MSU fraternity brothers stepped outside their comfort zone for a good cause by strapping on high heels Sunday for a walk dedicated to raising awareness about harassment and sexual assault. The “Walk a Mile in Her Shoes” event is a national awareness campaign brought to MSU by the greek community.
Chainsaws, canoes and cleaning crews filled the Red Cedar River Saturday afternoon to clear pathways to maximize the river’s full potential for local residents. For the past 12 years, the Lansing Oar and Paddle Club has organized a team to clear log jams, hanging trees and pollution that often makes the river unusable.
The College of Engineering hosted its annual Spartan Future Engineers Preview Day, a recruitment event for high school juniors, seniors and prospective transfer students, on Saturday. During Preview Day, prospective students experience lab tours and attend two faculty and student-led information sessions about the different academic departments of the college, said Drew Kim, assistant to the dean for recruitment and K-12 outreach.
Offering online courses is relatively new at MSU, and the campus community still is working toward the best solutions for academic problems that can arise, officials said. Online courses generate increased complaints of academic dishonesty that warrant different kinds of investigation and communication, University Ombudsperson Robert Caldwell told the Steering Committee earlier this week.
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to live in your own personal aquarium? Welcome to the life of fisheries and wildlife junior Heather Burke. She has a concentration in fisheries biology, and it shows. Burke comes home everyday to more than 40 fish tanks that are tucked away into every free corner of the small house she shares with her younger sister.
Starting this year, MSU hockey fans will be able to see games with more clarity, Munn Ice Arena will be more sustainable thanks to new LED lights. Deputy Athletic Director Greg Ianni said the idea of LED lighting came when installing a new ice-making system.
In an effort to bring together MSU’s student community to address problems often associated with African-American heritage, MSU’s Alpha Phi Alpha designed a full eduactional week informing students on various issues. Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity created a week of events, with a theme of “We the People.” With only 16 active undergraduate members, Keyon Clinton, chapter president and electrical engineering senior, said the events were focused on redefining themselves in the African-American community, with programs explaining African-American worth in the U.S. and establishing an agenda to become a proactive race.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
October is Campus Sustainability Month, and to celebrate, the Office of Campus Sustainability is planning a number of outreach activities. Activities include walking tours of the campus, student organic farm and Bailey GREENhouse, composting presentations, an open house at the MSU Recycling Center and craft workshops featuring recycled material from the MSU Surplus Store.
The mystery behind the “WTF MSU” campaign” that has been puzzling students for the past week was solved Friday after ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, announced its involvement after allegations of vandalism on campus.
Winning an in-house glass design competition has helped some MSU packaging students make industry connections and get a head start on their careers. The winning group of four MSU students beat out 70 other designs in a glass bottle design competition sponsored by the Glass Packaging Institute. Their design is a clear, 750 ml glass bottle with a pentagon body and a star-shaped shoulder that carries up around the bottle neck.
“Keep squinting.” This was the motto of the late professor William Beal, who created the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden in 1873 as a way to get his students out of the lecture hall and into the natural world. “To him, the garden was a living laboratory,” garden curator and plant biology professor Frank Telewski said. “He wanted his students to be keen observers of their environment. He’d say, ‘Tell me what you see,’ over and over, and as the students gave answers, he kept pushing them. He just told them to keep squinting.” The Beal Garden turned 140 this year, and the garden’s history was honored Saturday with a small anniversary celebration featuring guided tours and cider and doughnuts.
ASMSU revealed today that they are the ones behind the anonymous “WTF MSU” campaign, which has been intriguing students across campus for the past week.
MSU’s College of Human Medicine has launched the Rural Community Health Program, a new program to draw more aspiring doctors to rural communities. MSU is partnering with Charlevoix Area Hospital, McLaren Northern Michigan in Petoskey and the Alpena Regional Medical Center.