A Taste of Home
Ability First
Adventure Club
AIESEC
Alpha Kappa Lambda
Alpha Phi Omega
Alpha Phi Sigma (Criminal Justice Honor Society)
Alpha Psi Omega
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Association for Computing Machinery
Association of Healthcare Administrators and Leaders
Association of Professional and Technical Writers
Books Business Bowties
Cardinal Bitcoiners
Cardinal Ink
Cardinal Photography Students Association
Cardinal Sins
Cardinals for Special Olympics
Cardinals Go Global
Chi Alpha at SVSU
Chinese Students and Scholars Association
Click Clack Juggle and Stack
College Democrats of Saginaw Valley State University
Dungeons & Dragons Club
Early Childhood Organization
Forever Red
FORTE Hip Hop Dance Team
GAMMA
Geography Club
Great Lakes Bay Early College Student Government
Habitat for Humanity SVSU Campus Chapter
Health Science Association
HonorCorps
IMPACT
Interfraternity Council
International Student Club
Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity Inc. : Xi Iota
L & R Skate
Lambda Pi Eta
MTG@SVSU
Music ‘n Motion
Muslim Students’ Association
National Association for Music Education Collegiate
National Pan-Hellenic Council
Organization of Black Unity
Phenomenally Young (Women) Negotiating Change
Phi Delta Epsilon
Phi Kappa Tau
Physics Club
Pre- Physical Therapy Club
Psychology Club
Saginaw Valley Chess Club
Saginaw Valley Kiva
Saginaw Valley Secular Student Alliance
Saginaw Valley Spanish Club
Saudi Club
Sexual Assault Prevention Team
Sigma Delta Pi – Omega Kappa
Sigma Tau Delta
Society of Women Engineers
Spit It Poetry Club
Student Michigan Education Association
Student-Athlete Advisory Committee
Students for the Marshall M. Fredericks Sculpture Museum
Students With Style
SV Airsoft
SVSU Finance Club
SVSU League of Legends
The Flock
The Righteous Movement at SVSU
Touching All Generations
Valley Arts Organization
Valley Steel
Valley Voices Gospel Choir
Vocal Noise!
Young Americans for Liberty
Zombie Defense Council

The former Cardinals’ quarterback signed with the British Columbia Lions of the Canadian Football League in April and impressed coaches in camp enough to grab a roster spot heading into the 2015 season. The team showed confidence in Jennings, allowing him to start the first preseason game of the year.

Jennings’ career at Saginaw Valley was phenomenal. The four-year starter set Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference records in both passing yardage (9,546) and total offense (10,700). He is still the all-time leader in both categories.

Last year Jennings was invited to minicamp with the Kansas City Chiefs and also spent time in camp with the Detroit Lions. He then tried out for the CFL’s Saskatchewan Roughriders.

For the Lions Jennings will be the second-string quarterback behind veteran starter Travis Lulay. The season could serve as a great learning opportunity for Jennings, as he will be able to learn from Lulay and head coach Jeff Tedford. Tedford, a former NFL offensive coordinator and head coach at Cal is renown for his work with quarterbacks like Aaron Rodgers and Joey Harrington.

The first game of the the Lions’ season is scheduled for Saturday, July 4 against the

Students, faculty and staff members reported high levels of general satisfaction with SVSU’s campus climate during a survey conducted last November and December.

The university worked with Rankin & Associates Consulting to create, administer and analyze the campus-wide study, titled “SVSU Assessment of Climate for Learning, Living and Working.”

Sue Rankin led three presentations on the findings: Thursday, April 23, at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m. in the Curtiss Hall seminar rooms and Friday, April 24, at 9 a.m. in the Ott Auditorium in Gilbertson Hall.

“SVSU is unique as (it) is one of only 150 schools that allowed me to come do this type of work,” she said.

Rankin defined a campus’ climate as the “current attitudes, behaviors, and standards of faculty, staff, administrators and students concerning the level of respect for individual needs, abilities, and potential.”

