Social relations senior Luisa Schumacher left Friday’s speech by Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick at Kellogg Center a changed woman.

“When I graduated, I always said I was going to go to Washington, D.C.,” Schumacher said after the event, sponsored by the James Madison Founders Circle. “But after hearing his speech, I was like ‘shit, I gotta go to Detroit.’”

Schumacher, along with several hundred students, politicians and MSU administrators, listened to the mayor talk about urban issues and how college students are most likely of any group to cause change in society.

“I’m a great admirer of Kwame Kilpatrick,” said Schumacher, who is also an employee of state Sen. Dianne Byrum, D-Onondaga. “Since he started in the House, and I’m studying metropolitan areas like Detroit, everything he said today I took to heart.”

Kilpatrick highlighted how his administration was able to wipe out an inherited $169 million deficit by eliminating departments, fusing several other ones together and expiring the city’s leases on several abandoned properties.

Detroit’s image was also a focus of Kilpatrick’s lecture. He recalled one experience he had while visiting the United Arab Emirates in the Middle East.

“This guy was staring at me,” he said. “So I went over and said, ‘Hi, I’m Kwame Kilpatrick from Detroit, Michigan, U.S.A.,’ and he said ‘Ooh, you’re from a rough neighborhood.’

“Even in the Middle East, that’s how people look at us, and I need the people in this room to help me change the global view of the city.”

Students can help to change others’ mindsets by getting a job and making their voices heard, he said.

“The biggest places you can make differences are in urban centers, like Detroit,” Kilpatrick said. “Young, talented minds can change others’ minds.”

And students hopefully got the message, Byrum said.

“The mayor laid a challenge to them