If fast-food chains had human traits, this one would be labeled a braggart. But the self-promotion plastered all over the walls isn’t just hype. It’s legit.
Five Guys Burgers and Fries, a burger chain, has opened a second Ann Arbor location at Arborland Mall next to Noodles & Company. And like the one downtown, it papers its red-and-white-checkered walls with reviews from various publications – all shouting about how “tasty” a Five Guys burger is.
Welcome to truth in advertising. Food here is 100 percent fresh. Beef is never frozen. It’s grilled chewy-crisp on the outside and hot and juicy on the inside. Topped with choice condiments, it’s a fit of flavor for the taste buds with a slight sweetness at the finish.
The menu is small and simple. Order a cheeseburger and it’s a double. Order a burger denoted as ‘little’ and it’s a single, but the Five Guys experience doesn’t end there.
Would you like fries and a drink with that?
Fresh cut and brought in from various Idaho farms every day, sacks of potatoes are stacked up in the dining room and around the restaurant– the name of the actual potato farmer and his hometown is displayed on a white board beside the order counter.
The spuds, unpeeled, are fried in peanut oil and lightly seasoned, served in epic proportion and have a hefty appeal. The cashier will probably mention that a small order of fries typically satisfies three people.
Washing down this mouthful of goodness is equally flavorsome and, initially, entertaining. The soda fountain may seem technically challenging with its touch screen of choices, but its unique operation contributes to its whimsical flair.
If it can be conjured, it can be concocted.
Strawberry water? Vanilla root beer? Orange Coke? The possibilities are endless – and refills are free.
Burgers and fries are the specialty of the house, but there are other options including hotdogs, veggie sandwiches and grilled cheese. The service is courteous and the atmosphere feels energizing with an easy-listening, pop-rock genre of music playing overhead.
At $5 a burger, it’s more expensive than McDonald’s top-of-the-line burger, but about equal to Wendy’s and second to none in flavor.
Five Guys is worth trying for anyone who loves getting more bang for their buck. And love it or hate it, leave a comment on one of the corkboards in the dining room; it’s encouraged.
For more information, and to view the menu, visit: http//fiveguys.com.
Successes are measured in different ways, but large or small they all have a common thread – they begin with desire. The band Fouxtown, formerly known as the Top 40 Combo Band, is living proof.
Saturday afternoon the band made its debut at the Heritage Festival in Depot Town. It was somewhat of a challenge as last-minute time changes made an impact. Originally scheduled to play at 7:30 p.m., the group went on at 4 p.m.
“That scared us all to death, we had to rearrange schedules but it all worked out,” said Heather Cartwright, 33, lead singer and band manager from Milan.
WHAT: Fouxtown Instrumental
WHEN: Aug. 24 and Sept. 11 (Welcome Day)
TIME: 3-4 p.m., both dates
PLACE: WCC community park area
During the Winter semester, a group of students took a music class taught by John E. Lawrence and decided they liked playing with each other so much that they would stay together as a group. That’s when Lawrence got a call from a former student asking if he had any recommendations for talent to play at Heritage Fest.
Fouxtown was it.
The band practiced every week for two months to get ready and met a challenge or two along the way, losing its trumpet player due to family hardship.
“We really do miss him,” said Cartwright.
Still, the show went on and as anxious as they were, the band members were eager to please their audience and their mentor for one magical hour.
Leading off with an old-time disco favorite, “Funkytown” originally performed by the one-hit wonder Lipps Inc. in 1980, Fouxtown rolled into the Tina Turner classic “Proud Mary” and fans even got a taste of Janis Joplin’s “Me and Bobby McGee.” That’s when the shoes started to come off.
“Can’t do Janis with shoes on, I suppose,” Cartwright said.
The set wound down with introductions and an instrumental mix of solos from the lead guitarist, drummer and bassist. They did what they came to do.
“It was hard work rehearsing twice a week, but I believe it paid off. We got what we wanted. Everyone brought their A-game today,” said Steve Garner, 18, saxophone player from Ypsilanti.
