Emily Svec, artistic director for Body by Svec, said, “It will be one hell of a party!”

A launch party displaying the collaborative results is scheduled Feb. 24 from 5-8 p.m. at RAYGUN (400 E. Locust Street). It will feature Svec’s painted ladies and play on the fun atmosphere RAYGUN is known for.

Svec was quoted on local style blog, “Koi Story,” saying, “There’s nothing like combining the paint, beautiful ladies and the wit of Raygun. It’s a collaboration of the loud and proud Des Moines spirit.”

Svec and RAYGUN came together through mutual friend Seth Nosbusch, who works at RAYGUN as a screen printer.

Svec got a message from Mike Draper, owner of RAYGUN, and the wheels started turning.

“I wouldn’t say one person thought of the idea,” Svec said. “Both Mike D and I put ideas on the table and melded them together and came up with quite a result.”
Svec has painted more than 150 men and women of various sizes and shapes in the past six years.
According to the Body by Svec website, “Svec paints for the love of the body, using her art to define beauty beyond societal norms. Her goal is to show the harmony of the natural human body unhindered by preconceived notions of age, size, or shape.”

Her work has been featured in 515, Juice and Core magazines, on book covers, and in newspapers.

Dan Chibnall, Instruction Librarian, organizes the read-in’s.

“The concept of the read-in is to try and get people to come to the library and talk about readings that they might not otherwise be engaged in,” Chibnall said.

The library host’s four to five read-in’s throughout the entire academic year. This February will be the third of the year.

Chibnall said that he tries to incorporate themes to the read-in’s, such as Black History Month, Thanksgiving, and things to do with the seasons. The theme for the read-in on Friday the 17 is Black History Month.

Students and staff are encouraged to bring their own material related to the theme or they are welcome to bring their favorite material even if it’s unrelated.

The read-in is held in the @ the Library Coffee Shop.

“We try and hold it in the coffee shop because it’s a more of a communal space,” Chibnall said.

Chibnall said all students and faculty are welcome to join the read-in on Friday the 17 at 11:30 a.m.

Mediacom’s official website offers an explanation for the change.

“By switching to digital transmission, we gain more capacity to provide more channels and improved services.  Analog transmission of channels is an older technology that uses ten times as much of our system capacity than a digital channel.  Once the all-digital conversion is complete, we are going to be able to offer a better picture and sound quality with everything you watch.”

In an e-mail sent to students, Neil Olson, network and telecom administrator, specified who would need a converter box.  Students with TVs manufactured after 2008 that already have a digital/QAM tuner built in will not need a DTA converter.

Students with TVs manufactured before 2008 will most likely need a converter box, since their TVs do not come with a built-in digital tuner.

The DTA converter boxes can be picked up from the front desk in the Student Life office.

Theater arts freshman Cheyenne Goode is the owner of an older-style TV and was required to install the converter box.

“It’s been weird getting used to having a new remote, but otherwise, it hasn’t been too much of a problem,” Goode said.

The boxes have already been activated.  Once the box is attached to the TV, students living on campus will be able to enjoy their favorite shows in all their digital glory.

Kent Schornack, director of leadership and counseling, said he hopes this encourages discussions about sexual relationships and give the students a place to talk openly.

The panel consisted of Pam Lonneman, education professor; Paul Brooke, English professor; Russ Lackey, campus pastor; Cathy Brent, director of student success; Wendy Fedler, assistant director of academic advising; Kevin Gannon, history professor; and Kali Strutzenberg, assistant director of leadership and counseling.

This is Grand View’s first year of holding the panel.  Other colleges do this and have great success with it.

Around 25 students attended the panel and about 40 questions were submitted. The questions were gathered before the event and students that attended were given a random question to ask the panel.

“How many times can I have sex before I am considered a slut?” was one of the anonymous questions asked.   The panel said that it was a moral question.  One response was that it was a double standard.  For men, many partners’ means they are a stud, but for women, they are a slut.

“If he came inside of me, am I ok.”  The panel’s response was no, because it only takes once to get pregnant or get an STD (sexually transmitted disease).

With Whitney Houston’s death it really made me think about how someone’s entire life can change because of drugs. She was once a beautiful, powerful, iconic singer, and then became a drug user, which led to death at an early age.

Drugs are not only common in the world of Hollywood; they are now becoming another study tool for books and note-taking. The drugs aren’t marijuana or cocaine, but pills.

