Five men sat around a square table in the basement of the MSU Hillel Jewish Student Center, 360 Charles St., betting chocolate coins wrapped in gold tin foil. "I'm a seasoned veteran of dreidel," said Aaron Ellias, a James Madison sophomore.
U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, and former state senator Dan DeGrow, R-Port Huron, will be the commencement speakers for the fall undergraduate ceremony.
MSU graduate students who attend the advanced degree ceremony can learn from the struggles of South African Ambassador Barbara Masekela, said David Wiley, a professor of sociology and director of the African Studies Center. "She's a woman who is a veteran of the struggle for a free South Africa," said Wiley.
The Ingham County prosecutor appointed a new chief assistant prosecutor to fill the vacancy left by Joyce Draganchuk, who was elected to the Circuit Court.
The newly built City Center parking ramp and a more efficient bus system have caused an increased debt in the city's parking system, officials said. Although parking revenues increased from $2.8 million to $3 million between 2003 and 2004, the expenses are more than the city's parking income, said Joe Heffernan of Plante & Moran. East Lansing Assistant Finance Director Connie Larkin said the debt has increased over the last four years because there are more operating expenses for additional parking, including paying for maintenance and staffing the parking lots. "Service costs are the biggest problem," Larkin said. The city overbuilt the newer structures because it was cheaper than building more in the future, but it now owes several million dollars on the lot, she said. "In the past, we were always short parking when we were doing development and we certainly didn't want to end up with that problem," Larkin said. She also said less people are driving downtown due to a more efficient Capital Area Transportation Authority system. The addition of shopping at Eastwood Towne Center in Lansing Township and a lack of downtown business diversity slowed parking usage as well, she said. The parking system also loses money when the city collects for parking tickets because it goes to the courts instead, a system which Larkin said the city is working to change. East Lansing City Councilember Vic Loomis, who is on the city's parking task force, said a substantial expansion of parking on MSU's campus is another reason for a drop in cars downtown, but that all the factors have an impact. "All of them taken into consideration put real pressure onto the revenues of the parking system," Loomis said. Dan O'Connor, East Lansing parking administrator, said his department is looking at different technologies that could attract more downtown parking patrons. O'Connor said central pay stations that accept credit cards and cash are options for replacing meters. "We're trying to accommodate the customers," he said. Larkin said although the credit card system will be an added cost, it is a good service to provide customers and hopefully keep them downtown. Since money is tight, Larkin said the city is also considering privatizing the parking program. "We're going to work as hard as we possibly can to solve these problems and try to not create more," she said. O'Connor said the parking department is hopeful that the improvements will help bring drivers back. "Right now, we're holding our own," he said.
The Michigan economy and the number of residents with a college degree will each gain some needed attention through the formation of a council on Tuesday by Gov.
Judith Njogu smiles at strangers since her arrival to the United States from Nairobi, Kenya. In Kenya, people are friendly and hospitable only after having their initial introduction, said Njogu, a medical technology and premedical senior.
Despite the fact that thousands of students will leave East Lansing for Christmas vacation in the next week, area business owners say they are not anticipating any change in sales. Instead, other residents can make up for the departure of students, said some owners. "Certainly our customer base shifts," said Dick Rosemont, co-owner of Flat Black & Circular, 541 E.
MSU President M. Peter McPherson will be honored by MSU alumnus Sen. Alan Sanborn, R-Richmond Township, at 10 a.m.
Lions and tigers and bears had better behave. A bill that would allow zookeepers to carry higher-concentration pepper spray to control large animals was introduced in the Michigan Senate in September and is now sitting in the Committee on Judiciary. "This adds a layer of safety on that we'd like to have," said Greg Geise, the director at Binder Park Zoo in Battle Creek. Geise said it was an important issue because the law does not make a provision for zoos to use the higher-concentration sprays.
Finals can cause students to stress out, but for people who perpetually feel pressured beyond coping capacity, the anxiety can actually cause their bodies to age. A recent study by Elizabeth Blackburn at University of California in San Fransisco has linked chronic stress to rapid cellular aging in women. The research could be relevant to college students who think they do not have the resources to cope with school and work, said Blackburn, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics. "Short-term acute stress is not bad for you - it's when it is day in and day out and you don't have the resources to deal with it," Blackburn said. According to the 2004 National College Health Assessment, 78 percent of students reported feeling stressed.
About 2,000 people have ticking time bombs inside of their hearts. Students at the MSU College of Engineering are looking for a way to defuse them. Graduate students Naveen Nair and Michael Chan are working with five other students to develop detection methods for faulty heart valves implanted in thousands of patients from the 1960s until the mid-1980s.
Those bringing issues to the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety Parking Office will have to stop in a half hour earlier on afternoons starting Jan.
The Red Cedar chapter of the Michigan Botanical Club will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. today in room 168 of the Plant Biology Laboratories. Beginning at 7:30 p.m., students who attended the 2004 Spring Foray will discuss their experiences.
The East Lansing City Council will not meet this week in observance of Hanukkah. Council will meet next for a work session on Dec.
In its continuing effort to institute undergraduate minors to MSU's degree program, ASMSU decided to lobby the administration for a more rigorous credit workload with minors. MSU's undergraduate student government's Academic Assembly decided to push for minors that would require 15 or more credits of work in a subject area. The assembly was divided on whether to institute a system similar to the University of Michigan's 15-18 credit load, or follow MSU's teaching program and its more than 20-credit minors. Academic Assembly Chairperson Dan Weber prefaced the assembly's debate on minors, saying that ASMSU doesn't have the wherewithal to institute new minors, but could encourage them. "If we go 15 credits, we'd encourage new minors, like in Spanish and Japanese," Weber said.
The Lansing Fire Department, Flagstar Bank and Lansing Public Schools will sponsor a live Christmas tree burning demonstration on Wednesday. The exhibition is meant to demonstrate the flammability of Christmas trees.
The U.S. Postal Service might raise the price of stamps by about 3 cents in 2006, officials said. A request to the federal government to increase prices will probably come in the spring, said Gerry McKiernan, spokesman for the service.