These green musicians and their mentor are proud of what they are beginning and hoping that it leads to something bigger and more rewarding.
“I’d like to continue playing with these guys. They are some of the best musicians I’ve played with and it would be amazing,” said Jake Kitley, 22, bass guitarist from Stockbridge.
“They did a great job,” Lawrence said. “I like to see my students do well.”
Pumped up for more, Fouxtown already has its next two gigs lined up, both on Washtenaw’s campus. The first is Aug. 24 in Community Park area, where Kitley, and the band’s drummer and one guitarist will be performing an instrumental set. The second will follow Welcome Day activities on Sept. 11 with a full ensemble.
The Ypsilanti Heritage Festival is one of the last remaining free-admission festivals in the state of Michigan. Held annually each summer, it encompasses all of Depot Town, Riverside Park and Frog Island for three days – starting this year on Aug. 17.
The Riverside Beer Garden will be serving local craft beers from the Ann Arbor Brewing and Wolverine State Brewing Cos., and there will be live entertainment as well as casino gambling until midnight Friday and Satiurday.
Throughout Riverside Park, art and craft venders will be set up along with other venders serving up festival food and beverages for the masses.
Some of the highlights include the Heritage Festival Parade on Saturday, Chautauqua at the Riverside on Saturday and Sunday, and a Living History Native Encampment presented by the Native Youth Alliance of Ypsilanti on all three days.
At the gazebo stage on the riverfront Washtenaw Community College’s Performing Arts program will have a significant presence.
Patchwerk Dance Troupe performing in southern hip-hop style, and Factory Dance Company in a modern dance genre comprised of performing arts students and alumni will perform, as well as other dancers and instructors.
“I haven’t totally set up the program yet… but we will be there. I’ve got some students who will be doing solos. There may even be belly dancing,” said Laurice “Noonie” Anderson, instructor and program director for dance and yoga at the college.
Anderson will also be choreographing something of her own, but says she doesn’t know yet if it will be solo or with her students.
Another group to be showcased from WCC is the Top 40 Combo band from John E. Lawrence’s music class at 7:30-8:30 p.m. on Saturday.
“We are really excited,” said Heather Cartwright of Milan, singer and group manager.
Heritage Fest will be the group’s official launch into the realm of entertaining where it will announce the new name of the band and play popular hits from old to new.
“We’re going to throw a few curveballs and have some fun,” said Zac Johnson, the group’s trumpet player from Ypsilanti.
The Ypsilanti Historical Society will also be hosting free Historical Museum tours and exhibits on all three days. In addition, the Ypsilanti Heritage Foundation will be holding their 35th Annual Heritage Home Tour Sunday from noon-5 p.m. Tickets for that event are $10-12.
Event and schedule information for the Ypsilanti Heritage Festival are TBD. For more
Walk into the newsroom of The Washtenaw Voice, and one of the first people likely to greet you might be Keith Gave, adviser to the newspaper.
When he tells one of the stories from his glory days as a roving reporter, the image that might come to mind is that of a loud, smoke-filled newsroom full of reporters tap-tapping away at typewriters and working the phones trying to meet copy deadlines.
“He’s really an old-time news man,” said Dave Waskin, faculty adviser to Washtenaw Community College’s Journalism program.
Keith Gave. (Bob Conradi/The Washtenaw Voice)
“I saw him at the airport once when I was coming home to Michigan for a break from college. He had the look of a tired sports writer coming back from assignment, notebooks spilling out of his pockets,” Waskin recalled. “I had no idea our paths would cross again years later.”
When Gave originally applied to work for WCC, the hiring committee was merely looking for someone to guide the ship, but Gave surpassed that ideology, working tirelessly to generate ad sales and getting students involved in writing and design.
“He took the paper to a level no one expected, including me, and that has been most impressive,” Waskin said.
Impressive as he was to those at the college, it was no surprise to the likes of Bill Roose, managing editor for DetroitRedWings.com, who began working with Gave at the Detroit Free Press as a copy aid and cub reporter.
