October 24 2011

Vol 43 No 4The Student-Run Newspaper of Kishwaukee College, Malta, IL 60150

Knowing what to do after graduating from Kish is something many students have thought about at some point or another. College Night is an event that can help students find out what their options are after Kish. Kishwaukee College will be holding its annual College Night on November 2 from 6:30 to 8:30pm in the gym. College Night is an event that brings together many different schools throughout the Midwest. Some schools that will be attending the event include Illinois State University, Rockford College, University of North-ern Iowa, and Carthage College. During the event, students will be able to explore their options after Kish. Each college will have a representative available to answer any questions students may have about college. Representatives will usually have a View Book available, which includes general information about the college including its size, cost and available programs. Heather McCoy, Coordinator of Recruitment and Orientation said, “[College Night] is a great chance for students. They aren’t committing to anything; they’re just finding more information.” In addition to the many other colleges at the event, Kish will also have information available for high school students interested in applying to Kish. There will be an area in the A300 lounge where students can re-ceive more information about specific career programs that are offered at Kish. Some of the programs include Collision Repair, Computer Information Systems and Nursing. For students interested in majoring in engineer-ing, math or science, there will be an open house in A273. The open house will be held from 6pm to 7pm to allow students to experience the rest of the event. For those students wondering about the cost of college, there will be a financial aid presentation at 6pm in Jenkins auditorium. The presentation will explain options available to students including scholarships and loans. “Students might be surprised by some of the scholarship opportunities that different schools might offer,” McCoy said. Kish will also hold a number of other events to help students find the right college. Some of these events include college visits for high school students, financial aid nights in February 2012 and orientations for new students starting in March Finding the right college can be hard. College Night is a way for students to find the college that is right for them. For more information about College Night, visit www.kishwaukeecollege.edu/go/collegenight.

College Night looks to the futureBy Will IrelandWeb Editor Here are some colleges attending

College Night:

Augustana College

Columbia College

DePaul University

Northern Illinois University

U.S. Air Force Academy

University of Illinois

University of Northern Iowa

Southern Illinois University

And many more!

Gas prices have varied in the Northern Illinois region has seen many highs and lows depending on the prices of crude oil. With crude oil being the primary component in gasoline production, gas prices will continue to rise and fall depending on the cost of crude oil set up by the supply and demands on the global commodities market. This is one of the most important factors in determining the price of gasoline. As of October 16, GasBuddy.com indicated that locally, Malta’s gas price has risen to $3.49 a gallon, Dekalb averaging $3.35 to $3.49, Rochelle averaging $3.44 to $3.49, Oregon at $3.46, and Dixon averaging $3.38 to $3.48 a gallon. Nationwide the lowest price of gasoline is in the state of South Carolina at $3.23, and Hawaii being the most expensive at $4.35. Taxes on the gas range is anywhere between seven to ten percent per dollar, per gallon. The increased access to oil here in the United States and natural gas resources will affect America’s energy in the future. On March 11 of this year, while in Japan President Obama commented on the gas prices here in the United States. He began by answering questions about rising gas prices which are a concern for every family and business in the U.S. According to the White House press release, the cause of the rise range from world-wide economic recovery, demand and prices to our recent jolt due to the unrest in the Middle East and Libya.” President Obama explained in detail that the oil production has reached its highest level in seven years this past year and the production of oil from the federal waters in the Gulf of Mexico reached an all-time high. President Obama replied by saying: “So any notion that my administration has shut down oil pro-

duction might make for a good political sound bite, but it doesn’t match up with reality.” Obama gave reassurance that American and the World are “better prepared” to handle the sorts of disrup-tions we’re seeing now so that the situation need not spiral out of control. Obama concluded with: “we’ve been having this conversa-tion for nearly four decades now. Every few years, gas prices go up; politicians pull out the same old political playbook, and then nothing changes. And when the gas prices go back down, we slip back into a trance. And when the prices go up, suddenly we are shocked. I think the American people are tired of that. I think they are tired of talk. We’ve got to work together-Democrats, Republicans, and everybody in between-to secure America’s en-ergy future. I don’t want to leave this for the next President, and none of us should want to leave it for our kids.”

Gas prices take a roller coaster rideBy Mari WestStaff Writer

Don’t forget registration for spring semester 2012 begins online November 9 and in-person November 10! Look into taking JOU111

if you like to write, design or take photos!

