This is my fourth year in the Spartan Marching Band. Although I am excited at the possibility of showing my Spartan spirit for our football team, I realize I will probably be watching the bowl game on TV come the end of December. It has been my privilege to perform in Spartan Stadium and cheer our team to victory the past four years.
Usually, I don’t get too caught up in the spirit of holidays. Sure, I enjoy the time off from school and celebration associated with holidays, but I tend to get sick of the commotion and commercialization obscuring the true meaning of holidays.
Beginning next summer, MSU’s Office of Study Abroad will send students and faculty to a country where most Americans haven’t been - Cuba. After acquiring a two-year license a few weeks ago, the university will be able to send participants to Cuba’s capital, Havana, and take part in “Caribbean Regional Development: The Cuban Experience.” Students and faculty traveling to Cuba will be able to experience many unique aspects of the country such as traveling throughout the island and seeing historic landmarks firsthand. In addition to benefiting members of the MSU community, landing Cuba in the study abroad program also opens relations between Cuba and the United States. Cuba has had a long and often rocky relationship between our government with its communist dictatorship, led by Fidel Castro.
While there are many times the media can be blamed for its inaccuracies, it isn’t appropriate to place the blame on The State News for the current lack of a stronger relationship between the student population and the Board of Trustees. Despite the fact we have current board liaisons, it has become apparent this isn’t the most effective mechanism for students to depend on when they have issues.
Congratulations to the MSU football team for clinching its bowl eligibility and giving the seniors one last game to play as Spartans.
The students of Grand River Elementary in Lansing would like to thank the more than 50 MSU student volunteers they have had in their classrooms this semester.
Historically, when the United States has been at war, there is always a conflict between defending civil liberties and ensuring security for the nation.
It is amazing the way white folks flagrantly accuse black folks of racism, never once stopping to realize the meaning, history and psychology of such an institution. To be racist is to have the political power to violently assert one’s discriminatory, prejudiced and racially superior views, under the aegis of an uncontested government.
As I begin my last column of the year, I’d like to thank everyone for reading and wish you all a happy holiday season.
The FBI inquiry being conducted in Michigan is making many uneasy, but it’s a necessary part of the investigation to stop terrorism - and good things can come out of it. About 25 students and faculty members have been singled out as part of an 800-person survey by the Department of Justice throughout Michigan.
As if the MSU-Detroit College of Law selling its reputation for $4 million is not bad enough, the comments made by the school’s dean, Terence Blackburn, regarding the newly named Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute should send chills up your spine.
Not everyone in ASMSU is in favor of raising the student tax (“ASMSU: Student-fee increase will improve service,” SN 11/19). While $2 may not be much to some people, there are some attending this university who feel that not only raising the ASMSU tax is unnecessary, but also completely unjustified. With the way the economy is running, it’s certainly obvious costs aren’t going to be coming down any time soon.
A couple of weeks ago, ASMSU hosted a forum and invited members of the Board of Trustees to discuss the possibility of placing a student on the board.
Michigan’s 2-year-old Life Sciences Corridor seemed to have all the potential of making the state the Silicon Valley for life-benefiting research.
Kyle Olson was right when he raised the question, “How can SN support affirmative action?” (SN 11/28). Do you expect us to take The State News’ condemnation of racism seriously when it fully supports state-sponsored racism in the form of affirmative action? Every day, whites, Arabs and Asians are discriminated against when applying to enter a university or even for a job.
There is a serious problem on this campus - close-mindedness. As a spokesperson for the group of students involved the Meridian Mall discrimination case, I do not understand how others can judge our group as loiterers, martyrs, opportunists or any other degrading word claiming that we were causing a disturbance or were disrespectful. This story was definitely front page news.
I must say, I have read some ridiculous letters to The State News lately, but I think Andy Bledsoe’s takes the cake (“Discrimination affects whites too,” SN 11/30). I was amazed at the blatant lack of understanding Bledsoe displayed of the issues he chose to rant about in his letter. First, he does not seem to understand the difference between racism and discrimination.
I think voting is worthless. Hang with me here a second - I can back this up. But with a 2 percent voter turnout on campus in the recent election for city council, I don’t think I have to back anything up.
Nov. 20’s resignation of ASMSU’s Academic Assembly representative for the College of Communication Arts and Sciences left more questions than answers.Monica Leslie’s departure from the assembly leaves one less hardworking member to represent MSU students.
The budget cuts caused by the $500 million shortfall in the state budget hurt many beneficial programs, including 19 health care clinics around the state that lost about 75 percent of their funding - a sacrifice that should not have been made.These clinics, which include 14 on school grounds, supply health care to already underserved areas.A 200-person rally outside the state Capitol on Wednesday had parents, students and legislators demanding Gov.