Gave is a guy who gets things done.
“He is very thorough. He was like all veteran reporters back then, can’t shake him, and can’t rattle him,” Roose said. “There would be all this noise going on and he would just bang out stories, and you’d read them and think, wow I didn’t even see that happen.”
“Keith was a great reporter and had incredible energy. Whenever there was a whiff of a story, I’d look up and he’d be on it already,” said Mitch Albom, columnist for the Detroit Free Press.
Most notably known for covering the Detroit Red Wings for the Detroit Free Press, Gave’s career has taken him on a scenic ride from hardened newsman to teacher and mentor for aspiring journalists.
“He started a newspaper at Kirtland Community College, where I work now,” said Jo Ann Gave, his wife of 24 years.
Gave originally started working at Kirtland, located in Roscommon, as a public relations director while concurrently working for the Bay City Times as a columnist and editor of True North Magazine. He started teaching journalism, and built an award-winning newspaper with just a handful of students.
“There were just about five or six of us on the staff. We were all middle aged,” said Jerry Nunn, 52, and editor and publisher of The Guide, covering northeast Michigan from I-75 to Lake Huron and north of Bay County.
“We won a lot of awards through his guidance,” said Nunn. “He was instrumental to my career.”
When the position surfaced at Washtenaw, Gave leapt at the opportunity.
“He told me that this was his dream job; what he was really meant to do, so I told him to go for it,” Jo Ann said.
However, the gig came at a small price: Gave had to acclimate himself to living in Dearborn, away from his family, during the week and traveling back home to Roscommon on the weekends.
“He misses his dogs: Chaucer, Tolstoy and Roxie. When he comes home on the weekends he just buries his face in their fur and hugs them,” Jo Ann said.
The sacrifice is huge, but it does seem to bring out the romantic side of him.
“I must get flowers more than any woman on Earth,” she said. “I know it’s because he is away all the time.”
When Gave is at home and not processing incoming copy for TheVoice, he likes to fish on the banks of the Au Sable River, just beyond an electric fence put in place so his canine friends won’t jump in.
“They just sit there and watch him and whine a little,” his wife said. “They miss him as much as he misses them. Most of the time when he is home though, he is up working into the night. I get mad at him sometimes because he works so hard.”
Reaping the benefits of his dedication, his students at Washtenaw respect and admire him for his experience and expertise, and also for his patience.
Having had some personal struggles when her father got sick and a dear friend was found dead from a heroin overdose, former Voice staffer Anna Fuqua-Smith said he was very delicate with the situation. The 26-year-old Journalism major from Ann Arbor said she is grateful to have an adviser who didn’t give up on her when she was struggling and needed it most.
“I know if I needed a friend, I could call Keith and he’d talk me through it,” she said.
Others have shared her sentiment.
“Keith Gave is a great teacher. He has kind of a smash-mouth approach to teaching that really makes everyone feel responsible for their own work,” said Adrian Hedden, features editor for The Voice.“Everything I’ve learned about journalism I’ve learned from him.”
Hedden holds Gave in high regard for all he has given to the field, but says that sometimes it can be frustrating when they don’t see eye to eye about something after it has been printed.
Aside from that, Hedden says he even derives some of his fashion sense from Gave and says he doesn’t feel so pressured to wear socks all the time.
“He’s really a no nonsense kind of guy and a lot of fun,” said Lawrence Donnelly, a conference services technician with the college, and a recent graduate of the Journalism program. “He is a great resource to have right here on campus.”
In a video shot by Donnelly, Gave talks about the pros and cons of citizen journalism and whether or not it has a place in the field, and in his opinion, it isn’t journalism.
Again, not surprising coming from a self-professed news junkie taking The Washtenaw Voice to new heights and raising the bar every academic year for community college newspapers everywhere.
Waskin calls to mind his first impression, “apart from knowing about him, the thing that stands out about Keith is his love and enthusiasm for journalism and for newspapers.”
