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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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 U.S.-made, solid-colored clothes will be available to East Lansing shoppers beginning at 10 a.m.
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.
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.
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.
The MSU Vis Arbitral Moot team will participate in an international law competition beginning on Saturday. The 13th annual Willem C.
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.
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.
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.
Lansing — Mayor Virg Bernero proclaimed March 31 Cesar Chavez Day as more than 150 people attended a rally Friday at the Capitol.
Issues such as how much negotiating power a person has when getting a warranty for a television and in contracts with insurance companies were addressed at a conference Friday at the MSU College of Law. Law students and professors listened to speakers at the conference, which was organized by the Michigan State Law Review and law Associate Professor Daniel Barnhizer.
In three weeks, students will have their last opportunity to take the paper version of the Medical College Admission Test. Upcoming changes to the exam, commonly known as the MCAT, will transform it from a paper format into an electronic format — allowing more opportunities for students to take the exam each year, and faster turn-around time for students and universities to receive scores. But the transition won't have a large impact on MSU's medical schools, which use the exam during the admissions process, university officials said. The colleges of Human Medicine and Osteopathic Medicine require the MCAT for admission, and the College of Veterinary Medicine accepts both the MCAT and the Graduate Record Examination, or GRE. The College of Veterinary Medicine would be the least affected of the three colleges, because most of their applicants take the GRE, said Hilda Mejia Abreu, director of admissions for the college. "It doesn't impact us as much as it would the other medical schools," Abreu said. But Kathie Schafer, director of admissions for the College of Osteopathic Medicine, said the change in format would help in processing applications. "It'll be more efficient for us if the applicants get their results quickly, too," Schafer said.
Lansing — Beginning in front of the Central United Methodist Church, hundreds of students marched around the state Capitol building and past the Michigan Hall of Justice before returning to the steps of the Capitol. The demonstration was held to call attention to the group's claim that Michigan voters were deceived into signing the petition that will put the Michigan Civil Rights Initiative, or MCRI, on the ballot in the November election. The rally was organized by the Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration & Immigrant Rights And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary, or BAMN. Jonvonte Porter, a junior at Holt High School, attended the rally and said most Michigan citizens are unaware of the issues surrounding the MCRI. Porter said he came to the rally because he was upset at the attack on affirmative action, and the state's refusal to address the alleged voter fraud in the petition process. "People don't understand the depths of this proposal," Porter said.