MSU students are imploring Kellogg’s food company to stop doing business with Wilmar International, a palm oil supplier destroying rainforests and threatening the endangered Sumatran tiger. Student volunteers spent hours Wednesday on Grand River Avenue sidewalk outside Espresso Royale recruiting passersby to call Kellogg’s and make their voices heard.
The university is working on brining free wireless service into residence halls for students, starting with Wilson Hall this fall. During Wednesday’s Residence Halls Association, or RHA, meeting Ray Gasser, senior associate director for the Residence Education and Housing Services, or REHS, said the organization is working on educating residents of Wilson Hall not to use routers in their rooms since the additional routers distort the connection.
Students will have another option when it comes to mobile device repairs with Genius Phone Repair creating a new home on Grand River Avenue. The new business, which originated in Grand Rapids, deals with solving physical and hardware malfunctions and provides more options for student who have encountered phone troubles. Genius Phone Repair conducts mostly physical damage such as replacing cracked screens, button repairs, headset jacks, charger outlets and internal hardware and water damage. It is independent from all other carriers, such as Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile and Sprint, though they work closely with one another, making the business unique from other options in the area.
Ben Eysselinck has been many places in his life, but he said as soon as he entered East Lansing’s Glencairn neighborhood eight years ago, he was “instantly in love.” Now, he wants to make his mark on the city by running for one of the four-year term East Lansing City Council seats that will be vacated by incumbents Vic Loomis and Kevin Beard after the Nov. 5 election.
ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, approved a bill last week allowing the allocation of $52,800 to fund a bike share pilot program on campus, providing students and faculty members initially with 40 bikes to rent throughout the school year. The program would allow students to rent from stations across campus, mostly located in front of residence halls.
A new smartphone application will attempt to cut down on drunk driving by having MSU students get rides from an unlikely resource — their fellow students. Sobrio, which will begin offering regular rides this weekend, connects riders to drivers through the app’s interface.
MSU won’t be immediately impacted by the federal government shutdown that occurred when Congress failed to reach consensus on a national budget Monday night — at least not in any dramatic ways.
A series of offensive text messages exchanged between Okemos resident Connor McCowan and MSU stabbing victim Andrew Singler kicked off McCowan’s murder trial Tuesday morning. “I have no problem finding you just to whoop your ass,” Ingham County Assistant Prosecutor John Dewane read, quoting a text McCowan sent to Singler the evening of Feb. 23. “Then you wouldn’t have a problem if I showed up at your apartment then, huh?”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Mark Schauer made clear his intentions to improve the budget situation for both primary and higher education and discussed his campaign strategies for the upcoming 2014 race in a Tuesday press conference. Schauer, who visited Riddle Elementary School in Lansing to celebrate an endorsement from the Michigan Education Association, is the Democratic challenger to incumbent Republican Gov. Rick Snyder. The MSU alumnus previously served in the Michigan House and Senate and was elected to one term in the U.S. House of Representatives before losing his seat in 2010.
Most freshmen are required to live on campus by the university, but there are exceptions to students who live with their parents nearby. Although this alternative often is less expensive, a study show there can be negative side effects. A study published by recent MSU graduates under professor Matthew Wawrzynsk show first-year commuter students are less likely to feel a sense of belonging in the MSU community.
City officials agreed on a final payment plan for the reconstruction of Ann Street Plaza Tuesday, officially settling a payment dispute between the city and developer Kris Elliott. During Tuesday’s East Lansing City Council meeting, council members approved a settlement plan by a 4-1 vote that outlines a reimbursement schedule for the $420,000 reconstruction project.
MSU’s Office for International Students and Scholars, or OISS, will be providing international students the chance to experience some of the nation’s most popular cities, including Chicago this Saturday. For years, OISS has planned field trips targeted at the MSU international student population and visiting scholars who are here on temporary visas to help them see as much of American culture as possible.
The committee formed in response to professor William Penn’s alleged anti-Republican rant is coming together and forming goals, with the members named at the monthly Steering Committee meeting Tuesday. The Committee on Social Media, Pedagogy and Academic Rights and Responsibilities is chaired by communication professor William Donohue, who also is chair of the University Committee on Faculty Affairs.
Potential discrepancies in the testimony of the former roommate of stabbing victim Andrew Singler were addressed Tuesday afternoon during the trial of Singler’s alleged murderer, Connor McCowan.
A former roommate of MSU student Andrew Singler testified in the trial of alleged killer Connor McCowan Tuesday morning, giving his account of what happened the night Singler died.
MSU’s faculty salary and compensation numbers are lacking compared to its peers, raising questions about the university’s ability to recruit and retain talented faculty.
On Monday at midnight, officials were set to unveil the federal health insurance marketplace portion of the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, despite threats of a federal government shutdown that loomed throughout the week. Roughly 95 percent of MSU students report they already have health insurance, likely because of the ACA provision allowing them to stay on their parents’ plan until age 26, said Kathi Braunlich, communications manager for MSU Student Health Services.
Witnesses are set to begin their testimonies Tuesday morning in the trial of Okemos resident Connor McCowan, who is accused of fatally stabbing MSU student Andrew Singler earlier this year. Jury selection concluded late Monday afternoon for the trial, which Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Clinton Canady III said could last up to two weeks.
University officials are looking to make free Wi-Fi available to students in residence halls in the coming years, with residents of Wilson Hall already experiencing the new perk this year.
The East Lansing City Council will have new faces come the Nov. 5 election, and MSU alumna Ruth Beier thinks her economics background and financial know-how make her a good fit for the job. Beier, an economist for the Michigan Education Association and member of the city’s Downtown Development Authority, is running for one of two available four-year city council terms soon to be vacated by incumbents Kevin Beard and Vic Loomis. Beier sat down with The State News and answered questions about her candidacy.