Ingham County prosecutors signed a warrant Monday for the arrest of a 19-year-old MSU student accused of sexually assaulting another 19-year-old MSU student, MSU police Sgt.
A fallen tree blocked the railroad tracks east of Farm Lane and north of Mount Hope Road for less than an hour Monday, MSU police Sgt.
By Andrea Byl For The State News Okemos Flea Market has brought a whole new experience to shopping. The grand opening March 3 brought in nearly 15,000 curious shoppers to the old Frank's Nursery & Crafts warehouse, across from Meridian Mall.
Lyman Briggs Freshman Class Council is accepting new or used children's books to donate to Riddle Elementary in Lansing. "Since this our first fundraiser, we don't have a set goal," Vice President Jeremy Phan said.
The East Lansing City Council work session scheduled for Tuesday has been canceled. The council's next regular meeting will be held March 21. Last Tuesday, the council took care of some spring cleaning, approving licenses for Lou & Harry's Five Star Deli, The Post and Cosi Inc. to open their sidewalk seating. The Meijer store at 1350 W.
The Michigan Senate passed a bill on Thursday that would raise the state's minimum wage in three increments to $7.40 per hour in 2008 from its current rate of $5.15 per hour. If the bill becomes law, the minimum wage would be $6.95, beginning on Oct.
By Tevye Sussman For The State News It's nearly noon on Saturday and two volunteers are feverishly putting the final touches on a potluck table.
Gary A. Mason and Kumbi Salim, also known as Stanley A. Price, were ordered March 3 to go to trial for the 1973 murder of Martin V.
It's hard to get a tan in environmental suits and dust masks, but the MSU students who headed to the Gulf Coast for spring break last week didn't seem to mind. The students did community service work in storm-ravaged New Orleans as part of an alternative spring break program.
Daredevil motorcyclists, cotton candy, elephant rides, wide-eyed children and a human cannonball — Breslin Center came alive this weekend with the sights, sounds and smells of the Royal Hanneford Circus. Lansing's Caravan Youth Center brought the circus to campus for the 15th-straight year for five weekend performances.
By Melanie Thomas, Melissa Domsic, and Cori Devries The State News With the relaxed party atmosphere that tends to go along with spring break, officials want to make sure students don't leave their common sense back home. "A lot of times on vacation (students) want to get away; they want to relax," said Jodi Roberto Hancock, educational program coordinator for the MSU Women's Resource Center.
East Lansing officials are lining up the necessary pieces to encourage high-rise, mixed-use, urban construction projects in the 35-acre East Village, located adjacent to MSU between Bogue Street and Hagadorn Road.
Home help workers are joining forces across the state to push for higher wages to improve Michigan's home health care system. The Michigan Quality Home Care Campaign wants to convince state lawmakers to pass legislation to raise wages, add insurance and require training for in-home help workers to reduce the number leaving home health care sectors.
MSU will add the Senator Paul Simon Award for Campus Internationalization to its credits after a ceremony in late May. The award is being presented to the university by NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a global organization that promotes international education and cultural exchange. The association picked MSU for the award, as well as four other universities, to honor MSU's commitment to increasing international education both on campus and abroad. MSU has about 200 study abroad programs in 60 countries, according to the Office of Study Abroad. The award will be presented to the university during a conference scheduled for May 21-26 in Montreal. The university also will be featured in a report, "Internationalizing the Campus 2006: Profiles of Success at Colleges and Universities," to be published on the Web site www.nafsa.org.
