www.fsutorch.com Single Issue Free, Additional Copies 50 Cents Week of Jan. 10 - 16, 2018 HERE’s wHAT’s INSide Ferris State University Remembering Nicole Unleashed Swanson Catch up on the recent success of Read a tribute to Nicole Swanson, the Ferris men’s basketball team TORCH and their hope of a fourth straight a Ferris student who passed away Truth, fairness and over winter break. GLIAC championship. accuracy since 1931 News | Page 2 Sports | Page 10 Dough for Dawgs Too little, Minimum wage increases to $9.25 too late? Behind the scenes of the Ferris alert system Grant Siddall Torch Reporter The alert messages sent in December re- garding an armed man on campus have left many students wondering how the Depart- ment of Public Safety (DPS) handles alerts. At 5:50 p.m. Dec. 2, Ferris Department of Public Safety issued an alert stating that there was a report of a man with a gun around North Residence Hall and that there was a shelter in place. The next alert at 6:10 p.m. clarified that there had been a Snapchat photo at 2 p.m. of a man with a gun possibly on campus but that there was no specific threat. At 7:33 p.m., the fi- nal alert was sent to let students know that the shelter was lifted and that there was no immediate threat to campus. Many students have had questions re- garding why it took almost four hours be- tween the time the original photo was posted and when the alert was sent to stu- dents. DPS Director Bruce Borkovich, who is in charge of the alert system, said that DPS acted as soon as they had knowledge of the photo. “I can’t write a para- graph, I’m limited to 150 characters. The infor- mation goes out as we have it. In this particular case, at approximately two o’clock a female and Bruce a male posed for a Snap- Photo by: Abbey Good | Multimedia Editor Borkovich chat and the male had Ferris social work junior Mackinzy Folkes dresses a caramel coffee at the University Center Starbucks on campus. a handgun in his hand. Megan Lewton you’re not gaining anything. So we did because I’m only making eight-some- Snapchats have a geography and the ge- Torch Reporter increase the awards to allow students to thing right now and also my hours were ography showed that it was taken in North work more hours,” Randle said. kind of cut short, like a couple hours Hall. Eventually, that picture got to an RA in Working Bulldogs will see a few more Increase in minimum wage can cause less a week than I’m doing now, so North Hall,” Borkovich said. dollars in their paycheck this year as the some workers to worry about hours be- those extra couple “The RA called us and we went over minimum wage makes another increase. ing cut. However, Randle said Ferris is dollars might come in quickly to investigate it and saw that, yes, Starting Monday, Jan. 1, minimum working to increase budgets to allow handy,” Deising said. there was a guy on campus with a gun. wage was raised from $8.90 to $9.25 students to continue to work. Others, such as Fer- That’s what we had at the time. As more in- an hour. This is the final minimum wage “Our budget people that determine ris information security formation came in, we found out that it had raise in a series of four increases begin- the budget that go to all of the depart- and intelligence senior taken place hours ago. However, it sounds ning in 2014, according to Ferris Manag- ments, they are very and FLITE library page like as officers walked into the building, er of Student Employment John Randle. concerned that stu- Megan Kludy are sup- that guy was walking out in another area. These messages evolved as we got more “Every student that’s making $8.90 or dent hours don’t get Megan portive of the raise but $9 or anything less than $9.25 will au- reduced. So they try Kludy don’t feel that it needs information.” tomatically be moved up to $9.25. Stu- to give more money to be increased more. As for behind the scenes, DPS workers dents that are currently above $9.25 are to the departments “It’s always nice when wages go up were making calls and locking down build- not going to be automatically increased to offset the minimum but I stand with the consensus that ings once the threat was confirmed. and if their supervisor feels that they wage so they can still minimum wage is for high school and “While we’re putting these alerts out, we should be increased and they have the work the same hours,” college students. I don’t think minimum have about six phones going at once and funding in their budget, they would have John Randle said. wage is meant to be a livable