Like the popular TLC television show "While You Were Out," MSU's Division of Housing and Food Services will decorate a lucky resident's dorm room while he or she is on vacation.
Some stood with both arms lifted firmly to the sky. Others raised a hand more tentatively, held closely into their bodies. Still others bowed heads and silently mouthed the words of the Christian song hanging in the air at Conrad Hall. "I'm forgiven because you were forsaken," the image freezes for a second before moving to the next set of lyrics in the song. For Julia Hilliker, an agriscience freshman, this was a private moment she could share in a public forum.
The Spring 2004 sorority recruitment week kicked off Monday with a fair at the Union. All 13 chapters of the Panhellenic Council were on hand, manning booths that sported pictures and bulletin boards as members of each sorority answered questions and concerns from potential recruits. Abbey Mansfield, president of the Panhellenic Council, said Spring recruitment is less formal than Fall and gives recruits a chance to get to know each house on a more personal basis.
This week, the Honors College Programming Board will host its second annual Geek Week. The week's events will begin today with the "The Milky Way Legacy" show at 7:30 p.m.
When the MSU Bike Project first was created there were only a few bicycles and no place to call home. But now, with a new Web site, www.msu.edu/~bikes, and a spot in Demonstration Hall for storage, the project aims at getting students and faculty out of their cars by providing them with bikes. Officials from the MSU Bike Project are hoping by the summer semester to expand its fleet to 100 bikes.
"One-two-three-four! We don't want your racist war! Five-six-seven-eight! Stop the violence, stop the hate!" Supporters of Michael Moore in the standing-room-only crowd chanted such slogans while waiting for the author and filmmaker to begin speaking in the Auditorium on Friday. Event organizers estimated about 4,300 people attended the event, with between 200 and 300 people turned away.
This week, the Honors College Programming Board will host its second annual Geek Week. The week's events will begin today with the "The Milky Way Legacy" show at 7:30 p.m.
MSU's vice president for research and graduate studies will leave the university after seven years to follow his environmental research interests. Bob Huggett will head back to his original research in environmental studies at the end of this school year. "I've been in academia for 35 years, and it's time to do something else," he said.
The Hong Kong-based Sun Wah Education Foundation plans to donate $5 million today to MSU's College of Education. The money will fund the United States-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence.
The results in a recent survey evaluating the MSU police department had more to do with the amount of contact with officers, and less with positive or negative experiences, officials said.
After the votes came down, Residence Halls Association Comptroller Julie Hughes ran from one side of the room to the other to hug a General Assembly member on her committee.
When author Lev Raphael was a child, he said "I imagined that I was a superhero with X-ray vision, and I could use it to cut Germany out of the map of the world." Raphael knows the atrocities of the Holocaust firsthand, or rather through the eyes of his parents, who both survived the Holocaust.
To some, it's disgusting. To others, it's not a problem. It's not a gory movie or a dirty joke - it's water. Residence Halls Association is starting to work with MSU to improve water used for drinking and bathing on campus.
MSU organizations, administrators and officials from the city of East Lansing are working together to help connect younger voters to local and national elections via the Internet. Formed in 2000, You Vote, located at http://youvote.msu.edu, educates student voters with frequent updates leading up to November elections. The idea for the site emerged after the 2000 elections, when there were a lot of problems with voting in East Lansing, said Ginny Haas, MSU's director of community relations. "Students had a hard time identifying where they were supposed to vote," she said.
Unless there's a blinking "WARNING" on the screen, many Internet users easily hand over personal information, according to a recent study from two MSU researchers. When users reveal information, such as their social security or credit card numbers, they are at risk for identity theft and fraud, said Robert LaRose, a telecommunication, information studies and media professor. "Online consumers are being lulled into a false sense of privacy," he said.
Few students braved snowy sidewalks to learn about study abroad opportunities at the Union Wednesday. Kathleen Fairfax, director for MSU's Office of Study Abroad, said less than the January fair's average of 1,500 students showed up Wednesday. "We expected it to be lower because of the weather, but it's never been dead," she said at the fair. Fairfax said, even though students didn't brave the winter weather for information, there have been a high number of early applications.
Surfing the Web about a year and a half ago, MSU-DCL College of Law student Emily Shipley found something that caught her eye. On a Texas law college Web site, she discovered a student publication completely devoted to discussing gender issues.
"It's not that bad. We'll survive. This is basically an excuse not to go to class." - Michelle Tarnowski, biological science junior "I watch out for everyone else because I know I'm a safe driver.
Controversial author and filmmaker Michael Moore will visit MSU on Friday to speak about his new book "Dude, Where's My Country?" and other topics, including the upcoming presidential election and the war in Iraq.
"Nazi Persecution of Homosexuals, 1933-1945" has been at the MSU Museum since Oct. 26, but "Writing a Jewish Life: The Holocaust As a Personal History" is set to add more to the existing exhibit.