By Derek Blalock
Last updated: 11/12/12 11:04pm
Broad Museum By The Numbers
6,000 – On opening weekend of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, nearly 6,000 people visited the newest addition to the MSU campus, Museum Director Michael Rush said. This is about 4,000 more than the amount expected to attend.
$40 million – The total amount fundraised by the university for the museum. Donors included the museum’s namesakes Eli and Edythe Broad among other MSU alumni.
7,500 – The number of objects in the museum’s collection that will be displayed throughout time. The museum features three main opening exhibits, “In Search of Time”, “Global Groove 1973/2012” and “Fritz Haeg: Domestic Integrities”.
1,992 – The number of days since the initial $26 million donation in June 2007 by the Broads.
46,000 – The total square footage of the Broad Art Museum.
2 – The Broad Art Museum is only the second building that award-winning architect Zaha Hadid has designed in the United States. In 2004, Hadid won the most coveted architecture award, the Pritzker Architecture Prize and designed the Bridge Pavilion in Spain.
By Derek Blalock
Last updated: 11/04/12 9:19pm
Starting today the Canadian National Railway will close Bogue Street between Service Road and Lot 54 to repair the railroad crossing, according to a release from the MSU Physical Plant.
The crossing will be closed until Nov. 16. However, motorists will be able to gain access to Lots 27 and 54 off of Wilson Road.
East Circle Drive also is closed today and will reopen Nov. 12 because of the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum dedication taking place on Nov. 10-11.
This will cause a detour for CATA routes 31 and 33. According to a press release, the buses will use regular routing and serve the Snyder-Phillip Halls stop but then turn left onto Auditorium Road and will continue past Farm Lane. The buses will continue north on Auditorium Road to West Circle Drive to the Union and resume regular routing.
By Isabella Shaya
Last updated: 10/23/12 9:51am
MSU’s Dubai campus was the first U.S. university to create a branch in the United Arab Emirates, but MSU is not the only university to venture out of the country.
Other universities also have spread their academics and programs to the Middle East.
Cornell University also established a medical school in Qatar, a neighboring country to the United Arab Emirates, according to Cornell University in Qatar’s website.
By Derek Blalock
Last updated: 10/21/12 8:46pm
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum will receive even further donations from Eli and Edythe Broad.
The Broads, who donated about $28 million toward the museum that is estimated to cost between $40 million to $45 million, recently donated 18 works of art to be added to the museum.
The 18 pieces will be added to a collection of about 7,500 objects.
The collection includes pieces from artists Donald Baechler, Ross Bleckner, Sue Williams and Terry Winters.
The museum will open Nov. 10 after being delayed nearly six months because some of its glass panels did not fit properly.
The museum project got underway in 2007 when the Broads announced a $28 million donation. Construction began in spring 2010.
By Derek Blalock
Last updated: 09/26/12 9:47pm
There are many responsibilities as the president of a Big Ten university.
The State News took a look at MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon’s contract to determine exactly what her duties and perks entail.
Her duties include, “institutional, faculty, and educational leadership and management,” and “fundraising, development and alumni and public relations.”
She also is responsible for the university’s budget, and development of regulations, rules and procedures.
As part of her contract, Simon receives many perks.
She receives a car with a driver for university duties, and she also receives a car, “subject to the usual university procedures and practices for the insurance, maintenance, repair, and fueling of the automobile.”
The contract also states the president will be reimbursed by the university for any reasonable expenses, including a membership in a country club and memberships in service and professional organizations.
Simon also receives lifetime health care benefits for her and her husband.
Other benefits include two complimentary parking passes, home football game tickets, home women’s basketball game tickets and volleyball game tickets.
She also has the option to purchase up to four season tickets for men’s basketball. The president also receives tickets for bowl games and post-season football, men’s and women’s basketball, and ice hockey, and tickets for performances on campus.
After her time as president, Simon can decide to return to the faculty, and take a paid year off to conduct research and adjust to teaching demands.
As a faculty member, Simon would make an amount equal to 75 percent of her salary as president, which is $520,000.
By Isabella Shaya
Last updated: 09/18/12 11:25pm
The University Council’s meeting Tuesday discussed MSU’s new online learning management system, Desire2Learn, and the progress of its implementation.
