Looking back of the week of January 15 - 21
Campus
The Supply Chain Management Association Career Fair and the MSU Diversity Career Fair brought more than 200 companies to campus this week, giving students the opportunity to network and broach internship and job opportunities.
Students and employers alike expressed the benefits career fairs provide in today’s world.
ASMSU’s Academic Assembly voted to approve a bill to amend the ASMSU constitution which would merge the Academic Assembly and ASMSU’s Student Assembly into one General Assembly.
ASMSU is MSU’s undergraduate student government.
With a total of 21 representatives present, 15 representatives voted for, five voted against and one abstained from voting for the bill Tuesday night.
The vote follows a previous vote by the Student Assembly on Thursday, which voted almost unanimously, with one abstaining, to amend the constitution. With both assemblies approving the change, the vote now will be put to the student body at a date to be determined.
The Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, passed a resolution Wednesday to establish a child care endowment fund for MSU graduate students.
Initially, COGS is providing $20,000 to start the endowment started and provide immediate assistance to students. During a five-year period, COGS would continue to provide $2,000 a year.
Ultimately, the investment equals the $30,000 required by the university to create an endowment,COGS President Stefan Fletcher said.
“The endowment will be through the university — through the financial aid office,” he said. “We’re hoping to start granting money if not this semester, then the next.”
City
Gov. Rick Snyder gave his first State of the State address. Wednesday.
The governor’s first speech to the Michigan Legislature focused heavily on the economy and the need to create jobs in a state wracked by despair throughout the past decade.
Snyder indicated he views higher education as part of the success of the state; economic prosperity, he said, will create an atmosphere more conducive to creating jobs for graduates and keeping young people in the state.
“Too many young people (are) leaving school without the education they need to succeed in the future,” Snyder said. “Too many people unemployed, underemployed, have been forced to leave the state — particularly our young people.”
The East Lansing Police Department, or the ELPD, received a grant from the Department of Homeland Security for $194,000. With the proper funding, the ELPD plans to buy a thermal imager, among other things.
A thermal imager is a handheld device which can detect heat waves given off by human and animal bodies, as well as lights and other objects.
Students and city officials have mixed feelings about the use of the funding.
New restrictions on the use of cash benefits for Bridge Card users might come into effect if a bill filed Tuesday in the state House becomes law.
The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Mark Meadows, D-East Lansing, would bar recipients of cash benefits from using the money to gamble or purchase alcohol and tobacco products.
Meadows argues the bill simply is common sense and said Bridge Card users should be buying the necessities, not using benefits from the state for such products.