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Should'youmarry a
fellow alum
Marriage might be the last thing on your mind, but if you wait
a little while and get hitched to one of your classmates,
statistically speaking, you'll be poised for a happy ending

Washtenaw County, is one of the
leaseholders for the Ron Paul
House, also dubbed "The Shop."
He shares the space with a small
music studio and a T-shirt print-
ing shop. The Shop used to be The
Planet, a T-shirt shop run by de
Angeli, but he converted the space
into an unofficial headquarters for
Ron Paul supporters in Washtenaw
County.
De Angeli said members of the
University chapter of Students for
Ron Paul and other Ron Paul activ-
ists occasionally come to hang out
and read Ron Paul-related litera-
ture. Last night, Eastern Michigan
University sophomore and Ron
Paul supporter Adam Spaude rolled
up to the hangout on his skateboard
to chat with de Angeli.
The converted store's counter is
now covered with campaign litera-
ture attempting to appeal to every
type of voter. There are leaflets -
which de Angeli calls "Slim Jims"
touting Paul's anti-gun control
rhetoric that de Angeli said he was
sending to a gun show in Novi this
weekend. There are the sheets
detailing Paul's platform of not tax-
ing tips for wait staff at restaurants,
which de Angeli said he handed out

at Bennigan's.
There's even a DVD, titled "A
Man for All Seasons," for which
de Angeli designed the sleeve and
other artwork.
By the computer - which is
available to interested newcom-
ers to read up on Paul - de Angeli
keeps a Paul-autographed copy of
the annotated U.S. Constitution as
well as a bound collection of the
Constitution, all amendments and
all case law affecting the Consti-
tution. A map of the state identify-
ing the other Paul support groups
hangs on the wall next to the book.
De Angeli said he is particu-
larly proud of the outfit's online
content, an especially important
medium for Paul, who broke fund-
raising records for a money raised
in a single day through a website
called ThisNovemberlth.com. De
Angeli made his own 13-minute
video about the successful fight to
allow Ron Paul at the Republican
debates in Michigan. He showed
off the video last night, occasion-
ally chiming in with a "Wait until
you see what happens" or a "This
part is great."
If you've exhausted all the online
content and read all the campaign

f you kiss your sweetheart
under the Engin Arch as the
clock strikes midnight, some-
day, you'll marry her.
At least so goes the legend, which
ranks right up there with the curse
of stepping on the "M" and wad-
ing in the fountain near the Diag,
as ideal go-to campus lore for any
orientation leader in a pinch.
It's silly, sure, but skeptics may
want to reconsider their doubts
concerning the Arch's magical
power. Love and marriage on cam-
puses across the countryseemto be
experiencing resurgence.
While 50 years ago statistics
suggested that college women had
more difficulty finding a husband
then their. less-educated peers,
recent studies suggest that mar-
riages between college graduates
are making a comeback.
Institute for Social Research
Prof. Jerald Bachman, a research-
er on the Monitoring the Future
report,whichtracksteens'attitudes
on a variety of subjects, including
substance abuse and marriage, said
that it appears the college-bound
are more inclined toward marriage
than they were 30 years ago.
In recent years, in 2004 and
2005, college-bound high school
seniors were also slightly more
likely to want to get married than
their classmates who don't plan on
going to college, Bachman said.
College-educated women are
now more likely to marry than
their less educated counterparts,
although they typically marry sev-
eral years later than the national
average. And when they do marry,
college graduates are also much
less likely to divorce."
The divorce rate among college
graduates has dropped steeply
since the 1980s. Bachelor's degree
holders are about half as likely
to divorce than couples without
a four-year degree, according to
analysis by Steven Martin, an assis-
tant professor of sociology at the
University of Maryland. -
But all this doesn't mean it's a

