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MSU

Student assembly chair, vice chair re-elected

ASMSU officials met Thursday to elect candidates for positions for the upcoming school year. Physics senior Andrew Schepers was re-elected to fulfill the chairperson position, defeating political theory and constitutional democracy senior Andrew Bell by a vote of 15-13.

MSU

Safe Place charity race attracts more than 1,000

Dogs, strollers and sprinters wound their way through campus during MSU Safe Place's 11th annual Race for the Place on Sunday. The 5K run brought out more than 1,000 adults and children and raised between $40,000 and $50,000, said Holly Rosen, director of Safe Place.

MSU

Sparty's party offers music, giveaways

Doing cartwheels and dancing to rock music projected from a concert stage, 8-year-old Abby Mealy, of Okemos, couldn't stand still as she waited in line with her 5-year-old sister Amanda for a ride on the Ferris wheel at Demonstration Field on Saturday. From the top of the ride, Abby leaned forward in her seat to look at the activities going on at the fourth Sparty's Spring Party, which was sponsored by the University Activities Board, or UAB. "I like going fast, and I could see everything," Abby said.

MSU

Students build Habitat home

It's not much of a house to look at now, but soon it will be a home. Students from the MSU Habitat for Humanity chapter rolled up their sleeves this weekend to put the finishing touches on a house at 2509 Poplar St.

MICHIGAN

Greek Week results in 140K for charity

By Jonathan Junia Special for The State News In the Auditorium on Saturday there were zombies fighting nerds, aliens fighting cowboys and devils fighting angels, in addition to mock appearances by Will Smith, John Travolta, the Blues Brothers, James Bond and a giant chicken. They were all there for Songfest, the biggest and last event of Greek Week - a week devoted to celebrating sororities and fraternities and raising money for local charities.

MICHIGAN

MSU police monitor seat-belt use

Occasional safety belt users beware. MSU police will be looking to ticket unbuckled drivers on campus during select times throughout the next two weeks. Signs will label the locations at the corners of West Shaw Lane and Chestnut Road on April 20, and East Shaw Lane and Wilson Road on April 26. Six people were stopped and ticketed on Thursday, the first day of the three-day campaign. "It's not really to penalize people, the idea is for compliance," MSU police Sgt.

MSU

Students sell shirts about disturbances

MSU students Evan Dashe and Anthony Saladino have a message for the East Lansing Police Department, and they put it on a T-shirt. Dashe, an accounting junior and Saladino, a general management freshman, decided to create and sell T-shirts about the April 2-3 disturbances in East Lansing. The dark green shirts with white letters said, "Tear gas is not designed to extinguish fires." The shirts also had a derogatory message for the East Lansing Police Department on the back. About 3,000 people took the streets of East Lansing after the men's basketball team lost to the University of North Carolina in the Final Four.

MICHIGAN

State unemployment rate falls 0.5 percent

Michigan's March unemployment rate fell to one of the lowest in about a year at 6.9 percent. The state rate was at 7.4 percent in February and 7.1 percent in January. A year ago in April, the jobless rate was 6.7 percent. But the state rate last month is still higher than the national unemployment rate of 5.2 percent and is one of the country's worst. Economists said the rate has fluctuated in Michigan between 6.7 and 7.5 percent throughout the past two years.

MSU

Forum held for possible provost

Members of the MSU community spent an evening trying to find out if Virginia Sapiro is the best person for the position of provost. Sapiro, the associate vice chancellor for Teaching and Learning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is the first of five provost candidates who will tour campus, meet with students, faculty and administrators and host a public forum. While Sapiro answered audience questions during her forum, but students were not present in the about 100-person crowd.