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Host Lily Guiney recaps Black Students' Alliance's 50th annual Black Power Rally, Michigan's election aftermath and what you need to know and interim president Teresa K. Woodruff's first interview.
Welcome to The 1909, the podcast that takes an in-depth look at The State News’ biggest stories of the week, while bringing in new perspectives from the reporters who wrote them.
Lily Guiney 0:10
Welcome back to The 1909, your home at The State News for everything happening on campus and around Lansing. I'm Lily Guniey. So I don't know about you guys on the other end of this, but it's been a crazy last couple of weeks. For those of us here at The State News. We've seen a new university president enter office, we've covered a nail biter of a midterm election and continue to bring you guys all the content we would on a week to week basis. So we're feeling a little tired, but very grateful to have such a supportive audience for the great work that our staff has been doing lately.
Lily Guiney 0:38
So if you've consumed any Snews content the last couple of weeks, let me say on behalf of the whole newsroom, thank you.
Lily Guiney 0:44
So this week's episode of The 1909 is going to be a sort of catch all if you will, because we've got a lot to update you on starting with some reminders for this time of year and ending with what's next in Michigan politics. So let's get into it.
Lily Guiney 0:58
So we have reached that all important time of year where everyone and their mother is getting sick. So we talked to East Lansing and MSU health officials about what you can do to stay healthy for the holiday season. That means flu shots folks, Michigan State University physicians are encouraging members of the university and the East Lansing community to get their influenza shot and take other safety precautions as flu season sets in. After two winters are being protected from flu season by mask mandates and physical distancing.
Lily Guiney 1:25
Experts say this season might see more cases as our immune systems are reintroduced to the virus. If you're like me and used to get the flu every year, except for the last two years this might hit you hard. So besides getting vaccinated, doctors recommend wearing a mask when you feel sick. MSU spokesperson Dan Olson said the university is being proactive and he recommends becoming vaccinated against influenza and COVID-19.
Lily Guiney 1:48
Washing your hands frequently and disinfecting high touch surfaces. Vaccinations are available through appointment at Olin health center. So be sure to look into that if you haven't already and you live on campus. You can also get your shots by walking at most local pharmacies, me and the folks over at the Mac Ave CVS always have a fun encounter this time of year. They love me over there because I'm terrified of needles and I sometimes pass out. But if I can still get my flu shot, so can you.
Lily Guiney 2:13
Moving over to some more MSU specific news the Black Student Alliance held its 50th Annual Black Power rally at the Wharton Center on November 13. The rally featured performances by several student organizations and as a tradition that first began in 1972. To bring the MSU black community together to both celebrate black culture and give voice to the issues that the community faces, their sketches, song, and dance.
Lily Guiney 2:35
Organizers said that one of the events key facets this year was intersectionality. And BSA President Marcus McDaniel Jr. said in his speech that this year steam is introducing intersectionality for the black community. And that there's a lot of things that go into this how you grew up how you were raised your whole environment as it is what makes you who you are to be able to sit in front of me today.
Lily Guiney 2:54
Intersectionality is defined as the ways in which systems of inequality based on gender, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability class and other forms of discrimination, quote, intersect to create unique dynamics and affect. The event closed with the presentation of the Lifetime Achievement Award by members of the BSA. They offered the award to BSA founder Robert L. Green who created the space for black students in the basement of his own home in 1967.According to the BSA website, Green's basement served as a space for organization and for black students on campus to come together and build a community.
Lily Guiney 3:31
New interim president Teresa K Woodruff sat down with the State News campus editor Morgan Womack last week to give her first interview in the position. One of Woodruff's goals as interim president is to bring a variety of perspectives into her decision making. She's met with everyone in senior leadership engage with the Board of Trustees to develop communication strategies, and worked with every report that comes to her office. The Board of Trustees unanimously approved Woodruff's appointment as interim president following President Emeritus Samuel L. Stanley Jr, Samuel L. Stanley, Jr, resignation.