More and more students who don’t have a prescription are using Adderall and Ritalin as study aids. A survey done by the National Mental Health Services Administration’s Drug Use and Health stated that 6.4 percent of all college students used Adderall to study and at some universities up to 35 percent of students take pills for study aids.

The pills help keep students focus before exams by waking them up to concentrate, perfect for all-nighters. All this sounds great; a pill to make studying easier, but in reality, it’s not.

In order to obtain these prescription pills you have to find someone who is willing to give or sell you some, which is difficult. It is also an illegal transaction.

If a person pops pills before an exam they can become reliant on it. Drugs are addicting enough as it is, but a simple pill with little side effects can make it even easier for students to become reliant on it for life. Why go to bed early to wake up and reread notes if I can just take a pill to keep me up? If the habit is continued it becomes similar to having a calculator at your side, it becomes just another tool.

If you take pills to help you study and you are not prescribed it, kick the habit now, please. For you next test instead of popping pills, eat a well-balanced breakfast, go for a jog, refresh yourself and get plenty of rest. Earlier on in the week, study for 20 minutes a day after class. This will help you retain the information and make studying less stressful.

Think about it. Is studying for exams with a bottle of Adderall worth it? You may get a full night of cramming, but it could result in an addiction. All the work and money going into a great education would be swallowed by the world of drugs. Don’t get caught up in it. Everyone is at this school for a reason: to learn, excel, challenge yourself and prepare for the real world. Don’t throw it all away with drugs.

• On the morning of a fresh snow, get up really early  before the city plows the roads. Wipe the dust off that snowboard, tie a rope to your friend’s truck and hold on tight.
• Play the snowball drinking game. Every time you get hit, take a drink. The best part – your drink never gets warm.

• The pranks are endless when it comes to snow. Fill the back of your ex-lover’s truck or stand on your roof with a shovel of snow and get your roommate good as he walks out the door.

• Snow on windshields serve as the best message boards ever. Leave a note on that poorly parked car or your best friend’s windshield.

• Yellow snow. Tell your little brother to eat it because it’s sprinkled with “special sugar.”

• Park in the handicap spot when it snows and fight the ticket by saying, “but I didn’t see the handicap paint.”

7 a.m. “I’m just getting done with practice so I go home and eat.”

8 a.m. “I have class, Lifetime Fitness and Wellness with the smartest man in the world, Zeb Sullivan.”

9:30 a.m. “I have Micro-Economics.”

11 a.m.  “I get a quick workout or some light drills in and just work up a sweat. Two people practice drills and work on moves together.”

12 p.m. “It is time to eat again. I eat small meals to keep weight down.”

1 p.m. “I hangout with Ryan Hand or my roommates and play Call of Duty in the afternoons.”

4 p.m. “I have wrestling practice until 6.”

6 p.m. “After I’m done with practice I shower and get to the most important part of my day, dinner.”

7 p.m. “I have the worst dog in the world so a lot of my evenings are spent dealing with him.”

8 p.m. “I watch a lot of The Office with my roommates at night or maybe go to a movie. During wrestling I keep it low key.”

10 p.m. “I have to go to bed early so I can be up for practice in the morning so I’m usually in bed by 10.”

How do you cope with keeping your weight down?

“You have to cut out all of the garbage most college students eat. It gets easier though, and I’ve been doing it my whole life.”

What do you like best about wrestling at Grand View?

“I just transferred here from Old Dominion in Virginia and I like it here way better. It’s smaller here and feels like more of a family. The coaches really want you to succeed in wrestling, in the classroom and in life, corny as it sounds. You can tell they care.”

If you could wrestle anyone in the world, who would it be? 

“I wish I could be about 50 pounds bigger so I could beat up Eric Thompson.”

Jay Prescott, vice president for student affairs, said, “Because we have a few of the Des Moines Community Schools near us, registered sex offenders cannot live within 2,000 feet of their campuses and that tends to push where sex offenders can live.”

According to the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, the website updates daily and sometimes as often as every 30 minutes Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.

The sex offenders have a wide variety of convictions, including lascivious acts with a child, indecent exposure, sexual abuse, risk of injury to a minor, burglary, statutory rape and more.

While searching for sex offenders, the registry includes the name, city, county, postal code, the tier, the victim and the residency of the sex offender. If the sex offender is on the registry or “Most Wanted” list but has a non-compliance status with the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, the site will say “whereabouts unconfirmed.”

