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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) Welcome to the 1909 your home state news for everything happening on campus and around Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney. The end of the school year is rapidly approaching. And I just want to say thanks to everyone who's been tuning in the past few months. It's been a semester that none of us expected. But we've gotten to hear so many awesome and enlightening stories out of this campus. Nonetheless, we'll continue to bring you news recaps up until finals week, so keep on listening. This week we'll be recapping some graduation announcements, updates about Berkey and the Union and other campus and City News. Then we'll here are a couple minutes of just good news about an astrophysicist inspiring others to reach for the stars. So let's get into it.
When Maria volleyball was hired by Michigan State University Department of police and public safety as their police social worker in fall of 2022, she felt she had a good picture of what the job would ask of her on a day to day basis. Valley hill a two time graduate of MSU and a former victim advocate and a prosecutor's office said she knew what her role would look like and where she would fit in in the community. Valuable said no one goes into the job expecting a mass shooting but she said skills and experiences from her prior jobs were something she relied on, as she helped the campus work its way through the mass shooting on February 13. That work is never comfortable. Valeo said. You hope you never have to do it again. Belial said her unit at DPS is focused on mental wellness, community safety and giving people access to resources in times of crisis on February 13. She was called in to assist at the reunification center at the MSU pavilion. daleel arrived just before midnight and said the pavilion was tense. She knew there were families coming that hadn't heard from their students hoping you would hear something or be unified. She said the most profound part of working in the reunification center was sitting with the families who were still waiting.
The longer they waited, the more we were all aware that their students could be on that list. Valeo said later that night employees have dpps made death notifications and families were called into a private part of the pavilion after February 13 and Valeo said the important part of her role has been connecting people with services being offered to survivors of a traumatic event throughout the community. dpbs Valeo said is still responding to professor's requests for wellness checks on students they have yet to hear from or see in class after the shooting. Valeo said it's not anyone's place to judge how a person processes their trauma but that you will meet them where they are and connect them with accessible resources to meet their needs. When you're feeling trauma, you're just shutting down Valeo said you're not reading your email. You're just trying to cope where you feel the safest. Whether that means not feeling comfortable to come back to campus or they don't want to walk to their dorm and the dark from the parking lot or needing other accommodations. Valeo said her job is to find the appropriate resources. Additionally, she's been in touch with some of the families whose students were injured or died in the shooting. Belial said dpps is working with these families to provide support for medical bills or places for the families to stay while their students are in rehab.
As a victim advocate we can never be satisfied she said Valeo said the normalization of active shooter drills and security guards walking the halls creates a very different academic culture than what she experienced in her inner city Detroit school growing up before safety precautions to prevent violence in schools were implemented. I grew up in a city that has a lot of violence. So I always took precautions Valeo said personally and I understood it but institutionally, we just didn't have that in school. She's encouraged and grateful for the people that accepted the support she has had to offer since she started at dpps.
Since the shooting happened, Valeo said social workers at other universities have asked her about her experience and what the department has learned. She said that as the social workers at other universities and colleges have asked for advice. They've also acted as a support network for her. I'm never the stoic person who pretends like it didn't impact me. You have to model the healthy things that you want other people to feel safe to experience themselves, Valeo said MSU administrators have finalized decisions on to sites of the mass shooting on campus last month.
