Saturday, December 20, 2025

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Editorials

COMMENTARY

Foolish fans

Demonstrating that alcohol and a team loss can be a dangerous combination, some baseball fans have once again proven their irresponsibility when it comes to alcohol consumption. On April 15 and 19, fans endangered the lives of players, umpires and other fans when they rushed onto U.S.

COMMENTARY

See 'U' later

Although he surely was not the most desperate Spartan hoping to land a résumé booster this summer, MSU President M.

COMMENTARY

Money in hand

When it comes to money, cold, hard cash is what we like to see, not the earmarked variety that has recently found a new home with the Capital Area Transportation Authority.

COMMENTARY

Uncontrollable

It seems city and university officials are constantly trying to prevent bad things from happening, and while their well-intentioned efforts are often understandable, there are some aspects of life that boil down to personal responsibility. Responsible drinking on a 21st birthday or any day of the week is one of those aspects. Still, on Tuesday, East Lansing's Responsible Hospitality Council passed new management policies to curb 21st birthday accidents.

COMMENTARY

Off limits

While file-sharing on MSU's network is widely practiced, that does not make it legal. If MSU is punished by movie and record executives for students' behavior, those students who continue abusing the university's high-speed Internet connection deserve punishment. MSU students are being affected by increased efforts among music and movie industry executives to track down college students with shared files on their computers.

COMMENTARY

Overdue safety

Officials in charge of the safety hazards plaguing the Northern Tier community should quickly finish up planned construction and put students' fears to rest. After nearly five years of existence, the Northern Tier is only now constructing new sidewalks and installing lights that should have been in place when the community first opened.

COMMENTARY

Masked mistake

The pain and embarrassment that was the Spartan 2002 football season just won't seem to stop haunting MSU's reputation. It was revealed on Monday former MSU star Charles Rogers used a substance to dilute his drug test at the NFL combine in February. It's now highly possible the consensus top-three pick in the April 26-27 NFL draft will be subject to the professional football league's drug evaluation program upon signing a contract with an NFL team. MSU doctors say urine-diluting substances are often used to hide the presence of illegal drugs.

COMMENTARY

Step right up

Now that Iraq has safely been turned over from Saddam Hussein's regime to liberated looters, it seems the United States is setting its cross-hairs on Syria. In virtually the same breath the White House declared the fall of Iraq, Bush spokesman Ari Fleischer labeled Syria "a terrorist state." And The Associated Press reported that President Bush laughed when he was asked whether Syria was a good candidate for his "axis of evil," saying, "We will deal with each situation as it comes." It's troubling that Bush feels such delicate foreign affairs are a laughing matter.

COMMENTARY

Lost respect

A newspaper's staff should always question what purpose it serves to the greater community. This week, The Reporter, a student newspaper from Stetson University in Florida, was shut down after a highly offensive April Fool's Day issue was published.

COMMENTARY

Seize the day

Police are flirting with limits of the Fourth Amendment and attempting to set a dangerous precedent as they embark in an effort to seize private computer hard drives they believe could contain evidence against lawbreakers during the March 28-30 disturbances. Last week, police obtained a warrant to confiscate a computer from an on-campus student.

COMMENTARY

Listen Up

After years of seeing issues of great importance to the university community tabled by trustees, we applaud the hundreds of students who gathered together to let the board know they won't back down. Congregating in a large cluster outside the Administration Building last Friday, a number of student groups, including the Alliance of Lesbian-Bi-Gay-Transgender and Straight Ally Students and Coalition for Social Responsibility, came together to protest during the final Board of Trustees meeting of the semester.

COMMENTARY

Student as teacher

Many children grow up watching "Sesame Street" and absorb a message of tolerance for everyone and their differences.

COMMENTARY

Only just begun

For those who watched with anticipation, the collapse of Saddam Hussein's statue in Baghdad's center Wednesday was history in the making - the fall of tyranny and the rebirth of a people. It was like witnessing the climax of a well-known fairy tale: the part where Prince Charming (coalition forces) courageously rescues the beautiful princess (the Iraqi people) from the dark and cold prison of the evil queen (Saddam). But this real-life event is far more serious than any children's story.

COMMENTARY

Shut out

Although MSU's undergraduate student government doesn't truly govern anything, it is a tax-collecting student body charged with representing its constituents in the university's governance process and therefore, has an obligation to remain accountable to its members. On Tuesday, ASMSU's Academic Assembly was not accountable.

COMMENTARY

Numbers up

While our counterparts in Ann Arbor are witnessing tempers rise on account of the affirmative action lawsuit concerning their admissions policy, MSU is witnessing historic highs in minority enrollment. The Office of Affirmative Action, Compliance and Monitoring released its 2001-02 statistics Tuesday, and found that while Native American enrollment decreased 14 percent, Hispanics increased by 8 percent, Asian Pacific Islanders by 6 percent and blacks by 4 percent.

COMMENTARY

Surprise me more

As far-fetched as it might be for Pennsylvania lawmakers to ask citizens for more money during tax season, at least the cash-strapped state Legislature is willing to "think outside the box." Pennsylvania state Rep.

COMMENTARY

Good press

The U.S. News & World Report released Friday that four of MSU's colleges are among the top 25 schools in the nation - a refreshing reminder this campus is a place for quality higher education. In light of the university community's recent press for a weekend riot, playing the stage for a Girls Gone Wild stunt and being announced as a destination for a Playboy college photo shoot, it's comforting to know the university is gaining recognition for things other than earning points on the Princeton Review's top 20 party school list, where it places on a regular basis. In all, 17 MSU graduate programs were included in the U.S.

COMMENTARY

Trial and error

Most of us are familiar with the central point of our judicial system here in the United States of America and in most democratic countries worldwide: you're innocent until proven guilty. Yet there are those who need to be made aware of this policy, the ones who are not named and sit behind closed doors, labeled only as "university officials." On Friday, these officials suspended two students for their alleged involvement in the activities last weekend.

COMMENTARY

Cross judgment

Despite critics who say a 50-year-old Virginia statute that makes it a crime to burn a cross as an act of intimidation compromises First Amendment freedoms, a divided Supreme Court ruled justly Monday when it upheld the law. "The protections afforded by the First Amendment

COMMENTARY

SARS' severity

As Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, or SARS, gains worldwide attention, we need to know university officials are concerned with the health of MSU students and promptly make according changes to study abroad programs. On Thursday, university physician Beth Alexander sent a campuswide e-mail to notify students about the virus and reported cases of its effects in Michigan.