*Editor’s note: Our adviser Keith Gave had no idea about this personality profile. Had he known, we might have not been able to get away with it. We make it a point to not write about our own, but because of the inspiration and determination he has instilled in all of his students and newspaper staff, we thought we could make an exception. Thanks for another great year, Keith.
Mathematics might be the most procrastinated subject by college students across the country. It requires a lot of reasoning and calculating, and can be intimidating in the extreme.
“I seriously had nightmares with statistics,” said Jamie Wisniewski.
The 25-year-old physical therapist assistant major from Ann Arbor doesn’t have to worry though, because Basic Statistics is the only math class required for her program. However, there are other students who are concerned that the new Math Level Expiration Policy, implemented by Washtenaw Community College, may impede their academic progress.
The policy was put in place at the start of the Fall semester, and with little notice according to Tom Hopper, 49, a pre-engineering transfer from Ann Arbor.
“We’ve been trying to push it before we even put this limit in, and about one or two years ago we started emailing instructors when registration opened telling them, ‘hey, today’s a good day to talk to your students about registering for their next math class,’” said Kristin Chatas, chair of the college’s Math Department.
Hopper doesn’t buy it.
“What good is that if you aren’t in a math class?” he asks.
Working full-time and attending classes, Hopper is focused on his goal of getting his engineering degree, but being a non-traditional student is making it hard for him to comply with the school’s policy of one year expiration – due to work constraints.
“If I would have known this was coming, I would have waited to take chemistry,” he said.
As a participant of “Achieving the Dream,” a nationwide initiative to improve success for students who enter college at a developmental level, WCC knew it was coming. The question is what prompted the change?
“Sixty-seven percent of students entering WCC have to take remedial math, and that isn’t just a problem here. It’s nationwide,” said Linda Blakey, associate vice-president of Student Services.
“Achieving the Dream colleges refer, on average, 56 percent of their students to developmental education coursework, with individual institutional referral rates ranging from a low of nine percent to a high of 97 percent of all entering students,” according to research conducted by Achieving the Dream.
Additional empirical data supporting Washtenaw’s case for the change in police, however, was not available on request from The Washtenaw Voice.
“A lot of what we used was anecdotal experience,” Chatas said. “We were finding that many students would take a math course and then wait, potentially several years, to take the next required course. This was prolonging their academic paths, and oftentimes led to poor performance from the long layover between classes.”
That is of little consolation to a student, like Hopper, who isn’t at a developmental level.
“I think expiration is needed, but a blanket of one year seems a little extreme,” said Andrea Waite. In her experience, the Chemistry 111 instructor believes that it depends on the student.
But there is a way for students to keep math levels current without having to repeat a class. Take the Compass test.
Becky Alliston, a business major, found that she needed to drop her required math class when she realized that it was too much in her schedule. Her math level wasn’t due to expire until the Fall of 2012, but she was still unable to register for her math class for the Summer semester because the registration system wouldn’t allow it, so she went ahead and took the test.
“I passed for the level I needed, but before I took the test the proctor told me it was harder due to the expiration policy,” she said.
Twelve-year-old Ted (voice of Zac Efron) lives in the plastic town of Thneed-Ville, where fresh air is not free. There are no living, growing things except for the people who live there.
Audrey (Taylor Swift), the girl of his dreams, has a dream of her own—to see a living tree. In an effort to make her dream a reality, Ted goes outside of the city walls to the barren wasteland, that was once a blooming paradise, on the advice of his Grammy Norma ( Betty White). He seeks the Once-ler (Ed Helms), and learn the legend of the Lorax (Danny DeVitio).
The Lorax is fun for the whole family, especially for young children, despite the PG rating. Its colorful animation is vibrant and engaging, but for anyone who truly loves Dr. Seuss it might be disappointing as it isn’t quite abundant with the usual “Seussian” flair of silly rhyming words.
