Some members of the MSU Board of Trustees said the board is not doing anything wrong by having closed work sessions the night before its monthly meetings. But the justifications they provided for closing those sessions left us with more questions than answers. The board holds closed work sessions the day before their formal meeting, in which the two committees talk about the issues on the agenda.
Another MSU student is stepping up to the challenge and running for a government office. Law student John Knowles announced his candidacy for a seat in the Michigan House of Representatives in the 69th District, which includes East Lansing and Williamston.
Oh, ASMSU. You've captivated us with your latest bill. MSU's undergraduate student government has passed a bill in support of two extra days off during fall semester — a fall break.
Timing is everything. But ASMSU seems to be a bit behind. Months after the independent commission reviewing the April 2-3 disturbances released its report, MSU's undergraduate student government is demanding that MSU police be held responsible for its actions regarding events surrounding the disturbances. ASMSU is currently working on a bill that would ask the Executive Committee of Academic Governance to create a special investigative committee to decide if MSU police "shirked" its duty by not cooperating with the independent commission. It's a great idea for ASMSU to take students' needs into account and try to do something about it. But it took ASMSU, what, three months after the commission released its report to discover this? If this was a pressing problem, ASMSU should have gotten involved and demanded that the MSU police be more cooperative when the commission was still meeting. Because the bill — a potentially positive step for students — is late, it looks like ASMSU is just beating a dead horse. A horse that collapsed and died in October, when students decided they didn't want their voices heard and failed to show up to the independent commission's public hearing. Or maybe it died when members of ASMSU, who were assigned to the commission, failed to show up for several meetings. Even if students do still care about that night, it's questionable what the actual effect of having another investigation would be. The independent commission was created to investigate that night and it met for months on end to eventually release a report with recommendations to prevent the disturbances from happening again.
What is the point of giving MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon an $85,000 raise if she is going to give it back to MSU?
The MSU Board of Trustees makes some of the most important decisions for this university. It decides how much students pay for tuition, where fans can tailgate and whether they can drink on campus. At their public monthly meetings, trustees spend only a few minutes discussing crucial issues affecting thousands of students before voting unanimously on almost all of them. How eerily efficient. But the public meeting isn't where the real discussions are taking place.
Say you're walking down Grand River Avenue listening to your iPod with those little white earbuds burrowed inside of your delicate ears. Sure, there are warnings of permanent ear damage, but people couldn't possibly use regular earphones, even though they might be more comfortable or convenient. Without the trendy white earphones, how would anyone know you had an iPod? A recent study concluded that prolonged use of small earbud headphones can cause hearing damage. Just like the "coolness" of traipsing around with a bronze tan, taking a long puff of a cigarette or clutching that venti-sized Starbucks coffee, people don't care about ear damage, skin or lung cancer and stunted growth — as long as they look amazingly stylish in the process of acquiring these health complications. When the effects aren't readily apparent and are too far off to think about, people convince themselves it's all OK, for now.
Why the U.S. military decided to let this happen is mind-boggling. In an attempt to kill one al-Qaida member, 18 Pakistani civilians are dead.
How did you spend Martin Luther King Jr. Day? Did you watch television? Sleep in? Go to a movie?
Almost two years ago, the news that human stem cells had been cloned sent reverberations around the world.
Society is changing. We are constantly figuring out new ways to connect to one another and share information. The new Sidekick II from T-Mobile allows users to text message even more quickly.
For years, cognates, or specialties, have given students the opportunity to explore topics outside of their college. English majors have the chance to explore some seemingly unrelated classes in of crop and soil sciences.
When people hear about MSU, a few instant characteristics come to mind. Namely sports and agriculture. For that reason, it seems fitting that out of the more than $2 million in grants MSU received due to outstanding research, a large part will go toward the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The agriculture college has expanded to create all different kinds of agriculture including sustainable agriculture, which will receive $384,000 of the granted money.
When Virg Bernero became mayor of Lansing, he took a step up from his prior position in the Senate. He became the mayor of Michigan's capital city. But when he left his seat in the Senate, he left an opening that will be costly to fill. With Bernero moving, his seat is open for another candidate.
Let's be honest — East Lansing and MSU had some ups and downs in 2005. There was the disturbance/riot/student behavior problem/police-using-too-much-force "incident" in April. There was a City Council election and elections for student representatives that no students showed up for. But it's 2006.
Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the issue of violating civil liberties for national security has been widely discussed and argued about. There was the issue of the no-fly list which banned certain people from being able to board airplanes. Then there was the debate about the government looking at what library books people were checking out. Now comes the news that in 2002 President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to use wiretaps on residents to monitor phone calls and e-mails without a court order.
Jack Abramoff, a former political lobbyist, was at the root of a scandal that involved lying, cheating and stealing. On Jan.
A lot happened last year, from "disturbances" to the announcement of a college moving. As the new year begins, these, and many more issues, are still important. The Michigan Civil Rights Initiative The MCRI is a ballot proposal that would amend the state constitution to prohibit Michigan's public universities and other state entities from discriminating or granting preferential treatment based on race, sex, color, ethnicity or national origin. The petition has enough signatures to be put on the ballot this November, but controversy over the proposal's wording caused the Board of State Canvassers to refuse certifying the petition, despite an order from the Michigan Court of Appeals.
Best movie: Crash Best television show: "Arrested Development" Best album: "In Your Honor" by Foo Fighters Best fashion trend: Puffy vests Best new restaurant: Big Ten Burrito Best ice cream flavor: Sesquicentennial Swirl at Dairy Store Worst movie: The Dukes of Hazzard Worst television show: "Stacked" Worst album: "PCD" by Pussycat Dolls Worst fashion trend: Ugg Boots Worst new restaurant: All restaurants in the International Center Worst ice cream flavor: All other flavors in comparison
Students It's been a rough year for MSU students. On April 2-3, we saw them get tear gassed by police.