SVSU community members completed 2,358 surveys for an overall response rate of 21 percent. Response rates by constituent group varied: 46 (or five percent of) graduate students, 1,537 (or 17 percent of) undergraduate students, 384 (or 51 percent of) faculty members, 218 (or 55 percent of) administrative professionals and 173 (or 93 percent of) staff members.

“The response rate (for individuals who identify as LGBQ and asexual or other) was high for a campus this size,” Rankin noted, in response to the 341 respondents who identified as non-heterosexual.

About 69 percent of respondents identified themselves as women, 30 percent as men and less than one percent as transgender or genderqueer or as a gender not listed.

Those with white racial identities comprised about 83 percent of respondents, whereas persons of color and multiple racial identities made up less than 15 percent of respondents.

Sixty-six percent of respondents said they were affiliated with Christianity, 24 percent have no religious affiliations, two percent have other faith-based affiliations and about four percent have multiple affiliations.

Rankin highlighted a few key findings from survey data in her presentation, illustrating opportunities for improvement

About 82 percent of respondents felt very comfortable with the campus climate. About 24 percent of respondents noted they had experienced harassment – whether by being isolated, deliberately ignored or intimidated or bullied – in the past year.

Two percent of respondents said they had experience unwanted, physical sexual contact, happening mostly during one’s first and second semesters at the SVSU.

“The main reason given for not reporting the incidents was embarrassment,” Rankin said. “They thought it was their fault or that they had no support.”

Forty-five percent of all respondents – whether students, faculty or staff members or professional administrators – noted they had considered leaving SVSU at some point in their studies or careers.

“Start providing a sense of belonging and you will increase retention rates,” Rankin said.

Among student respondents, 80 percent felt valued by faculty and other students. Of responding staff and faculty members, 83 percent felt supported by their colleagues.

Many faculty and staff members provided written commentary that elaborated on a desire for more training and professional development opportunities. Student responses indicated a need for better academic advising and mentoring relationships.

In summary, Rankin said people are generally comfortable at SVSU, but many have thought about leaving the university.

Dean of the College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences and survey co-chair Joni Boye-Beaman discussed how the results of the survey will be used.

“We will hold forums to identify three things to accomplish or actions (to take) in the next 12 to 18 months,” she said.

During the summer, the Climate Study Working Group will analyze the results more deeply. In the fall, forums will be held to develop concrete goals; actions will be made to reach those goals during the winter of 2016.

The current plan is to examine the results during the summer. Forums will be held and goals will be developed in the fall and then actions will be implemented until spring 2016 when updates on the goals will be communicated.

Copies of the executive summary, Rankin’s presentation slides and the full report are available online at svsu.edu/climatesurvey.

Members of the registered student organization collaborate to create drawings, comics and artistic work and to volunteer in the community.

“We love drawing, though some of us are writers,” visual arts education and secondary education senior Jolyn Ohlendorf said. “We just like the collaborative spirit of the comics. We want to be able to make them, so together, (we have the) chance to do that.”

For about four years, members of the Comic Strippers have been collaborating with the public libraries of Saginaw to host drawing workshops. Though the workshops are meant for tweens and teens, children as young as eight years old often attend.

“We teach children how to draw cartoons,” psychology senior Neil Richardson said. “For these events, we mostly just teach them how to draw fun, simple layouts.”

“In the last event, I showed them how to do the proportions of the face,” senior Adam Blackett added.

Other members of the club, Blackett said, taught the children how to draw proportional bodies, clothing and even monsters.

“I always do monsters,” Richardson said. “It’s a crowd favorite.”

In previous years, the Comic Strippers hosted only one workshop per year. Now, however, the group hosts them twice per year. Members have been in contact with the Bay City Public Library System, hoping to lead more workshops in the local area.

Richardson said that as the workshops have grown in popularity, he enjoys seeing new faces mixed with familiar ones.

“We have regulars that come … and you start to recognize who the kids are, so that’s really cool,” he said.

“(Attendance at the workshops) is on a registration basis at this point because so many people have heard about it,” Ohlendorf said.