The message of environmental consciousness that the original story possesses is still very much alive in this contemporary version, expanded upon to suit the times, depicting big-business ideology as condescension of environmental ethics.
Mr. O’Hare (Rob Riggle) a one-time janitor, decides to capitalize on the misfortune of the environment, and builds his own brand of corporate gluttony, only to find that it won’t last.
Is there a political agenda here? Maybe, but this story is a light-hearted way to deliver it without making it feel forced.
This film is rather thought-provoking with its green-tinted theme. What if there were no trees and breathing had a price? What if?
As Dr. Seuss says: “Unless someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better…it’s not.”
Each year the Meguiar’s Detroit Autorama welcomes custom car enthusiasts from all over North America. Washtenaw Community College takes advantage of the opportunity to showcase the talent of its past, presenting students from its automotive programs at the event.
“This is our big bang,” said Mike Duff, instructor for Automotive Service Technology, and the results don’t disagree as WCC raced away with six awards. But winning awards is not the only objective for Duff. He wants the college to be noticed as an opportunity for students to make themselves marketable in the workforce.
“The goal for this weekend is to promote the school and show them what we can do,” he said.
Duff has high hopes that the most recent debut into Autorama will be an enticing enough marketing tool to draw high school vocational students to the auto programs at Washtenaw.
Besides being pretty to look at with its $5,000 paint job, the Mystic Cobra was built for drag racing. One of five original prototypes donated by Ford Motor Company, it has a 521 cubic inch bi-fuel engine and a two-speed power glide transmission.
“We built the car as a wow factor to take to the schools,” Duff said. “You need a carrot to be able to grab their attention.”
Another attractive piece of machinery strutting its stuff at Autorama for WCC this year was the Ford 500 GT-R, a 550 horsepower, mid-engine supercar weighing in at 4,500 pounds and sporting a Ford 500 body slapped on top of a Ford GT frame. The wide-body work was all custom-made by students in the Custom Car Concepts program. All the scoops and vents are fully functional, and it has gone 189 mph on Ford’s test track.
When Ford Motor Company wanted to do something really cool, WCC gave them the idea for the GT-R, and Ford said it couldn’t be done. Obviously that challenge was met.
“It’s about as heavy as your average four-door grocery-getter, but it goes 200 mph,” laughed Bobby Feldkamp, 23, lab assistant for Auto Body Repair.
While these two cars can hold their own, there was another that seemed to be hogging most of the attention at the Feb. 24–26 show. As onlookers at the Cobo Arena show walked by, the proverbial “oohs” and “aahs” could be heard.
It was a 1964 Impala 409 SS owned by ex-Detroit Tiger Dmitri Young. With a 500 horsepower Roush-built engine pushing 500 pound-feet of torque, the car donned a fully polished underbody,
“This car will be going back to the owner soon, so we thought we’d bring it out one last time to see what it would do,” Feldkamp said.
Four years ago, the Impala was displayed on “Riddler Row,” depicting it as one of the 16 nicest cars debuted that year, so it should come as no surprise that its final ride with WCC was a good one.
Autorama may be a custom car show, but it doesn’t discriminate against two wheelers. WCC’s motorcycle program had a strong presence as well with a Ducati 999, owned by Gary Sobbry, instructor for Auto-body Repair, and a Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14 stock bike, morphed into a performance bike with the addition of a six-inch, stretched rear-end, a 230 rear tire, a Brock header system, and NOS (nitrous oxide system).
“The nitrous isn’t hooked up yet, but it will be,” said Wayne Keesey, technician in the motorcycle area. As a drag bike, the Ninja does about 10.5 seconds down the quarter-mile which equates to about 137 mph, Keesey said.
“But it still hasn’t given us what its potential is.”
WCC in the Winner’s Circle
First-place in the Custom-Convertible Mid-class: 1964 Impala
First-place in the European Custom Bike Class:
Ducati 999
First-Place in the Special Interest Motorized Class: Kawasaki 4-wheeler.
