Saturday, April 11, 2026

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

News

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.

MICHIGAN

Students take over Capitol

It was a seemingly normal Thursday afternoon at the Capitol - state representatives and senators argued about affirmative action and welfare. But these legislators and lobbyists were high school students. About 750 high school students from around the state spent four days acting as government officials and voting on bills in the YMCA's Michigan Youth in Government program. Eleventh grader Tyler Deerfield said he wasn't sure what a lobbyist was when he signed up for the event. But a day into the job in the mock government, he had successfully lobbied against a bill that would change the high school drop-out age from 16 to 18. "I've always had an interest in politics, and I thought I'd see how it was actually run," said Deerfield, of St.

MICHIGAN

Budget could hurt book collection

The East Lansing Public Library could operate with 5,000 fewer books in the next fiscal year if the City Council approves a budget that slashes funding by $50,000. The funds necessary to purchase books are at risk to be cut by nearly one third, said Sylvia Marabate, director of the East Lansing Public Library, 950 Abbott Road, adding the institution normally purchases about 15,000 books a year. "We will work hard to meet our community's expectations, but it may mean some have to wait a little longer for the bestsellers," she said.

MSU

Students, officials react to RIAA suits

One day after the Recording Industry Association of America, or RIAA, filed 405 lawsuits for illegal file sharing at 18 colleges and universities - including 20 at MSU - members of the university community are beginning to react. "It's kind of ridiculous because I know a lot of people who do it," education freshman Colleen Goergen said.

MSU

RHA looks for options to keep Channel 12 afloat

Almost two months after the university's surprise decision to shut down Channel 12 at the end of the semester, university officials and student-produced programs are looking for ways to salvage the channel but also prepare for life without it. The channel broadcasts free movies and student-produced programming to MSU's campus and surrounding cities. Residence Halls Association and University Housing have been looking into options to keep the channel afloat, but RHA President Kevin Newman said nothing has developed enough for him to be optimistic about the channel's short-term future. "At this point, I wouldn't expect anything next year to be different from the decisions the university has already made," Newman said. RHA pays about $15,000 a semester for the movies that air on the channel. One option being evaluated is a digital media player system that would substantially cut the channel's labor costs by enabling a month of its programming to be done in 30 minutes. But RHA Campus Center Director James Henderson said evaluations of the program are very preliminary, and he will meet next week with representatives of the company that makes the system to see if it is a feasible option. "We're looking at possibilities, but that's it," Henderson said.