Michigan State University Vice President and Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch provides a campus safety and security update. Throughout the past year, the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety (DPPS) has been hard at work enhancing several different campus safety and security initiatives.  Following the violence our community experienced in February 2023, we continue to stand together as a community. And Lynch says MSU DPPS stands committed to ensuring the safety of our Spartan community.  Conversation Highlights: (1:28) - The third-party after-action review by Security Risk Management Consultants (SRMC) was completed in October 2023.  (2:48) - There are new metal detectors around campus that are allowing guests to enter venues quicker, while also ensuring overall safety.  (4:46) - Enhancements to the MSU Alert systemLog in to alert.msu.edu to review and update your notification preferences. You can also download the SafeMSU app and enable push notifications to receive alerts.  (9:22) - Door Lock Installations As of January 2024, the door lock installation project is 82 percent complete for identified classrooms. You can learn more about the new locks on the Safety Tips page.   (12:12) - MSU DPPS continues to develop the new MSU Security Operations Center, or SOC.  (13:23) - Active Violence Incident (AVI) Training Online-based active violence incident, or AVI, training is now available to all MSU students, faculty, and staff. In addition to the online training, MSU DPPS offers in-person training for students, faculty, and staff. More at the Community Program Participation page.  (14:31) - How are you reflecting on February 13, 2023? (16:16) - Moving Forward – Key Takeaways Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Matt Grossmann and Arnold Weinfeld discuss Michigan and national politics, policy, and the economy on the monthly State of the State podcast from MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR). The podcast is a monthly round up of policy and research for Michigan.  Tony Daunt is executive director of FAIR Maps Michigan. He joins the conversation to discuss the redistricting process in Michigan, the current remapping process, and what brought us to this point. Conversation Highlights: (0:32) – What’s the latest in national politics and the presidential race? (5:58) – An assessment of proposals in Governor Whitmer’s State of the State address and the state of politics and policy in Michigan. “This last year was one of the most productive and ideological movements of public policy that we’ve seen across any state for, like, 50 years. This was an extraordinary move leftward that they accomplished in the first year, and they’re set up to try to do a lot more.” (9:27) – Economic development, R & D tax credit, and population growth – “The business location packages really don’t impact business decisions. People make business location decisions and then rack up the tax credits.” (14:27) – Daunt joins the conversation to talk about the remapping process. (19:50) – What would you rather have seen from the beginning of the redistricting process? (23:12) – How is the redraw going so far? (25:36) – What is the role of FAIR Maps Michigan? And what are some of your suggestions moving forward? Where is this headed? (31:22) – “The commission has been rather defiant about the lawsuit, and I would encourage everyone to see this as an opportunity to correct, by all accounts, the biggest defect in the process. The public remains supportive of the changes, especially the changes to the partisan composition of the relationship between districts and statewide votes. This was the primary citizen concern expressed quite loudly and clearly. But that was ignored by the commission. So rather than see it as a burden imposed by the courts, I would encourage them to see it as a second chance to correct the biggest defect in the process.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff elaborates on topics she covers in her January 2024 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. Conversation Highlights: (0:38) - What is Flint Rx Kids?  (3:49) - What are the goals of the comprehensive health and wellbeing assessment? (5:42) - As we prepare to acknowledge the violence that took place on campus last February 13, what are our plans to remember? (9:16) - January is Stalking Awareness Month. It’s imperative that we acknowledge this, too. (10:25) - MSU has been named a voter friendly campus. What do you like about the MSU Votes initiative? (12:11) - MSU rose to the No. 1 spot for service learning among public four-year institutions in the U.S. News & World Report’s 2024 Best Colleges rankings. (14:02) - What is the Alienware MSU Esports Lounge? (16:00) - Talk about the passing of Pauline Adams at age 101.  (17:26) - What is the Engineering and Digital Innovation Center (EDIC)?     Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Thanks to a partnership with Dell Technologies and its iconic gaming brand, Alienware, a new space at Michigan State University provides an elite gaming environment for students to train and compete in esports at the highest level.   Supported by MSU College of Communication Arts and Sciences, or ComArtSci, the Alienware MSU Esports Lounge is the university’s first dedicated space for students engaged in esports, a rapidly growing industry centered around organized professional or semiprofessional competitive video game play. It also is the first higher education esports facility Alienware has helped establish in Michigan.   The Alienware MSU Esports Lounge is a 1,027-square-foot space located on the main floor of the MSU ComArtSci building. The lounge is open to all MSU students and features 12 Alienware Aurora R16 battle stations — Alienware’s most advanced and most powerful desktop yet, powered by 14th Gen Intel Core processors — as well as Alienware m16 laptops, console gaming space, a varsity room and broadcast studio.  The university celebrated the opening of the Alienware MSU Esports Lounge on Jan. 17 with special guests,including former MSU women’s basketball player Aerial Powers, a brand and diversity ambassador with Team Liquid, a well-known esports organization, and WNBA player with the Minnesota Lynx. Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist was also in attendance.  This facility provides a hands-on esports experience for the Spartan gaming community and hosts team competitions.  Comments from ribbon cutting participants: (0:00) – Interim Com Art Sci Dean Teresa Mastin (3:24) – MSU Esports Director Chris Bilski (6:33) – MSU Trustee Dennis Denno,  (7:33) – Interim MSU President Teresa Woodruff (12:32) – Michigan Lieutenant Governor Garlin Gilchrist (17:21) – Dell Director of Gaming Matt McGowan (20:30) – MSU alumna and Esports influencer Aerial Powers Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Adam Roy, food and beverage expert in Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business, has spent decades as a five-star chef and leader in the hospitality industry and is passionate about fermentation and nonalcoholic beverages. As the Dr. Lewis J. and Mrs. Ruth E. Minor Chef-Professor of Culinary Management in MSU’s School of Hospitality Business — the No. 1 public hospitality program in the U.S. — Roy explores what it takes to craft a delicious nonalcoholic beverage and provides tips for a successful Dry January. And he talks about the evolving hospitality industry and MSU’s preeminent School of Hospitality Business. Conversation Highlights: (0:28) – What’s your background as a “crazy culinarian?”  (2:34) – What is Dry January? (3:32) - What does it take to craft a good nonalcoholic beverage? (4:22) - Why has the low and nonalcoholic beverage market taken off? (4:53) - How have you seen companies capitalize on the rising popularity of nonalcoholic drinks? (5:50) - For someone thinking about going sober for Dry January, what are your tips for success? (7:03) – What attracted you to MSU? (8:07) – How did MSU’s program become one of the country’s best schools for hospitality business? (8:50) – How is the school’s mission evolving? (10:38) – What’s the state of the hospitality industry your students are entering? (11:55) – Where do you stand on tipping? (13:13) – What are challenges and opportunities facing the hospitality industry? (14:43) – Why should a student choose to get into the hospitality industry, and why should they come to MSU? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU’s Health and Wellbeing (UHW) Division is conducting a university-wide health and wellbeing assessment that includes an anonymous survey. The purpose of this assessment is for UHW to gain a deeper understanding of issues impacting MSU students, faculty, and staff as it relates to physical health, mental health, and social wellbeing.  The results of the survey will contribute to the development of a 5-year plan for MSU to equitably support Spartan health and wellbeing. Specifically, UHW will comprehensively assess: ·       The health of the student, staff, and faculty populations ·       Identify prevalent health trends and issues, and  ·       Gather data essential for tailoring and enhancing support services, resource allocation, and policies to promote a culture of wellbeing on campus.  All students, faculty and staff are encouraged to complete the survey.  The information shared will be kept confidential. The survey takes 8-10 minutes to complete. For additional information, visit: https://uhw.msu.edu/assessment. Discussing the assessment and survey on this episode of MSU Today are Dr. Norman Beauchamp, Jr, MD, MHS, MSU executive vice president for Health Sciences, executive sponsor of the sustainable health theme in the MSU Strategic Plan 2030, and co-chair of the MSU Health and Wellbeing Assessment; Dr. Alexis Travis, assistant provost and executive director of MSU University Health and Wellbeing; and Dr. Renee Canady, MPHI CEO and assistant professor at MSU’s College of Human Medicine Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health. Conversation Highlights: (2:23) – “UHW is supporting a community where health and wellbeing is equitably woven into all aspects of campus life.” (2:58) – “The beauty of MPHI is that we are a living and breathing demonstration of governmental and academic innovation.” (3:44) – How does UHW define health and wellbeing? – “It’s a complete sense of physical, mental, and social health and not just the absence of disease or infirmary.” (6:02) – Why is health and wellbeing a priority for students, faculty, and staff and how does it impact student success and staff and faculty success?  (7:52) – Who should take the survey and what do you hope to learn from it? (9:02) – “This survey is about voice.” (11:55) – “MSU could have easily completed this project without us. The fact that they saw partnership as vitally important is what we do.” (13:02) – What will you do with the data compiled from the survey? (14:48) – How does the assessment fit into the sustainable health theme of MSU Strategic Plan 2030? (17:29) – “It’s my hope that people will not only participate, but that they’ll be better for having participated.” For additional information, please visit: https://uhw.msu.edu/assessment.Photo credit: Donna Hondorp. Left to right: Beauchamp, Canady, Travis Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

A group of MSU alumni are making their mark in audio and sound engineering and mixing in Hollywood. And they’re garnering Emmy nominations and awards, too. The group is affectionately known as the “audio mafia.” The common denominator is longtime MSU audio teacher Gary Reid, who is also emeritus director of broadcasting and general manager of WKAR Public Media. Andy Lange (2002-2006) is up for two Emmy's in 2024. Phil DeTolve (2002-2007) and Gary Megregian (1994-1997) are up for one each for a total of 4 in January.   Pat Cyccone won the mafia’s first Emmy almost 30 years ago and has played an important role in getting all these guys started in their careers in Los Angeles. Cyccone has been mixing all of Alexander Payne's films.    Mike Olman (1987-1990) has won three Emmys with shows like “24”, “Desperate Housewives,” and Discovery Channel’s “When Dinosaurs Ruled the Earth” movies. Chris Foster (2002-2006) is co-owner of a major music editing post house in LA and is nominated this year, and Luke Schwarzweller (2008-2012), the youngest alumnus, mixed the last Indiana Jones film, Ferrari, and West Side Story, essentially doing Steven Spielberg's work.   Conversation Highlights: (1:22) – What does it mean to be an audio or sound engineer/mixer? What do you do? (2:54) - “It’s not the quality of the mix that makes a good mixer. It’s having a good time with the people you’re working with and making sure that everyone’s at ease and taken care of. Those are the experiences that paying clients are going to remember.” (8:01) - “Don’t ever not take a job because you don’t know how to do it. Take it and then learn it as fast as you can.” (14:22) – “The director just has to know that you’re on his side.” (21:21) – “I got to go every day and sit in a big, giant electronic sandbox and play with all my friends.” (27:30) – “One of the things the average viewer doesn’t realize necessarily is just how much we can use sound to manipulate the viewer.” (30:29) – “It’s learning the power of sound and how it can tell a story and evoke emotion.”  (32:36) – “The ultimate compliment you can pay a music editor is that you have no idea what they actually did. If I did a good job, I’m totally invisible. Nothing I did should be noticed.” (35:45) – “The upside and the downside of what we all do as professionals in sound is that if we’re really good at what we do, you will never know we were in the room.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Kevin M. Guskiewicz, an accomplished neuroscientist, sports medicine researcher and academic leader, has been named the 22nd president of Michigan State University. The Board of Trustees unanimously voted to appoint Guskiewicz, the 12th chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, during a special board meeting on Dec. 8. He will begin his term on March 4, 2024.Conversation Highlights:(0:56) – “I’m a servant leader. I like to bring people together. Leadership is about gathering people and getting them aligned toward a common goal.”(1:35) – Do you have any experience or past interactions with MSU and/or the state of Michigan?(2:08) - Tell us more about your research interests. When and why did you develop this interest? What have been some of your findings that have made it to places like the NFL?(3:14) - The board also approved your appointment as a professor with tenure in the College of Education’s Department of Kinesiology. Do you hope to be able to continue your research while president?(3:45) - What attracted you to the presidency of MSU?(4:15) – Have you had a chance to review MSU Strategic Plan 2030?(4:44) – What is your philosophy on fundraising and donor/alumni engagement?(5:22) – What are some of your short-term goals?(6:37) – What are challenges and opportunities ahead for MSU and the “transformative power” of higher education?(7:37) – There’s a lot going in college athletics, too. What are challenges and opportunities there?(8:32) – What are your final thoughts for Spartan Nation as we await your arrival March 4?Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.Photo credit: Nick Schrader, University Communications 

Global competitors have incentivized the semiconductor manufacturing industry to the point that the U.S. share of commercial semiconductor manufacturing has declined 25 percent in the last 30 years, says Nelson Sepulveda, professor of electrical and computer engineering in MSU’s College of Engineering. To increase our competitiveness in the field of semiconductors, the CHIPS Act was passed by Congress in July 2022 with the goal of strengthening domestic semiconductor manufacturing, design, and research and to reinforce America’s chip supply chains.  This act includes $52 billion dollars in manufacturing grants and research investments in the field of semiconductor processing, manufacturing, and research. Two billion dollars from the CHIPS act will be dedicated to incentivizing production of semiconductors used by automakers, and the state of Michigan has already started investing in some of the semiconductor processing and manufacturing companies in the state of Michigan. For MSU, this means adding new opportunities for middle and high school students with a five-day summer camp focused on semiconductor manufacturing and processing that will be free for Detroit-area students. The Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC) has funded the camp for 8th-9th graders that will take place during the summer in 2024. The program aims to raise awareness and excitement in the field. Conversation Highlights: (0:37) – Sepulveda frames the issue. (4:21) – Details on the camp and the underserved communities in the Detroit metro area who will participate.  (6:45) – What is a semiconductor? (9:47) – How can an interested eighth or ninth grader get involved with the camp? “I have always believed that before you teach, you need to inspire. I have always believed that when you put talent, passion, and opportunity in a blender, stars are born. I believe this is true in sports, academia, business, and life in general. This program will provide an opportunity to passionate and talented kids in a field that is extremely important for our Nation and for the entire world.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Matt Grossmann, Charley Ballard, and host Arnold Weinfeld discuss Michigan and national politics, policy, and the economy on the monthly State of the State podcast from MSU’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR). The trio’s guest this month is Nick Pigeon, executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network. It’s a nonpartisan nonprofit organization that seeks to shine the brightest light possible on the role of money in Michigan politics. Conversation Highlights: (1:07) – Why did the Michigan Legislature break early? (3:19) – What are the implications if the Legislature extends their break into the spring? (4:28) – Do you think we’ll see renewed calls for a part time legislature? (5:21) – What’s the state of the economy? “It’s been resilient, worker productivity is growing, and gasoline prices are way down.” (9:45) – What about Michigan’s economy in the next six months to a year? (11:52) – How does Michigan’s economy compare to other states you’ve visited recently? (14:32) – If you were President Biden’s political consultant, what would you tell him? (15:37) – All about the Michigan Campaign Finance Network and their perspective on the recently passed financial disclosure legislation. (22:59) – Will the new legislation have a positive impact? (25:42) – What about FOIA, the Freedom of Information Act, for legislators? (27:22) – “The dream that transparency was going to lead to a more satisfied public has come and gone.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The MSU Water Alliance brings together experts across the University to push the boundaries of discovery and find solutions to water-related challenges through research, education, and engagement with communities and industries. It’s the Water Alliance for Teaching, Engagement and Research. Joan Rose is the Homer Nowlin Chair in Water Research at MSU. Jo Latimore is the director of the MSU Extension Center for Lakes and Streams. Amber Pearson is an associate professor in MSU’s Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health. The trio discusses the alliance’s vision, mission, and objectives. And they talk about some of the challenges and opportunities ahead for the world’s water. Conversation Highlights: (0:44) – Rose describes her research interests of water quality and health. “I found out very quickly that when you’re out in the field collecting water, there are people all around you that care about what you’re doing and finding.” (1:54) – Latimore describes how the science of swimmer’s itch in Higgins Lake played into her career and interest in water issues. “That connection between the science and being able to work with the public on conservation issues around lakes and streams has really driven my career.” (3:05) – Pearson describes her two streams of research. One is related to household water insecurity. “Yes, the safety of the water, but also having enough, affordable and reliable water.” (3:58) – What are some the key issues that make this alliance so important? (6:16) – What are the vision, mission, and objectives of the alliance? “The alliance is an amplifier and a connector and brings all the MSU expertise in this area together. MSU is uniquely positioned in this area to lead.” (11:25) – “We have a great opportunity to address this idea of the intersection between water, food, and health.”  (12:45) - The Michigan State University Extension perspective of “advancing outreach with science” and listening to Michiganders to learn of their issues. (14:03) – In Michigan, we’re well positioned in two important ways.  (14:57) – The panel looks to the future.  (16:18) – How the alliance benefits students. (16:52) – The community is encouraged to come forward if they need their issues addressed. “Come forward and be part of the alliance. It’s about engagement with the community.” (17:20) – How can each of us be a better steward of water? “The public doesn’t really know where they get their water from. And they don’t know where the water goes when they flush their toilet.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your show.

MSU alumnus Devon Akmon is the director of the MSU Museum.  Topics include the MSU Museum becoming a vital “third space” for students, being a catalyst for interdisciplinary teaching, learning, and research, and serving as a creative “collaboratory” for campus. Conversation Highlights: (0:25) – Devon describes the “whirlwind rethinking of our strategic direction and solidifying of our position on campus” since he arrived in 2021. (0:57) – What challenges and opportunities did Covid present to museums? “The largest challenge is competing for time and attention.” (1:50) – What is your strategic plan revealing about your future? “How do we bring the research and the innovation and the exciting things here on campus to life?” (2:47) – How is the strategic plan manifesting itself now? (3:38) – What do you mean when you say you want to make the museum a third place? (4:33) – What are some ways you’re taking the museum to the community? (5:40) – What will the Forest Akers Trust gift allow you to do? (7:15) – How is the strategic plan informing the museum’s vision and mission? (8:15) – What are your strategic priorities? (9:11) – And your shared values? (9:36) – What do you mean by “creative collaboratory for campus?” (10:27) – What are your thoughts on MSU’s Arts Initiative? (11:25) – Where does your passion for museums and the arts come from? (12:18) – Upcoming projects include working with Julian Chambliss on the origins and “global imprint” of Detroit techno, Brian Winn and his team at the GEL Lab, and even an artist in residency program with FRIB. Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Jonathan Smith, who has led Oregon State to new heights during his tenure over the past six seasons, has been named Michigan State University’s 26th head football coach. Smith was introduced at a press conference on campus on November 28. Press Conference Highlights: (0:00) – Spartans Athletic Director Alan Haller’s opening comments (5:31) – Coach Smith’s opening comments (13:52) – Are you going to study the history of Spartan Football and is that important? (14:30) – How hard was it to leave your alma mater and what attracted you to MSU? (15:08) – How will you go about assembling your staff? (16:20) – What is your perspective on the importance of mental health for your players? (17:08) – What did you learn from your Oregon State experience you will carry over to MSU? (18:15) – What catch phrases do you use that your players will get used to hearing? (19:01) – How will you address the roster? (20:18) – Will you consult with Mark Dantonio? (21:06) – Did the dissolution of the Pac 12 influence your decision to come to MSU? (22:19) – What did you learn from watching some of MSU’s games this season? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your show.

 Kari Kammel is the director of MSU’s Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection (A-CAPP) in the College of Social Science and an adjunct professor in Michigan State University’s College of Law. She is an expert on legal issues relating to trademark counterfeiting, e-commerce, social media liability for trademark counterfeiting and intellectual property legal issues. Saleem Alhabash is a professor in the Department of Advertising and Public Relations at MSU’s College of Communication Arts and Sciences. He is an expert on the persuasive impacts of digital and social media across many contexts, such as online safety and anti-counterfeiting. Alhabash is the associate director of research for MSU’s A-CAPP.  Conversation Highlights: (1:06) – “So, I did a little research and applied for a job they had open there and discovered there’s this whole world of people and organizations out there that essentially are faking legitimate products and then selling them for profit.” (2:28) – “As the world of ecommerce has mushroomed into our daily lives, there has been increasing understanding that this phenomenon is really hard to contain.” (4:23) – The history and mission of MSU’s Center for Anti-Counterfeiting and Product Protection.  (8:57) – Frame the issue. How pervasive is the problem? (11:48) – How do the social media play into this? (18:05) – It’s particularly “scary” when you’re talking about counterfeit medicine and food and “anything you put in or on your body.” There can also be health issues with counterfeit apparel. Kari describes third party sellers and their role. (22:05) – What’s the psychology behind a person knowingly buying counterfeit products? (24:53) – Is almost anything counterfeit bad? The clothing is often produced in conditions where workers are treated horribly. Think about where your money is going. It’s going to places like that and even to organized crime. (27:43) – What are the INFORM Consumers Act and SHOP SAFE Act and how are they designed to help? (31:26) – What are some tips for being more aware of counterfeit products when shopping online and avoiding them all together? Be especially wary of online pharmacies. Overall, “be vigilant, critical, and skeptical of the information that you look at.” Know where you’re buying from. (39:20) – More tips for shopping safely online. Don’t buy anything through social media without doing more research.  (43:11) – Key takeaways. “Be aware of what you’re buying and what the impact of that is. If you do buy something and realize it’s counterfeit, please report it. If you can report it, that helps take down the listing so that other people aren’t also going through that experience in buying it, too. It helps the brands you like protect themselves, too. It’s just about awareness.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

One of Michigan State University’s most dominant teams is not in the Athletic Department. It’s our perennial national powerhouse debate team. Director of Debate Carly Watson, Coach Will Repko, and team members Joanna Gusis and Miaomiao Zi discuss how a debate competition works. They talk about the skills that make one a good debater and about why MSU is such a debate power. How and when did this happen? They talk about how debate skills serve students throughout their lives. And they reinforce some facts about debate and dispel some myths. Conversation Highlights: (1:08) – “The way that a structured college debate works is that you’re given a topic in advance. But one of the neat and healthy things is you don’t know what side of the issue that you’ll be on. Often, it’s determined by the flip of a coin, literally.” (3:55) – How does a debate tournament play out? “Usually, the debates are decided by a combination of whose research is more advanced on a question of public policy or who is more persuasive in diagnosing the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents' arguments.” (4:52) – What are the skills that make someone a good debater? (8:44) – When and how did MSU become a national debate powerhouse? (10:20) – For the students, is the debate team a primary reason you chose to come to MSU? (11:49) – How do debate skills serve a person throughout their life? (13:31) – “There’s this misnomer about debate and debate people that we like to argue or that we can’t agree on anything. One of the biggest things that debate teaches as a practice is being able to hear and understand and appreciate what the other side is saying. Debate is very good at teaching people to listen and to consider a perspective other than their own.” (15:39) – Are there facts about debate you’d like to reinforce and myths you’d like to dispel? “Debates are nothing like the presidential debates we’re used to where people are talking over each other. That’s the impression many of us have when we think of debates.” (21:27) – Final thoughts from the panel – “Starting public speaking at a young age did wonders for my confidence. I can’t describe how often I encounter someone who is a very successful lawyer who says that their entry point was an incredibly humble beginning in a middle school debate class.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

We’re exploring the topic of artificial intelligence on this episode of MSU Today. We are we now? And what’s on the horizon? The panel featured Bill Hart-Davidson, associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Arts and Letters at Michigan State University and senior researcher at WIDE, and Anjana Susarla, Omura-Saxena Professor of Responsible AI in Michigan State University’s Broad College of Business. Conversation Highlights: (0:33) – What is artificial intelligence? (3:07) – What’s good about AI and what concerns you? (6:04) – What is AI’s impact on higher education? (11:36) – Could AI lead to a “dumber” society? (14:19) – When is AI a threat and when is it a new job skill people should acquire? What labor disruption is AI causing? (16:38) – Is this the first time AI is threatening white collar jobs? (18:34) – Talk about the new guidelines on AI issued recently by the White House. (23:57) – What are some facts about AI you’d like to reinforce and what are some myths you’d like to dispel? (26:40) – What has changed in the year since ChatGPT came out? What concerns you moving forward? Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Bert Cregg is a professor of Horticulture and Forestry in Michigan State University’s College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. Cregg talks about the Christmas tree industry’s place in Michigan’s economy and says there are plenty of trees available for those who want them this season. He talks about the latest MSU research on Christmas trees and says that climate change is likely already impacting the industry. And he shares his tips for selecting, caring for, and properly disposing of a real tree. Conversation Highlights: (0:34) – “Michigan is a major producer of Christmas trees. We rank number three in the country. Oregon and North Carolina are ahead of us, but Michigan’s claim to fame is that our growers grow a lot more types of trees than those other states.” (1:40) – “You might hear some things in the media about a Christmas tree shortage. Most consumers who are looking for a tree will find one.” (3:31) – “People may not realize that it actually takes about eight to ten years to grow a Christmas tree.” (5:53) – Climate change “has a lot of potential impact and probably already is (having impact). A lot of the impacts of climate change are going to be around the shoulders of the growing season.” (7:12) – Cregg describes the three pillars of sustainability: environmental, economic, and social sustainability.    (9:00) – Cregg’s tips for selecting and caring for your tree, including his pull and tap tests to use when selecting the tree. His says the key is to get the freshest tree you can right from the start. (11:29) – “People don’t appreciate how much water a tree can take up. Your tree is dead, but it doesn’t know it yet.” (15:08) – Cregg’s tips for properly and sustainably disposing of your tree after the holidays. “Whatever you do, don’t cut it up and put it in the trash so that it ends up in a landfill.” (16:23) – All about the Michigan Christmas Tree Association site, “which is a good place to find a real tree near you.” (17:58) – “It’s a great family tradition…we certainly don’t think about artificial flowers for Valentine’s Day, so why do we think about artificial trees?” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Three Spartans talk about holiday food trends, the history and evolution of eating, the importance of knowing where our food comes from, the problem of food waste, food safety tips, and sustainable food systems. Sheril Kirshenbaum hosts PBS’s Serving Up Science, Kurt Kwiatkowski is corporate executive chef for Gordon Food Services, and Helen Veit is an associate professor in MSU’s Department of History. Conversation Highlights: (1:05) – “One thing I always tell my students is that the way we eat today is very strange. Most people in history ate extremely differently than we do.” (2:33) – “I feel that food brings people together.” (3:38) - “The idea is to cultivate a culture where more of us understand where our food comes from and how it impacts our world.” (4:00) – “Americans used to eat together a lot more than we do today.” (5:07) – “Cooking is something uniquely human. It’s hard to point to anything else more uniquely human than cooking.” (6:56) – “I still believe that sides are where it’s at.” (8:55) – “What we see over and over is that half of Americans say they rarely or never think about where their food comes from or how it impacts their environment or their health.” (10:35) – “People often say we’re not going to have enough food. There’s more and more people. But it has a lot to do with how we use resources and what we do on a per capita basis.” (11:30) – “We are throwing away between one third and one half of the food we produce.” (13:41) – “It’s even possible to waste food by eating it when you don’t need it.” (15:37) – “Wash your hands. Wash your hands. Wash your hands.” (16:48) – “When you’re going to put stuff away, make sure you’re putting it away the right way.” (21:29) – “The buzzword for a long time was farm to table. But what the chefs are trying to do is use local ingredients.” (22:55) – “Local is good. But local doesn’t always necessarily mean more sustainable.” (25:56) – Sheril defines and describes “food diplomacy.” (29:12) – “You’re looking at the idea of taking comfort food and giving it a little bit of a twist or a zap. I like the term “swicy.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Michigan State University alumnus and donor Mat Ishbia is the CEO and chairman of United Wholesale Mortgage, majority owner of the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, and a member of the Spartans 2000 national champion basketball team. Ishbia talks about what attracted him to MSU coming out of high school and about how his time at MSU impacted him. He talks about his special relationship with Tom Izzo and shares his thoughts on the changing landscape of college athletics. He shares his motivation for giving back generously to MSU and talks about UWM’s history and its evolving mission of positively impacting people’s lives. Conversation Highlights: (1:08) – MSU “has been a huge part of my success.” (1:36) – “Coach Izzo is just a great guy all around. Besides being an amazing basketball coach, he’s a great person and leader and a caring individual.” (2:25) – “The national championship was a big one that everyone will talk about, but that was more of an ending to a journey. Some of my favorite memories are just sitting around the locker room with the guys.” (3:50) – “College athletics are changing like everything in your life changes. You have to evolve with the changes.” (4:44) – “When someone helps you, whether it’s a university or a person, and you have a way to thank them and give back, you do.” (5:40) – “I love basketball and I love business. And the NBA and WNBA ownership is really the merging of all the things I love together in one thing.”  (6:43) – “At UWM we’re the largest mortgage company in America. We’ve built it together with great people for over 20 years…I like being able to contribute and make an impact on people’s lives in a positive way…we’ve never laid anyone off in 35 years. My father believed in doing right by people.”  (9:18) – “I think the best thing for students is to find people who will help you. You don’t have to do it alone.” (10:05) – “My biggest goals are to continue to help the brokers succeed. We’ve done great here at UWM. And we know that if the brokers succeed, it helps consumers. If consumers are helped, we feel really great about what we do every day.” (10:59) – “Impact is the word. How do I impact as many people in the most positive way. No one’s going to remember how much money you had. No one’s going to remember how many mortgages you closed. People will remember how you impacted them.” (11:41) – “Spartan Nation we’re strong. We stay together in the good times and bad times. Stay strong together and stay positive.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Matt Grossmann and Arnold Weinfeld from Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) discuss the latest in Michigan and national politics, policy, and the economy on the State of the State podcast, a monthly round up of policy and research for the state of Michigan. Peter Berg joins the conversation to talk about the UAW strike and its implications moving forward. Berg is a professor of employment relations and director of the School of Human Resources and Labor Relations at MSU. Conversation Highlights: (1:12) – “We don’t have a real working majority in the House of Representatives.” (3:11) – “They have a very small majority. And anytime you have a small majority, you have a few members who can make a difference. And now that we’ve proven that a few members can take down the speaker, that incentivizes everyone else who has an agenda to step forward and disrupt the process.” (7:57) – “A lot has already been done. This will be right up there with the most changes from the right to the left of any state legislative session of the last 50 years.” (10:54) – “The vast majority of the folks who are here now, when given the theoretical opportunity to the leave for California or Texas or Chicago, want to stay in Michigan.” (13:05) – “It is certainly true that young people are more liberal on social issues, but if you ask someone if this is going to make them stay in the state, it’s easy to say yes, this policy makes a difference to me. If you look at the 50-state data and try to associate any set of policy changes with actual migration from state to state, you find zilch, no relation whatsoever between policy of any kind and which way people are moving.” (16:42) – “We’re closer to the end than the beginning, but it’s really hard to predict how long this will go on.” (18:07) – “This targeted strike across the three companies was a new approach. I think it’s been effective.” (20:09) – “The UAW is trying to raise the floor. And they’re trying to extend their reach within the future EV industry world.” (21:17) – “The UAW needs to transition from this heavy adversarial approach to now that we’re in this, how are we going to work together to achieve those efficiencies so that we all survive? Because the threat is that EV employment is going to be less than internal combustion employment. And that means fewer UAW members. So, great we won all these big increases, but the long term may see membership decline if they don’t come together and work together after this agreement to find a way to make the industry successful for everyone.” (24:24) – “We’re seeing a lot of labor activism. We’re seeing more strike action because workers right now are in a position of power and they’re exercising that.” (27:31) – “The view of unions as fighting for social justice and civil rights is the view of a lot of young people…there is a sense that the public is seeing unions differently, and whether that leads to change in some way or more interest in voting for a union and for density numbers to really move, we’d need a change in labor law.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.    

