Our View: Suffering artists, we’re with you!

Why is it that artists suffer?
Hemingway and Van Gogh led troubled lives. Emily Dickinson would have scored 100 percent on the “sad hermit test,” if there was such a thing. Author J.K. Rowling recently told CNN of her past struggles with suicidal thoughts. Britney Spears, an artist in her own right, is enduring constant [...]

The clock inside the tower

The W. Wilbert and Meryl Welch Clock Tower has been around for over a year, but it is capable of more than one would think.
“It can do just about everything,” Chris Lowe, director of campus services, said.
The clock tower is made by The Verdin Company.  “They have a long history.  They have been making bells [...]

Student Development offers new meal plan for seniors in fall

As of Tuesday, Cornerstone added another meal option for next year’s seniors only: five meals per week and $250 in flex spending.
According to Micah Shepard, housing coordinator and administrative assistant, current choices for seniors living on campus are the 18-, 15- and 10-meal plans, with an optional plan of 45 meals per semester for commuters, [...]

Old wiring causes power outages

The recent power outages at Cornerstone have been caused by electrical wire that is as old as the university itself.
“Most of the electrical wiring around the campus is 40 or more years old,” said Chris Lowe, head of Campus Services. The most recent power outage at Cornerstone was caused by aging wires.
Lowe said that most [...]

Mock disaster prepares campus

On Wed., April 16, in conjunction with the City of Grand Rapids and Kent County fire and law enforcement officials, Cornerstone’s campus safety department conducted an emergency preparedness mock disaster training exercise for staff and faculty.
“This is just part of our proactive approach to campus safety that has been going on for well over 5 [...]

WOOD TV8 hires former editor Luke Stier

Luke Stier is three for three.
Every time the 2007 CU alum has had an interview, he has been offered a job. Including his most recent interview with WOOD TV8, which hired him as one of their producers.
“Each day, I come in and have a newscast that I am in charge of,” Stier said. “Basically, there’s [...]

Stowell speaks with students

CU President Joe Stowell held an open forum on Monday, April 14, to interact with the student body. He hopes to understand the campus community and combine students’ ideas with his vision. He addressed topics such as tuition, chapel and athletics, with an eagerness to listen to the students.
“My wife and I can’t believe God’s [...]

CU student government reflects on the year

If you have noticed student government at all this year, then their mission has been accomplished.
One of Cornerstone University Student Government’s goals has been to create a stronger presence of the student-led organization, said Simeon Brace, CUSG president. Joe Boston, VP of marketing, was instrumental in getting the word out.
“Joe is helpful in making CUSG [...]

Baylor accepts CU alum into MFA program

Michael Coon, CU alum ’07 and adjunct mathematics professor, has been accepted to Baylor University’s three-year M.F.A. program, a program that only accepts two graduate students per year. He will be receiving a full-ride as well as a monthly stipend to live on.
“I’m really excited for Mike. I think this is going to be a [...]

A home away from home

Erdenetuya Tserev left her family in a small Mongolian village north of China and south of Russia.
Tserev, also known as Tuyata, came to the U.S. for an education in journalism, her major at Cornerstone University. She is also majoring in Bible and theology at Kuyper College.
As a sophomore, Tserev worked for Far East Broadcasting Company [...]

Kregel wants to shoot for a living

Katie Kregel, a sophomore, is a media studies major with an emphasis in video, and a photojournalism minor. She is also a resident assistant (RA) in Pickitt Hall.
“I’ve always liked taking pictures and videotaping stuff,” Kregel said.
She can remember taking photos and videos of family vacations and other events growing up.
During her freshman year of [...]

Album Review: ‘Embrace the End’ creates a worthy new style

Embrace the End’s debut release from Century Media shows a progression from their respected blend of metal and hardcore. If fans hope to find the blasting beats and thrashing that made up ETE’s entire last album, they will be let down. Devastating breakdowns and Gatling gun-driven drums still blast listener’s ears. But “Ley Lines” is [...]

Album Review: American Idol’s Chris Sligh to release new album

If you were one of those who thought we would never again hear from American Idol season six finalist, Chris Sligh, you were dead wrong. On May 6, his album “Running Back to You,” a Brash Music production, will hit the shelves. During his journey on Idol, he made no secret of his Christian roots. [...]

Film Review: ‘21’ is an action-packed, star-studded film

21, starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Bosworth and Laurence Fishburne, is an adrenaline-building film that inspires viewers to outsmart society. And it is up to a card-counting team of college students and their professor to do just that. The team is made up of the best mathematical minds in the nation, and each weekend they travel [...]

Gino’s: The pizza joint with no rivals

So here is how it goes: Ring, Ring! “Hello, Gino’s.”
You place your order, and then the person who answered the phone is the same one who makes your pizza; the one who makes your pizza is the one you pay, or is at least there to say ‘hello’ to you.
It is so reassuring, not only [...]

A comedian on the loose

When he was 2 years old, Derek Niemchick, freshman, would do anything to make people laugh. Not much has changed since then.
“I was always entertaining and doing voices or stupid stuff,” said Niemchick.
Even when he was in elementary school plays, he was always dubbed “the goofball.” And when he was asked to read aloud in [...]

Don’t be an island; take time to connect

My teen years were in the 70s – loud music, free love and marijuana were all popular. My parents, however, were quite straight-laced, and I basically did what I should most of the time.
I did not experience all the sin the world had to offer. I vividly and fondly remember lying on the couch with [...]

Freshman leads team in homeruns

Melanie Creager can hit. The freshman is leading CU’s softball team in home runs and runs batted in (RBIs).
“She’s been a major offensive contributor,” said head coach Jim Farrell. “It’s been a huge difference at the plate for us. She adjusted fairly quickly to college-level pitching. To come in and contribute like that from the [...]

