This is The State for Monday, January 27th where we bring you the headlines that matter. I'm Rachel Fulton.
For our first story of the week focusing on campus news,
The Student Book Store on E. Grand River Avenue has been a staple for students searching for textbooks since 1960. Recently, however, the store decided to no longer rent books out to students.
SBS owner Greg Ballein noted changes in the industry that have made hardcover textbooks less and less popular.
"Our book list has shrunken dramatically of actual hard copies of books that (the university) uses for classes anymore," Ballein said. "Almost every introductory-level class that has a high enrollment is using access codes and ... hard copies are kind of disappearing."
Even students who are seeking out hard copies rarely come in person to buy them anymore, Ballein said. With all of these changes, SBS is facing the consequences.
The Spartan Bookstore, MSU's on-campus bookstore in the International Center, has also seen this shift toward online materials, but there is still a demand for physical copies.
Through the Spartan Bookstore website, students still have the option for either a physical book or digital copy.
For our second story focusing on DEI,
Michigan State University postponed last Thursday an event centering on "DEI policy at MSU" just days after President Donald Trump signed an executive order ending diversity, equity and inclusion policies in federal government agencies that's expected to have a chilling effect on DEI at other institutions.
The webinar event was titled "The Future of DEI Policy at MSU" and was set to feature Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Jabbar Bennett, Associate Vice President for Federal Relations Sarah Walter and Director of Federal Relations Jacob Courville. The event was rescheduled for tomorrow.
The invite asked people to "join" the MSU administrators as they "demystify policy and process especially as it relates to DEI."
On Thursday, the event's organizers, who work for the non-partisan campus committee MSUVote, sent an email to all who had signed up for the webinar announcing it had been postponed.
Though several executive orders signed by Trump could impact higher education, one specifically targeting DEI policies in the federal government appears to be most closely related to the subject matter of MSU's postponed event. That executive order mandated the "termination of all discriminatory programs, including illegal DEI and 'diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility' (DEIA) mandates, policies, programs, preferences, and activities in the Federal Government, under whatever name they appear."
MSU's postponement of the event serves as an early example of the ways in which Trump's vision for higher education -- which has included dissolving the federal Department of Education -- might come into tension with MSU's institutional aims.
For our final story of the day focusing on student life,
Over 60 undergraduate students from a dozen MSU colleges presented their research last Friday in the eighth annual Diversity Research Showcase. The event was part of the university's week-long celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Offering virtual and in-person attendance to the public and judges, the showcase included asynchronous, oral and poster presentations.
Jaida Gouldbourne, a junior in criminal justice, presented a poster analyzing the enslaved population of Amity Hall Plantation, Jamaica in 1820. In her presentation, she explained that her research aimed to "shift the story of enslavement from the white perpetrators to the men, women and children whose labor they purloined."
One aspect of her work was to identify enslaved people in Jamaica during 1820 and add them to enslave.org, where individuals can track their origins. She said this process provided her with the opportunity to give enslaved people their identities back, making sure they didn't remain forgotten.
In an oral presentation, social relations and policy senior Ryan Longo explained his research into whether the historical and racist practice of redlining has created a disparity in Michigan public schools' food. Although he didn't find a direct relation, he predicts that a larger sample size could reflect such disparity.
Before we end our episode, today's weather forecast is predicting morning sunshine then windy with snow showers in the afternoon with a high of 35 degrees and a low of 22 degrees.
Thank you for joining us for The State... Produced by The State News and Impact eighty-nine F-M. You can find us online at State News dot com and Impact eight-nine F-M dot org. We'll be back tomorrow with more.