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This week on The 1909, host Lily Guiney discusses Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer's State of the State address and lawmakers' reactions to it, CAPS seeing a higher number of students in 'holiday aftermath' and Starbucks moving into the MSU Main Library.
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.
Welcome number 1909 your home with the state news for everything happening on campus and around Lansing. I'm Lily Guiney. This week we're going to dive into a big news recap covering shifts in local businesses updates in MSU policy and a significant speech by Governor Gretchen Whitmer. So let's get into it.
Gretchen Whitmer gave her yearly State of the State address on Wednesday night so when this airs it will actually have been January 25. Just for reference, in which she outlined key goals surrounding education proposals and tax relief. The address to the joint session of the state legislature was the first to be conducted in person and the House chamber since 2019. And marks Whitmer his first major appearance after being inaugurated for her second term. I had a speech with her promise to lay out plans to help Michiganders deal with inflation, the rising cost of living and access to education.
She used the address to announce two major pieces of policy the lowering my costs plan and making it in Michigan. The lowering my cost plan encompasses much of women's economic priorities for the state, including eliminating the pension tax and expanding tax credits for low-income and working families. Whitmer also asked to make the Great Start readiness program universal so as to allow all four-year-olds in Michigan to attend free public preschool. Should the program expand Whitmer said it would save families on average around $10,000 a year in childcare costs.
Whitmer touted economic accomplishments including the arrival of battery plants in Big Rapids and Van Buren township expected to create several 100 jobs were devoted large sections of her speech to education topics, ranging from paying student teachers to curbing gun violence in schools. She said she hopes to expand upon education advances from her first term, with programs to provide students with personalized one-on-one support to recover from the loss of instructional time due to COVID-19.
Republican response to the speech was mixed HOUSE MINORITY LEADER Matt Hall said in the statement that the address was quote nothing more than a stump speech, light on details and void of ideas to deliver on the priorities of the people of Michigan.
Other GOP legislators said they felt more optimistic about the governor's plans for the new term. Representative John Roth of Traverse City said that there were several topics in the speech he saw as opportunities for bipartisan cooperation. House Speaker Joe Tate of Detroit said his caucus is excited to get to work making the policy plans that were discussed a reality. With a slim Democratic majority. Tate said the first priority of the legislature in the coming weeks we'll be tax relief bills Whitmer discussed bolstering the earned income tax credit which she referred to as the working families tax credit. She said this expansion would provide federal and state tax refunds to approximately 700,000 families.
While Whitmer's address centered on economic and workplace issues. One notably absent topic was Democrats' plans to repeal right-to-work laws to the benefit of labor unions. Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist said that even though it wasn't present in the speech, the issue of union support is still at the top of Democrats' list of priorities.
With the State of the State Address completed Democrats will release their proposed budget for the upcoming year within the coming weeks, which will include appropriations for most of the plants proposed during the summer's address. Now on to some MSU news. As the spring semester begins, students are adjusting to the life changes and course stress of being on campus again.
Unfortunately, countless factors bring distress to students during this time of year. Counseling and psychiatric services or caps strive to provide students with mental health services to optimize their physical and mental well-being in light of the challenges the semester can bring. caps can be found on MSU campus on the third floor of the Olin health center, licensed psychologists and caps Director Mark Patishnock said that students tend to feel overwhelmed this time of year, reporting snit significant levels of stress, anxiety, depression and isolation. These responses were compounded by the years of the pandemic and the responsibilities students had along with the tragedies and losses many students endured. Patishnock said that January February and March are months with an increased risk for suicide.
With an influx of students, challenges arise for caps. The offices handle these challenges by prioritizing specific service services. First up are crisis services.
Along with short-term exchanges caps right provides 24/7 crisis resources like virtual crisis counseling to access students can call 517-355-8270 and press one. There is also an alternative crisis line for sexual assault at 517-372-6666. After crisis service, initial access is the next priority for CAP staff Students can visit the caps website for an initial consultation with a counselor. With limited scheduled time caps has difficulty balancing the assistance for a large number of students. Since its opening in 2018, Caps has experienced a 60% to 70% increase in students who've reached out for help, at any given time 30 to 40% of all students that ask caps for help reported having suicidal thoughts in the last two weeks.
