Archive for April 2009

A snowy highway, that is.

For those of you reading from outside the area, you may not be aware of this past weeks little “surprise”. While we were coming off the ultimate high of having the nicest Spring Fling event we’ve had in a pretty long time (sunny, 70+ degrees), we get a little lash back from mother nature herself. We were (optimistically) fortunate enough to receive several inches of the wettest, heaviest snow that could possibly be created.

The silver lining to the storm is that we really needed the moisture. To boot, that wet heavy stuff sticks to everything. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to look at. Seriously though, can we get a little Spring ’round here?

A nice day here today already. It’s about 8:00 am, and already into the 50’s.

On a random note, I’m really getting excited for commencement next week. Can’t wait for our students to head out into the world an make it a better place.

From Nate…

This past Tuesday, the Admissions Office decided that a “thank you” was in order for their student employees. We all went down to the Kangas Cafe (best food in the land, by the way) and had a nice dinner with a little awards reception.

While at our dinner though, I got to thinking about how people view our student workers…

I’m sure a lot of the incoming first-year class has received phone calls from our student telecounselors over the past year. In all of these months of calling though, the person on the other end has always been a bit of a mystery. Who is this random Michigan Tech student calling me and why are they asking so many questions!?

And then there are also students who have come to visit our school here in Houghton. Chances are, if you came to visit, you went on a tour of campus with one of our student tour guides. I’ll bet that they were pretty friendly and knowledgable (they better be!), but you might not have had the time to get to know them very well.

All of the telecounselors and tour guides are current Michigan Tech students, and many are upperclassmen. The typical admissions worker is involved pretty heavily on campus, with their fraternity, their bands, their enterprise, their church… you name it. The students working in admissions do it because they love Michigan Tech, and want to share their experiences with new students.

The fact of the matter is; we’re the face of this wonderful place. We’re proud to be part of it. Thank you to all of the people that we have been in contact with, whether it be through tours of over the phone. We can’t wait to tell you more!

Sincerely,

Nate Wiley

We have officially hit 60 degrees here on the Michigan Tech campus today (weather underground says 66!) What a great feeling to walk outside without a jacket, or to drive with the windows down.  I think we’d all agree when I say that I truly appreciate the first warm day of the season, perhaps more than any other 60 degree day.  If this were July, we’d be complaining that it’s too cold :).  Lucky for us, it’s April.
The sky is clear, the views are incredible, and I’m thinkin summer.
Check the webcams for proof.

Last Saturday night, the Rozsa center was filled to the brim with fantastic live music, stage performances, and guests excited to see something new. Sounds like your everyday night at the theater, right? Wrong!

Saturday was the 2009 International Night, put on by Michigan Tech’s International Club, and showcased different cultures. So not only was there rich singing and dancing… we got to see a martial arts demonstration AND eat amazing food from around the world. I don’t know about you, but I absolutely love food. International Night included an awesome dinner in the MUB Commons, with Tai and Indian curry, Slavic poppy seed bread, Jamaican rum cake… and get this, Icelandic saffron chicken. Amazing!

After the dinner, we all took a walk to the Rozsa center for the show. Every year I’m impressed with the amount of effort my fellow students put into showing off their cultures, and this year was no exception. The title of show was “Around the World in 90 Minutes.”

Here are some of the better pictures that turned out:

A traditional Chinese dance

A dance put on by Indian students

And the Colombian Sanjuanenero Dance

The great thing is that different student organizations and offices put on events like this throughout the year here at Tech. There is an International Food Festival in November, and the Parade of Nations early in the semester. In addition to multi-culture events, student organizations like the Indian Students Associatior or the African Students Organization put on dances, performances and educational talks about their individual cultures.

Now where to find that next evening of delicious food…

-Nate, Admissions Office Intern

I think you could go to just about any college campus in the country and students would say there is a “parking problem”. As I walked through campus today, I actually decided that we are doing pretty well on this front. Bluntly, I don’t think we have a parking problem. I really don’t!

I saw a half empty commuter lot on campus, and an almost completely empty commuter lot just a few hundred yards off campus. I did, however, see many (many many many) expired parking meters with cars parked in front of them. Hmmm…..interesting.

At some point the owner of these vehicles decided that it was worth not paying the 25 cents (50 if you’re going to spend “lots” of time on campus), and that they’d be OK with getting a $20 ticket. If it were me, I’d rather walk or pay the quarter

We’re very fortunate to live in a place where it couldn’t possibly take you more than 10 minutes to get from one end of campus to the other by foot. Yet so many of us insist on driving our vehicles, then we don’t feed the meter.

Photographic evidence:

I give this person props. They are at least driving something cool.