ASMSU's Academic and Student assemblies will discuss amending the student government's constitution at the only joint assembly meeting of the year at 6:30 p.m.
The MSU Board of Trustees' Feb. 11 meeting has been rescheduled a day earlier to accommodate Founders' Day activities. The meeting will begin with finance and policy committee meetings at 2 p.m.
Some new changes hit the Residence Halls Association's movie rental offices during winter break - a new late fee policy, renovated offices and different store locations. There are movie rental locations in five dorms on campus - Holden, Akers, Brody, Mason and Gilchrist halls. Previously, students were charged $2 for each day a movie rental was late, and the fine kept escalating until it was paid, even if the movie was returned.
Although there's still snow on the ground and a chill in the air, members of the Hillel Jewish Student Center celebrated the coming of spring on Tuesday by eating several types of fruit for the Jewish festival Tu B'Shvat. Students gathered around a table laden with fruit and had a seder, which is a traditional Jewish meal.
Last week, the server that houses the MSU library's computer system, Magic, was broken into, possibly exposing the personal information of about 100,000 members of the MSU community. Officials in Academic Computing and Network Services noticed activity on the server Thursday and took it offline the same day.
A cross-campus assembly of faculty members have been selected to plan the curriculum for the new liberal arts residential college program, slated to accept students in fall 2007. The members were chosen after acting Provost John Hudzik discussed possible candidates with the deans of the College of Arts and Letters, James Madison College, the College of Social Science and the College of Natural Sciences.
ASMSU officials decided in an emergency meeting last week to oppose the "blighted" - or deteriorated - status of a highly populated student housing area. More than 20 Student Assembly representatives created a bill stating the area, East Village, is not decaying or deteriorating. The bill says "ASMSU will work to protect the student housing in the area by any means necessary and that ASMSU refuses to support (East Lansing) City Council in its redevelopment efforts until they have promised to maintain the area as a primarily student neighborhood..." Student Assembly Chairperson Andrew Schepers said there will be lot of discussion and planning. "We just need to sit down at the table with students, the city and university officials to figure out what's going to work for everyone," he said. The City Council declared the area as blighted in 2000, and when the label expired in May 2003, the area was declared blighted a second time on Dec.
Nationally known economic writer Julianne Malveaux, whose work appears regularly in USA Today, will deliver a public lecture on issues such as race, culture and their economic impacts at 7 p.m.
ASMSU officials passed a bill last week supporting the university's proposal to ban public urination on campus. Paul Harmon, ASMSU association director, said the group supports the proposal because people should not be urinating on campus. "As long as the university makes facilities available for people to use, I don't see why we wouldn't support something that protects the image of MSU," he said. Internal Vice Chairperson of Student Assembly Patricia Smith said the ordinance could improve MSU's image during tailgating season.
A large, Japanese ceramic statue donated to MSU by the University of the Ryukyus in Japan has been stolen from the entrance of the Kathleen D.
MSU graduate student Deb Bassett said she didn't know anything about RUBI before her dinner was cooked by a member of the group Monday night at BD's Mongolian Barbeque. As Respecting and Understanding Body Image members took over the long grilling swords and began flipping meats and vegetables, they also were raising consciousness and money for National Eating Disorders Awareness Week at the end of February. In addition to cooking at the restaurant, 2080 W.
Four veteran activists will visit MSU in February to contribute to a lecture series honoring those who fought civil rights battles in the 1950s and 1960s.
By Lydia WeissSpecial for The State News About 20 voices echoed through the Union Ballroom Saturday night.
Students aren't the only ones who use Weblogs anymore. Now, university administrators are jumping on board. MSU President Lou Anna Simon created a blog on her university Web page, which will allow her to communicate with students and the rest of the MSU community and allow for feedback via e-mail. "We do know that students are using this type of technology, as are others around the country, and we thought we'd try it and see how it worked," Simon said. The blog is a way to increase discussion before major university decisions are made, Simon said. Blogs such as LiveJournal and Thefacebook have recently taken college campuses by storm, allowing their users to post information and photographs.
The sound of drums and a children's tale about slavery kicked off the Black Student Alliance's celebration of Black History Month. The performance, featuring members of Sankofa Shule Academy, a Lansing kindergarden-through-eighth charter school, began the event. Seventh-grader Deyonta Wilmot said he was excited to participate in the drumming performance because practicing for it helped him learn how to convey the struggles of important figures in Black History Month.
Writer and columnist Julianne Malveaux will speak at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Kellogg Center. Malveaux will spend three weeks at MSU as a John A.
Due to a misunderstanding between ASMSU and its constituents, more than 50 minority students protested against the student government Wednesday night. Students held signs that read "What would 'U' know about being a Minority," "No Taxation without Representation." Minority student groups from across campus decided to protest after several students received an e-mail from a Student Assembly representative that stated ASMSU officials were in the process of changing the group's constitution and were discussing removing minority representatives from the assembly. Last semester, ASMSU discussed combining its Student and Academic assemblies to form one governing body - or a unicameral system. Currently, the group runs on a bicameral system where the Student Assembly oversees student life issues, while the Academic Assembly discusses academic issues such as course structures and faculty issues. During last semester's discussion, Brian Forest, a College of Arts & Letters representative, drafted a new constitution to make the assembly unicameral.
Rubbing shoulders with Wall Street's finest are 16 members of MSU's Student Investment Association, or SIA.
The Black Student Alliance, or BSA, is presenting a program to address the importance of Black History Month at 6 p.m.
MSU President Lou Anna Simon is working to increase MSU's presence locally and nationally. In response to budget cuts and a reduced population in schools, Lansing Mayor Tony Benavides appointed Simon and another co-chairperson to create the Special Commission on Schools and Neighborhoods. Benavides appointed Simon during his 2005 State of the City address Monday. The group will be composed of Lansing-area leaders and administrators from local schools.