All 40 spots available in the workshop on Saturday were filled.

As a registered student organization, the Comic Strippers are always looking for new members interested in art or design. Blackett said students don’t need to be experienced artists to join the Comic Strippers.

Members meet to discuss their work, provide critiques, give suggestions and share resources with one another.

“The one thing we can guarantee is that your drawing level will improve if you stay here long enough,” he said.

On Wednesday, April 22, Holocaust survivor Lowenberg spoke to an audience of more than 700 people about his experiences in five different concentration camps.

Vanguard photo | Alissa Rhode

Southfield resident and Holocaust survivor Martin Lowenberg spoke to an audience of more than 700 people on Wednesday, April 22, in the Curtiss Hall banquet rooms, drawing from his experiences in ghettos and concentration camps in Nazi Germany. He shares his story each week at the Holocaust Center in Farmington Hills and has returned to Germany four times in the last six years to speak with students there.

The event was hosted by the Jewish student organization Hillel, Student Life and the offices of Student Affairs and the President.

After an introduction by Hillel president and criminal justice senior Mimi Marcus, Lowenberg silently took the stage to a standing ovation.

“I’m not used to this,” he said. “I’m speechless, believe it or not. What a wonderful turnout we have for this evening. I’m sure you won’t regret coming.”

Lowenberg was born in 1928 – five years before Adolf Hitler rose to power.

He was 15 when he was eventually separated from his family in Kaiserwald, a German concentration camp in Riga, Latvia.

“My captivity ended when I was 17 years old, after 12 years of suffering, torture and abuse,” Lowenberg said. “I thank God I never made it to Auschwitz, where one million people alone were gassed and burned.”

To convey the true terror he and others experienced during the Holocaust, Lowenberg analyzed what the word ‘holocaust’ actually meant.

“It means ‘total burning,’” he said. “Never in the history of mankind has there been an event so large and so unbelievable for six million Jewish people who were killed, among them 1.5 million beautiful children.”

Lowenberg’s words resonated heavily with the crowd, especially Marcus.

“It has been my dream since freshman year to bring a survivor to SVSU’s campus to help educate the Saginaw community about Judaism and the experiences these survivors had,” she said.

As Marcus had expected about 300 people to attend the event, she was elated about the actual turnout.

“We had to keep adding chairs,” she said. “I was blown away at the amount of support our community gave us and the respect every attendee gave Martin while he was sharing his story.”

On Saturday, April 25, the newly formed registered student organization Project Sunset held its first “Sweat 4 Nets” 5K, raising $7,131.65.

Courtesy Photo | Sarah Lewan

Project Sunset, a newly formed registered student organization, hosted its first “Sweat 4 Nets” 5K on Saturday,
April 25. Though comprised of only six members, the organization raised more than $7,100 for mosquito nets and
education tools for people living in the African nations of Gabon and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Project Sunset was founded by SVSU nursing senior Sarah Lewan in 2012.

She began with a modest goal: to raise enough money to purchase 50 mosquito nets that she could distribute through mobile medical clinics on her first trip in Gabon during the summer of 2012.

Lewan partnered with E4 Project, a non-profit organization based in Colorado that, according to its mission statement, defends the cause of the poor and needy by empowering people who are living on the margins of society to thrive.

“Project Sunset really just tries to help African nations prevent malaria,” Lewan said.

To date, her program has raised more than $17,000 for nets and educational tools.

It wasn’t until this year, however, that Project Sunset became a registered student organization on SVSU’s campus.

Fulfilling the service project component of the Roberts Fellowship Program, Lewan and her group members, which include psychology senior Bonny Rye, graphic design senior Rachael Blaylock, computer information systems and Spanish senior Mindy Brandenburg, economics and creative writing senior Laurence Paterson, and criminal justice senior Emily Nelson, formed the official organization through SVSU and organized the 5K.

Lewan said she was blessed to have the support of her group members and 20 additional volunteers to help Saturday’s event go smoothly.