good idea to marry your Chem class all of the couples were alumni, the
sweetheart, though. To the con- vast majority were - an estimated
trary, the data suggest that while 90 percent - said Nancy Harper,
you should marry someone who's the special events manager for the
educated, you'll probably want to University's Unions.
wait for quite a while after necking But just looking at the women
in the Engin Arch - if you marry in white who often pose with their
someone you met at Michigan at Michigan men on the steps of the
all. Union makes it seem like marrying
People who marry younger are a fellow Wolverine isn't such a bad
more likely to divorce or feel like idea. But maybe the trick to avoid-
they've missed something than ing becoming a divorce statistic is
just to wait a while - for six years
or so. Or maybe not.
Kinesiology senior Bethany
Together, the Crunk met her husband as a fresh-
man at Northern Michigan Uni-
Union and the versity, while both she and her
husband were working at a conces-
League host 81 sion stand. After getting engaged
during Crunk's sophomore year,
weddings a year. they married last July.
Crunk, who is 23, said getting
married young added responsibili-
ties such as running a household
those who wait longer. So maybe and working extra hours to pay the
orientation leaders should keep all bills, but that wouldn't change any-
that talk about the Engin Arch to thing.
themselves. "However stressful, I wouldn't
have done it any different," Crunk
M ichigan graduates appear said.
to be more likely to marry Ann Pearlman, a marriage and
shortly after school than graduates family counselor in Ann Arbor, said
of some other schools, but not most. that committing to a relationship
Five years after graduation, 31 per- in college or during the early 20s
cent of Michigan alumni had tied could have very positive effects.
the knot at some point, compared to But not always. Couples can
20 percent of Reed College alumni either grow up together or grow
and 23 percent of the University of apart as they mature, Pearlman
Pennsylvania graduates, according said.
to a New York Times poll released Pearlman said that college cou-
in September of 500 members of ples can support, or parent, each
the University's class of 2002. The other by keeping each other on
national average cited in the poll track through school and starting a
was 34 percent. career as they start the final stages
The Alumni Association has of adulthood.
recorded that 28,454 alumni are Couples can also help each other
married to another alum, making stay clear of the "party-hardy" life-
at least 14,227 University-educat- style, she said.
ed couples. And there are prob- On the other hand, couples who
ably even more people who haven't commit to each other in college may
reported their marital statu to the not get a chance to explore other
school. relationships or other people and
This year, 81 weddings were held learn what they are looking for out
in either the Michigan League or of a relationship, Pearlman said.
the Michigan Union and while not She said it makes logistical sense

fliers, you can move on to the wall
of books. With titles like "Hoax"
and "Junk Politics," de Angeli sells
books on a range of issues he said
Paul supporters mightbe interested
in: foreign policy, tax law, the CIA
and a wide array of little-known
political literature.
He said he allows people stop-
pingby the hangout to peruse the
literature and said that some-
times people just come in and
read.
For de Angeli, it's all part of
fighting the Ron Paul fight. He said
it's always a struggle, because Paul
isn't an "establishment" candidate,
and candidates like Rudy Giuliani,
who he said was Paul supporters'
"arch enemy," get the premiere
coverage at debates and other cam-
paign stops.
But on the news feed on his web-
site, de Angeli expressed his opti-
mism about the unlikely candidate
from Texas.
Accompanying a link to a You-
Tubevideo,hismessagereads, "The
tide is definitely turning now!"
- DAVID MEKELBURG
In the garden
The Arb's best loved, least
known art installation
There's a particularly pictur-
esque spot in the Huron River
where it runs through Nichol's
Arboretum. There are a few big
oak trees and a couple benches, but
most remarkable, there's a row of
large rocks that stretches across
the width of the river. It's especially
popular, said Jeff Plakke, a gradu-
ate student and botanical specialist
at the Arb, for wedding photos.
But what the happy couples
probably don't realize as they pose
on the riverbank is that the rocks
aren't the remnant of some kind of
glacial formation - they're there
by design.
A man named Mike Kelly has