Photos courtesy of www.wan-press.org

Kaleidoscope staff and editorial policy

editorial/opinion2 Kaleidoscope october 24, 2011

Congress shall make no law re-specting an establishment of reli-gion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people to peacably assemble and to petition the Gov-ernment for redress of grievances.--First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution

StaffEditor-in-Chief.....Marissa Skonie

Copy Editor...Grace MartinWeb Editor...Will IrelandAdviser.....Melissa Blake

Staff Writers.....Tim Bruske, Paige Myers, Jessica Pflipsen, Mari West

Logo design by Devon Lovings at TwoFiveDesigns.com

Editorial Policy

Letters to the editor may be

dropped off at the Kaleidoscope office or put in the Kaleidoscope mailbox. The Kaleidoscope is published approximately eight times each semester by Kalei-doscope staff. If you wish to submit a letter to the editor, please do so, but unsigned let-ters will not be considered for submission. Anonymity can be requested by the author and will be granted at the discretion of the editor. All letters may be ed-ited for length, clarity or libelous

content. Opinions expressed on the editorial page are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the edito-rial board of the Kaleidoscope or Kishwaukee College as a whole. Stories marked (OMS) were pro-vided by the college’s Office of Marketing Communications.

The Kaleidoscope is a student operated newspaper serving the students of Kishwaukee Col-lege, Malta, Illinois. Opinions in

the newspaper do not reflect the views of Kishwaukee Adminis-tration, students or faculty. The Kaleidoscope is a member of the Associated Collegiate Press.

Marissa’s Musings: The College Conundrum

By Marissa SkonieEditor-in-Chief

The smoking gun behind smoking By Tim BruskeStaff Writer

Stop Wasting My Time: Reasons You Shouldn’t Bother Coming To Class By Paige Myers

Staff Writer

When I graduated high school I kept hearing the conundrum, “College life: good grades, good social life, good sleep. Pick two.” At first I thought that this was just something said to scare freshmen. However, now a few years into my college career, I realize that this is mostly true. I am a scheduler. I like having everything laid out so that I can get everything done. My boyfriend can’t stand it because I even schedule my free time. The sad thing is, even though I schedule everything, I am usually still scram-bling at the last minute to make sure everything gets done. There is just too much to do. I have a 30-hour-a-week job, 15 credit hours in school, homework, a boyfriend and friends that all need my attention. But now, I think I know the prob-lem. I can’t say no. I just don’t like disappointing people and I don’t want to miss out on any experiences that are available. This usually means that I pick good grades and a good social life over good sleep. After all, who needs sleep? Bill Clinton ran the country using the scientifically proven method of taking a 20 minute nap every four hours. At one point, I wanted to try this. However, I realized that I’m too busy to make sure that I can have a nap every four hours. Plus, it takes me quite a while to fall asleep. So how do I fix this problem of not being able to say no? I’m not even sure I want to. I don’t regret the expe-riences I’ve been able to have; I think I just regret wearing my body down. Not getting enough sleep has made me get sick more often and the stress of everything has given me Stress Induced Acid Reflux. I know I should slow down and do things at an easier pace, but that would mean missing out on time with my boyfriend, family, friends and doing the things I love. If you were given the conundrum, what two would you choose? Is there a way to get all three all the time? Let me know your opinion by emailing me at kscope@kishwaukeecollege.edu.

Many of you may think, “Oh great, another article about smoking!” Well, this one’s just a little different. I’m a non-smoker now, but for a good while I was a smoker. I’m going to attempt to set the record straight on smoking. First of all, second-hand smoke does not kill. When gas is released into a larger volume of gas, it expands and dilutes itself. So, when you tell a smoker that their second-hand smoke will kill you, you are wrong. If that were true, we should ban cars because their exhaust works the same as sec-ond-hand smoke and contains more toxic chemicals. Secondly, yes, smoking can cause cancer. The initial study that showed it had some rats that lived smoke free and some that lived in cages pumped full of smoke. Of the rats in the smoke cage, 51 percent developed cancer while 49 percent did not. Ask any scientist if this is a strong correla-tion and they would laugh at you, while most might be inclined to say that it’s not a correlation at all. Oh, and while we’re on chemicals, your average cup of coffee is consumed at temperatures that will damage your body, contains caffeine which is the world’s most addictive and widely consumed stimulant and has around 900 cancer causing chemicals in it, as opposed to a cigarette’s paltry 46. Let’s not forget the out-of-shape assholes who harp on smokers for killing themselves. When I was a smoker, I ran faster than most and farther than almost all. I’d run six miles minimum in the morning, could do more push-ups and sit-ups than the average American and was generally considered to be in much better health than the majority of America. Not smoking doesn’t mean you are automatically healthier than a smoker. Especially not when they could literally run laps around you while you were running and still run longer than you. In closing, smokers have been targeted as of late by politians and non-smokers alike. They are taxed, bullied, excluded from society and laws are even passed to push them farther and farther away from buildings. They have to put up with all these things; don’t make them have to put up with your ignorant opinions too. What do you think about smoking? Write to kscope@st.kishwaukeecollege.edu to have your voice heard.