Free relationship counseling is also offered for two or more people to gain insight into each other and discover beneficial methods of communication. Caps also holds a diverse staff, letting students select their preferences for the race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation and religion of their counselor to allow for maximum comfort. So if you're anything like me, which a lot of people are being caffeinated is a must. And to my fellow coffee lovers, we've got some exciting news about upcoming changes to the MSU library. So MSU supplies its students with multiple branded restaurants across campus, including two Starbucks locations. Each coffee shop has snaking lines in almost all hours of operation, making it seem possible to ever receive express service. Although students liked the business, the jam-packed pathways at the wells Hall location, make it different difficult to navigate to and from classes, with many rooms exceeding capacities of over 500 people.
If you've ever been late to class, because you were so close and yet so far, from the front of the well Starbucks line, you know what we're talking about. So the decided solution for this issue is to move the location to the MSU Library. In terms of picking a specific location in the library, the process may be a little easier. According to MSU officials, the Starbucks will be placed on the existing footprint of the library sports just with the revamped design. The idea is to close the wells Hall Starbucks and the Smarties in the library and start the renovation. Starbucks will hopefully be open right before next fall semester.
On East Kalamazoo street sits East Side Lansing Food Co-Op or Elfo, a new food cooperative dedicated to providing fresh produce to the community at a wide range of prices. Something I know I'll be checking out the next time I go grocery shopping. upon entrance, customers will see the shelves lined with fruits and vegetables picked from local Michigan farms. wood tables hold a spread of bread and bagels made by local bakers of CO manager Sally Potter described the business as quote a slice of success.
A previous iteration of the store had been located in East Lansing called the East Lansing Food Co Op. However, that store was closed forced to close due to lack of business in 2017. Potter said part of the store's success is in its location as the business is positioned in a neighborhood where many can't afford their own vehicles. She's that quote it's easier for a lot of them. It's closer for a lot of neighbors to walk here than to downtown Lansing or to Kroger. It's on a main drag on Kalamazoo Street. It's got decent sidewalks and easy parking, so all the elements are set up for it to work and it's working. Potter said plantings Eastside community is very diverse, which is why Elko aims to have a wide variety of prices.
When the store opened, the staff set up a payment system that did not process electronic forms of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program or SNAP more commonly called Food Stamps. However, the store changed the payment system used in the store and has been accepting food stamps for around four weeks. Potter said that around 20% of the store sales are now from fruit food stamps. produce manager Milton Shupe said the store tries to provide most of its produce from Michigan farmers, with the only setback being the seasonality of certain crops. When it comes to deciding prices, shoop said the process is a partnership between Elko and the community. He said the store tries to keep the prices customers pay around the same price that the store buys from farmers.
The store, however, is not a worker's cooperative, owned by employees but a customer's cooperative. Potter said customers pay an annual fee and can attend board meetings to say what direction they want the staff to take the store. Chip's goals for the store include making sure it is grounded within the community of not just Lansing east side, but Greater Lansing itself.
If you're grocery stop shopping on a student budget but still hoping to get healthy, sustainably sourced products making a trip to Ohio could be a game changer. In other East Lansing news, East Lansing High School has placed on a Shelter In Place lockdown at 10 a.m. on January 24. A report of an onsite weapon was investigated. Students remained in their classrooms during the lockdown. According to the East Lansing Community Council parent-teacher organization, the administration confirmed the Shelter in Place was lifted at 11:40 a.m. And thankfully, nobody was harmed. The Associated Students of MSU hosted interim president Teresa Woodruff and its first meeting of the semester. Woodruff's main goal was to convey to the student body that she supports them. She emphasized that she hears students and wants to ensure that the university is as safe as welcoming and safe and welcoming. as it can possibly be. She spoke on different initiatives that she has been paying attention to within fields like diversity, equity, inclusion, and relationship to violence and sexual misconduct.
She said the university will be breaking ground on a new free-standing Cultural Center on campus in the coming months. After her presentation to attorneys from Student Legal Services shared about the services they offer, their priority is helping students on campus with legal needs completely free of cost. Their services also educate students about their own legal issues, so they have the skills needed to handle situations on their own. And other MSU news results from the second ever no more surveys show a decline in rates of sexual harassment, sexual assault, workplace incivility and other harm experienced by members of the campus community since 2019. The survey was introduced in 2019 as a way to assess perceptions of policy and culture surrounding relationship violence and sexual misconduct, or RVSM. On campus. The second iteration of the survey was sent to all undergraduate students, graduate and professional students, faculty and staff in the spring of 2020 to more than 11,500 surveys were completed and analyzed in an email releasing the survey results to the MSU community interim president Woodruff thanks Spartans for a quote, working together to foster an environment that is more respectful to each other, and is supportive of survivors.
