Former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard told public relations students at the Union about the value of a good pair of walking shoes.Blanchard talked to about 150 students, faculty and community members Thursday about how public relations benefited him in government, starting with his first run at the U.S.
Local bars and restaurants are making sure you don’t have to drive more than 600 miles this weekend to enjoy the NCAA Tournament showdown. While the men’s basketball team squares off against Arizona in the Final Four on Saturday, students staying in East Lansing will have a plethora of hot-spots to choose from when deciding where to watch the game. And local establishments are putting the finishing touches on plans and decorations, assuring a festive atmosphere for the green-and-white faithful. Alicia Engler, a server at Harper’s Restaurant and Brewpub, 131 Albert Ave., was doing her part Thursday afternoon. “I don’t know squat about basketball,” the 1998 MSU alumna admitted as she painted “NCAA Final Four” with little orange basketballs on one of the restaurant’s front windows.
FRIDAY: “The Marriage of Figaro” will be presented at 8 p.m. at the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre.
The ASMSU Academic Assembly’s ninth session ended with a 20-minute meeting full of laughter Tuesday, but Academic Assembly Chairperson Charles McHugh said the assembly’s laid-back demeanor did not always exist.“We had always been looked at as the dry, pin-drop assembly,” McHugh said.
With natural gas prices soaring, universities across the state are scrambling to pay high heating bills. “We have a budget shortfall of about $1.4 million,” said Rick Duffett, vice president for administration and finance at Ferris State University.
Jennifer Lopez is just a simple girl. She tries to deal with the demands and stresses of a full-time career in the best manner she knows how, all the while trying to maintain close ties with her fans - however, I’m not one of them.
It’s a typical rainy March afternoon in East Lansing - but that doesn’t bother Jim Tyler at all.An East Lansing resident, Tyler smiles broadly as he bends down to pick up a penny from a muddy puddle of rainwater.“Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck,” he said as he went off on his way to work.Almost everybody has a superstition of one kind or another, said Robert McKinley, an MSU professor of religious studies.“Superstitions may be irrational sometimes, but they are very attractive and comforting to people,” he said.
Actor/dental hygiene model Jerry O’Connell crosses my mind a lot. I think of him twice as much as any other young actor, usually because I mistake his name for Chris O’Donnell’s in conversations. Take “Tomcats,” starring Joe of “Joe’s Apartment.” It’s about a few plucky fellas who are scared of commitment and their comedic falls into it.
Love, jealousy and deceit - not to mention a woman dressed as an adolescent boy who then dresses as a woman - will come to the stage of the Auditorium’s Fairchild Theatre tonight in Mozart’s operatic comedy, “The Marriage of Figaro.” The opera will be performed in English by MSU students who have been rehearsing since January. Set in Seville, Spain, in the late 18th century, the opera revolves around the relationships between servants Susanna and Figaro, and the Count and Countess Almaviva, who they serve. “Susanna is quick and smart, and her goal in this opera is to get married to Figaro,” said music performance graduate student Lara Troyer, who plays Susanna.
After spending its first month of the season traveling on buses and planes to other teams’ diamonds, the MSU baseball team will finally get a chance to play on their home field today.
As the MSU basketball team prepares to play Arizona on Saturday in its third consecutive NCAA Final Four appearance, students should congratulate the team and themselves for a great season. With the memories of the March 27-28, 1999, riot after MSU’s loss to Duke still haunting the university, students should think about how circumstances have improved in the two years since. In the March 27-28, 1999, riot, 132 people were arrested, although only 71 were MSU students.
LOS ANGELES - Think you can survive “Big Brother 2?” CBS is looking for contestants to take part this summer in the second season of its reality television show, in which a group of strangers are confined to a house, surrounded by cameras and microphones. But this season of “Big Brother” will be different for a couple of reasons, the network said Tuesday. Instead of viewers deciding who leaves each week, the housemates will vote each other out, similar to the elimination process on CBS’ reality TV juggernaut, “Survivor.” When three players are left, the audience will choose which one walks out with the grand prize. The show also has a new producer.
The MSU men’s basketball and hockey teams are not the only groups on campus earning high honors these days. The MSU Peace Corps ranks in the top 25 among colleges and universities nationwide who have the highest number of volunteers currently serving overseas.
I would like to thank Brian Emerson Jones for recognizing the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgendered community in his column “Pride Week celebrations are important to all” (SN 3/28). Pride Week is an important time not only to celebrate diverse sexual orientations and gender identities, but to push the acceptance wall back a little bit, and if at all possible, abolish some ignorance here and there. I, too, have endured harassing comments written on my residence hall door and various verbal harassment during the years simply because of the fact that I happen to be gay.
Threats to MSU’s state funding increases may have been previewed Wednesday, when the state House narrowly voted down an amendment that would have redistributed much of the university’s $22.5 million increase to other universities.The House passed the Higher Education Appropriation’s bill without changing the 7 percent increase slated for the university.
Thousands of Spartan fans came to say farewell to the men’s basketball team Wednesday - many carrying signs saying the squad is “Ready to repeat.” The team, prior to departing for the Final Four in Minneapolis, Minn., where it will take on Arizona on Saturday, emerged from the tunnel in the Breslin Student Events Center wearing matching green warm-ups. And head coach Tom Izzo and his players promised the crowd they’d do their best to bring home a win against the Wildcats.
Judy Shepard, the mother of a gay University of Wyoming student who was beaten to death more than two years ago, will visit campus Monday to discuss the effects of hate on America. Matthew Shepard died in October 1998 after being severely beaten and left to die tied to a fence near Laramie, Wyo.
Five recruits have signed letters of intent to join the Spartan field hockey team next fall.Jaqueline Ahinga, Christina Kirkaldy, Kelly Collier, Katie Minns and Michelle Carstens will start their collegiate careers suiting up for the Spartans.Ahinga and Collier will bolster the team’s backfield and have a chance to contribute defensively.Head coach Michele Madison said she expects the freshman defenders to have an immediate impact.“We look for the freshman to help us defensively from the start,” she said.“Kelly has a great attitude and desire to play for the Spartans.
Coach Izzo deserves congratulations for what is already another great season, but he deserves even more respect for how he and his team reached this point.
Longevity is the only requirement for becoming a dynasty. Three straight Final Four appearances and four consecutive Big Ten Championships can’t begin to tell the tale of today’s MSU hoop dream. Former MSU leaders like Mateen Cleaves and Morris Peterson are entrenched as legends, leaving head coach Tom Izzo - the prophet - to mastermind future championship teams.