On Saturday, Nov. 15, several shots rang out near NMC’s central campus as two individuals fired at police officers responding to a call about a potential car theft on E. Eighth Street, near Garfield Avenue. 

A non-partisan, grassroots organization, Rank MI Vote was founded in 2019 to promote ranked-choice voting (RCV) in Michigan. The organization believes the implementation of RCV in Michigan would help reduce stress for voters, increase voter turnout, and help defuse political tensions. Rank MI Vote held a presentation to promote RCV in the Dutmers Theater at NMC’s Dennos Museum on Nov. 19, to garner support for a petition they hope to take to Lansing to amend the Michigan constitution.

On Nov. 15 and 16, NMC was put into lockdown from 10:44pm to 1:30am after shots were fired in a larceny turned police chase near the college. That night, I wasn’t thinking about violence or crimes—just feeding a cat and worrying about daily life. That’s when I thought I heard five sharp booms. Usually, when you hear loud popping sounds or noises, you think of fireworks, but these were unmistakably gunshots, confirmed when I glanced out the window of my girlfriend’s apartment near NMC’s campus and saw a police car park at the intersection of Front and Fair Street. My initial thought was that it was the police officer who fired shots, not a citizen, and thinking nothing else of it, I walked back to student housing like normal. But as more and more police began streaming in, covering Front and Fair, and setting up a perimeter on every street connected to it in the area, I realized that this was very different.

Bulletin boards around campus are often layered with colorful posters advertising student groups and events. For the NMC Student Life department, these posters represent more than vivid graphics with dates and times— they are invitations to feel connected, supported, and part of something bigger during a student’s time at the college. With enrollment rates rising 6.3% since spring 2025, student connections seem more important to push now than ever.

“122 million girls have no access to education,” Sue Gunawardena-Vaughn, the Malala Fund’s Global Lead for Grant Strategy, told community members, students, and educators at Milliken Auditorium at NMC’s Dennos Museum. Her words hung in the earthy air, scents of turmeric and cumin wafting in from the hallway, where curry was served at the reception. A few gasped, and others quietly muttered to their seatmates at the absurd number.

There are more than 50,000 songs uploaded to Spotify every day. There’s a lot of good music out there, but it’s so hard to find diamonds when you have to dig through all this rough. Honestly, there’s so much music being released everywhere all of the time that no one person could listen to it all. But perhaps one truly dedicated person could come close. So on New Year’s Eve of 2024, I decided that for 2025, I wanted to listen to one album every day.

I felt the sharp, early-winter air as I walked toward Central United Methodist Church on Nov. 19 for the 10th annual Walk for Health and Housing. Before reaching the building, people were already on the move. Some knew each other, and some didn’t, but all of us were headed in the same direction with the same intention: to learn, to listen, and to walk—literally—in the shoes of neighbors experiencing homelessness.

“Some of you are not going to like the rest of this. I take responsibility,” Jack Segal said to a crowd of community members and veterans, “Today, I watch with concern as a former TV personality has become our Secretary of War.”