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MSU

MSU Board of Trustees to appoint two deans

Colleen Maxwell
June 14, 2007

The MSU Board of Trustees will meet at 9:30 a.m. Friday on the fourth floor of the Administration Building. Items up for vote include authorization to plan Emmons Hall renovations and approval of a transition from Lyman Briggs School of Science to Lyman Briggs College. The trustees also will vote to appoint Jeffrey Riedinger as dean of International Studies and Programs, and Elizabeth Simmons as dean of Lyman Briggs College, both of which would be effective June 15.

MSU

MSU facility to foster life-saving research

Brian McVicar
June 13, 2007

MSU's new Structural Fire Testing Facility could lead to research that would help save the lives of first responders and those they rescue. The Structural Fire Testing Facility, unveiled Tuesday, will be used to test how buildings' beams and columns react to temperatures as high as 2,200 degrees and weights up to 250,000 pounds, said Venkatesh Kodur, a professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering. MSU's testing facility, which is the first in the nation operated by a university, will generate research that could help engineers design buildings to better withstand great weights and temperatures, preventing the structures from collapsing on firefighters and other first responders, Kodur said. "If it protects injuries and deaths of firefighters, that's very dear to me," Kodur said.

MSU

Reunion honors MSU class of '57

Jennifer Orlando
June 8, 2007

Two years after Dale Ball graduated from high school, the self-proclaimed farm boy who grew up near Howell came to Michigan State College in 1936 with $150 in his pocket, ready to work his way through college. Fast forward 68 years after he graduated in 1939 - little on campus is the same. "A lot is different," Ball said.

MSU

YouTube, various TV stations combine

Lauren Talley
June 6, 2007

Family community services senior Lindsay Hollinger can't find her hometown TV stations on any channels in Lansing, but now the Pittsburgh native can stay up-to-date because of a recent sharing agreement between YouTube.com, Google and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc. Hollinger said the new program will help her to keep in touch with current events back home.

MSU

Big Three universities' research aids economy

Jennifer Orlando
June 4, 2007

MSU could play a key part in keeping the state's economy afloat, with cuts being made to higher institution education in Michigan and a heavy reliance on a worsening domestic auto industry. The University Research Corridor, an alliance comprised of MSU, Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, recently released preliminary data from a study stating the collaboration generated $6.5 billion - 2 percent of the state's entire economic activity. The independent analysis was conducted by the East Lansing-based Anderson Economic Group and outlines how the URC has contributed to the state's economy.

MSU

Fresh veggies, fresh thinking

Ryan Beene
June 4, 2007

On their hands and knees, 12 people dug small holes, pressing young, summer squash plants into the soil on a football field-sized plot of land. Sweating in the hot sun, some of the dirty-kneed and often barefooted, planters squinted as they glanced up at Jeremy Moghtader, MSU Student Organic Farm manager and instructor, to learn how to properly plant the squash - ensuring the plants would grow strong until they could be harvested. "See how that part is sticking up?

MSU

VP to focus on students

Colleen Maxwell
June 1, 2007

Vennie Gore's daughter tells him he talks for a living. With his recent appointment to assistant vice president for Housing & Food Services at MSU, effective August 13, he expects that to continue. Gore is currently the associate director for Housing and Food Services at the University of Washington. He meets with students, faculty, campus clients and other to talk about plans for the university - and his job at MSU will be much of the same. Gore is used to a life with no routine, he said.

MSU

MSU helps mentor program in Lansing

Ryan Beene
May 31, 2007

Lansing — Outside Gier Park Elementary School, a 6-foot wooden pole stands decorated in the name of peace, with paintings by students in a plot filled with mulch and flowers. The pole's objective is to promote peace to improve the sometimes rocky relationship between Gier Park Elementary School at 401 E.

MSU

ISP dean waits MSU board appointment

Colleen Maxwell
May 31, 2007

Jeff Riedinger has been recommended as the dean of MSU's International Studies and Programs. He has been serving as acting dean since 2005, and his appointment is subject to approval by the MSU Board of Trustees at the June 15 meeting. Riedinger would succeed John Hudzik, who served as ISP dean from 1995-2005.

MSU

Connected to Algiers

Rachael Zylstra
May 30, 2007

Elise, Mich. — Students in Algiers, Algeria gathered in a classroom Tuesday for an experience of a lifetime. With some wearing green and white MSU T-shirts sent by the university, students of Cheikh Bouamama High School awaited a video conference call from students from a Junior Achievement class at Ovid-Elsie High School in Elsie, Mich. The class, taught by business department teacher Bonnie Ott, aims to educate and update students on international relations and global business. The call, a result of the Partnership Schools Program, or PSP and MSU's College of Education, was designed for 11th- and 12th-grade students from both schools to share cultural and technological similarities and differences.

MSU

Pesticide effects on MSU inspire a new film series

Craig Trudell
May 30, 2007

Nearly 50 years ago, student Richard Snider heard a crunch with each step he took on, what were then, Michigan Agricultural College campus sidewalks. The crunch came from a pesticide called DDT, which was dropped over campus by World War II jets in pellet form to combat elm bark beetles and mosquitoes. Now an MSU professor, Snider recalls research conducted by one of his mentors that warned strolls through campus would be without the sound of chirping birds if the crunches continued. In a new documentary filmed and co-produced by nine, MSU students, "Dying to Be Heard" sounds off on research conducted by MSU Professor George Wallace on DDT, and its deadly effects on birds and other wildlife on campus. Findings from Wallace's research were used in Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring," a book that helped plant the seed in the modern environmental movement.

MSU

Highway construction closes US-23 lanes

Cash Kruth
May 29, 2007

Construction will begin at 8 p.m. March 29 on Interstate 96 between M-52 and M-59. The construction will take place at night Sunday-Thursday throughout June. There also will be a single lane closure starting at 8 p.m.

MSU

MSU trustees approve Dubai program

Ryan Beene
May 25, 2007

Palm trees and sandy beaches are not things that come to mind when thinking about MSU, but that will soon change. The MSU Board of Trustees unanimously approved the pursuit of degree and research programs in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, May 18. A group of deans from five MSU colleges visited the Southern Persian Gulf city in March to investigate starting programs in Dubai. "We've had an institutional interest to find a location in the Middle East to expand our presence in the region," said John Hudzik, MSU vice president of Global Engagement and Strategic Projects.

MSU

Two MSU grads win Sudler Prize for artistic success

Jennifer Orlando
May 25, 2007

Five summers ago, Jonathan Sage began working at the Ohio Light Opera as a carpenter. Now, the 2007 theater design graduate has worked his way up to technical director for the company located at the College of Wooster in Wooster, Ohio, where he is preparing for an upcoming production of the "Sound Of Music." Sage has Kirk Domer, associate chair and head of design of the department of theater, to thank for bringing him to Ohio all those summers ago and for nominating him for the Sudler Prize in the Arts award. Sage caught wind that he was nominated by Domer but was unsure he would actually receive the award. "I had heard my nomination was through," Sage said.

MSU

Secretary of State closed on holiday

Cash Kruth
May 24, 2007

Branches of the Michigan Secretary of State office will be closed on Monday in observance of Memorial Day. Licenses and plates that expire on the day the offices are closed can be renewed the following day without penalty.