MSU Physical Plant employees are continuing a typical workplace tradition at their annual Christmas dinner this year: a gift exchange.But the presents will not be swapped by and for facility workers.
Todd Fenton is perfectly comfortable in his laboratory on the fourth floor of Fee Hall, even though he’s surrounded by small fragments of prehistoric remains of teenagers and an intact human skeleton lying on the table next to him.Fenton, a forensic anthropologist and anthropology professor at MSU, works daily to identify the cause of death in cases when it is unknown or when a crime victim’s identity remains a mystery.“My favorites are the ones where you have to figure out the individual death story,” he says.Fenton received his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and earned his master’s degree at the University of Arizona in Tucson.He has been working on campus since 1998.“I love forensic anthropology because you can work a case one day and assess the trauma to a body, positively identify the remains and when you go home at night there’s a sense of accomplishment like no other field allows,” he said.Fenton and the rest of the employees at MSU’s forensic anthropology lab have recently been receiving increased statewide and national attention for their hard work and positive results.
Students will not be alone in receiving grades this semester. All 50 states have already been handed their marks for higher education. For the first time, the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education put both public and private universities nationwide to the test, and spent more than two years comparing them. No state received straight As, and many were given low grades.
Rusty red landscapes adorned with sienna plateaus, bronze mesas and golden sun rays grace the walls of the Multicultural Center these days.Studio art sophomore Domingo Carreon is the creative genius behind 25 paintings and sketches displayed in the Multicultural Center, located in the Union Basement.
Stacy Rosenthal didn’t imagine her art homework would end up going out to 1,500 people.Rosenthal, a studio art senior, created the winning design for the Kellogg Center’s 8th annual MSU Holiday Card Contest.
Ira Flatow, a veteran National Public Radio science correspondent and Emmy Award-winning television journalist, has covered stories in historic venues like the Kennedy Space Center, Three Mile Island, Antarctica and the South Pole. And it all began during his boyhood when he burned down his mother’s bathroom while trying to recreate a biology class experiment He’ll be bringing his experiences to campus Wednesday as a guest speaker in the McPherson Professorship lecture series. He’s the host of NPR’s “Talk of the Nation: Science Friday,” and Flatow’s lecture will be titled “If it Breeds, It Leads: How the Media Bring Science to the Public.” “He just hops around from physical to natural science and also public issues, like pesticides on tomatoes,” said Douglas Luckie, assistant professor of physiology at Lyman Briggs School. The speech will be the fifth and final of the McPherson Professorship lectures - a series that MSU President M.
MSU students will be able to see basketball straight out of Hollywood this weekend - and it doesn’t involve former Spartan and Los Angeles Laker Earvin “Magic” Johnson.
Law school can be a long road to travel, and an expensive one. But for some students, that’s exactly what they want to tackle after graduation.
The red ribbons adorning campus trees have been taken down and prepared for burial, the memorial quilt panel no longer hangs in the Kresge Art Museum and the lights of Lansing’s holiday tree have been lit once again. But Emily Flowers hopes people won’t forget about the disease behind those events, which caused the death of 10,198 Americans in 1999 alone - AIDS. The nutrition science senior helped coordinate the on-campus projects through Olin Health Center for Friday’s World AIDS Day. Flowers said she’s not sure how many students and community members volunteers reached, but she believes they made a difference. “You can talk about AIDS all you want and try to say the impact of it, but people don’t realize it until they see it in front of them,” Flowers said.
Campus was temporarily transformed into a hot spot for holiday shopping Saturday and Sunday. Thousand of patrons made a trip to the Union to browse through four floors, each packed with a variety of arts and crafts - or even potential presents. The Union Activities Board’s Arts and Crafts Show completed another successful year, bringing in vendors and customers from near and far. In its 37th year, many participants say the event is known for its size and variety. “Many people know it’s coming every year and they know there’s lots of choices,” said Carol Whearty, a jewelry designer who’s sold her wares at the show for 12 years.
As the semester comes to a close, there will be MSU seniors graduating as well as others preparing for their spring commencement.In either case, these graduates will have to make decisions concerning their futures and what direction they will be heading.
With the holidays quickly approaching, many students are scrambling to find the perfect gift. The Union Activities Board’s Holiday Arts and Crafts Show just might be the place to find the presents for friends and family - or even something nice for yourself. “I would say anybody would be able to afford something here,” said Erecenia Friday, Union Activities Board office manager and a communication junior.
A controversial report recently released by the Coalition on the Academic Workforce found that nontenured track instructors make up almost half of the teaching staff in many humanities and social science instruction fields.But MSU officials say this university doesn’t fall into that category.
For Susan Melnick, the Internet is an ideal tool for education and enjoyment that she uses several times a day.
Hank Haberman would have appreciated the way 75 volunteers showed their devotion to AIDS awareness Thursday night despite pitch darkness and frigid temperatures.The volunteers tied 500 red ribbons around campus trees for the annual World AIDS Day ribbon tie-up.
William McDonough foresees turning the roofs of Ford Motor Co.’s massive River Rouge complex in Dearborn into habitats for wildlife.
Armed with more than 1,000 yellow postcards, ASMSU is ready to further its quest in eliminating sales tax from college textbooks in Michigan.The collection of lobbying postcards, which will be sent to state Rep.
The Salvation Army is hoping MSU students, faculty and staff use the holiday season to help children in need.Drop-off points for the charity’s Toys for Tots program have been set up across campus.
It wasn’t exactly your normal county jail.Nearly 75 people were “locked up” at the Kellogg Center on Wednesday, but no one stood guard and the inmates roamed free, munching on doughnuts, drinking coffee and chatting with old friends via cell phones.The jailbirds were all summoned to the makeshift jail between 9 a.m.
Danielle Drake didn’t realize how much she would enjoy HIV counseling.The human biology senior was encouraged by her cousin, a long-term survivor of the disease that can lead to AIDS, to help others living with HIV.And after a year of training sessions and one-on-one experience, she is glad she got involved in the program through Olin Health Center.“I’m a pre-med major, but who knows if I want to go to medical school,” Drake said.