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carefully arranged them into two
arches, the same way he has for
more than a decade, into a forma-
tion the Arb staff says he calls "the
heart of Jesus."
While it's safe to say most Arb-
goers don't recognize the arches as
the top of a heart, they'll readily see
the spirituality in what's rumored
to be Kelly's other mark on the Arb
- the word "pray" spray-painted
onto the bridge a little downstream
from the rock formation. The con-
tinually fresh letters suggest he
updates it regularly.
Early in September, I e-mailed
April Pickrel, visitor services and
administration coordinator for
the Arb, about contacting Kelly
(the staff had no contact informa-
tion, and I never actually managed
to find him), she sent me back a
cheery e-mail with a vaguely omi-
nous final paragraph. Despite his
religious and reflective tendencies,
she said, Kelly had a confrontation-
al streak.
"If you have a buddy you can take
with you," she wrote, "that might
be a good idea. I think generally
he's fine, but sometimes he's taken
to shouting at some of our staff."
Jeff Plakke, a graduate student
and botanical specialist at the Arb,
said Kelly has reported drunk stu-
dents in the Arb and has taken to
forcefully stamping out invasive
plants like buckthorn and honey-

suckle.
The Arb has had more than one
report of a tall, bespectacled, wild-
looking old man "gleefully destroy-
ing"foliage,asoneconcernedstudent
wrote in an e-mail to the Arb staff.
He's also shown up unannounced at
the student caretaker's cottage onthe
grounds after hours, said Bob Grese,
director of the Arb and the Matthei
Botanical Gardens. When the stu-
dents asked him to leave, though,
he respectfully complied and didn't
come back to the house.
He's also known to have an
altruistic side - Grese remem-
bered a time when he caught and
rescued a goose that had a poten-
tially deadly ice buildup attached
to the scientific tracking tag
around its neck.
The rocks themselves have prob-
ably widened the river a few feet,
Plakke said, as well as diverted
the courses of fish and insects. But
the Heart of Jesus likely poses the
greatest threat to boaters.
One morning, Arb employees
noticed a kayak overturned on the
rocks. Thinking there might be
someone trapped underneath, they
called DPS, who quickly arrived on
arrived on jet skis.
It turned out that the kayak was
empty and that a kayaker, thwarted
by the rocks, had just given up and
walked away.
- ANNE VANDERMEY

that so many people meet their
lifelong mates during their college
years because students grow inde-
pendent from their first family and
often look for new relationships for
support.
"It's an ideal time to meet some-
body," she said. "We want someone
to cling to. We want someone to
share our lives with."
Pearlman said relationships are
successful when the couple is "in
sync in terms of intimacy," mean-
ing that they agree on the level of
intimacy they are looking for from
the relationship.
But despite the joys of marrying'
young, researchers are positing that
one reasonwhy marriagesbetween
college couples are lasting longer
may be that more and more couples
are waiting longer to get married.
Statistics show that the younger a
couple gets married, up until their
'mid-twenties, the more likely the
marriage is too fail.
In 1970, the average bride was 21.
In 2007, the average bride is 26.
However you do it - if you don't

rush into it, or even if you do, col-
lege will always be one of the best
places to meet the love of your life.
University alum Noah Roth met
his fianc6 Rachel Jacobs in a Psy-
chology 111 class when they were
both freshman in living in Mary
Markley Residence Hall.
Roth said that although he k'new
Jacobs as a freshman, he didn't ask
her out until he ran into her at the
gym during their sophomore year.
The pair, both 26, got engaged
last winter and plan to marry this
September.
Roth, who graduated in 2004,
said that the idea of marriage didn't
come up in while they were still
undergraduates because both were
concerned with applying to gradu-
ate school, wanting to see where.
they were admitted before making
plans for the future.
Roth said having the University
in common gives him and Jacobs
something easy to talk about.
"It's a nice topic of conserva-
tion," he said. "We both remember
our time fondly."


If there is hope, it
lies in the pro/es.
- The unisex bathroom in Rendez Vous Cafe

OFF THE WALL
A sampling of campus graffiti
God was died here
Green is the new black
MY FAVORITE PRIVATE OBSESSION IS
SOCIETY'S WORST PROBLEM.

I SIDEKICKED THE PSYCHIC
SIDEKICK IN PRIVATE IN
THE PRIVATES
LIBERALS LIVE IN A
FANTASY WORLD
But it's really nice here!

- Alley next to the Michigan Theater