The “Most Wanted” tab shows a list of offenders who have active arrest warrants on file and the tier levels are based on number of offenses the sex offender is currently registered for. It is used to establish how many times a year a sex offender must report to the Sheriff’s Office to update information, according to the Iowa Sex Offender Registry.

There are 207 sex offenders registered under tier 3, which requires a quarterly review and constant updates of all information. Twelve sex offenders who are registered under tier 3 live within three miles of Grand View, but nowhere near or on campus.

“We do not let known sex offenders live on-campus because Grand View is located within 2,000 feet of the real property, comprising a school or child-care facility,” Prescott said.

Some students on campus said they feel safe and have no worries regarding sex offenders in Des Moines.

Allie McFayden, graphic design junior, said, “I think our campus is pretty safe, but if a non-student really wanted to get into a residence hall I suppose they probably could.”

Grand View provides a 24-hour campus security, located on the first floor of Nielsen Hall, to help keep the campus safe.

“If someone came into the building who shouldn’t, security would have them on camera and there is no way they could get into our rooms or apartments without having  a student ID, key or a chainsaw,” McFayden said.

According to the Iowa Sex Offender Registry, they will not include offenders who were less than 20 years old at the time of the offense because of Iowa Law.

The Iowa Sex Offender website includes information regarding age, race, height, weight, address, picture, scars, marks, tattoos and anything necessary for public records.

Josh Moncivais, history senior, said, “I’ve never questioned my safety on campus and I feel safe because we have a community that looks out for each other.”

Grand View provides emergency phones placed in a variety of spots on campus for any student, faculty and staff to use in case of an emergency situation.

I remember sliding the oversized key into the lock and pushing on the large bronze doorknob in the center of the door. I pushed and the door swung open. The sun greeted me from my balcony windows. I smiled to myself and realized I was living my dream. At that moment, I stood there in an open door to my apartment and to my life. I stood between the Stephanie I brought with me from Iowa, and the one I was about to become. It was a moment in life when time stood still. And I realized I was existing in Italy in the present. This was the first of many reflective expereinces I had abroad. In these moments, I found myself growing as an  individual.

I can’t begin to describe the amazing feeling it was. Nor can I begin to describe all the details and the memories that changed my life as I traveled and lived abroad. But I can tell you that the images are still fresh in my mind. I still hear the sound of my door unlocking when I would come “home” to Florence after a long weekend of traveling. The smells are still fresh in my nose: the pizzas, the wines and the city.

I can tell you my life changed a little with each day I spent abroad. Each person I met left an impression on me. And all the impressions, as a whole, are what changed my life.

Now, I am happier and more confident than I have ever been. I learned that no matter what the situation, it will always work itself out. That life is too short to not take time to do what we enjoy. I realized the truth behind the cliché, “If you dream it, you can achieve it.”

For me, studying abroad was a dream I’d had since I was in Jr. High. Many people have called me brave for going to another country by myself, where I didn’t know anybody. But I don’t think of it as being brave. If I was never scared in the first place, how did I show bravery? I think of it as living my dream. I wanted to study abroad more than anything. So, I made a to-do list, took out a loan, and made it happen. It was as simple as that. And it can be as simple as that for anyone who wants to study abroad.

I encourage everyone who has ever had an interest to take the plunge. It’s a smart way to place yourself one-up on other people in your industry. This will come in handy when applying for a job in a job market where people are required to have many skills.

These skills range from academic to personal and professional.

Diversityabroad.com, an organization that offers study abroad programs, said that study abroad students show their, “Willingness and readiness to adapt to new environments, ability to look at a project or situation from different perspectives, understanding of diverse cultures, self-confidence and an ability to take risks.”

Employers notice study abroad as, “invaluable international professional experience, the opportunity to learn from, and network with, professionals from across the world, awareness of diverse business practices and customs, experience in working with foreign or multinational companies, and exposure to the global issues facing your industry,” according to Diversityabroad.com.

The Institute for the International Education of Students conducted a survey of more than 3,400 IES alumni on their post-study abroad experience.

As stated on transitionsabroad.com, another studying abroad program, out of the IES alumni that spent one semester abroad, 95 percent had increased self-confidence, 97 percent said it served as a catalyst for increased maturity, 95 percent said it had a lasting impact on world view, and 97 percent said it helped them better understand their own cultural values and biases.