Tuesday, January 13, 2026

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Opinion | 1000

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COMMENTARY

Marched out?

It is preposterous that the possibility exists to send the MSU football team to a bowl game without the 300-member Spartan Marching Band.

COMMENTARY

Cool negotiations

Cool heads must prevail while a contract for the Graduate Employees Union is ironed out. While tensions mount and tempers flare at the Graduate Employees Organization of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, officials turn a wary eye to our union, hoping to prevent the worst. The 8-year-old Illinois organization voted to hold a two-day strike to protest the university denying members the right to unionize. The situation is different at MSU, where union members are focused on several issues for the union’s first contract, including quality heath care, a living wage, a fair workload, full tuition waivers, improved training and job security. While negotiations have continued steadily, the occasional spark of irritability shows up in the form of rallies or arguments, and the possibility of a strike, however remote, only further demonstrates the need for calm thinking. Not all graduate employees even support the actions being taken by the union.

COMMENTARY

Band is one unit, should travel as one

This is my fourth year in the Spartan Marching Band. Although I am excited at the possibility of showing my Spartan spirit for our football team, I realize I will probably be watching the bowl game on TV come the end of December. It has been my privilege to perform in Spartan Stadium and cheer our team to victory the past four years.

COMMENTARY

Vamanos a Havana

Beginning next summer, MSU’s Office of Study Abroad will send students and faculty to a country where most Americans haven’t been - Cuba. After acquiring a two-year license a few weeks ago, the university will be able to send participants to Cuba’s capital, Havana, and take part in “Caribbean Regional Development: The Cuban Experience.” Students and faculty traveling to Cuba will be able to experience many unique aspects of the country such as traveling throughout the island and seeing historic landmarks firsthand. In addition to benefiting members of the MSU community, landing Cuba in the study abroad program also opens relations between Cuba and the United States. Cuba has had a long and often rocky relationship between our government with its communist dictatorship, led by Fidel Castro.

COMMENTARY

Liaisons ineffective building relations

While there are many times the media can be blamed for its inaccuracies, it isn’t appropriate to place the blame on The State News for the current lack of a stronger relationship between the student population and the Board of Trustees. Despite the fact we have current board liaisons, it has become apparent this isn’t the most effective mechanism for students to depend on when they have issues.

COMMENTARY

Bowl bound

Congratulations to the MSU football team for clinching its bowl eligibility and giving the seniors one last game to play as Spartans.

COMMENTARY

History of racism rests on whites

It is amazing the way white folks flagrantly accuse black folks of racism, never once stopping to realize the meaning, history and psychology of such an institution. To be racist is to have the political power to violently assert one’s discriminatory, prejudiced and racially superior views, under the aegis of an uncontested government.

COMMENTARY

Respectful inquiry

The FBI inquiry being conducted in Michigan is making many uneasy, but it’s a necessary part of the investigation to stop terrorism - and good things can come out of it. About 25 students and faculty members have been singled out as part of an 800-person survey by the Department of Justice throughout Michigan.

COMMENTARY

DCL selling out with Fieger money

As if the MSU-Detroit College of Law selling its reputation for $4 million is not bad enough, the comments made by the school’s dean, Terence Blackburn, regarding the newly named Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute should send chills up your spine.

COMMENTARY

Not all support raising ASMSU tax

Not everyone in ASMSU is in favor of raising the student tax (“ASMSU: Student-fee increase will improve service,” SN 11/19). While $2 may not be much to some people, there are some attending this university who feel that not only raising the ASMSU tax is unnecessary, but also completely unjustified. With the way the economy is running, it’s certainly obvious costs aren’t going to be coming down any time soon.

COMMENTARY

Time out

Michigan’s 2-year-old Life Sciences Corridor seemed to have all the potential of making the state the Silicon Valley for life-benefiting research.