated,” said Brown. “It is definitely growing the arts in Michigan, but as far as putting Michigan on the map in the art world, I’m not sure.”

The Big Picture

Unlike most art contests, ArtPrize is not all about the winnings. The prize gets artists to Grand Rapids, the art gets people to Grand Rapids and the people start talking about art and spending money in downtown Grand Rapids. Allowing the public to vote forces viewers to think more critically about art; what they are drawn to and what moves them.

Kutten says that the purpose of the event is “to encourage the value of art.”

“[ArtPrize] seems to be good for the economy of Michigan,” said Brown. During last year’s event, restaurants ran out of food and were forced to close early because the downtown area was so busy.

Gomez said, “[ArtPrize is] very beneficial to GR. It helps people get to know what’s in Grand Rapids and gives support to local businesses.”

Artists

Recognition of any kind is very important to artists. The field of art is highly competitive and often elitist. One of the reasons that ArtPrize is so appealing to aspiring artists is that anyone can enter and everyone has a chance to win.

Bree Gomez

Bree Gomez took studio art courses at MSU in her freshman year of college before transferring to the Art Institute of Chicago. Gomez said she “didn’t want to go” but the school offered programs in the arts that were not offered at MSU.

She recently received her Bachelor’s of Fine Arts with an emphasis on sculpture and design from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gomez entered ArtPrize in both 2009 and 2010 and shared her reasoning for entering: “I wanted to get exposure as an up and coming artist.” She also added, “[ArtPrize] is a good opportunity to see how work works with the public, it let’s artists see if [they’re] going in the right direction.”

Her entry Accord was shown in front of the Grand Rapids Art Museum and received Top 25 recognition.

“I feel happy to get that far up on the voting, at the same time it would have been nice to have a chance in the top ten,” said Gomez.

Accord is an interactive piece which responds to movement with light and sound. It is a “stagnant sculpture that communicates,” said Gomez. “There is dialog within the piece, but only if you interact with it.”

Gomez says that Accord is meant to promote “subliminal healing through light and sound.” She refers to the piece as “positive art.”

Harry Kutten

Harry Kutten received his MFA from Western Michigan University and was an art professor at Kendall College.

Kutten decided to enter ArtPrize this year because he said he felt it was time to do more than just teach. “I want to encourage people to enjoy art and to see the beauty that I see,” said Kutten. “I wanted to share what I felt with others.”

The pastel drawing Ballet Dancer, by Harry Kutten showed in the Blue Cross Blue Shield building during ArtPrize.

Kutten explained that he has always enjoyed ballet. “It’s a form of communication to an audience without language,” said Kutten. “They express a feeling of beauty in dance form.”

For Ballet Dancer, Kutten was allowed to sit in on a rehearsal. He was struck by the sight of an exhausted dancer who sat down, but with the feeling of inevitably getting back up to continue dancing. This feeling is what he wanted to depict in his piece.

Lesley Van Leeuwen-Vega

Lesley Van Leeuwen-Vega entered ArtPrize after encouragement from other artists and the realization that she had something important to say.

Her piece, The Coalition for Responsible American Policy, uses advertising tactics to put a positive spin on ideas that are generally seen as negative in our society. She makes homophobia, racism and sexism sound like good ideas.

The intent was to get people to “try to understand what’s going on.” With so many ads being thrown at people every day, Van Leeuwen-Vega wondered if people notice what ads really say. Her piece forces the viewer to think critically about what is being said.

Find out more about other artists and see a list of the Top Ten ArtPrize winners for 2010

As a kid, collections consisted of shiny pennies and nickels found in couch cushions and a piece of sparkling quartz lying beside the driveway. However for some students at MSU, collecting is not child’s play.

(Photo credit: Shuyi Meng)

The Student Book Collecting Competition held its thirteenth annual collectors event on Tuesday, April 6. Four finalists received the opportunity to display their collections and the chance to earn prize money from $100 to $500.

Lia Greenwell, a creative writing junior, entered a collection of poetry, saying it was well worth the extra time.

“I figured that if I spent ten hours on [the collection], it would be just like working ten extra hours,” Greenwell said. She placed second and was awarded $250, along with a gift certificate to the Curious Book Shoppe in downtown East Lansing. Greenwell said that if she placed second or higher, she would definitely be adding to her collection.

For first place winner and American studies graduate student Amanda Sikarskie, the $500 prize will allow her to add to her Gwen Frostic collection. Her now-husband had been the first to suggest the author/poet to her.

“He suggested that I might like the artist, and I said, ‘Hey look, things to buy,’” Sikarskie said, as she explained the excitement of discovering something new.

