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
McP Money | President donates to U
If money can be an indicator of love for this campus, MSU President M. Peter McPherson’s heart must be as big as his wallet. How big is that?
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.
COMMENTARY
No game | Use day for loved ones
There will be no celebrating on campus Saturday. No tailgating. No cheering crowd packing Spartan Stadium. There may be tears, though.
COMMENTARY
Open campus
Tuesday, when many students watched and wondered how we could go on, MSU President M. Peter McPherson decided we can and we must. While the University of Michigan, Central Michigan University and other state universities closed their doors, this campus stayed open and held classes. Some may have seen this decision as a threat to the safety of students and faculty or disgraceful to the memory of the countless victims of Tuesday’s blasts.
COMMENTARY
A swimming idea
Chances are if you visited some of Michigan’s numerous public beaches this summer, you may not have been able to enter the water because of unsafe bacteria levels. On campus, we have our own nasty environmental pollution history with E.