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MSU

WEB EXTRA: Totally Takeout, disturbances among issues discussed at RHA meeting

Fredricka Paul
February 3, 2006

The April 2-3 disturbances and the security system in Emmons Hall were among the topics university officials discussed with members of the Residence Halls Association, or RHA, on Wednesday. Lee June, vice president of Student Affairs and Services, said MSU police are willing to meet jointly with RHA to address any of the members' questions and concerns about possible future disturbances, in efforts to correct and prevent any incidents similar to the ones in 2005. He said in the future, if action needs to be taken, police need to announce their intentions more times and louder on speakers. In the event of future disturbances, "I am sure you as students will do the positive things you did last year," June said.

MSU

New Web site lets viewers rate game-day ads

Kristen Daum
February 2, 2006

For the past nine years, Robert Kolt has hosted a Super Bowl party in his Haslett home. But it's only when the advertisements appear that the TV volume increases and conversations go quiet, with eyes intently focused on the screen. Kolt, an MSU instructor, and about 15 other faculty members in the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing gather not to watch the game — but to grade the Super Bowl advertisements, which usually earns them national recognition in the media. "I think we were the first ones to do it, and we continue to do it," Kolt said. "The professors at Michigan State are pretty good, tough critics." But during this Sunday's game, MSU's professors won't be the only ones judging. Now advertising professionals, university professors and students worldwide can rate the advertisements themselves through an interactive Web site called MSU Ad Pulse. Richard Cole, executive vice president and chief administrative officer with the Detroit Medical Center, came up with the idea for the Web site as a way to extend the rating of the advertisements to a broader base of people. "It's just like anything — you don't know exactly what the outcome will be, but many more ideas will keep flowing," he said. Cole takes office at MSU on March 1 as the new chairman for the Department of Advertising, Public Relations and Retailing. The site — a project between MSU and Collaboration LLC, a marketing firm based in Pleasant Ridge, Mich.

MSU

Delectable design

Angela Bianchi
February 2, 2006

Ice cream, chocolate and Spartan spirit sound more like football game fun than an engineering project. But biosystems engineering seniors Matthew Kloes, Kim Lewis, Marc Sawyers and Shelley Vecchio have found a way to incorporate flavor and fun into their senior design project, while still focusing on developing skills necessary for future careers. The four students are working to produce chocolate-covered ice cream bars formed into a Spartan block "S" shape. "It's a pretty interesting project," Kloes said.

MSU

Study: Half of college grads can't balance checkbooks, read newspaper

Kristen Daum
February 2, 2006

More than half the students who graduate from four-year universities lack the skills to be considered proficient in literacy, according to a recent study from a national institute. The survey, released last month by the American Institutes for Research — a Washington, D.C.-based social science research organization — tested the literacy of 1,827 students graduating from 80 randomly selected two- and four-year universities. It covered three core areas — prose literacy, document literacy and quantitative literacy — and found that many students could not do basic tasks such as figuring out the cost-per-ounce of various food products in supermarkets. "I would never have expected that because I'm getting a good education here," said MSU psychology sophomore Julia Degreg.

MSU

Awards recognize grad students, late MSU prof

Josh Jarman
February 1, 2006

Three students from separate universities each were announced winners of $10,000 fellowships Tuesday at Kellogg Center. The students were honored with the TIAA-CREF Ruth Simms Hamilton Research Fellowship, which was established through a $500,000 endowment by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, or TIAA-CREF, an insurance and retirement savings provider for workers in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields. Hamilton, who died in 2003, was an MSU professor of social science and a pioneer in the field of African Diaspora, a study of the displacement and migration of African people across the globe. Hamilton's son, Bramlett Hamilton, was charged with her murder, but was found not guilty by reason of insanity.

MSU

Innovations: Stellar searching

Kristen Daum
February 1, 2006

Name: Professor Stephen Zepf Department: Physics and Astronomy Type of research: How galaxies are formed Date of research: Zepf has been studying the origin of galaxies for about 20 years, but his current projects using the Southern Astrophysical Research, or SOAR, Telescope began about a year ago. Basics of the project: "We look at star clusters and galaxies to learn about how the whole galaxy formed," Zepf said. Zepf looks at the different wavelengths of the light emitted from star clusters. In this way, he can determine how old the clusters are and what elements are included in their compositions, which helps him determine the galaxy's age. Using Internet connections and computer programming, Zepf is able to study images of the galaxies from the Hubble Space Telescope and the SOAR Telescope. The SOAR Telescope — located at an altitude of 9,000 feet on a mountain in Chile — is an MSU project in conjunction with The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory and Brazil. Two postdoctoral fellows, one graduate student and one undergraduate student assist Zepf in his research. Social impact of research: "It answers the basic questions of the universe on a big scale," Zepf said. Grants and funding: The National Science Foundation and NASA fund the project, which costs several thousand dollars per year.

MSU

A growing game

Laura Leebove
January 31, 2006

Kevin Corrigan looked up and smiled after an hour of the Hospitality Association's Vegas Night Texas Hold'em tournament on Saturday night.

MSU

Fellowship honors slain MSU professor

Josh Jarman
January 31, 2006

The first winners of a $10,000 research fellowship will be announced at noon today in the Kellogg Center's Big Ten room. The TIAA-CREF Ruth Simms Hamilton Research Fellowship was established through an endowment by the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association-College Retirement Equities Fund, or TIAA-CREF, an insurance and retirement savings provider for workers in the academic, medical, cultural and research fields. An expert in the field of African diaspora, Hamilton was a distinguished MSU professor of social science and a TIAA-CREF board member who died in 2003.

MSU

ASMSU to put out student survey about IM addition

Kristi Jourdan
January 31, 2006

Student government officials are taking initial steps toward creating a survey to determine student demand for additional student recreational space on campus. ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, allocated $7,000 earlier this month to fund a survey of student opinions on the project, which calls for the construction of a combined IM facility and student events center.

MSU

Online forensic course appeals to professionals

Kristen Daum
January 30, 2006

Chris Osborne jumped at the chance to enroll in MSU's new seven-week online course in forensic entomology when she first heard about it. "It is one of the bigger and more important pieces of the pie in forensic science," said Osborne, a lifelong education student who has studied forensic science for 11 years. The three-credit online course, which is new this semester, is titled "Forensic Entomology: The Role of Insects in Crime Scene Investigations." The course focuses on a specific branch of forensic entomology known as medico-legal entomology, in which insect growth can help estimate the time of a person's death, said Richard Merritt, chairperson for the Department of Entomology and teacher of the online course. Although Merritt has a similar course on campus in the fall semester, he said he created the online class so that a wider range of people could have access to the information. Forensic entomology is the study of how insects are used in the legal system. "It's become a lot more important in crime scene investigation in the last 10 to 15 years," Merritt said. "People are very interested in insects, and how they can be used in this way is fascinating." After a person dies, insects will colonize the body within minutes to hours after death.

MSU

Remembering the past

Abraham Pasternak, of Southfield, lost his father, mother and brother upon their arrival at the Nazi concentration camp Auschwitz-Birkenau in Poland. West Bloomfield resident George Vine was taken to a concentration camp at 13 years old. Edith Berman, a Troy resident, would be dead today if the gas chamber she was taken into did not malfunction. In honor of the first International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust, the three Holocaust survivors lit candles Friday at the Holocaust Memorial Center in Farmington Hills. The United Nations General Assembly marked Jan.