Friday, April 24, 2026

Take a peek behind the curtain and test drive the NEW StateNews.com today!

News

MSU

Events raise disability awareness on campus

Bridging the awareness gap between students with disabilities and their peers was the focus of this week's MSU Disability Awareness Week on campus. The Council for Students with Disabilities sponsored several activities this week, which were aimed toward informing people of the disability issues prevalent on campus and in society. Next week, a national Disability Awareness Week will be observed. Val Erwin, history junior and president of the Council for Students with Disabilities, said the week shined light on issues many don't know about. "A lot of people on campus feel students with disabilities are nonexistent," she said.

MSU

Provost open to student concerns at ASMSU meeting

Melissa Domsic
September 29, 2005

Provost Kim Wilcox is still new to his job - he admits he doesn't know everything about MSU - but plans to learn more about students' issues, Wilcox told ASMSU's Academic Assembly on Tuesday. This is the first time Wilcox has attended a meeting of ASMSU, MSU's undergraduate student government. "It gave me a chance to appreciate the breadth of concerns students have, and gave me some direction on things I need to be following up on," he said. Academic Assembly Chairperson Bob Murphy said he regularly meets with Wilcox, who Murphy said is receptive to students' interests. Wilcox provided detailed answers to some of the questions ASMSU representatives raised, such as the issue of academic minors or how the university will spend money to improve education. But when Wilcox wasn't familiar with an issue, such as ASMSU's interest in a student fee for IM facilities, he told the representatives what he knew based on past experience and said he would look further into each issue. "I liked the fact that when he didn't know the answer, he just said he didn't know and said he would follow up with that person later," said Steven Ambrose, the assembly's representative for the Alliance of Lesbian, Bi, Gay and Transgender Students. The addition of academic minors has been on the forefront of assembly discussions.

MICHIGAN

Health, fitness day raises awareness among women

Jennifer Toland
September 29, 2005

National Women's Health & Fitness Day was celebrated Wednesday with some marking the occasion at Contours Express in Okemos with special events. People at the small gym listened to guest speakers that provided services such as blood pressure readings, presentations on how to find the right workout shoes and medical massage therapy, Contours manager Margee Hutchinson said.

MICHIGAN

New initiative advocates oral health

Jennifer Toland
September 28, 2005

The Michigan Department of Community Health announced on Monday a new oral health action plan that officials hope will improve dental health in Michigan. The plan has several points, but mainly focuses on improving oral health care and making it more available to Michigan residents, said T.J.

MSU

Residential college approved by council, awaits nod from trustees

Laura Collins
September 28, 2005

The committees have spoken and a new residential college for the arts and humanities that has been in draft stages for the past year will now move on to becoming a reality. Committee members in the Academic Governance system have expressed support for the college, slated to make its debut in fall 2007, after the proposal was approved by Academic Council on Tuesday. MSU President Lou Anna K.

MSU

Green genes

Laura Collins
September 28, 2005

Andrea Amalfitano said he bleeds green and white. "Heck yeah, I'm glad to be back," he said. Arriving at MSU on Sept.

MICHIGAN

Commission closer to selecting party spots

The independent commission charged with investigating the April 2-3 disturbances moved closer to recommending a designated celebratory area for students on Tuesday, commission members said. The commission may suggest East Lansing officials allow property owners to apply to close streets to support large crowds, said commissioner Joe Tuchinsky, treasurer of American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan and its Lansing branch.

MSU

Forum to explore Katrina's wake

Bob Darrow
September 28, 2005

One month after Hurricane Katrina approached the Gulf Coast, MSU academic leaders are holding a public forum to discuss the social implications of the disaster. Today's seminar, titled "The Cost of Marginalization: Place, Race, Class and Media in the Katrina Catastrophe," is the first in a series of three talks scheduled for the next three weeks. Each of the forums, which are open to the public, will feature a faculty panel to initiate discussion. Panelists will be given time to explain their expertise, and then will be asked several questions by the forum's moderator, said Janet Lillie, an assistant dean in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences and a coordinator of the event. "What we really wanted to do was serve the audience's needs," she said.

