Balancing a city budget can be a tricky process. Lansing is learning that the hard way as Mayor Virg Bernero and City Council members struggle to eliminate an $11-million budget deficit.
I was very disappointed by the recent article on Take Back the Night, "Common cause" (SN 4/12). To be clear, it is not an event about sexual violence that happens to focus on women — it is an event about violence against women that focuses on sexual violence. In no way do I want to diminish the effect that sexual violence has on men, whether they are survivors or co-survivors, nor do I want to imply that there is no space for men in Take Back the Night. Men have been participating in the event for a long time. However, it is irresponsible for The State News to print an article that entirely focuses on men. Take Back the Night is not solely about how men need to be involved in preventing sexual violence. They do.
In Chuck Wynn's recent column, "Possible New Testament changes don't ruin meanings" (SN 4/20), he argues that the errors, pointed out by John Bice's, "'Truth' of Bible can't be believed with history of additions, deletions" (SN 2/21), in the New Testament do not change any major doctrine. Although this might be true, I think the author might have missed one of Bice's more important points: the dangers of biblical literalism. There are individuals who say women should sit aside while men do all the talking about God, based on Timothy 2:12, a highly contested New Testament epistle. Biblical literalists, the same people who argue that every word of the Bible is as it was when God inspired it, claim that these cannot be read as anything but true, hard facts and that God doesn't want women to teach. The recent Lads to Leaders & Leaderettes conference, run by fundamentalist religious organizations, won't even allow fathers into the room to hear their daughters speak about the Bible because girls should only speak about it to other women.
The feud of city residents versus MSU students is one East Lansing rivalry that has nothing to do with wolverines. Although a rocky relationship between college students and East Lansing homeowners might seem accurate — it's actually not as bad as it seems. Families or individuals who choose to live and buy houses in East Lansing are undoubtedly aware of MSU and the fact that a large portion of East Lansing's population is composed of students. But having a compromising attitude from both perspectives is essential in a cooperative relationship. Students have to understand a property owner's perspective, and vice versa.
For about a week now, many in the MSU community have expressed their views in letters to the editor about the Nazi rally. Some have said that Nazis have the right to free speech and should just be ignored.
Take Back The Night is an annual event at MSU as part of a broader, international movement to help raise awareness about sexual assault, domestic violence and other violence against women. Marches have been held as far back as the 1970s and were often spearheaded by the radical feminist movement.
Supplying information about current events, trends, issues and people to the public is no easy task.
Recently there's been a vigorous discussion regarding the reliability of the Bible in general and the New Testament in particular.
Equality is the overarching basis of the freedoms we enjoy in this country. Without equal status before the law our legal system is perverted and our lawmakers are allowed to govern according to their own whims, fears and prejudices.
ASMSU has been given the power to choose student representatives for academic committees. Now MSU's undergraduate student government needs to make sure they're using that power to increase student involvement on those committees. The MSU Board of Trustees approved the measure on April 13 to let ASMSU choose representatives to the committees, which are part of the Academic Governance system, instead of faculty.
I am writing this letter in regard to the unfortunate problems this university has been facing with diversity.
To add to the long list of MSU parking gripes — where is our ticket money going? In "Showdown at the meter" (SN 2/28), we are told the money from parking tickets stays in the department and is used for repairs, maintenance, etc; however, the Shaw Ramp is in need of some attention. As a business student who lives off campus, I drive to class quite often and mostly park in the Shaw Ramp.
In respect to whether Nazis should have the right to hold a rally at the Capitol this Saturday, I completely agree that they do. Nazis have the constitutional right to assemble and spew their hate speech. However, simply ignoring them, as some have proposed, and hoping they will go away is absolutely the wrong approach. That kind of apathetic response is what occurred in 1930s Germany. These racist thugs were ignored then and look what happened. The Lansing community needs to stop this ideology of racial annihilation from spreading by speaking out against it. Not by choosing to put it out of sight and out of mind.
Pop. Did you hear that? Pop. Pop. What the heck is that sound? Never mind that perpetual "pop" you might be hearing all across America.
Shame on you, State News. Shame on you for not shining any light on one of the best varsity teams on campus and in the country. The MSU women's rowing team is currently ranked 7th in the nation, and after another winning weekend will probably move up again.
Much of the recent discussion about affirmative action leads me to believe that a number of people who will be voting on the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, don't fully understand the situation. Supporters of the MCRI start with the claim that preferential treatment based on color is racist. Opponents respond by pointing out that the beneficiaries of affirmative action are at an economic disadvantage, and that affirmative action helps to make up for that. Supporters then claim that poverty is colorblind and that schools should use geography rather than race to address this problem. This is where I think that supporters of the MCRI don't fully understand the situation.
When Gov. Jennifer Granholm gave her State of the State address in January, she emphasized the role of research universities in improving Michigan's economy.
After reading Jim Schwartz's letter "Don't draw attention to offensive language" (SN 4/17), I couldn't help but feel that he is a very misguided individual. Not only does he miss the point that a word does matter when it is part of your identity that is under attack, but also he fails to recognize that ignoring a problem rarely makes it go away. Individuals will not change their behavior unless given a reason to.
I shouldn't be shocked by anything the United States government does anymore. Or the things it does, but doesn't tell me about. After all, I attend a university where the Board of Trustees routinely holds business dinners, and then tries to pass them off as social gatherings. A board that holds private committee meetings a day before the public meeting, and doesn't see anything wrong with keeping the public out. So why should I be surprised when my government starts removing public records from the U.S.
College students are usually more closely associated with binge drinking and cramming for exams than religion and spirituality. But a recent Harvard University Institute of Politics poll released last week, shows a majority of U.S.