The EMU campus is pregnant with expectation for two groups of EMU students who are currently overseas. The 22-person Guatemala and US/Mexico Border cross-cultural group, scheduled to return Friday, April 18 at around 10 p.m., is currently finishing up their exit reviews in Honduras with their leaders Deanna Durham and Byron Peachey as they begin to reflect on their overall semester long experience in Latin America. Their reflections include how foreign experiences have shaped them, how they have grown in their Christian walk, and how their personal views have changed. Heidi Muller, a sophomore currently in Honduras, said, “Coming to this culture has definitely opened my eyes to the vast disparities in wealth and living standards in the world. We’ve seen such poverty and yet lived with such a happy people that it has definitely made me feel as if I could be a whole person without as much material wealth.” Sophomore Michelle Yoder reflected on her experience over the past three and a half months, saying, “I have come to value stories and how much they mean and how much they can help people. The history of violence here is amazing and so many of the people still carry fear because they have not told their stories.” Continue Reading...

With the small exception of tree vandalism, this year has lacked any major pranking on campus. No event has grabbed the attention of the campus, unlike many years in the past. A recent event involving feces and a Crock Pot, however, shows that the prank culture that Student Life refers to is still alive and well. The first clue that sometime was amiss came when Jake Goertz walked into the second floor kitchen at around 2 a.m. “It smelled like roadkill that had been left outside for a while,” he said. “That’s what I thought it was, at first…. I thought that someone had put roadkill over by the refrigerator.” Goertz looked all through the area affected—about half of the lounge and several feet into the near hallway—failed to find anything, and went to bed. Continue Reading...

For the past semester, EMU Visual and Communication Arts (VaCa) students have been producing a documentary about people who speak English as a second language (ESL) and their interactions with the broader Harrisonburg community. The documentary, “See Viktor Learn,” will be shown on Sunday, April 20 at 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. at Court Square Theater. The goal of the class, according to its professor, Jerry Holsopple, is to introduce students to the experience and difficulties of the documentary world. “The first goal is educational, and they can’t really learn what it means to do a documentary without struggling through the process. I think most of the students have a lot of trouble thinking about group projects, especially when it comes to work involving aesthetics, and they need to learn that if they’re ever going to work in the documentary world.” Continue Reading...

Senior Matthew Pearson has a new show for EMU, one incorporating a uniquely “cruel” creativity and theater experimentation. Building from portions of a traditional American comedic play, Pearson has applied the theories of Antonin Artaud (a theorist, heroin addict, and likely insane man who lived in France from 1896-1948), especially those that describe “Theater of Cruelty.” Pearson’s creative senior project entitled “Cruel Departure” is showing in the Studio Theater this coming Saturday through Tuesday nights, at 10 p.m. each night. “Cruel Departure” stars senior Erin Murray, first year Brooke Snyder, and senior Kristen Swartley. Set in a stage-less white room, “Departure” is a conceptual work that has a much different direction than a typical narrative-driven play. The actresses and audience are physically at the same level in a simple white room where, according to Pearson, “there is limited space with infinite play.” “Departure” is not driven by a theme like love or justice but by the function of transformation, taking the text and moving it into a conceptual level where it can be transformed into something new and challenging. Continue Reading...

It’s mid-April, and the school year is winding down. There are volleyballs bouncing around on the sand courts and baseball and softball games to watch. And what baseball game would be complete without a hamburger or hot dog from the concession stand? It may seem hard to believe, but before the arrival of Phil Guengerich eight years ago, EMU didn’t even have concession stands. “When I got here there were no concessions or anything. I mean there was next to nothing,” says Guengerich. After 30 years teaching fifth grade, Guengerich accepted a part-time, 25-hour- a-week job as Athletic Events Coordinator at EMU. Since then it has grown to a full-time position, and he has been in charge of ticket sales, concessions, game events, and some fundraising. Continue Reading...

Throughout this year, we at the Weather Vane have called for greater student involvement in campus activities. Tyler Grove implored people to join Peace Fellowship. We called for the Opinion Board to be moved to Common Grounds. We also took great pains to publicize the Green Design class and accompanying campus sustainability movement. And we’ve seen change, despite our constant critiquing and examining every fault that we can find here on the EMU campus. We feel that the campus deserves praise for efforts that are truly above the norm. The students who have become involved with clubs and organizations have not only kept student life running on campus; we feel that what vibrancy does exist on campus is a result of these students being dedicated to their niche in the student life. Employees in Common Grounds have pressured the managers to explore greener options for their coffee cups, and better options are to be implemented next fall. Peace Fellowship has grown into a large, vocal organization on campus, and the Opinion Board, now located outside Common Grounds, if not vibrant, has considerably more dialogue on it than it has in the past two years. Continue Reading...