I don’t feel like I’m out of turn by saying this: The classroom etiquette in this college is, to put it gently, severely lacking. In high school, at least in the high school that I went to, it was absolutely inexcusable to show up late unless you were being held captive by the Dean. That being said, why is it that every single day that my Music Appreciation class meets, the same two people show up 15 to 20 minutes late? It makes me wonder whether or not they saw what time the class started when they signed up. Because the class that I’m taking starts at 9:00, not 9:20. I mean come on, enough is enough. If I were the teacher, I’d just lock the door once class started. The same is true in my Intro to Mass Communications class. During a midterm, for God’s sake, a girl who showed up late stood outside and pounded on the door until someone would let her in. Isn’t there some rule about if you’re late for an exam, you don’t get to take it? If there isn’t one presently, there really should be. Once again, if I were the teacher I wouldn’t have let her in. If you can’t manage to be on time, you should have to deal with the consequences. Another thing that is wholly unacceptable (or should be) is texting in class. I can understand if there’s an emergency and you absolutely need to be kept up to date. But listen, everyone knows that the vast majority of the people texting in class are not being updated on someone’s critical condition. I’ve said it before, teachers around here seem to be an endless fountain of grace, but there are lines that should not be crossed. If you’re going to sit in class and text the whole time, why do you even bother showing up at all? A third taboo: sleeping in class. You do realize that you’re basically paying the college to let you sleep in their classrooms, right? And when the teacher has to stop the entire class to bitch you out about sleeping in class, (and that’s when they even have the energy to do so) you’re not only wasting your own time and money, you are wasting mine. I, along with most everyone else here, came to get an education. I paid my tuition and I intend to make use of it. If you’re seriously going to come to class and sleep through it, don’t bother coming. I’d rather you not show up at all than have to sit there and not say anything while you waste my time while the teacher has to wake your sorry ass up. Plus, you’re embarrassing yourself, brah. In short, if you pay to be here, actually be here. You’re wasting everybody’s time by not even having the good grace to come into class quietly. You’re wasting everybody’s time by making the teacher stop and have to politely say “Please put your mobile device away.” And you’re wasting every-body’s time by sleeping through a class we paid over $300 for. I am sensing a theme- you are wasting everyone’s time.

By Tim BruskeStaff Writer

campus life 3 Kaleidoscopeoctober 24, 2011

Faculty Spotlight: Jennifer JossendalBy Paige MyersStaff Writer

By Tim BruskeStaff Writer

“People grow through experience if they meet life honestly and courageously.This is how character is built.” This quote by Eleanor Roosevelt is one of history professor Jennifer Jossendal’s favorite quotes. Having been a professor

at Kishwaukee College for 11 years, J o s s e n d a l has made the decision to stick with teaching exclusively at the college level. “I wanted the freedom to dig into important h i s t o r i c a l topics without parents and school boards i n t e r f e r i n g . ” Anyone that has taken a class

with her, or sat through even one of Jennifer Jossendal’s lectures can tell right off the bat that history is her passion. Growing up in a house filled with history books, and a father who adored history did some serious shaping of that passion. “We took family trips to historical sites; I

loved it!” she said. Although she has ended up following a teaching career path, this was not where she initially saw her life going. Throughout grade school and high school, Jossendal’s intentions were to head off to law school. From there, she would someday work her way up to a judgeship. She turned toward teaching history because she “had several outstanding professors in college.” When it comes to her favorite, and conversely her least favorite parts about teaching, things shake out as follows: “My favorite part is engaging with students, and seeing their interest in the topics we study emerge. My least favorite parts are the student excuses. Some are valid, but most are not.” Her own schooling experience held something of a premonition for her future career. Although she excelled in math, the