Forty MSU students are creating and producing a marketing campaign for American Honda Motor Co. Inc. this semester. MSU is one of 18 universities nationwide — and one of two in the Big Ten — that are participating in this spring's Honda Fit Marketing Challenge. The other Big Ten university is the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The challenge allows students from each university to develop an advertising campaign featuring American Honda's new subcompact car, the Fit. Each university received $2,500 to produce their campaigns during a 12-week period. "It's just a really great way to actually gain real-world experience," said advertising and English senior Brianna Bartemeyer, who also is in charge of public relations for MSU's campaign. "We're able to put everything that we've been able to learn through our years here and implement it into this campaign." It's possible that some of the students' campaigns could be used by American Honda in their actual advertisements, said Ariel de la Merced, a senior analyst with American Honda. "We're confident that the end result of this project would be very positive, and we would like to use some of the material for our own marketing strategies," de la Merced said. MSU's students are enrolled in the Advertising Campaigns class under visiting lecturer Jim Gilmore, who sets up the classroom as a full-service advertising agency that includes various departments, from research to accounting. "We were really set up for the way that (American Honda) wanted this done," Gilmore said. The class is in the creativity stage of the campaign and is preparing for an on-campus promotional event for the Fit on April 7, he said. "They're trying to get ideas from young people on how to reach young people," Gilmore said. MSU also is doing something differently than the other schools by offering national advertising through TV and radio commercials and print and Internet advertising, he said. American Honda chose to feature the Fit for this program, since it is aimed at college students, de la Merced said. "It's a perfect fit to have students involved with the marketing (and) advertising for this," he said. "We're using the true experts in that field, and hopefully from this program they can come up with ideas that we would probably use." The Fit was introduced in January at the Detroit Auto Show but isn't available to auto dealers until April, de la Merced said. American Honda did a similar program to feature the Element about three years ago, he added. EdVenture Partners, a California-based education and marketing consultant, selected the universities for the program and serves as a facilitator between MSU and American Honda. "We provide the day-to-day management of the program and are essentially the project managers between students, educators and the clients," founder and CEO Tony Sgro said. "We link college students with real clients … (and) we bring education to life." He added that MSU was selected for the program based on the university's reputation and connection to the demographic that the client is looking for. When the program ends in June, five students and a faculty member from the top three campaigns will travel to Los Angeles and meet with 50-75 American Honda executives. The students will present their campaigns in a 25-minute PowerPoint presentation, followed by five to 10 minutes of questions and answers with the executives, Sgro said. The winning teams receive anywhere from $1,000 to $5,000, which goes back to the university's advertising department, Sgro said.
There could be more university officials on the streets if a civil disturbance takes place in East Lansing during this year's Final Four tournament. An independent commission that convened to investigate the April 2-3 disturbances recommends members of MSU's administration be on hand to observe the actions of students as well as police officers, if a similar situation should occur in the future. "If there were other witnesses — not in anybody's camp — there is fairness and accuracy of description," said Beth Alexander, an independent commission member and the university physician. Alexander said the idea grew out of the commission's concern that differing accounts about actions taken during the disturbances from both police and students could not be independently verified. "There was a discrepancy of viewpoints of what happened," Alexander said. East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said more bodies on the streets mean more safety concerns, which is why he would want a dedicated group of observers who could meet officers ahead of time. "We wouldn't want people to just show up and say, 'We're here to observe,'" Wibert said. It would be important for observers to be able to pass through police lines, he said, so they would have to be in constant communication with police. Alexander said having more observers present would provide a neutral perspective on any actions, from both sides, that take place during any future disturbances. "It allows us to learn what we are doing well and what we are not doing so well," she said. Lee June, MSU's vice president for student affairs and services, said his department's staff members plan on being out on the streets should something happen again this year. June and other administrators were outside during April's disturbances and said the experience revealed a lack of communication between police and students. "We did not communicate the rules of engagement," June said. He said the first step is for the university and city to establish a clear message of what the rules are and what type of activity could lead to people getting arrested. During past disturbances, June said he has been in similar situations to April 2-3 and has run into students he knows.
American Apparel asks job applicants to send photos of themselves with a résumé in order to apply for a position at its clothing stores, one of which will open in East Lansing at the end of March. The company is looking for people with a "certain fashion sense" to work at the store, said Kristina Ledesma-Davies, manager of human resources at American Apparel. "It's the way people dress, it's the way people present themselves, if they would present our clothes well," Ledesma-Davies said.
Members of Freshman Class Council said the Academic Orientation Program could use some fine tuning, and they created a bill suggesting how to do just that. The Academic Orientation Program, or AOP, aims to prepare incoming freshmen for their college experiences at MSU. "The bill is a statement that tells exactly what we're looking for in orientation, the stuff we didn't like and what we'd like to see added," said Chris Lopez, Freshman Class Council president.