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Commentary

COMMENTARY

Congested sidewalks demand courtesy

Editorial Board
September 25, 2013

Thousands of 20-pound metal bicycles barreling down the streets of Farm Lane and Auditorium Road around noon is an unnerving sight to see while walking to class. It’s absurd how fast some bikes zoom their way through crowded sidewalks. But with an enrollment of more than 40,000 students, everyone has to commute to class somehow — and in the warmer seasons, bikes seem to cause the most problems.

COMMENTARY

No excuse not to call 911 to report assault

Editorial Board
September 24, 2013

No one ever expects to be sexually assaulted or to have someone they love be sexually assaulted. Sometimes, it’s easier to dismiss the headlines in the paper as far-removed stories than it is to accept them as reality. But after 26-year-old Oswald Scott Wilder, of Vernon, Mich., confessed to committing four sexual assaults this summer in East Lansing, the MSU community can’t afford to ignore reality.

COMMENTARY

More myth, less truth to Freshman 15

Joann Bahri and Stephanie Send
September 22, 2013

College brings a feast of new experiences. Freedom from parental supervision, an enormous social environment and the excitement of scholarly advancement are aspects of college living that freshman will gorge themselves on. And if myth prevails, freshmen also will gorge themselves with carbohydrate-rich cafeteria food, alcohol and the ever-essential, late-night study fuel: junk food.

COMMENTARY

Bicycle safety story misses the point

Orlando Sarnelle
September 19, 2013

A recent State News article about bike/car/pedestrian conflict on campus (Students, drivers have tough time sharing roads on campus, 9/19) is in need of some clarification aimed at saving lives. As an experienced, commuting cyclist (30 years), my common sense says that riding on the sidewalk (when there is no bike lane) is safer than on the road, and that intersections are dangerous in general.

COMMENTARY

Professors should strive for objectivity

In the wake of the Penn controversy (which I’m sure every SN reader is quite familiar with by now), I can’t help but being appalled by the public reaction it has spurred. Make no mistake, I am not at all surprised by that amount of attention it has received. For some reason, which I don’t completely understand, political views in this country are held as an almost sacred creed and any slight towards a particular viewpoint is seen as a personal attack. I am appalled, however, because it took an anti-republican rant and the resulting media torrent to finally bring attention to the real issue here: the lack of objectivity in pedagogy at this university.

COMMENTARY

TA payment dispute resolution needed

Editorial Board
September 19, 2013

On Sept. 17, the Graduate Employees Union (GEU) filed for arbitration against MSU on the behalf of about 330 teaching assistant’s (TA’s) who believe they were shorted a sum of $66,000. The GEU stated that the TA’s had been inadequately paid for their time working between May 13 and May 15 of this year.

COMMENTARY

Student cap hinges on timely graduation

Editorial Board
September 18, 2013

Facing a record enrollment of 49,300 students this year, MSU officials are discussing plans to curtail total enrollment in the future. So far, officials posed a possible solution of putting a cap on the total amount of students at around 48,000. The solution poses some questions about how the university will reach this number.

COMMENTARY

Penn encouraged, not silenced, student input

Ryan McDonough
September 17, 2013

I graduated from Michigan State in 2005, and I had the pleasure of having English professor William Penn about 10 years ago. I remember the class very vividly and still talk about it to this day. We would have extremely difficult pop quizzes consisting of only a handful of questions from the assigned reading. Everyone in the class scored horribly on these quizzes.

COMMENTARY

Students wealthy through education

Derek Kim
September 16, 2013

The phrase is quite possibly one of the greatest oxymorons uttered by our generation. So easily, it slips off our tongues. You check your latest bank statement: $19.83. Looks like you won’t be going out to P.F. Chang’s anytime soon. “I’m a poor college student.” But $600 for textbooks? That’s nothing at all. Don’t forget about your iClicker, notebooks and futon for the dorm. Oh, and did I mention the $42,652 out-of-state tuition, room and board on top of everything? “I’m a poor college student.”

COMMENTARY

Fitness facilities discourage health

Cayden Royce
September 15, 2013

For those living on campus and for those who are new to MSU, the intramural and various other workout facilities might disappoint. I love my school, and, with the university grounds spread across almost 5,200 acres, there is a new part of it I have yet to explore every day; but there are portions of our now-roughly $430 per credit-hour tuition that could go to improving our facilities for students, athletes, future alumni and faculty members alike. Our Big Ten university has to be able to stack up comparatively in every aspect.

COMMENTARY

Social insensitivity begins as a quick laugh

Dillon Davis
September 15, 2013

As long as I live, I’ll always respect someone with the genuine ability to eat crow when it’s being served in any situation in life. If you’ve ever had a relationship of any length, you understand how tough that is to do. Well, I’m about to devour an entire heap of a dirty trash bird.

COMMENTARY

Campus transport sometimes taxing

Meg Dedyne
September 15, 2013

The four major modes of campus transportation at MSU are biking, busing, walking an driving. As a freshman, their unique pros and cons are instantly noticeable, along with a problem they all have in common. MSU takes pride in being a pedestrian-friendly campus and encouraging its students, faculty and staff, to leave their cars, mopeds and other motorized transportation at home if possible.

COMMENTARY

Proposal to limit bars wrong approach

Editorial Board
September 12, 2013

A city proposal that would set a patron cap on downtown establishments serving alcohol past midnight and prevent any new businesses of a similar type from opening was unanimously deferred from consideration Wednesday night. The East Lansing Planning Commission, which deferred the vote until an unspecified date, cited concerns about the enormity of change the proposal would usher. Current establishments closing and stifling new businesses from opening were among those concerns voiced, and for good reason.