fact that Jossendal also excelled in the social studies and history classes she was enrolled in should come as no surprise. Her most memorable teaching experiences are “working with some outstanding, generous people,” as well as hearing from her past students who have gone on to continue studying history. When asked who has been her greatest influence in her teacher career, the answer is simple: “George Overby. He was my first instructor when I returned to school, and he set the tone as both a student and a teacher.” Outside of teaching, Jossendal partakes in “skiing, golfing, boating, hiking, and biking. All of these things done with my family.” If she could live in the shoes of one historical figure’s life, it would be Eleanor Roosevelt, “but there are many others, too!” In her past 11 years as a

teacher, the students have remained “Relatively the same, but now [they] have more distractions, which can impede their dedication to school.” As for her personal growth, “Through the years, several Kish colleagues have generously collaborated in various ways that have improved my planning, process and delivery. I am always learning.” Unlike some teachers, Jossendal has no secrets from her students. “I’m pretty open with my students, so I’m not sure there would be any surprises [to them].” Granting that there are many history teachers here at Kishwaukee College, Jennifer Jossendal is sure to be one of the most compelling teachers you will have in any subject. Her range of classes extend from Western Civilization to United States History, all the way up to a class focusing soley on World War II.

Strapped for cash? Have an itch to play a quality game? Then the game League of Legends is a possible solution for you. League of Legends is an online, multi-player, real-time strategy game that is free to play. The first things I’ll address are the core features of the game and its game play. The idea behind the game is that you play one champion out of a roster of possible choices, each with a different style that falls into a number of different character types. You play through a match,

earning gold for time spent playing, kills, and other achievements that you spend to buy items to increase your stats and gain an edge on the enemy team. This game is nice in comparison to other free to play games in that you can’t just win the game by buying the best item or having the most friends, and you don’t have “energy” that runs out and have to refill before you can play again. League of Legends is truly free to play. With free champion rotations each week, you can spend time

playing characters you like and not have to pay for them. You gain influence points based on how well you did that you can use to buy new champions and items outside a game that slightly affect your stats at the very beginning of the match. So while you don’t have to pay to play or stay competitive, you can choose to pay cash to unlock new champions and to buy new skins to customize your game. Next, let’s look at the style of the game. I’m breaking this down into two sub-categories,

which are visual and audio style and game atmosphere. The art in the game, from the characters’ portraits to the animation style and quality is excellent. It isn’t lifelike, or even realistic, but the visual style of the game suits the content perfectly, as well as the music, sounds, and voice acting. There’s not a character I’ve played whose voice wasn’t impressive or didn’t fit with the character. The music suits the environment and is present just enough to do its job, but it is not enough to intrude into the game. Also, the sound effects add to the battle, making you feel like it’s really happening around you. All in all, this game is very solid. A few flaws are present, mostly based on being able to play the game with lower-end computers, which affects the graphics. This game would be on my radar even if I had to pay some money to use it, but the fact that it’s free bumps it up in my mind giving it a score of four out of five and definitely worth a look.

A new game approaches: League of Legends

Pictured above is the champion Teemo, the swift scout. Photo courtesy of Riot Games, Inc.

Pictured below is Annie, the Dark Child.

october 24, 20114 Kaleidoscope features

Finding the perfect Halloween costume can be challenging. There are so many different options from so many different stores it can be hard to make a firm decision. Then, of course, there is the question of should I buy my costume, or should I make it from what I have around the house? Time is usu-ally the biggest factor when deciding wheth-er you should go to the store and shop around for the best costume, or if you should stay home and try to make one out of whatever you have around. No matter what you decide, there are many excellent costume choices out there, and there is sure to be one that you will love. This year there are many new costumes rel-evant to current pop culture phenomenas. Lady Gaga is a popular choice, and with all of the wild getups that she wears on a regular ba-sis, any costume designed with her in mind would be

sure to get stares. The pop-ular television show Glee is also making an appearance on the costume racks. You can dress up as a Cheerio Cheerleader, Sue Sylvester,

or you can sport Puck’s pop-ular Mohawk. Of course, if you aren’t into any of this new modern stuff, you can al-ways go with a classic fa-vorite like a zombie with lots of blood and guts or a tightly wrapped mummy. Or, you could put a new twist on a classic favorite. Instead of going as Dracula in a suit and cape, you could go as Edward Cullen or any of his “vegetarian” family. Instead of putting on that pointy