Berkey, an academic building where the gunman killed two students in classrooms, will remain closed through the Fall 2023 semester. The MSU union where a third student was killed will begin reopening on April 3. Both buildings have been closed to the public and their staff since the shooting on February 13. The reopen union will include Smarties in the Spartan spirit shop retail stores as well as 1000s of square feet of study areas and reservable rooms available to students. Vice President of Student Life and engagement veni Gore, the administrator who oversees non academic spaces like dormitories and dining halls. So there's a great demand for the Union. Over 330 student organizations are already attempting to book rooms for the month of April. The union has generated between $250,000.05 104 $50,000 for the university in recent years, according to the Office of Student Life and engagement, kinesiology, Jr, Julia Krantz who was studying in the MSU union when the gunman opened fire inside, so that despite the traumatic experience, she's excited for the reopening. She said the union was her home on campus, where she studied or socialized nearly every day. She's determined to go back and not let the shooting take it from her. It will take time to get used to the space again and Chris said, but I just like the Union a lot better than the library. I was really upset when it closed because how can we just go back to normal when my normal is going to the Union April 3 will be more of a soft opening. According to Gore. University tours will remain at the Kellogg Center, and much of MSU counseling and psychiatric services will continue to operate off site. The Union Food Court will remain closed for the foreseeable future. The dining area house much of the violence and given the physical damage caused by the panic and the presumed association between that space and dramatic events. Traumatic events, university administrators said they hoped to remodel the food court before opening it to students. Similar cosmetic changes are being discussed for Berkey Hall. According to Interim Provost Thomas jabsco. Just go and go are both said that renovations are in early stages and that more details will be provided when contractors are secured and designs are finalized. Staff of the
Union food court as well as the smarties and Spartan spirit shop stores will be offered relocation if they want to continue their employment but don't want to return to work in the union. Or said his department is lucky to be large enough that students and full time staff can maintain their employment while working somewhere else on campus. JESCO said on the academic side, his staff has been working to ensure some more flexibility for professors researchers and graduate students who previously worked out of office spaces in Bercy Hall. brookies classes will once again be moved to various buildings for the fall 2023 semester. Just go caution students currently building their schedules to account for travel time when scheduling courses that would have been in Bercy the location of those courses currently appears blank in the student information system.
In graduation news, three national leaders and health economics and national security will be addressing the semesters graduating class chief medical adviser to the president Dr. Anthony Fauci will be delivering his address to MSU doctoral graduates, masters and educational specialist degree recipients will be addressed by Joe herby the undersecretary for nuclear security for the US Department of Energy and National Nuclear Security Administration administrator MSU faculty member Lisa D. Koch, who serves on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors will address undergraduate degree recipients. graduation ceremonies are set to begin on May 4, and conclude on May 13. Taking place at the Breslin Center as well as the Wharton Center. The ceremonies will be live streamed on MSUs Commencement website. For those who cannot attend or wish to watch remotely. All three speakers will be awarded Honorary Degrees for work done in their respective fields. HERBIE, who will be awarded an Honorary Doctorate of science will address master's and educational special specialist degree recipients at 9am. On May 5, her background in engineering and science helped develop technologies to further the nation's nuclear security. Her honorary degree recognizes her accomplishments not only in the field of national security, but also as a mentor for women in engineering.
Koch will address undergraduate degree recipients at 1pm on May 5, she's previously a senior economist on the Council of Economic Advisers under former President Barack Obama. She's also notably the first black woman to serve on the Federal Reserve Board. Cooke is also a Professor of Economics and International Relations at Michigan State, though temporarily on leave while she serves on the Federal Reserve Board. Coke will be awarded an honorary Doctor of humanities for her lifelong commitment to providing financial stability, knowledge and action to the field of economics. Fauci will address doctoral students at 3:30pm on May 5, his lifetime of work in the field of public health, most notably his research on HIV and AIDS during the global AIDS epidemic, and his COVID 19 pandemic counseling has brought him national recognition. He's been awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom and has served through seven Presidents and their administrations to make informed decisions about global health issues.
The American gaming Association adopted new rules on March 28, which would disallow partnerships between colleges and sports betting companies challenging Michigan State Athletics nearly $9 million deal with Caesars sportsbook according to the associations website. The American Counseling Association or AIGA is not a government agency rather a group of casinos and online gambling firms that regulate the industry through an internally enforced code of rules. Caesars is not a member of the ATA but it's still bound by the guidelines it creates. According to Ajay, senior vice president Casey Clark. Individuals and members are asked to submit complaints to the AJA if they suspect firms of breaking their rules. Those would then be investigated by Oregon. eboard according to the organization's policy, no Clark says there's only been one recorded code violation and that firms shifted into compliance before intervention was even needed.
