A 19-year-old MSU student was charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct on Friday. Mark Miller faces 15 years in prison if convicted of third-degree criminal sexual conduct, which involves penetration with force or coercion. He is scheduled for a preliminary exam on March 31 at East Lansing's 54-B District Court.
For Crystal Recollet, powwows are a family affair. The 24-year-old said she's danced in powwows for as long as she can remember, but this is her first year at MSU's Pow-Wow of Love. Recollet crafted a yellow-beaded headband for her friend's son as she explained her family's involvement with powwows. "My sister's here, my cousin's here, my nephew's here," she said.
By Toshira Johnson For The State News A hushed "awww" escaped the lips of the crowd as nearly a dozen dancers, ranging in age from 9 to 60, took the stage, the subtle tapping of their handcrafted white-leather metallic boots filling the Auditorium. Claps of approval rang throughout the Auditorium as they performed the quick steps and fancy footwork of a traditional dance of Guerrero, Mexico.
After more than 25 years in prison, including time spent with Nelson Mandela, Ahmed Kathrada emerged to become a beloved political figure in post-apartheid South Africa. On Sunday, he came to MSU to talk about his experiences as a political prisoner and to sign copies of his latest book, "Memoirs." His first work, "Letters from Robben Island," was published by MSU Press in 1999. Speaking about the almost total isolation in which the prisoners were kept, Kathrada shared the story of the night he and his fellow prisoners were informed of their imminent release in October 1989. "That Saturday night, they came to our cell and said they had just received a fax from prison headquarters saying we were going to go free," Kathrada said.
The Big Easy needs your help. I didn't know to what extent that was true until I went down to New Orleans and saw it for myself. MSU's Alternative Spring Break sent 23 people there, including myself, to gut three houses severely damaged by Hurricane Katrina. When the storm hit last August, homes were flooded, destroyed and washed away.
A new academic center on campus is a place for students in four different medical disciplines to practice the same basic clinical abilities — from communicating with a patient to gathering data and documenting their experiences. The Learning and Assessment Center, a collaborative project of the colleges of Veterinary Medicine, Human Medicine, Nursing and Osteopathic Medicine, opened for business Thursday in Fee Hall. The new center offers a number of practice rooms loaded with equipment to allow students to practice the skills they will use in their future medical careers. Some labs, such as the simulation laboratory, have an array of "partial task trainers," or plastic models of body parts where students can practice inserting IVs, performing spinal taps and administering injections to joints. The "Sim Man" room is completely outfitted like a modern emergency room, which features a lifelike, computer-controlled mannequin that can be programmed to simulate a variety of symptoms and conditions, including a full heart attack. The center's director, Ruth Hoppe, said another important aspect of the center is its evaluation function. "It allows us to assess whether our students are ready to go into a real patient setting," Hoppe said. "This makes us more accountable to the community as well, because we know our students are not only knowledgeable, but able to perform the necessary tasks." College of Human Medicine Dean Marsha Rappley said the partnership between the four schools is a unique one in the nation. "It allows for an interdisciplinary team-learning model that is so critical in health care," Rappley said. "This is a critical resource for our students who will apply this knowledge soon in practice." Nursing junior Markia Jones was on hand for the grand opening to help demonstrate some of the training simulations that will take place in the center. She said the opportunity to practice in the lab environment was good because of how nervous most students feel when they go into the real world of hospital work. "It's great because you're more familiar with the skill that you get checked off in the lab," Jones said.
A grand opening ceremony and tour of MSU's new Learning and Assessment Center will begin at 3 p.m.
An informational session about the renovation of Snyder and Phillips halls will be held at 4:30 p.m.
College officials across the country have some stern advice for high school students preparing to enter the world of higher education — take college prep classes. A survey released by The Chronicle of Higher Education last week reveals that significantly more university professors think incoming freshmen are unprepared for college level course work than their high school teachers. According to the report, 84 percent of college instructors surveyed said incoming students did not have the study skills needed to be successful in college upon entrance.
Students who volunteer time for community projects could soon turn their hours into free tickets for a concert. Student government officials discovered The 10,000 Hours Show, a concert celebrating students who volunteer at least 10 hours per year, and are working to bring the project to East Lansing. ASMSU officials attended a conference in Iowa, which is where the show originated in 2002.
A Columbia University senior associate is joining the Jewish Studies Program next fall as the program's first Michael and Elaine Serling and Friends Israel Studies Chair. Yael Aronoff will serve as an assistant professor in James Madison College when she begins her appointment Aug.
Five task forces charged with improving faculty input in university decisions updated members of Faculty Council on their progress Tuesday, in preparation for the council's final vote on some of the recommendations next month. The committees, called the Faculty Voice Task Forces, started looking this semester at five issues — restructuring the Academic Governance system, reviewing administrators, reviewing academic programs, defining the role of fixed-term faculty and improving communication within the system. The task forces were formed after the Faculty Voice report was released last year, which was written after some faculty members felt left out of important university decisions.
Students returning from spring break this week were welcomed back with warm temperatures and muddy, flooded sidewalks.
In October 2007, the Educational Testing Service will launch the new Graduate Record Examinations to better prepare the 500,000 students around the world who take the test annually for graduate school. Students preparing for the exam, commonly known as the GRE, can expect it to be longer and more expensive and include updated content involving critical analysis, real-life scenarios and data interpretation. Changes to the GRE, which is mandatory for entry into several graduate studies programs, were expected to go into effect in October but were pushed back to accommodate an adjustment to a new Internet-based English as a foreign language test. For many, the change simply means students will have more time to take the old version — something some experts say is an advantage. The content of the three standard GRE sections — verbal reasoning, quantitative reasoning and analytical writing — will be revised to better focus on skills necessary for success in graduate school, said Dawn Piacentino, associate director in client relations of the higher education division for the Educational Testing Service. "We are looking forward (to the changes), and the board of graduate deans from around the country are as well," Piacentino said.
Got a question? Residence Halls Association officials believe they have the answer. The Residence Halls Association, or RHA, has created an e-mail system called Helpdesk for students to send in questions, comments and concerns about living at MSU. Kathryn Cross, a premedical and business freshman, is the RHA official who answers all of the e-mails and said she has received about 75 e-mails since the system was created at the beginning of the semester.
Ingham County prosecutors signed a warrant Monday for the arrest of a 19-year-old MSU student accused of sexually assaulting another 19-year-old MSU student, MSU police Sgt.
Lyman Briggs Freshman Class Council is accepting new or used children's books to donate to Riddle Elementary in Lansing. "Since this our first fundraiser, we don't have a set goal," Vice President Jeremy Phan said.
By Tevye Sussman For The State News It's nearly noon on Saturday and two volunteers are feverishly putting the final touches on a potluck table.
It's hard to get a tan in environmental suits and dust masks, but the MSU students who headed to the Gulf Coast for spring break last week didn't seem to mind. The students did community service work in storm-ravaged New Orleans as part of an alternative spring break program.
MSU will add the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization to its credits after a ceremony in late May. The award is being presented to the university by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a global organization that promotes international education and cultural exchange. The association picked MSU for the award, as well as four other universities, to honor MSU's commitment to increasing international education both on campus and abroad. MSU has about 200 study abroad programs in 60 countries, according to the Office of Study Abroad. The award will be presented to the university during a conference scheduled for May 21-26 in Montreal. The university also will be featured in a report, "Internationalizing the Campus 2006: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities," to be published on the Web site www.nafsa.org.