Students and employees might want to think twice before going into a building that is not LEED-certified, according to a study by researchers from MSU. LEED, or Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, certifications are a set of requirements to improve indoor environmental quality in buildings. Buildings that are LEED-certified have been proven to improve health in employees.
The Sandbox Party will hold the Sandbox Party Convention from 1-4 p.m. Aug. 26 at Breslin Center. A nonpartisan group, the Sandbox Party advocates for a wide range of early childhood issues, including pushing for an increased state investment in child care and preschools, despite Michigan’s poor economic climate and lack of government funding.
Some of MSU’s carilloneurs — the musicians who ring the bells at Beaumont Tower — will play a recital at 3 p.m. Sunday at Beaumont Tower. The recital will be in memory of Milton E. Muelder, a former MSU political science professor and dean of the Graduate School, who died at age 101 in May.
MSU Entrepreneurship Network, or msuENet, will launch Thursday at East Lansing Technology Innovation Center, 325 E. Grand River Ave., and will provide an opportunity for those interested in entrepreneurship to connect with others curious about the same topic.
Throughout the past three years at MSU, bacterial life has been Ben Roller’s 40-hour-a-week obsession. A third year microbiology and molecular genetics graduate student at MSU, Roller has been researching various aspects of the bacterial life cycle since he was an undergraduate student at the University of Minnesota. Thanks to a more than $150,000 fellowship, Roller will have another three years to study bacteria in the laboratory.
The two-day X-Factor Archery Tournament and Open Shoot, hosted at the MSU Demmer Shooting Sports, Education and Training Center, kicked off Saturday, with contestants trying to strike several moving targets and win various prizes. Arrows flew Saturday and Sunday as children and adults lined up to try shooting at moving, 3-D animal targets. The highest score won a Mathews Mission Bow — a $500 value — and second place took home a Parker Crossbow — a $300 value.
Although MSU e-mail has become one of the most popular forms of electronic communication for many students and professors on campus, it always has been a service susceptible to junk. Each day, MSU’s Academic Technology Services, or ATS, mail system blocks about 400,000 junk mail — or spam — messages from reaching users’ mailboxes.
Every year, more than 100,000 kittens and puppies are euthanized in Michigan shelters because of overcrowding and limits on how long an animal can stay. To help limit the number of animals without homes, the MSU College of Veterinary Medicine is going to the source of the problem — the dogs and cats who have the litters.
Sixty students from about 25 different countries came to MSU for a three-day orientation to the U.S. culture and its customs called Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant program, or FLTA. MSU is one of eight schools selected to hold an orientation program for FLTA. The program is sponsored by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, and administered by the Institute of International Education, or IIE.
Michigan homes could benefit from a new initiative focusing on retrofitting existing structures using energy efficient insulation, equipment and other strategies to reduce energy consumption by up to 50 percent. MSU’s School of Planning, Design & Construction and Institute for Public Policy and Social Research’s Office for Survey Research will join Dow Building and Construction, Habitat for Humanity International and Ferris State University on a multiyear initiative funded by the U.S.
Finding a possible correlation between race and justice, two MSU law professors statistically found race might play a role in North Carolina convicts being sentenced to the death penalty. MSU law professors Catherine Grosso and Barbara O’Brien began to research capital punishment cases in North Carolina about a year ago after the passing of the Racial Justice Act, which allows death row inmates in the state to appeal their sentences based on racial discrimination.
MSU officials look to pile on the savings once the merging of landscaping materials is complete. About three piles of materials are in the process of being moved into one centralized location at the Beaumont Nursery in an attempt to increase efficiency and reduce costs by officials at the Physical Plant.
Animals in prehistoric Africa might have taken a drastically different evolutionary route than scientists previously thought, according to the results of a recent fossil discovered by an MSU professor in Tanzania. MSU professor and paleontologist Michael Gottfried was part of a research group, led by Ohio University professor Patrick O’Connor, that uncovered a mammal-like crocodile in the country located in southeastern Africa.
Horticulturists, landscapers and other industry professionals wandered throughout MSU’s Trial Gardens inspecting blossoms for their color and durability among the varieties of this year’s plant breeds at the MSU Garden Plant Showcase. About 70 professional landscapers, horticulturists and plant breeders attended the annual showcase event held in the Plant and Soil Sciences Building and Trial Gardens. The day-long event featured presenters from MSU faculty and staff, as well as industry experts.
After learning North America’s largest salamander was in danger of extinction, MSU veterinarians have teamed up with two zoos to start researching the sticky situation. Due to the declining populations of the hellbender salamander, MSU researchers — with help from the Nashville Zoo and Antwerp Zoo in Belgium — have been tracking and collecting sperm samples from the remaining salamanders.
The annual MSU Garden Plant Showcase will take place all day Tuesday at the Plant and Soil Science Building and Trial Gardens. The showcase will feature MSU faculty and staff discussing top-performing plants.
This fall, the MSU Museum’s Quilt Index — an online database of more than 50,000 quilt images — will prepare to expand its resources internationally, using an almost $100,000 grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, or IMLS. The IMLS is the primary source of federal support for U.S. libraries and museums. The Quilt Index was one of 13 national recipients to receive one-year project planning grants.
Seventeen graduates from an MSU political training program will compete in the Michigan November general elections to become legislators in the state House of Representatives. Since the Michigan Political Leadership Program, or MPLP, began at MSU in 1992, 10 graduates have served in the House and six currently serve.
Friday was the annual Garden Day at MSU, led and organized by the MSU Horticulture Gardens, and with a dozen workshops and two keynote speakers, including the director of the MSU Horticulture Gardens, Art Cameron. The day is an opportunity for the public to learn how to be successful gardeners.
A decade after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the day has come to symbolize supporting America through service. To commemorate the anniversary, MSU will collaborate with Habitat for Humanity and Whirlpool Corp. for its 2010 Whirlpool Building Blocks program. The nation-wide program has targeted seven different communities in which to build a house, and MSU is the first college campus to be involved in the project.