The prize money isn’t the only thing that drives these students to collect. Rikki Reynolds, a Residential College of Arts and Humanities junior, buys her books like pieces of artwork.

She first began buying books because she liked the cover art, and slowly, she began to notice a pattern. Now, her collection centers around covers that display avant-garde and abstract pictures and words.

Describing the style of her favorite cover artist Roy Kahlman, Reynolds said, “In the fifties and sixties, he made art out of words.”

For Greenwell, her poetry collection started with required books for classes and books she checked out from the library. As she checked out and rechecked out, she decided that she needed copies of her own.

Here favorite buys came from used book sales. “I like having things that other people have had before,” Greenwell said.

With the four tables looking polished and organized, the finalists mingled excitedly while waiting for the results. Peter Burg, the Head of Special Collections, stood proudly on the side. Burg has organized the all of the past thirteen Collectors’ Competitions.

“It’s a lot of work, but once you see everything that’s here, it’s worth while,” Burg said.

TBG Editor and ballroom dancer Marla Kalmbach takes you behind the scenes of MSU’s Ballroom Dance Team.

I stood behind the bar with my hands raised looking at the crowd of hundreds in my SoCo-soaked boots. At that moment I looked around and wondered what the fuck I was doing at Tripper’s flipping around liquor bottles on a Sunday night when most MSU students were at the library studying for midterms.

design credit: Brianna Ritivoy, photo credit: Kara Keller

I had to think back eight weeks to answer my question.

On Thursday, three days before the first round, my manager asked me if I would be interested in making some drinks for a competition.

“Uh, maybe,” I thought. “I’m not even a bartender anymore; I haven’t been since August, so I’m not exactly confident in my drink-making abilities let alone being judged on them.”

After she told me half of the Tripper’s contestants dropped out, I needed to give her an answer by close and I had to create an original drink recipe by Sunday night, I was floored. But in my usual bite-off-more-than-I-can-chew style, I agreed and got excited about creating (and taste-testing) my new drink.

After much recipe searching, tweaking and making, I gave up and decided to make an Orange Crush Bomb – a Tripper’s signature shot – into a drink and just wing it at Old Chicago on Sunday.

“How hard could it be? I’m just making two drinks, and I know that they taste amazing; I’m going to win for sure!”

I invited my friends and coworkers to come eat some pizza and cheer for me. I had no idea what I was getting myself into and really had no idea how prepared the other bartenders were.

I thought the competition was about personality and drink taste and only a few weeks long. If I lost, oh well, at least I’d get my Sunday nights back. If I won, I’d get to tell my managers how sweet I am. This is a win-win situation, right?

Wrong! Turns out, this competition was a pretty big deal.

Banzai Energy Drink and City Pulse were sponsoring the Banzai Cocktail Wars with a grand prize trip to Las Vegas. The Cocktail Wars pinned 48 contestants from 12 Lansing bars against each other in an eight-week long final four bracket style competition complete with a Blind Pig losers bracket.

Yeah, this was definitely more than just making a drink.

Sarah explained the judging rules to all of us:  20 points for audience voting, 30 points for flair and 50 points for drink taste.

So people had flair? And this flair is?

I found out that Inky, my competition, had plenty of flair. This flair included blue martini glasses, special garnishes, blue rock sugar and, oh yeah, a freaking blowtorch! My Flair? Oh, just a bit of smiling and red sprinkles. I was doomed.

She had two full sleeve tattoos, a cut off camouflage tank top and a cheering section that took up half of the bar. Me and my eight cheering girlfriends didn’t stand a chance.

I put on my happy face and made my drink anyway. I lost but walked away with an invitation to compete in the Blind Pig bracket and a suggestion to add sour to my drink. As my competitive side started to come out, I knew I was not quitting without beating someone.

Poston pours out her signature drink in the heat of competition.

I practiced the whole next week and the Orange Crush went from an orange drink in a boring pint glass to a martini rimmed with Strawberry Pop Rocks and an orange. It was sexy and delicious, so what wasn’t to love?

The next week I competed at a small Lansing dive bar that I’ve never heard of – the Colonial. I only had one person cheering for me, but I was determined to kick some ass. I beat a boy who wasn’t a bartender but decided to compete as a favor to his uninterested girlfriend. I walked away with a smirk on my face and an invitation to compete at Leo’s Outpost the following Sunday.