“I think the race definitely helped raise awareness about malaria, which is always objective number one,” she said. “We’ll try and make this 5K happen every year, because it’s been nothing but beneficial and inspiring.”

Although Rye became involved with Project Sunset as part of the Roberts Fellowship program, she is excited about the global influence the group’s work has.

“Reaching globally – not just to the community – is very important,” Rye said.

For more information about Project Sunset, visit www.e4project.org/.programs/project-sunset/.

“We just want students  to have fun,” communication sophomore and Program Board Vice President Eliza Lanway said. “The whole point of this day is that it’s your final blowout event before you lock yourself in your room for finals week. It’s your last chance to have a lot of fun and then chill out and calm down enough that you’re ready for finals week by the end.”

From noon to 6 p.m., Street Fest featured seven inflatables, a zip line, a rock-climbing wall, bungee trampolines, human hamster balls and takeaway activities such as airbrush tattoos, dog tags and caricatures. Relaxation Night followed, offering activities such as crafts, yoga and chair massages. Hypnotist Brian Imbus held entertainment and self-hypnosis sessions later in the evening.

Lanway said last year was the first time Program Board hosted the event in collaboration with other registered student organizations. The most significant change this year was the change of location into the Ryder Center’s O’Neill Arena.

“Last year it was supposed to be in the courtyard and it rained,” Lanway said. “(We) shifted things into the Rotunda and the (Thompson Student Activities Room) and there was still stuff outside, so it was all over the place. When we went to plan for this year, we figured there was going to be bad weather no matter what, so we put it in the arena just to be safe.”

Communication sophomore Kaylan Sinadinos said she attended the event because the activities offered sounded interesting.

“I also came because it’s a break from finals and it helps relieve stress,” Sinadinos said.

According to Lanway, Program Board provided a majority of funding for the event.

“We earmarked at the beginning of the year – I think it was $20,000 – just for Street Fest because we want it to be a big blowout,” she said.

Peer Health Education, Active Minds, Valley Nights and Residence Housing Association also sponsored the event.

Members of Program Board are already planning for next year’s Street Fest.

“We are toying with the idea of recreating it into a sort of Coachella-like music festival with a couple rides,” Lanway said. “We do this whole inflatable thing for every major event … so we’re trying to see if we can find a new take on it, but still have it be fun and then flow right into Relaxation Night again.”

Pre-medical freshman Valerie Christy believes Street Fest is important because it brings people together.

“I think it’s so great SVSU does this for us,” Christy said. “Someone from Central (Michigan University) told me, ‘We play with puppies, but (we) don’t have anything like this.’ I think it’s cool that our tuition goes to stuff like this, too.”

The team bettered its record after going 4-1 over the weekend against Tiffin University, Ohio Dominican and Wayne State, respectively.

Courtesy Photo | Jamie Loubert

Behind the combination of strong pitching from starters like Samantha Willman, (above,) and an explosive offense, the SVSU softball team has won 15 of its last 17 games and looks to stay sharp heading into the GLIAC tournament in May.

Sunday’s two-game set against Wayne State began with some fireworks on the part of the Cardinals, who took the first game in extra innings, 1-0. Junior pitcher Sarah Appold started the game for the Cards and went the distance, logging eight solid innings while only allowing five hits, a walk and strking out seven batters.

The offense waited until the end of the game to make its presence felt. With two outs and a runner on second, senior Nicole Romain drove in the lone run of the contest, giving SVSU a 1-0 victory.

Game two saw some fireworks, but the kind that the Cards were hoping for. Wayne State jumped out early on junior Sarah Vrabel. The right-handed pitcher surrendered a run in the bottom of the first inning before giving up five more in the fourth.

Defensively, the team left much to be desired as SVSU booted four potential outs in the route and could never recover. The Cardinals ended up dropping the contest, 6-1.

SVSU kicked off the two-game battle at Tiffin University where the Cardinals split. The Cardinals struck quickly on an error and an RBI single by senior Marcy Medina, taking a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Tiffin responded shortly after in the second, hitting a solo home run off Appold to pull within one. Appold would go on to shut Tiffin out for the rest of the game, allowing only three total hits in the game to earn the victory.