Third-place in the Super Stock Class:
Mystic Cobra
Fourth-place in the Asian Custom Bike Class: Kawasaki Ninja ZX-14.
As a retired interior designer, Sue Yopek has an eye for creativity. Five years ago, when her husband Russ was rebuilding his bike, the rebuilt Evolution (EVO) motor sat in their dining room for three months.
“I kept teasing him: ‘You know, if it sits there long enough, I’m gonna make a table out of it,’” she said. Of course she didn’t, but that thought always stuck in the back of her mind.
At the time she didn’t know it, but Sue was ill. She was later diagnosed with a disease called hypoparathyroidism, which required surgery to remove a tumor.
During the period of time before her surgery, Sue said she “kind of lost all that.”
“I’m into just about every kind of craft you can imagine, being an art major and all, but after surgery that all started coming back, and I started concepting,” she said.
Russ “ Sparks” Yopek , 47, of Brighton and his wife began what they call a “labor of love” in December 2011. They called it “Wicked Art.”
Wicked Art is in the infant stage now but the Yopeks have big plans for their baby. The couple decided in January that Autorama was where they would begin to showcase their work, which didn’t afford much time to prepare.
“It was like the great biker build-off to get these pieces done in time,” Sparks said. “I was up for two days straight, no sleep.”
The pieces he is referring to are one-of-a-kind, functional creations made from once-operating motorcycle parts. They include a table made from a 1971 Shovelhead Harley Davidson motor, another made from four rear fenders, and a tombstone-shaped mirror with a drive chain edging.
“The Shovelhead took me three weeks to build,” said Sparks, who also does the custom detailing for each piece.
The work that went into the Shovelhead table was labor- intensive, cleaning and machining the jugs to get them just right so that the 48 red LED lights could be installed and be seen to get the effect that Sue was looking for.
So far, a couple of specific target markets look promising. Sue believes that the fast-growing population of women riders will be great for sales and plans to cater to the woman rider with products such as lamps, candle holders, Adirondack chairs and any other design aspect for the home.
“Women love beautiful things… and the beauty of our products is that not only are you buying a piece of furniture, you are buying a piece of art. Each piece we build is signed, numbered and comes with a certificate of authenticity,” she said. “No piece will be exactly the same.”
The other area the Yopeks are interested in is the sustainability market. Plans for products made from re-claimed metal and barn wood are also in the works.
“We are already working with a gentleman who does beautiful woodwork,” Sue said.
Aside from the passion of creativity and loving what they do, the point that the Yopeks want to make on behalf of themselves is that this venture truly is a labor of love and a team effort.
“I like being able to go right outside to my shop and do what I do,” Sparks said.
“I really like to see people happy,” Sue said. “And the great thing is that we are doing it together.”
“I just went down a wrong road and made some poor choices, but you live and you learn. I have gained respect for myself, and I feel that respect mirrored back in other people. My kids mean the world to me, and I’m glad to be able to do better for them,” said Nicole Morgan, 30, of Ypsilanti.
Nicole Morgan, of Ypsilanti, with her children Jasper, Eric, and Haley.
Homeless, Morgan had been living in her aunt’s house for about nine months with her husband, Eric, 30, and children: Jasper, 6, Haley, 4, and baby Eric who was barely 5 months old. Her husband, Eric, didn’t have a job and soon arguments about money became a daily battle.
“He never worked the whole time we were together. It was always me,” said Morgan.
Receiving state assistance at the time, her faith became troubled when she found herself not only kicked out of her aunt’s home, but also without a husband.
“We went to the Staples Center and it took a week for a space to open up for us. About two months in, Eric got kicked out of the shelter for breaking curfew,” said Morgan. “He was drunk, and had been cheating.”
Apparently, the two-year marriage had shown signs of difficulty from the very beginning. Eric wasn’t the employable type, and would not look for work actively. Still, she was beside herself when it ended.