Hall of Fame Michigan State University Spartans Men’s Basketball Coach Tom Izzo previews the 2023/24 season. In his opening comments, Izzo says he’s “excited to be back,” and he says he loves his team. He says he’s proud of his blue-collar program, too. Conversation Highlights: (3:37) – “We’re a week away from Midnight Madness. It’s important that we reengage after a lot of what we’ve been through the last couple years.” (4:55) – “We also have two exhibition games.   (6:26) – “I have seen our team in the Top 5 and Top 10. People have asked me if I like that. And I always say no; I love it. We’re looking forward to living up to expectations.” (7:48) – Izzo on his seniors (9:07) – Izzo on his juniors (10:05) – Izzo on his sophomores (11:18) – Izzo on his freshmen (14:18) – More on Coen Carr and the pros and cons of summer basketball. “It gives our players a chance to learn how to act in front of people. They’re really good kids. I’m blessed with what I have right now.” (16:24) – On the Basketball Coaches Association of Michigan, the importance of high school coaches, and the state of college basketball. “It’s the Jud Heathcote rule, 27 years later, that the most important human beings on the planet are high school coaches. I really do believe that.” (18:48) – More on Jeremy Fears and Tom’s thoughts on competition making the team better. “Mateen was my best freshman leader. There have only been a couple guys – Mateen and Tum Tum – who have ‘it.’ Jeremy Fears has ‘it.’” (21:14) – As he looks around college basketball, his thoughts on reduced opportunities for freshmen because of the portal. “I’m going to do what I do. And sooner or later it’s probably going to get me. I’m going to have fun in the meantime, and I’m going to enjoy the fight to keep my program based on relationships and not transactions. At Michigan State, there are a couple things that aren’t going to change until the day I walk off this stage. We’re going to stay a blue-collar place. The second thing is relationships matter to me.” (25:58) – On the depth at the guard position. “I’ve done some things for players they better appreciate. I could have gone into the portal, too. They could have gone; I could have gone. I trusted and believed in them. I think they trusted and believed in me. What a great marriage and a great opportunity.” (29:25) – More on Carson Cooper. “Right now, I have as good a staff as I’ve had.” (31:32) – On how he will balance talented upperclassmen with a stellar freshmen class. “I have to sell winning and personal success. That is a challenge. Winning brings personal success. Personal success doesn’t always bring winning.” (34:26) – More on Jaden Akins. “Jaden can be one of the best two-way players, not just in the league, but in the whole country.” (36:24) – On what role he’ll play in finding MSU’s next football coach. “I’m a sounding board. That doesn’t mean I’m in on the decision making. Whatever Alan needs me to do, I’m suiting up and I’m there for him.” (39:25) – Do you feel any more weight than you normally would to give your fan base, alumni, students, and faculty something with this basketball team? “Yes. I’m not excited that I have to feel that way, but I’m proud that I get the opportunity to represent the 650,000 living alumni and a lot of good friends of mine and a lot of people who have done a lot of good for this place. I feel it’s a privilege to have the opportunity to help bring us closer together.”  (43:31) – On the prospects of winning a second national championship. “Do I say it’s Final Four of National Championship or bust? I say that’s the goal. I’m realistic enough to know there are a lot of factors.” (47:36) – You seem to be speaking with more bravado this season…? “We and I have earned what we’ve got. We’ve been through a lot of tough times both on and off the court. We’re still standing. Let’s take advantage of that and stay focused the best we can. I hope that I can bring this place that I love so much what we deserve and make people feel good and smile.” (50:52) – Where do you see the need for the most improvement? “The biggest thing right now is that we have to become a better rebounding team. I’m most excited that I have a group of guys together that have had options to leave and who have stayed. I want to try to win another championship someday. But I also want to keep this the great place I know it is. If that’s pressure and the weight of the world, that’s what I signed up for, and, more importantly, that’s what I get to do.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff joins Russ White on MSU Today to elaborate on topics she covers in her September 2023 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. Conversation Highlights: (1:00) – “That’s a really tremendous number of students who are placing their educational goals and aspirations with us at Michigan State.” (2:26) – “Any university worthy of being called great needs a rich foundation in the arts.” (3:44) – “Dan and Jennifer and their family are great Spartans…and we’re really honored that they would invest their resources in Michigan State and Henry Ford to find a cure for neurofibromatosis.” (4:50) – “FRIB continues to be a leader for us, and we should always remember how pivotal that is for the university and for the region.” (5:37) – “Number 14 is extraordinary. It means that we are among the elite public educating universities in the nation.” (7:23) – “Sometimes it’s hard to see when you’re in the middle of that inflection point that we really are on an upward trajectory and to believe it.” (9:34) – “We’re at an inflection point for the upward trajectory of the 21st century. But we all have to be in. We all have to be part of that progress.” (10:28) – “And when I listened to his words, I could hear the voice of every Spartan wondering, ‘Can we make it?’” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.   

This month’s State of the State podcast from Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research has Matt Grossmann and Arnold Weinfeld from the institute and emeritus economics professor Charley Ballard discussing the state of the national and Michigan economies, the UAW contract strike against the Big 3 automakers, and a possible government shutdown. Keith Hampton, director of academic research at Michigan State University’s Quello Center, joins the group to discuss a new study from Michigan State University that warns that gains made to address broadband and internet connectivity in Michigan rural communities are beginning to fade.   Conversation Highlights: (1:27) – “One of the big stories in Michigan the last two thirds of a century is the relative shrinkage of the auto industry.” (3:13) – “Best case scenario for Michigan is a relatively short strike with an agreement that is generous enough to the workers that it puts more money in their paychecks, which they can then spend at the grocery store and the hardware store, but not so generous that it cripples the companies going forward.” (5:23) – “Public opinion polls show more support for organized labor then they have in the past, but they’re still in a long slide downward.” (8:00) – “Flint is the poster child for the decline of the auto industry.” (12:30) – “There’s a lot of theatre so far. There’s really not much support for a government shutdown, even in the Republican caucus.” (17:04) – “Women’s earnings…the gender earnings ratio – the ratio of the earnings of the average woman to the average man – increased to an all-time high for the 10th year in a row.” (18:45) – “Over the pandemic, we went from rural students who did not have any kind of internet access at home to cutting that to about four percent during the pandemic.” (23:22) – “Hot spots have been a surprisingly good intervention.” (25:16) – “Wouldn’t it be great if you could get out of high school and earn middle class wages. That was once true in Michigan 50 or 60 years ago. It isn’t true anymore.” (27:14) – “The issue of internet insecurity and access is particularly problematic.” (29:34) – “One place where there has been a lot of policy movement lately is in election reform. We have recently been called a blueprint for election reform nationally.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen. 

The Michigan State University Research Foundation has been enhancing research, encouraging innovation, supporting entrepreneurship, and facilitating economic development through modern commercialization practices, venture creation activity, and innovation partnerships at Michigan State University and across Michigan for 50 years. Executive Director David Washburn reflects on the foundation’s history, mission, and impact and on challenges and opportunities ahead for the next 50 years.  Conversation Highlights: (2:26) – “We had flown under the radar for many decades. And when you unpack the story of the foundation, it was like ‘Holy Cow.’ There aren’t many organizations like this that exist in North America.” (3:02) – “In the late 60s and early 70s, most public universities came to the realization that state support probably wasn’t going to be able to keep pace with the growth and expansion of public universities.” (6:13) – “One major inflection point that happened at the foundation was the discovery of Cisplatin and Carboplatin cancer therapeutics.” (7:08) – “Faculty researchers here at MSU discovered a cure for cancer.” (12:07) – “Many faculty in university decided ‘Well, what if we just start new companies and go out and raise venture dollars to see if we can build up a product or service here locally with some local venture dollars?’” (13:30) – “Our focus now at the foundation is in a couple areas. I would refer to them as more venture creation…a lot of states and municipalities are trying to figure out how to create new jobs and an innovation ecosystem. That’s the space we’re playing in a lot with Spartan Innovations.” (15:40) – “The board approved it and we put together Red Cedar Ventures and have invested in close to 120 start-up companies. We’ve deployed close to $10 million out of Red Cedar Ventures, and those companies have gone on to raise hundreds of millions of dollars from the venture markets in the state and around the Midwest and on both coasts.” (16:20) – “Between Michigan Rise and Red Cedar Ventures, we have close to $40 million in two robust captive venture funds.” (18:10) – “We built a headquarters for TechSmith because they have a very robust student intern program, and over half of their employees are MSU alumni. They wanted to be closer to campus…They’re trying to compete with the Googles and Amazons of the world. And they thought if they had a cool campus, they would have a shot. I think that’s helped them.” (18:58) – “We’re building spaces so as we start up new companies, not only do we want to help them with their business plan and early-stage funding, but we’re trying to find them a home in and around our ecosystem. We think that combination leads to economic development, job growth, and economic diversity. That’s really the place where we collaborate and help MSU.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Michigan State University’s chapter of the Society of Women Engineers is celebrating its 50th anniversary of recruiting, supporting, and retaining women in the engineering profession.  Three Spartan Engineers discuss the evolution of women in engineering, challenges and opportunities ahead in the next 50 years, and share their advice for young women interested in STEM fields. The panel discussion includes Dayana Villagran, ’21 alum, General Motors mechanical engineer; Dr. Laura Genik, Applied Engineering Sciences Director/alum and Sara Purdue, mechanical engineering senior, actively involved in Women in Engineering. Conversation Highlights: (6:05) – “I think the Society of Women Engineers has done a lot to advance the community of women in engineering.” (7:54) – “Representation is a huge thing. And if you see somebody like you, or someone who has a similar background, it can spark that possibility that you can also get there.” (8:47) – “I think you come into an engineering program expecting to be surrounded by men.” (10:24) – “One of the main things that has always stuck in the back of my head is that everyone has these expectations for you being a woman in engineering. If someone asks me what I’m majoring in and I say mechanical engineering, they say ‘Wow, that’s really impressive. That’s awesome of you.’ And although it comes from a good place, they’re often shocked and don’t expect it. So be prepared for that reaction but be proud of what you’re doing.” (11:46) – “I would say the biggest thing is not to be afraid.” (13:38) – “It has to start in the K-12 realm where you’re not discouraging women and girls from staying active in math and science.” (15:12) – “You have to become comfortable with being uncomfortable in a situation. And when you look at engineering, sometimes you can feel like a square peg in a round hole. But the mechanical engineering solution to that is to get a bigger hammer. The square peg is going to deform, but so is the round hole. But they’re still going to come together to work.”(16:39) – “I like to speak on my story a lot. I don’t necessarily feel like it’s my duty. I have a need to share what I’ve been through to show those people who are going through something similar that it doesn’t matter where you come from or from where you start as long as you have a passion to do something, and you’re dedicated to doing it. You are more than capable of doing that.” (17:47) – “I think there still needs to be, unfortunately, a revolution in thinking that has to be societal.” (19:07) – “Try to pull someone with you…I feel like if you bring somebody with you, you’ve made a difference because it’s not just you now. You have somebody beside you who you’ve helped along the way.” (19:58) – “There is still just this overall kind of thinking that women aren’t going to be as successful in certain paths as men may be. At the end of the day, you have to be proud of where you’re at.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff elaborates on topics she covers in her August 2023 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. Conversation Highlights: (1:22) – “It’s an exciting time. I was at a meeting this summer, and someone was saying they’re despairing for the future. And I said I’m not because of our MSU students and their energy, drive, and determination.” (2:19) – “The Beal Garden is my favorite place on campus. It’s a wonderful living, learning laboratory in a beautiful spot of reflection and healing.” (4:06) – “We have been opening our doors as wide as we can to the broadest diversity of entrants to this university since its inception.” (5:38) – “This is a place of learning and of sport. That says something about the breadth and the value and the opportunity that we have at Michigan State University.” (6:55) – “It’s very important to me that we are ensuring a safe and enjoyable environment in celebration of athletics for those who don’t drink as well.” (9:26) – “This is really a moment for leadership in the area of athletics to ensure that we don’t tip into a place where we’ve lost the student-athletes’ value proposition.” (11:08) – We really want to make that message clear that the value proposition of an MSU degree is high. And the dollars you put into your degree when you complete really never amortize. They only grow.” (12:22) – “Michigan State is really making a difference, just as our founders said, in the practical sciences and arts.” (13:20) – “What I want people to know is that the research we do has practical implication in the lives we live.” (14:57) – “We are an ecosystem of innovation.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Molly Brennan is 2023 MSU Homecoming Grand Marshal for Michigan State University  Molly is a Spartan with both academic and athletic legacies. She was the engineering group manager for the Truck and Bus Division of General Motors Corporation, where she won the first World Solar Challenge, setting four solar and electric land speed records in the Guinness Book of World Records. Beyond her illustrious career in engineering, she also made significant achievements as a track athlete, scholar, and philanthropist.   Brennan shares some favorite MSU memories and talks about her accomplishments in life. She talks about challenges she has overcome and shares her advice for young women interested in STEM careers.  Conversation Highlights: (1:59) – “I didn’t really have a hard class.” (5:56) – “The deciding factor was when I stepped foot on campus, and it felt like home.” (9:57) – “I made the very hard decision to stay home with my kids. And as a result, my kids are my proudest accomplishment.” (10:37) – “I would say the biggest challenge was being female.” (14:00) – “We want you to drive a solar car in Australia.” (16:33) – “Just like Kennedy sparking space exploration, we hope we sparked an interest in kids.” (17:29) – “I hope we get it right because our planet is burning. My generation has not been good stewards of the planet.” (19:30) – “I love MSU. And I totally understand the transformative opportunities it gave me. And I want to give students here that same opportunity.” (21:22) – “I’m hoping that as grand marshal, I’m able to unite our student body and faculty and especially our alumni to reconnect back with Michigan State. Hopefully, they feel the same sense of gratitude that I do.” Brennan is working with the MSU Alumni Office to identify campus fund initiatives for Homecoming that are meaningful to her and have transformed her life while on campus. One of the great things about MSU is Spartans can give back to the areas they are most passionate about. To learn more about Molly’s selected giving initiatives, visit giving.msu.edu.   Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Michigan State University has a newly renovated School of Packaging building, following a fundraising campaign that raised more than $10 million. Upgrades to the facility, which was last updated in 1986, will help MSU remain a leader in the packaging field. The School of Packaging Building renovation helps to modernize teaching and learning by adding flexible classrooms that seamlessly integrate technology. Collaboration-friendly spaces invite industry partners to engage with students, and the modernized facilities will attract faculty by providing the proper space and tools to conduct world-class research. The Lansmont Corporation extended its investment in packaging durability testing and research by donating test and measurement technologies for the Lansmont/PPT Group Laboratory. Their in-kind equipment donations include a TruMotion Acceleration Sled system, updated data acquisition system, vibration table controller and software, shock table and controller, as well as next generation SAVER units. Matt Daum is the director of MSU’s School of Packaging. And MSU alumnus Eric Joneson is vice president of technology for Lansmont. They talk about what makes MSU’s School of Packaging the leader in packaging education. They discuss the packaging building renovations and how they will enhance that educational experience. They talk about challenges and opportunities ahead for the packaging industry, too, and give reasons why young people should consider careers in packaging. Conversation Highlights: (0:46) – “Most people have not heard of packaging or don’t know that you can actually get a degree in packaging.”  (5:09) – “The people at the Naval Post Graduate School got in communication with Dr. James Goff here at Michigan State and wondered if this whole methodology or approach that works for testing and building better or more robust communications equipment and electronics for military applications, why wouldn’t it work for commercial, off the shelf products?” (7:21) – “We really felt it was important for us to update our facilities to enhance the way that we teach and to be a focal center point and something our alumni can be proud of.” (11:12) – “This is a very pivotal time in the history of packaging and in particular this field of distribution packaging.” (14:02) – “It’s important to know about each of those three things: product, environment, and packaging. The three of those have to work together and complement one another to deliver products of quality to consumers.” (18:27) – “There’s a little bit of science. There’s a little bit of art. There’s a little bit of communications. There’s a little bit of business. For those who have curious minds and like to connect different ideas and disciplines together, we offer that in our program.” (20:47) – “It’s not atypical to be in Brazil, Korea, China, Japan, The Netherlands and walk by a cubicle and see a green “S.” I’ve probably said Go Green Go White on six or seven continents. It’s pretty cool.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Throughout the summer months, work on expanding Michigan State University’s safety and security network has continued. MSU stands committed to making sure its campus is a safe place for all Spartans – students, faculty, staff, and visitors alike.  MSU Vice President and Chief Safety Officer Marlon Lynch updates the progress of the work that has been completed over the summer.    Conversation Highlights: (1:45) – “The process of centralizing security systems and creating additional layers of security through staff and technology has been underway for about a year and a half.” (3:18) – “We have an initiative we’re working on now to utilize outdoor speakers. And we’re going to go to a tone that we’ll have to educate our community on. It’s like the monthly tornado sirens that we hear, but it will be distinctly different.” (4:30) – “We are about 60 percent complete with the door lock installations.” (11:39) – “The implementation of the security technology is a force multiplier. It allows us to see this huge campus and provide additional opportunities to see what’s going on, both visually through cameras and electronically through security systems, and then respond accordingly with the tools that are necessary for both the immediate response and the investigative component.” (12:46) – “What was consistent was that they did not see an increase in alcohol-related incidents at the stadium.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen.

Michigan State University’s renowned W. J. Beal Botanical Garden and Campus Arboretum is celebrating its 150th anniversary in 2023.  Established in 1873, the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden is the oldest, continuously operated university botanical garden in the United States and illuminates the interconnectedness between people, plants, and place. This living laboratory encourages learning and exploration of the natural world. With a collection of over 2,000 plants from around the globe situated in the heart of MSU's campus along the Red Cedar River, this lovely natural landscape is perfect for collaborative programming to advance research, teaching, wellbeing, and public engagement. Alan Prather is the garden’s interim director. Maeve Bassett is education director. And Loren Campbell is a student and Beal Scholar. They join me to talk about the garden’s history, present, and sustainable future. Conversation Highlights: (1:43) – “My goal is that anyone who walks into the garden, whether they’re a math major or a cold war assassination specialist, I can find some way to get them interested in plants.” (3:01) – “Being in the Provost’s office, and in University Arts and Collections specifically, has given us a stronger focus on academics. Now we have a tighter, richer role with scholarship and learning on campus.” (3:29) – “One of my goals has been to broaden the scope of who feels welcome and who wants to come to programming at the garden.” (4:30) – “What I’m doing is looking at the plants that are in the garden already and in the pollinator garden and seeing how much they’re visited by native pollinators.” (5:27) – “One of the fantastic things about the history of the garden is the fact that it’s tied so tightly to the history of campus.” (6:25) – “When Beal established the garden on the south side of the Circle where the main garden is now, he did it expressly to provide a place where native plants could be honored, maintained, and grown for educational and enjoyment purposes.” (7:33) – “We wanted to create an event that represented all the different ways that people engage with the garden.” (10:45) – “Anything we do we want to make sure has a foundation in science and research.” (12:13) – “We illuminate the interconnectedness of the people, plants, and place.” (12:33) – “We’re hoping that, for instance, when we model sustainable practices, that will actually turn into inspiration for people to take our practices and put them out and make the world a better place.” (13:40) – “You can’t have flowers without them being pollinated at times by insects, and insects and plants have a close relationship. They sort of depend on each other.” (16:34) – “The first time I found the botanical garden I was just amazed; I’d never seen anything like it.” (18:03) – “I always joke that my favorite audience member is the boy friend who’s been dragged along and has no interest in plants whatsoever. If I can get them leaving the tour saying, ‘That was so cool and exciting,’ then I feel like I’ve won.” (20:06) – “The garden doesn’t have to be a place where you’re dragged by a class. We want this to be a place of joy, relaxation, and wellbeing.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen. 

Michigan State University has named Judd Herzer as the director of MSU Mobility to help amplify and focus the university’s vast research activities in the smart-vehicle landscape. Mobility is among MSU’s principal areas of research and innovation, and MSU Mobility and its partners will benefit from having a dedicated leader to guide and promote the university’s commitment to advancing its extensive mobility-focused efforts.   In his new role, Herzer will lead university-wide initiatives under the MSU Mobility umbrella to advance knowledge and practice around next-generation transportation technologies. Conversation highlights: (2:50) – “These new technologies will change not just the mobility industry, but our society as a whole.” (4:57) – “Thoughtfully encapsulating all the perspectives is important and should guide our work at MSU.” (5:55) – “One of the biggest roles for me will be coordinating our mobility work across six different colleges because, again, mobility is more than just the next vehicle that’s coming out. It’s really going to change our society holistically.” (6:20) – “MSU’s mobility team is incredibly strong, from the university and college leadership through researchers and students on down and is committed to making it a cornerstone of the university.” (7:26) – “MSU is currently transforming its 5,200-acre campus into a live and connected mobility ecosystem of 8.1 square miles of contiguous urban, suburban, industrial, and rural areas…it makes MSU truly an ideal, one-of-a-kind location for research and testing and deploying mobility technologies in a real-world scenario with the ability to do so in all four seasons.” (9:06) – “Our short-term goal is that we want to do more. And the long-term goal after that is to do even more on top of that.” (9:21) – “Challenges and opportunities I look at as one in the same. A singular answer is pace.” (12:23) – “It happens here for a reason. MSU is a great place for new, innovative ideas and transformational research that is really going to define what the future of mobility is, not just for Michigan and our automotive industry, but for our society at large and for our global community.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you listen. 

This month’s State of the State podcast from Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research has Matt Grossmann and Arnold Weinfeld from the institute and emeritus economics professor Charley Ballard discussing the state of the national and Michigan economies, UAW contract talks with the Big 3 automakers, the impact of unions in today’s America, Michigan’s new state budget, population loss, and the recent Supreme Court decision on affirmative action. Conversation Highlights: (1:25) – “The economy continues to roll along. Whereas a few months ago I would have said a mild recession is more likely than not. Right now, I would say it’s more likely than not that we kind of skirt the edges of a recession.” (5:57) – “People are still pretty dour about the economy…” (10:11) – “A part of it is that our economy is doing pretty well. And that means revenue is coming in reasonably well. That’s the remarkable resilience of the American economy.” (11:29) “There is an effect of full Democratic control on state spending, but it’s actually a lot smaller than you might expect and much smaller than the year-to-year differences due to the overall state of the economy and share of federal money that gets sent.” (12:09) – “The actual effect is more often the reverse. The more that state governments are able to pass legislation and move the agenda in their direction, the more likely that in the next election they will lose ground rather than gain ground.” (14:27) – “Many prognosticators on the national scene have listed Gretchen Whitmer as a potential presidential candidate, and I’m pretty sure she’s aware of that.” (15:17) – “In policy, this has been a very large shift on the scale of state government year-to-year shifts. That is what you’d expect after a prolonged period of lack of control from a party.” (16:35) – “Michigan is three percent of the national population and two and a half percent of the national economy. We’re in this little life raft floating upon a gigantic ocean of the worldwide economy. And if those waves are big, they’re going to affect our boat.” (18:55) – “The population of Michigan hasn’t been dropping steadily in this century, it’s just been astonishingly flat.” (21:03) – “The overall picture is actually we don’t have a higher rate of college graduates leaving the state. After graduating, what we have is a lower rate of college graduates from elsewhere deciding to move into the state. And that is part of a broader pattern where our issues are not as much from the perspective of young people moving away as we hear in the political debate as we have young people not being attracted to Michigan to move from elsewhere.”  (25:20) – “For one thing, the Supreme Court was more in line with public opinion this term than they were the previous term.” (27:50) – “Some universities have abandoned legacy admissions. That might, I think in the long run, have more of an effect.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

John Ambrose is executive director of admissions at MSU. Dani Vincent and Ndi Sibanda are MSU students. Dani and Ndi are also tour guides for MSU Admissions.  Ambrose assesses the state of higher education admissions and challenges and opportunities ahead. And the group describes the top stressors for students and parents in the process of preparing their college applications. They talk about important deadlines in the process and about the importance of parental involvement. And the students talk about why they chose to attend MSU and what they like about being tour guides on campus. Conversation Highlights: (2:50) – “Ultimately, it’s a place where you can make mistakes and get up from them. And they don’t hurt as much as when you’re not in college and you make the same mistakes.” (4:40) – “The landscape is so fraught with pressures right now for my peers and myself when it comes to thinking about the college admissions world.” (7:33) – “Sometimes I think it’s families’ expectations that are unreasonable.” (10:43) – “It always comes down to the classes that are offered and what your interests are and, more importantly, the campus.” (12:30) – “There were so many different factors that played into me deciding to come to MSU.” (14:59) – “A big stressor for me was applying during the pandemic.” (24:21) – “Most college applications will begin opening in early August, and a good date to have all of your applications complete by is November 1.” (26:06) – “One of the key things to pay attention to is the admit rate.” (27:16) – “It’s critically important that parents be involved in the process.” (34:18) – “It’s so critically important to be authentically you in the application…utilize the personal statement area to tell us something we don’t know about you. That’s the one thing that really stands out in all applications.” (40:28) – “The professors at Michigan State are here to not only guide but help correct and be a counselor and a listening ear. But you can’t bring your high school self. You have to bring the young adult self that you want to be and approach them as a young adult. They want you to engage. Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Laura Rugless is Michigan State University’s inaugural vice president for civil rights and Title IX education and compliance.In this newly elevated role, which was transitioned from an associate vice president to a vice president position, Rugless will be responsible for leading the institution’s civil rights and Title IX compliance, serving as the university’s Title IX coordinator and building upon MSU’s efforts to cultivate a university community free of discrimination and harassment. The position will oversee the Office of Institutional Equity; the Prevention, Outreach and Education Department; the Resolution Office; the Office of Support and Equity; the equity review officer; and the Americans with Disabilities Act coordinator. Conversation Highlights:(1:02) – “During the recruiting process I learned about what’s been happening with the development of the program here over the past several years. And that was really astounding to me. I was really drawn in by that. As I met leadership and members of the OCR team, I really felt like this is the place I should come and help galvanize the approach to civil rights, including Title IX. MSU is doing some really incredible things and yet we know there’s more to do and we can learn how to do it better.” (3:01) – “We grapple with anything that pertains to civil rights, and we do it through a lens of prevention, and then when there is an incident reported to our office, response and resolution through our processes.”(6:15) – “We’ve had some really promising results in the Know More survey, which has demonstrated that there is a reduction in the prevalence of relationship violence and sexual misconduct that our university community is reporting through that survey, and that’s exciting. Knowing exactly what we may be doing to help drive those results will be really important.”(8:33) – “We want our students to know that there are a lot of resources available to them here both to prevent – and should they experience any sort of incident – and to support them through that.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University alumnus Frank Tramble is Duke University’s inaugural vice president for Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs.Tramble describes his career path from MSU telemarketer going on “anthropological excursions” to stops at Georgetown and Howard on his way to Duke. He talks about why he chose MSU for college. And he shares his goals in his new position to meet the challenges and opportunities facing an “under attack” higher education system.Conversation Highlights:(3:52) – “And it was from that moment on I realized I gotta be a Spartan.”(4:33) – “I started here as an MSU telemarketer, and I can say I have the skills to sell gutters to someone who doesn’t own a home. But I have to be connected to the mission.”(5:24) – “Early on, there was a divide at many universities where marketing was something very separate, or you may not have even done marketing and you really just worried about media. For me, that’s an intertwined world.”(8:49) – “Higher education is in an interesting space now. It’s more under attack than you’d ever think, especially for an industry that just serves to educate.”(12:33) – “I spend a lot of my time trying to welcome people into the problem, having that Spartan mentality that the more people in the room means we’ll find the right answer together.”(16:55) – “You just have to stay calm. It’s when you panic and forget your training and why you’re doing what you’re doing and keeping that at the forefront of your mind that you make mistakes. While we can’t be perfect, staying calm and being able to manage under pressure is probably the most important piece of advice I could ever give.”(17:35) – “The people on this campus I owe so much to for who I am today, why I do the things I do, how hard I go after the things I want – also the moral value I put into what I do.”(19:31) – “I think the hardest thing for this generation is understanding you still have to pay your dues. The one thing you have to do is be comfortable being uncomfortable.”(21:39) – “This place can create a future for you if you let it and embrace it.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

