MSU
COGS adopts tax increase
Despite a low turnout at the polls, graduate students approved a tax increase beginning in the 2001-02 school year.
MICHIGAN
Lawmakers seek tougher construction zone penalties
Michigan’s construction workers may feel a bit safer on the shoulders of the state’s roads.A bill proposed by state Sen.
MSU
Department sponsors bowl-a-thon for cancer
The Department of Communication is working to defeat cancer - at the bowling alley. The department is hosting its eighth annual Bowling For Scholars - A Strike Against Cancer bowl-a-thon from noon until 5 p.m.
MSU
Psychology project examines language
If you ever wondered, um, why people, uh, have trouble understanding you, well so have some of MSU’s top psychologists.Fernanda Ferreira, a professor of psychology, is researching the development of a theory into how people are able to understand the sentences we hear in the real world that are full of corrections, mistakes and disfluencies.“The question I am interested in is how people, mainly adults, understand language,” she said.
MICHIGAN
City officials may receive pay raises
LANSING - Lansing officials are slated for a raise in July and then again in mid-2002, unless city council members vote to oppose the increases. If the council doesn’t vote before April 28, Lansing Mayor David Hollister, City Clerk Steve Dougan and Lansing City Council members will see salary increases ranging from 2 percent to 13 percent. Lansing’s Elected Officers Compensation Commission approved the increase in March.
MSU
U hosts quiz bowl championships
MSU students will soon be surrounded by some of the top students in Michigan - and they’re not even out of high school.More than 500 high school students from across the state will compete in the 14th annual State Championship High School Quiz Bowl on Friday and Saturday in the Union.
MICHIGAN
Michigan senator forms election reform task force
Michigan state Sen. Dianne Byrum, D-Onondaga, announced the formation of the Michigan Task Force on Election Reform on Friday.
MSU
DCL program trades cans for participation
MSU-Detroit College of Law students spent last week telling their professors to “can it.” The Journal of International Law at DCL sponsored its fourth annual Can-a-Professor Program, which allows students to bring in a canned good or other nonperishable food item in exchange for not having to participate in class. Professors who agree to participate in the program may not call on students who bring cans of food to class. For some law students, the program, which began last Monday was convenient. Daniel Olson, a second-year law student who participated in Can-a-Professor, said the because he was out of town two weeks ago, the program saved him both some reading and from answering questions. “I was at a law review symposium in Washington, D.C., got back late in the week and didn’t feel like reading a lot,” he said. Olson said being able to avoid questions “especially took the stress off for exams in a week and a half.” That’s exactly why the program is so popular, said Connell Alsup, DCL assistant dean of student affairs.
MSU
Civil rights advocate to speak to U about activists of the 1960s
The Rev. Edwin King, a peace and civil rights activist will address an audience at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Auditorium. In his second trip to MSU since 1999, King’s address will be on “A Rumor of Freedom, A Rumor of War: The Mississippi Civil Rights Movement and Vietnam.” King, who teaches at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, also served as a chaplain and dean of students at Tougaloo College in Jackson, Miss.
MICHIGAN
Parks serve tastier foods
LANSING - Amy Thompson is a huge Lansing Lugnuts fan, but one of her favorite reasons for visiting Oldsmobile Park is the wide array of foods she can fill up on. “It’s usually food you can’t have at your house,” said Thompson, an eighth-grader at Holt Junior High School, while munching on her giant New York Pretzel. And at Oldsmobile Park, 505 E.
MSU
Partnership helps educate South African students
It all started with a visit from two Zulu artists.And now, Sally McClintock and other mid-Michigan teachers are launching a project that could send many children in an impoverished region of South Africa to school.McClintock, a retired East Lansing Public Schools teacher and administrator, is the founder and director of Linking All Types of Teachers to International Cross-cultural Education, or LATTICE, a partnership that allows mid-Michigan teachers to collaborate with international students in the MSU College of Education.The organization is selling baskets made by women in the KwaZulu-Natal province of South Africa, and using the proceeds to send the artists’ children to school.“Public schools are not free in South Africa,” McClintock explained.
MSU
Telecommunication class creates Virtual Commerce Mall on Internet
While new technology is making a world of virtual businesses available on the Internet, some MSU students have been learning more about it through a simulation of their own.Charles Steinfield’s Telecommunication 891, Advanced Electronic Commerce, has constructed the Virtual Commerce Mall - a Web site with nine virtual stores created by students.Steinfield, a professor of telecommunication, said it’s important students understand how business and technology combine.“Part of the problem that we’ve had with all the dot com failures is a whole lot of people started creating Web businesses without really knowing enough about what makes a good business,” he said.
MICHIGAN
Residents rush to file taxes
Despite a late start to file her tax forms, Blanka Chrominska said she will mail them before today’s midnight deadline.
MSU
Panda habitat examined
Some MSU wildlife experts are looking to have an impact on the protection of giant pandas and endangered species around the world. Jianguo Liu, an associate professor of fisheries and wildlife, is the lead author of the paper “Ecological Degradation in Protected Areas: The Case of Wolong Nature Reserve for Giant Pandas,” which was published April 6 in Science magazine. “I, like many people, love pandas and I wanted to do something to help save them,” Liu said.
MSU
Holocaust commemoration honors victims and survivors
In commemoration of the Holocaust and the death of millions of Jewish people, members of the MSU community will gather at 8 p.m.
MICHIGAN
State teachers receive new laptop computers
Several East Lansing teachers gathered Thursday afternoon for something that resembled Christmas coming early - just a little more high-tech than the Christian holiday.As part of a new state program, Michigan teachers are able to sign up to receive new laptops from the state for use in their classrooms and homes.Several East Lansing elementary teachers received their new computers Thursday, along with a training session on how to use them.The teachers all opened their bags at the same time, littering the desk with plastic bags and cardboard.
MSU
Schools grade policy may change
A failing grade can make many students wish they had never taken a course. For students at the University of Alabama, this dream has been a reality through its academic forgiveness policy - a chance for students to drop up to three completed classes from their grade-point averages. Thinking of transferring?
MICHIGAN
Police tie flexcuffs to murder
MASON - After nearly 15 years, a mother’s persistence may have paid off.Muriel Kirby sat with a box of tissues on her lap Thursday while investigators announced they had arrested the man they believe killed her daughter in 1986.David Phillip Draheim was arraigned in 55th District Court on Thursday for the murder of Jeanette Kirby.Kirby, a 36-year-old state employee from Lansing, was found dead in Riverbend Park in Holt on June 12, 1986.
MICHIGAN
Lawmakers announce plans for bill to help cover Michigans uninsured
State lawmakers announced a plan to assist Michigan residents without health insurance this week.In 1999, 13.5 percent of Michigan’s nonelderly population had no health insurance despite nearly 57 percent holding a full-time job.
MSU
Students break down ego barriers at seminar
Bill Lansing told a crowd of 120 high school students attending a leadership seminar Thursday at the Union to accept one another - in all circumstances.“Look on the optimistic side,” said Lansing, a sophomore at Lansing Eastern High School, 220 N.