black hat and carrying a broom as a witch, why not don a Hogwarts crest as Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series. Other storybook

and movie characters will be popular this year. Alice and the Mad Hatter from the new Alice in Wonderland film have many different versions of their costumes available for purchase. Procrastination hap-pens to everyone, and with everything going on this fall, Halloween might roll around and you still won’t have a costume to wear. Luckily, there are lots of really great five minute costume ideas that can be thrown together

from things you have just laying around your house.It is really easy to throw to-gether a costume from all of those clothes that you never wear stuck in the back of

your closet. You can be a cowboy, a gypsy, a nerd, a hobo, a hillbilly, or even Wal-do. Take out that suit that you only wear to weddings, wear your favorite Super-man T-shirt under it, and go as Superman’s alter ego, Clark Kent. Wear a bowling shirt, khaki shorts, and loaf-ers with socks and be Char-lie Sheen. If you feel like being a little more crafty with your costume, you could go as a domino. Cut some black

circles out of a piece of felt or construction paper, and pin them to your shirt in a domino pattern. Another fun costume option is to go with a play on words. You could

dress all in pink and carry a long obnoxious feather, or wear a feather boa, and be “tick-led pink” all eve-ning. Pin tea bags to your clothes and be a “tea bagger”. Become a “ceiling fan” by rooting for the ceiling like it is your favorite sports team for the night.

No matter what you wear for Halloween this year, you are sure to have fun because that is what Halloween is all about.

Halloween Costume Ideas

Seeing as Hal-loween is coming up just around the corner, I fig-ured I’d rack my brain to see if I could come up with a Halloween-themed story to share. Eventual-ly, it came to me. The sto-ry I’ll be sharing this time involves the ability that most soldiers develop to take things from everyday life and bring them to a war zone to use them as a source of comfort. As always, if anyone out

there has a story they’d like to share with the readers of this paper, feel free to email appropri-ate stories to tbruske@st.kishwaukeecollege.edu. My second tour in Iraq was vastly different from my first tour. I had noticed many differences right away, and some took me a while to notice. One of the bigger differences I noticed was our penchant for going out on extended

missions. We had outpost building missions, man-ning our outposts, special missions we would carry out, and these would all range from relatively short (about two days long) to relatively long (month-long rotations). This story happens after one of the longer special missions we were tasked with. We were getting ready to come back from a burned out milk factory that we had been operating out of for about a month and Halloween was to be the day we were going back. Our last day there, we went out on a patrol to make sure our area was secure when we gave it to the next people to patrol it. While out, a buddy of mine named Buddy and I had noticed a clothing store. We had it in mind to celebrate Halloween by hosting a bit of a cos-tume party in our com-pany area. Buddy had received some Halloween decorations from home and we had snacks and drinks put away for our guests.

As we walked up to the stand selling the clothes, we let our eyes run over the merchan-dise. There were many different types of clothing. Knock off “Western” cloth-ing, sports clothing (which was essentially just soccer or rugby), Middle Eastern apparel, and lots of differ-ent accessories. Initially, Buddy and I had talked it over and had decided that we should dress up as insurgent fighters. Once we had arrived at the stall, however, we changed our minds very quickly. They had an assortment of what we would call very tacky track suits that were merchandise for various soccer teams. When we saw these, we both knew instantly what our cos-tumes would be. We ended up leav-ing back for our Forward Operating Base earlier that day than we had ex-pected. So we ended up having plenty of time to decorate the area, and by a “special arrange-ment” we had made with some people we knew at

the dining facility (pulling guard duty for them), we started cooking the hot dogs and steaks that we had acquired. Night came and it was time to get into cos-tume. We adjourned to our respective rooms and got dressed then made our way to the area our commanding of-ficer had given us for the party. We greeted our visitors in our tracksuits and beanies and base-ball caps. That’s right, for that Halloween we went as Guidos. There were a number of homemade costumes running around our area and some people came just in their uniforms to hang out and have a good time. We used Hallow-een and the traditions as-sociated with it to bring ourselves a little comfort out in the desert. And we did it a full two years be-fore Jersey Shore started filming.

WAr STories

Photos from www.partycity.com

Photo Courtesy of Tim Bruske

By Tim BruskeStaff Writer

By Grace MartinCopy-Editor