For creating technologies that have the potential to change the world and providing opportunities for future inventors, Muhammad Rabnawaz, an associate professor and Faculty Laureate in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources at Michigan State University, was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors as a senior member on June 26. The NAI senior member program was established to highlight academic inventors who have demonstrated a prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that hold the promise of making a tangible impact on the public’s quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society. Election to NAI senior member status is an elite professional distinction extended solely to academic inventors.Rabnawaz is being recognized for his research career developing energy-efficient strategies for recycling commonly used plastics, such as polyethylene terephthalate (recycling code 1) and polystyrene (recycling code 2). He also has created novel coating materials for water and oil-repellent paper to replace single-use plastic and polyfluoroalkyl substances of PFAS-free self-cleaning surfaces for packaging and nonpackaging applications. These inventions have led to 45 patents and counting.The NAI’s application process is rigorous; not only do nominees need to demonstrate success creating multiple inventions, but they also need to demonstrate a commitment to providing opportunities for future inventors and inventions.Conversation Highlights:(0:59) – “When I visited the School of Packaging, I realized there’s an amazing potential for people who want to do something that will benefit the planet.”(4:27) – “Another factor when they review the nomination packages is that they’re looking for, besides the development of the innovations and technologies themselves, are we preparing the next generation of innovators and scientists.”(6:17) – “Primarily this recognition came because of our work to make zero-waste packaging for the world.”(6:54) – “I realized that when you’re in the packaging discipline, it’s so fulfilling in that whatever you do is going to change the world.” (8:43) – “I think the biggest challenge in the packaging industry is sustainability.”(11:58) – “If you’re that person with a creative and innovative spirit, packaging is an amazing field.”(13:03) – “The biggest misconception is that packaging is just about making boxes.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff elaborates on topics she covers in her June 2023 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. “The campus has a different rhythm in the summer, but we've got a lot going on as we kind of round out the end of summer session one and move into summer session two. And I'm really excited about that. And we really do have a great foundation for success, and we do appreciate the Board of Trustees engagement and approval this month of our budget. And that budget really does prioritize compensation. “For me, the administration, and the Board of Trustees, our employees really are our most important asset and underlie all our strategic aims, particularly in student success. And so we did prioritize the compensation. That is a very important and welcomed part of this budget. The other thing I would just highlight is that the Board has approved the new recreation center. It's going to be on Shaw Lane, kind of between Birch and Harrison.“And we still have recreational facilities right now. Students and folks can still be in IM West and other places on campus. But when this is completed in a couple of years, that's going to really be a great first in class space. And that truly is about student success. Ensuring that our students have those kinds of places that they can recreate and relax and take care of their health and wellbeing, that represents a really important asset and something that we're delighted to work on. What is important that that budget has been approved and we're moving forward.”And the budget also includes $8 million in new investments in campus safety initiatives that Vice President Lynch is leading. “He's been doing a great job, and he's been talking with a lot of folks around the community. We've had a lot of community input. One of the things we've done is to work in partnership with Ingham County, and we now have a lot of outdoor signals that will now be co-opted to use for emergency settings like we had this last semester. We've got more green light emergency phones that include cameras. We're putting new door locks across campus, and that's happening daily. And we are going to be opening our campus security operations center, which really is an integrated system security that allows for a lot of real time monitoring. That's critical.“I want everyone to know how grateful we are to the community for the outpouring of support through the Spartan Strong Fund. We closed that fund after raising $2 million from about 4,200 donors. That really is an extraordinary outpouring of support for our students, faculty, and staff. And I just want to give, as a proxy for all those individuals, a great big thank you for their support. And about 300,000 of those dollars is going to go towards a memorial.” Speaking of the Board, you recently gave them your second annual strategic plan update. I know you live and breathe that strategic plan every day. What is some of the progress you'd like to highlight today as the plan indeed evolves?“We prioritized and funded advising last year. This is allowing us to add more advisors to our ranks and to develop professional opportunities for those advisors. And that's exciting. It allows for students to have more access to those individuals who can help them along their journey. We also, of course, wanted to highlight our employees in our strategic plan through our honorifics. And this includes university distinguished professors and the various honors and awards that we provide to our staff. But we're really making a concerted effort to ensure that everyone is recognized in ways that, for our humble folks around here, Russ, as you know, they often just do the great work and say, ‘Well, don't shine that light on me.’ We want to make sure that excellence of our employees is recognized.“We also have a goal, which I think some people were surprised by, of a billion dollars in annual research expenditures by 2030. And we are going in that direction. We're now at $759 million, and that's important for all of us. We have our sustainability goals. We're at number two in the Times Higher Ed for the whole United States. We're number two in the entire U.S. for sustainability. And our DEI goals are ones that we continue to build year on year. This includes in our healthcare colleges, where we've increased our number of students of color by more than 10 percent. Around the state, you visited our extensive footprint in Grand Rapids. You announced an investment in the iconic Fisher Building in Detroit and highlighted our role in Lansing's regional community at an address at the Lansing Economic Club. “We're building in all the places and spaces that are relevant to our educational mission. This includes our investment office’s purchase of majority ownership in the Fisher Building in downtown Detroit, part of the New Center of Detroit. It’s also right adjacent to our collaborative partners, the Henry Ford Health Care system, as well as the Pistons. And this partnership is really going to help us toward our commitment of reducing health disparities, particularly in Detroit, by using our research acumen to build better care for every zip code across the state of Michigan.“I also have been working in Lansing. We have an annual economic impact across the Lansing regional area that's just remarkable. And we've just announced a community initiative called BELIEVE. I believe in Lansing, and many people do as well. It’s co-chaired by April Clobes from the MSUFCU. We're going to bring excellence to Lansing through investment, empowerment, vision, and energy. That's BELIEVE. Bringing Excellence to Lansing through Investment, Empowerment, Vision, and Energy. And later this summer, I'm going to be on some dairy farms and out in some fields. I'm going to be at a cheese factory. We really have a great deal of wonderful activity across all 83 counties of Michigan, and I'm excited to be a part of that.”Final thoughts?“It's summer, and it is thought that these are slower, more serene days on campus. And I think they are in some ways, but there are also great things that are happening as everyone gets ready for this next fall season of education. And I’m just so thrilled to be able to elevate to our community some of these great things that are happening at Michigan State.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU alumni Chris Solari and Matt Charboneau cover Spartan sports for the Detroit Free Press and Detroit News, respectively. They join me on MSU Today to talk about their backgrounds in journalism, why they chose MSU for college, and how their time at MSU prepared them for their field. They talk about the state and future of sports journalism and intercollegiate athletics and the challenges and opportunities ahead for both. And they preview the coming seasons for MSU football and men’s basketball. Conversation Highlights: (9:25) – “This place had the largest college newspaper in the country. That meant something. Being the editor in chief of the State News isn’t something a lot of people get to do. And at that level and in that time of my life and where the newspaper industry was, that meant a lot.” (14:59) – “The bad thing about our job is that it takes the sports fan out of you.” (17:43) – “You get more of a connection with the people as opposed to an institution or a team.” (18:15) – “Being an alum and having come through and having the background the journalism program provided us make you want to be sure you’re doing things the right way. And you want your alma mater to be doing things the right way, and you sometimes want to hold them to a higher standard.” (22:41) – “It has changed so dramatically or substantially in the sense that the idea of writing for tomorrow doesn’t exist anymore. Everything is immediate.”  (28:23) – “That was the moment I realized things had changed. We can now compete in the immediacy realm with television and radio, which we never could before that.”      (34:04) – “Journalism is not dying. It takes money to do good, deep investigative journalism. You either pay for journalism being an important part of society or you don’t. Someone must.” (37:16) – “There’s so little regulation over what’s happening that you feel it can’t possibly keep going like this.” (39:30) – “I think there’s a fatigue right now with the number of changes in such a short window of time that has really staggered the fan bases in a lot of schools and disillusioned them.” (43:00) – “You cannot afford to not be working every single day. The toughest thing coaches are doing now is recruiting their own roster.” (49:43) – “A school like Michigan State being ahead of it and trying to in some ways shape it is a good thing. But it’s hard to say how much that’s going to matter in two or three years with how wildly it has fluctuated now.” (51:30) – “Until you can get a better idea of how much money is flowing and all the things that are lacking guard rails, I don’t know how you could say that Michigan State or any other school will be better or worse positioned.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan’s bottle and can redemption rate has fallen to around 75 percent since the start of the pandemic, according to state data. Prior to 2020, the Michigan Department of Treasury’s bottle deposit information shows the state’s redemption rate was close to 90 percent. Tom Emmerich is chief operating officer for Schupan & Sons, Inc. and president of Schupan Recycling. Conversation highlights: (3:08) – “It really is a very popular piece of legislation. And if you poll Michiganders today, our bottle deposit law still regularly comes in with over a 90 percent favorability rating.” (4:53) – “Ease and convenience are so important to any recycling effort. And if that gets disrupted, it makes it easier for folks to change their behavior.” (5:37) – “You’re talking about going from 90 plus percent to 75 percent. That’s roughly $100 million of unclaimed dimes that go to the state.” (6:40) – “One of the beauties of our deposit system is that it creates the cleanest recycling material for the beverage industry to make new cans and bottles. When Michigan’s rate drops, that’s really impactful for the entire industry nationally in making new aluminum cans.” (11:53) – “The best systems are ones that have good curbside programs and good deposit systems. You can have both and accomplish the goals we’re all trying to achieve.” (13:00) – Emmerich shares his 4 E’s of a successful recycling program: Education, Ease, Efficient logistics, and Economically viable markets. (15:05) – “We like the slogan ‘Take ‘Em Back.’ We want that to be a reminder for everyone in Michigan to take their containers back to the nearest local retailer because it’s the right thing to do. I like this phrase too: ‘It’s your lakes. It’s your roads. It’s your beaches. And it’s your dime.’ So, ‘Take ‘Em Back.’ It’s the right thing for you. It’s the right thing for the state. And it’s the right thing for the environment.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff elaborates on some of the topics she covers in her May 2023 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. Could you start by reflecting a bit on commencement? And it was cool to see you with the tiny mic going around Breslin Center talking to some of our grads.“Oh, it was so exciting, and I'd never known that tiny mic was a thing. I got to talk to a lot of students, and the really neat thing was to just see their spirit and their enthusiasm. They were excited for that beautiful graduation day. One of the things I did, Russ, is to ask them about their favorite places on campus, and they ranged from the front of Cowles House to the frog pond south of the tracks. I had a couple of people who told me about the frog pond, which I quite love as well, to places for meditation and places that they had been for their classes. It was a wonderful representation of the students love for this campus and this place.”Placemaking is the theme in this month's community letter. How do you define placemaking?“I'm reading William Beal's book on the founding of MSU, and it really is about place and about that place where people could come and learn. This is a place that remains a natural wonder, and we really want to protect the learning, living environment that is the campus. People gain wholeness and in fact in this last semester, of course, healing out of this campus and our campus places. So, the key for us is to really think about those spaces and places and how the new buildings are situated within that larger ethos of a place that is restorative but continues to evolve, and that's what our campus is doing right now. It has the ability to accommodate the new evolution of the way in which we're thinking and learning and doing while really holding fast and true to that beauty and that living, learning environment where we gather when we walk between those places and spaces.”Talk about the freestanding multicultural center that we touched on last month, and what are some of the other facilities on the horizon?“The groundbreaking for that multicultural center was so exciting with standing room only and a lot of folks pitching in to throw that first scoop full of sand to get that process going. And boy, they're going fast over there. In addition, we have the dairy and greenhouses. Those are really teaching and learning facilities that we must have to enable the very best teaching within agriculture, which is our founding and necessary for the state of Michigan. We also are working on our digital innovation center, or EDIC, and this is a place where we'll rebuild what it means to do engineering and digital innovation, scholarship and learning, and bring six colleges together. It's inverting the model of having individual colleges. We're bringing colleges together in this new model.“Our new greenhouses are housing National Academy of Science members working on the scientific discoveries that could really sustain us and sustain this population into the future. We have the Student Recreation and Wellness Center that's going to replace the IM West facility, and folks are really excited about that on this campus.”MSU’s annual research and development expenditures grew to almost $760 million in fiscal year 2022. How are some of those funds going towards placemaking?“These new buildings and facilities are going to house new faculty and students, and it's in those facilities that we’ll be able to continue our upward trend and upward reach to the heights of research expenditure across not only the Big Ten, but literally in the nation.”Our placemaking extends beyond the East Lansing campus to places like Flint, where you recently visited.“I had the greatest time in Flint, and I really enjoyed that Norm Beauchamp and Aron Sousa were with me when I visited our Charles Stewart Mott Foundation work that's happening there with Mona Hanna-Attisha. We are building a new community partners and research facility there that's really exciting. I met some of the kids who are in that Flint downtown area and they are really excited about Michigan State University. I think I admitted a couple of six-year-olds or maybe even one that's about four years old. So, just full disclosure, Russ, we've got some Flint kids that are coming to MSU in 2042, and I'm already excited to welcome them.”We have the very first philanthropically named department in MSU's history with the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation Department of Public Health.“Public health is so critical as we saw through the COVID context and will continue to have an important way of enlivening the research we do. And particularly in Flint, we're really thoughtful about public health not just being about what MSU researchers think we ought to do and then go do. This is a completely different model where during my visit we had all our community partners who are active participants in the work, folks who then say, ‘Well, this is what we need to know.’ In many ways, what we're doing in Flint in health is what we've done in Extension in agriculture. We've really asked for and then developed the partnership that enables the best kind of thinking and therefore the best kind of work, and it's that positive productive cycle that is so exciting in Flint and across all of Michigan.”You also recently had some opportunities to recognize and celebrate the achievements of our amazing staff and faculty.“The key for me is that Michigan State has been celebrating its employees for nearly half a century. This is not a new one off. This is a place that really values every single individual who is part of this whole ecosystem, and I don't think there's anyone who thinks they themselves are above and beyond each other. Whatever part we play within this orchestra that is Michigan State University, we play our parts as well as we can. And in the end, it's a beautiful symphony.”Ensuring the safety of university community members is another vital element of MSU's placemaking for wellbeing. You were recently pleased to welcome a new vice president for civil rights and Title IX education and compliance, Laura Rugless. Tell us about Laura and her important role.“Laura comes from Cornell. She’s a veteran and brings an incredible sense of the ways in which we need to focus on prevention and the ways we respond to actual discrimination and sexual violence and misconduct. The folks that I talked with think of her as an ethical people-driven leader. I shared with her this morning that on my computer is a little yellow sticky that says, ‘Today is my favorite day.’ I offered to her that every day at MSU is my favorite day, no matter what comes. And I offered that hopefulness and that positivity to her. She embraces MSU, and I'm excited for what her leadership will bring to campus.”You have a bit of a travel advisory for Spartans and others visiting camping this summer.“We've got some traffic detours. As you traverse the campus, you'll have to make some detours, but it's really wonderful. I really like the terrestrial cranes. There are a lot of cranes that are building some of our new buildings, but you'll also see cranes going overhead as we did over graduation; they were headed north. Cranes in the air and cranes on the land really represent the natural and physical beauty of this campus. I invite people to come in this summer. Come to Summer Circle Theatre. Come to just walk in the Beal Garden. Come to see the frogs in the frog pond on the south side of the tracks. There are just so many great places to be and to be present within this great and storied institution.”Results of research you and your husband Tom O'Halloran worked on were recently reported in the Journal of Biological Chemistry. The research looked at the role of zinc in follicle development and how scientists use X-ray beams to determine the role of zinc in development of ovarian follicles. “It represents some profound biology. Before Tom and I collaborated - he was an inorganic chemist, and I'm a reproductive scientist - we collaborated on an area no one had ever thought to look at. We found that the egg, just before fertilization, takes up 20 billion zinc atoms. If it doesn't take up that amount of zinc atoms over a 12-hour period of time, it can't progress to fertilization and then onto an embryo. At the time of fertilization, the zinc is exported from the egg in this big explosion we call the zinc spark. “That zinc spark means that the subordinate sperm cannot actually then come in and have what's called polyspermy. Nobody knew any of this before that work. Tom and I with my last graduate student, Alison Tange, did some work to look at the very earliest stages of follicle development. We used one of the most sophisticated microscopes in the world at Argonne National Labs that Tom actually helped build in order to really look at the zinc and all the other metals in these early follicles. It really was the perfect bridging of new technology and this biology. Again, nobody would've looked for these signatures of life except for that interaction, and it really is just some of the most exciting discoveries that basically happens to all of us at the first moment of conception. I'm just really excited that it has been published.”What are your final thoughts as we really dive into the summer.“I'm excited for everyone to come back to this great campus. The Red Cedar is beautiful, and the trees are in full bloom. During graduation, I think every tree on campus was in peak. MSU is a wonderful place to live and work. I think back on our history of 168 years and know that we are preserving our storied historical campus, but continuing to evolve with what we need to ensure the next generation of students has that great experience that so many have had in the past.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

This month’s State of the State podcast conversation from Michigan State University's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research focuses on the debt limit. Matt Grossmann, Charley Ballard, and Arnold Weinfeld welcome associate professor of economics Antonio Doblas Madrid to the discussion.  Conversation Highlights: (1:46) – “The Federal Reserve has been trying for more than a year to slow things down. They’ve had some success. Inflation is not where it was several months ago, but it’s still above their target. There are a lot of indications that the economy is growing more slowly than it was a year ago, but it’s still growing.” (3:36) – “We’re still at a pretty high level of resources. Compared to the last few years, there is a lot of money and a lot of people asking for that money. The good news about being in the majority during this kind of time is that you can say yes to a lot more people, and that’s usually good for you politically. The bad news is if you say yes with temporary money on a permanent basis, then a few years down the line you have to say no a whole lot more and it can be pretty bad.” (4:45) – “Surpluses tend to disappear.” (6:45) – “The United States is one of a group of privileged countries that has always had healthy enough finances that it has never defaulted on its debt. And the U.S. dollar is the world’s reserve currency. It’s shocking that this debt ceiling situation that keeps coming up over and over threatens to engineer a self-inflicted financial crisis.” (7:45) – “The debt ceiling is a historical oddity of the United States.” (9:30) – “The U.S. dollar and U.S. government debt are considered the safest financial assets. It would be similar to the ground shaking.” (11:26) – “The U.S. Treasury is a whole lot bigger than Lehman Brothers.” (16:34) – “Most countries when they have a default it’s followed by a pretty deep downturn of economic activity.” (17:06) – “These are good reasons why policy makers have strong incentives to avoid the default, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t gain strategically from having the leverage that you have to force your opponents to the table.” (20:55) – “The story was a little bit different in 2010 when Democrats had a big majority and could have gotten rid of the debt limit or extended it. And then there was a sentiment that if Republicans are going to be in charge, they should have ownership of the debt limit. And that was kind of the old politics of the debt limit. ‘I don’t want to vote for it when I’m in the minority so that the other side gets the blame raising the debt limit’ even though it has nothing to do with actually increasing spending. And that was catastrophically dumb.” (21:56) – “None of us is saying the debt should be allowed to grow without any proportion to the country’s ability to repay.” (22:57) – “These are debts for expenditures that were already approved years ago and money that has already been spent. These are bills that are due now and not paying them is literally bankrupting the country.” (30:22) – “There’s not a lot of time unfortunately. The extraordinary measures that Treasury has been taking since 1985 have become par for the course.” (32:00) – “This is an occasion where Democrats and Republicans have to pass something together.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU Health Promotion guru Dennis Martell is retiring this summer following an impactful career promoting wellness among the MSU community. Martell reflects on his almost 40 years evolving health promotion initiatives at MSU. He describes how students have changed over the years, and he shares some of his fondest memories from his MSU career. He discusses the challenges and opportunities awaiting his successor and talks about the mission of The National Social Norms Center at Michigan State University. Conversation Highlights: (1:20) – “I remember in ninth grade I saw a report that said, ‘this Dennis Martell will not go very far because of his disabilities,’ and I took that as a challenge.” (4:03) – “And I came down to East Lansing and gave a speech. And in the audience were three professors from MSU who came up and said ‘Hey, how would you like to come to MSU and get your PhD?’” (6:08) – “As several different administrators say I’m either a radical, an activist, or an advocate.” (6:53) – “I got my second master’s here, and I got my PhD here. I love this place. It gave me the opportunity to look at the culture and the environment. When I was offered the job in health promotion, I wanted to see if I could help change the culture.” (8:06) – “Health is really the capacity you have at any given time to be in this world, to interact with the world, and give back to the world. Health is a measure of capacity. And what is capacity? Capacity is the ability – or skills and energy – to do something, see something, or experience something.” (9:41) – “What is the meaning of health? Really what it comes down to is freedom. The ultimate freedom is health.” (12:06) – “Health promotion is about increasing the capacity, supporting the capacity, and restoring the capacity in individuals. I consider myself a capacity builder, and you can do that in so many ways.” (13:17) – “This generation now does not know how to deal with fear or threats.” (16:33) – “Mental health is one of the increasing challenges. But so is financial, housing, and food insecurity.” (17:43) – “Let’s treat alcohol as a health issue. Not a legal issue. Not a moral issue.” (19:00) – “We take that behavior, and we give it back to them. We tell them what they do. We don’t tell them what to do. That changed the perception and then the behavior.” (20:15) – “Some of the people in this generation have lost common sense.” (23:37) – “If you drink one type of alcohol and you stay in one place and you stay with friends, you’re less likely to experience any harm when you’re celebratory drinking.” (30:50) – “We create an environment that’s conducive for learning. We don’t educate people. We provide the environment. That’s the same thing we need to do with health. We need to provide an environment so people can find their capacity.” (32:19) – “Once you are a Spartan and embrace the fundamental principles of a land grant institution, you judge the health of a community by its capacity to be good and caring. That’s what it’s really all about.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Three-time MSU alumna Kathy Wilbur is senior vice president for Government Relations at MSU. Katie John is associate vice president for State Relations and an MSU alumna, too. Wilbur and John elaborate on the mission of Government Relations at MSU. They talk about Michigan’s Democratically controlled legislature, too, and about policy issues being discussed at the Capitol that could impact MSU. They update the latest state budget negotiations and reflect on the career of retiring Senior U.S. Senator and two-time MSU alumna Debbie Stabenow. And they talk about the Spartan Advocate program that works with partners across the state to create a stronger, healthier, more prosperous tomorrow—for Michigan and the world. Conversation Highlights: (00:27) – “We divide our work into four areas…” (6:57) – “It’s a sea change. It’s a dramatically different philosophical bent. That’s probably no surprise to anyone. I think that’s why they voted that way.” (7:57) – “What a busy agenda the Democrats have managed to accomplish in these few short months.”  (12:45) – “This really is a policy that would cover every higher education institution in the state, and it does allow for the sale of alcohol at a variety of athletic venues.” (16:18) – “Last year the governor and the legislature worked very closely under a Republican-controlled legislature to implement the Michigan Achievement Scholarship.” (19:07) – “We also have heard on the mental health needs that the legislature has heard about these needs over and over again. The needs are everywhere. But on college campuses, the increase in our requests alone for mental health support services is really astounding.” (21:24) – “We have worked closely with the MEDC to bring companies onto campus who are either interested in landing or expanding in Michigan, and they want to talk about your talent pipeline. Who are you producing that we can hire?” (22:34) – “It was very apparent to President Stanley, who understood that we needed to advocate – and we did successfully – for greenhouses and dairy barns. But the very next request had to be this because it was an important investment for the state and an important statement for MSU to make that we were partners with the state.” (23:20) – “She is a double alumna and has been very supportive of so many of our efforts, especially in the agricultural world. It’s going to be a tremendous loss for the state.” (25:51) – “We always have an open door. We encourage people to reach out to work with us. A common thread in the four areas that Kathy highlighted is relationships.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Led by partners Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha at the MSU-Hurley Pediatric Public Health Initiative and Dr. Luke Shaefer, faculty director of the University of Michigan’s Poverty Solutions center, Rx Kids is a transformational effort to address child poverty and health equity.  Consistent with practices in other countries, Rx Kids boldly tackles a root cause of health disparities: poverty. A first-of-its-kind program, Rx Kids will provide unconditional cash allowances to pregnant moms and babies in Flint.Rx Kids—a first-in-the-nation program—is the solution to uplifting babies and young children out of poverty and into better health. In partnership with health care providers and community-engaged outreach, Rx Kids plans to prescribe all expectant mothers in Flint a one-time prenatal allowance ($1,500) and all infants (0-1 year) monthly allowances ($500/month). What sets Rx Kids apart from existing cash allowance programs is its intentional impact on maternal and infant health outcomes at a community level.  The anticipated reach of Rx Kids within the City of Flint during the intervention period (2024-2028) is over 6,000 families. “Rx Kids is something that has never been done before,” says Hanna-Attisha. “It is a citywide effort to disrupt poverty and improve health equity. Flint is the poorest city in the state. Our child poverty rates are about three times state and national averages and families are most poor when the babies are just born. Right before birth and in that first year of life, poverty spikes.“And for me as a pediatrician, that is maddening because that is the same time that child development is the most critical. Babies' brains actually double in size in that first year of life and that's when families are the poorest. It's so frustrating that we just band-aid so many problems that are associated with poverty and that we don't do something preventative.“I was tired of shrugging my shoulders, and I was tired of band-aiding. We do big things. We do hard things. Why not prescribe something that can lift our families out of poverty during this most critical time of child development? That's how the idea was born. We're going to give every pregnant mom in Flint a prenatal allowance, and then every baby until the age of 12 months will get a monthly cash allowance.“This is huge and transformative and has never been done before at a citywide level. There are a lot of great pilots across the country with sample sizes of 100 or 200, but this is big. This is going to be for the whole city. There are about 1,200 babies born in Flint a year, which is one of the reasons we can do this in Flint. It's a small big city. We also have great need, and we also have this built academic community partnership and this long history of the university investing in this city humbly working with community partners to do big things to improve health equity and to reduce disparities.”Why are cash allowances the best solution? “Families tend to know what they need the most,” says Shaefer. “Some families need food, some families need help paying the rent, some families need it for childcare, and some families need it to buy books and toys to help kids thrive. This is the beauty of cash. Milton Friedman was a huge proponent of using cash to help families, and it just empowers families. A couple of the other pieces of the puzzle on this is sometimes we have programs that only serve very poor families. We have other programs that serve middle class families. Part of the vision of Rx Kids that starts with Dr. Mona is that we're going to serve all the kids. Raising kids is expensive and it's hard. Society has a reason to come alongside parents in that work.“We're going to do something simple and come alongside all the families. And by doing that, we don't risk making it a stigmatized program that somehow is a marker that we're only giving it to families who aren't making it or aren't able to make ends meet that says something about them not being able to do that.“The messaging is incredibly different. We have seen cash allowances repeatedly, all around the world, work for families. And we've learned so many interesting things. There are some countries where we've been able to see as child benefits roll out, alcohol and tobacco spending among parents goes down. Sometimes people worry that there might be some folks who don't use the money in the right way. But in this case, it looks like probably because sometimes substance use is a reaction to stress and not having enough money is a big stressor that the effect is the opposite. We have all of that evidence, and we can bring it to bear on this program and do something in the United States that we have never done before.”How will Rx Kids change the trajectory of childhood poverty in Flint?“We think it's going to impact those critical maternal and infant health outcomes first,” continues Hanna-Attisha. “We think more folks will go to their prenatal visits and get connected with all the interventions and services in that space. That's going to improve birth outcomes like birth weight and prematurity and infant mortality and maternal morbidity, all these important and very costly health outcomes.“We think it's going to increase and support that relationship between moms and babies and their medical provider, both at prenatally and in the pediatric space like improving well visits, immunization rates, and necessary screenings and developmental things that happen there. We think for adults and parents, we're going to see decreased stress, which is seen throughout these kinds of programs. We're going to look at things like substance abuse, but also, we're going to measure things like happiness and hope and dignity and trust in government and institutions.“It's fair to say that in places like Flint, there's not much trust in government for many reasons, for longstanding neglect and disinvestment and systemic inequities. And we're hoping we will be able to measure an increase in that social contract between those critical institutions and the people who have been neglected for so long. This might play out with increased civic engagement, increased voting rates, increased engagement in neighborhood clubs, and participation in all kinds of different things. Some of my favorite things that we're going to measure are things at a community level because this has never been done at a community level.“What's going to happen to things like population stability? Are fewer people going to leave Flint? Will people move into Flint? These dollars are going to largely be spent in the community, and that's going to be an economic jolt for the community that's going to benefit all kinds of people, including local businesses and small businesses.“There are a whole slew of things that we're going to look at, and a lot of them are short term. We'll be able to see findings right away, but a lot will take years and maybe decades to play out. How does this impact things like kindergarten readiness and third grade reading and economic productivity and chronic disease rates and life expectancy? If you really lean on that science of early childhood, we understand that milieu of early childhood really portends life course trajectories. And if we can build a nutrient rich environment in early childhood, we think we'll be able to impact those life course outcomes for decades and maybe generations to come.”Talk about some challenges and opportunities as you work towards these goals.“One is actually how you distribute the money,” continues Shaefer. “We are incredibly lucky to be working with Give Directly, which is the international leader on how to do that exactly right. And they've done cash transfers like this all over the world. They've learned how to communicate with folks very clearly in an accessible way and how to troubleshoot. We’re doing a ton of planning on this. The community infrastructure in Flint is stronger than any other place that I've ever worked. People are really communicating with each other and in sync with each other. That is what makes it possible.“We do have a lot of social welfare programs. They often do a little of this or a little of that. A lot of them are incredibly important. Those programs don't always work together as well as they should. Sometimes it seems like they're built up in silos. We're lucky to have great partners at the State of Michigan that are really helping us to figure out how to make sure somebody's food assistance isn't impacted, for example, by receiving this transfer where they wouldn't end up any better off than they were before.”“The biggest challenge right now is raising the dollars we need to make this happen,” Hanna-Attisha says. “We are honored and humbled by the $15 million challenge grant from the Mott Foundation. We have to raise another $15 million to unlock that grant. We have been writing grants and talking to foundations and funders and governments to try to bring in the necessary funds to do this, not just for a few years and not just for five years, but we want to do this for a long time. The most acute challenge right now is raising the dollars, and I'm confident that we will be able to raise these dollars and that we will get the match. If folks want to contribute, they can go to FlintRxKids.com. Every bit counts.“We hope to have this go live in 2024. And just like everything that we've done in Flint, it hasn't been about Flint, it's been about kids and communities everywhere. Even now, before we even started this program, we're already thinking about how we can make sure that every kid in Michigan and in this country benefits from Rx Kids.“Another thing that I love about this program is it's being led by two folks from two different institutions that don't often get along. This is another great example of how folks can come together for a common purpose. And the team that we're rooting for is team kids. And both our public universities have amazing strengths and assets, and this is one of the great examples where this community-based work on behalf of moms and babies is for a higher purpose than what happens on those Saturday football games.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