Lily Guiney 4:01
She said she values students success the most as former provost, Provost Woodruff said she's proud of MSU effort to quote, knit together strategies across colleges to help students thrive. Students may come to the University not knowing what they want to major in, and she saw her role as to help students explore their options. Woodruff said that in her interactions with people from the MSU community, she works have a back and forth conversation. She said she states things like a scientist starting with a hypothesis and asking people to build or refute the argument. She didn't specify whether she wants to be considered for president, but hopes to succeed in her current position and hopes to collaborate with people to bring wisdom to whatever decisions she makes as interim president, and her time was interim, she said she's determined to stabilize the university. At its core she said Ms. Use metrics are quote, excellent, aside from a few oscillations due to leadership and past decisions.
Lily Guiney 4:52
Speaking of MSU leadership after a long campaign season, we now have two new nell, one new one repeat members of the Board of Trustees. Renee Knake Jefferson our incumbent and Dennis Denno won the two open seats on the MSU Board of Trustees with 24.94% and 24.35% of the votes respectively, according to the Michigan Secretary of State's on official results. Their terms will start in January 2023.
Lily Guiney 5:17
Knake Jefferson received the highest number of votes and was the only incumbent on the ballot. She was initially appointed to the board in 2019 by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. Outside of her role as trustee, she works as a law professor at the University of Houston and as an attorney. She centered much of her campaign around the importance of accountability and transparency on campus and has noted the need for increasing campus safety and supportive resources for survivors.
Lily Guiney 5:43
Michigan Democrats nominated Denno to run for the board in 2010. Denno said he was inspired to run again this year, he worked as a researcher founded Dental Research and spent 17 years working in the Michigan Legislature. Experiences he said will help in his role as a trustee. Denno's campaign issues focused on increasing accountability, transparency and budget priorities. And regards to increasing transparency. Denno stated he supports the release of 1000s of documents relating to the Larry Nasser sexual abuse case, he's also said he would work to raise the MSU employee minimum wage to $15 an hour.
Lily Guiney 6:17
So now we're going to look at just the general picture of where we're at after the election. So Michigan Democrats are set to take complete control of both chambers of Michigan's legislature for the first time in almost 40 years. The legislative Trifecta means Democrats will have control of the House of Representatives, the State Senate and the Michigan governor's mansion. The last time this happened was in 1984, when the first Ghostbusters movie was in theaters. Just to give you a little picture of how long ago that was so a little before our time here at MSU. But a gap that will certainly shape policy in Michigan over the next few years, that's four decades worth of pent up legislative priorities for Michigan done so.
Lily Guiney 6:57
And so far the leadership has said the new leadership of the party has said that they're eager to get to work in the new year. So the Democratic caucus selected Representative Joe Tate of Detroit as state Speaker of the House in Senator Winnie Brinks of Grand Rapids as Senate Majority Leader. Both our historic appointments for Michigan Tate will be the state's first ever black speaker and Brinks will be the first woman to serve as Majority Leader.
Lily Guiney 7:19
Frank said that the next two months will be spent developing a set of goals for the new state legislature press conference on November 11. Widely discussed amongst Democrats so far has been the potential repeal of former Governor Rick Snyder's right to work policy, which bans requiring workers to financially support union membership. Other legislative goals could include inflation relief programming, and increased protections for reproductive rights and following with the now pass proposal three.
Lily Guiney 7:45
On the GOP side of things the post election period has been more tense. An internal memo that was leaked from state Republican leadership slamming former gubernatorial candidate Tutor Dixon, for causing losses by conservative candidates led to squabbles about the future of Michigan's Republican Party. The memo authored by party chief of staff Paul Cordes, said that GOP losses at the top of the ticket and across the state could be attributed to how Dixon's campaign was run, including low name recognition and failure to stay on message.
Lily Guiney 8:16
Cordes said in the memo that quote, there were more ads on transgender sports than inflation, gas prices, and bread and butter issues that could have swayed independent voters. Voters simply didn't like what tutor was selling. So like many states Republican parties, the MI GOP has struggled with whether or not to embrace former President Donald Trump as a kingmaker or to err on the side of independent voters who may view him less favorably. The memo said that Trump's endorsement of Dixon hurt rather than helped her and in light of the growing rift among Republicans Dixon announced that she's considering a run for state party chair responding to the memo that the state party success was, quote, matter of leadership.
