2005 - 05 (May)

              [IMAGE (Photo) Alumni council members (Photo) elderly people golfing (Photo) children planting a tree (Photo) history professor and students preparing the trebuchet] SPORTS Leathernecks baseball takes three of four against Oakland University this weekend. Page 11 100 YEARS 1905-2005 Western Courier Volume 105 Issue 85 Monday, May 2, 2005 http://www.westerncourier.com NEWS Lecture on American, British relations during World War II highlights history conference. Page 3 OP/ED Plan B emergency contraceptive should be available over the counter. Page 6 SPORTS Westerwinds softball sweeps Oakland University at home this weekend. Back page WEATHER Partly cloudy/windy 54/32 Senior Olympics return to Western By Makoto Yamagishi courier staff Last weekend a group of seniors gathered in Hanson Field to compete. But these were not fourth-year students, rather senior citizens competing in the 25th annual Western Illinois University Senior Olympics. Ninety-two participants from Macomb and surrounding cities, such as Bushnell and Quincy, took part in competitions ranging from swimming to track and field on April 29 and 30 throughout the Macomb community. The Senior Olympics provided many opportunities for participants of all ages to test their physical abilities by: competing with their peers. The coordinator of the Olympics, Dee Hinds, emeritus physical education professor, said she is glad to see seniors enjoying the event. �It�s great. Some seniors travel to other Olympics to meet the same people for new intimacies to have a lot of fun,� Hinds said. William Stephens, 58-year-old swimmer, who participated in 50-yard breaststroke, 25-yard freestyle and 500-yard freestyle this year, took advantage of the opportunities he was provided. �It�s a local event that means a lot because that's the one here in Macomb and I am from Macomb,"" Stephens said. Stephens, who has participated in the Macomb Olympics for the last eight years and has set various records in the swimming category, is scheduled to attend the National Senior Olympics in Pittsburgh this summer. Loucille Junk, 91-year-old athlete, has participated in 20 of the 25 years of the Olympics. This year she took part in the bowling competition. ""I am having fun every year. I think it's nice they do this."" Junk said. William Urban, 77-year-old participant of the 50-, 100- and 200-meter dash competitions this year, see Putt page 2 Dustin Larkey/Staff Photographer Student Alumni Council members Dorcas Collins, junior sociology major, Sara Piatt, sophomore, business major, and Shannon VanVleet, freshman biology major, welcome guests at a party for graduating seniors held at Parkside Bar and Grill Thursday night. Heads up! History students get medieval on produce By Andy Walters assistant editor Lee Brice's history class took the expression ""playing with your food"" to a whole new level Friday afternoon when it gathered at the Hanson Field track and field throwers area to launch coconuts, cantaloupes, jugs of water and a watermelon from a homemade trebuchet. Class members constructed the medieval siege weapon in order to better study ancient warfare. Senior history major Steve Catania spearheaded the project as part- of his honors curriculum. With engineering assistance from Jake Hoerdeman, junior manufacturing engineer major, and Pat Sczcypinski, junior physics major, Catania was able to construct a working model of a trebuchet. The throwing device is a wooden structure that is basically a more sophisticated catapult. It operates by using a counterweight to hurl forward a throwing arm attached to a sling. The sling then launches its contents in a high-arching fashion. ""The whole idea was to see how the crew (cohered),"" said Brice, topics in ancient history professor. ""One of the things we want to watch is how the crew works together. When they don't work together it doesn't work."" Catania agreed with Brice, as the focus of this project was to study the team aspect behind operating a see Trebuchet page 5 Lee Brice, history professor, assists a crew of students in preparing the trebuchet to be fired Friday afternoon at Hanson Field. TAKING ROOT A group of children from Kate Schaub's fifth grade class at Edison School take part in a tree planting. The event, organized by Matt Trowbridge, junior agriculture major, taught the students about how trees grow.