For years, Michigan State University College of Human Medicine researchers in the Division of Public Health have been working with Flint Community Partners to improve the health of the community, improve access to healthcare, reduce health disparities, and advance policies and interventions that aim to eliminate structural racism in healthcare. And every step of the way the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has been a visionary partner by providing the funding for space and endowed faculty positions. The support from the Mott Foundation has allowed MSU to invest in public health researchers seeking community minded solutions to tackle issues like the Flint water crisis and the Coronavirus pandemic. Over the past six years, MSU's Division of Public Health has brought in more than 115 million in federal research funding for these efforts. Now the university is creating its first fully philanthropically-named department in recognition of this long-term support as MSU seeks to expand its efforts to recruit top talent. The expanded academic unit in Flint will allow for significant growth in faculty as well as increased community programming.The Charles Stewart Mott Department of Public Health is the first named department at Michigan State University. The Mott Foundation granted $25 million to expand the Michigan State University College of Human Medicine's Public Health presence in Flint about one year ago. The grants created an endowed fund to attract and retain public health faculty, increase academic research, and boost community partnerships. As a result, the public health division has grown and was recently elevated to a department. The naming of the department is in recognition of the Mott Foundation's transformational support. Here to discuss this are Dr. Aron Sousa, Dean of the College of Human Medicine; Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha, Charles Stewart Mott Endowed Professor of Public Health and founding director of the Pediatric Public Health Initiative; and Ridgway White, President and CEO of the Mott Foundation.“The college was founded as really the first medical school in the country based on a community focus,” says Sousa. “We have been in our communities for the 60 years or so that the college has been in existence, and that includes Flint. And as we were trying to figure out what to do to better engage with communities and foster better health and healthier communities, public health is really where that kind of rubber hits the road. And our partners in Flint, Hurley Medical Center, McLaren, and the Mott Foundation started putting together this kind of concept of a community-based public health program where we philosophically wanted to be in the community, invite the community into our building, and most importantly, work with the people of Flint as collaborators.”Sousa talks about what it means to have the name of Charles Stewart Mott on the department and the value and importance of elevating and structuring the faculty and staff into its own department and how that benefits programming in Flint to create impact for the community, the state, and the nation.“I've had this amazing privilege of traveling all over the country and working in other public health programs and learning about what they do,” says Hanna-Attisha. “There is no other place that does public health or thinks about health as we do. We were born in this really bizarre way. We didn't just say, ‘Hey, we're really smart and we're the university and we're going to come into this community and we're going to fix your problems.’ We sat and we listened, and this was the brainchild of Dean Sousa when he first sought out to build this public health program in Flint. We had community meetings and forums and town halls and surveys, and we literally asked the community, ‘Hey, what do you want us to work on?’ And based on that, the public health programming in Flint was born and has grown and grown, and we've never lost sight of that kind of conception of being community partnered. We are working on issues that our community wants us to work on, and it's more likely to achieve health equity.”Dr. Mona highlights some of the current research projects taking place in the public health area and about how the naming of the department impacts the work of the faculty and researchers. “If it wasn't for Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha and the MSU Department of Public Health, we wouldn't have had the science that was needed to prove that the blood level in the children in Flint was elevated,” White says. “That has had huge ripple effects on all kinds of policy and federal funding for water initiatives on clean, affordable, accessible water for all across the United States.“MSU has been an amazing partner, a great grantee. The Mott Foundation is only as good as its grantees. We applaud MSU for taking these dollars and maximizing them. We always say ‘nothing about us without us.’ And that rings true to the land grant philosophy of MSU. For the Mott Foundation, that's core to us.”“In this nation, we spend trillions on healthcare,” Hanna-Attisha continues. “We have built a sickness-based system, but we have failed to really go after those root causes, those root determinants of ill health. And that's what we're trying to do in Flint. We're trying to go upstream and address those root causes so that our hospitals aren't filled with chronic diseases and that our life expectancy isn't 20 years less in Flint than another part of Genesee County. Our Department of Public Health is within the medical school. In so many other places, it is a separate siloed school or department that's not related to the medical school. Having these two kinds of departments or units married together really enables us to train a future workforce of physicians who understand what public health is and can see beyond the patient in front of them and can address these upstream determinants.“In a really short period, we have built awesome. We are doing awesome work in Flint, thanks to the investment and support of the CS Mott Foundation. But really, in some ways, our work is just beginning. So, we look forward to the next few years. We look forward to more partnerships. We look forward to more support, more folks out there listening who say, ‘Hey, I want to invest in this, too.’ Come. We welcome all who want to support our work and who want to work with us.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K Woodruff joins me on MSU Today to elaborate on some of the topics she covers in her April 2023 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. “I love this time of year. Commencement is really one of my favorite days of the year. I'm excited for each of our students as they walk through that line and put on their gowns of green. It's a beautiful resplendent color, and they are beautiful and resplendent in it.”More than 200 of our students will graduate with perfect 4.0 grade point averages. That excellence is amazing and is supported by our world-class faculty and staff. Even US News & World Report continues to notice our excellence.“We've got four programs that are ranked number one, and over 25 in the top registers of the US News & World Report rankings. We're really pleased with the way in which our faculty achieve their excellence. That, in turn, creates the right environment for our students.”Honors College Junior Victoria Fex is our 53rd Goldwater Scholar.“That's something to celebrate. This is a place where our students really succeed, and then we see them excelling in these nationally competitive programs. I couldn't be more excited for Victoria, and certainly proud of MSU for its legacy and what it does to enable these students' success.”Another Spartan was honored for his service and engagement with his selection as a 2023-'24 Newman Civic Fellow by Compass Compact. That's Jai Kozar-Lewis. He's a supply chain management first-year student.“This is part of the secret to Michigan State. Our students, like our faculty and employees, are always about learning, but also about giving. He's all about providing his knowledge and expertise in environmental issues across communities. That's the way in which we have outreach with impact. That's what Jai represents.”Congratulations to the 25 exceptional undergraduate and graduate students and alumni selected for the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program.“Our graduate students and undergraduates are exceptional. The National Science Foundation selects those who are the most outstanding across the United States. This is highly competitive for our students in the sciences, technologies, engineering, and mathematic disciplines. These students will now be enabled to pursue their masters and doctorates. I look forward to supporting these students as they continue their pathway toward those advanced degrees.”Excellence is also a priority in the field of competition among Spartan student athletes. We recently welcomed a new head coach for women’s basketball. It's Okemos native Robyn Fralick.“I've had a chance to meet Robyn. She came in and immediately started recruiting. I've had the chance to chat with her a couple of times. She's really terrific. She and her young family are here. Just immediately I think it felt like home. I think she's going to do a great job for Michigan State.”New facilities go a long way in supporting our excellence. Among many projects, we had two important groundbreakings recently, the addition to the School of Packaging and our freestanding Multicultural Center.“This is a time of real extraordinary advances across this campus. The School of Packaging is number one in the nation and the only school that has a PhD program in packaging. We were able to cut the ribbon with a group of donors and industry leaders. If you go across any industry around the globe that is the in top 100 in packaging, they are led by Spartans. I'm so proud of the way in which Matt Daum, who is the director of that school, has led our packaging program. He’s also a great alum. The Multicultural Center, boy, the roof was blown off the tent top for that event. We filled the place with folks who were just so excited to be a part of the future of Michigan State through this new Multicultural Center. I'm excited for where Michigan State has been, and most importantly, the fulcrum towards where it's going as it will be represented in this building.”Earth Day is just behind us. You have a key new hire in our new director of sustainability, Chip Amoe.“Melissa Woo and her team looked nationally for our new director of sustainability. Chip is the real deal. He's going to come in and not only move us forward on the trajectory we were, but I suspect really move that upwards. He is someone who has had long-standing excellence in sustainability. Our folks are really excited about having him here. I'm thrilled that he's joining us. I think you know that we all talk about the Spartan Green in our sustainability efforts. He is already green through and through, so we're really advantaged by his presence.”Have you had a chance yet to see the wonderful exhibit that Devon Akmon and his team have opened this month at the MSU Museum? It's a collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution. “It's special, not only with the Smithsonian, but also with the Audubon. I was able to meet several of our board members from the Smithsonian Institute who just have extraordinary praise for Michigan State and our museum and for Devon and the way in which we are representing to the broadest group of people the opportunity to join us in learning more, like in Knowing Nature. This was really about the boreal forest. There are billions of birds that migrate largely at night. These boreal forests are necessary for that habitat.“Going to that exhibit will allow you to learn a lot more, as I did, about this part of our ecosystem. This is the starting point for this exhibit that's then going to travel from here. And with the new assets that we build for accessibility, which is something Michigan State is absolutely committed to, we’re going to add value to that program. I know the Smithsonian and the Audubon directors are really thrilled. We're excited about that exhibit.” As Spartan Nation continues to reflect and heal from the violence we experienced on February 13th, you've created a temporary Office for Resource and Support Coordination. Tell us about that and your continued reflections as we heal.“I want to send my thoughts out to everyone who is continuing to grieve in their own way on this, what we call the long walk forward. We're on a different pace but on the same path. We're going to get there together. Part of what we're hoping to do is to enable folks to be able to move forward, particularly those most affected in that violent event on February 13th. That's going to be coordinated through the Office for Resource and Support Coordination. I just ask all Spartans to be thoughtful and lift up those students and their families, and the office will be helpful in that.“We also have an independent after-action review group that we've identified, Security Risk Management Consultants. We went through a formal RFP process to identify the right group for Michigan State. I'm really persuaded particularly by the fact that they're led by someone who was a head of campus police and who understands our size and scope to come in and help us really think through the ways in which we can continue to work towards our ideal of a welcoming and safe environment.”What else are you reflecting on this month?“I reflect on the word commencement and to commence. It maybe should be called the accomplishment for some people, but it's called a commencement because we're commencing a new phase of our life after completing these degrees. As we move that tassel across, or some of our students are hooded with that doctoral hood, I really think it's a moment to think about the journey that we've all been on. For students who've been here four or five or six years, there's been a lot in their baskets as they've walked this MSU path. They are stronger and more resilient as a consequence.“Of course, for us, we wish we could have taken those buckets from them. We wish their baskets were not quite as full. But as I think beyond the commencement and the graduation exercises for each of our colleges, those students are ready for both what is expected as a part of accomplishing their degree, but more importantly, they're ready for the unexpected. That is going to allow for a better world any place a Spartan is. I'm looking forward to thinking about that as I shake 9,500 hands. I'm committed to it. I love each moment as the students come and as they approach the dais as one person and as they leave the dais as a new graduate on their way to something else. That's really where my mind is focused. I'm excited for this moment.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU alumna Grace Wojcik is the director of Michigan State University's Gender and Sexuality Campus Center. Where did your original interest in and passion for advocating for the LGBTQIA+ community come from?“I started my path as an advocate for the community in high school. That was around the time of the 2004 marriage amendment in the state of Michigan. And I was also really active in trying to get a gay/straight alliance started at my high school at Lapeer East High School. So we had a joint one with the crosstown high school, Lapeer West, and that was rough. We had some pushback from administration. It's the early 2000s and so there wasn't the same openness that we have now. And from there, coming to Michigan State, I got involved with some of the LGBT caucuses and student organizations on campus and later the LGBT Resource Center, The LBGT Resource Center as it was known. And that really set me on the path of advocating for the LGBTQ+ community and making sure folks have access to the support resources they need and are entitled to.”Why MSU? Why did you choose to return now?“It's funny, I applied for this position a number of times previously, but I had left higher education. A former student of mine from Oakland University sent me the posting, and she works here, shout out to Kara. And she sent me the posting saying, ‘I know you're kind of done, but I think you'd be great. We need you here at MSU. We need you to come home’ kind of thing. I applied and am so happy to finally get this job. This is kind of the dream job of mine after being in higher education for the better part of a decade. This is kind of like the ultimate position for me. I'm excited to come back home.”Talk about the mission of the center and how it's evolving. Who you advocate for and how you go about it?“We are primarily student focused, and we're here to make sure that our LGBTQIA+ students feel seen, advocated for, and empowered while they're on campus. We also do a lot of consulting with faculty and staff and the administration to make sure our students are included across campus, however that looks, whether that is in policies and procedures, housing assignments, or a wide variety of ways.“Ultimately what we're here to do is to make sure our LGBTQIA+ students are supported, and they make it to graduation. They can be successful here no matter their sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression. I think a lot of times people think we're just for LGBTQIA+ students, but really anybody is welcome to stop by the center. We have a family room area where students tend to socialize and study. It’s just a good place to wind down, take a load off in between classes, meet other students, and find connections. A lot of times people stop by and say, ‘I have questions. I want to learn more about the community because I'm doing this project.’ We're all happy to engage with that work as well.”Do you have some short-term goals and then have you had time to even think of some longer term ones yet?“I feel like I'm a little bit more aware of some of the connections that haven't been able to be fostered. I'm really looking forward to connecting with alums who want to support the office and who have their time, talent, and treasure to give back to the students. I know a lot of folks who are passionate about getting connected and supporting this next generation of students. That's a really big goal of mine.“I also am in the very early stages of a strategic planning process for the center. I would really like for us to make sure that what we're offering is still what students need and want and that we're meeting the mark for those different areas. I want to see us become one of the most LGBTQ inclusive campuses in the State of Michigan on the Campus Pride Index. And while there are problems and things that we can talk about with that index because no assessment is perfect, what we know is that that assessment is backed by research for best practices for LGBTQ+ resource centers. I would really like for us to be one of the top ranked universities. At my previous institution, I was able to do that, and I don't see any reason why I can't do it here.”What about some challenges and opportunities as you pursue those goals?“The pandemic really did a number on our student engagement. Our student orgs across campus have been struggling with students understanding the reason why it's important to get engaged or even just what it looks like for these student orgs and what they have the power to do. And that's no criticism of the students. It's hard to come to a campus of this size and be in a virtual setting or to be a freshman and then go virtual.“We're in a serious rebuilding stage across campus. Everybody's experiencing this is what I've come to understand. We really want to make sure the students know what they're capable of doing as student activists. And we're really here to support that advocacy as best as we can. But we also want to foster connection between the groups because we know that with a campus of 55,000 students, there's no way that one office with three full-time staff members can reach all of those students. That's really where these student orgs come into a critical position. They have a big role to play and we know that they're important. Students may find them first and then find us just based on comfort and proximity. We really want to make sure folks know that the center and these student orgs are here to support students. That's critical.”You've said it a couple different ways. I said LGBTQIA+. Is that right? “Yes. Everybody uses a different acronym. In our mission statements we use LGBTQIA2S+. Other institutions just use the LGBTQIA or LGBTQ+. We're all saying pretty much the same thing. There are various acronyms in play all over.”That leads me into a question about the pronouns. Why is it important to honor people the way they want to be honored? People want to do the right thing, but sometimes they're overly careful and say nothing.“That's typically what I've experienced, too. The fear stops people from doing anything. It becomes almost paralyzing. For pronouns, the easiest way to approach it is just to understand when you see someone sharing their pronouns on their name badge, their email signature, or even in an introduction in a group setting, they're really trying to set the stage for inclusion for everybody to be able to share pronouns rather than the onus only being on the people who maybe use pronouns that quote, unquote, ‘don't match their appearance’ or don't match what we would assume them to be. That's one way for us to create a more inclusive campus environment.“I know that pronouns are kind of getting a bad rap politically. There's a lot of pushback towards the transgender community and gender-nonconforming community. And I think a lot of that is based on preying on people's fear and misunderstanding or the fear of the unknown. Most of the time people do want to treat others with respect and dignity. And I think that's one way to do it.“If I'm just meeting someone, I'll say, ‘Hey, I'm Grace, I use she/her pronouns. What pronouns do you use?’ Or ‘Can you remind me of your pronouns?’ There are really easy ways to ask it in a respectful way. And then of course, you may have folks that'll just say, ‘Oh, by the way, that person uses this set of pronouns.’ Again, it's all about respect. It's not about making anybody feel like they need to be, quote, unquote, ‘canceled.’ Most of the time people will gently and respectfully correct someone else when they've misused a pronoun. But again, it's just about treating each other how they would like to be treated, let alone how we would want to be treated. It's a really easy way for us to show that everybody has a place here at MSU.”Over your time in this advocacy, what other changes have you seen? Progress has been made and there is still work to do, right? Just your overall assessment.“We've really come light years since when I first became involved with advocacy for the community. Now there are equal marriage rights. People have access to gender-affirming care. There are more doctors who are aware of it. In the medical profession itself, you're seeing more medical colleges engage in training their physicians or future physicians on what it means to be an inclusive practitioner. And I was engaged in that work at Oakland University as coordinator there. But I think we're at a really big precipice where we're seeing so much progress over the last 20 or so years, and now it's time for the backlash to that progress. And even though we're lucky to live in a state like Michigan, which if you would've asked me 20 years ago if this would've been as affirming of a place to live for LGBTQ+ people, I don't know if I would've answered the way I would have today. It's been a huge journey.“However, we know that all it takes is for an election to go another way, and things could be totally undone, unfortunately. There are forces out there preying on fear and misunderstanding. And the fact of the matter is transgender and LGBTQ people at large have been around for millennia. This is not new. We've always been here. And I think that's part of the misconception is that this is something new, strange, and different. It's just not factual. The queer and trans communities have been here forever, and we'll continue to be because, by nature, we've had to be resilient. If you're not resilient, you will perish. And we've seen that time and time again. We're in an exciting time as a state to finally be open and accepting to all. I'm hopeful that that doesn't reverse anytime soon.”And are there other facts about the community you'd like to reinforce or some myths to dispel?“Again, with all the progress we've seen, folks maybe don't understand that over the last several years we've seen an uptick in hate crimes towards the LGBTQ community, predominantly against transgender people. That's scary because there is a lot of hatred out there. There's not a willingness of understanding all the time because folks are hearing little sound bites somewhere and then getting whipped up over it. We know that we've got some work to do on campus with the Know More Survey that came out recently. We know that a lot of students who are trans or non-binary indicated that they've been experiencing quite a lot of harassment in that space. That is some of the work that the GSCC is engaged in improving with some of our partners across campus.“People often don't understand that when we don't accept someone's name or pronouns, that has real effects on someone. It's correlated to suicidal ideation and lesser mental health. If you really think about it, it makes sense. If you don't have the support of people around you or even your identity affirmed or respected on a basic level, of course that's going to make you feel isolated, lonely, depressed, and sad.“Coming out of the pandemic, we are going to see some of this mental health impact because we may have students who have had to live in environments that were not accepting. They've had to almost go back into the closet, so to speak, because they had to go live at home where their parents were not supportive of them or where they weren't allowed to be themselves for fear of being punished or harassed in some way. It's important for us to remember that we play a huge part in that, no matter what role we play on campus. This work is everybody's job. Even if you're not involved in DEIB work specifically.“We’re at an exciting point right now. I want to encourage everybody to visit our website, which is gscc.msu.edu. From there, you can actually learn more about pronouns and all the different educational programs and resources we provide to campus. If you're moved to support our students, I would really encourage you to donate to our Unconditional Love Fund. That is where we give financial support to students who may not have family resources to fall back on due to their sexual orientation or gender identity. Unfortunately, since the events of February 13th, we have seen an increased number of requests, simply because people are really experiencing a great deal of trauma stemming from that event. And as such, they may not be able to work as they once did or have the resources to pay for rent and food and things like that.When you were choosing a college, why was MSU the place for you?“I grew up in a smaller town, and I went to a high school of a thousand people total. I wanted something bigger. I wanted the quintessential college experience of football Saturdays and the big old ivy-covered buildings, really everything that we think of when we think of MSU. And when I got here, it felt like home immediately. I did know folks, but it was nice to be able to start fresh in a way at a bigger school and be around people who are totally different. You have folks who are from different countries, different religious backgrounds, and different ethnic and racial backgrounds. There were many opportunities to learn from folks different from myself. And that was really what moved me to come to East Lansing and specifically Michigan State.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

When Vice President and Chief of Police Marlon Lynch joined his alma mater in February 2021, Michigan State University expanded the role of police chief in recognition of the broadening nature of proactive safety planning needs across the university beyond traditional law enforcement efforts. To strengthen and bolster these efforts going forward, Interim President Woodruff has changed the structure of Police and Public Safety’s leadership to enable the accelerated expansion of university safety efforts across the East Lansing campus and all MSU campuses throughout Michigan.Chris Rozman is the new chief of police. And Vice President Lynch is now vice president and chief safety officer for MSU. On this episode of MSU Today, Lynch and Rozman talk about the transition and their new roles.Conversation highlights:(1:12) – “My role as vice president and chief safety officer will be broader, as opposed to also having primary responsibility for the university police department. The university and its needs evolve.”(3:40) – “I’m honored and humbled to be offered the appointment to chief at my alma mater and the place where I’ve spent my entire career.”(5:47) – “We do a really good job of community outreach, engagement, and policing as it is, and I want to make sure we weave that through all our employees in every aspect of our department. Our police officers do a great job daily, and I want to emphasize the point that every interaction we have with every member of our community is an opportunity to engage and build trust.”(9:14) – “I’m not an emotional person, but I have found myself feeling very emotional since then. It’s something to deal with both personally and professionally. Being cognizant of that is necessary for us to move forward.”(11:06) – “What I think really stands out is that our department and most of our employees who have been here a long time are truly connected to this community. We are impacted and healing just like our community.”(12:40) – “As we were committed to communicating updates and sharing information with our community, we weren’t talking to the media or the cameras. We were speaking to our community.”(13:38) – “We are part of the community. We are Spartans protecting Spartans. That’s how we’re going to move forward. This is our campus. What surprised me was the number of students who told us they still feel safe on campus. We are absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of this campus now and in the future. And we know we need to work with the community to do that and we stand ready.”(15:25) – “The chiefs for the cities of East Lansing, Lansing, and Meridian Township, and the sheriff for Ingham County are all Spartans. There’s a connectivity in the law enforcement and public safety community, including fire and EMS.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Chip Amoe is Michigan State University's new director of sustainability, and he's leading the Office of Sustainability at MSU. What attracted you to MSU?“We’re the oldest land-grant university in the country, and so we've got a great history. You've got great proximity here to our state leaders, and we're doing all the things that are important for sustainability in the future. I truly believe that climate change is the biggest threat that we all face across the entire globe, and that it is the existential threat that we all must address. But here at MSU, we're working on a lot of the things that have an impact, not just on climate change, but sustainability broadly. Everything from packaging to supply chain to agriculture, all these things are critical to addressing sustainability and improving the health of our people and our planet.”How did you originally get interested in this area and why you're passionate about it?“I've always been passionate about the planet. I grew up in Michigan. My formative years were in Alpena, and I've lived in Grosse Pointe and Ann Arbor and spent time in Traverse City. I'm really all in on Michigan and its natural resources. It's always been a passion. I started recycling before it was cool and was pushing my parents to do it. I'm the guy who digs the recycling out of the trash in my own home and pulls it out.“I've always believed that our built environment has a big impact on our health and that as we're redesigning and redeveloping cities, and I had a particular passion about doing that in Detroit, that we needed to do that with an eye towards health if we're going to redesign and redevelop cities. That's what got me into it. I’m an advocate for a more sustainable and healthier environment.”What’s the mission of the Office of Sustainability? How is it evolving, what is your role, and where do you want to see things go?“Early on I’m listening and learning. How do we help continue to support the state in its efforts? How do we support businesses and other industries in their efforts? And how do we lead by example? That's really where we're going to be focused early on is how do we lead by example and be a living lab for products, new ideas, and new ways of doing things. And then we want to really be a resource to the state and its industry, giving them practical ways to do things and helping them to implement sustainability because it's going to take more than just us doing it. It's going to take the entire state, the entire nation, and the entire world, frankly, to be able to do this. And if we could provide ways to make it easier for people to make the healthy, more sustainable choice, that's what I want to do to help really expand this because we need to move fast on it. It needs to happen now.”What are some of your short- and long-term goals?“Short term right now is really to just get an understanding of all the great work that we're doing on campus. We have our own MRF, which is a material recovery facility for recycling, and our surplus store, which is amazing. Those are some really great things. How do we expand on those? How do we continue to do more with those? Those are some great resources. And then long-term looking at opportunities to partner with other companies to implement new technologies here on campus to leverage the research that we're doing at our campus and really to try to put those in place. Really trying to look at it holistically. And not only that, to really embed sustainability into the culture, to literally lean into that ‘Go Green’ and really make it part of our culture so that it's just who we are as a university.”As you pursue some of these goals, what are some challenges and opportunities?“With any large organization, the challenge is always breaking down the silos. I don't care what organization you are, there are going to be silos. And there are going to be opportunities for collaboration. The opportunities are tremendous given our history, where we're located, all our work around agriculture, the land that we have around us, and our communities and satellite campuses in Detroit and Grand Rapids and Flint. And we’ll leverage our Extension programs to really spread that. It's a matter of coordinating and then setting a vision and helping to get us there.”How do you define sustainability?“The traditional definition of sustainability is meeting today's needs without sacrificing the needs of future generations. But I really look at sustainability holistically. Climate change is the most existential threat that we face, and that is a big thing. But sustainability is more than that. It's about really creating healthy environments, both internal and external.“There are going to be a lot of demands on the state of Michigan, especially as climate continues to change and people flock to the state as the respite for a lot of the climate challenges that we have. Sustainability is really that triple bottom line approach of people, planet, and prosperity. If it doesn't save money and it doesn't make financial sense, it's not going to be sustainable.“I'm open to new ideas and new ways to do things. Two things that I hate to hear are, ‘We've always done it that way.’ I don't want to hear that unless you're coming at it and saying, ‘But we can do it differently.’ And two, I don't like to use the word can't because we can do anything we put our minds to. It's just a matter of resources and having the will to be able to do that, and we know Spartans Will.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University has integrated the MSU Student Organic Farm into the Division of Student Life and Engagement (SLE). This move reflects the university’s commitment to providing students with opportunities for hands-on learning and engagement with sustainable agriculture. The MSU Student Organic Farm is a valuable resource for all students to learn about organic food, farming, and the impact of food on the planet. As part of SLE, the farm will gain more resources and support to expand its impact and continue its mission of educating the next generation. Our panel discussion includes Laurie Thorp, director of the Residential Initiative on the Study of the Environment and one of the founders of the Student Organic Farm; Laura Young from MSU’s Office of Sustainability; and George Berghorn, an assistant professor of construction management in the School of Planning, Design and Construction.  Conversation Highlights: (5:43) – The mission of the farm “has evolved, but always at its heart has been its name – a farm where students can make decisions and experiment with different ways of growing food. What’s changed is the image of the farm.” (7:52) – “Really what I love so much about the farm is that it’s a perfect example and a shining jewel for the potential to use our campus as a living laboratory.” (10:42) - “Everybody eats. We can talk about farming and agriculture as if it’s this foreign thing. But we all eat.” (14:47) – “What we’re doing here exactly models for our students how you work with people in different disciplines who don’t know much about your discipline.” (21:35) – “We’re slowly growing out of that word (sustainability). Regenerative is the word we’re hearing more. It’s not just about sustaining people and places and planets. It’s about knowing we’ve done so much damage that we need to go a few steps further to how we can regenerate areas.” (24:20) – “How can a building contribute more than it takes? How do we build things that add to the natural, economic, and human-centric environment rather than just take.” (27:11) – “I said ‘What do you think about a straw-bale building?’ And I got a great reaction.” (30:46) – “It’s a great example of what can happen when you lower the barriers to collaboration.” (33:10) – “It’s an amazing opportunity for all of us to brag about and show that we are leaders in sustainability and education and food and farming.” Support the people and programs at MSU building a more sustainable future on campus and around the world. Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Bringing with her a proven track record of success and program building, Robyn Fralick is Michigan State's new women's basketball head coach. Fralick becomes the sixth coach in Spartan women's basketball history.“I was born in Sparrow Hospital. We just drove by that the other day. I graduated from Okemos High School in 2000. I was born and raised here and have family here. It’s a wonderful place to grow up. I have so many good memories, and to come back feels a little surreal. It's been interesting, even as we look for houses and places to live. There's a lot of nostalgia. Obviously, I've been back to Okemos a good amount with my family being here, but I've been back as a visitor. Now I'll be back as a community member’ it’s pretty cool for it to come full circle.”What attracted you back to the lead the MSU program?“I feel so fortunate for the opportunity. Suzy's been the head coach for the past 16 years and has done a wonderful, fabulous job. And for the opportunity to come about at this time in my coaching career just feels really fortunate.”What are some of your immediate short-term goals and some longer-range ones you're thinking about?“Short term is all about people. You've really got to get to know the kids and get your staff. We're right now in the process of getting the staff here and then getting everyone on the same page on what we're about. But that does take time because right now I think the roster is evolving. Who's here? Who's leaving? Who's coming in? Long-term is getting all the people under the same expectations, system, and guidelines. I've done this before. I'm actually having flashbacks. I remember when I went from Ashland to Bowling Green. I remember all the sort of transitional energy that goes into the change. But it's really exciting. And so far, the kids I have been able to meet with have been great.”What are some challenges and opportunities you see?“A challenge is always in the newness when you're taking over a team and teaching a new system and teaching a new way of doing things. I think that always takes time. And I always say the trust piece is so important and it'd be ridiculous of us to think that that just happens with a magic wand. I love to say trust is built. It's not built in a day. It's built every day. And so that's going to be two-way with staff and players. Getting on the same page takes time, but it's an exciting piece of it. Trust is fast to lose and slow to earn. You can't speed that process up, but we can invest in it every day.”Women’s college basketball has never been more popular. How has the game evolved over your time in it? And where do you think it's headed?“There are more opportunities. We've been able to play since we were younger. We've had higher level opportunities. So, the quality's been better. The players are better. When there's a better product, there are more eyes on it. And then when the product continues to be so fun to watch, people keep coming back. Title IX's been a big piece of it, and we're continuing to stay in pursuit of more opportunities. And through that, I think we've all seen what it looks like when girls get a chance and when girls also are on TV.”What about the whole world of intercollegiate athletics? We hear about name, image and likeness and the transfer portal. What’s your assessment and where do you see it all going?“It’s part of our world. And I think to think anything different is a bit naive. Adapt and embrace. And yet I still also believe that the things that matter always matter. That won't change. I was a Division II coach for 10 years. I was at Bowling Green for the past five. And the things that make a quality experience don't change - true relationships, a culture people want to be part of, expectations, standards, being able to help, and being able to provide support. Those things really make an experience. And then the added resources are a bonus and they're part of it. And I think it's really cool. But I've coached really happy kids at DII where we drove a van and ate Subway because they were part of something. And I think the things that matter like feeling part of something and staying in pursuit of something together really matter. “I'd love to have the community come out. I think such a big piece of a student athlete experience is having a crowd that cares and having a student section and an engaged community. And I know that's twofold. I know we have a real responsibility to get into the community and give back to the community. And I always say, you cheer a little differently when you know the kids, right? You cheer a little differently when you really know them and know who they are. I want Breslin to be the ultimate home court advantage.“I've always operated under five core values. I call them the traveling core values when they become really part of a team, and I know that takes time. You see a connected team. You see a spirited and a competitive together team. And that's going to be what we're going to work really hard towards is playing in a way that is inspiring. I always think people are drawn to a team that has that sort of spirit. We're going to work hard to get that.”What are your five core values?“Be a great teammate. That's trendy and easy to say but is actually really hard to do. But when you can do it, your whole experience changes. And our second one is manners matter. We get so many opportunities. We can do so many cool things and we want to make sure we're operating out of gratitude instead of entitlement. Our third one is trust, an important piece for an experience and a career. And then toughness. It's literally how we play. I've never, in all my years of coaching, coached a kid who finished their career and thought, ‘Oh, that was just so easy.’ Even the absolute best players I've coached on the best teams have peaks and valleys through a season. There are peaks and valleys through a career. To think anything differently is really naive. There's a toughness piece to the endurance of a career. That’s how we’ll play. And then our last one is commitment, which is central to doing anything well.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Jamie Clarkson is a fellowship-trained plastic and reconstructive surgeon specializing in the hand and a pioneer in the field of the use of virtual reality for patients in the office setting. He is the chief of the Hand Management Unit at MSU Health Care. He's also an assistant professor in the College of Human Medicine at MSU. “The largest number of people I see have peripheral nerve compression and carpal tunnel syndrome. The other thing I obviously treat is trauma. We see huge numbers of injuries. I've been on call for Sparrow and McLaren Hospitals for 12 years. We've had every type of imaginable injury from farm vehicle injuries to firework injuries to the most common injury in the world, which is getting your finger caught in your door.“I'm a minimalist. The hand is like the mouth. It can be made numb. And if you think about it, dentists have forever done awake surgery on their patients. I don't go to the dentist to get a general anesthetic, except under very unusual cases. And in hand surgery, when I came to the states, I was really surprised to see how much general anesthetic we were using.“Back in the British National Health, I could give someone a local anesthetic, and we'd be able to do a carpal tunnel release, or trigger finger release, or remove ganglions. And some of the simpler things around the hand, indeed, some of the complicated things around the hand, can be done just under local anesthetic. And it really brought up in my mind a sense that the patients needed a choice. They don't necessarily want to be put to sleep, although they often think they do.“The phrase, ‘Just put me out, doc: I don't want to know anything about it,’ came up quite a lot when I started offering awake hand surgery to my patients. And one evening, I got home, and my kids and I were playing with a virtual reality headset. I realized, ‘Oh, this is an incredible way to change your experience, without having to go to sleep.’“I started offering it to my most reluctant patients. And before I knew it, they all were very happy to have awake hand surgery. And the other good thing about that is that I was able to transfer their care out of the busy hospital in-day surgery centers and just do it in the office, which is a much simpler, cheaper, and very fast way of dealing with things on a full stomach.”Can you talk a little bit more about the virtual reality process and how it differs from traditional surgery? “I like to take my patients across Victoria Falls or around the White House. Why shouldn't you have fun? Let's break the myth that you shouldn't have fun.“The patients come in. They've eaten lunch or breakfast. They might be carrying a cup of coffee. They don't have to bring a relative. They can drive themselves to and from the appointment, provided they feel they can control the car. It depends on the hand surgery. They might choose to have a driver.“That's a very big difference. When you are asked to go to a treatment center or to a hospital system, you're asked to have nothing to eat from midnight. And that makes a big difference for our diabetics, who are taking medication and who need to take their insulin and eat the right levels of sugar and carbohydrate in the morning. It really introduces a simplification for the patient.“When they arrive, they're given some local anesthetic in one of the rooms. Once the patient is numb, wearing VR is just fun. And we introduce some education in the VR as well. We give them their preoperative instructions, their postoperative instructions, and they end up at the end of their procedure having had a joyful, fun time. They've been talking to me throughout the show. We're often joking about what they're watching and they're mindful. They don't wake up in a haze. They wake up mindful, and they know what their post-operative instructions are. They don't have any confusion, which makes a big difference.“We see fewer complications from our patients doing it that way and fewer infections in my office when compared to doing it in the main hospital with general anesthesia. As a result of the success that we found from treating the hand surgical patients using VR, we've also been able to get our vascular team to start using virtual reality on their vascular procedures in the office, which is going well.“We are developing a center of excellence for the use of virtual reality in awake hand surgery. And we are doing several studies to validate this method. We have already shown that it decreases anxiety, increases joy, and for patients who have needle phobia, it decreases the pain of the injection.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff elaborates on topics she covers in her March 2023 Spartan Community Letter, which you can read by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. Academics, athletics, and the arts are all important parts of the university experience. This month they brought Spartans together to cheer, to celebrate excellence, and to heal. Congratulations are in order for John A. Hannah Distinguished Professor Felicia Wu, appointed by Governor Gretchen Whitmer to the Michigan Commission of Agriculture and Rural Development for a term running through 2026. “She is one of those that we're cheering this month. Professor Wu really is so humble but is really helping all of us to support Michigan's agricultural mission and bringing what we do at MSU to the community in important ways.”You had a fun opportunity to honor the dedicated professionalism of our educators leading our classrooms like Professor Susan Masten of the College of Engineering, who's the recipient of this year's President's Distinguished Teaching Award. You surprised her with the award.“I did, and her class. We got to kind of burst in. The class was as surprised as was she. But she not only got the 2023 President's Teaching Award this month, she also received the 2023 MSU Community Engagement Lifetime Achievement Award and the 2023 College of Engineering Sustained Excellence in Diversity Award. She's a powerhouse. Professors like Dr. Masten are really those who are elevating our academics every single day.”Our Mr. MSU Tom Izzo set another record this year being the first person to take his team to 25 straight Big Dances. “He's been amazing for us and has lifted all of us up, not just for 25 years, but most particularly in the last six or seven weeks where he's really been the heartbeat for a lot of us and said the right things at the right time. It was really thrilling to watch him help our student athletes and navigate them towards this NCAA Tournament, which was really thrilling right down to the last overtime period buzzer. It was really exciting.”Sadly, though, Suzy Merchant had to call it a career due to some health issues. “Tom and I were at every women's basketball game starting from when I first arrived and right up to her last game. We recognize her legacy. I'm sure it was a difficult decision to retire after 16 seasons, but I just really celebrate her and the way she also guided our student athletes. I really wish her all the best as she continues in her profession and career.”Another MSU squad continues an illustrious record of national tournament competition this month. They're on their way to the National Debate Tournament in Virginia. Spartan debaters have qualified for the tournament for 27 consecutive years, and they've won it three times. “That's the resonance. If we talk about academic excellence and athletics, 27 consecutive years for our debate team is really a national record and a cherished one here at MSU and beyond. I really look forward to seeing what happens when our debate team goes down to Chantilly, Virginia, beginning this Friday for this next run that they have in the national tournament.”We continue to address campus safety in the wake of the violence our campus community experienced on February 13th. What would you like to update us on today on our collective healing?“One of the things that's so important, Russ, is that arts can really help us reclaim ourselves and our campus. So together with that action, I really encourage everyone to join together in community. One of the things that I've had a chance to go through is the new installation at the International Center. There's a series of folded paper butterflies that bring the kind of message we need. It elevates and sores and helps us to be inspired by each other. From that to our Wharton Center to the Broad Art Museum and the MSU Museum, our collection in arts really help bring us together as a community. They knit us together, and they elevate us and help us to lift up our eyes a little bit further.”Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Jabbar Bennett and his team recently released the 2022-23 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion report. What are some of the highlights from the report you'd like to share today?“We have the University Strategic Plan, the DEI Plan, and the RVSM Plan. To me, that interoperability between those three plans is what sets MSU apart. With this annual report, what we all learned is there were 270 action plans that the community brought forward that they really saw this university needing in order to achieve our welcoming and safe campus ethos. About half of those action items have been accomplished and/or are in progress, and that's really exciting. That shows that over time we continue to work towards what everyone believes is the positive impact. That's on recruitment and on retention at the student and faculty, and employee levels. I just urge everybody to click on that report, and I think you'll be as inspired as I was.”Spartans helped us further support the success of our students in March through their generosity on Give Green Day. That's our annual fundraising event supporting students. Our new Spartan Strong Fund was well-supported by the Spartan community too. “I'm so thrilled for the ways in which our community supports our students. Our regional clubs raised $120,000 for scholarships, which is really remarkable. Then our MSU faculty, staff, and retirees contributed more than $157,000 to various funds. That is up about seven and a half percent year over year, and that just shows the generosity and the value that all of us place on MSU. The Spartan Strong Fund, which is to enable the restoration of healing for our students who are most affected, that total is about $900,000 at this point. I think that just really demonstrates, again, the generosity of the entire Spartan community as they wrap their arms around all of us as we continue to heal.“We're all cheering excellence. We're cheering success for our student athletes. We're cheering success for our debaters. We're cheering on everyone as they continue to reclaim our campus. My hope is that as we continue this long walk together, we know that we're a community and we can support each other in each of the ways we talked about today, Russ.”Find and follow President Woodruff on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU alumna Sheri Jones is a broadcasting and journalism icon in the Greater Lansing area. She's been anchoring the news at Lansing's CBS affiliate, WLNS-TV 6 for 35 years. And she's now also on Lansing's ABC affiliate, WLAJ. We last spoke in 2018 when Sheri was inducted into the Michigan Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame. Now in 2023, Sheri is being inducted into the Michigan Journalism Hall of Fame.“It feels great because of the true sense of the word journalism. I really believe that journalists, as I once heard, write the first draft of history. We're watching things as they unfold, and we're writing it down from a factual experiential point of view. And so, for me to have done that for 35 years and tackled some pretty big issues in our community and to be recognized for the journalism part of it, I'm awestruck by it.”Where did you grow up and why was MSU the place for you when college came around?“Well, it just felt like the place. When I came for my visit, I felt very comfortable here. It was a gut feeling. And I always tell parents, you have to let your child decide with their gut. I was accepted to the school down the street, and I went there with my parents and my dad was like, ‘Do you like it? Do you like it’ and I'm like, ‘Dad, I don't. I just don't feel right here.’ I'm a country girl from a small community on the west side of the state. There are trees and the Red Cedar and open spaces and fresh air. I just felt like this is where I belonged. And looking back, it was the correct decision for multiple reasons.”Did you always know you wanted to do broadcasting and journalism or did that develop later after you got here?“When I was in high school, I knew I liked a lot of different things. And remember I went to high school when there was no internet. My mom said, ‘Why don't you take a full day aptitude test, take an educational aptitude, take a personality aptitude, an interest aptitude.’ I went all day, and it came back lawyer or journalist. I came to Michigan State to study journalism and communications and figured I could always go get my law degree. I thought I would try TV first because you just don't know how that's going to work out. And here I am 35 years later.”People who know you know that you like to say you'd rather be right than first with a story. Talk more about your philosophy of covering the news and being accurate.“Anybody who works with me knows that’s right. And we will hold off. In this world of Twitter and Facebook - and as we've lived through here recently with 911 scanners and people reporting stuff on the scanner - you have to have an official affirm your story and make sure the facts that you're reporting are true. And I will always hold back until we know it's right, and then we can go. I'm not going to report on something that I have not vetted. I just won't do it. I don't care if we're going to get beat. Well, what if you're wrong? I can't afford that, and my station can't afford that.”How have you seen broadcasting and journalism evolve over the years and where is it going? “Yeah, via that live-streaming, my sister in Florida can watch me as I do the news. The shaping of the news and leads through Facebook and Twitter are something we have to follow. We'll follow those and vet those out. But the accessibility? When I grew up, my parents sat down, had dinner, and watched the 6:00 news and then the evening news. And now you can watch the news wherever you are, whenever you want. If you're standing in the checkout lane, you can watch it. You shouldn't do it when you drive, but you can be anywhere around the United States or around the world. It is the accessibility. But again, it has to be a trusted source. At the local level, we don't have an agenda. And as you move up that chain of media sources, you have to really understand what you're watching. And the algorithms of Facebook. Let's say you like a certain story, well, Facebook will feed you that information and continue to feed you that information in the vein of which your brain is telling you like. You're not going to get an opposing opinion. You have to seek that out. And that's just the way that it's set up.”Are there some favorite memories along the way or things you're proud of? I think of Crime Stoppers, for one.“Dr. Bob Trojanowicz, who was the head of the Criminal Justice Department here at Michigan State, really understood community policing. He understood how in order for the law and law enforcement to work, the community has to be kind of our eyes and ears. “Our success rate when we air three or four felons who are on the run on Wednesday nights at 11:00, by the next day or the next week, they either turn themselves in or their moms or ex-girlfriends turn them in. Sometimes they call themselves and ask, ‘How do I get my picture off the TV?’ And I say, ‘Well, maybe turn yourself in.’ But right now, our success rate is at like 78 percent. If we air four, three will be caught within a day or two or a week. It’s very powerful in making our community safer. And then hopefully those people go get the rehabilitation and help that they need so they don't come back in into the system. But I feel very proud of helping to make our community safer through that effort.”What's your advice to the students at MSU now as they prepare to enter broadcasting and journalism?“The world is their oyster, as they say. We call them multimedia journalists, and they have to be well versed. The first thing is to understand journalism. Number one, you need to understand the ethics of journalism and what it takes to get a story and to make sure that you have your sources. I had some of the toughest professors here. If you misspelled a word, you got a point off. It went from a four to a three. Journalism and English are critical. The rest of it, you can learn. You can learn how to be on camera.You can learn how to talk into a microphone. You can learn the acting part. Definitely take acting classes now because you don't just sit behind a desk. Now, I stand, and I move all around the studio. You need to be a good storyteller. But at the beginning of that, the base of that, is journalism. To succeed, you need to be a good journalist, bottom line.”We talked about your long career at WLNS. No plans to stop, right? I mean, you're still engaged and love doing this.“Oh, I'm still so engaged. I believe I'm right where I'm supposed to be. I love my community. I love being able to help the university. You and I get to do the parade together. I’m engaged in the journalism program, the communications program, and the criminal justice program.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

