Emergency Alert Test Scheduled for Tomorrow

Western Illinois University will be testing their new emergency alert system tomorrow at nine-fifty A.M. This system will alert students and faculty of emergency situations, such as severe weather or safety threats. Members of Western Illinois can choose to be alerted in many different ways. The system can send alerts via email, home phones, or text messaging. Everyone is advised to sign up for this system and can do so through Western's home page.

Senior elementary education major Amy Sauerwein thinks this system is a great idea. She said "Universities should have thought of this idea a long time ago. Maybe now we can prevent terrible things from happening, such as the tragedy at Virginia Tech last year."

Weather Gets Wacky at Western

The recent weather in Macomb has had many people fooled. The past couple days of warmth made many look ahead to spring with hope that it may have already arrived. Students walked around campus in light jackets or sweatshirts, while others even braved a pair of shorts. Many were unprepared for the weather that will be coming very soon.

The Quad Cities National Weather Service has now issued a winter weather advisory until nine A.M. Wednesday. Threats of a blizzard warning have been cancelled but threats of severe winter weather remain in effect. Temperatures will continue to drop throughout the day with windchills of almost twenty below this evening.

Warm weather has been put on the back burner for now. Temperatures are expected to remain in the thirties at least until early next week. As junior kinesiology major Lindsay Muehlbauer put it, "I can't wait until the weather stops changing and actually stays warm for good."

**Clipart courtesy of www.istockphoto.com

Cold Weather Causes Crowded Buses

With the temperatures falling lower and lower, making it to class becomes even harder for many students. Some people still walk from class to class while others drive. But the biggest trend many students seem to follow is taking a trip on the Go West Transit.

Anyone who has been on one of these buses in the last two weeks can tell you how important it is to get to the bus stop extra early. Most buses get packed to maximum capacity at each stop. This causes the ride to take a little longer than usual and can also leave some people waiting for the next bus to come.

With a limited number of buses running throughout the day, the Go West Transit is only useful to students who actually have time to wait for one. There have been many students who get to the bus stop a little too late and find themselves late for class. Many people will offer advice on how to catch a bus, and they all recommend leaving five to ten minutes earlier than usual.

The Go West Transit is a great way to get around campus, but when it gets cold outside, it can get very crowded.

Mixed Feelings About New Garbage System

The new trash removal system recently implemented by Waste Management has been causing some mixed feelings around the city of Macomb. With the new system, each household received one trash can along with one recycling bin. There were different sizes of trash cans community members could choose from, but the citizens of Macomb could not choose to receive more than one.

Some members of the community find this new system of trash removal to be a great way to help the environment. With each house given only one container for both trash and recycling, it may push people toward wasting less recyclable materials and going through garbage much slower. Waste Management made it clear that any extra trash would come with a monetary fine. Avoiding paying fines may very well be another motivation to waste less materials and conserve space in dump zones.

While some people see these new trash bins as a great idea, others see them as more of a hassle. Especially within the Western Illinois campus, there have already been many complaints about the new system. Limiting trash output can sometimes be hard to do when living in a house with multiple people. As one off-campus student put it, "It was hard cleaning up after parties before, but now that we have to limit our trash to fit into one bin, it's going to be ridiculous." That is a concern that many students living off campus are going to have to deal with, and many of them aren't too happy about it.

The real outcome of this new trash removal system seems to be purely based on opinion. Only time will tell how well this system will work for the entire community of Macomb.