It's not entirely clear how MSU will react to these new rules. When asked if he believes the Caesars deal could continue, Clark said you're going to have to ask MSU and Caesars about their particular partnership. But from a strict code situation, any new partnerships will be prohibited, and any expansion would likely be prohibited. Associate Athletics Director and communications director Matt Larson MSU spokesperson Dan Olson and MSU Vice President of Communications Emily Grant were all unavailable for comment at the time of the state news as publication, media representatives for Caesars were also unavailable. The partnership has been criticized nationally by regulators, lawmakers and addiction experts for encouraging students to partake in gambling, which studies have found is disproportionately dangerous and addictive for young people. Department of Agricultural food and Resource Economics Professor Satish Joshi, who first criticized the partnership at a November 2022 university council meeting, that he wishes the athletics department would have ended the Partnership on its own, rather than wait till the regulator outlawed its deal. This shouldn't be a debate Joshi said, promoting this using college events to promote great gambling is absolutely morally reprehensible. We should not have even gone there. But having gone there, I think it's time they terminate it quickly. The now moot deal includes broadcasts and video and advertisements for Caesars during games.
Emails to MSU is database of students free tickets to games and seats on teams private planes for Caesars employees, as well as the nonspecific clause which allows the company to quote unquote C's arise the tailgating spaces outside of Spartan Stadium. Outside of those broad areas, the structure of the deal makes the details on clear. Play fi a sports marketing company serves as a middleman between MSU and Caesars, meaning the contract containing specifics is between the two private companies and not subject to public records, records requests. The secrecy was touted by play fly employees attempting to finalize the deal and 2021 According to emails to MSU athletic director Alan How are obtained by the state news. The new rules also prohibit NFL deals between college players and sports betting companies.
Representative Samantha Steklov of Farmington Hills and Noah arbit of West Bloomfield introduced over a resolution on March 23. In the Michigan House of Representatives to condemn comparisons made between gun violence prevention was introduced in the state legislature and violence that occurred in the Holocaust. The resolutions passage follows tweets made by the state Republican Party chair Christina karamo through the party's Twitter account, which outwardly compared the restricting of firearms, to the restricting of rights to Jewish people in the Holocaust. The MIT GOP tweet read history has shown us that the first thing a government does when it wants total control over its people is to disarm them. cromoz tweet talked about the history of enslaved black Americans, disarming Native Americans, putting Japanese Americans into internment camps and sterilizing disabled and mentally handicapped American citizens. Comparing these acts of hate to possible restrictions on the Second Amendment. These tweets received backlash on a national scale yet karamo held a press conference where she defended her comparison, doubling down instead of apologizing. There's absolutely absolutely nothing in recorded history like the systematic murder of 6 million Jewish people by Nazis during the Holocaust.
Steklov said in her speech on the House floor, it is utterly obscene to compare our efforts to defend women's rights to control their own bodies and protect children from gun violence to death camps. Our public discourse has reached a new low none of us regardless of party should stand for it and the resolution was prepared by House leadership leadership then came to Representative Steklov in orbit to sponsor arbit, who is the sponsor and former chair of the Michigan democratic Jewish caucus said that watching Michigan Republicans use quote, a cheap political point in opposition to gun violence reform was unconscionable, making the need for the resolution more than appropriate. When the Michigan House got a call from the FBI a month ago discussing an individual in Michigan with a house full of weapons looking to harm Jewish Michiganders arbit said it was just one occurrence of the rising anti semitism and rising extremism in the state.
