“The (MRULE/ICA) fusion has helped us develop a rhythm of intercultural engagement that provides consistently more engaged learning opportunities throughout the neighborhoods,” MRULE director Jeanne Gazel said.

Gazel said she and Associate Director of the Office of Cultural and Academic Transitions and Director of ICA, Maggie Chen-Hernandez, decided to fuse the two organizations during the 2013-14 school year, when they looked at how parallel their work had become.

Gazel said the fusion coincided with the opening of MOSAIC, MSU’s cultural center, directed by Chen-Hernandez.

"We had started working together on various projects and each year we would try to deepen that collaboration," Chen-Hernandez said.

Chen-Hernandez said a step towards the fusion was made when she decided Intercultural Aides should be attending MRULE Round Tables. Gazel said that the aides make contact with around 1400 students a week, 200 or more during or related to Round Tables.

“We are still transitioning the fusion and its official status is still a work in progress,” Gazel said.

MRULE’s Round Tables and ICA’s Focused Outreach initiatives fall under the ELO label, as well as Civic, Social, and Cultural activities (C.S.C), Training and Education Engaged Learning Opportunities (TEELO), and collaborations with the neighborhoods.

“Civic Engagement is connecting with our local Lansing community partners: Village Summit Community Center and the Allen Neighborhood Center,” Gazel said. “We participate once a week in service projects: community gardens, cleaning, organizing, and mentoring local youth.”

Gazel said social activities can be any gathering designed to bring people together through non language-dependent recreation, such as game nights, dancing, music and sports.

“Cultural (activities are) supporting the many cultural events on campus by accompanying residents and having subsequent meaningful conversations about them,” Gazel said. “It can also mean implementing a social (activity) with cultural elements, like ‘cultural dance night’.

TEELO serves as an educational review session for student employees and intercultural aides. Gazel said it's a place for critical reflection of previous ELOs, and is the foundation of the ICAs' learning.

"It’s where we examine our strengths and areas where we need to stretch," Gazel said.

"We follow this reflection with further opportunity to study a relevant social justice topic to deepen depth and (breadth) of understanding for engaging in socio-cultural conversations."

Gazel said the ICA program has helped MRULE collaborate more closely with Residential Education and Housing Services, and has expanded collaborations with the neighborhoods. Chen-Hernandez said MRULE has helped ICA enhance the work they do at an interpersonal level with other students.

“(Our goal is to) holistically serve academic and social success for all students,” Chen-Hernandez said. “We are very interested in advancing a culture of learning.”

Chen-Hernandez said students have a responsibility once they leave MSU.

“We’re all trying to get on the same page in terms of (preparing) students, everyone who walks through this door, to be the best they can be,” Gazel said. “To really be able to actualize the “'Spartans Will.'”

Mark Hart, a human development and family studies senior, had been hearing about MRULE’s Round Table Discussions for years from his friends, and despite having lived in Holden Hall two years in a row, never came to one of the meetings until this year. He now attends the events weekly.

“My friends have been telling me about this for a few years now, sadly I lived here two years in a row and never came to one of these meetings. Came here for the first time the first week they opened it up, and I’ve been coming to it ever since,” Hart said. 

Hart says he thinks MRULE has a very positive effect on the community.

“If you haven’t come to (a Round Table Discussion) yet, you guys need to come," Hart said. 

"It’s a great experience, the people here are great, they have a lot of compassion for others, there are a lot of new things here. Don’t be stupid like me and (not) come here until your last year.”

Weekly MRULE Round Table Discussion times and locations and Intercultural Aide applications can be found on the MRULE/ICA website.