GO BLOW YOURSELVES ELPD. These crass words, written in block print on the back of T-shirts made after the April 2-3 disturbances, might adequately convey the feelings of students who feel they were wronged that evening.
Closed-door meetings among police, craftily worded public statements from the university president and apprehensive silence from the East Lansing City Council - this is what our community leaders have given to us after nearly three weeks. The latest decision by law enforcement officials to keep their discussions about the April 2-3 disturbances quiet is the straw that broke the back of my belief in the civic process.
Brian Foster is a first-generation college student who believes education needs to be accessible, especially at a land-grant institution.
The MSU softball team recorded 4-0 and 5-0 victories at Oakland on Tuesday, its first doubleheader sweep against the same opponent since the 2002 season. Sophomore Rachel Turney and Freshman Lesley Noel each pitched the complete-game shutouts in the doubleheader sweep. Turney's shutout was the second time in her last three starts that she has blanked an opponent.
In 1997, author Nick Hornby wrote and published a screenplay called "Fever Pitch," loosely based on his own lifelong obsession with Arsenal, the English football club.
Gary Westfall's years of research on matter have come to an unexpected "perfect" ending. Westfall, an MSU physics and astronomy professor, belongs to a team of physicists from around the world who recently discovered a new state of matter, a "perfect liquid," that the researchers say might have been one of the first substances created after the Big Bang. The matter is a hot, dense substance that scientists say is liquid-like. "This is a way for us to understand the basic building blocks of nature," Westfall said of the discovery. The "perfect liquid" was a huge surprise to many in the scientific community. "It's like living in a world where water exists only as water vapor and water and then discovering ice," said Sam Aronson, associate laboratory director for high energy and nuclear physics at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Brookhaven, where the study's experiments took place, houses a giant "atom smasher." The new matter was created by smashing two gold nuclei together at the highest energies available on Earth.
After taking the women's basketball team to the NCAA championship game, head coach Joanne P. McCallie is getting a new contract. The contract goes into effect July 1, and remains a five-year roll over deal that is now valued at $400,000 annually.
As police prepare to release their internal evaluation of the April 2-3 disturbances, city officials are beginning the process of choosing members for an independent review commission. Before the commission convenes, East Lansing Deputy police Chief Tom Wibert said a report by local police will be released May 3 at the City Council meeting scheduled for that evening. Numbers of tear-gas canisters used, overtime and damage estimates from that weekend have not yet been released and are expected to be included in the police report. "The important thing is for us to get this thing out while school is still in session," Wibert said.
It was a weekend of triumph for the MSU baseball team. First, the Spartans became only the second team to win a series at Ohio State in the nine-year-old Bill Davis Stadium. Second, because of their performances against the Buckeyes, sophomore catcher Sean Walker was named the Big Ten's co-Player of the Week along with Minnesota's Andy Hunter, and junior pitcher Tim Day was named the league's Pitcher of the Week after a complete game shutout Friday. "It was great, well deserved," MSU head coach Ted Mahan said Tuesday.
I saw "A Very Long Engagement" at Wells Hall this past weekend, and although I greatly enjoyed the movie, I was quite angry when I saw that we were watching the movie in an altered aspect ratio (it was composed in widescreen), and it was of poor picture quality. If we are paying taxes to the Residence Halls Association that pay for these movies, I want to see my money on the screen.
I am a graduate student in the Department of English and I teach - boy, do I teach - for MSU. I am outraged at the university's unwillingness to bargain with the Graduate Employees Union to reach a contract guaranteeing decent pay, health care and working conditions for teaching assistants, who teach one-third of all classes at MSU and grade two-thirds of all assignments. In the five years I have been at MSU, I have taught 486 students.
Academic officials can live in a small world. Brian Foster, a candidate for provost at MSU, also is a candidate for the same post at the University of Missouri-Columbia. And Janie Fouke, dean of the MSU College of Engineering, is another of the three candidates for the Missouri job. Foster, the provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at the University of New Mexico, visits MSU today and will spend April 24-26 at Missouri. He said the campus visits will play a key role in his decision if both jobs are offered to him. "I guess I would go where I would find the best fit and make the best impact," Foster said, adding he also is being considered at other schools.
In the continuing fight to ban preference based on race and gender in university admissions and government hiring, the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative faces another challenge from opposing groups.
On Tuesday, various committees updated Academic Council members on the progress of their initiatives. The New Residential College/School Curriculum Team presented a 39-page report that included the mission of the program and curriculum requirements, including possible courses. The residential college, or school, would be housed in renovated Snyder and Phillips halls and have a focus on the humanities.
It's been little more than two weeks since the "disturbances" after the MSU loss to North Carolina and already it seems that the students of MSU are allowing the East Lansing Police Department and city officials to get away with their own riotous behavior.
The familiar food guide pyramid that graced cafeteria walls, cereal boxes and doctors' offices has been replaced. The U.S.
At Tuesday's East Lansing City Council meeting held on campus, about 30 students brought forward concerns about a report by police intended to investigate the April 2-3 disturbances. And on the same day, Mayor Mark Meadows told The State News he will not seek re-election and instead is considering a run for state representative for the East Lansing district.
The MSU wrestling team inked Nick Palmieri to a National Letter of Intent for the 2005-06 season, head coach Tom Minkel announced Tuesday. In his senior season at Mayfield High School in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, Palmieri complied a 43-4 record at 215 pounds.
Editor's note: This is the third in a five-part series to reintroduce the people who run East Lansing.