Starr Building

The Starr Education Center is one of the oldest and most prominent classroom buildings on the campus of Ferris State. It was first implemented in 1962. Many of the Dozerfleet founder's classes were held in this building. The first floor hallway near its parking lot has side corridor leading to the theater building. That general area in Starr has been utilized many times in Dozerfleet history.

Fall 2006
The Dozerfleet founder took a speech-giving class in this building. Otherwise, this was a nice, warm way to get to the Williams Auditorium on colder days. That class resulted in such projects as Facebook vs. MySpace, Santa: A Feasibility Study, and Man and Dinosaur: Always Were Together.

Spring 2007
In Ciem, Starr was remade as the "Scarr Building" at Viron University in Viron, Indiana, a Classic Gerosha stand-in for the University of Southern Indiana. The first floor hallway near the theater entrance corridor was where Candi first met Denny Levens, as the hall and corridor were re-created inside The Sims 2. Candi later escapes when she discovers that Dirbine police in the breakroom are in cohorts with the Hebbleskin Gang.

Chapter 9 of Ciem also takes place in a third floor classroom here. Candi's sociology class is an almost exact replica of Sociology 121's classroom in the spring of 2007 at Ferris. Real-life classmate Darla was remade as "Dhalia Lorrice" inside The Sims 2. In that class in real life, the Dozerfleet founder got to play with the class a copy of Bertell Ollman's Marxist indoctrination game Class Struggle. He discovered that the game's central premise could be subverted simply by getting certain corporations with common interests to co-hedge assets in order to rescue each other if risks got too high. The teacher shut down the hedging operation, as the game's central premise doesn't allow for altruism.

In this same spring there was also a philosophy class: PHIL 216. The Project Library includes many works from that era that survived. Some works that didn't are mentioned in the Ferris State University Project Archive.

Fall 2007
Two papers survived in this semester: "Feminism and Divorce: No Answers," and "Marriage Theory According to CATS from Zero Wing." They were both from a sociology class on marriage and family - one geared primarily toward the destruction of both. Typical of public "education."

Summer 2008
Very little is noteworthy about Starr during this semester. In LITR 242 class, two papers were written that have survived for the blog. A few movies were watched in that same class, notably American Beauty and The Great Gatsby. The teacher focused on how the exact definition of the "American Dream," once lost / perverted, quickly shifts away from personal liberty and absence of tyranny; and instead becomes all about mindless materialism. The class then sought to show the materialist definition of "the American Dream," without regard for any other definition. From there, it set to work depicting the pitfalls of American materialism.

Fall 2008
Other than an American geography class held on the first floor, not much else is noteworthy about this building in this semester.

Spring 2009
Another literature class was needed, and taken, in the Starr Building. This one focused on sci-fi literature: where it came from, and where it was going. In addition to several papers being written for that class, times in class culminated in writing "Ties That Confide," a minisode of Stationery Voyagers. It would inspire the tie-in video Ties That Confide: Reception Wishes, made for the Jill and Trevor Paul wedding in Kalamazoo later on in 2009.

Fall 2009
The Starr Building true proved its value for shooting scenes for Blood Over Water. A study room in that main Starr first floor hallway is where Aaron Stefflin and Monica Shelly are ambushed by Chris Kennal and Kyle Tugrass. However, shortly after they exit and get inside Chris' SUV, they're on a narrow drive across from the library. Camerawoman Angelica McClary did her best to use camera tricks and night lighting to obscure this visual issue with continuity. The scene also depicted Chris ordering George, the getaway driver, to speed through a stop sign.

In the comic, the SUV is able to drive the speed limit. It's also described as being parked in the lot near the doorwary to Starr that the troupe would logically be exiting from. Lot 47 remains the intended destination; but characters get there very slowly - to avoid suspicion. The apparent illogical teleportation moments of the SUV in the miniseries were written off as jump cuts - which the comic had the ability to avoid.

Further viewing

 * Starr Building on Google Maps