On this episode of MSU Today, we're talking about agricultural innovation.That's an area in which Michigan State University is a worldwide powerhouse. The world’s population is growing, and climate change is continuing to impact the crops we need to feed that growing population. The world's population is expected to increase by 50 percent in the next century, and demand for agriculture crops is expected to more than double by 2050. Our panel includes three distinguished Michigan State University Professors: Felicia Wu, Bruno Basso, and Federica Brandizzi. (Photo credit: Nick Schrader, University Communications)Conversation highlights:(2:11) – “One of the goals is to help people benefit from the innovation we generate here at Michigan State and be able to scale it across the globe.”(6:49) – “It is generally projected that we will have about 10 billion people on earth in the year 2050.”(11:14) – “Especially working in the U.S., there's a strong demand by the farmers to be able to say that if there is a technology that I need to adopt to make a difference on the environment, that needs to be profitable.”(15:12) – “The grand challenge that the center (GLBRC) is trying to address is to produce plants that are fortified in a way that they can produce more biomass and high-quality biomass for subsequent processing and production of biofuels and bioproducts. We must make sure that we can produce feed stock for the sustainable bioenergy that doesn't come at the cost of production of food.”(17:30) – “One of the biggest challenges is to be able to see the technology developed at a pace that doesn't take a long time to be implemented and commercialized. We don't have that timeframe anymore. We have about a little less than seven years at this current rate of emission before we reach 1.5 degrees warming and about 24 years until we reach two degrees warming with the projection of detrimental impacts on the extreme events of deluge and high temperatures.”(20:58) – “We have been planting transgenic or genetically modified crops in the United States and around the world since 1996. Gene editing can be used in the future to create crops that are not only resistant to pests but might have higher concentrations of nutrients, might be resistant to high temperatures or to drought or to heavy rainfall, or they might be able to resist being planted, for example, in soil that has a high concentration of salt.”(23:34) – “The biggest challenge and opportunity is always to keep a focus on responsibility. We have the responsibility, I believe, to make sure that first, everybody on this planet has food available. We really must make sure that the priorities are always straight. We have the responsibility to make sure that basic human rights are protected and there is access to food and clean water. Science can influence so many sectors.”(26:14) – “Attempting to produce lab grown meat has gone on for about two decades. The problem is that right now to produce one fully sized hamburger costs $330,000 because of the sheer technological difficulties. But if there is a way that we could improve the economies of scale and improve the technologies, then there would be benefits in terms of animal welfare, ethics, and reduced climate change emissions because producing livestock and poultry does emit a fair amount of greenhouse gases. Right now, the costs are not there, but the potential promise is large.”(29:05) – We must be apologetic in the face of the next generation because we prioritized growth versus sustainable development. And that is changing.”(30:36) – “I think back to the philosopher Thomas Malthus in the 1700's who claimed that the human population is growing exponentially, but food production is growing linearly. So, over time we're not going to be able to feed our global population and human society is just going to collapse. And that Malthusian theory has been stated again and again over the last 200 plus years. And thankfully it has never come to pass. Human ingenuity has always come up with new ways to provide for our society. But it's not just about growing, growing, growing. Now we need to think about sustainability. We really do need to have that as a cornerstone of everything we think about in the space of agriculture, food production, and human health. We can't keep growing forever.”(32:03) – “I've found this to be the case that MSU is a very collaborative institution. I've been at other institutions before MSU, and it was wonderful to be at those places as well. But ever since having arrived at MSU 10 years ago, I've just found that people are willing to collaborate not just in my two departments, but pretty much all over the university. There's a lot of excitement around that. I'm part of multiple different projects across MSU and other institutions and I think that's one of MSU's greatest strengths, our collaborative nature.”(33:22) – “Michigan State gives us the tools to meet and work together. I know that I am backed by my university and have the institutional support that makes a world of difference. MSU fosters that collaborative ethos. Scientists in general want to collaborate, but MSU provides the means and the structure to make us collaborative.”(35:45) –Sustainability is a process. It’s a process of making sure that the inputs match the outputs in a circular way. And so we can produce what we can eat and we shouldn't go beyond that. That is what makes us sustainable.”(38:40) – “Sustainability introduces the idea of time. Whether we make decisions as individuals or as companies or institutions, it's not just about what will be best for us in the short term, but how this would affect us five to 10 years or even longer down the road. How will this affect our children, our children's children, and generations to come?”(40:10) – “Trust science. Science doesn't have a second agenda. Climate change poses a real risk. We can't just think about our backyard. It's a serious threat. Because of the innovation that we constantly aim to produce and often deliver through MSU innovation, technologies, or the possibility of packaging these new ideas into something that is basically adoptable across the globe brings me a level of optimism.”   (41:18) – “Because I'm a mom, I want to think about the fact that there is a good future ahead and I'm contributing to that. And my contribution wouldn't be possible without the collective help and input from everybody else in any scale from kids who recycle to the big corporations that stop thinking about the profit and more about mankind and sustainable future.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Tawana Kupe is the vice chancellor of the University of Pretoria in South Africa. In December 2019, Professor Kupe was awarded an honorary doctorate degree in Humanities by Michigan State University. He’s on the advisory board for the Alliance for African Partnerships.Founded by Michigan State University in 2016 in collaboration with African colleagues, the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) is a consortium of MSU, ten leading African universities, and a distinguished network for African research institutes. AAP members are committed to working in equitable partnership to transform lives and address global challenges. The AAP builds on MSU’s long-term engagement in Africa, building on the foundation laid by the African Studies Center and evolving models of engagement in line with AAP’s guiding principles of accountability, equity, inclusivity, sustainability, and transparency. Conversation highlights: (:37) – “It’s always wonderful to be at MSU, one of the top leading institutions in the world that makes a difference in the United States, but also globally.” (1:12) – “In essence, the Alliance for African Partnerships is an alliance of academic institutions dedicated to using knowledge to transform lives around the world and in Africa.” (3:06) – “What it does is to choose and pair women from the African continent with a mentor at their institution and a mentor at MSU.” (5:32) – “Translating research impacts and insights into greater societal impact is the next frontier.”  (6:47) – “The knowledge that we have can erase two of the big existential crises we have in the world: the crisis of our humanity and the crisis of the planet.” (8:11) – “The partnership is a godsend.” (11:04) – “There is no society that is ever developed without a free media and a free press.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

By: Alex TekipWhen Mark Rucker’s high school choir teacher told him he’d be performing at the Metropolitan Opera in New York one day, he didn’t believe her. After all, he was a football player and saxophonist — not a singer — and was new to the choir, a reluctant baritone joining at his teacher’s behest.That teacher, Lena McLin, was in the front row as Rucker made his Met debut in 2004, a meaningful moment that signified his full circle of experience and inspired him to continue teaching the next generation of singers. Now, Rucker gets to do just that as a professor of voice in Michigan State University’s College of Music.“I’ve always had a desire to teach because my high school teacher is the reason I’m singing — without her, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing,” he said. “Education is where history is and that’s where our future lies,” he said. “I’ve sung in opera houses all over the world — at the Met, the Royal Opera House in London, venues in Philadelphia and Italy — and those were wonderful experiences. But these days, I get much more excited about the careers of my students than my own singing career.”Mark Rucker arrived at MSU in 2016 with his wife and accompanist, Sadie, who also is a faculty member in the College of Music.“My father, who was a choral teacher, sang the song to me when I was younger, and I just took to it — it talks about the importance of having God, or another spiritual entity, in your corner,” Mark said. “It’s my favorite spiritual. Spirituals were used during slavery as a call for hope and communications, and I think with everything going on right now, that’s what we need.” Advocating for music in Michigan schoolsMark and Sadie have made it their mission to get young people, particularly minorities and those who are financially disadvantaged, involved in the performing arts.Sadie leads the MSU Vocal Outreach Program. Together, she and Mark travel to schools around the state of Michigan with graduate students studying in the College of Music. The graduate students put on a cabaret-style performance of opera, musical theater and spirituals. Student audiences at each school get a chance to sing with the MSU performers and ask them questions. These performances aim to generate an interest in music and encourage students to pursue that interest.“If I teach somebody, they may not become the next great opera singer, but they might become the next lover of that art form,” Mark said. “It’s up to us to make students understand that music is an important part of life. It is necessary for life.”The Ruckers recognize there are significant barriers for underrepresented and financially disadvantaged youth who want to pursue music and the arts. Often, the schools they attend growing up don’t have proper funding for such programs, and those who wish to pursue the performing arts must make serious monetary considerations regarding the cost of secondary education and the need to support their family.“At one outreach event, I had an elementary-aged Black child come up to me, and he said, ‘Can I make money performing?’ He was about the bottom line,” Mark said. “He continued, ‘Can I help my family if I do this? I like the thought of doing it, but can I help my family through that?’ That’s the consideration of kids from disadvantaged backgrounds.”“When I see a child that’s going to college and the only reason that they don’t consider it is because they can’t afford it, it further emphasizes how necessary music and arts scholarships are. One of them might be the next dramatic soprano. One of them might be the next incredible baritone. And that’s unbelievably important.”Music and the arts also create a sense of belonging and community in schools, Sadie added. “Maybe a student just wants to be part of the chorus, just to able to be part of music in some way because it makes them feel important and feel good — and to express their emotions and artistic abilities,” she said. “We should have major music programs everywhere.”Appreciation leads to achievementMark and Sadie’s passion for music is evident in how they approach education and outreach.“The kids that I teach today, I am unbelievably supportive of them, and I always tell them that my job is not to make you a superstar at MSU. My job is to make them a great singer,” Mark said. “I have a wonderful young soprano who is now a senior. She came to me in her first year. She didn’t want to sing classical music, and now she loves it. She can sing other things, but she loves it now. And that’s important to me.”Many of Mark’s students have gone on to have successful careers in music: Ben Reisinger is among the current resident artists at the Detroit Opera House. Another, Brian Major, who earned his Doctor of Musical Arts from MSU in 2019, made his Met debut in October 2022, just as Mark had nearly 20 years ago.“My teacher in high school was always telling us that we could do things. You always got the idea that you could do whatever she wanted you to do,” he said. “I try to instill the same idea in my students, and I’m so proud of what they’ve achieved.”Listen to "MSU Today with Russ White" on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

$15 million state grant will support Center for Targeted Violence PreventionMichigan State University’s Department of Psychiatry is launching a pilot program – with a $15 million grant from the state of Michigan – to help curb acts of violence and spare families from unthinkable trauma before it’s too late.  The Center for Targeted Violence Prevention is a collaborative program between the MSU Department of Psychiatry — a shared department in the Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine and Human Medicine at MSU — and the National Policing Institute, or NPI. The five-year pilot program will establish a research-to-practice hub to provide guidance, training and consultation in the regions, and will also assign intensive support teams to provide case management and mentoring services to high-risk/high-need adolescents and their caregivers. Alyse Ley, associate chair of education and research in the Department of Psychiatry, and Frank Straub, director of the Center for Targeted Violence Prevention at NPI are co-directors of the program. They discuss the mission of the program on this episode of MSU Today.Listen to "MSU Today with Russ White" on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Breast health is the topic on this episode of MSU Today. MSU Health Care breast surgery oncologists Jessica Henderson and Harvey Bumpers talk about risk factors and their treatment and practice philosophies. Conversation highlights: (3:03) – “We’re both breast surgery oncologists, specifically that means that we primarily treat breast cancer. Breast surgery as an umbrella also focuses on benign breast disease. And we make sure we’re screening the women who are high-risk for developing breast cancer and make sure they’re being assessed throughout their lifetime. We see a really wide spectrum of breast disease.” (4:35) – “Some breast cancers are genetic. But one of the myths we hear a lot is that a lot of women think that all breast cancer is genetic and that if they don’t have a family history that they’re not likely to develop breast cancer. Only a small portion of breast cancers are genetic. Having a family history does increase your risk, but it’s not required to develop breast cancer. About 1 in 8 women will develop breast cancer in their lifetime before the age of 85 even without a family history.” (6:05) – “For most women, mammogram is the best initial screening test for identifying cancer at an early stage.” (7:15) – “A myth we hear a lot is that if a woman does not have any symptoms in her breast such as a palpable lump or pain, they feel that they can’t have cancer because they associate those things with having cancer. Most of the time, especially early-stage cancers do not have any symptoms.” (10:05) – “There are some risk factors that women can change and some that they can’t. They can’t change the genetics and the family history. But things they can change to protect themselves from developing breast cancer are lifestyle modifications like exercising regularly, reducing alcohol intake, and reducing their overall estrogen exposure over their lifetime.” (13:20) – “The first thing we do is determine if there is a cancer. People come in with a variety of lumps and cysts and other abnormalities. Anything that looks suspicious or malignant gets a biopsy.” (14:47) – “As surgeons, our job is to remove the cancer.” (16:35) – “There’s a lot of research happening in the breast surgical oncology world right now.” (20:38) – “There’s a big health disparity between certain populations in the community. The disadvantaged and minority populations have the worst outcomes. But they also have the least involvement in clinical trials.” (23:06) – “Some women tend to put off coming in for a visit or to be screened. Or if they feel something abnormal in the breast, they tend to delay coming in because they’re afraid of what it might mean.  Most of the time, the treatment for early-stage cancer, while there are some steps involved, is well tolerated by most women, and has changed so much in the last five to ten years. Don’t delay care because you’re afraid of what the treatment might entail.” (27:42) – “We also treat male patients. Men do get breast cancer. About one percent of the cancers occur in men.”  Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month is observed in March to highlight the importance of screening for colorectal cancer, as well as to promote healthy lifestyle habits that can decrease a person’s risk of developing cancer of the colon, rectum, or anus – the three distinct cancer types referred to collectively as colorectal cancer. Jacquelyn Charbel, DO, FACOS, FACS is an assistant professor of osteopathic surgical specialties in Michigan State University’s College of Osteopathic Medicine, and she’s a colorectal surgeon at MSU Health Care. Dr. Charbel talks about risk factors, treatment, and what we should be more aware of. Conversation highlights: (1:25) – “My practice philosophy is that prevention is key. The best thing you can do is get screened for colon cancer. The guidelines for one’s first screening was lowered from 50 to 45 a few years ago because of the uptick we’ve seen in colon cancer in younger people to catch those earlier. Because if we catch it early, there are better outcomes in cure rates and longer survival.” (3:16) – “Cologuard is convenient because it’s a little kit that shows up in your mailbox. You don’t have to do a bowel prep or change what you eat. It’s all done in the privacy of your own home. It’s looking for cancer DNA cells. It does have about an 8 percent miss rate, though, which is higher than a colonoscopy. The gold standard is still colonoscopy because it’s better diagnostically and it can take polyps out whereas Cologuard doesn’t treat anything.” (4:57) – “Prevention is key. This doesn’t have to be a scary sentence for you. If you come in early as you’re directed, we can prevent a lot of difficulty down the line.” (5:37) – “There are so many exciting research projects in the works, and Michigan State is a part of that.” (7:00) – “Most colon cancers are what we call sporadic and can occur in people who don’t have a family history. That’s why it’s important to be screened.” (8:27) – “Working with students is a big part of why I wanted to come to Michigan State.” (9:38) – “What a great feeling to rid someone of a cancer. You really give them their life back. The goal now is to not let it get to that point. Catch it early so you don’t have to go through a big operation.” Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University is on the cusp of making history, with construction of the university’s first free-standing multicultural center set to begin this spring. This month, the Board of Trustees gave the university the green light to break ground this spring on the $38 million 34,000 square foot facility on the corner of North Shaw and Farm Lanes.The announcement comes during Black History Month, a time to recognize the inequities and triumphs generations of African Americans in the U.S. have faced. Calls for a free-standing multicultural center on MSU’s campus date back to the civil rights movement when protests were sparked by the demands of Black students who called for increasing racial and ethnic minority representation on campus.The standalone building will make for a culturally rich and welcoming environment that promotes intellectual curiosity among students and their peers to learn and share experiences with one another. Those shared experiences will be further amplified through several unique features of the center and its property, including a dreamer center and outdoor amphitheater. The MSU Multicultural Center is expected to open in November 2024.Four Spartans who were instrumental in making this dream come true join me on MSU Today to talk about the important addition to the campus the center will be. Vennie Gore is senior vice president for Student Life and Engagement; Lee June is a professor of Psychology; Maggie Chen-Hernandez is the recently retired director of MOSAIC; and Sharron Reed-Davis is a recent MSU graduate. Conversation highlights:(3:45) – “One of the things that was important for us when we chose our architect was that they be good listeners. And they were extremely good listeners in working with students.”(12:37) – “The free-standing multicultural building was only one of ten demands. But that was the largest one and the one we had been fighting for the longest. So, I was very surprised and excited when this was something the administration was on board with.”(14:44) – “Even the majority students should come to this building and feel like it can be there home, too, and that this is a place where they can learn something. If I’ve never seen a Black person in my life, I can come here and feel welcome and comfortable enough to ask what the Black community is about. The world is full of ignorance and hate and we need a place where we can come and keep that out of the door and educate and bring people in and not push them away.”(15:55) – “Students don’t leave Michigan State because of academic or financial reasons, they leave because they feel like they don’t belong. They haven’t found their space and so this space is critical in helping students find their space.”(19:20) – “The administration doesn’t like students to make demands. Dr. King said rights were the language of the unheard. Students make demands not because they hate the university. They love the university, and they look at the university and they want to make it better.”(20:22) – “It’s not like students want to leave the university because they don’t have a sense of belonging. They don’t know where to start. Students don’t want to leave. That’s why we make these demands so that we can keep our communities here. We don’t want to fall through the cracks. We want to be here.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

A sweeping community development sponsored by Henry Ford Health, Tom Gores and the Detroit Pistons, and Michigan State University intends to invest $2.5 billion over the next decade to turn Detroit’s New Center neighborhood into a vibrant, walkable community with state-of-the-art residential, commercial, retail, recreational and health care components.The development will be anchored by a reimagined Henry Ford Health academic healthcare campus, the highlight of which is a major expansion of Henry Ford Hospital including a brand new one-million-square-foot plus facility and patient tower. It also includes a new, cutting-edge medical research facility for Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences, part of Henry Ford Health’s 30-year partnership with Michigan State University.Michigan State University’s Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Norman J. Beauchamp Jr. joins me to talk about MSU’s partnership with Henry Ford Health. He also updates the evolution of the Sustainable Health theme of MSU Strategic Plan 2030, for which he is the executive sponsor.Conversation highlights:(1:35) – “What’s wonderful about it is the first thing this creates is this world-class destination for healthcare where you have fully integrated the very best in care with all the strengths and discovery that you find at a place like Michigan State.”(4:54) – “We’re going to go directly at earlier detection of cancer, treatment when it’s responsive, and access to the very best care.”(6:03) – “What will define our effort is bringing these clinical trials to all communities and also to overcome some of the barriers to communities of color in terms of access to participation in clinical trials. By bringing in people of all backgrounds into these clinical trials you then discover you will be able to help people of all backgrounds.”(7:13) – “There are moments in the history of a university where there’s a transformation. In coming together with Henry Ford, and particularly the work we’re going to do in Southeast Michigan, Michigan State will be seen as one of the leaders in the transformation of lives and the future of healthcare for Southeast Michigan. And Michigan State forevermore will be seen as a leader in healthcare.”(10:38) – “The goal of (the sustainable health theme of MSU Strategic Plan 2030) is to enhance the quality of life for people everywhere by comprehensively leveraging the expertise and research activities that improve health and systems, and to do that by bringing together the strengths together across the campus.”(16:00) – “What brought Henry Ford into this partnership with MSU was the realization of the breadth of our strengths. What we now have to do as part of our strategic plan is to mobilize the entire university.”(17:18) – “We want to identify Michigan State as the place to go as a student if you want to improve human health. And because of our depth and breadth, you can choose so many different ways to get there.”(18:10) – “This strategic plan builds bridges, not moats, and it connects us. Because this is an institution that has been built around collaboration, these bridges become superhighways really quickly.”Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and through Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“Assuming the interim presidency at MSU has reinforced for both Tom and me just how great and welcoming the Spartan community is. We’re poised and ready to take the next step on behalf of this great university, our students, and the future of the state of Michigan. We’re honored to be a part of this community.” Woodruff talks about her relationship with the MSU Board of Trustees and says she looks forward to continued collaboration with the board to move the university forward. She points out the importance of the state budgeting process to MSU, too, where two-time MSU graduate Gov. Whitmer and 29 members of the 102nd Legislature are Spartans.  “These are exciting times for Michigan State. With a strong partnership with the state of Michigan we are going to be able to be transformative for Michigan.” Interim President Woodruff delivered the State of the University address on January 18 at the Wharton Center.  “In short, the state of the university remains sound as we consider our challenges together with our accomplishments and vision for the future. In the final analysis, it is our people — students, faculty and academic staff, support staff, leaders, alumni, and donors — who drive this great university’s ongoing excellence and impact.” You can watch the recording here. Woodruff shares the results of last spring’s Know More Survey. More than 11,500 MSU students, faculty and staff participated in MSU’s second online campus climate survey assessing the culture, perceptions and policies associated with relationship violence and sexual misconduct, or RVSM.  “We learned the prevalence of several types of victimization has declined since the first survey in 2019, together with improved awareness of our trainings and policies and gains in other measures of university climate and culture. Further, the majority of RVSM survivors who participated affirmed that the support they received from MSU was helpful and timely. The survey did reveal areas requiring more attention, including the higher rates of sexual harassment reported by our LGBTQIA+ community — for which we are focusing more specialized resources and prevention methods.” January gets the semester off to a busy start on campus, and Interim President Woodruff says she was privileged to participate in several activities surrounding the campus and community celebrations of the Martin Luther King Jr. national holiday. That set the campus stage for February’s observance of Black History Month, featuring the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s William G. Anderson Lecture Series, Slavery to Freedom: An American Odyssey — now in its 23rd year.  “And to bring this message full circle, next month’s Board of Trustees meeting will be the first business session for Trustee Rema Vassar as chairperson — making her own history as the first Black woman to lead the MSU board. MSU doesn’t just celebrate diversity, we are diverse. We support diversity. We know that our strength comes from that diversity. I’m excited about all the ways in which we live out those principles.” Keep up with Michigan State University Interim President Teresa K. Woodruff on her social media channels: Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn and at president.msu.edu. Listen to “MSU Today with Russ White” on the radio and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Topics in this episode of the State of the State podcast include negotiations around raising the debt ceiling and Governor Whitmer’s State of the State address. Conversation Highlights: (2:17) – “Best case scenario, there is a lot of drama and a lot of headlines and eventually we raise the debt ceiling. Worst case scenario, and we came close to a default in 2011, defaulting on our treasury obligations would be catastrophic for the world economy.” (4:42) – “Most analysts believe that in 2023 either we will have a soft landing – meaning very slow growth but no actual recession – or a softish landing, meaning a mild recession. Right now, no one is predicting a deep recession.” (5:47) – “There have been some very highly-publicized layoffs in the tech sector. On the other hand, Taco Bell is looking to hire 25,000 workers and Chipotle is looking to hire 15,000.” (8:15) – Social Security is wildly popular. Any member of Congress who votes to rip up Social Security should be getting ready to sell their house in January of 2025.” (15:24) – “A lot of it was the same things that were proposed in the campaign and last year. But now anyone who hears them thinks they have a chance of being enacted because there’s a Democratic legislature for the first time in 40 years. You have unified government and a lot of money.” (17:15) – “It is kind of amusing that one of the first big acts of a new Democratic legislature is likely to be letting an across-the-board income tax decline to go through.” (20:35) – “Citizenship doesn’t end when you retire.” (22:50) – “The research is relatively consistent and finds business tax incentives do not result in major increases in business income or any other outcome that states might be looking for, even accounting for the fact that other states would do it.” (25:10) – “Historically, most laws still pass with bipartisan support. It’s much more dependent on the state of the economy and the budget than it is on state partisanship.” (27:22) – Even after all the shrinkage of the automotive sector, Michigan is still more heavily dependent on durable goods and manufacturing than the average state. That means bigger ups and downs for the economy because you can put off buying a car, but you can’t put off buying groceries.” Listen to MSU Today with Russ White on the radio and on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

In leading the new division, Dr. Travis will provide strategic vision and leadership for a comprehensive health and wellness approach that meets the diverse needs of students, staff, and faculty. “I'm originally from the United Kingdom, born and raised in England, and I've lived in the U.S. for 16 years. I moved here with my husband, who's an American. And most recently I've been at the state of Michigan working in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. I've led the Public Health Administration there. Before that, I led the Aging and Adult Services Agency and was the bureau director for health and wellness. Prior to that, my family and I lived in Massachusetts where I was chief of Community Health for the city of Worcester, which is the second largest city in New England. I focus on how to improve population health, whether at the local level or state level. And then through my time working in public health, the common thread has really been working on health equity, so figuring out what communities need and meeting them where they are to get the best and optimal health outcomes.”What attracted you to this position at MSU?“I was really excited about this opportunity to set a culture of health and wellbeing and create something new, building on a very strong foundation of these 11 units, but really having the opportunity to look at assessment and planning and work with the Spartan community to reach optimal health and wellbeing here. I really enjoy engaging with communities directly. Working with faculty, students, and staff directly is something that I'm really looking forward to, and I want to look at opportunities to fill gaps and build on the amazing services we're already offering.”Why are you passionate about this work?“Both of my parents were African immigrants. They came to the UK to attend university. Understanding the differences between different groups and their different needs and how that impacts health has really been a passion of mine, working towards leveling the playing field and figuring out how we can better meet the needs culturally, for example, or in terms of language. Here at MSU, I'm really excited about this diverse, huge community that we get to serve. There are many opportunities for us to look to make sure that health and wellbeing are integrated into all aspects of campus life and think about the different backgrounds people come here with and how we can listen and develop more programming and initiatives to meet those needs. My vision is to make sure that each Spartan has access to the resources and education, information, and services they need to be able to meet their full potential here.”How do you define health and wellbeing? And what do you see as the mission of University Health and Wellbeing?“Diversity in our community at MSU is one of our strengths. People are coming here from all over the world with different understandings about health and wellbeing, which can be considered subjective in some ways. It's important for us as we do this work to really have some shared definitions. The World Health Organization outlines health as an optimal state of complete physical, mental, and social wellbeing, not just the absence of disease or infirmity.“Universities across the U.S. have adopted an inter-association definition of wellbeing, which is an optimal and dynamic state where people are able to fulfill their full potential. So when we think about that in the MSU community, it's looking at what is academic success. How do we achieve that? If people are not healthy or not feeling their best selves, then it's going to be more difficult for them to reach their academic goals, whether it's graduation or something else. For our faculty and staff, it's equally as important as we facilitate that academic journey for others to make sure we're also looking after ourselves during that process.”How would you describe your relationship with the University Physician's Office?“There has been some restructuring. Previously there was integration of what now is University Health and Wellbeing and the University Physician's Office. Now we're two distinct units, although we do work closely together. The University Physician is a cabinet member. He's advising the president and guiding senior leadership within the university on all things related to health and safety, including how we respond to COVID and other major threats as well as making sure we're also meeting statutory responsibilities in terms of state and federal statutes that we're responsible to adhere to.“University Health and Wellness is on more of the programmatic side. My role as an administrator is overseeing all the programs and the array of services that we provide in those 11 units. It brings together units that were formally in the University Physician office. It's the Employee Assistance Program, the Healthy U program, which is health promotion for our staff and our faculty. It also brings together Occupational Health and Travel. And then we have other units like Student Health Services, which is housed in the Olin Health Clinic. We also have CAPS, which is Counseling and Psychiatric Services, and the Center for Survivors, which provides support to people who have experienced relationship violence or sexual misconduct. We have Safe Place, which is the only on-campus shelter for people who have experienced relationship violence or stalking and other forms of harassment. And then we have the Resource Center for Persons Living with Disabilities. That's a program area that's seeing a lot of demand right now as we're admitting more students who are living with disabilities and making sure that they have an equitable experience here as well. And then we also have the Work Life Office, making sure that employees have the best possible experience here and that we are forming and following best practices for that supervisor-employee relationship and beyond.”What are some of your short- and long-term goals?“In the short term, what we're looking at is bringing together those 11 units. It's always difficult when you go through organizational change. And when we look at those 11 units, they've all been following different practices. We are looking at policies, practices, and processes. With that challenge comes the opportunity to make it more efficient, really leveraging the data from each of those program areas to make sure that we have a full picture of what the needs are of the Spartan community. In the short term, I’m also looking at how we educate the university community about the services that we offer, making sure that we're making those connections as tightly as possible so people know from the beginning of their journey with MSU all the way through the end of their journey that we're here to support them and we have resources, information, and other support that they can take advantage of.“In the longer term, we are looking at how to measure outcomes. How can we move the needle on health and wellbeing outcomes and reach that optimal state of health? In public health, it takes a little bit longer to see those in terms of our metrics, but we can track things incrementally. When we are looking at that data and we are assessing health and wellbeing, we need to make sure that we have strong campaigns and accurate information and are leveraging and highlighting the fact that a lot of the time, students have healthier behaviors than are relayed in the stereotypes about students. We are the home to the National Social Norms Center. A big part of our responsibility is to do those social norm campaigns and share what most students are doing and the healthful behaviors that we see here on the MSU campus.”As you pursue these goals, are there any challenges and opportunities you see?“There are always challenges when you bring together new organizations. We're looking at how to get on to shared data systems. But I think the biggest opportunities are really to be a convener, bringing together so many different areas across the university all focused on health. And outside of our team, also convening others who have programs and initiatives supporting health and wellbeing so that we're collectively making a bigger impact. And that's a lot of what we'll be doing moving forward as well as assessment.”I imagine you're pleased to see how society is seeing mental health as an important factor in our overall health and wellbeing.“Yes. One of the things that I think about is this period that we're coming out of with COVID and the impact it's had on folks' mental health. We can't deny that. And we're seeing more and more demand for mental health services. That's a challenge in and of itself, and we have limited resources. It's going to take all of us, faculty, students, and staff to address the current mental health crisis and to really support each other as we come out of this. Over the next few years, we're going to see a lot of students admitted who were in high school earlier on in the pandemic in the most critical times. We anticipate seeing more of those mental health challenges, but we also will be ready to receive those students and to support them every step of the way.“The bottom line here is we're here for you. We have an array of services. Our health changes at different times; it's really a spectrum. Sometimes people will feel healthier, and then other times people will feel some sense of illness, maybe mental health issues. Our goal is to try to work with Spartans to keep them at the healthier end of that spectrum and to be there with services when there are fluctuations. I am so thrilled to be working with such a talented team of individuals who really stay up on best practices and are ready to provide services year-round to our Spartan community. There are some exciting things coming ahead and things to look forward to.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“I graduated from Michigan State University in 1992. I met my wife, Raina, here, and we graduated together. We both live about a mile from campus. I worked in the Michigan legislature as a staffer for 17 years, all for legislators from Detroit or Flint. I was communications director for the House Dems, communications director for the Michigan Democratic Party, and started my own PR campaign consulting company in 2004. We do a lot of surveys all over the country. I also have a small gig as a civilian researcher for the Lansing Police Department Cold Case Homicide Unit.”Research and polling have taken a little bit of a beating the last few years. What's the state of your industry?“Polling's interesting. I'll be honest with you, I do less and less political polling and do more association and corporate polling. But it's getting tough. People are getting overwhelmed with phone calls. People don't want to answer calls on their cell phones that they don't recognize. At least in Michigan, if you still have a landline and if you still answer a landline, you're a solid voter. How do you get to those people who don't want to answer a survey? I think part of the problem is some people in this business make their surveys way too long, and it's got to be really short. “The other thing is, when you look at politics today and you compare it to 10, 15, or 20 years ago, politics today is so much more fluid. If you look at a gubernatorial or a presidential campaign, I would argue maybe there are one or two events throughout the campaign that really sway voters, really move voters. Now, it seems like every week, almost every other day, there might be an incident or a quote-unquote "scandal" that moves the electorate. That's part of the problem we're seeing with polling. There are also a lot of fly-by-night companies that really don't do a very good job. There's no degree you need to be a pollster. Anybody could say they're doing this.”Why did you want to be on the MSU Board of Trustees? What made you run?“I'm proud to be a Michigan State graduate. I'm proud to be a Spartan. We do amazing work every single day. We're a world class university. We're a top research university and I'm really proud of that and I really want to help continue that mission. Michigan State touches every single corner of the state, all 83 counties. We have an Extension office in every single county. MSU does some incredible things. We're changing lives, we're saving lives every single day, and I wanted to help be part of that.”How do you want to impact the board?“I'm optimistic about the future leadership of this university. We're going to have a new president. We're going to have a new chair of the MSU Board. We're going to have two new trustees. Those all could be very positive things moving forward for Michigan State University's leadership.“MSU is a huge university. I feel like I know a lot, but I know there's a lot I don't know. There's a lot I have to learn. The most important thing we're going to have to do as a board is we're going to have to find a new president to lead our university forward, and that's the most important thing we're going to do. Michigan State does incredible work in so many different fields. We need to do a better job talking about this. I want to see more about the great work we're doing, the transformational work Michigan State University is doing, not just here in East Lansing, but literally all over the world.”What are some challenges and opportunities for MSU moving forward?“One is budget and finances. When tuition is your number one source of revenue, can we continue to go to that well? Do we need to look at other avenues? Obviously, we continue to go to our donors. We continue to look for new donors. There are a lot of financial pressures on Michigan State. We're in a significantly better position than many of our public universities. I don't mean that as a criticism of our other public universities, but there are places we need to grow and expand.”Why did you choose MSU when you were ready to go to college?“I just thought Michigan State was a great place. It was a great opportunity for me to get away from home. I liked the idea of going to James Madison College because I felt like it was a small college within a large university. MSU gives students an opportunity to do a lot of different things, whether it's being involved in student radio, being involved in athletics, having a Power Five sports program on campus, or volunteering in the community. There are just so many different things students can do on campus, and I just loved the thought of being able to do that.”How would you say your time at MSU impacted you and helped you become who you are and are still becoming?“Michigan State University opened my eyes to the diversity of the world, both in people and ideas. It’s hard to believe that when I was a senior in high school, I didn't have all the answers. I didn't know everything. Michigan State made me realize that. I'm still realizing that. I think that's one of the things I love about Michigan State is we do have a diversity of people. We have a diversity of ideas. Can we be more diverse? Sure, and that's an important goal here. We are in the middle of mid-Michigan, and we have people from all over the world who are making Michigan State a great university.“I've already met with numerous people on campus. I'm still meeting with people. I'm still learning. I'm still listening. I realize I still have a lot more to learn. I want to make Michigan State as great as it can be. I realize we're an incredible university and I really want to continue sharing that story with the rest of the state and the rest of the world.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“I have been researching music and religion for most of my career. I’m especially interested in the study of religion through the experience of people. It’s called lived religion. It’s not as much the sacred texts and the books, but how people experience religion and how they act it out. Music is very important to that experience. It’s a big part of why people stay connected to churches. “In this season, we’re all aware that religious music is never heard more often than during the holidays. Everywhere you go you hear the familiar Christmas jingles, but also some of the hymns of Christmas that go back hundreds of years. And now we don’t think of them as particularly religious. Joy to the World, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, and Silent Night are actually hymns. So, it’s a great time to think about how religion enters the experience, not just of religious people and Christians, but everyone in America who is surrounded by this music.  “I’m also interested in the double-edged feeling of Christmas. Because on one hand it is a holiday of joy, and for a lot of people it’s their favorite time of year. But it also has a different side. There’s often a lot of stress associated with the tempo of the season. And other people feel disconnected during a time of year when people are supposed to be enjoying their families, friends, and loved ones. A lot of people are not really a part of that, especially with the isolation that has come along with the pandemic. It can be a difficult time for those people. “But I think for everyone, there’s what I call a brew of nostalgia and melancholy that is characteristic of the season. Even if you have family and are surrounded by loved ones, there are inevitably people who are no longer in your life. We lose parents and grandparents. And children grow up and move away and can’t always make it home for the holidays. So, it’s really easy to feel dislocated this time of year. It’s a time where we think about the passage of time and reflect on how we’ve changed and the people around us have changed and may not exist anymore. The music can capture those feelings because music holds memories for people. Aromas and music trigger memories like nothing else. “I want to reassure people that if they’re feeling this ambivalence and conflicted emotions around the holidays that that is natural and almost universal. There are good reasons for it. Hopefully people won’t get themselves into a Charlie Brown-like funk over it but just recognize that this is a season of the year where we reflect, and it’s OK to be a bit introspective. We all need some time away from the hustle and bustle of family life to think about the kind of world we live in and the part we can play in making a better world.”Read David's piece at The Conversation here and his piece in the Los Angeles Times here. MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.   

