Do They Own a Vacuum?

One of the things students look forward to most when going back to their parents’ house is a clean house since during the nine months they are on campus most live without ever breaking out the vacuum.

DTN Resident Manager Evan Shelton said he has seen some pretty disgusting things when performing apartment changeovers.

"You would think these kids do not know what Windex or a vacuum is," Shelton said.

“Some people may disagree with me but cleaning out the showers, especially the hair balls in the drain, is certainly the worst part for me,” Shelton said.

Shelton said, “Some people who move out earlier in the summer leave food in the fridge which obviously expires, that can cause for some gagging when trying to clean that out.”

Mike Vinckier, a leasing agent at Capitol Villa in East Lansing, said, “I have not done a change-over yet but one of the leasing agents told me their worst experience, to put it nicely someone moved out in June and forgot to flush their toilet, they told me the smell was literally toxic.”

“Management places pretty high charges on how the resident leaves the unit in hopes to prevent people making the two weeks worse than it has to be,” Vinckier said.

Flip That Unit

Change-over: A dreaded word for those who work in college campus leasing offices.

College students are required to be out of their leased-residence by a set date leaving the leasing office with a little under two and a half weeks for change-over which requires them to completely flip that unit for the next resident  

Evan Shelton, East Lansing DTN Resident Manager, said, “Change-over is the time frame in-between the previous resident and the new resident when we are required to clean and repair all vacant units.”

Shelton said, “This usually takes us two weeks, we work nonstop. I could be putting in anywhere from 65-75 hours a week.”

Ben Rène, community assistant at Abbott Place Apartments in East Lansing, said, “During change-over, we are responsible for making sure everything is cleared out of the units, letting in venders, such as painters, cleaners, etc., into each unit, determine the damage charges for each unit, collect and organize keys and regular office duties if a resident or future resident comes into the office.”

Shelton said, “A lot of people complain about having to wait until the end of the month to move into their apartment but we have a lot of units to flip in a short amount of time.”

“If people moved in before they were ready they would never ask to move-in early again due to the condition of the apartments are left in,” Shelton said.

Rène said when it comes to the amount of work that the employees of the leasing offices complete, he thinks the pay is much too low for what they are required to do and how quickly they have to do it.

Education Is Key

The Central Michigan Police take a stand against sexual assault on campus.

Lt. Cameron Wassman said, “Education is the police force greatest attribute for sexual assault prevention.”

https://www.cmich.edu/fas/police/Pages/Safe_Rides.aspx

The Central Michigan police department teams up with the university to help spread awareness of the resources available to students such as Safe Rides, Wassman said.

Tayler DeGrande, CMU junior, said, “I have used safe rides a lot, especially my freshman year to go from my dorm to the gym at night. It is convenient because it is like taxi service in a sense, but it is free but the purpose to keep us safe on campus not to just be transported around.”

Corey Farmer, CMU junior, said, “The police department does a good job making sure we know what our resources are. Our first week of our freshman year we are required by our resident halls to go to numerous informative meetings about how to say no in situations, when to call the police, and to use our resources such as Safe Rides.”

The Skirt Made Me Do It

Today's Rape Culture in America:

http://thenextfamily.com/2011/09/feature-article-by-lauren-jankowski/

"It was her fault, she was asking for it."

"Did you see her outfit, looks like she stepped right off the corner?"

"She is asking for it, her dress is so tight I can see her heart beating."

Cary Edington, an employee of the Sexual Assault Crisis Intervention (SACI) defines society's rape culture as, "Rape culture is the ways in which media, social, and other interactions explicitly or implicitly allow, condone, encourage, or excuse rape, often by matching sex and violence and/or placing blame on or creating (possible) victims."

Today people point blame on the victim of the sexual assault due to potential nonverbal consent, such as a tight skirt or being blackout drunk at a party. 

As an act to fight back to this rape culture, activists all over the country have been participating in the act of SlutWalks. 

http://newshopper.sulekha.com/pa-slut-walk_photo_1929662.htm

Edington defined a Slutwalk as, "A slut walk is a form of raising awareness about victim-blaming behaviors, the most prevalent one being 'slut-shaming' or assuming that a person raped is a slut, rather than an innocent victim/survivor.  The main focus of these walks is to either take back the word 'slut' as a choice that is up to individual women and should not be censored by society or to deride the common dismissal of rape victims as 'sluts.'"

http://hannamade.wordpress.com

Such protests are trying to reduce "the fear of sexual assault/harassment to show that their clothing, 'flirting', talking, walking, or simply being is not an excuse for violence upon their person," Edington said.

Central Michigan Organization of Women Leader's (OWLs) has been putting on annual Slutwalks at CMU with their first one in 2013, said by OWLs Vice President, Danielle Cywka. 

They will continue to support women, through Slutwalks and other events, as their organization's "values lie in always empowering and encouraging women to grow as both women and leaders," said said by Cywka. 

Many organizations and individuals, such as SACI, OWLs, Cywka, and Edington, are trying to put an end to the fact that #TheSkirtMadeMeDoIt.

The Tigers staff was geared in "Porcello has my vote" t-shirts as they handed out "Vote Porcello" signs throughout the Tuesday night game against the L.A. Dodgers.

Detroit Tigers have been pushing Tigers' fans to go out an vote to get pitcher Rick Porcello in the 2014 MLB All-Star game, as he is one of five pitchers competing from the American League to receive a bid.

Fans watched the scoreboard to see a video of their beloved Tigers, such as Miguel Carbrea and Tori Hunter, giving them reasons why the Tiger pitcher should be gearing up for the All-Star game.

The Vote Porcello campaign includes texting in to vote, including the hashtag #PickRick on Twitter, and going online to the All-Star Final Vote Website to cast your votes.

Kylie McCloskey, who is pictured in the left of the photo, attended Tuesday's game, she said, "It was cool to see how much they were doing to get the word out to get people to vote for Porcello. He's had a great season and deserves to be out there, hopefully fans do what they can to help out."

Voting for the All-Star game ends Thursday, July 10.

Detroit Tigers  Fans experienced a beautiful 78 degree night but a down pour of hits and runs from their Tigers in the first home game of the inter-league match up against the L.A. Dodgers.

The Detroit Tigers  did not let the L.A. Dodgers sit comfortably too long before they rallied back in the bottom of the second tying up the ball game, fans rose to their feet to celebrate the what seemed to be an impossible comeback.

Tigers fans were silently shaking their heads after the first inning after the Dodgers, with help from the homerun of Juan Uribe, taking an early five to zero lead.

The Tigers rallied back after a 5-0 deficit in the top of the first.

Once the L.A. Dodgers set their bats down after the first, they were unable to respond to Detroit's 20 hits and 14-5 victory.

Comerica did not stay seated long after the the tying up in the second.

Miguel Cabrera hit a bomb into deep right center field triple, bringing Tigers fans to their feet and Ian Kinsler to home plate.

Fans celebrated a huge victory in Comerica Park tonight, the Tigers will take this momentum into the second game of the series Wednesday afternoon.

Reunion of old friends and teammates will take place tonight at Comerica Park when the Tigers take on the L.A. Dodgers, but both players will not be in jerseys this time.

L.A. Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis and Tigers manager Brad Ausmus were roommates in Ausmus' final two years playing in the Major Leagues.

This is the first time the two will be playing against each other.

The Dodgers are 51-40 coming to Comerica, while the Tigers are sitting at 48-31.

Both the Tigers and Dodgers are sitting at number one of their divisions in the MLB standings.

The first pitch is scheduled at 7:08 at Comerica Park to begin this inter-league series.