Saginaw Valley got on the board first in the second game as well, with Romain driving in the first run on an RBI double. The pitching battle between Vrabel and Tiffin’s Sarah Brown began, neither pitcher surrendered a run until Tiffin knotted the game at one in the fourth.

Seven innings were not enough for either team, and the game went into extras. Tiffin took advantage of a tired Vrabel, loading the bases in the eighth and clearing them with a grand slam. The Dragons would add one more before taking the 6-1 victory.

SVSU rebounded quickly for an early morning first pitch at Ohio Dominican University. Fatigue proved to be no factor as the Cardinals jumped out to an early lead yet again in the first, picking up two runs on a single from freshman Meredith Rousse. ODU bounced back in the bottom of the first, doubling in two runs to tie the game off of Appold.

The Cardinals took control of the game in the second when redshirt freshman Evy Lobdell singled in a run to regain the lead, and added another on a throwing error on the play. Romain continued her strong play hitting a three-run home run in the third to allow Appold to sail to a 10-4 victory.

Saginaw Valley set the tone yet again in the second game, scoring the first runs in the third on a two-run double by Medina. A two-run home run by Ohio Dominican in the fourth was quickly responded to by junior Jessica Wood with a two run bomb of her own. The Cardinals added four more runs to earn the win in six innings.

The Cardinals will now be looking forward to continuing their dominant play in the GLIAC tournament next weekend, May 1-3, at the Marathon Diamonds in Findlay, Ohio. Saginaw Valley’s strong finish has put them in the top four of the conference, and will set up for a good seeding in the tournament.

Last weekend’s slate of games did not help the Cardinals’ cause, as the team dropped two on the road against the Northwood Timberwolves on Saturday before coming back on Sunday to take game one of second double-header.

Game one against the Timberwolves resulted in a 3-0 loss. The Cards’ bats struggled to get the big hit, putting up ten hits but leaving all ten on base. Second baseman Chad Carson led the team with three hits and a walk as the sophomore reached base in each of his four at-bats.

Taking the mound for SVSU was southpaw pitcher Scott Sency. The sophomore tossed five innings, surrendering five hits and two walks while striking out four. Of the three runs allowed, only one was allowed. The loss drops Sency’s season record to 5-2. Andrew Tidwell came out of the bullpen for the Cardinals, throwing a shutout inning in the loss.

The Cards found themselves behind early on in game two after Northwood scored a pair of runs in the second inning off from SVSU starter Bailey Magsig. The overall theme of the contest was once again one of missed opportunities. As a team the Cardinals left 11 runners on base while failing to take advantage of four errors by the Timberwolves. The offense scored its first run of the day in the top of the third inning when third baseman Chris Perkovich scrambled home on a wild pitch to the tie the score at one. Trailing 5-1 in the sixth inning, the Cards scored two more runs to cut into the lead. Perkovich drove in a run on a sacrifice fly to make it 5-2 before Carson singled up the middle to drive in Kyle Kaufmann. Both runs were unearned. Northwood would score one more run in the game to take the game, 6-3.

Magsig’s day was over after five innings. The junior righty gave up five earned runs on the day on seven hits. He did not record a strikeout or a walk.

On Sunday, the Cardinals looked to make up for their sloppy play from the day before. Game one of the Sunday set showed that, as the Cards jumped out early on some tough pitching and held on to win, 5-0.

Kaufmann set the tone for SVSU, going 4-4 on the day with a two-run blast in the first inning.

The Cardinals rode the momentum set by the offense and excelled behind the right arm of redshirt freshman Michael Ellenbest. The righty tossed six shutout innings for the Cards, giving up only three hits while striking out seven.

Sunday’s second game showcased a 15-inning marathon in which the Cardinals won 7-4.

SVSU has five games remaining on its schedule. The final stretch will begin with a one-game home stand against Cleary University. First pitch is set for 3 p.m. Tuesday, April 28.