Associate professor of accounting and information systems and faculty adviser for instructional technology support Severin Grabski showed a powerpoint about Desire2Learn, or D2L, to the council members, highlighting important dates and information about the system.
D2L will be available for spring 2013 semester courses, and faculty can test the system starting late October, Grabski said.
Grabski said when deciding between D2L and Blackboard, D2L had a 2-1 faculty preference and two important advantages — usability and the gradebook feature.
Grabski said ANGEL will be available until the end of the spring 2015 semester, giving time for faculty to make the switch.
“We cannot continue to run multiple systems indefinitely,” Grabski said.
Also at the meeting, Provost Kim A. Wilcox mentioned the high number of freshman, a topic he said appears in many news headlines.
Wilcox said MSU has a sophisticated system for predicting the number of students who will attend MSU if given an acceptance letter, but this year the estimates were off. He said MSU accepts more students than expected to show up because many students apply to multiple schools.
“I’m pleased to report that in nearly every category, (Michigan residents, out-of-state students, international students) more students chose to attend (MSU) than we would have predicted — that says a lot about what we have done at MSU,” Wilcox said.
By Isabella Shaya
Last updated: 09/13/12 7:58pm
Provost Kim A. Wilcox sent out a message to be received by all faculty and staff regarding the use of university resources to advocate for political matters.
“As the November election draws near, it is important to remind faculty and staff that the use of University resources is subject to legal constraints that restrict their use in partisan political activities involving campaigns for public offices and ballot measures,” according to the message.
According to the Policy on Use of University Facilities for Political Activities, “the University must take extreme care to avoid political favoritism and improper partisan activity.”
MSU’s facilities can be used for conferences sponsored by a political party, rallies or meetings for political candidates, county, state or national committee meetings of a political party, and voter registration and polling places.
By Derek Blalock
Last updated: 09/13/12 7:55pm
As more about the cheating scandal at Harvard University is being revealed some already are calling it the largest scandal in the prestigious school’s history.
In August, Harvard’s student newspaper, The Harvard Crimson, reported about 125 students were under investigation for allegedly cheating on a take-home final exam in a government course last spring.
The 125 students are said to have collaborated on the course’s take-home final — which is against the course’s guidelines.
Yesterday, Sports Illustrated reported several of the students who are under investigation were athletes, and two members of the basketball team already have withdrawn from school instead of risking their eligibility. Members of the baseball and football teams are also suspected of being involved in the scandal.
The university said that it will decide the punishments on a case by case basis.
By Rebecca Ryan
Last updated: 08/02/12 4:50pm
Just when I thought Arnold Schwarzenegger had done it all, he surprised me again by announcing today that he will become a professor and establish the USC Schwarzenegger Institute for State and Global Policy, a university named after him, the Chronicle of Higher Education reported.
The actor and former governor of California said he plans to lecture internationally, not just at his university’s campus, which will be located in California.
He also told the Chronicle he is excited to share knowledge he acquired as the governor of California to help people become successful, whether that be in the realm of training, dieting or policy.
An example he gave was when he used to meet with body builders — some of the top in the world — and debate topics such as where sports should go or what judging decisions should be made.
“I always like to go and take what I know and run with it,” Schwarzenegger said.
By Rebecca Ryan
Last updated: 07/29/12 8:32pm
In a world becoming increasingly reliant on technology, it doesn’t come as a surprise that college campuses are following suit. But a new study from Pew Research Center and Elon University predicts that web-based learning will become more of the norm, as focus shifts away from in-person lectures by 2020.
In the survey, about 1,021 people, or about 60 percent of the people surveyed, said they supported the statement that technology will have a major influence on education, predicting more online classes and graduation requirements focused increasingly on individual learning.
Only 39 percent of respondents said institutions will use more technology without changing educational templates.
At MSU, I’ve noticed more focus on using technology more in the classroom as well. Even some professors who teach classes in person and have lectures still have supplemental readings and activities on websites such as Angel.
With MSU looking for a replacement to Angel, I wonder how the university’s educational paradigms will be affected, if at all, by the new website. It seems natural that overall, universities would use more technology, but it will be interesting to see if MSU ends up fulfilling the predictions of the survey by 2020.
