Tuesday, December 23, 2025

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Editorials

COMMENTARY

Campus danger

The Task Force on Student-Police Relations held its first open forum Tuesday night. But something important was lacking: The voices of regular students.A crowd of more than 70 people kept the forum running for several hours, but most of the people who expressed concerns about MSU police had formal titles that usually included ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government.It’s nice to see our student leaders taking the initiative to have their voices heard, but the task force was created to gather information from the student body - not an elite group of people that already has access to campus administrators.But the task force and the very student government leaders who spoke Tuesday night failed in their most important task.

COMMENTARY

Get out the vote

As the November general election draws closer, time is running out for residents - including students - to register to vote. The registration deadline is Oct.

COMMENTARY

Cold words?

Critics are urging MSU sports officials to change the name of “The Cold War” before Saturday’s record-breaking outdoor matchup.

COMMENTARY

Power play

Michigan electricity customers will soon get an unsettling charge added to their monthly bills. For the next three years, we’ll all be charged for a “customer education program” to prepare us for added competition in the electricity market.It’s not unsettling that the state will spend $33 million on the campaign - electricity deregulation is a tricky issue - but it is questionable that state officials will pay three public relations companies tied to Michigan’s two major utility companies, Consumers Energy and Detroit Edison, to run the campaign.

COMMENTARY

Good cop?...

Listen to the word on the street, read the bathroom graffiti or log on to the Internet. Police are not popular. It’s an inevitability that campus police will be viewed as the enemy by some students.

COMMENTARY

Simple censorship

The MSU community missed an opportunity to deal with the important issues of racism when university officials censored the play “SubUrbia.” The Department of Theatre production was scheduled to run for more than a week, but was cut to one performance Thursday after some university officials expressed concern about its content. The play, which centers around a rock star and his three friends who hang out at a neighborhood convenience store, includes two Pakistani characters who face discrimination. It’s understandable why some might feel uncomfortable about the play, but that doesn’t mean censorship is the right solution. Ethnic discrimination is a sensitive subject for our community, especially since the Sept.

COMMENTARY

For Brandon

For the past year, Brandon D’Annunzio’s friends and family have been trying to rebuild their lives the best they can. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the assault of a 24-year-old Michigan Technological University student outside a downtown East Lansing bar.

COMMENTARY

Full disclosure

Lawmakers could be putting students’ safety at risk as they prepare to reform how colleges and universities report campus crime. U.S.

COMMENTARY

Meets quality

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink. At least that appears to be the opinion of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. The activist group issued a statement last week accusing the Ingham County Health Department of censoring important information from its December 2000 water quality report. The group said hazards to Ingham County’s surface and groundwater were not identified, putting residents in danger. But the county’s 20-page pamphlet, a pared-down version of the 130-page report, is a thorough and easy-to-digest packet containing the highlights of the original publication’s content.

COMMENTARY

Positive step

MSU officials have succeeded in increasing the minority student population, with 20 percent of this year’s freshman class projected to be minority students. But retention of minority students is still sluggish, threatening to undermine the work recruiters do to bring black, Chicano and Latino, Asian and Pacific Islanders, Native American and other minority students to campus.

COMMENTARY

e-Taxing

One of the largest consumer retail channels in the world is about to join the rest of the more traditional outlets in fiscal responsibility.

COMMENTARY

Hey, chief

For 15 years, Bruce Benson has overseen the campus department perhaps best known for issuing MIPs, ticketing speeders and towing vehicles. The title of police chief and director of MSU’s Department of Police and Public Safety doesn’t exactly come with the undying love of students everywhere. But it should come with a lot of respect. In the time he’s been chief, Benson has helped mold our police department into one of the most diverse and progressive forces in the nation.

COMMENTARY

Wrong message

The obvious fear was these unknown men could be a danger to campus, fostering apprehension toward the multitude of MSU students with Muslim or Middle Eastern heritage.But these feelings are misplaced.MSU’s Department of Police and Public Safety sent out a universitywide e-mail asking students to help identify three Pakistani men after an incident Wednesday at the Business College.Police said the three men did not do anything illegal but “made several comments of an unusual nature that caused some concern” after the Sept.

COMMENTARY

Air Jordan | A reason, again, to watch

Today is rumored to be the day Michael Jordan makes his much-anticipated official announcement.Since early this year, stories have grown about the possibility, the probability and the practicality of Jordan coming back to the NBA.

COMMENTARY

Out of credit

With any luck, Michigan universities will soon see state aid increase with the repeal of the failed tuition tax credit.

COMMENTARY

Right resolution

On Friday, the Board of Trustees could speak for the first time about last year’s undercover police investigation of a student activist group.

COMMENTARY

Go $$ green $$ go

Students may have noticed new equipment in the library and computer labs. The new equipment is the result of $202 million raised by the university from donors during the 2000-2001 budget year.

COMMENTARY

Michigan Drilled

In the hustle and bustle of last week, politics as usual went on in our state. The Department of Natural Resources announced Friday that Michigan will again issue leases for slant drilling for gas and oil under the Great Lakes. The DNR’s intent and timing are ill conceived.