MSU's campus will play host to a carnival for inner-city children today. The fourth annual "Kid's Fest" will feature food, fun and games for more than 300 children from inner-city areas.
Organizers anticipate exceeding the million-person goal they set for themselves in what has been dubbed the "March for Women's Lives" in Washington, D.C., on Sunday. The pro-choice march is expected to be the largest of its kind. Charles Cook, community specialist for Planned Parenthood Federation of Michigan, said the unofficial count rises every week. "It's already well over a million," he said.
Members of the Residence Halls Association's General Assembly established a policy Wednesday not to fund events in which religious groups try to preach to MSU students. The bill that was introduced sought to amend RHA's bylaws to disallow funding to religious groups and religious events. RHA President Ernest Drake said the bill was aimed at avoiding the allocation of funds to events that preach to residents. "Basically, we would not fund events that would evangelize a specific faith," he said. Initially, however, the bill faced some trouble.
When Talha Baweja moved from Karachi, Pakistan, to East Lansing to start school at MSU, there was more than just a new culture to adjust to. "I liked snow the first winter," he said.
A memorial service has been planned for MSU Professor Ruth Simms Hamilton, who, at the age of 66, was found dead Nov.
A three-on-three basketball tournament and concert performances all will be a part of Sparty's Spring Party on Saturday. Registration will be held in the Student Alumni Foundation office in the Union.
The MSU Horticulture Club will host the 16th annual Spring Show and Plant Sale "International Garden Extravaganza" on Saturday from 9 a.m.
Three new chairs for ASMSU's Academic Assembly took office Tuesday night, each pledging to fill the assembly's seats, address the provost's plan for liberal arts restructuring and go into the streets to connect with MSU students. Dan Weber defeated College of Natural Science representative Andy McCoy for assembly chairperson. Weber, a physiology senior who was external vice chair this session, said chairs need to encourage representatives to be excited about the power they have in academic governance. "In other years, it was like we were up in a tower," Weber said.
Undergraduate students, staff and children from the Lansing School District met Wednesday to discuss the importance of keeping Michigan water clean through artwork.
Kristin Dunn, dressed in black shorts and a black T-shirt, might have blended into the steady student foot traffic along Farm Lane on Wednesday - if it weren't for the giant silver strip of Duct tape plastered across her mouth. As a participant in MSU student groups' recognition of National Day of Silence, the communication sophomore stood on the sidewalk handing out fliers to passersby.
Some students have run for public office in the past, but little success has been claimed by the younger generation when it comes to winning elections. But the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research, a nonpartisan public policy network at MSU, is trying to help young politicians get elected.
Although Marley Groskind's ultimate goal is to get a job in advertising or public relations, she has spent the entire semester researching bills that are before the Michigan House. The advertising senior is enrolled in Arts & Letters 331: Writing in the Public Interest, a class that requires students to create online questionnaires aimed at ascertaining how their peers feel about the political issues facing them. "A lot of laws that would potentially be passed will affect college students," Groskind said.
At the foot of Beaumont Tower on Tuesday, hundreds of brightly colored T-shirts on a clothesline flapped in the wind, each bearing the hand-written words of female sexual assault survivors.
The total number of faculty members at MSU has decreased, but women and ethnic minorities make up a larger percentage of the group, according to a 2002-03 university report released last week.
Rik Scarce still refuses to reveal exactly what he knew about the militant environmentalists suspected of raiding and destroying animal research centers in the early 1990s. More than 10 years ago, a grand jury investigating a raid at Washington State University demanded the former MSU professor divulge information he obtained while researching radical activist groups. Scarce, then a doctoral student at Washington State, said he'd rather go to jail than betray the trust of his research subjects, who were suspected in attacks at MSU and elsewhere.
Members of ASMSU will hold elections for Academic Assembly chair positions at 6:30 p.m. today on the third floor of Student Services. Assembly representatives and the public will question and debate the new assembly chairperson, internal vice chair and external vice chair for MSU's undergraduate student government.
The MSU Mini-Baja Team will compete at the Society of Automotive Engineers Mini-Baja West Competition from Thursday through Saturday in Portland, Ore.
A concert series planned for the fall welcome week might change venues to become a music festival at Munn Field. Members of ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, are moving forward in plans to program new events for the days before classes begin.
On average, the Residence Halls Association passes about six bills per weekly meeting. Generally, at least one of those bills proposes a change to the constitution or bylaws, but officials in the organization say they are unconcerned with the revisions. So far this semester, RHA's General Assembly has passed 11 bills amending the organization's bylaws.
With elaborate costumes in brilliant shades of purple, red and gold flowing around them, women of the Habibi Dancers swirled and shimmied across the stage. Their movements told the story of "The Resurrection of Osiris," the lover of the goddess Isis.