COMMENTARY
Action packed
In an unbalanced world, tools often are needed to help create a more level playing field and phase out unmerited bias and subjectivity.
COMMENTARY
Missing persons
Stiffer penalties should be enforced for convicted sex offenders who fail to stay within the law. Michigan law enforcement agencies say they do not know how to find 1,313 rapists, child molesters, pornographers and other sex offenders who have moved without reporting their new addresses.
COMMENTARY
Just say yes
ASMSU would be wise to join the voices of 75 other student governments by telling Washington to find another way to fight America's war on drugs. MSU's undergraduate student government is set to decide Thursday if it will condemn a national policy prohibiting students convicted of drug crimes from receiving federal student loans. According to the Drug Policy Alliance, the United States awards about $40 billion in financial aid to 7 million students each year.
COMMENTARY
Petty cash
Any Spartan would delight in the idea of finding an extra $6 million laying around when economic times turn tough.
COMMENTARY
Bobby's den
The Lions are hoping to gain from MSU's pain. Former MSU head football coach Bobby Williams is now employed as running backs coach for the Detroit Lions.
COMMENTARY
Crazy eights
Early rising isn't a potion for success in college for everyone. But it is for some. And even though a 2002 National Collegiate Health Assessment study said early classes hurt students' grades, Penn State University officials should reconsider their decision to eliminate all 8 a.m.
COMMENTARY
Open the doors
It seems members of the MSU Board of Trustees have forgotten how they landed their honorable political positions.
COMMENTARY
Deceiving drop
By the numbers, it looks as though Spartans are celebrating more responsibly on football Saturdays. Despite the Green and White hosting more home games in 2002 - a total of eight - MSU police reported a significant drop in gameday arrests for the fall season. MSU police arrested 291 people on football Saturdays in 2002.
COMMENTARY
Tracking trials
In an effort to track terrorists, the National Security Entry-Exit Registration System is requiring foreign citizens who are 16 years or older from 13 countries to register with the federal government when visiting the United States.
COMMENTARY
Learning loans
It's better than a credit card and better than a friend's wallet - they're ASMSU's $100 interest-free loans available to MSU students. But students are abusing the privilege of their loans by not paying them back on time to ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government. Many Spartans don't know ASMSU's $100 loan is available to any person with a student ID.
COMMENTARY
Big-ticket books
Every semester Spartans, along with millions of other university students across the country, watch their minuscule bank accounts drain as textbook costs are tallied by bookstore cash registers.
COMMENTARY
Northern 'U'
Welcome to mini East Lansing. This quickly growing junior-size city is located on a plot of land shared by the college town and Bath Township.
COMMENTARY
Proactive apathy
The University of Michigan is leading college campuses in rallies against the war with Iraq. Why aren't we? In light of Army Reserve units dispatching to the Middle East, this weekend an estimated 600 people will gather in Ann Arbor to protest at a two-day conference.
COMMENTARY
Lost laboratory?
During former Gov. John Engler's final days in office, MSU lost $700,000 earmarked to build the new diagnostic veterinary laboratory.
COMMENTARY
Tight lipped 'U'
As the football team's on- and off-the-field actions tarnished MSU's integrity in 2002, efforts to deny the release of police reports involving Spartan athletes only further smears the institution's reputation. Spartan All-American wide receiver Charles Rogers allegedly pushed an MSU parking enforcer in October, according to the Ingham County prosecutor's office.
COMMENTARY
Granholm goals
Congratulations to Michigan's first woman governor, Jennifer Granholm. Now that Granholm has begun her job she, like John F.
COMMENTARY
Johnny's world
Athletics administrators seem to think the Spartans' newest football head coach is the right person to turn what became black and blue in 2002 into Green and White once again.
COMMENTARY
The good the bad and the Sparty
Winners of 2002 Spartan of the Year • Sparty - It might be a little cheesey to name "The Spartan"Spartan of the Year, but the (believed-to-be) largest free-standing ceramic statue in the world has had a rough life.
COMMENTARY
Conflicted plan
If work continues as they have been, mid-Michigan could soon be brought up to speed on the information superhighway thanks to the help of MSU's services.
COMMENTARY
Go sell it
The Residence Halls Association has some earnest explaining to do if it wants students to take the organization's request to renew its $21 per semester tax seriously in the spring. In the same vein, it is important for the more than 14,500 students living in the residence halls, who foot the bill, to take the time to hold their RHA representatives accountable.