MSU

WEB ONLY: Reception to honor joining of university with WRC

Several MSU officials and students will gather tonight to celebrate the affiliation of MSU with the national Worker Rights Consortium, or WRC - an organization that monitors and helps eliminate the production of university apparel in sweatshops. The reception, which will take place at 7 p.m.

MICHIGAN

Lansing AIDS group to hold benefit walk

Ken Osborne
September 28, 2005

AIDS Walk Michigan and the Lansing Area AIDS Network will be holding a walk at 1 p.m. on Sunday at Valley Court Park in East Lansing. The event is being held in association with seven other walks throughout Michigan.

MSU

Granholm to replace MEAP testing

Laura Collins
September 27, 2005

Gov. Jennifer Granholm announced last week that all high school students will take a standardized college-entrance exam in place of the MEAP test. Starting the spring of 2007, the ACT and WorkKeys, a work skills assessment, will be implemented for all high school students. "The new testing puts all Michigan students on the path to college," Granholm's spokeswoman, Liz Boyd said.

MSU

WRA project featured on national Web site

A project created by MSU students about the Cherokee Nation now appears on the American Indian tribe's national Web site. As part of the class WRA 417: "Multimedia Writing," about 12 students researched and created a project focusing on the Allotment Era - a period between 1887 and 1934 when all of the land owned by U.S.

MSU

Invitations mark end of greek recruiting

Annie Dalby wiped away tears as she hugged her sister, Lyndsay Dalby, after Lyndsay handed her a bid card, or invitation, to join Kappa Kappa Gamma sorority Monday afternoon. The Dalby sisters, who are now also sorority sisters, are among the women who participated this past week in the greek system's Recruitment Week - the process of becoming an active sorority member - that culminated in invitations to join different houses Monday. "We're sisters and now we're in the same house, so it means a lot," Annie Dalby said.

MICHIGAN

New cleaning business cashes in on busy, partying students

Sunday morning hits and the proverbial scene is set: Cups are everywhere, trash litters the floor and cupboards are sticky. An East Lansing house party has come and gone, leaving devastation in its wake. It's a student's demise, said electrical engineering junior Jim McGinn, whose apartment still has beer cans from Thursday. But to Charlie Moore the scene equals money. Or potential business at least. Twenty-nine-year-old Moore founded Get That Dirt Inc. to fill a business niche he discovered after talking with East Lansing friends and calling area cleaning services. "I heard (from) a few my friends who said they wished there was a cleaning service here - they were too busy, too tired to clean their own room," said Moore, a graduate student at Western Michigan University and an Okemos resident.

MSU

Library offers free Apple iPod contest

Ken Osborne
September 27, 2005

The Main Library is holding a contest to help students learn about its services. The winner will receive a free Apple iPod. Students must go to the library and fill out an entry form by 5 p.m.

MSU

ASMSU services grow in use

Melissa Domsic
September 27, 2005

More students have been using ASMSU-sponsored services - such as legal counsel, copying and fax machines and interest-free loans - since last year, but student government leaders say they are still working to get the word out. "The more people we can service the better," said Andrew Schepers, chairperson of ASMSU's Student Assembly.

MICHIGAN

Public forum to focus on East Village plan

Kristi Jourdan
September 27, 2005

The East Lansing Planning Commission will host a public forum to discuss the East Village Master Plan on Wednesday. The plan could redevelop the area, which houses the Cedar Village apartments and six fraternities among other buildings, into retail space, apartments or condominiums. The affected area is bounded on the north and south by Grand River Avenue and the Red Cedar River and on the west and east by Bogue Street and Hagadorn Road. Peter Dewan, vice chair of the planning commission, said the forum will allow for "inclusiveness" with the public.

MICHIGAN

Commission to hold meeting about melee

Margaret Harding
September 27, 2005

The independent commission will meet from 8 a.m. to noon today in the Executive Conference Room of the Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbott Road. Commissioners will discuss possible recommendations for their draft report, due out before the Oct.