Thursday, January 1, 2026

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Editorials

COMMENTARY

Sorority bases membership on looks

The image of the average sorority is less than flattering. Sorority women's charitable acts are often overlooked for a perception depicting pretty party girls. But when one sorority goes beyond the pre-existing stereotypes, it does little more than makes sororities look worse than their reputations. Take, for example, the case of the Delta Zetas at DePauw University.

COMMENTARY

Budget delayed for fledgling program

MSU and the University of California at Santa Barbara are the only two universities in the nation to offer graduate-level classes in Chicano and Latino studies. Although this is one of the rarest programs in the country, the university has been slow to set a budget for the study program, run by Dionicio Valdés. On account of waiting on the budget, Valdés doesn't have the necessary resources to properly gauge next year's program.

COMMENTARY

N.J. civil unions do not offer equality

As of Monday, New Jersey became the third state to offer civil unions to same-sex couples, after a state Supreme Court ruling. While this is a step in the right direction, it also sets a dangerous precedent for future decisions. If gay couples are granted civil unions, it's possible they may never get to experience full-blown marital rights.

COMMENTARY

Britain announces troop withdrawal

Shortly after President Bush announced an increase of troops in Iraq, British Prime Minister Tony Blair made an equally surprising statement. On Wednesday he announced he is going to start pulling troops out. And he's not alone. The "Coalition of the Willing" that the United States put together in 2003 is slowly beginning to fall apart.

COMMENTARY

Section stronger through unification

Corner Blitz, best known for its T-shirts and the guy who sits near the back dressed like Jesus, may be disappearing — at least as it is currently known. And the proposed changes couldn't be better. For years, Corner Blitz has been the specialty student section of Spartans football; a kind of lower-rent, football Izzone.

COMMENTARY

Resolution must see follow-up action

After much partisan deliberation, the House of Representatives passed a resolution Friday that calls President Bush to task on upping troop levels in Iraq. Sort of. In a vote of 246-to-182, with 17 Republicans supporting it, the Democrats were able to push their nonbinding resolution though the House that decried the war, of course, supported the troops. While it's nice to see that the Democratic Congress, or even Congress in general, has found the backbone it has so sorely lacked since 2001, the passage of the resolution in the House isn't the final solution. First of all, the resolution was killed in the Senate on Saturday, losing by only a 49-47 vote.

COMMENTARY

Lansing group champions HIV testing

The Lansing Area AIDS Network, or LAAN, has found an important way to increase awareness about HIV and AIDS. It is dovetailing its program to promote its free HIV tests with Black History Month. The simple fact of the matter is that blacks make up 13 percent of the American population but account for roughly 50 percent of HIV infections.

COMMENTARY

Service tax will benefit state deficit

In the wake of Michigan's budget crisis, Gov. Jennifer Granholm proposed a plan for a 2 percent tax on services, yielding approximately $1.5 billion. According to the Detroit Free Press, the new tax plan involves 132 services.

COMMENTARY

Romney announces bid in Michigan

With an ever-increasing field of potential candidates, the 2008 run for the White House is starting to heat up in earnest. Seemingly every day, a new candidate either formally has thrown his or her hat into the ring, formed an exploratory committee or has begun glad-handing around the country in order to drum up support in a bid for the presidency. The latest addition to the roster of presidential hopefuls is Mitt Romney, the Republican former governor of Massachusetts. Romney, however, didn't announce his candidacy in Massachusetts, where he lives.

COMMENTARY

Ethanol could save state's economy

America's gluttonous appetite for oil is not new. For the seventh time, President Bush mentioned the importance of energy independence in his State of the Union address last month. Bush also expressed the need for the United States to invest in the production of ethanol. Now, Michigan finds itself at an important crossroad.

COMMENTARY

Group's removal was not warranted

ASMSU passed a bill Friday removing Great Issues, a group from its programming board, after an argument about a speaker the group paid to visit MSU. The speaker, Joe Carr, reportedly made anti-Semitic and other hate speech comments last year, spurring the Jewish Students Union and the Arab Cultural Society to introduce a bill calling for the removal of Great Issues from the undergraduate student government. After a meeting that wore on until after 2 a.m., ASMSU's Student Assembly removed the group for bringing "events which actually promote mistrust, hatred and even violence toward minorities on campus," the bill stated. Great Issues was a 17-member facet of the programing board.

COMMENTARY

More students should run for ASMSU

As we enter ASMSU's election season, the organization has 32 vacant seats — leaving every MSU college except James Madison and Social Science underrepresented in the Student and Academic assemblies.

COMMENTARY

Same-sex partners deserve benefits

Another blow was delivered to same-sex couples Friday, with the state court's decision to ban same-sex health care benefits. The ruling follows the state constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage from the 2004 election — it passed with 59 percent of the vote. According to the court, when Michigan voters approved the ban on gay marriages, they also banned domestic partner benefits as well. During the run-up to the election, proponents of the gay marriage ban stated early and often that same-sex couples retain all the rights afforded to them.

COMMENTARY

Attend student commission meetings

The University Student Commission, or USC, of East Lansing serves as a venue for students to gather together and express their viewpoints on the policies and legislation in the city.

COMMENTARY

Shiite-Sunni tensions elevated in U.S.

It seems the rift that exists between Sunnis and Shiites is not confined to Iraq. The disagreement and fight has spilled over into the United States. Recently, there has been an uptick in discord domestically between the two groups, with many of the recent encounters occurring in Dearborn, where 30 percent of the city's less than 100,000 people are Arabic, according to the U.S.

COMMENTARY

State front-runner in HPV education

Approximately 10,000 women will develop cervical cancer this year in the United States. Of that 10,000, approximately 4,000 will lose the battle. A group of Michigan legislators, including Rep.