Ruvio is an associate professor of Marketing at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, and the director of the Master of Science in Marketing Research (MSMR) program. Her research focuses on the wellbeing and behavior of consumers and employees. Morgeson is an assistant professor of Marketing at the Broad College. His research focuses on customer-firm relationships and the financial value of both customer and employee assets to firms.  “Inflation is absolutely impacting holiday shopping,” says Morgeson. “We’re coming off a period of a couple of decades where we haven’t had particularly high inflation, at least by historical standards. So, this has been a massive shock to the system of a lot of consumers seeing these price increases in short order and at a degree we’re simply not used to.” Price is the most important factor for shoppers, and consumers are changing their buying habits. “Before, quality was important,” adds Ruvio. “The brand name we buy, service, and convenience were important. Now, only one thing matters, and that is price.”   The duo shares some strategies for consumers to be more cost conscious, like paying with cash. Common strategies include spending more time searching for the best deals, adhering to strict shopping lists, prioritizing necessities, and making purchases earlier to spread out spending. How have Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and shopping in general evolved over the years? “We’ve seen huge structural changes to the way people buy and sell goods over the past couple decades, and I don’t think any of that is going to change,” says Morgeson. “With the ability to go online and buy most of what we want via the internet means we don’t really need a Black Friday anymore.” “What was really striking to see this year is that consumers didn’t get a better deal on Black Friday or Cyber Monday, or in-store as opposed to online,” adds Ruvio. “That really chilled out consumers and their shopping behavior. If companies next year bring back door busters and really good deals in the store, you will see those behaviors again.” “We’re sort of in an always discount prices environment that we live in now,” Morgeson continues. “There aren’t special days for discounts anymore. Successful retailers need to have low and competitive prices. Thirty or more years ago, a retailer might have had one day where they slash prices. But normally they’re going to have big mark-ups on their items. Those days are over. Everyone now offers really competitive prices because if they don’t, they’re going to get eaten up by the Amazons of the world that are always offering really low prices. It’s sort of always Black Friday now.” “We expect to see huge deals on Black Friday, and we are not happy when we don’t get what we want,” says Ruvio. “Consumers wait for Black Friday. They want to see a significant drop in prices. If they don’t, they’re not happy. Companies started so early with sales that they lost momentum.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Ruvio is an associate professor of Marketing at the Eli Broad College of Business at Michigan State University, and the director of the Master of Science in Marketing Research (MSMR) program. Her research focuses on the wellbeing and behavior of consumers and employees. Morgeson is an assistant professor of Marketing at the Broad College. His research focuses on customer-firm relationships and the financial value of both customer and employee assets to firms.  “Quiet firing is a strategy that a company uses to trim out some of their employees quietly,” says Ruvio. “Layoffs are not quiet firing; they’re quite loud. Announcing layoffs can actually hurt a company. Quiet firing has the advantage of sometimes achieving almost the same exact thing, but not in a way that is publicly known, so, quietly.”  The duo explains how quiet firing and quiet quitting are related. And they share some of the warning signs of quiet firing. They include changes to one’s working conditions, responsibilities, and compensation. And they share strategies for a person who thinks they may be being quiet fired. The first thing to do is “have a reality check” to make sure it’s really happening. And make sure you’re documenting both the good and bad and communicate openly and proactively.  “The goal is to rationally diagnose the situation and make sure you’re not misunderstanding the signs you may be getting from your employer,” adds Morgeson. “If you do think you’re being pushed out of a job and are being treated unfairly, rationally analyze the situation to the best of your ability. These are often really emotional situations that can lead you to jump to conclusions. Document both the good and bad things happening to you and see if you can come to a rational conclusion about how you’re being treated or mistreated and make your decision based on that information.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“There are a lot of dedicated men and women who keep the bridge going day to day, whether it’s in the toll booths or working underneath it. As the engineer of the bridge, my job is really to maintain the Mackinac Bridge, both through our own in-house workers and contractors we hire to do bigger projects. Inspecting the bridge is a big part of what we do. I’m honored to have the role and join this esteemed group that maintains it.” Cavalieri says he’s been just about everywhere on the bridge and never tires of the amazing views at the top of the bridge. “When you’re going up one of the tunnels to the top, it’s kind of like you’re going through a submarine. Then suddenly when you come out through the top, it’s like the whole world is around you. It’s quite incredible. The Straits area is such a beautiful area, and there’s no better view than on top of one of the towers overlooking it. It’s the best job in the world.” Cavalieri describes his career path from MSU to the Mackinac Bridge Authority. And he talks about why he chose MSU for college and how his Spartan experience helped prepare him for this role. He came from a long line of Spartans, including his grandfather, who had to take a ferry to get to the Lower Peninsula and on to East Lansing. And Cole has three siblings who also attended MSU.  “MSU was helpful to me, both as a student and as a person by putting me out of my comfort zone. MSU opened the world for me. As a Yooper, my first class at MSU was in a lecture hall with more students than my high school had. I like the diversity and people at MSU. The course work was, of course, beneficial and made you work in teams.” His advice for today’s students is to get real-world experience and interact more with your professors.   Cavalieri talks about some of his short- and long-term goals for the bridge and the challenges and opportunities involved in pursuing those goals. “The bridge is in good condition. The original designers and builders did a magnificent job. It’s an incredible structure. And if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. It’s mostly a lot of rehab that we have planned in the near future to keep it in the best condition it can be. We have a couple of contracted projects coming up. There are a few things we’re working on just to get the bridge from fair condition back to good condition. “We have some bigger obstacles coming down the road, including a full deck replacement. Nothing lasts forever, and that’s true of our infrastructure. The bridge is 65. So, in about 10 years, we’ll be beginning that deck replacement project, and that will be a big undertaking. When we do get to that point, we’ll not only be fixing it up but setting up the bridge for success for a long time. “The bridge speaks for itself as far as being the icon it is for Michigan. And I think in a lot of ways Michigan didn’t become whole until November 1, 1957, when the Mackinac Bridge opened. I take my role very seriously as I approach this job. To me it’s important to not only maintain the structure but to keep it going for a long time because it really is invaluable to Michiganders. “The Mackinac Bridge has been an important bridge in the history of civil engineering across the world, too. I often hear from other engineers from around the world as we do different studies. It’s really revered. I’m really looking forward to working with the other members of the Mackinac Bridge Authority to bring the Mackinac Bridge into the next generation.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Hill talks about what motivated her to write the book and why now was the time to do it. She describes how therapy helped her attain a “better and deeper understanding” of who she is.  “I wasn’t unhappy when I began my therapy journey because I don’t think you need to be unhappy to go to therapy. Sometimes it’s just a good maintenance check. It’s for greater understanding of you. I hope when people read the book, they’ll see that there’s a commonality to all the issues I discuss in my book that should help people as they try to figure out how they want to deal with things.” Hill says she chose to attend MSU “because of its stellar journalism program. I wanted to work at the State News, too. Going to Michigan State really changed my life. I was born and raised in Detroit, but I grew up at Michigan State.” Jemele shares her views on a “very challenging” state of journalism.  “The whole point of journalism is truth. What I see a lot these days is not just the inaccuracies and bad framing, but also an inability to tell the truth by hiding behind objectivity. I know it sounds like objectivity should be a great thing in journalism. Our goal should actually be to be fair, which is different. Sometimes we have to be able to call people out and hold them accountable. That’s the whole point of the phrase about journalists being the watchdog of society. The essential core of democracy can only work if there’s a free and fair press. The fact that there are outlets that traffic in passing off conspiracy theories as news is very disappointing and all it does is encourage people to not necessarily seek the truth but to seek the truth they want to believe as opposed to what’s actually true.” Hill shares her advice for today’s journalism students to “focus on the craft. The mechanisms of how we do our jobs will always change. It’s stone tablets one day and podcasts the next. But what doesn’t change is the core tenets of the job.” Jemele talks about writing on the intersection of sports, race, gender, politics, and culture for The Atlantic. And she shares her views on name, image, and likeness and the transfer portal in the evolving world of college athletics. She previews project she’s working on , including a collaboration with Spike Lee.  “I hope people who read Uphill understand that this is a story of resiliency and perseverance. And it’s a testament to something I believe in: Your circumstances, no matter how bad, do not have to dictate the life you envision for yourself.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Dean Millenbah talks about growing up in Wisconsin and her path to MSU. She also describes her passion for making the college experience as good as it can be for students. She explains the “complex, complicated and really exciting structure” of the college and the role that various stakeholders play in the college.  “I look at stakeholders very broadly. Stakeholders include our alumni and donors but also the constituent groups we work with through our commodity partners and the legislature. When we think about agriculture, we see Michigan State University advancing the work of agriculture and natural resources across the state, but we have to do that in close partnership with the people who are on the ground. Those would include state and federal agencies and our commodity groups. We don’t do it alone. We have many partnerships in various diverse aspects of the college.” Millenbah talks about $53 million from the state of Michigan “to help support renovations to the greenhouse and dairy, and both of those entities are out of date and antiquated. If we are going to be on the cutting edge of research, teaching, outreach, and extension, our facilities have to be current and cutting edge.” The dean talks about the importance of a sustainability ethos throughout the college. And she says today’s students “are making decisions about what they want to do with their careers based on what their passion areas are. They want to make a difference. And most students recognize that food and water and sustainability are things they want to be a part of and those are things the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources engages in every day.” She updates the college’s efforts in diversity, equity and inclusion and her efforts to build a culture of community “that is supportive and welcoming of everybody who wants to be a part of it. That’s my number one priority. “There’s something for everyone in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources. The biggest secret we probably have is people not knowing about all the diversity in our college. I’m trying to encourage everyone in the college not to be so humble and to talk about all the great work that’s happening. We know we’re doing really good things, but we need to make sure other people know about them. too.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Rhee talks about her Michigan roots, and she describes how she “serendipitously” became passionate about plant science. “MSU is one of the best places to do plant research, if not the best. The people and the reputation attracted me." During the interview process, she was impressed with the MSU culture that included a graduate student, a postdoc, and an assistant faculty member on the search committee. "I was really impressed with the early-career scientists. There’s a sense of excitement, passion, and interaction at MSU which was all super cool.” Rhee talks about the key issues in plant science. “Understanding how plants work is an important aspect of trying to come up with innovative solutions to many of today’s issues. That doesn’t mean just growing food better, but we can also think of plants as potential factories for sourcing materials and chemicals. We are entering an era of manufacturing from biology. It’s not just plants; microbes would play a big role. Having a better understanding of plants will help in so many ways. They are the biggest part of our ecosystem.” Sue describes the mission of the Plant Resilience Institute she’ll lead at MSU. “The mission is to be a premier institute for conducting outstanding plant research, especially in how plants can be resilient against adverse environmental conditions. We study plant resilience from many angles ranging from the ecosystem level down to single molecule molecular level.” Rhee is the founding director of The Arabidopsis Information Resource — one of the most heavily used online resources for plant scientists — and was instrumental in making the Gene Ontology system work for plants.       “It became one of the most popular databases used for research today. It’s probably the best-used plant resource today 20 years after its inception. “I think basic science will drive our future economy. A lot of the inventions and technologies we benefit from today have come from basic science. Basic science in plant biology was responsible for the green revolution that ended up saving hundreds of millions of people using tools like breeding. Today, plant scientists are using tools like plant genome engineering to be able to manipulate plants even more precisely. But knowing what to engineer and manipulate is where the basic science comes in. We have to understand how these organisms work and what controls the traits that we want to improve.  “That’s where basic science can really triumph. It allows us to understand how things work. And then we can figure out how to invent things. Without knowing how things work, we can’t invent. “One of the reasons I’m excited about MSU is because it’s a land grant university and there are thriving extension programs. Michigan has a lot of different types of growers, and there’s a lot of interesting industry. I’m very excited about plant science, but also about food and environmental justice and learning from my new MSU colleagues.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The trio talks about how the new maps from the redistricting process “significantly” impacted the results. And they talk about the issues that motivated voters most. They look ahead to 2023 in the Michigan Legislature and to the already-underway 2024 presidential election. The group reflects on whether President Biden will and should run for re-election in 2024. Ballard looks ahead to the prospects for Michigan’s economy in 2023, and the group discusses Governor Whitmer’s potential national political future. Conversation highlights: 1:18 – “The national House popular vote moved from about three percentage points in favor of Democrats to about three percentage points in favor of Republicans, which is a little less than normal for a midterm election.”  6:24 – “Certainly abortion is the top candidate for why Michigan performed differently than other states.” 7:43 – “Wherever abortion was on the ballot, Democrats did well.” 8:59 – “The economy is not in great shape, but are we in a recession? No. We are definitely not in a recession. Could we be in a recession six months from now? Maybe. I think avoiding a recession is a little bit less than 50/50, but it’s not zero.” 13:11 – “Candidates endorsed by Donald Trump performed about six points worse in House and Senate elections where he endorsed less experienced and more extreme candidates, and he made the election less of a referendum on President Biden and more of a choice between Biden-preferred and Trump-preferred candidates. That does seem to have made a difference. Trump endorsed a lot of people in winnable seats who lost.” 22:01 – “You can’t beat somebody with nobody. There would have to be consolidation around an alternative, and the same people who don’t want Joe Biden to be the nominee don’t necessarily want Kamala Harris to be the nominee, who would be the most likely alternative. We might wish for different, but we still might see Biden vs. Trump again.”23:05 – “Certainly a Midwest governor winning by a large amount who already had some national profile is going to continue to be mentioned regularly. And she has an argument.” 24:35 – “We were the strongest economy in the world in the middle decades of the 20th Century. Then with the decline of manufacturing in general and autos in particular, we have struggled for decades.” 30:14 – “On average across the states, if you look at the ideal party position of the Republican Party versus the ideal position of the Democratic Party, we expect each year of full control by one party to move the state policy about one percent in their direction.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Schram is retiring as executive director and general manager of Michigan Radio after an influential 47-year career in Michigan’s radio industry. Schram reflects on his rewarding career and describes how he fell in love with radio as a 10-year-old boy thanks to listening to Top 40 radio while visiting a cousin in New Jersey in 1963. And Steve tells of a wonderful circle of life moment about when he got the chance to tour his favorite radio station – WKNR Keener 13 – as a young boy. On the tour, Steve met the WKNR station manager, who asked Steve what he thought he might want to do in the radio business. Steve replied that “Someday I’d like to sit in your chair.  “And here’s the magic behind that. Twenty-seven years later, I became the general manager of WNIC, the successor station to WKNR. In that same building, that same office became my office, and it was the exact same desk that I sat behind.” Schram talks about challenges and opportunities facing the constantly evolving radio industry. He describes the generational differences in how people consume media. And he talks about why he chose to attend college at MSU and how that experience impacted him. And he shares his advice for today’s Spartans studying communications. MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Emmerich talks about the “tremendous growth” Schupan has experienced in the last five years, growing from about 400 employees to 650.  “In a nutshell, we’re an aluminum scrap processer and marketer of materials, and we’re an aluminum and plastics manufacturer and distributor. We’re family-owned and over 50 years old and headquartered in Kalamazoo. We’re now doing business in over 25 countries. Our footprint has expanded tremendously, and our future is bright.” He talks about the challenges and opportunities facing Schupan and Michigan’s recycling industry. And he discusses the state and evolution of Michigan’s popular bottle deposit law.   Emmerich shares his 4 E’s of a successful recycling program: Education, Ease, Efficient logistics and operations, and Economically viable markets for the materials. “If you are not taking your containers back today, please reconsider. We need to get those containers back into the system. My intent is to maintain the country’s most efficient bottle deposit law and the success we’ve had as a state with a program we should all be really proud of.”   MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Woodruff reflects on this “heavy moment for the institution,” President Stanley’s legacy, and her new role guiding MSU.“Being president is not something that I sought and, right up until the last minute, didn't expect in many ways. There have been a series of abrupt changes at MSU. I also appreciate that for many within Spartan nation, this seems like something that has a little bit of familiarity to it.“I want to reassure everyone that we really are writing a new chapter. I used a word this week, Russ. It’s ‘stagility.’ I hope we’re moving to a time of stability and stabilizing the core of the institution. But we still need to be agile and be able to work ahead. That agility and stability is enabled by what President Stanley has done in providing for all of us a living strategic plan. It is enabling the campus.  We have an inspiring faculty and academic staff, and I think they'll be able to do their good work as we move forward.“My hope is that as we move into this new era, we'll also be able to maintain our health, the health of others, the health of the planet, and all the while open the door as wide as possible to the broadest community possible. This is part of the university strategic plan. Part of President Stanley's extraordinary legacy is to have built three strategic plans for this institution, including the RVSM and DEI plans.“As remarkable as all of this is to the foundation for the future, he also led us through the first several years of the Covid pandemic, and his training in infectious diseases was critical. None of us could have foreseen that would've been as timely as that was. And that was particularly true prior to the therapeutics and vaccines that are really part of our arsenal today.“The most salient part of the work led by President Stanley is that these are not his plans. And he would say that to all of us. He has said on many occasion that it's not the Stanley plan; it is the strategic vision of the campus for its future. I know that as we live out our shared plan that was the product of a visionary and principled leader that we are so grateful for what he did in enabling our ability to move forward.”Why did you want to be interim president?“I said when I came to MSU two years ago that I wanted to be a transformative leader in a time of transition. I saw excellence in abundance at this institution. The fundamentals of MSU are unchanged. I also knew then and now that policy and practice need to be aligned in order for folks to do their best work. This is a campus of extraordinarily principled and ethical people from our faculty to our staff. We continue to work toward a more perfect and just way to relate to each other. Leadership opportunities abound. I think people are called to leadership moments. And so that is what buoys me every day. I'm really pleased to come in and provide my own leadership together with a lot of other folks who are on this journey. Together we'll move Michigan State forward.”What do you want Spartan Nation to know as your presidency begins, and what are some of your immediate priorities?“I remain honored and humbled to be in this role, and I can say I was honored and humbled to be in the provost role. I will serve this institution to the best of my capabilities. I want people to know that I'm honored to have been adopted into Spartan Nation, and I feel like I'm really, really a part of the family, as does my husband, Tom O'Halloran.” O’Halloran is a Michigan State University Foundation Professor of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics and Chemistry. “I really want Spartan Nation to know just how extraordinary our entire staff is. They are the ones who enable this living learning campus environment, who keep our buildings in excellent shape, who support grant submissions and who create the context in which this academic success is possible. The people who make this university great are our fundamentals. I'd love for Spartan Nation to know that.”Talk about culture, community, and communication and how you'll emphasize building trust, affirming transparency, and advancing strategic initiatives. “I want to be out and about introducing myself, listening, hearing, and really communicating in ways that are bidirectional so that I can really be part of every day of this campus. And I think as much as we communicate, we can build the community. There have been some of the parts of the fabric that have been pulled apart. Some of the threads are a little thread bear, and we want to knit that back together and really come together around community.“And then culture. There is a special way in which everyone within the Michigan State environment really loves this organization. Last week, a lot of people were telling me to hang in there. Everybody's telling me they bleed green. To really communicate effectively and to build that community and leave the institution in a culture that feels stable and supported and enabled to do their best work, we have to really focus on building trust. We want people to know that we are trusted partners on both sides. We need to really make sure folks know they can trust us by having information. “In a trusting relationship, I am committed to providing as much information as I can, to gathering as much evidence from as many sources I can, and then acting in the best and most principled way on behalf of the university. And if people can believe in that, then I think we're going to be able to advance our strategic initiatives.”Summarize some takeaways and what you mean when you say you're all in for MSU.“I'm all in for MSU. We’re planning today for tomorrow's future. We all have to be in to be part of the solution. We all have to be on board. We don't have time for people to fall prey to cynicism. I can understand how that may happen, but we have to be all in for MSU. This is an exciting time. We're on an upward trajectory. Don't be on the sidelines. We're really moving.”Keep up with MSU Interim President Woodruff at president.msu.edu and on Instagram @MSU_Pres.MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

This was done through several projects including the establishment of the MSU Operations Center — a facility that will centralize the university’s security systems and technology through MSU’s Department of Police and Public Safety which is expected to be largely operational by the end of the year. The goal is to ensure a more comprehensive and robust safety and security portfolio for campus.   President Stanley and MSU Vice President for Public Safety and Chief of Police Marlon Lynch talk about the center and its mission. The center — which will feature a fully integrated security system for access control, intrusion prevention and video security — will be housed within the MSU DPPS building.  Stanley and Lynch also talk about how the East Lansing Police Department and the MSU Department of Police and Public Safety have partnered to form the Proactive Engagement and Community Enhancement Team, or PEACE, which will focus on stopping criminal activity before it happens, while also providing education and promoting community safety and crime prevention.   MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The center, which launched in June 2022, is housed within the MSU College of Education and the Department of Counseling, Educational Psychology, and Special Education. The center's co-directors and other personnel work with individuals and partner with researchers, service providers, employers, and policy makers to provide and efficiently disseminate evidence-based practices of support.Connie Sung is an associate professor of rehabilitation counseling at Michigan State University and one of the co-directors of the MSU STRIDE Center. Marisa Fisher is an associate professor of special education at MSU and the other co-director of the STRIDE Center. “I have always been passionate about supporting adolescents and young adults with disabilities,” says Fisher. “It probably comes from my experience as a sibling of an individual with an intellectual disability. He's older than I am, so I saw his entire school-to-work transition and saw where the struggles were and saw what the successes were. I was really interested in it, and I want to help other people as well.”“I'm passionate about the work because my mother has a medicine background,” says Sung. “I was trained in occupational therapy and psychology. I've worked with people ranging in age from the really young to toddler age and all the way to the elderly.”STRIDE is an acronym for the MSU Center for Services, Training and Research for Independence and Desired Employment.“I have to give credit to Marisa because she came up with the name and each of the letters,” continues Sung. “S stands for the services we provide. T is for training. As part of the land grant mission, we want to provide training for our students, but also for people who are now in service training. And then R is for research. As a faculty at MSU, research is a big part of our role, and we want to make sure all the service and training that we provide is research-based and the best practices for assisting the community. I is for independence and helping people live an independent life. The D and E stand for our desire to see people achieving desired employment because employment is not just about a paycheck. They can have a social network and a routine. Employment is a very important factor leading to positive mental health.”“STRIDE is a dream come true for Connie and me,” Fisher adds. “We have been working together for 9 or 10 years on various projects. And through those projects we really saw the need for comprehensive services within the community. We spoke with several different community organizations and community members and saw where the needs were and what was missing. And we said, ‘Okay. How can we help fill those gaps?’ And we brought our heads together and said, ‘We need a center, a center that just focuses on all of this.’ And we took that idea to our dean and chair and said ‘This is our vision.’ And they said, ‘Okay. Let's see how we can support that.’”How does the STRIDE Center define disabilities?“People may have different understandings of disabilities,” Sung continues. “For us, we really look at disability across the board, including physical disabilities, mobility challenges, and mental illness. Our primary focus is on the intellectual and developmental disabilities because we have expertise and previous experience running programs and projects. We serve people with a variety of disabilities.”Research will be a key component of the STRIDE Center's land-grant mission.“As faculty members, our main goal is to conduct research and translate that research into practice,” Sung says. “We want to make sure we are relying on research and evidence to achieve the outcome that we expect to achieve. The work that we do, the service that we deliver, and the training that we provide are all research based. We want to fulfill the land grant mission of MSU to work with the community. We are not just in a lab. We’re doing what we think are the right things to do and getting input from our community stakeholders. We are not just producing research for the purpose of archiving it in the library database, but it's really being used in the real world by our community partners.”“In the research that we do, as Connie said, we're not just asking questions to ask questions,” Fisher continues. “We're not collecting data just to write journal articles that then go into the library and are only read by other academics. We are conducting research to really support those who need support. Everything that we do is community engaged. We are working with individuals, with service agencies, and with other providers to not only find out what they need, but to find the best way to provide it and train others to also provide it. We're not saying, ‘This is our intervention and we're going to deliver it.’ We want to say, ‘Here's a great intervention, who else can deliver it? Let us help you learn how to do it and then you can provide it to others so that it's reaching the full community.’” “We are open to the community coming to us to tell us what else we need to develop,” adds Sung. “Then we can hand off these resources and supports so others don't have to reinvent the wheels. We have the capacity and the expertise. We are really aiming to collaborate with communities to find out what the needs are and how can we fulfill the gaps and meet the needs of the disability community. One more thing that we want to really stress is we know sometimes people may get nervous about university faculty coming in and doing all this work. But our main mission is not trying to compete or to replace anyone in a community. We really want to collaborate with what is already in place and work together to improve the resources and support for people with disabilities because we believe we all share a common goal in better utilizing what we have to develop more new things to meet the needs. If our community partners need training, we are more than happy to provide it so organizations can take the programming or the interventions back to their organizations to benefit even more people with disabilities.”Sung and Fisher describe the first services the center is offering. One is Assistive Soft Skills and Employment Training (ASSET), and the other is Employment Preparation and Skills Support (EPASS). Who is the STRIDE Center for? Who should contact you for assistance?“A lot of times people may have a misperception that we only work with people with disabilities,” continues Sung. “In order to have people with disabilities truly integrated into the community, we need to also work with other people around them. The goal is not just to deliver services to individuals with disabilities, but to really become a center of excellence in independence and employment and transition so that people can utilize the resources and support that we develop here. We would like everybody to know we are here. The main purpose of the center is to provide support and assistance to promote independence and employment and enhance quality of life for people with disabilities.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get yours shows.

