As part of a national project through the Muslim Students' Association, Sept. 26-30 is Islam Awareness Week. At MSU, several activities are planned for each night of the week, and it ends Friday with a tour of the Islamic Center of East Lansing, 920 S.
MSU and Michigan history will be the main topics of discussion at a conference being held Friday and Saturday by the Historical Society of Michigan. Speakers include Provost Kim Wilcox and former state Gov.
Michigan Indian Day will be celebrated from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Friday at the Union's Gold Rooms A & B. The free event will include speakers and cultural activities. An elder advocate of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, Warren Petoskey, will provide the keynote address.
The Marijuana Policy Project Foundation, a group formed to fight marijuana laws, has asked more than 2,300 fraternities and sororities around the country to contribute money this week. The national organization is focused on reforming marijuana laws, said Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project. The group aimed its solicitation to fraternities and sororities because the effects of marijuana laws fall disproportionately on the college-age group and believes that marijuana should be taxed and regulated, similar to alcohol, he said. "If you are arrested for having a joint, you could lose your student aid," Mirken said. Members of the MSU greek system would not consider the cause if contacted by the foundation, said Cody Dawson, the vice president of external relations for the Interfraternity Council. Choosing to smoke marijuana is an individual choice and individual opinion, and not something the greek community as a whole would choose to represent in any way, Dawson said.
The Michigan Women's Commission will hold a workshop for women interested in running for political office Friday and Saturday at 110 W.
Last spring, Eastern Michigan University student Zoe Piliafas spent an entire semester dressed as a Muslim woman. Piliafas, who is of Greek descent, went by the name Zhooda, adopted a Middle Eastern accent and wore a burqa - a dark shroud that covers everything except a woman's eyes.
For Michael Handley, taking quizzes during his summer zoology classes required him to get in a Jeep and drive to a field in search of the animals. The zoology junior was on a study abroad trip in Kenya for three weeks this summer and said the experience taught him more than he would have learned in a traditional classroom setting. "I am a hands-on learner and this helped," Handley said.
Warning signs restricting access to Alpha Tau Omega's house were still posted on Wednesday as fraternity President Alex Brown prepared for a Recruitment Week open house. Even though their house is uninhabitable, the fraternity has set up a make-shift Rush site each night in front of the damaged fraternity house using a mid-size white canopy, some long tables and plastic folding chairs. "It's kind of hard showing (the pledges) the outside of the house and not being able to show them the inside and what it has to offer," Brown said. The three-story brick building, at 251 W.
The Automotive Research Experiment Station will upgrade its facilities from a 9,000-square-foot laboratory located about five miles from campus to a state-of-the-art site on south campus. The new 30,000-square-foot location will be off Bogue Street and Service Road, south of the existing research Complex. The project's contractor was appointed by the MSU Board of Trustees on Friday.
Eleanor Long shops once-a-week at Marshall Field's in Meridian Mall. The East Lansing resident considers herself a good patron, but even so, she's not lamenting the news that 62 Midwest Marshall Field's stores will be replaced by Macy's next fall. Instead, Long said she'll welcome the new retailer, long synonymous with New York City shopping and its Thanksgiving Day parade. Federated Department Stores Inc. announced Tuesday it will convert Marshall Field's stores into Macy's to build the retailer into a national brand. Federated plans to extend Macy's to about 850 stores nationally, including locations at Meridian Mall and Lansing Mall, spokesman Jim Sluzewski said. "Stores like J.C.
Almost 70 percent of teenagers have had oral sex by the time they are 17, according to a study released by the National Center for Health Statistics last week. The study, which is the first to look at sexual behaviors of both men and women to be released by the federal government, found 68 percent of both men and women ages 15 to 17 have had oral sex.
A Residence Halls Association executive position is open following the resignation of RHA Vice President David Sahlin on Wednesday. Sahlin has held the position since being elected in March.
Students are expected to play a major role in determining if an organized spot for students to celebrate after a major sporting event is established, MSU and city officials said. Members of the independent commission investigating the April 2-3 disturbances have discussed creating a specified party place on Bogue Street as one of their recommendations for its draft report, commission member Joe Tuchinsky said. "The likelihood is that there would be music provided, the street would be closed to traffic and it would be a place where people could let off steam, display their excitement, and scream and dance and yell," Tuchinsky said. East Lansing police Chief Tom Wibert said the feasibility of the event hinges on students' response. "It depends on if it's attractive enough to students that they show up," Wibert said.
Several students lined the sidewalks of Farm Lane on Wednesday afternoon in protest to National Conservative Coming Out Day activities planned on campus. The group of about 30 protesters stood outside Bessey Hall - one of the sites conservative groups intended to use for the event - waving signs and voicing their concerns about the use of the words "coming out" to describe the event. Professional writing sophomore Ben Rubinstein, a member of the MSU Stonewall Democrats, was among the protesters and said the terminology was offensive. "We were there to help show our side of the story and our feeling that their calling this a national 'coming out' day was mocking," he said.
Researchers say not as many people are paying attention to the West Nile virus, despite findings that it caused two recent Michigan deaths. "There's less enthusiasm compared to the last few years," said Jon Patterson, veterinary pathologist at the Diagnostic Center for Population and Animal Health at MSU. "People realize West Nile virus is here and we have to live with it," Patterson said.
The Michigan Battered Women's Clemency Project is holding a rally titled "For Women Prisoners Who Never Received Fair Trials" at noon on Oct.
Gary Wood has dreamed of having a paperless advising system for the last 10 years, but it wasn't until the Undergraduate University Division teamed up with the Office of the Registrar that his dream became a reality. Students in three MSU colleges will no longer have to lug an academic folder across campus when meeting with an adviser, following the creation of the Electronic Student Academic Folder, a program designed to eliminate paper in the advising system. "We had wanted a paperless system for a number of reasons," said Wood, coordinator of the Undergraduate University Division's office in Bessey Hall.
The ballots have been ordered and the city of Lansing is preparing for another election season. City Clerk Debbie Miner said the city is ready to handle the voter turnout, even if it is greater than the city has projected. "It is going to work out very well," Miner said.