By Michael Steigmeyer Special for The State News A plan to move a Lansing Board of Water & Light building to an East Lansing park is being reconsidered despite a city advising commission's reservations.
The Residence Halls Association and both assemblies of ASMSU will meet together for the first time tonight to discuss issues such as the independent commission reviewing the April 2-3 disturbances, water quality and campus recycling. Members of RHA and ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government, will hold the meeting at 7 p.m.
Chris Savage was shocked to learn the $20,000 prize he won from Samsung's "Hope for Education" essay contest for East Lansing High School was rejected because the principal refused to provide her social security number on the paperwork. "I heard from Samsung saying (the school) had declined it," said Savage, an East Lansing resident.
At one point this semester, Laura Sologuren Sanchez had about 1,600 books in her residence hall, but none of them were hers. The learning disabilities freshman started the student group Books for Africa when she arrived to MSU from her native Bolivia, and kept donations in a Mason Hall storage room. The group collects new and used English-language books for all ages and donates them to organizations working to help reduce costs for building community libraries and educational centers in African countries. "We are changing African children's lives — it's amazing," said Sanchez, who is president of the group.
More than 10,000 books, boxes of school supplies and backpacks were donated last month to a Mississippi school district hit by Hurricane Katrina, after an MSU student adopted the district. Through her organization called Heart 2 Heart, elementary education senior Michelle Buffa collected donations at drives held at local libraries and schools, and at her hometown school in Grand Blanc.
Lansing's Old Town is in the midst of its holiday celebration with events aimed at bringing people of all ages to the area and its businesses. "It's an opportunity for MSU students to sneak away from East Lansing and see that this area has a lot more to offer than they think," said Jamie Schriner-Hooper, executive director of the Old Town Commercial Association. The celebration, "Holidays in Old Town," started on Dec.
Chris Savage's entry: "Why is the sky blue?" The teacher sends a webpage showing light scattered by atmospheric molecules onto the screens set into her students' desks. As she answers the young girl's question, a colorful, animated scene plays out, graphically depicting the process. One hearing-disabled student hears his teacher's words transmitted wirelessly from a discrete microphone on her lapel to tiny hearing aids in his ears. Another student with diminished eyesight sees the animation on a larger, high-contrast screen. Different students, different learning styles, different needs, different teaching approaches. Technology in the classroom can make this happen simultaneously, seamlessly and effectively.
Azra Kapetanovic remembers people constantly running from place to place in Prijedor, Bosnia, during the early 1990s. When the Bosnian conflict began in 1992, she said members of her community were living day-to-day, just trying to survive. "There were days when 100 people would be sleeping in one house, not even sleeping, just sitting and waiting for the night to be over," the 24-year-old electrical engineering senior said of her memories from the conflict in the country now known as Bosnia-Herzegovina. Kapetanovic, who will graduate from MSU on Saturday, left her hometown with her family in December 1994 and arrived in the United States in April 1995. She said she enjoys MSU because she is seeing things from a different perspective. "In Bosnia, there's the same culture," Kapetanovic said.
An MSU professor has been granted $1.8 million to spend researching stress stemming from work and family. One of Professor Ellen Kossek's projects looks into these stresses, and another focuses on flexibility policies for unionized employees. "What happens with grants is you don't expect two pretty big ones, because it's so hard to get one," said Kossek, a labor and industrial relations professor. Kossek works with Leslie Hammer, a psychology professor at Portland State University in Oregon, on a $1.4-million project to research how stress from balancing home life and work affects people. Oregon Health & Science University is also involved in the study. The two professors, who previously worked together at national conferences, are using their specializations to uncover relationships between work-family stress, safety and health. The project is based out of PSU's Center for Work-Family Stress, Safety and Health, but some of the research is being done at MSU. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health is funding the three-year project. Work-family stress or conflicts occur when the strain of one role affects the other, Kossek said.
A microbiology and molecular genetics senior recently received a fellowship to continue her current research on kidney defects. Jennifer Edwards was awarded a 2005 Undergraduate Research Fellows Outstanding Local Students fellowship from the American Physiological Society. The 10-week fellowship will allow her to continue working in a lab and pay travel expenses to an experimental biology conference in San Francisco in April, where she will present her work — the relationship between kidneys and blood pressure. She has always known that she wants to go into medicine and do research, so she said this has been a good opportunity for her. "It's got to be something you have a true interest in and true passion for," Edwards said.
TruWisdom is holding an event to showcase women's programs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Dec. 15 at the Holiday Inn West Lansing Conference Center, 7501 W.
Since 2000, Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Mich., has been given $4,000 in contributions tied to Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a legislator from California who was charged with accepting political bribes. According to the Federal Election Commission's records, the Friends of Duke Cunningham gave Rogers $3,000 and the American Prosperity Political Action Committee gave him $1,000. Cunningham pleaded guilty to accepting nearly $2.4 million in bribes on Monday.
Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday its luxury Jaguar and Land Rover brands will no longer advertise in gay publications, but the nation's second-largest automaker denied that it made the decision under pressure from conservative Christian groups. "The decision, with regard to advertising, was a business decision," Ford spokesman Mike Moran said.
Patrick Wellever said his desire to create global awareness is why he wants to be a journalist. A 2004 research trip to China with 10 other students and an adviser resulted in an article on the social impacts of environmental protection initiatives. "Part of my story was to show the side that isn't told," said Wellever, an anthropology and journalism junior.
A proposed intersection with traffic lights that would replace the traffic circle at Bogue Street and Wilson Road would better control the flow of pedestrians, bicycles and vehicles, administrators say. As part of the 2020 Vision plan, Wilson Road between Farm Lane and Conrad Hall and Bogue Street between Shaw Lane and the Veterinary Medical Center parking lot will be reconstructed, adding bicycle lanes and changing the intersection. The MSU Board of Trustees will vote on an architect and engineer for the project at its meeting Friday. The proposed reconstruction of the traffic circle to include a traffic light fits with the priorities for pedestrians first, bicycles second and vehicles third, said Jeff Kacos, director of Campus Planning and Administration and chairman of the Campus Infrastructure Planning Work Group. "While traffic circles are very efficient for moving vehicles, they're not pedestrian-friendly," Kacos said.
As soon as it snows outside, animal science and pre-veterinary medicine junior Michelle Gormley said she shovels the sidewalk in front of her house in order to keep walkers safe. "It only takes a couple of minutes to shovel your sidewalk," she said.
Zeke the Wonder Dog was taken to the MSU Small Animal Clinic last Friday after he chewed some carpet in the home of his owners, Jim and Terri Foley. He was taken in for surgery after the carpet became stuck in his intestines, and he went home Monday evening. Zeke, whose real name is Dexter, is best known for catching flying discs during pregame and halftime events at Spartan football games and other locations. Terri Foley, Zeke's owner, said he might not have meant to eat the carpet. "We think he may have gotten sick from something else and tried to clean it up, but ended up eating the carpet, too," Terri Foley said.
The East Lansing Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road, will host a remembrance of Pearl Harbor on Dec.
Lansing's mayor-elect Virg Bernero headed off to mayor school last week and learned the ABC's of city management. He joined 18 other newly-elected mayors from the nation to attend the Seminar on Transition and Leadership for Newly Elected Mayors at Harvard University.