income, we’re communicating with residence halls to go in and manually request that those Randle Although the 35 just a source of extra cash or to pay and other more vulnerable areas on cam- individuals be increased,” Randle said. cent increase won’t small bills,” Kludy said. pus where there are a lot of students. We In addition to the minimum wage make Ferris student workers go from Randle said that although there are no had the ability to put the University Center raise, Randle said the awards for work rags to riches, many are pleased with more approved minimum wage increas- on lockdown so we did that, and we thought study have been increased as well. the minimum wage raise, such as Ferris es at the state level, Ferris individually ‘what else is vulnerable?’ and we had the “We did increase the work study social work sophomore Cassie Deising, reviews wage increases and will raise ability to lockdown the Rec Center so we award amount to accommodate that, so who works at the Ferris Student Code of minimum wage on campus if the state did that,” Borkovich said. students can work the same amount of Conduct Office. goes a long time without an increase in “We immediately let all the residence hours. If you keep getting more per hour “I think it’s a really good thing that it’s minimum wage. and you have a limited amount to earn, going up. I think I will see a difference Alert| see page 3 Got news? Let us know. Like us on facebook Follow us on Twitter Add us on instagram Watch us on youtube Email: [email protected] Ferris state Torch @fsutorch fsutorch Fsu Torch Phone: 231.591.5978 Connect with us on social media - Read articles online at www.fsutorch.com 2 2 News Week of Jan. 10 - 16, 2018 Ferris State Torch “The legacy Nicole left seems to be that she could always make people laugh.” NEWS - Chris Barton - See below for story Harley Harrison | News Editor | [email protected] Remembering Nicole Swanson Her vehicle went off the right side of the road and crashed scary movies, drawing and writing, as she aspired to be Ferris student dies in into a tree, causing the car to catch on fire. a creative writer, according to Barton and Dana Swanson. Although a passerby was able to pull her out of the ve- “I remember when Nicole showed me this poem [Cof- hicle and support her until emergency responders arrived, fee Shop] for the first time. We met in the UC and she was car accident Swanson was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after so excited to read it to me. She was always so proud of emergency medical services got there. Swanson was 22 the poems she wrote and she worked so hard on them. Harley Harrison years old. Her strong suit was definitely being creative,” Dana Swan- News Editor Today, Nicole Swanson is remembered by her younger son said. sister, Ferris nursing junior Dana Swanson, and her sis- Despite being described as polar opposites, the sisters Just days before Christmas, tragedy struck the Ferris ter’s boyfriend, Ferris accounting and finance junior Chris were considered best friends. community after a student died in a car crash. Barton. Dana Swanson and Barton described Nicole “The legacy Nicole left seems to be that she could al- Ferris communications junior Nicole Swanson was driv- Swanson as being bright, outgoing, confident, kind and ways make people laugh. She was such a jokester and ing north around the area of South Maple City Road at ap- funny. loved scaring people,” Barton said. proximately 3 a.m. Dec. 23, according to an MLive article. Nicole Swanson enjoyed playing the piano, watching For more details about the accident, visit mlive.com. Coffee Shop A poem by Nicole Swanson slowly stirring The bell rings as the glass She places herself on a door opens wooden chair She is welcomed with a friendly smile Her coffee in front of her The chalkboard is filled with colorful choices Paintings inside of frames staring at her asking… She finally orders What do I mean?” Her eyes, glazed from the sun As she perches her lips upon the cup of coffee, she notic- The coffee is placed gently es a bird resting on the fence on the counter, waiting to be fed cream and sugar Then all of a sudden, she gets an inspiration… She glances at the boy be- hind the counter She wants to write a poem He looks and his eyes smile Her heart jumps as she shy- It starts off saying, fully peers down at her cof- “The bell rings as the glass Submitted photo fee, door opens...” Ferris communications junior Nicole Swanson was an animal lover, according to her sister, Ferris nursing junior Dana Swanson.