Diet Wolf and the Architects

"Diet Wolf and the Architects" of Ferris in Focus is the third episode of FiF's spring 2010 semester. It was scheduled for completion at 9:00 AM EST on February 22nd and broadcast on February 27th of 2010.

Big Rapids Life

 * Producer: Kelly
 * Editor: Nate Totten

This piece opened with a boom—the booming sound of drums followed by various other instruments. Music from Phantom of the Opera became background for this segment. Product Design Engineering Technology student Matt Kammeraad commented on what it was like to be a part of the West Central Concert Orchestra. He said playing music and making friends whilst doing it helps take one’s mind off of the stresses of homework.

The Director of Instrumental Concert Ensembles, Scott Cohen, stated that Ferris students in bands had a unique program going for them: Music for Life. Nedra Newman, another concert member, was introduced by a friend at church. The idea of Music for Life is to keep Ferris students not majoring in music continually playing their instruments anyway.

Logan May, a Golf Management student, also rejoiced at friend-making opportunities afforded by being involved in orchestra.

Youngsters as young as 14 can get involved in Music for Life, but the majority of participants any given semester are students. Denise Smith, an Early Childhood major, enjoys playing music with various different ages, from high school to retirees.

Health Matters

 * Producer: Dominique Gibbs
 * Editor: Lamarr English

Brenda Walton, a dietitian on campus, stated bluntly and quickly that a “good” diet should provide a lot of vitamins and minerals. She went on to mention a variety of foods that the campus tries to provide at all times. However, the lettuce clearly revealed that the school goes with the least nutritious and least expensive brands of lettuce.

Meal skipping is a frequent problem with a lot of students. Since a lot of classes begin at 8:00, it makes sense that students can’t afford to make it to the Rock and then to class in time.

E-News

 * Producer: Tabby Young
 * Editor: Megan Barker

NBC hosted the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and over 80 countries participated. Meanwhile, MTV changed its logo due to the fact that it’s got almost nothing to do with music anymore. Eclipse was scheduled for release on June 30th, for those interested. The Wolfman came out sooner than that.

The story wouldn’t be complete without mention of Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief. Mark bluntly referred to this as “a Harry Potter rip-off.”

With the government’s support, Madonna plowed down some homes that families actually lived in so she could build a school for young girls.

Program Spotlight

 * Producer: Sara Potter
 * Editor: Frank Molner

Jenny Coburn, an Architectural Technology Major at Ferris, was first in line. She rejoiced that nearly all the teachers had been architects before at some point in time. Also, classes consist almost entirely of lab time and involve very little lecture.

One professor that came on, Paul, informed viewers that Ferris’ school of architecture places heavy emphasis on pragmatic architecture, rather than the design theory that gets heavy emphasis at a lot of other schools. Assistant Professor Dane Johnson added that students are encouraged to work with CAD software quite frequently so as to quickly produce meaningful designs that can lead to usable blueprints.

Nate Cameron, a student in the program, claimed that his favorite project was getting to convert an old building in the area into a bank. Kimberly Rademacher’s favorite project was getting to take a 2D design and convert it into a meaningful 3D render.

Students gain lots of experience in building models of just about everything. Having a relatively small faculty and class size helps students to get individualized attention. Another thing Kimberly liked about the program was that it not only focused on the designs of architecture—but also on the nature of materials used. Some students in the program have even won awards at competitions for their work.

One other thing students enjoy is studying how a lot of modern skyscrapers are designed—what makes the seemingly impossible both possible and practical.

Architecture at Ferris had for the longest time been only a 2-year program; but it was quickly transitioning into a 4-year program. In the mean time, students were allowed to get their two years in before transferring to another school. One of the students claimed she was prepared to transfer to the Kendall College of Design in Grand Rapids—it would allow her to take what she’d learned about architecture in Big Rapids and apply it to an interior design major at Kendall.

Bulldog Stories

 * Producer: David Stiefel
 * Editor: Ben Wyman

Alicia’s wanted to go to Ferris since she was 6. She looked at a lot of other schools, and decided that Ferris truly was the best overall fit. She did attend a community college for a while, and learned about chiropractor arts. While she went there, she also looked after her family’s farm.

She did eventually get her wish to go to Ferris, but only after she’d learned that her real passion was in teaching. She got a teaching job on the side with the Eastwood Early Childhood Center, for starters.

She also had some history as a DJ: Alicia would get up at 5 in the morning to milk cows, then would head to work. She worked at a pool supplies store, then would do DJ work whenever she had time and wasn’t in class. She also got into karaoke that way.

Alicia’s luck hadn’t always been great. In fact, the second week of classes, she got in a car accident and broke her back. She originally had planned to voice the narrative for the Mancino’s ad that semester; but the role of narrator was reassigned to Josh Byers due to Alicia’s back injury.

The piece ends with a quote from Alicia herself: “I always find the strength and passion for fun.”

Versus

 * Producer: Tabby Young
 * Editor: Megan Barker

Still not fully into the act of their roles yet, the ND and Andrika spent this segment arguing very civilly about which web browser is better: Firefox or Chome?

The ND started off by stating that Firefox was invented first. Mozilla created it and it was "made by nerds, for nerds...and nerds don't like change." Therefore, he predicted that Firefox would have a very long market life. Andrika conceded that Firefox's existence made Chrome's unnecessary; but pointed out that Chrome was viewed as an essential breakthrough by Google since Google "wants to own everything anyway."

While not entirely true, ND made the allegation that Chrome "is about as appealing and skinnable as Internet Explorer...6.5...1998 Edition." (In 1998, Windows 98 used Internet Explorer 4. )

Andrika conceded that Chrome was newer and had bugs. However, because it's Google, she argued the community for it would one day grow big enough to reasonably compete with Firefox. ND took jabs at early Chrome not having "a drop-down bar" nor "a super-accurate history." Andrika countered that it had an all-purpose "omni-bar" instead. ND insisted that even if Chrome had a brighter future, Firefox would not be going away right away. The two agreed to put differences aside just long enough to acknowledge "that Internet Explorer is still worse than either."

What Do You Think?

 * Producer: David Stiefel
 * Editor: Ben Wyman

Chosen by Glen first, this piece was a very simple question. Getting volunteers to respond, however, was a daunting challenge. Excuses not to answer ran the gamut. Finally, some responses did get through:


 * 1) A Britney Spears concert
 * 2) Births of four children, and births of four grandchildren
 * 3) Christmas—every year
 * 4) Staring down a mountain in Colorado

Now Demonstrating

 * Producer: Nick Blohm
 * Editor: Eric Stacy

Nick Blohm illustrates how to use a wireless router on campus, even though wireless routers are not allowed, and how to do so without breaking school rules. The secret lies in using the switch ports only, and ignoring the WAN port that manufacturers tell students to use.