WEB EXTRA: MSU College of Law students hold debate on Solomon Amendment
Speakers both for and against a controversial military recruiting amendment debated in front of about 20 people Tuesday at the MSU College of Law. The Solomon Amendment allows the federal government to deny federal funding to colleges and universities if they deny military recruiters access to campus. The military has a "don't ask, don't tell" policy with regard to the LBGT community, stating that recruiters and other military officials cannot ask or pursue any rumors about a person's sexual orientation. The Supreme Court ruled last month that the Solomon Amendment is constitutional after some schools challenged the amendment because they felt it is discriminatory. Gerald Walpin, a director at the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Individual Rights, debated in support of the Solomon Amendment and Jay Kaplan, staff attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan's LBGT Project, debated against it. The MSU Triangle Bar Association and the MSU College of Law Federalist Society cohosted the debate. Walpin said he believes having military recruiters on campus is a form of free speech and that they should not be banned from coming. "The federal government has the right to condition its grants or funds on universities not implementing military recruiting," Walpin said.
E.L. parking perks
Parking garages and lots in downtown East Lansing could soon offer discounts for students and part-time employees as soon as fall semester and allow people to pay for parking by credit card.
MSU coordinates teaching of Arabic
MSU will coordinate the Michigan arm of a national language initiative to teach more people to speak Arabic. The National Strategic Language Initiative, first announced at a conference of U.S.
Innovations: learning linguistics
Name: Professor Barbara Abbott Department: Linguistics and Germanic, Slavic, Asian and African Languages Type of research: Analyzing what words and sentences mean Date of research: Abbott started the research during graduate school in 1970.
WEB EXTRA: East Lansing mayor and Guster to promote environmental-friendly fuels
Local government, rock 'n' roll and biodiesel will collide Thursday when East Lansing Mayor Sam Singh joins Adam Gardner, singer and guitarist for the popular rock band Guster, on MSU's campus to advocate for environmentally friendly fuels. The two will meet Dr. Steve Pueppke, director of MSU's Office of Bio-based Technologies, and Bob Boehm, manager of Commodity and Marketing for the Michigan Farm Bureau, at 1 p.m.
Author Chris Mooney to speak on campus
Author Chris Mooney will speak on campus at 7 p.m. Thursday in the Wilson Hall Auditorium. The event will be open to the public. Mooney wrote the best-selling book, "The Republican War on Science." He also works for Seed Magazine and The American Prospect. Mooney's books will be for sale after the event, and he will do a book signing. The program is sponsored by MSU's Science, Technology, Environment and Public Policy Specialization.
WEB EXTRA: CATA to cut back sevices on Abbott Road
CATA will cut back services for the No. 26 bus line which goes down Abbott Road. Starting April 10, it will extend the Friday schedule for Monday through Thursday.
New York Times editor to headline lecture
Daniel Okrent, the former public editor for The New York Times and author of four books, will give the annual Neal Shine Ethics Lecture at 4 p.m.
Clothing store opens in E.L.
It's finally here. After months of waiting, the Los Angeles-based American Apparel clothing store opened its doors Tuesday to East Lansing.
American Apparel's grand opening today
American Apparel's U.S.-made, solid-colored clothes will be available to East Lansing shoppers beginning at 10 a.m.
Sparty's to help finance Katrina relief
Sparty's Convenience Stores will begin selling donation cards on Monday to raise funds for an MSU volunteer program in New Orleans. The program, called the MSU New Orleans Summer Project, will send about 30 MSU students, faculty and volunteers to four New Orleans-area school districts this summer, where they will tutor K-12 students and help rebuild the teachers' homes affected by Hurricane Katrina last August. "It's a new effort, and it really appears to be an effort that pulls together a number of issues that are important to the university and Sparty's," said Ken Deneau, Sparty's general manager. The projected cost of the project is about $800 per person, said Joyce Grant, an associate professor of teacher education who is coordinating the trip. Volunteers will drive down in rented vans on May 29 and return to Michigan on June 25, she said. "There are a lot of things that are going on to raise money," Grant said, including efforts to earn support grants.
ASMSU orients new members
Student government officials are working this week to transition ASMSU's organization into its next term, which begins today. ASMSU is MSU's undergraduate student government. The group is introducing new assembly members to the organization and preparing old members for their new positions, among other things, as this week is labeled "Orientation Week" by ASMSU officials. "We're going to have to get the organization functioning with the new positions that have opened as a result of the tax increase, integrate them and do that as quickly as possible," said Roger Ludy, vice chairperson for internal affairs for ASMSU's Student Assembly.
9 in 10 cell phone users find other callers annoying
Kanani Daka was playing basketball when another player's cell phone rang. The player stopped the game, only to yell at his girlfriend and make a scene, Daka said.
Taking on the world
The MSU Vis Arbitral Moot team will participate in an international law competition beginning on Saturday. The 13th annual Willem C.
Group aims to define personhood
A Michigan pro-life organization hopes to collect enough signatures by the November election to define a person as created from the moment of conception.
Gas prices up from last year
The average price of gas in Michigan is 41 cents higher than it was at this time last year — and the prices could reach as high as $3 at their peak this summer, according to AAA of Michigan. The average price of gas in Michigan is $2.645 per gallon according to an April 3 survey conducted by AAA. Gas in the Lansing area is about 5 cents higher than average for the rest of the state, at about $2.696, according to the automobile association report.
Games used to liven up classrooms
By Trey Scroggin For The State News Some professors say they have found the key to making traditional lectures more interesting — by turning them into games. At the Reacting to the Past conference for faculty held over the weekend at the Kellogg Center, professors learning about France in the 1790s took on the roles of figures of the era while gaining insight to a new teaching method. The Reacting to the Past program is a way of allowing students to take control of their education by participating in a role-playing game in which they assume the roles of people throughout history and argue about different issues from their characters' perspectives. All the professors involved with the game, called "Rousseau, Burke and Revolution in France, 1791," were eager to speak for their characters' opinions and dig into the material. The purpose of the conference was to familiarize MSU faculty with the program and the structure of the games, as well as to put it in contact with professors who have previously taught the program. More than a dozen games have been developed for classroom use.