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In the news today: For our first story of the day focusing on campus news, MSU faculty ask board for 'consultative process' as it considers humanities consolidation. Our second story comes from our Impact 89FM News team focuses on an opinion piece on campus transportation, the frustrating reality of CATA on weekends. For our final story of the day focusing on graduation, everything you need to know for MSU fall commencement 2024.
Creators & Guests
What is The State - A Podcast from The State News + Impact 89FM?
The State is a daily rundown of the headlines that matter to the East Lansing, MI community.
This is The State for Friday, December 6th where we bring you the headlines that matter. I'm Rachel Fulton.
For our first story of the day focusing on campus news,
As Michigan State University's leadership considers consolidating two humanities colleges, a group of tenured faculty has called on the Board of Trustees to ensure the decision-making process is "consultative" and considerate of options other than consolidation.
The letter comes after the Residential College of Arts and Humanities (RCAH) students were informed by college leadership in October that university administration was considering consolidating RCAH with the larger, but similarly humanities-focused College of Arts and Letters (CAL), an announcement that worried many RCAH students.
The consideration comes at a time of heightened sensitivity around the extent to which the humanities are prioritized at universities across the country. Several have slashed humanities programs in attempts to balance budgets, justifying the move by arguing those programs don't hold as much value as degree programs that translate more directly to specific career paths, like engineering and business.
MSU administration previously announced that a "working group," composed of representatives from RCAH and CAL, would be convened to provide recommendations on the restructuring to the provost's office.
The professors' letter says that the group has not yet met, and called on the board to ensure the group "be allowed to explore all options through a consultative process."
At its conclusion, the letter notes that while it's only signed by tenured faculty within RCAH, given the "protection that tenure affords," it was drafted with support "from all of our faculty and staff peers in the college."
Our second story comes from our Impact 89FM News team focuses on an opinion piece on campus transportation,
Even though MSU offers numerous paths along beautiful scenery, it takes roughly 45 minutes to get from one side of campus to the other on foot. Considering this, it makes sense why so many students prefer to cut that time in half by utilizing CATA's bus routes, especially with winter here. Apps like Transit help students determine when their bus will arrive and help them better plan their time. As convenient as this seems, there is an issue: the traditional bus routes CATA runs do not operate on the weekends.
As college students, it's common to go to football games, friend's dorms or parties on the weekends that are further away. To get to these places, students would like to use the bus – but often, they have to wait excessive times for a bus to arrive.
Having such long wait times for buses forces students to consider alternative transportation methods, like paying for Ubers or Lyfts – which can be extremely expensive. On the CATA website, it states that: "Weekend service operates 9 a.m. until 2:30 a.m. Three fixed routes provide service every 30 minutes." This seems to be in contrast to the typical student experience.
The CATA website features ways to retrieve accurate and up-to-date information on bus routes. CATA has a "Transit Toolbox," that provides the up-to-date phone number and other contact information for people to know who to contact about bus times.
As frustrations persist, students are losing hope that they can reliably ride the buses to travel on the weekends.
For our final story of the day focusing on graduation,
Michigan State University is preparing to celebrate its Spartans with this year's fall commencements next Friday and Saturday, Dec. 13 and Dec. 14 at the Breslin Center. From speakers to times of ceremonies, here's everything you need to know before attending.
The deadline for students to register to participate in this semester's commencement is today at noon.
The ceremony for students receiving doctorate, master's and Educational Specialist degrees will be held on Friday, Dec. 13 at 3:30 p.m.
Another ceremony takes place on Saturday, Dec. 14 at 10 a.m. for seniors graduating from the following colleges:
Residential College in the Arts and Humanities
College of Arts and Letters
Eli Broad College of Business
College of Education
James Madison College
College of Music
College of Social Science
Later next Saturday, there will be a ceremony at 2 p.m. for seniors graduating from the following colleges:
College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
College of Communication Arts and Sciences
College of Engineering
Lyman Briggs College
College of Natural Science
College of Nursing
Keynote speakers will include Teresa Sullivan for the advanced degree ceremony, Jillian Lorenz, and Darius Adamczyk.
All commencement ceremonies will be livestreamed on MSU's Commencement Ceremonies webpage. Social media users can follow the event using #SpartanGrad24. Friends, family and alumni can send personalized messages and photos prior to the ceremonies.
To end our last episode of the week, here are a few announcements!
Today's weather forecast is predicting cloudy with a high of 29 degrees and a low of 24 degrees. For the weekend it looks like those temps will increase a bit with Saturday sitting around the mid-30s and Sunday getting up to the mid-40s and cloudy skies with a small amount of sunshine.
Here's the MSU events lineup for the weekend...
A lot of events are happening here on campus through the weekend, kicking it off with the Pathology Paint Social, presented by the Pathology Interest Group at 5:15 P.M. at Fee Hall in Room E111 and a Zoom option where you can come for a relaxing evening of arts and crafts. Also happening tonight is the quantum microscopes search for new elementary particles and forces with David DeMille at the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams at 5:30 P.M.
Tomorrow, the 61st Annual Winter Arts & Crafts Show will kick off at 9 A.M. through 5 P.M. at the MSU Union and Family Day: COLLAGE will take place at the Broad Art Museum at 11 A.M. where you can cut, paste, and recombine materials to see something new!
Finishing off the weekend on Sunday, The Arts & Crafts show will continue starting at 10 A.M. and ending at 4 P.M. The Facility for Rare Isotope Beams will host another lecture this weekend which will represent the visual world with Doris Tsao at 1 P.M. and the final event will be the SpARTan Wellness: Finals Week Edition where you can take a break from those finals with Coffee from Strange Matter Coffee + Koozies at the Broad Art Museum at 2 P.M.
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 in the new year on January 21st with more.