As hard as it was without her husband there, Morgan had more pressing matters to be concerned about. The rule of the shelter was that if one family member was kicked out of the program, then the rest of the family had to go too. To Morgan’s relief, however, the Staples Center allowed her and the children stay. At that point, she truly felt as if she had lost everything.
“It was so embarrassing to me, and I was hurt that I had no other family members to take me in,” Morgan said.
Meanwhile, Jasper and Haley were still attending school in the Willow Run School District.
The shelter had a program set up where a taxi would pick up the children, and take them to school. Morgan, having no transportation of her own, was grateful and remarked that the same driver came every day, which she feels helped the children remain more comfortable.
She said the children handled everything really well. They didn’t know the shame she felt. Jasper even remembers feeling like it was fun; like being on an adventure.
“There were a lot of other kids there,” he said. “We played a lot.”
Morgan must have longed to see her next obstacle through the eyes of her child.
The limit of a familial stay in the Staples Center was only three months, so Morgan, who still had no place to go, had to move her family to another shelter. This time they would reside at Alpha House, and this is where Morgan could finally take some positive steps forward.
“It was a much nicer and more organized facility,” she said.
Alpha House had strategies that would help Morgan put herself and her children in a stable living situation. She said the staff was really supportive, and every week someone would meet with her to put together a plan and establish goals—like saving money.
“In a month’s time, I managed to save $1,000, which really helped,” she said.
After a month and a week at Alpha House, Morgan got the break she had been hoping for. The SOS Crisis Center in Ann Arbor had an apartment that would be coming available. The way a family is chosen for eligibility is through an interviewing process, in which every family residing in the shelter is involved.
“I thought, there is no way we will be chosen, but we were,” Morgan said.
It was like a weight lifted off of her shoulders, and after the initial high of making some headway, she crashed into a depression unlike she had ever experienced.
After going through the last four months of uncertainty, and working as diligently as she could to take care of her family, she had reached her breaking point. The stress had finally caught up with her. Therapy and medication became necessary for her to function.
“The toll it took on me was immense, both mentally and physically. I had to push myself, and I wasn’t eating. Everything I was doing was just a blur at this point,” she said. “But I was doing it for the kids.”
And once out of the shelter and into her coveted apartment, her life started to improve with the ongoing care of three separate social workers – one who helped with employment, one who helped with the Department of Social Services, and one who helped with the children’s needs.
“I don’t know what I would have done without them (social workers),” said Morgan. “I just felt like I couldn’t go on anymore.”
But, faithfully, Morgan has gone on, and three years later looking back at her struggle, she is grateful for her children, and the drive that they gave her to put her future in perspective.
The Testing Center has reinstated Sunday hours for the Winter semester, but dissatisfaction among students lingers.
With the previous semester omitting Sunday hours and raising concern for working students, this should be good news – shouldn’t it? According to some students, however, the shortened weekday hours are nearly as unappealing.
New Testing Center schedule
Monday–Thursday
9 a.m.–7:15 p.m. Tests collected at 7:45 p.m.
Friday–Saturday
9 a.m.–4:15 p.m. Tests collected at 4:45 p.m.
Sunday
1 p.m.–4:15p.m. Tests collected at 4:45 p.m.
While only having weekday hours were a pain, according to Sara Viland, 29, a physician’s assistant major from Ann Arbor, now Sundays
are the only hours available to her.
“It’s almost worse,” she said.
And that sentiment may be shared by fellow students who now have traded one set of restricted hours for another.
During the Fall semester, Matt Gittleson, 31, a Liberal Arts transfer major from Ann Arbor said, “Right now I have Saturday and Tuesday night classes. If I work, then my only option is to suddenly come in on Sunday instead of anytime during the week?”
However, officials at WCC are trying to do what is best for the students and the budget.
“We heard the request for Sunday hours,” said Linda Blakey, associate vice president for Student Services. “We tried to address the concerns the best we could, and this is what we came up with.”
With the Winter semester under way, only time will tell whether the new hours will be a suitable solution, but according to Blakey, re-evaluation for the Spring/Summer semester is not out of the question.
