COMMENTARY

E.L. citizens deserve right to petition against City Center II

Vic Loomis should be ashamed of himself. Upon opening my State News on Oct. 16, I encountered a guest column from East Lansing Mayor Vic Loomis (Future city plans hurt by petitions, SN 10/16). I was curious as to what he had to say considering there is seldom a column from figures held in such high esteem as a mayor. As I began reading, however, I became incensed at selfish rhetoric spewing from his pen. Loomis condemns the ballot initiative process students have started to cease the City Center II project.

COMMENTARY

High school alternative could decrease dropouts

Michigan has a dropout problem. Every year, 20,000 high school students choose to turn their backs on education. The number, while high, wasn’t as alarming in the past simply because the industrialization of the state meant there were numerous high-paying jobs available to those without a high school diploma. For some communities, dropping out became a way of life.

COMMENTARY

University will recover losses once stock market rebounds

In your editorial Endowment losses are cause for serious concern (SN 10/22), you suggest MSU’s investment portfolio should not hold stocks and consist only of bonds and other “safe” investments. This strategy fails to understand the fact that, over the long term, stocks have consistently provided higher returns than fixed-income investments like bonds and CDs.

COMMENTARY

Judging girls on wardrobe wrong

I was wearing jeans, heels and a long-sleeved shirt at the time when a new acquaintance scanned me up and down and said, “I normally think women who wear heels and jeans look like prostitutes, but you managed to pull it off.” Go me. I passed her “Are you a slut?” test. Apparently, all women have one.

COMMENTARY

Consequences of brawls more severe than students realize

I recently read Jacob Carpenter and Abby Lubbers’ article MSU athlete injured after weekend fight (SN 10/22) and Joe Rexrode’s article “Police probe E. Lansing fight” in the Lansing State Journal. I was compelled to respond to both articles because three years ago, on Oct. 21, 2005, my 21-year-old cousin died from one punch.

COMMENTARY

Bias clear in article on stem cell research, Proposal 2

In response to Selling cells (SN 10/8), I agree that stem cell research can be very beneficial to people with certain diseases and injuries and that we should try our hardest to find cures, but when research shows that adult stem cells work better than embryonic stem cells, why can’t they be used instead? Embryonic stem cell research is a highly controversial moral issue, while adult stem cells can be harvested harmlessly.

COMMENTARY

Smear tactics not part of college admissions

Tattling is no longer limited to elementary school children. Parents of prospective college students have begun sending colleges potentially harmful information about fellow applicants. That’s right — parents are trying to sabotage other students’ chances of getting into a college.

COMMENTARY

Accepting blame start of progress

Everyone has a different idea about how to solve big problems, but they’ve all got one thing in common: It’s somebody else’s fault. For all the accusations flung by the public, the media and the government, we seem to forget one of the most basic principles taught to us as children: taking responsibility for our actions.

COMMENTARY

News could run dry after election

Two weeks. That’s all that’s left. In two weeks, we’ll know who our next president is — barring any major catastrophes up to and including massive voting irregularity on Election Day. Two weeks, and our long national gorging on political news will come to an end.

COMMENTARY

Small farmer deserves attention from MSU agriculture programs

With a long, proud history as the agricultural school of the state of Michigan, and a tradition of being the land grant university with a duty to the citizens of the state of Michigan, it is time to reconsider the university’s focus on confinement animal agriculture.

COMMENTARY

Endowment losses are cause for serious concern

Often the phrase “don’t worry” actually leads to more worrying. Despite a 10 percent decline in MSU’s business portfolio, which is mostly made up of endowments, MSU officials have told students not to worry.

COMMENTARY

Candidates' religion, culture shouldn't harm them at polls

I am not going to say I am not disturbed by certain things I have heard shouted from the rooftops of Ohio and Florida about Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama. “He’s a Muslim,” or “He’s a terrorist,” and it gets worse from there. You needn’t watch Fox News for very long to see footage of real Americans saying these things — you know, “real Americans.”

COMMENTARY

Terrorist motives worth studying

We have heard quite a lot about the evil terrorists during the past few years, but we have heard strikingly little about how people become terrorists. It is assumed terrorism is some inscrutable aberration — that terrorists are either evil or insane, and they are driven only by blind, fanatical hatred. But this does not appear to give a full picture. Several attempts have been made to identify the path by which one adopts terrorism, the latest of which is a handy volume by anthropologist Marc Sageman, titled “Leaderless Jihad.”

COMMENTARY

Students responsible for own postgame cleanup

I’m glad we have students who volunteer to take time out of their own day to pick up other students’ and nonstudents’ trash from the weekend. I want to thank those individuals for making MSU look respectable and clean. One thing, though — why they are doing this?

COMMENTARY

New building codes won't boost housing market

If there’s one undeniable fact about our volatile economy, it’s that the housing market is in absolute shambles. Since the housing bubble burst, home prices have been in a near free fall. With this in mind, it’s shocking that Michigan might soon require all new homes to install fire sprinklers.

COMMENTARY

Actions show Obama does not represent true change

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama is advertised as the anti-war candidate yet he has consistently voted to fund the war in Iraq. He has even said the troop surge worked and believes we need to keep around 50,000 troops there. He also wants to send more troops to Afghanistan. As for Iran, he has said all options are on the table. Iran is a country that does not even spend 1 percent as much as the United States on their military and Obama views them as a threat. He won’t even promise not to instate a military draft. He sounds like a pro-war candidate to me.

COMMENTARY

Corporate practices corrupt, harm Mich. livestock industry

Paul Ayers is correct is his letter Columnist incorrectly portrays commercial livestock industry (SN 10/15). MSU was founded on strong agricultural and animal husbandry heritage. However, that was before Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations and corporations driven purely by profit with little to no regard for animal welfare or the environment. The following are just a few examples of industry practices Ayers claims are not tolerated when it comes to the mistreatment of animals.

COMMENTARY

City Center II bonds deserve public say

Mayor Vic Loomis might be correct when he stated that East Lansing enjoys a reputation as an effective city, but this might be a perspective only developers and investment bankers share.

COMMENTARY

Graduate school might not be answer in recession

When the economy turns bad, not every industry suffers. In fact, some flourish under the circumstances. For example, graduate schools have seen a spike in applications. A myriad of reasons are given for the increase, but many experts feel it’s a result of an uncertain economy and rising employer expectations.

COMMENTARY

Article ignores value of adult stem cell research

I wanted to voice my concern about the biased and misleading article printed in The State News about stem cell research (Selling cells, SN 10/8). Nowhere in this article did the writer cite the remarkable fact that more than 73 real treatments and medical advances have come from adult stem cell research, while not a single medical advance has come from embryonic stem cell research.