At the log cabin themed Leo’s, I arrived with my one fan feeling pretty confident after my last win.  I was ready to bring it until I saw my competition talking and laughing with the judges and competition organizers. I was nervous, but then I tasted his drink. Let’s just say, the main liquors were different flavors of Smirnoff and it tasted like something I made in my freshman dorm room. The judges agreed, and I was on my way to the next round.

The following week I was told the marketing director was organizing a photo shoot for the remaining contestants.

“Oh God, a photo shoot? On Saturday morning? In Lansing?”

After getting lost for 20 minutes I found the creepy warehouse that we were shooting at. While I waited for an hour freezing without heat to get my picture taken, I got to chat with Michelle and Christy, two other bartenders. During the photo shoot I had to “look natural” while holding a martini glass still, smiling, being fanned with a cardboard box and having a flashbulb the size of a pizza pointed at my face. I thought it must have been a disaster, but no one would see it right?

No one besides the Greater Lansing Area?!

Oh yeah, my picture, along with seven others, was featured in a full page City Pulse advertisement. I got calls and emails about it, and my sister decided to save it for the “wedding box,” a box that I didn’t know existed, but apparently it’s full of embarrassing photos of me.

“Thanks, Cassie.”

Next week was the semi-finals, and I was competing against my new friend Christy at the Draft House. Obviously I wanted to move on to the finals; they were being held a Tripper’s, but I wouldn’t’ be that upset if I lost to Christy. Knowing I had to step up my flair, I practiced flipping empty drink shakers. Turns out it’s not that impressive compared to the bottle-throwers.

Christy was up first, but she dropped her Smirnoff bottle and shattered it.

“Good, no pressure. I can’t do worse than that, I might even rock it.”

Well, I dropped a bottle too, but luckily mine landed on the bar mats that were put down minutes before. Because of a quick recovery I won by four points and was headed to the finals!

In the off-week I practiced my shaker-flipping and bottle-throwing skills meanwhile Tripper’s developed some photos.

When I walked in to work on Thursday I found 50 of my pictures staring back at me, including six poster-sized portraits above the bar!

Poston pumps up the crowd (photo credit: Kara Keller).

I was everywhere.

There was even another quarter page City Pulse ad, featuring just me.

“Great,” I thought. “More filler for the wedding box.”

I was super nervous but excited; I was the only person representing Tripper’s on our home turf. I was set to compete against a randomly-drawn wild card bartender. If I won, I’d face Inky again.

Not that many wild card bartenders showed up and, as fate would have it, I had to compete against my newly ex-boyfriend, who was also a coworker.  The air was thick with irony, but of course I pulled myself together and won!

Next I was up against Inky and her blowtorch. Even though I had my flipping, throwing and even a cute little saying (“Tripper’s, I’ve got a crush on you”), I still couldn’t beat her.

Michelle, from Brandigan Brothers, won against the crowd favorite, Curry, and moved to the final round. Both were amazing, but Inky won and walked away with the trip to Vegas and an oversized cocktail trophy.

Maybe it was destiny or maybe it was her intimidating blowtorch, but Inky was the Cocktail Champion. I reassured myself with a few Orange Crushes and called it a night. I had a great run on the competitive cocktail circuit, but I have to admit, it sure will be nice to lose the Monday morning hangovers.

Michigan State University is a diverse campus with more than 47,000 people who have different backgrounds, interests and demands when it comes to their news.

Are those demands really being met?

Spartanedge and The Big Green are online publications that contribute to the diversity and vibrancy of campus, and we are greatly concerned by a historic loss of talent to The State News. Spartanedge and The Big Green cover a variety of issues The State News does not adequately represent. We provide a place for writers of magazine-length pieces and producers of innovative multimedia to showcase their abilities and tell the stories of MSU. We don’t see our publications as competition, but the State News is categorizing us as just that, and it’s negatively impacting everyone in the MSU community.

After acquiring our writers and photographers, The State News’ non-competition policy prohibits these students from being a part of multiple and varied publications on campus. We understand it’s impossible for one publication — no matter how many people or how much money it has — to cover everything. That’s where other publications step in to keep the balance of information and enhance the community. By allowing The State News to monopolize the journalism talent at MSU, that balance is lost.

We want to restore the balance, and that’s why we’re openly asking The State News to eliminate their non-competition policy.

Students need to have the freedom to express opinions and communicate ideas – as students, journalists and members of the community. This freedom of expression is a crucial part of the learning experience.

Our contributors learn how to cover varied aspects of university life with a variety of platforms. At The Big Green and Spartanedge, we teach future journalists how to produce and edit photos, graphics, audio and videos for the Web. They could not get all of this experience in one position at The State News. We offer choice and creativity that might be unavailable in a structure like theirs.