The Republican Party is not only not an ally in the fight against anti semitism, it's actually helping stoke it with this and other forms of rhetoric that they use according to orbit. arbit introduced a house bill which would amend the Elliott Larsen Civil Rights Act to include discrimination based on ethnicity. arbites said the legislature said stop calling it a rise when this has been a problem for years. Instead, calling it quote reality. arbit said it should not be complicated for Republicans to learn to stop making harmful comparisons, comparing it to kindergarteners learning not to punch each other in the face. arbit called out state representative Neal frisky of Sharla boy who arbit said comes from quote a family of Nazis and compared gun reform to Kristallnacht, or the beginning of the Holocaust of as part of not only the doubling down but quote Quint doubling down on the harmful comparisons the mid GOP is making. Regional Director of the anti Defamation League of Michigan Carolyn Nora Mandan said she works on releases of annual reports of anti semitic incidents in 22 Normand and said the rates of these incidents were at historically high levels with 111 incidents in Michigan in terms of vandalism, including one of the incidents being an assault, ranking Michigan as the ninth worst state for anti semitism.
Remington also worked on a white power propaganda report depicting that Michigan is the fourth worst state in the Union when it comes to the spread of propaganda. Norman then called a meme from the MIT GOP quote, disgusting and vile, she appreciated the legislature for acting to address the issue and working to get to a point where political parties can disagree without quote, inappropriate comparisons to the Holocaust that minimize the death of millions. I think we've seen the Holocaust analogies and Hitler terian analogies rising in the past several years, Norman Dunn said it's sort of become common and normalized and we cannot let it become normalized especially with elected officials and candidates. They must use their platforms to communicate responsibly and not contribute to the trivialization of the Holocaust. Norman did said that the rise in these analogies has also been attributed to the COVID-19 restrictions, such as wearing a mask or getting the vaccine. The defamation aspect of these tweets come from the idea of quote unquote false equivalency, wherein those using those comparisons simply don't like political actions, whether that be from Republicans or Democrats.
Now it's time for a couple minutes of Jessica news about an astrophysicist with an inspiring story who's hoping to open doors to STEM education for future scientists came OAC, an astrophysicist author, stem educator, inventor, voice actor and TV personality recently spoke at the facility for rare isotope beams auditorium. He was recently a science education lead in the Space Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington DC, where he provided leadership and management society education investments. OSA said in his speech that his scientific research had done much to do with quote unquote, hacking stars. His goal is to better understand the works of the universe, and to develop new and innovative technologies to bring science forward. His goal with science education is to convey information effectively and efficiently. He likes to share the perks of being a scientist. For me, I like to talk to students about the elements of being a scientist that you never really hear about Alessi said, for example, I've been to 44 countries now guess how many of those trips I paid for zero? You get so many benefits from being a scientist.
Growing up in a poor home in rural Mississippi, he said he's driven to provide an education that allows an equal opportunity to African American children of all backgrounds. You think about impacting people's lives through making discoveries, developing technology, but really for me, it's bridging that gap. Boise said, I feel like we self edit people think oh, I can't do that. I thought I was dumb until I saw you. Always he said he has people from all walks of life constantly reaching out to him. Just a few days ago, he said someone wrote to him saying they had been inspired to become a math teacher because of him. Others wrote to remind him of the time he visited their village and inspired them to get their degrees in electrical engineering. That stuff is way more fulfilling to me than any invention, any scientific discovery just impacting people's lives.
Always he said. He said teaching people to believe in themselves is mind blowing. His Own Story is indicative of that change. After being honorably discharged from the Navy due to his skin condition. He enrolled in Mississippi's Tougaloo College, where he was unaware that he had to actually apply before showing up. He ended up dropping out working as a hotel janitor and eating guests leftovers and then coming back to school to earn his degrees in math and physics. He went on to study at Stanford after failing the qualifying exam countless times he eventually graduated in 1999, with a PhD in physics. Later in life, he would be invited back to speak at Tougaloo College now as a respected and famous astrophysicist, running full circle. His team had him stay at the same hotel where he had worked to survive years earlier.
And that's it of our episode of the 1909 for today. Thanks for tuning in. And remember to catch us every Monday wherever you get your podcasts and signing off from East Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney.