High school students participating in a German Summer Camp this week are submerging themselves into the culture - right at MSU. The free camp, which meets 2-5 p.m., Monday-Friday this week in C-311 Wells Hall, is geared toward creating a better understanding of German culture.
MSU added 10 University Distinguished Professors for 2007, bumping up the total number to 104 since the designation process was authorized in 1989. The MSU Board of Trustees approved Friday the following professors recommended by MSU Provost Kim Wilcox: Wolfgang Bauer, Timothy C.
MSU graduate Rick Kunzi has something to look forward to in the Big Apple. The theater graduate wrote and co-produced the rock-musical "BRUNCH," which hits the New York City stage in September 2008. "BRUNCH" is a musical about a 20-something struggling actor in New York City.
The suitcases of outfits and jewelry are almost unpacked, but the memories will be tucked away forever. Three MSU students returned to their hometowns Sunday after spending a week in Muskegon competing in the Miss Michigan 2007 scholarship pageant. While they won't be unpacking the winning crown, Katie Thomas, a nutritional sciences senior; Christie Charron, a political science junior; and Melissa Cousino, a psychology senior; said the week of events and competition was all worth it. "It was really great," Thomas, 20, said.
The MSU Institute for Public Policy and Social Research will host a public policy forum about the impact of Michigan's research universities' on state economic development.
MSU officials see MSU Technologies as a world-class organization, but Ian Gray, vice president for research and graduate studies, said in the past it has been understaffed relative to other universities. "It requires full-time people and real diligence," he said.
The Lansing Juneteenth Committee is hosting a Juneteenth statewide Capitol kick-off ceremony at 5:30 p.m.
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'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.
Correction: Wayne Duke should have been quoted as saying, "Jack represented the last of the real faculty representatives in the intercollegiate structure.
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.
A group of fiery-eyed flying insects making noise in the Midwest are raring for reproduction. These shrimp-sized bugs burning with passion are called cicadas.
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 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.
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?
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.
Central United Methodist Church will host its annual "Celebration of Music in Worship" Sunday.
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.
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.
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.