Did pandemic school shutdowns put Michigan's students behind? If so, are our children catching back up? This month, Matt Grossmann, Arnold Weinfeld, and Charles Ballard from MSU's Institute for Public Policy and Social Research try to get to the bottom of those questions with Tara Kilbride, assistant director for research at the Education Policy Innovation Collaborative (EPIC) at MSU. EPIC has just released a new report covering that topic which can be found on their website www.EpicedPolicy.org In the first half of the conversation, our podcasters discuss and make a few predictions about the upcoming November elections.MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find "MSU Today with Russ White" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Comparoni talks about why he chose MSU after growing up in northern Oakland County and how the university impacted him. He says he was attracted to MSU’s journalism program and wasn’t concerned about MSU’s size. And he describes how his friend and roommate just happened to pick up an application to work at the State News.“The size of the university didn’t bury me. It brought me along. I’m not sure where I’d be today without that internship at the State News.”He talks about his career path to finding his mentor Stu Coman, who founded Spartan Magazine in 1991, and then meeting the Stafford family, who bought Spartan Magazine in 1995.“I kind of arranged an ownership change.” Comparoni then bought Spartan Magazine from the Staffords around 2001.Comparoni describes the transition from Spartan Magazine to SpartanMag.com and the epiphany he had at the 1997 Aloha Bowl about his publication’s inevitable evolution into an internet daily.“I needed to reallocate our limited manpower and resources to the internet because that’s where the competition and the growth was. The magazine was still profitable, but the print process was extremely time consuming. Doing the magazine was like experiencing finals week once a month. I still miss the magazine sometimes, but it was time to close it down.”Jim shares his thoughts on the state and future of college athletics and says what he likes and doesn’t like about Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) and the transfer portal. He says he’s glad college athletes can capitalize on their own name, image, and likeness but is concerned that “the moral compass has changed a bit” as recruits’ first question on visits is now often about NIL. And he thinks the transfer portal teaches college athletes “if times get tough, quit. Transfer. That’s the message.”Comparoni shares his views on the state and future of sports journalism and says “SpartanMag.com is a premium website covering Michigan State sports, primarily football and men’s basketball and recruiting. We have a message board there called the Underground Bunker that I refer to as the daily narrative on Michigan State sports. It’s a community. They don’t always agree with one another,” but they’re unified around MSU sports.MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find MSU Today with Russ White on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“These have been challenging weeks for me personally. I made the extraordinarily difficult decision to submit a 90-day notice of resignation to the Board of Trustees. And this is really because I felt that the Board was taking some actions that would make it difficult for me to really fulfill my responsibilities as president. The fundamentals at Michigan State remain extraordinarily strong. I will cooperate with the transition to an interim president that the board will select. I have nothing but great memories about the time I've spent with Michigan State University faculty, staff, students, alumni, and friends during these three years.”We have been celebrating new spaces and programs and have much to be proud of as we advance the university's priorities of growing its excellence and impact. This month we celebrated several new facilities, like the $5.5 million gift from the MSU Federal Credit Union that will support programs helping integrate the arts into STEM disciplines.“MSUFCU has been an extraordinary partner for Michigan State University and has given more than $30 million over time to the university. And what's particularly great about them is they really do tailor things to meet the needs of the university. They think about and talk about what are things we need? And one of the things we really wanted to be able to do was really to reemphasize the arts at Michigan State University and a major arts initiative. The arts are so important in so many different levels; they inform and enrich our lives in so many ways.”President Stanley also talks about the new home for College of Engineering registered student organizations, the William A. Demmer Engineering Center, that allows for new space for team projects and hands on learning. He talks about the new Spartan Greens artificial turf fields open on Service Road. And he describes the new facilities at Munn Ice Arena.“Spartan Greens is just the beginning of our efforts to improve student recreation opportunities on campus. Our facilities folks and student life and engagement group did a great job getting this done on such a fast pace and making sure it was available now for students in the fall. This state-of-the-art facility is going to really support health and wellness programs for Spartans.”Stanley talks about the Space Electronics Center and the Student Veterans Resource Center, and he encourages all Spartans to make their plan to vote in the November 8 election. He also advises flu shots and Covid-19 boosters.“I continue to try and stay in touch with what's happening in this field. And it's become clear to me that the new Bivalent Covid-19 boosters are better than the initial shots in terms of protecting you from the new Omicron variants. I encourage anybody who has not had this shot yet to receive it. And I encourage you to receive your influenza shot as well. We're seeing an increase in influenza cases, at least in some parts of the country. And influenza can be a very serious disease as well. And so I encourage you to do both. I have done both. And here I am to tell the tale. I felt fine afterwards. And again, I encourage people to do this at their earliest opportunity.“Again, what an extraordinary opportunity I've had at Michigan State University. This is one of the great universities in the country. And what makes it really special are the Spartans and their commitment to the university and to their community. That’s what makes MSU unique. I've been in a number of universities. I've been really proud to be associated with each of them. But there's something very special about how Spartans feel about their university and their drive and commitment. And I see it in our faculty and staff and their commitment to the institution. I see it in our students who really become very quickly a part of this community and family. And then I see it in this community around us, where people who may not have attended Michigan State University still take pride in being part of this university and part of our community. And so again, my thanks to everyone who's extended such a warm welcome to me over this time, and I’ll always remember fondly my time at Michigan State.“We now have 40 programs within the top 25 of graduate or undergraduate programs in U.S. News and World Report. That shows you the depth of and breadth of the scholarship at Michigan State University. We have continued to grow in terms of our enrollment, and we're doing it while maintaining quality. And that's incredibly exciting.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Today, I have four distinguished Spartans with me to discuss Hispanic Heritage.Deyanira Nevarez Martinez is assistant professor in the Urban and Regional Planning Program in the School of Planning, Design and Construction. Francisco Villarruel is interim director of the Julian Samora Research Institute and professor of Human Development and Family Studies. María Isabel Ayala is director of Chicano/Latino Studies in the College of Social Science and associate professor in the Department of Sociology. And Luis Alonzo Garcia directs Migrant Student Services.What does Hispanic heritage mean to you? What do you want us to be more aware of by celebrating it?“It’s about the contributions that we have made to this country,” says Martinez. “It's so important to make sure that we acknowledge that we have been here for a long time. In many cases, we've all heard that saying ‘We didn't cross the border, the border crossed us.’ We've been in this place. We are from this place and so acknowledging that I think is really important.”“Hispanic Heritage Month is really a special time,” adds Garcia. “We've been part of the machine that's been feeding America and people just quite don't understand that. We've only started. I think you will have great things to see in years to come.”“Hispanic Heritage Month is about celebration,” Ayala says. “It's about celebrating the contributions of Latinx folks throughout the United States, and it’s a very diverse group. Oftentimes I think we think of Hispanics or Latinx folks in terms of music and food but what this allows us to do, especially this month, but hopefully throughout the year, is recognize that we have folks contributing in science, in the arts, in politics, in government, and in higher education. In programs like mine, Chicano/Latino studies, what we intend to do is offer the curriculum that speaks to this contribution so that students feel and see themselves represented and reflected not only when they turn on MTV or Spotify, but they see themselves in the science that they learn and in the communities that they engage with and feel proud.”“For me this is a month where we begin to write the right history,” says Villarruel. “That may sound like an odd term, but I want to exemplify what everybody has said. There are STEM initiatives right now that are really trying to bring Latinos into science and technology. When I say it's the time for us to write the right history, it's an opportunity for us to claim not only our indigeneity, but also to recognize the contributions of multiple people. Go to the Detroit Institute of Arts and look at the Diego Rivera murals. That was a century ago and yet is still prophetic to today. But we undervalue those contributions of some of our Latino relatives.”“Oftentimes I get asked where I’m from,” says Garcia. “I say I’m from Texas. Then I get asked ‘No, but where are you really from?’ I'm from the Mexican territories which is now the state of Texas. I'm always intrigued by how people define their history because it's convenient oftentimes to forget other people's history and what America is today. I think that this time of the year, it provides us an option to talk about these things and recognize that we have been here before other people got into this country. We're not foreigners; we are part of the landscape.”Can you explain the similarities and the differences between Hispanic, Latino, Chicano, and Latinx?“It's very important to recognize that identity is multi-level and that we have multiple identities,” Ayala says. “The part of the reason why we really focus sometimes on Hispanic is because it was a term developed in the 1980s because of the growth of the population that was speaking Spanish. The government was very interested in trying to begin measuring some of the social demographic changes that were happening. Hispanic is really a term that was imposed by the government at the time that really focused on the Spaniard heritage for folks that spoke Spanish. The problem was that this was not something that really resonated with a lot of folks, especially from Latin America ancestry especially because of coloniality. It was resisted in that it was not inclusive enough. Especially we know that in some countries in Latin America or the Caribbean, not everybody speaks Spanish.“There was a grassroots movement for Latino, and Latino intended to recognize that Latin American heritage and tried to be more inclusive of those folks who did not speak Spanish. The problem with Latino is that it is very male centered, and you had Latinas, females, push against that Latino term. However, there are also different voices that are unaccounted for in this dichotomy. Now with Latinx, what we're intending to do is to be more inclusive of those non-gender binary identities that are within the group of Latinx folks. So what is the correct term? It depends who you ask. Some folks will self-identify as Latinas and Latinx. Some folks, especially those who have a history of political activism, will self-identify as Chicano and Latino. It's a matter of asking. It's a matter of recognizing what drives people to self-identify in different ways and recognize that it's not something that is very static. It changes through time.”“It depends on who you ask, but then also it could depend on the day,” says Martinez. “I mostly always identify myself as a Chicana depending on what rooms I'm in. If I'm with other Latinos and because I see Latino and Latinx also as a term of ethnic solidarity, I am a Latina. Those things can be true at the same time. It can be very fluid within each person.”“It’s really about respecting where people are and how they want to be identified,” says Garcia.“If a person says they're Chicano, they're telling you something about their history and what's important,” adds Villarruel. “If they're telling you their Mexicano, they're telling you something that's important about their history. If they're telling you they're Mexican American, they're giving you some insight about them. The self-expression of identity and the terms that are used are fluent and fluid, but they're also rooted in history that we need to understand to better serve the communities that we serve across the state and that nation.”“Oftentimes when we think about identity, we self-identify just as our parents or grandparents did,” continues Ayala. “That's why it's so important to have access to curriculum that addresses these histories and allows people an exposure to the different origins. Oftentimes we think because we’re Latinx or Mexicana or Latina we know everything there is to know about the group. There's so much intragroup diversity and just as there is privilege and marginalization outside of the group, there's privilege and marginalization within the group. That can materialize not only in color but also whether people speak Spanish or not, whether they're considered authentic Latinos or not because of how they see themselves. I think not only in terms of Hispanic heritage but in terms of curriculum and interacting with other folks.  We need to recognize and value those differences.”“And I think our students are sometimes grappling with some of these issues, too,” continues Martinez. “As a young person growing up on the U.S. Mexico border for the majority of my life, I identified myself as Mexican, not Mexican American, not Chicana. As I came into college and gained my own academic identity and learned more about our history in the United States, I realized that I am a Chicana and that's what I choose to call myself. It's also a journey that we go on as we're trying to figure out who we are and what our identity is and where we fit in this place. So, I think our students also grapple with some of these questions on what do I call myself and who am I?”“Oftentimes in our conversation we've talked about representation, and seeing students reflected in faculty and staff I think is crucial. But it's also very important to recognize that we come with knowledge that hasn't been part of the fabric of the universities,” explains Ayala. “So, what happens when you have not only faculty and staff in these positions across the university in leadership positions is not only that students see themselves reflected, which is a very big part. It's also the questions that we bring, the knowledge that we bring, the questions that haven't really been asked by other folks because they don't have that knowledge and that history. Oftentimes in higher education we view knowledge as something that is only acquired through formal education.“The reality is that there's knowledge all around us. There's a certain knowledge that is acquired through formal education, but that also complements and builds upon the knowledge that has been acquired through lived experiences. That is very important. Understanding these lived experiences as critical is not only shared among Latinx faculty and staff, but other groups like Asian Americans and Native Americans. That's why it's so important to really have an institutional commitment because everyone at this table and a lot of folks outside of this space are doing a lot of that invisible service that involves addressing some of the unique needs of these populations and yet continues to be not recognized or acknowledged. It's wonderful that we have people truly committed to making that change and advancing other folks of color, but we need the support of institutions. We have this structures in place, but they also need the support of the institution to not only make it but really thrive and continue to do wonderful work.”“I would like to add that every time the university changes leadership, I get nervous because I'm wondering whether the next leader is going to understand and be supportive,” says Garcia. “We are fortunate to have President Stanley, who has been very supportive of diverse communities and is willing to take the heat as we cultivate a further understanding of the broader community and of the contributions that these communities have had and will continue to have. For our future existence, they will be a vital component.”“I would add to what Luis has said,” Villarruel says. “It's not only the president, but it's also Provost Woodruff and Vice President Bennett. In the 35 years that Luis and I have been here I can comfortably say that we have leadership now that is not going to help just sustain, but is committed to investing, promoting, and enhancing what we have at this institution, not only for the institutional sake, but for the communities across the state in the Midwest and more importantly, for student success.”“This time of year is an opportunity to make sure that we are doing the work to make sure that Latinx students know that they belong here,” says Martinez. “My goal for this month and every month of the year is trying to make sure that our community knows that they belong here.”MSU recognizes National Hispanic Heritage Month, and our community is coming together to strengthen resources, programs, research centers and scholarships serving Hispanic and Latinx students at MSU. Learn more at givingto.msu.edu.MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“We are advocates for the university,” says Wilbur. “We have a federal operation in Washington DC. Those two or three people work with Congress and the administration and the various departments and agencies. In Michigan, Katie and I work the state legislature. That's where we receive our largest sum of money on an annual basis for operational dollars to run the university. But it's not just budgetary. We respond and react to legislation that's introduced that could impact anybody on this campus. There are a lot of interesting voices that we have to make sure we hear from.“We are very engaged in our local community, too. We have a community representative who works with the cities of Lansing and East Lansing and Meridian Township, the Lansing Regional Chamber, and groups like LEAP (Lansing Economic Area Partnership) and CAPCOG (Capital Area Council of Governments). Then we have our Spartan Advocate program, which really has been a very significant grassroots effort to allow us to have other people advocate with us. People know what Katie is going to say when they see her darken their door. They know what I'm going to say. They know what Sarah's going to say in Washington DC. It can be more impactful if you have an advocate who is calling or writing in from Roscommon, Michigan, for example, who understands the value of other voices being heard to legislators and policymakers about the impact MSU has on the entire state. That's a very key effort led by Jeremy Reuter. He's doing a great job. We have about 3,000 advocates, but we're always trying to grow that number.”“Government Relations isn’t the most visible office at the university,” adds John. “Sometimes people don't know we exist. Or if they do, they're maybe a little confused about what we do. We are indeed advocates for the overall mission of the university, but we also can help facilitate relationships. If you need help finding the proper contact at MDOT, chances are someone in our office will have a contact who can help put you in touch with the right person or help facilitate a meeting. A lot of our job focuses on relationships and trying to have a network that is beneficial to the university.”“To Katie's point, I don't want people to think that's just true at MSU that many people don't necessarily think of government relations or know we exist,” continues Wilbur. “I worked with Katie while she was at Western. I was at Central Michigan for close to 16 years. It’s the very same attitude there. It's not the people’s business to wake up and think about government relations or about who we have a relationship with or where we get our money from. We understand that, but we can be very useful to people. Katie's absolutely right. We are facilitators and advocates. We want people to know that. Take advantage of us.”Wilbur and John recap the current state of the budget and state support and say it was “a great year.” They talk about the establishment of the Michigan Achievement Scholarship Program.  “This was a huge bipartisan effort,” John says. “Both the governor and the legislature really came together to negotiate a huge lift for students. It's $250 million for the graduating class of '23. They will be eligible, depending on their family contribution, for up to $5,500 per student to further their higher education career. It’s nice to see that even in these strenuous political times when elections are taking place across our state, that still in Lansing they can get the work done when they put their heads together. We were really pleased.”“It’s a big lift because it really makes a different statement,” adds Wilbur. “This really is a very significant statement. We hope it continues, but we're working with a term-limited legislature. Many of the folks who voted for this are leaving as of December 31. We hope we can continue the advocacy and convince folks of the validity and the importance of programs like this.”Wilbur and John talk about redistricting and the coming election and how it might impact MSU. And they describe the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research’s Legislative Leadership Program (LLP) that invites new members of Michigan’s House of Representatives and Michigan Senate to engage in interactive small-group sessions with university faculty in the brief time between election and their first legislative sessions.“Coming to work at an institution like MSU every day, you see how it impacts people's lives,” continues John. “It's easy to advocate for an institution like that. But frankly sometimes, I think especially downtown in Lansing, we have an uphill battle. I don't think that everyone fully understands higher ed and its impact. They may draw conclusions or have assumptions that aren't 100 percent accurate. We have an opportunity with a large incoming class of legislators to really demonstrate that value and to dispute some of those myths that are out there about higher ed.”“What we're experiencing, not just in Michigan but across the country, is more of a questioning of the value of higher education in general,” adds Wilbur. “Katie talks about it with our legislators, which is true. We have many legislators who have not themselves attended college. They're saying, ‘Look, I got myself elected to the Michigan State Senate and didn't need a degree to do this.’ And they don't. They are hearing that from some of their constituents as well. ‘Boy, a college education is expensive. What's the real value for my kids Susie or Harry? Why are we doing this?’ That is a question higher ed has to ask itself. “That is something that we really have to try to answer and respond to and have great examples. There are no better advocates than our own students who come in with varied backgrounds who can walk into Legislator X's office and say, ‘This is why I went to school. This is what I am finding of such value. By the way, I have a job all lined up. I don't graduate for another nine months, but I'm set.’ It's those kinds of cases that we have to be always aware of and making.”“Again, we always encourage people to reach out,” adds John. “We are there to help. We're always happy to hear from faculty, staff, and students. If you have an issue or think we could assist, please reach out.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Coach Bibbs coached track and field at MSU from 1968 through 1995. His deep commitment to youth and passion for the sport has gained the respect of countless colleagues, athletes, parents, and friends nationwide.  The theme for MSU Homecoming 2022 is Spartans Bring the Magic.  “Being grand marshal might be the greatest honor I’ve received, and I’ve received quite a few honors. I’m proud to be the grand marshal for a great institution like Michigan State.” Bibbs says he was coaching in his hometown of Ecorse, Michigan when MSU Athletic Director Biggie Munn called to ask if he’d like to coach at Michigan State and says it was an offer he couldn’t refuse. He talks about the mentor who inspired him to go into teaching and coaching. He also talks about how both the sport of track and field and student-athletes have evolved over the years. And he recalls some of his favorite memories from his legendary Spartan career. “The greatest memory I have of Michigan State is one of the relays we hosted when Herb Washington broke the world record in the 60-yard dash and Marshall Dill broke the world record in the 300-yard dash. Then our sprint medley relay team that included Washington and Dill missed setting the world record by, I think, two tenths of a second.” Bibbs says he doesn’t concern himself about his legacy because “that’s something that other people decide.”  If there was one thing you want to pass on to future generations, what would it be? What advice or lesson would you give them? “Take school seriously. If you make it, school is plan B. But if you don’t make it, it becomes plan A. But even if you make it in athletics, usually you’re doing it with your body. And unless you’re LeBron James, your career is usually over in your mid 30’s. You better have something to last you for the rest of your life. And when I say school, it can be college or a trade, but find something that can help you be gainfully employed and support your family.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

A new semester and academic year are well underway as MSU welcomed more than 9,800 incoming students to campus, our largest and one of our most diverse incoming groups ever. “We also had 1,400 transfer students coming in, which is also the largest. There are a lot of new individuals coming to the campus and I know people have reached out and made sure they felt welcome and they're hitting their stride. We're already actually a quarter of the way through the semester. They're already getting exposed to what college life is like. I think they're enjoying themselves at Michigan State University from every account that I can see.“One of the things I've enjoyed the most is the chance to speak individually with students and their parents and talk to them about what made them choose MSU. I hear a lot about the breadth of the programs we offer that few places can match and our beautiful campus itself, which I think has been looking spectacular these past few days. All of that has created an environment where people want to come and learn. That explains our record application numbers and explains the continued growth we're having. I think that's a great thing because I think the world needs more Spartans. I'm glad we're admitting more to come.”Stanley talks about meeting the 2022 inductees into the MSU Athletics Hall of Fame and about honoring the Michael and Elaine Serling Institute for Jewish Studies and Modern Israel on the institute's 30th anniversary. Forty MSU programs ranked in the Top 25 of the latest U.S. News and World Report.“That's our highest score in seven years. We're very pleased about that, and I think that reflects the progress we've been making. Peer reputation was really one of the categories that raised us up. Our peers are recognizing the exciting things we're doing at MSU. We need to keep those 40 there, and we need to add more because I think we have the capacity for our scope and scale to have outstanding programs in multiple disciplines. We're going to continue to push that. My congratulations to the 40 who are there. And to those who are just below, let us know what you need so we can push you up and get you in that territory of the top 25 as well.”Stanley reflects on the addition of 40 new electric vehicles to the university fleet and about MSU’s work in our mobility future, which was highlighted at the recent Detroit Auto Show. He urges Spartans to get their flu shots and COVID boosters and to make plans on how they’ll vote in the November 8 election. Stanley addresses his contract talks with the Board of Trustees.“There's been a lot of uncertainty and concern about contract negotiations and discussions between the board and me. But I just want to make it very clear that I greatly appreciate all the expressions of support I've had from so many different people and groups on campus. I'm grateful for that. I can't tell you how much it means to me. But I'm also very proud of what we've accomplished together, particularly including advancing my overarching priority of building a university that is safe, welcoming, and supportive of all its people.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

On this month’s State of the State Podcast, Institute for Public Policy and Social Research Assistant Director Arnold Weinfeld, along with Institute Director, Dr. Matt Grossmann and Economist Dr. Charles Ballard discuss the current state of the economy including the impact of the continued rates hikes by the Federal Reserve on the economy and the upcoming election.  The guest this month is Dr. Debra Horner, with the University of Michigan Ford School's Center for Local, State and Urban Policy where she serves as senior program manager on the Michigan Public Policy Survey program.  The program surveys local government officials across the state of Michigan and just released findings on the attitudes of local election officials when it comes to confidence in election security.  This podcast comes to you from the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research and WKAR.”

In this new role, Henderson oversees student-facing areas associated with health, mental and physical wellness, and student athlete engagement. He oversees many of the areas that support student athletes beyond their sport-specific training. This means athletic training, academic support, career development, nutrition, and strength and conditioning with a holistic approach.Henderson tells why he chose MSU to pursue his college football career. And he talks about his career path leading up to taking this new position at MSU. Henderson played for both John L. Smith and Mark Dantonio; he compares the two. “I'm passionate about this work; this is my calling. I really feel this is why I was born, to help serve and help young men and women have an unbelievable experience at the best institution that there is known to man. Every day I wake up fulfilled, passion driven, and fueled knowing that I'm walking to my purpose and I'm in alignment with my vision. And I know that same energy is infectious, and our student athletes feel that, our coaches feel that, and our internal stakeholders, donors and supporters feel that. What you put out into the world is what you get back. I truly believe that, and that's what I bring to the table every day.”What are championship resources?“Under the auspices of the championship resources umbrella, you'll find athletic training and Spartan's Fuel, which is our nutrition program for the entire athletic ecosystem. You’ll find our athletic performance unit, which most would call strength and conditioning, which is critical and important to the student athlete experience.  I'm immensely happy and proud of our new revamped mental health program; that falls into the auspices of championship resources as well.“Then you have sports science, which is new. It’s an unbelievable area where I'm learning every day about how those modalities and opportunities really activate and help our student athletes gain competitive advantages through scientific-based research and evidence-based research. Also, I have the privilege to champion our name, image, and likeness strategy along with a team of 10 other individuals and our entire department on what we do to educate our student athletes in that capacity. I work together with our Spartan for Life student athlete development and Varsity S programs. And I'm the sports administrator for women's basketball.”What is your assessment of the state of mental and physical wellness with student athletes at MSU and across the country?“There is often a stigma attached to treating your mental health, like you must have something wrong with you to see a mental health counselor. I see a mental health counselor every month to help keep me sane as well as to de-stigmatize and let folks know it is okay. But it's not okay to not be okay.”Henderson talks more about what he and his team are doing to help improve student-athletes’ mental and physical wellness. And he talks about the The Gregory H. Montgomery Jr. Foundation for Ultimate Growth and its mission.“It's important for us to have a pulse on what's going on. So, for me, it's getting into the training room and getting into spaces where student athletes reside. It's easy to just stay at your desk and emails will inundate you. But for me, I make it a priority to get around and talk to student athletes and connect with them to understand their experience, who their families are, what's their why, and what drives them. “There is a genuine pulse and understanding of where our student athletes are, which I'm grateful for, and that comes with building authentic relationships and asking the right questions, not just saying, ‘Hey you good? I'm good. You good? Let's keep walking.’ No, we must have a meaningful conversation saying, ‘Hey, how are you doing today? And what has been a challenge in your day?’ Those are the questions we must start asking to get folks more feeling connected to us instead of the real quick hitters where you're never going to get the right and real answer because they know you don't have time to talk to them.”Henderson says MSU’s name, image, and likeness plan “is the most comprehensive, most thought out educational platform program in the country. We are providing the utmost quality care and first-class experience to our student athletes to the best of our abilities. We do that in a cornucopia of different ways, and I'm committed to doing that and to being on the ground. It’s a competitive advantage.”As a Spartan Football player, Henderson may be best known for returning a blocked punt for a touchdown in MSU's 35-point comeback win over Northwestern in 2006, the biggest comeback in FBS history. “Russ, October 21 defined my life for me; I knew that day that anything is possible. Never give up. Our team never gave up that day. I've never had that many text messages in my life. And that's a moment my parents have captured on DVD. We watch it sometimes during the holidays, and it's something that's truly special.”(audio courtesy of Scott Moore; George Blaha on the Spartan Sports Network)MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

WKAR Public Media is celebrating a century of service as AM 870 went on the air in August of 1922. Wharton Center for Performing Arts is celebrating 40 years of providing a wide array of world class arts and entertainment for mid-Michigan and beyond. And the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum opened its doors 10 years ago. The three leaders of these MSU institutions join the program today. Shawn Turner is the interim director of broadcasting at MSU and general manager of WKAR Public Media. Eric Olmscheid is executive director of Wharton Center, and Steven Bridges is interim director of the Broad Art Museum. “You don't get to stick around for 100 years without doing something right,” says Turner. “WKAR went on the air on August 18 of 1922. When we originally went on the air, WKAR was about providing agricultural information to local farmers and quickly evolved to providing additional programming to the local community. If you look at what's happened over the past hundred years, WKAR has been a leader in innovation when it comes to providing news and information and entertainment to the community. We've come from providing those very direct and limited broadcasts to providing programing and education.“Today we have one of the most popular classical radio stations in all of Michigan. And when we look to the future of WKAR, our viewers and listeners are going to see additional content that's really going to connect with this community. Our evolution has been one of responding to people in the community, responding to our listeners and our viewers, and making sure that at every turn we're doing the right things to support them and their needs.”“Wharton Center is coming up on its 40th anniversary on the 25th of September,” says Olmscheid. “On September 25, 1982, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra opened Wharton Center with a grand affair, and it's been nonstop since then. It has been nonstop in the sense of that commitment to the community and to mid-Michigan and world class performing arts and educational opportunities. The organization continues to think about what's next. We're celebrating 40 years, but we're excited about how we fit into this greater MSU 2030 Strategic Plan, the Arts Plan, and how our units collectively work more together to amplify what's happening from an arts and culture standpoint on this campus. We are continuing to evolve and thinking about how we engage and support what's happening here on campus and how are we connect with the community to be a leader in education, both in university and K-12.“It's truly just beginning, and there are so many more things ahead. As we look at developing our own strategic plan, I think of it as more of a roadmap. Where do we really want to go? And how do we want to connect with our community? People love the Wharton Center for great Broadway programming and amazing concerts, and we’re home to traditional and contemporary performing arts. All of that's going to stay, but I think how we package it and how we connect to our audiences and how we get new audiences in the door is our next chapter and our next focus.”“In the past 10 years, there's been a lot of great work, and I think we've accomplished a lot and made a lot of inroads, both in our community and as a campus leader in arts education,” says Bridges. “We’ve been a strong collaborator and partner to many different disciplines throughout those 10 years. We recently celebrated a major opening of a Zaha Hadid exhibition, which is the largest, most major retrospective of her design work to date. To have Zaha Hadid's design work placed within the architecture of her building is a truly unique and unparalleled experience. I'm very proud of that exhibition, and for us, it also signals an important shift for us looking forward into the future. “If we look back at the Broads and Hadid, they were important figures for us as an institution. Looking at the ways that they carried themselves and that they invested and provided opportunities for growth and development within their spheres of influence, there's a lot of inspiration to be taken there. Zaha Hadid famously said, ‘I think there should be no end to experimentation,’ and that's something that we take whole heartedly at the museum.”WKAR, Wharton Center, and the Broad are all part of a comprehensive campus-wide strategy called University Arts and Collections, which supports units across campus that hold significant cultural and intellectual collections that serve the research, scholarship, and outreach missions of MSU. What is it? Why now, and what are its goals and mission?“Let me start out by saying that I think this is a really amazing collaboration for the community,” continues Turner. “The fact that the three of us are here talking about our organizations and our collaborations and our willingness to work together, and that you have this broader collaboration that will really bring a level of intensity in the arts to this community that we've never seen before, is something that we're all very excited about. This is an opportunity for us to recognize that in the time that we've been a part of this community, we all have touched different parts of this community. We all have different audiences and different followings and different supporters, but those interests that this community has all converge at some point, and what we recognize is that that point is the arts. We're going to work together across the campus to make sure that these collections and these collaborations not only bring us together as organizations, but those collaborations then create new and interesting opportunities for this community to engage with the arts.”“Michigan State is such a large organization that if we don't have the intentional connectivity, it's easy for us to all drift into our own focus,” adds Olmscheid. “We all have our own priorities and strategies that roll up into this greater university plan, which I think is critically important as far as setting direction and intention and shared goals. But if we don't have that intentionality of collaboration, it's easy for us to all be in our own lane not even focused on the greater good. I think that's great. It’s really about access, and this idea that the community can come together is important as we think about our next stage and step in evolution and what we do because that's such a critical piece to our human condition. The arts are that fabric that brings us together. The weaving of the human condition is really through the arts. The arts are such a core piece of who we are and how its evolved in our day-to-day lives is very different today, but I think it's important to remember that.”“These anniversary years weren’t planned, but what a great moment to seize that opportunity and recognize the opportunities that lie before us,” Bridges says. “Culture isn't just something that kind of happens to us. It's something that we create, and we create it together. We all work in the service of this university, the student body, and the faculty and staff and researchers here. But we work for the greater community of mid-Michigan, Lansing and beyond.“Moving forward we want to create more porousness, if you will, between our organizations, but also with the communities that we serve. We want feedback from them directly about what they want to see from us and meet them where they are to create a greater sense of belonging and collectiveness that I think will be more important in terms of ingraining the value of arts and culture within our communities and within our lives.”“Eric talked about access. And when we think about access over at WKAR, part of that for us is going out into the community and finding out what the community wants and what the community needs to feel supported by WKAR,” says Turner. “What is the community interested in with regards to the arts? This is a collaboration, not only between us, but between these organizations in the community. This is an interactive relationship, and so I hope that people feel as excited about this as we do because you're going to have an opportunity to shape the future of these organizations and shape the future of the arts in this community.”“The arts have this really important place in us as human beings, and they connect us,” Olmscheid says. “It's a natural connection, a connective tissue. Here at MSU, the arts have that same kind of connective tissue across campus and across our organizations. What are our plans as we look at connecting to the research endeavor and to looking at academic connections and many other tentacles into the campus community that are beyond just the arts and cultural components? That's the piece that I think is the chapter that is yet to be written. How are we continuing to evolve in that way across the campus and really infusing the arts to be a valuable tool across every piece of MSU?”“That resonates with the values of the museum and the University,” adds Bridges. “It has a large part to do with creating vibrant, welcoming communities and the next generation of arts leaders and stewards of culture within this country and region. The place of the arts as a generative force within our communities and the understanding that a creative approach to thinking and knowledge production are applicable far beyond the arts and into all disciplines. The integration of the arts across campus and into our daily lives is critical to creating exactly that kind of community.“There's a great opportunity to always see and experience and know things differently through the arts, and I think there's a real educational value, but also an expansion of your mind and awareness, which allows you to engage with different cultures, lived experiences and perspectives. That creates more well-rounded individuals and therefore better communities and better societies.”“We're all living at a time when there are a lot of stresses,” concludes Turner. “There's a lot going on in our environment that can make us feel anxious. And as we sit around the table here today, I think about the ability of these organizations to not only help people be well informed about their world, but to Eric's point, it's an opportunity for people to go to a place where we can let the stress go, and we can let the anxiousness go, and we can experience the arts in ways that help us all feel rejuvenated and help us all refresh and help us come back to our world with a new perspective. As I sit here with these gentlemen, and as I think about the collaborations that are to come, that excites me, especially at a time when I think that's something that we all need.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

She's also open about being sober and how her ongoing recovery has transformed her life from, as she says, a stark soul-sick place to one rich with friends and activities she loves to do like reading by the lake on a Michigan summer day, supporting working women in any way she can, and connecting with college students and young adults who have courageously found their way to recovery.Susan was both Homecoming Grand Marshal and an MSU Commencement speaker in 2019. She has bachelor’s and master's degrees in advertising and public relations from MSU. She's also a prolific author, and her latest book is titled The Little Book of College Sobriety. Susan tells why she chose MSU for college and describes how MSU prepared her for her career. And she talks about going from writing questionnaires to working at HBO then on to helping create some of America’s most-watched television channels. And she talks about her own path to sobriety.“I'm one of those people who never had any real consequences from my alcohol use, but I was at a place of horrible loneliness and just feeling utterly alone. And it made no sense because I was happily married, starting a family, and had a great job. I didn't understand it.“But what helped to numb it was many glasses of wine every night when I got home. I was in high stress roles. Alcohol really helped with that up until the point where it didn't anymore, it just stopped working. And then it was a very dark place and I realized that I needed to do something to help myself. And while I was at HGTV, I started that sort of slow, painful walk toward recovery.“The book is called The Little Book of College Sobriety: Living, Happy, Healthy, and Free. There are 12 stories in the book, and they're from all over the country. I do have four or five MSU stories, but then I have stories from Colorado and Texas and Virginia and Ohio. The students helped me with everything from the title of the book to their stories themselves, which they put in there.“And their stories are about their journey from despair and addiction into this hope-rich place of recovery. And their stories were so tremendously inspiring to me. I have written two books, so I know how to write a book. I thought I could capture their stories. And I put my story in there, too. This as a book that students who might be questioning whether they should be experiencing college sober could pick up, and maybe they could learn something from it.”You're very involved with MSU's Collegiate Recovery Community. Why is it important to you to talk about substance use disorder and recovery with college students?“It's important to me because I remember when I was a college student and I felt something was wrong with me because I drank so much and abused drugs. And yet, I was in the Honors College. There was just something that was completely disjointed about that. If I had known the questions to ask myself back then and if there had been a Collegiate Recovery Community for me to walk into a lounge and to see people who were happy and who were experiencing college sober, maybe my whole experience of college would've been very different. And maybe it wouldn't have taken me two more decades to get to that place of recovery.”And what do you get from being involved with college students?“Oh, I get so much. It's all about the students. They inspire me every day. They'll send me little notes, and I'll send them notes congratulating them on a sobriety date. They'll tell me about their trips. I feel like I'm sort of the aunt. I'm not anybody's mom. I'm not really related to anybody. They're more open with me than they might be with others who are family. And they've become very dear to me, all of them. And they inspire me. They helped me with my sobriety and my recovery.”Why is the transparent discussing of recovery important?“It's important because mental health is just a part of who we are. We basically are our physical selves, our mental selves, and our social selves. And we try to take care of our physical selves. I mean, not all of us do, but we know about taking care of our physical selves. We know about taking care of our social well-being, especially after COVID, and the importance of being interconnected. But when it comes to our mental health, no one wants to own it or talk about it. It's our culture and I think it's ridiculous. Our mental health is just one part of who we are and it's not even the most important part unless you don't care for it, then it may become the most important part with a lot of negative consequences. I try to model for others that you can live a life of recovery, and you can talk about mental health. I think that hopefully some people will listen and maybe it'll open them up a little bit.”When you think back, what do you imagine the college version of you would've done with the content of the book?“I would have been steadier. I would've had better peace of mind. I would've had more friends, real friends, safe friends. College for me, I mean, it was fun. I would always use that word if anybody asked me, yes, it was fun. But it was also an emotional struggle for me in large part because of the drugs and alcohol.”What would you say are some key takeaways from the book that you'd like people to have and your advice for anyone struggling with substance use disorder?“I personally believe that substance use disorder is a disease of disconnectedness. I believe that an individual just feels completely apart and utterly alone. The antidote to that is finding a community. One of the reasons I wrote the book is only 5 percent of universities around the country have these communities like Michigan State has. All the proceeds from the book are going to a national organization that will grow these recovery communities. You just need to find people who you can feel comfortable and safe with. And after that, recovery is a beautiful, hope-rich way to live.”And what message, Susan, do you have for alumni interested in getting involved with Michigan State University students and initiatives of all kinds?“It starts with what's your passion. Let's say you're a veteran and you want to have some sort of engagement with the vets who are on campus. You can do that. Let's say you love music or you're a musician and you want to have some connection with the musicians at the music school on campus. You can do that. It really depends. I love the students. It may be that certain individuals would prefer to teach a class, or suggest some curriculum, or make donations. There are all kinds of ways you can get involved. For me, though, it begins and ends with the students.”I have one other question on your TV career before I let you go. We hear about cord cutters and how many are paying more for apps than they were for cable. Where is this crazy world of TV and media consumption going in your view?“I feel like we're going in a cyclical way. We're going back to the way it was. Yeah, there are a lot of cord cutters and people are just buying individual networks like Netflix and Amazon Prime and others. That sounds to me a whole lot like Cable TV was 10 or 20 years ago. I believe that we'll have more ability to choose what we want, but there will be a price point issue just like there always has been. And a network like Netflix is now looking at an ad-supported option. When we built cable networks HGTV and CNBC, we had two sources of revenue. They have only always had one source of revenue, which is subscribers. So now they're looking at, ‘Oh my God, how do I grow more revenue?’ And this may work for certain people. They might be okay with it for a lesser price point. I feel like it's so much of the same, only being repackaged and called something different.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