Data were categorized into three gender identity groups based on self-reported identities, cisgender, woman, cisgender, cisgender, man, and transgender and or nonbinary, transgender and nonbinary respondents were grouped together in quotes, an effort to create groups with enough respondents to enable analysis. The report said all data refer to the 2021-2022 academic year, sexual harassment was the most prevalent form of victimization experienced by students across all gender groups. The survey showed 61% of undergraduate cisgender women 35.7% of undergraduate cisgender men and 72.8% of undergraduate cisgender or nonbinary students reporting sexual harassment.
The survey also asked about specific types of sexual harassment students had or had not experienced. The most common types of sexual harassment reported were quote, inappropriate or offensive comments about your or somebody else's body appearance or sexual activities, and quote, someone referring to people of your gender in insulting or offensive terms. The second most prevalent form of victimization was intimate partner violence experienced by 13% of cisgender women undergraduates, 8.1% of cisgender men undergraduates, and 17.3% of transgender or nonbinary undergraduates.
For undergraduate cisgender women sexual assault was the third highest reported victimization, with 11.8% of students reporting at least one experience of assault for undergraduate cisgender men and transgender or nonbinary graduates. Stalking was more prevalent in sexual assault, a total of 3% of undergraduate cisgender men experienced stalking, while 2.8% experienced sexual assault. A total of 15.7% of transgender or nonbinary undergraduates reported experiencing stalking compared to 10.6% who reported a sexual assault. The survey results in note that within experiences of sexual assault sexual battery was more common than rape across all gender categories. While comparisons to the 2019 results are somewhat imperfect, due to the fact that gender identity information was collected differently in 2022, and 2019, transgender men and women were grouped together with cisgender men and women, and few results were presented separately for those who identified as genderqueer or nonbinary.
Since 2019. The prevalence of all forms of victimization during the academic year has decreased for both male and female undergraduate students. For undergraduate women, sexual assault experiences have decreased by 1.1 percentage points in sexual harassment experiences have decreased by 4.5 points. For undergraduate men, sexual assault decreased by point seven points and sexual harassment by 6.5 points. For male and female undergraduates.
The rate of disclosing a sexual harassment experience to a friend classmate or family member has increased since 2019. undergraduate women are also more likely to disclose a sexual assault to a roommate friend or family member than they were in 2019. Male and female faculty and staff all experienced less workplace sexual harassment in 22 than 2022 than in 2019. Male faculty rates dropped 5.5 percentage points and male staff showed a decrease of 6.4 points. female faculty rates decreased by 6.4 points and female staff by 8.4. By analyzing transgender and nonbinary students, faculty and staff separately from their cisgender male and female counterparts, the 2022 survey showed this group as a whole is more likely to experience victimization and an email which I've noted this as an area that requires, quote, ongoing work and diligence.
Now for a couple of minutes of just good news, over 100 buildings on campus now have complimentary menstrual product dispensers thanks to an initiative produced by the MSU chapter of mission ministration.
Before the implementation of the new initiative, only 10 to 15 locations on campus offers students free menstrual products. According to residents' education, and housing services Associate Director for communications Bethany box. Mission ministration brought an official proposal to student life and engagement or SLE and infrastructure planning and facilities or IPF requesting dispensers be added to all women's and all gender, restrooms and residence halls and student-facing buildings.
Bulk said the initiative is about 97% complete and is expected to be fully implemented by the end of January. dispensers have been installed in the first four bathrooms of all residence halls, but still need to be installed in a few big buildings including the student union and own health center. SLE and IPF are also in the process of creating a map showing students where they are able to access complementary products on campus.
Currently, the SLA website has a list of where dispensers have been installed. So the next time that you're about to send a frantic text to your group chat asking if anyone is in the area and has a tampon. Jump on the SLA website and check if your location has free menstrual products available. MSU's administration was one of several student organizations that have expressed concern for menstrual product accessibility on campus. As MSU RHA the Women's Advisory Committee for support staff and the gender and sexuality Campus Center have also worked with MSU to support the initiative.
Members of the group say that the placement of free menstrual products on campus is an important step forward in supporting student well-being.
And that is it for our episode of The 1909 today. Thanks for listening and tune in every Monday wherever you get your podcasts. Signing off from East Lansing I'm Lily Guiney.