Lily Guiney 8:55
Former Attorney General candidate Matt DePerno announced last week that he also intends to seek the chairmanship if a candidate like Dixon or dipinto is elected state party chair in 2023. It could represent a formal swing to the right by Michigan Republicans who have grappled with accusations by Democrats of being too extreme would also fielding criticism from a portion of voters who believe the party establishment isn't conservative enough.
Lily Guiney 9:20
Regardless of where Republican leadership thinks the party may have gone wrong in the 2020 election cycle. The next two years will be the first time and Governor Gretchen Whitmer has tenure, the State Senate won't wield its veto power over her agenda. Democrats sweeping victories in Michigan represent a significant change from the norm and that shift will extended to governing. Whitmer, speaking the morning of November 9 said that she's excited to build on the work of her first four years in office and outlined several issues including repealing the retirement tax and preserving the Great Lakes that she hopes to tackle in her second term.
Lily Guiney 9:53
So a little closer to home. MSU students had a direct and arguably historic impact on 2022 elections. Newly reelected Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin set in a press conference after election day that she likely would not have been able to reach achieve the margin of victory she did without Spartan showing up at the ballot box. Hundreds of MSU students waited in an hour's long blind Brody Hall to vote on election night. The last student casts his vote after waiting until 11:30pm, over three hours after the polls officially closed slot can give a special shout out to the students.
Lily Guiney 10:26
This turnout she said was the fruition of same day registration and voting measures that were on the ballot in 2018. It's estimated that close to 3000 students voted in person on campus on the eighth with even more voting absentee or an early voting.
Lily Guiney 10:40
So it has been an insane long and very exhausting campaign season and I just want to give a shout out to everyone who participated in the civic process over the past few months. Data shows us how important the youth vote is and MSU students went above and beyond in both organizing and turnout to make sure that the voices of college students were heard. We at The State News are proud of everyone who waited in those long lines or who went through the absentee or early voting process to cast their ballots. and we were extremely excited to hear to cover it. And with that the 2022 campaign season has come to a close and everyone involved should go take a nap and gear up for what's next.
Lily Guiney 11:19
So to take us out today we've got a fun story from our social media staffer Griffin Wiles. Fans were ready for it when Taylor Swift tickets went on sale but Ticketmaster was not call it what you want, but buying tickets to Taylor Swift's recently announced tour prove to be anything but Swift.
Lily Guiney 11:34
Thousands of MSU students hopped on Ticketmaster between 9:30 and 10a.m. last week, in hopes of scoring the chance to see the pop superstar who released her 10th studio album Midnight's last month. The era's tour a sprawling 52 day North American tour set to kick off in 2023 marks Swift's first ever tour since the reputation stadium tour in 2018. Another tour Lover Fest was planned for 2020 and promotion of her seventh studio album Lover, but it was cancelled due to COVID 19. Since then, Swift has released three studio albums and about and two rerecorded albums, leaving fans to wonder when she would tour with the new material, as well as how she would manage to squeeze nearly 100 new songs into a cohesive setlist.
Lily Guiney 12:17
The heiress to her poster which pays homage to each of Swift's 10 distinct eras seems to reveal the answer. She won't be just touring with the rustic folklore and evermore in the synth populate and Midnight's her entire discography is fair game. So Ticketmaster put some fans on their Vigilante S***. The ticket sales giant released a statement yesterday citing sorry, last week This was recorded just a couple days after the presale, citing historically unprecedented demand for the tour with millions logging on to purchase tickets, many fans waited upwards of four treacherous hours only to find most of the pit or lower bowl tickets were already purchased. But there's no bad blood.
Lily Guiney 12:57
The fans said they're unsure if Ticketmaster would have been able to plan accordingly just because of Swift superstardom. So if you withstood the Great War, that was the ticket master que even throughout all of the champagne problems that cause were congratulating you for being so ahead of the curve, the curve became a sphere. The verified fan presale like love is a ruthless game unless you play it good, right? And if you were left like me, mad woman without any tickets, we feel for how sad beautiful tragic it was. And if you're headed for those resale prices, well, you're on your own kid.
Lily Guiney 13:29
And that's it for our episode of The 1909 today you can find us every Monday wherever you get your podcasts. Enjoy your Thanksgiving and signing off from East Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai