Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
In the news today- MSU board to vote on seeking state funds for $340 million engineering center, MSU hockey's Tommi Männistö earns Big Ten Star of the Week. Student-run startup RentEL keeps Spartans on the move, Graduate Employees Union seeks legal protection for graduate research assistants.
Creators and 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.
Hi, and welcome to The State. I'm your host, Rebecca McEvoy. Today's date is 10/30/2025. The forecast predicts that it'll be a cold day with a high being 55 and the low being 36. The state brings you the stories that matter.
Speaker 1:MSU board to vote on seeking state funds for 340,000,000 engineering center. Michigan State University's board of trustees will vote on Friday on whether to ask for more state funds to finance a proposed 340,000,000 engineering and digital innovation center. If approved, the 260,000 square foot center will house 12 learning spaces and workspaces for 65 researchers. It will primarily be used for the College of Engineering, Natural Science, Arts and Letters, Broad College of Business, Communication Arts and Sciences, and Social Science. To make way for the center, the Urban Planning And Landscape Architecture Building and the abandoned water reserve would be demolished.
Speaker 1:Red Cedar Road between South Shaw Lane and Wilson Road would also be permanently closed and converted to a greenway that connects the center to the College of Engineering building. The pricey project is being considered as all campus units are being asked to trim their budgets. MSU hockey's Tommy Manzino earns Big Ten star of the week. After a five point weekend and a near hat trick, number one Michigan State hockey junior forward Tommy Manzino has been named the Big Ten's first star of the week. This is the first time Manzito has earned a Big Ten weekly honor.
Speaker 1:Manzito's weekend performance helped the Spartans earn a four o shutout and a six two victory over Northern Michigan University on the road. Both Manizito and forward senior, Thierryn Shouti, led the conference in points and goals last week. The Finland native scored in the final goal in game one of the NMU series and was dominant in game two. Manzito got the Spartans on the board early with a slapshot less than three minutes into the game. In the same period, Manzito increased the advantage to a two o with a quick shot right after a one face off.
Speaker 1:Student run startup, Ret EL, keeps Spartans on the move. When Michigan State finance sophomore Soham Samphat noticed how often his friends struggled to find affordable rides, he decided to help the best way he could, by lending out his own car. What began as a simple favor soon turned into an idea that kept growing. Today, the idea is Rent EL, a student run car service with a fleet of 10 vehicles and more than 200 students who have used it all to get to where they need to go. He started small, renting out his own car for a fifty to sixty day day, but the demand rapidly grew to the point where he could hardly use his own vehicle anymore.
Speaker 1:The side hustle to help friends became a business worth building. As the requests keep coming, Sam reinvested what he earned. He used the profits from those first rentals to buy another car, then applied it to a low interest loan through MSU Federal Credit Union. Looking ahead, Sam Pat plans to expand his business to other areas and universities, including Ann Arbor and his own hometown, Chicago. Graduate Employees Union seeks legal protection for graduate research assistance.
Speaker 1:The Michigan State University Graduate Employee Union was formed in 2001 to legally protect the rights of graduate students working as teaching assistants. Now, they're trying to secure the same protections for graduate research assistants. They are doing this through the Graduate Research Union Drive. Their goal is to have a union contract for graduate research assistants within a year. Although it became legal for GRAs to unionize in February 2024, there are still many steps that go into securing a contract.
Speaker 1:Thank you for joining us for The State, produced by The State News and Impact eighty nine FM. You can find us online at thestatenews.com and impact89fm.org. We're back tomorrow with more.