The Council of Graduate Students, or COGS, approved the creation of the application for the new COGS Professional Development Grant, which will be offered by the Graduate School at Wednesday’s monthly meeting. Students can get up to $300 of funding, totaling to a $10,000 fund per academic year. The grant is supposed to be piloted in the spring semester.
The Wharton Center is expected to bring in thousands of students tonight for MSU’s Black Student Alliance’s 41st annual Black Power Rally. The Black Student Alliance, or BSA, hosts an annual evening rally with presentations for students to learn about issues often faced in the black community. This year, Georgetown University professor Michael Eric Dyson, a radio host, author, and Detroit native, will be the keynote speaker.
A new report ranks MSU in the top 10 for international study and engagement, but the ranking didn’t hold much significance to Brett Berquist, who led a discussion Tuesday at the Faculty Senate meeting about the purpose of the ranking in terms of the value of the university and future study abroad programs. The Institute of International Education’s annual Open Doors Report released on Monday ranked MSU in the top 10 for international study and engagement.
The relocation of Summer Circle Theater to the soon-to-be-renovated Kresge Courtyard will improve performances and decrease the chances of cancellation, officials said. Summer Circle Theater performances are often plagued with rain. Performances take place outside along the Red Cedar River and shows are sometimes canceled due to flooding, leading to the creation of the new permanent venue in Kresge Courtyard.
From students devouring falafels to Israeli folk dances, the MSU’s Union Ballroom was the scene Tuesday night of Israel Fest: Israel at 66 and Still Sexy, an annual event where students and faculty members come together to experience multiple aspects of Israel’s culture in a light and festive atmosphere. ASMSU hosted the event with help from the MSU Hillel and the Jewish Student Union and Team Israel Programming Committee.
Compared to other Big Ten schools, MSU is falling short when it comes to sexual health, according to a report from Trojan Condoms. The condom company recently released its annual Sexual Health Report Card, which ranks U.S. colleges and universities based on the sexual health resources available to students on campus. MSU ranked 45th out of 140 schools, up from a 2012 ranking of 48.
The MSU Army ROTC Spartan Battalion paid tribute to local veterans Monday by visiting three area retirement homes and giving formal presentations as part of their Veteran’s Day festivities. The presentations, which varied slightly per retirement community, consisted of prayer, a flag folding ceremony and a recitation of St. Crispins Day speech, taken from Shakespeare’s “Henry V.” Afterward, the cadets hung around to talk to the veterans and hand out mini-American flags. The presentations took place at Burcham Hills, Edgewood and Independence Village retirement communities.
Typhoon Haiyan struck the Philippines Friday, taking the lives of thousands and leaving some MSU students in fear of what will come next. With eight students who are on visa from the Philippines, the massive storm that destroyed Tacloban and other neighboring cities led to concerned students and fundraising events in the coming weeks.
Future MSU students won’t need to worry about the potential of university officials prying on their personal lives through Google searching their names or checking their Facebook accounts, a growing trend among other universities that was recently highlighted in a survey. Kaplan Test Prep released a survey late last month revealing that 29 percent of 381 college admissions officers surveyed have Google-searched their applicants, whereas 31 percent have checked the applicants’ Facebook or other social media accounts to get to know more about them.
Several members of the MSU Board of Trustees are under fire for spending university money after a Detroit TV station report revealed lavish travel and event expenses.
Very few students would sacrifice sleep on a non-football Saturday morning, but this week some Spartans stepped up to the plate for a good cause. Take It To The Streets featured students giving back to the community by cleaning up parks, removing old school supplies at an abandoned school and assisting at a local haven house.
An off-site university research facility slated to open its doors in Midland, Mich. next year will pair MSU with two of the state’s largest corporations. The facility, dubbed the Midland Research Institute for Value Chain Creation, will be funded in large part by Dow Chemical Co., Dow Corning Corp. and various foundations related to the two companies. An initial $15.5 million from corporate and philanthropic donors is committed to the establishment and first five years of operation.
The year 2003 was a rough one for East Lansing resident Ricard Taylor. He was going through a rough divorce when his older brother, Taro Taylor, convinced him to try street performing with him in Detroit.“He said, ‘Let’s try it for a year. See what we can do, see what we can make of it,’ and we did it on the streets there and we got a lot of love shown to us,” Ricard Taylor said.
MSU officials are looking to encourage creativity and entrepreneurship among students across multiple colleges with the renovation of Wilson Hall room C108 into a creative commons.
A group of MSU students known as the Nate Woodring Trio jazzed up (SCENE) Metrospace Wednesday night, bringing musical life through the drums and bass East Lansing. The show featured jazz studies senior Nate Woodring on drums, jazz studies sophomore Runere Brooks on bass and jazz studies graduate student Corey Kendrick on piano.
As November settles in, MSU students and faculty members will come together to raise awareness about American Indian Heritage Month. MSU’s North American Indigenous Student Organization, or NAISO, will be hosting a series of events to spread awareness of the culture and key in on issues usually associated with the American Indian culture.
The Energy Transition Plan’s central goal is for campus to have a renewable energy portfolio of 15 percent by 2015, and MSU officials say they’re more than halfway there.
Tuesday, squads of military units were sent out on a tactical mission in Okemos, Mich. Luckily, this only was a training exercise. The MSU Army ROTC held one of their many training exercises on a large woodland area off Dobie Road. While their field exercises can focus on many things, such as navigation, this exercise was a combat mission.
The committee created after English professor’s anti-republican rants to address the best practices on the use of social media and technology in classrooms, has begun its research — with few findings so far. Committee Chairman William Donohue said he’s looked at about 12 universities and none of them have policies on how to use social media in a classroom.
What students don’t know might hurt them when it comes to the critters looking to cuddle under the covers late at night. The MSU College of Law Housing Clinic hosted a free bedbug seminar on Tuesday night at the East Lansing Public Library for local landlords, tenants and the public after concern for the widespread bedbug epidemic arose in students’ own backyard.