Character program expands

Since its instigation at Cornerstone, the Champions of Character program has been mostly involved with athletics. The program has been in place with CU athletes as well as area high school athletes over the last few years, but now it is branching out.
The high school OK Conference and City League are combining next fall into [...]

Spring means softball season, or maybe not

Rain. Snow. Slush. Sun. Rain. Crazy Michigan weather, right?
Or rather, normal Michigan weather.
I have lived in Michigan my whole life. You would think I would be used to it by now. I guess I am used to this weather, but it does not mean I like it.
To me, spring has meant softball season ever [...]

Editor’s Notebook

As a sixth-grader in the mid-1960s, I would be dropped off, along with my younger sister, at Calvary Baptist Church along Hwy 50 in Washington, Ind., where we would faithfully attend Sunday school and sometimes church services.
Three memories remain with me to this day:
1.            The preacher talked about hell a lot, which made me think [...]

We’re not lazy; we’re passionate

Looking around campus, it is hard to find many people that look “motivated” to do anything but text message, Facebook and drink coffee.
We do not look like our fathers, or our grandfathers, or even like our older brothers and sisters who had to “walk up hill, both ways” to get their degree.
We would rather Facebook [...]

Persevering through tests of leadership

By Darci Irwin, Hospitality Coordinator

Jesus. Nehemiah. Paul. David. Esther. Moses. Each of these names resonates within me deeply — to the core kind of deep. The Bible recounts their stories as each of them involved extreme adversity, betrayal, daily difficulties, personality clashes, differences in vision and mission and the like. They were people just like [...]

Break out of the bubble

Kimberly Bytwerk and a few other CU students have found the cure to the epidemic known as the CU bubble.
“Two to three years ago, I didn’t really have any connections in the inner city,” said Bytwerk, CU alumna and assistant director for commuters. “Mel Trotter Ministries has affected me so much that I don’t even [...]

Cornerstone gets a taste of the big city

Global Short Film Network’s Marcus Key came to CU on Tuesday, April 15, 2008. He spoke at the 9 a.m. chapel about ways to use film to bring people to Christ.
Opening his time talking about the YouTube video, “Charlie the Unicorn,” he discussed how short films can reach a large number of people in a [...]

Business program on fast forward

The Business Division is planning to roll out a new program to help business students earn their degree in three years.
Michael Young, head of the Business Division and associate professor of business, said that he was asked by Bayard Baylis, provost, to create a three-year program. Baylis said that he was interested in such a [...]

‘Greece is my classroom’ - Doc

It has been called “the ultimate Leadership Journey” (LJ).
Scott “Doc” Carroll, professor of history at Cornerstone University, is the one who dubbed it the ultimate LJ. This may be because he is the one who leads the educational trip to Greece every summer for students from Cornerstone and other universities.
“I resumed doing Greece when a [...]

‘Road Trip’ becomes an instant success for Admissions

Despite the lack of time to put Road Trip together, its success was above and beyond what the hospitality team, a part of the Admissions department, had expected.
The first weekend of Road Trip, Feb. 29-Mar. 2, hosted a single youth group from Evart, Mich.  After the instant popularity that weekend, it was not surprising that [...]

Hold that Nerf gun, Kelly

When Kelly Ambrose was applying for leadership positions in fall 2007, she had about as much certainty as she did when she was picking colleges, which was not an easy task.
“I had no idea where I was going to go to school,” Ambrose, a sophomore and biology health science major, said. “I collected all that [...]

Review: Little Women the Musical

If you’re looking for a lift as the end-of-semester stress mounts, go watch Cornerstone’s spring production, “Little Women, the Musical.”
 The musical opened last night, presenting a wide range of gifted singers and actors, from crotchety and commanding Aunt March (Rachel Schaefer, sophomore) to wizened old Mr. Laurence (Mike Coon, CU ’07), to beaming Beth [...]

Library worker leaves to become a nurse assistant

Melissa Van Stensel has been working in Cornerstone’s library, for two years. Now she is saying goodbye to books and hello to a position as a nurse’s assistant in the neo-natal unit at Spectrum, Butterworth.
“What I will miss about the library is the student relationships that I made,” said Van Stensel. “When I told them [...]

Story of ‘Mistaken Identity’ is featured in CU bookstore

The book “Mistaken Identity,” which chronicles the aftermath of a fatal accident with Taylor University students, has been on sale in Cornerstone’s bookstore since its release on March 25, 2008.
Tree of Life Bookstore, based in Marion, Ind., owns Cornerstone’s bookstore. Since Tree of Life is located near Taylor, “they were big on getting books in [...]

Help your buddy list reach its potential

If you are like many college students, you turn on your laptop and one of the first windows to appear on your screen is your buddy list. Soon, your screen is filled with instant messages from your roommate, your best friend, and, do not deny it, your mom.
And if you are like many college students, [...]

Film Review: ‘Leatherheads’: another inspirational sports movie?

Jimmy “Dodge” Connelly (George Clooney) is the team captain of the Bulldogs in the struggling pro football league of 1925, which is in danger of collapsing. Dodge decides to save them by recruiting a college football star. With the lure of big money, he is able to convince Carter Rutherford (John Krasinski) to drop out [...]

Album Review: Colin Meloy released folk album April 8

Famed folk-musician Colin Meloy (lead singer/guitarist of The Decemberists) released his live solo album Tuesday, April 8. “Colin Meloy Sings Live!” was released through Kill Rock Stars. The 17-track release was recorded over his tour in 2006. Fans need not fear any negative stereotypes toward a typical live album. Meloy’s powerful voice and 12-string guitar [...]