Spartanedge and The Big Green consistently contribute to the cycle of information on campus with these varied platforms for storytelling. Since we do not pay our staff and don’t publish daily, we can’t and don’t cover the daily hard news simply because that’s not in our cycle.  In this sense especially, we don’t see either of our publications as competing with The State News. That’s why Spartanedge and The Big Green have collaborated several times.

We recognize the value, as student journalists, of having the maximum amount of published work to show prospective employers. Many internships require proof of such “clips,” and the more publications a candidate has worked with proves their adaptability and diversity of skills. The Big Green and Spartanedge have put on workshops to arm their contributors with the skills necessary to produce quality journalism.

We encourage writers to work for multiple publications and broaden their experience. The Big Green editor-in-chief Emily Lawler has published audio pieces in Spartanedge, and our publications share sophomore Brandon Kirby, who edits the Sex & Health section of The Big Green and the Entertainment & Events section of Spartanedge. He recently earned an internship at City Pulse thanks to his demonstrated ability to produce quality journalism for multiple organizations.

We tried creating an open dialogue with The State News about the issue we have with their policy. When we contacted the editor-in-chief last semester and told her why we were inquiring, she told us their policy does not allow “students to work at or freelance for any competing campus publications or local publications” while employed with The State News. She added they allow “writers to freelance for non-competing publications as long as they have it approved by their desk editor” and the editor-in-chief, but it can be turned down if it is seen as a possible conflict. This semester we contacted the new editor-in-chief, who declined to meet with us.

The policy as both editors have described it seems to be unevenly enforced, as some former writers The Big Green contacted claim that when hired they were asked to drop all association with their previous publications, regardless of topic or section.

A restrictive non-competition policy like the one The State News has isn’t even in practice at publications beyond the campus level. On the surface it is typical, but the atypical part comes in when weekly and monthly publications that focus on multimedia and feature-length writing are considered to compete with a daily newspaper. In their non-competition policy (they call it their Employee Conlflict of Interest Policy) The State News names both the Lansing State Journal and The Big Green as publications their writers cannot publish with. While The Big Green is flattered, it doesn’t consider itself to compare with a professional, daily paper like LSJ.

While Spartanedge is not explicitly named as a competitor, it has clearly been included in the category through other comments that place all campus publications under the umbrella of competition.

Responding to a disclosure of what this editorial would be about, Susan Whitall of The Detroit News said, “In college I think it’s even more important not to limit student journalists from doing things that add to their skill sets.”

MSU Alum Lynn Henning is a sports writer and blogger for The Detroit News and also writes for Hour magazine. There are online examples of his work for The Detroit News and Hour published in April 2008. He clearly wasn’t held back by working for two publications even though they appeal to the same readership. It is the same type of work that can appeal to the same readership base, but it’s presented in a different format and circulated on a different schedule. They make it work at the professional level, so it can work at the campus level.

We would also like to point out that The State News is a corporation explicitly allowed tax rights through the University’s tuition, meaning the University hands The State News money; both Spartanedge and The Big Green are independently funded. Our publications are far more independent than “Michigan State University’s Independent Voice.”

The bottom line is that there has been a negative impact as a result of the transition of writers from independent, student-run groups to the incorporated structure of The State News. In light of all the details, can The State News really claim validity to their non-competition policy? And what role should the University have in this when its Academic Freedom Report claims its basic purposes include “providing the environment most conducive to the many faceted activities of instruction, research and service” … but students are automatically charged $5 on their tuition to support The State News? It doesn’t seem like that money is fostering an environment conducive to supporting students in their learning opportunities.

The State News’ non-competition policy needs to be completely eliminated to comply with University regulations. Simply amending it has not worked in the past and contributors continue to be told that writing for other publications could terminate their employment at The State News.

None of this is an attempt to discredit The State News on any level or create any animosity. We recognize the merits of the publication, and on that same note we feel it is necessary to address what we see as its biggest flaw.

Things need to change.

By allowing journalism students on this campus to learn from multiple organizations, we promote their continued success as MSU graduates. If that’s not the goal of any university community, what is?

Editor’s Note: The Big Green and Spartanedge have teamed up, and are writing a series of editorials on the topic “The State of State’s Media.” A similar version of this can be found here on Spartanedge, and we will be posting the rest of the series soon. This statement is supported by Spartanedge and The Big Green. To see the sections of the Academic Freedom Report (AFR) that support our stance, browse through it for yourself and pay attention to sections 1.2, 1.1, and 6.1.1.