As the chief continues to reorganize the department, today we’re focusing on the Police Services Bureau. We have with us today Captain Sherief Fadly. He leads the Patrol Division inside the Police Services Bureau. And Captain Dan Munford oversees the Community Engagement Unit.“The Community Engagement Unit is a team comprised of four sergeants and me,” says Munford. “We're spread out throughout the different neighborhoods on campus, and our goal is just to reach out and be a contact and liaison for our students, faculty and staff within the residential neighborhoods.”“I'm entrusted by the VP to run our Patrol Division, our K-9 Unit, and our IRSRT, which is our tactical team,” says Fadly. “Our Patrol Division is a fully functional; we're a police service. We're vested with the authority as police officers sworn in the state of Michigan. We also are deputized in Ingham County because we have property all over Ingham County, and sometimes we're called for mutual aid assists. We have a 24/7 365-day operation. We provide police services to the community ranging from anything from bike larcenies to domestics, narcotics calls, drug calls, and active shooters if there's that type of call. We respond essentially from mild to wild, Russ.”And Chief, why did you reorganize in this way?“It’s about evolving to meet the needs of the campus and how we engage with our community,” says Lynch. “It’s having a specific unit that spends time engaging with the housing staff and with the student affairs staff on a regular basis as often as possible.“A good example is Dan's office is in the main library. These offices have existed for years within various buildings within the campus. It’s a philosophy of continuous engagement. It's trying to be proactive with the comfort level with our community and how they become more comfortable with us and the roles that we play, specifically from a community engagement piece. And that will continue to evolve.“We also looked at what types of calls are most common for us. We have a number of officers on patrol, and as we talk to Deputy Chief Andrea Munford and Community Support, we have started also to invest in supporting mental health issues and sexual assault investigations. We try to balance our manpower to meet the needs of the community.”Lynch explains the difference between community service and community support. And we learn more about the “very popular” K-9 unit and the versatility of MSU’s officers from Fadly. “I believe an MSU police officer can go anywhere in policing,” continues Fadly. “I don't believe just anyone can come to MSU and police.” Fadly shares a story of MSU officers wrangling 40 beef cattle in the middle of the night. “We're here 24/7,” says Munford. “We are highly trained. Don't be afraid to talk to us. We love talking to people, especially in my role. If you ever see me out, that's what we do. We're dedicated to this university, we're dedicated to this job, to the students, faculty, staff, and their safety. It's a great place to work.”“The addition of the comfort K-9s is something else that we see that our community values and needs,” Lynch adds. “K-9s want to help to soothe and help with stress for those of our community, that's part of it as well. And we are starting a Citizens Police Academy and it will go through the semester. We have 20 participants. There's been a lot of interest from our community members for it. And it's an opportunity to be transparent on how the department operates and why things are done in a certain manner. And it's beginning of fall semester, so there are lots of things going on. Everything from the move-in to the beginning of football season and everything in between.”“Please remember what Captain Mumford said, we're very approachable,” says Fadly. “Come meet and know your MSU police and public safety officers. We're that resource, we're there for them. We don't pick and choose our calls. When the call comes in, we answer them. We want the community to be comfortable knowing that it's a partnership. We're here to serve with a second to none type of response and everybody's behind that. You'll see it in the interactions between our department and the community members. I'm very pleased with that.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sunday at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

McPherson’s wife Joanne, who as First Lady of Michigan State University founded Safe Place, the first shelter at a university to provide support for victims of domestic violence and stalking, died in June.“She was so dedicated to Safe Place and so committed to having it work. Of course, now after all these decades really, it's worked very well. She always had an idea, like when we got here, Beaumont Tower’s bells weren't ringing, and they hadn't rung for about a year. She said, ‘What's this? The Beaumont Tower bells need to ring.’ In short time, the bells were ringing, and they've rung ever since. Safe Place and the Beaumont Tower bells, and the signs at campus entrances were a couple of her accomplishments.“When we got here, for whatever reason, the signs entering campus were a set of wire structures and they looked pretty bad. Joanne never wanted things to look bad. They're now stone and permanent, and they look really good. They've been that way since about 1994, and that was Joanne saying ‘What's this?’"McPherson talks about growing up in West Michigan and always knowing he would attend MSU, just like all his siblings did. And he says “MSU opened up the world to me.” Then a stint in the Peace Corps inspired his lifetime of work on international issues. He describes working in both the Ford and Reagan White Houses. He was working for Bank of America in San Francisco after the Reagan years, and that’s when the MSU presidency opened.“Running Michigan State was a dream I never really expected to even have an opportunity to do. You can imagine what my seven brothers and sisters living in West Michigan thought. By that time, unfortunately, my father and mother had passed away. I think often, and certainly did back then, how sad it was that they weren't around because, for my father especially, this would have been special.”McPherson talks about a couple of his accomplishment he’s most proud of like bringing the Detroit College of Law to MSU and beginning the conversations that led to MSU’s presence on Grand Rapids’ Medical Mile.“The leader of this effort was Judge Dick Suhrheinrich. Without Dick Suhrheinrich we wouldn't have a law school. He is really a grand man with enormous capability. We did put that law school together. First, there was some thought it might be in Detroit, which wasn't optimal. There were some issues and ultimately it came here as an independent school.“They had some real self-identity that they were intent to protect, which I thought was reasonable. The agreement that I had with them was I would never push for there to be a closer affiliation. They may decide they wanted it, and that may be appropriate at some time, but it's not going to be MSU that pushes a closer affiliation. Before I left, they came to me and said, ‘We want a closer affiliation,’ and now, after several years, it's called the Michigan State University College of Law. “The medical school idea came together in the years after I left. In my mind, the key decision and key meeting - there were several; anything like this has several key meetings - was a meeting I had with Rich DeVos in the hanger in the Grand Rapids airport where I laid out how we wanted to do this. Basically, DeVos said, ‘It's a good idea.’ and it wouldn't have happened without DeVos' important key intervention in the years afterwards it unfolded.”Talk about APLU and its mission.“We’re very aggressive and active in Washington on appropriations for universities, and we have a deep commitment to student degree completion, to equity, and to minority students having the same percentages of graduation rates as majority students. I'm pleased that current MSU President Stanley is on the APLU board. “Sam is a guy who we at APLU have always seen as a guy we could go to to get things done. During the pandemic, his medical expertise was invaluable. The presidents of this organization from around the country get together, and Sam was a person who could serve with real expertise and talk about the problems we were all having. Sam has always been a go-to guy. For him to come to Michigan State was just outstanding for Michigan State and for him.”What concerns you about higher education's future? What are you hopeful about? What keeps you up at night? What are some challenges and opportunities moving forward?“We need to continue to increase our graduation rates and decrease the time it takes to earn a degree. We've got to have more students graduate and do so in less time. Of course, there are cost considerations. Legislatures provide a substantially lower percentage of the cost than they once did. The Pell Grant money is helpful, and we've pushed hard for more Pell money. “There's this whole set of equity, graduation, and cost issues that, of course, I could spend all your program on because I'm so immersed in them that are of deep concern. On the other hand, there are some successes. I looked at ALPU numbers over the last 10 years under Department of Education data, and our Hispanic students over the last 10 years have grown 70 percent. The numbers for Black students haven't moved that much. The Hispanic student population has grown.“These are the kinds of issues we need to continue to really grapple with and make progress on now. We know how to graduate students better than we did. We've got the technology. I know these are important issues for Michigan State. Graduation rates here are quite high, but I know there's a commitment to make them higher.”What do you hope your legacy is as president of MSU, or do you not even worry about that kind of thing?“Well, I think if you worry about it too much, it's a mistake. There were certainly some key things that I'm very proud of. To me, ultimately, what a university presidency needs to be about is what kind of education students get. Michigan State happily and successfully educates many students, so I start there.“The law school is important, and so is beginning the work on the medical school in Grand Rapids. This place is so complex. There are so many things that I learned and was part of. As I've said several times, every project has many fathers and mothers and many contributors, so I was proud to lead Michigan State for those years.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your show. 

“On November 10 the museum will turn 10 years old. When the museum opened and was founded in 2012, there was a great outpouring and show of support and excitement," says Bridges. "That’s continued through the years, and we’ve softened some of the hard angles, if you will, of the museum to bring in a better diversity of audiences and build a sense of inclusivity. The museum is on this campus in service to MSU and to the broader mid-Michigan region that we serve. We offer a wide range of exhibitions, and we promote faculty and student engagement with the museum. But these are also areas I think we can really lean into further and develop more. We want to bring out the collection formally known as the Kresge Art Museum Collection and make sure that it's a pivotal hallmark piece of who we are as an institution.”Bridges discusses the September 17 (B)road to Ten fundraising event benefitting the new Open Storage Center—a project designed to bring major parts of the collection out of private, offsite storage and into the museum for public enjoyment. And he highlights other exhibits and events at the museum.“There’s a great opportunity for us to continue to embed ourselves and integrate ourselves across campus. We're a part of the university arts and culture and collections unit on campus now. And this integration of arts across campus is really important. While we hope that people always come and visit us, I want to make a concerted effort to get the arts into classrooms and into other areas of campus and make those connections to make sure that all students and all faculty understand the importance of working arts into the curriculum and into the experience more generally at the university.“Where we’re located on campus is a huge benefit to us being at the gateway between the university campus and our greater communities, but there's a lot more campus that sits to the south of us and all around us. Breaking down some of those barriers, shortening those distances, and making sure that people understand that we exist here for them and in the service of them is important to me. That takes a lot of work. It takes a lot of outreach, a lot of communication, and a lot of relationship building. It’s an opportunity to work with a wide range of people. Asserting the role of the arts on campus and the importance of arts as a tool for research within a research context is a way for the artist to think about things differently. That is something that I'm passionate about, and I hope to bring others into the fold.“Ten years have been incredible. These anniversary years are always great moments for reflection, but it's also about the future. We've set a great groundwork for this institution in the past 10 years, but the next 10 years are going to be even more exciting. We have new projects and new ideas coming forward. Our strategic planning will open new ideas and room for growth and expansion. And most importantly, we want to make sure that everyone understands that we exist for them. We are free. We are now open Wednesday through Sunday. Whether you're interested in contemporary art or ancient art and antiquities or looking for family day programs or other kinds of educational opportunities, the museum has so much to offer. We hope that you come for one thing and you experience so much more.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

I had the pleasure and privilege of talking with Dr. Potchen in the summer of 2007 in his beautiful Radiology Healing Gardens. He was an early and enthusiastic supporter of the MSU/WJR partnership. This is an encore presentation of that conversation. “My job as I see it is the development of human capital,” he says. “I’m trying to enhance other people’s opportunity to lead a useful life. If you add value to others, revenue will flow. “Management is the art and science of getting the job done, but leadership is the art and science of getting the job done with and through people. Everybody around us can teach us something.”   In our conversation, he talks about the origin and mission of the Department of Radiology and technology’s impact on the practice of medicine. And he says the key issues in healthcare are “cost and accessibility.”  He describes the evolution of medical education and his role as the faculty’s representative to the Board and administration. And he shares his thoughts on the issues in higher education that concern him. “The biggest thing about higher education that is at issue today is the failure of society to realize the tremendous need for ultimately having economic development derive from the advantage of having better human capital. What universities do is improve the value of people to society. And we have been remiss in keeping it funded well.” Dr. Potchen shares some of his “Potchen-isms” like “The world is full of unmet friends” and “Knowledge is something you can give away and still keep.” Rest in peace, Dr. Potchen! MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

There’s a buzz in the air as fall semester gets underway.“I'm incredibly excited. And I think if we were to measure my resting heart rate right now, we'd find that it's higher than it normally is because this is an exciting time for us. And as we start the new year, we're anticipating perhaps our largest entering class ever in the first-year class, and we have one of our largest transfer student numbers as well. We're excited that people want to come to MSU and that they're very interested in learning and living here. To all the students and parents, I look forward to seeing you on move-in day. It's going to be exciting, and we're going to have a great semester.”President Stanley explains the university’s holistic approach to student success and shares its approach to COVID this year.“The most important part of our approach is always vaccination, and we know that the vaccines help prevent hospitalizations and deaths. They can help mitigate transmission to some degree, and they really are the key to keeping our campus safe. We're asking that all faculty, staff, and students receive a vaccine and at least one booster; that requirement continues. And we had great compliance with the incoming class. Mask wearing is optional now except in some special facilities involving healthcare.“But for the rest of the time you have discretion when to wear a mask. And the only other exception I would say is if you know you have COVID, and you're isolating because of that, we will ask you to wear a mask for the first five days, according to CDC regulations. We want to make sure people have access to testing so they can know if they have any of the symptoms of COVID so they're not exposing others needlessly. But what I'm really looking forward to is coming back together again.”President Stanley welcomes University Physician Michael Brown to his new post and talks about seven MSU programs being in the ShanghaiRanking Consultancy’s 2022 Global Ranking of Academic Subjects Top 25, including Education at No. 2 and Communication at No. 3. And he talks about points he made in a recent The Hill piece on doubling the size of Pell Grants.“Pell Grants are a remarkable development by the federal government that provide dollars that go directly to students and their families to support their education. And it really makes a difference to economically disadvantaged students. The Pell Grants are based on family income and levels that really creep up into what we would call middle class now because college expenses have increased. And so it's a wonderful program, but it doesn't cover enough. As the years have gone by, tuition has gone up. The Pell grant doesn't go as far as it once did. It used to cover about 80 percent of costs; that number is now closer to 30 or 40 percent. By doubling Pell, we'd bring it much more in line with the cost of tuition these days and remove one very important barrier to people going to college for the opportunity to reach their full potential.”Stanley reflects on being on hand with Governor Whitmer and President Biden (virtually) for the signing of the CHIPS and Science ACT and being named to the Executive Committee for the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. He talks about WKAR Public Media’s Century of Service and thanks alumni and donors for a record year of giving back.“I'm so grateful to those who've invested in Michigan State University, particularly our alumni, who are up 26.6 percent in terms of percentage of people who gave, which is incredible. More than 9,700 individuals contributed for the first time. So that's fantastic. We had almost 10,000 people joining us for the first time. And to hit a record when you're not in a campaign or towards the end of the campaign is impressive. My hat also goes out to our Advancement team for the work they're doing and all the deans, department chairs, faculty, and everyone who helps contribute to the fundraising effort. Everybody did very, very well.”And you're recently back from a trip to Michigan's Upper Peninsula, the home of Tom Izzo. Your thoughts on your trip there and what you took away about MSU's impact. And you've got a new contract ready for the Board to approve for Tom Izzo that makes him a Spartan for Life.“You can't talk about the Upper Peninsula and our mission there without mentioning Tom. I'm so glad that he's with us as a Spartan for life now. This contract is certainly well deserved and is going to keep him here and keep him working with the university when he finishes his basketball coaching, which I hope is not anytime soon. At that point in time, though, he's going to be associated with Advancement and the university to do work as an ambassador for us. And I can't think of a better one. But it was a great opportunity for me to get up to the U.P. And it took three years, which was way too long. It's beautiful driving along Route 2 looking at both Lake Michigan during my drive and Lake Superior - incredible vistas. And then I had the chance to visit some of the places where MSU is having an impact. We've been in the U.P. for more than 100 years.“Let's all stay safe. Let's stay focused. It's going to be wonderful to be back together again. It doesn't seem like so long since we were coming together last year, and I look forward to a really productive and successful semester.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The guest this month is Johannes Bauer, Director of the Quello Center at Michigan State University discussing the new MOON-Light project. Spearheaded by MSU and funded by a $10.5 million federal Broadband Infrastructure Program grant through the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), the Michigan Open Optical Network – Leveraging Innovation to Get High-Speed Technology (MOON-Light) will lead to equal and open access to broadband services to all Michiganders and can be leveraged to deliver education, healthcare, and employment services.  MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“When the opportunity came around to consider this position, it was a no brainer for me,” says Olmscheid. “It was a great opportunity. I think Michigan is a beautiful state. My home state is Minnesota and it’s similar. Michigan is uniquely different in its own way. There are so many parallels to Minnesota and Michigan that I loved. But more importantly, what attracted me is Wharton Center’s commitment to excellence and its commitment to the work that it's done over the last 40 years here in the Lansing community. And the connection to the university is unparalleled.”What are some of your goals?“In the immediate future, we have to look at how we live in a pandemic world. We're kind of living in this COVID moment, but also how do we emerge from that and what does that look like? Our habits have changed as consumers and buyers. Likely, you are not going to as many events or you might stream more on your television set at home. We're asking questions around what that looks like for us. Because we know foundationally, we can't replace the live performance experience.“There's something about sharing the space, time and physical air with folks and artists on stage. That shared experience is so critical to the core of what we do, and we know we can't replace that. It's a matter of figuring out what the experiences are that communities and audiences long for now and what will drive them to come to the center. All our habits have changed and shifted because of the pandemic. We know that we have to shift with it, and the pathway forward is a little unknown.“One of the goals is to figure out how we define that and how we define success in the future. And what does the future of our industry look like? Because of that shifting landscape, there are so many new opportunities that are yet to be written, and I think we have to be openhearted to what that looks like and not just be traditionalists.”What are some challenges and opportunities ahead?“The demographics of our audiences are continuing to change so we have to answer questions around who our audience is and what do they want. One of the best things that we can do as a center is listen to what people want and what people will respond to. More importantly, being on Michigan State University's campus, what are the students desiring and how are we connected to them? I think that's the future of how we build audiences and that's the future of how we have arts engagement. It has to be beyond what we currently do in finding audiences to backfill audiences or fill the seats of those events. But it's more importantly finding more pathways and more connectivity and more relevance to audiences who are not currently engaged with who we are.“That's a huge task. That's multiple many years in the making to pull that off. But it's really about starting the conversation of what will engage people and how will we get them in the door. We know once they're engaged, we can bring them along the journey. It's that first invitation, that first bit of relevant experience that will drive them to who we are.“It's important to remember how the arts play such an important part of each of our lives. Art is around us everywhere. It doesn’t need to be formal or on a stage or in a museum. It's important for us to remember that arts are such an important piece of who we are and how we connect with each other as human beings and build our empathy. It’s important to find ways you can engage arts in your world every day and be open-hearted and open-minded.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Dan Gould has recently retired as director of the institute. He’s a professor of kinesiology and the emeritus Gwendolyn Norrell Professor of Youth Sport and Student Athlete Well Being. Karin Pfeiffer is also a professor of kinesiology and is assuming the role of director from Dan.Gould talks about the institute being born out of the state legislature in 1978.“The Institute for the Study of Youth Sports was started by the state legislature,” says Gould. “Our mission is to scientifically study sport for children and youth and then to disseminate that information to the larger sporting public to make sports better for kids.”Pfeiffer is an exercise physiologist.“My research has focused on two major lines,” Pfeiffer says. “One is how we assess how physically active people are, and the other is interventions to increase physical activity. Most of my work has been done with children and adolescents.”“A lot of my research is in the area of sports psychology and the psychology of coaching,” Gould continues. “I have done a lot of programmatic work on what makes an effective coach. We've really focused on life skills like psychosocial skills and characteristics like teamwork, goal setting, and work ethic that kids can learn through sport and then hopefully - they're called life skills - transfer those skills to other aspects of their life. I was a wrestler through high school and college, and I learned to work hard. Did that transfer to other avenues like being a professor?”What are some of the key and current topics that the institute grapples with?“One is the equity issue,” says Gould. “There are really two youth sports in America. There are the middle-class youth sports where the kids go to sports camps or they're on travel teams and pay for play, and then there's either rural kids or urban kids who have fewer opportunities. How do we bridge that divide? That's one. How do we further increase quality coaching? I think that's a big one that we want to work on going forward. Youth sports has become very professionalized. Ninety percent of kids are never going to play in college. How do we have them fall in love with physical activity?”“Even though we could view sports as a means to achieve physical activity recommendations, we don't always have the best-case scenario in terms of what's happening at practice,” Pfeiffer says. “And I think we have a couple of issues going on where parents are dropping children off at practice thinking, ‘Okay, they're going to get a lot of physical activity during this time,’ and most people would think ‘Yep, that's what's going to happen.’ But in the end, if you examine what's occurring during some of these practices, there's a fair amount of standing around.“We've lost that notion of free play, which is also a very important element of development. And I think the other is just what is happening in these practices, not just with are they getting enough physical activity while they're there. But then the skill development piece of that as well, and are they really getting the skills they need to develop fully as an athlete? Whatever happened to intramural sports? Why is it that we have to be the cream of the crop or you just drop out of sport? Why can't we have this whole piece of sports for fun? Maybe you're not the best one out there but you just want to play. People often fall out of love with sport after they don't make an elite team, and that's not how it should be. Everybody should be playing for fun. Fun is the reason why people do a lot of things, including physical activity including sports.”What’s your advice for parents and coaches?“We know people do things because it's fun,” says Gould. “And people do things when they feel competent. If you don't feel competent, you're highly likely to drop out. Now, competent doesn't mean that I play on the MSU football team. Competence means I swam today for fitness. Well, I can swim. I can do the strokes. If you couldn't do that, it's not going to be very much fun. We want to create an enjoyable atmosphere of fun, but it's not just an unorganized rolling out of the ball and laughing. We're also teaching kids fundamental skills.“How do we develop kids’ competence relative to their own abilities so they can go out and have fun doing it? And then also it's not just the physical side. It's a coach who's having fun and being supportive and encouraging.”“I think sometimes what happens, not necessarily in the older age groups but in some of the younger age groups, you just have a parent who, thank goodness, does volunteer but doesn't necessarily have a whole lot of background in coaching,” Pfeiffer continues. “And that's okay, but it would be great if we can help that parent a little bit by teaching them some of these kinds of characteristics of having fun and developing skills.”“It doesn't have to be really complicated if you're a parent or a youth coach,” Gould says. “There's something called self-determination theory. All people and all kids have three basic needs. One is relatedness; you want to belong to something. Another is competence; you want to feel like you're getting better. And the other is autonomy or choice. I’d like to get every coach to go to a practice and say, ‘What did I do today to make the kids have better relatedness? What can I do to increase competence by having each kid set a goal? What can I do for autonomy?’ “Our colleague Jim Pivarnik studied exercise in pregnancy, and I always remember some of the research his students did that showed that physically active pregnant women have kids who are more physically active later in life. Be physically active with your kids. Have some balls in the backyard or a little swimming pool. Do things with your kids outdoors. Buy balls and bats and your kids will more likely develop these skills if they have an environment that breeds that.”“There is a lot of optimism just with the interest in sport and how many people are into it and want to participate, and I think that's good, and I think we can foster that even better than what we do now,” Pfeiffer adds. “Mental health has really risen to the top as an important issue for us to address. Safety always needs to be at the top of our minds. We need to pull ourselves back from this almost professionalization of youth sport. We need a little bit of a reset in terms of that. I don't know how we're going to do it, but we need to.”“As I retire, I'm excited about how much more we know,” says Gould. “I was going through some old materials when I cleaned my office and there were hardly any books. Now, there's so much information coming out that we know a lot more about how to help people in these endeavors than we did when we started out; that's a real positive.“Concerns? The U.S. has fallen behind other countries in the world because we have no government agency that looks after sport - a research dissemination system to get parents information funded by the government. Here, we have to backdoor it through other agencies. Now, that's my concern. The good thing is Health and Human Services, Karin's been involved in some of this, are trying to get more involved and do some things.“The Safe Sport Act is a good example. The government passed that but didn't fund it enough so they can't keep up with all the cases. I'm not a huge fan of big government, but at the same time, our government probably needs to get involved. We need a policy on youth in general and on youth sport. To me, there's opportunity there. But it's a concern.“The quality of coaching is so important. You don’t gain all the life skills sports can teach from just being in sports. You catch it from having a really good coach who is intentional about what she's teaching and talks about teamwork and then talks about how that would transfer to the classroom or work environment.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The W. M. Keck Foundation has awarded Michigan State University’s Marcos Dantus and Elad Harel $1.3 million to start a new revolution in the way we use optical microscopes to understand the living world.The philanthropic grant is one of six awarded nationally by the Keck Foundation in 2022 for science and engineering. This also marks the first time that scientists at MSU have claimed the award.This also marks the first time that scientists at MSU have claimed the award. The Keck Foundation encourages creativity by rewarding transformative projects that other funding agencies might see as too ambitious or risky. “This is a really remarkable achievement,” says Douglas Gage, MSU's vice president for research and innovation. “The Keck Foundation is a funder of scientific research, and they value one thing, I think, over anything else, and that's transformative innovation. They do not want to fund research that can be funded by any other agency. “One of the things that it does for MSU is that it really validates the innovation that we have going on at the university. And we know that, but it's great to have a national organization really validate what we know about MSU. We're very grateful for this proposal and that it was funded. I'm convinced that the work that Elad and Marcos will do will indeed be transformational. If they can do the imaging of living systems at the resolution that they propose, that will be remarkable, and it will be indeed transformational. The innovation here comes from two very independently innovative scientists bringing together their ideas in really a novel way. I think that's often the seed that leads to innovation. We try to promote that at MSU, so we're looking forward to the outcome of this research. I think it's going to be something to watch.”“Our key goal here is to see if we can see the machinery of life in action with a resolution of nanometers,” says Dantus. “And that would be thousandths of millionths of a meter. It's really tiny length scales. In most of the cases, our microscope will not look at a space much larger than the width of a hair. Most of the time, we're going to be way, way below that. So, our main goal is resolution in the nanometer scale and time resolution. If we get there, we both will be so excited. We will be jumping up and down. And I think a lot of our colleagues will be equally excited.”“The challenge has been, as Marcos described, that we tend to think that we can see these molecular machines in motion,” Harel adds. “And the truth is we can't. What we can see are these kinds of static snapshots. And we infer; we're very good at inferring what happens from those static snapshots. It's like if you see a picture, you can infer a lot of maybe what's going on in the picture. But if you see a picture only every hour, you're really missing a lot of the details of what's happening in between. How are people communicating? What's the social structure? What's happening in that scene? And that's kind of where we are. We're very good at inferring, and enormous ingenuity has gone into figuring out the mechanisms of various biological processes. But it's a very, very slow discovery process because every kind of science that one does is only revealing a very small, narrow window into that process. By combining enough little snapshots of information, we can form a hypothesis of what's happening.“That's really different than being able to observe it directly at the time scales that matter. There are different technologies for getting those snapshots. The technology that does not exist now and what's specifically addressed in this Keck Foundation grant is how do we make these movies at the requisite time and spatial resolution to see directly what's happening and to accelerate that discovery process? Because we are, after all, very visual. Human beings are just visual. We understand things through how we see them. That's still a very large missing piece.“It's not just that we'll be excited to see better resolution. There's always a goal of improving resolution, but it's really to help aid our fundamental understanding of these complex processes so that we can advance science in general in ways just like microscopy advanced science 100 years ago. The advent of microscopy accelerated the knowledge of the microscopic world. That's the same kind of goal here. Just like astronomy where the more powerful telescopes are accelerating the discovery of the planets and the evolution of the cosmos, we would like to apply that to the nanoscopic world, the world in which molecules and proteins and cells live.”“The biggest challenge is that we intend to use visible light,” continues Dantus. “Visible light has a certain wavelength, which is about half a micron, and so there is the so-called defraction limit that tells that you cannot resolve elements that are smaller than half of the wavelength. That's the number one challenge. We're going to be using ideas that are borrowed from magnetic resonance imaging, but that's the first challenge. It's like, who do we think we are that we can break the fraction limit?“We think we have a new idea on how to do this, and if we are successful, we are predicting that our method will be less detrimental to molecules and will allow us to image with a very high-speed entire movies so that we can see this biology of life in motion. That's the biggest challenge that I see.”“We have to kind of start with the most basic premise of the entire proposal, which is just distinguishing two things, two objects that are really close by to one another, closer than what the traditional limits impose,” Harel adds. “And then the question is, how do you extrapolate from that to, say, two dimensions or three dimensions or more complicated imaging scenarios? We really have to do some really basic research in terms of just showing what the limits are. The first MRI experiments were distinguishing two tubes of water. That's not terribly interesting. But someone said, ‘Wait a second. The brain is just a bunch of compartments of water, so can we extrapolate to that? What kind of contrast would we see in the brain or in the body, and under what circumstances do we need to enhance that contrast, or what kind of different pulse sequences can we use to see one feature and not another?’“There were decades and decades of work to get to where we are today where that can be used as a diagnostic tool and as a routine tool that doctors who are not specialists in the technology of MRI can use to make medical decisions. That's going to be the same thing here where we have to prove that these techniques are going to give information that's useful and not distorted in some way, or at least that we know what the distortions are so that we can expect them and account for them. There's a lot of work just to be done in the verification step because we don't know what we're going to see exactly, which is what makes it exciting, but also, we have to appreciate that fact.”“The first experiments will be on very small particles that are in the earth and static,” says Dantus. “But as soon as we can demonstrate that this approach works in one dimension, we already know exactly how to take it to two dimensions, and it will already have a huge impact. Our brains are now focused on getting that first step done.”“As scientists, we're always greatly appreciative of the fact that external philanthropic sources appreciate the challenges that we have to face as scientists and the infrastructure and resources that we need to really test new ideas,” Harel says. “It's very gratifying and we're extremely appreciative of the fact that we're given that opportunity and that the Keck Foundation knows and understands the kind of challenges and the kind of risks that one has to take sometimes in order to make breakthrough discoveries.“We're incredibly fortunate that we get to have that chance. That doesn't come along terribly often. We believe that something really good is going to come out of this and it's going to push science forward in one way or another. We really do thank the Keck Foundation, and we thank MSU as well for really being supportive of us and of the application and of the process to put forward the best application we could and to really be highly competitive with many, many other universities and very strong groups applying for this as well.”“We’re proposing something that has never been proposed so it’s a high risk, but high reward,” says Dantus. “It's wonderful that there are institutions like the Keck Foundation that are saying, ‘If some scientists convince us that there is a possibility to achieve results that have never been observed before that could have a tremendous impact in science, we would like to facilitate that.’ That's really fantastic, and to be on the receiving end is just incredible. It's just a wonderful opportunity and one that we want to do the most for.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Jackson describes his background and talks about what attracted him to MSU.“Michigan State really is the prototype for what land grants were built on, and to be at the epicenter for the commitment to the roles and functions that a state should give to its citizens from a post-secondary education opportunity just seemed very opportune. I was also attracted to the hardworking spirit of Michigan State. It’s in the DNA. And MSU works hard on access to its excellence.”Jackson describes some of the excellent and highly ranked programs and curricula in the College of Education at MSU - from kinesiology to teacher education and from K-12 policy to foci on STEM education and the global nature of education. And he talks about his own research interests in hiring practices in higher education that have “looked at what we think of as organizational disparities broadly in the sense that inherently most organizations, not all, do find themselves to have consistent sets of disparities that groups have been subjected to across decades.”Dean Jackson talks about the strategic planning going on at the college that is “taking stock of where we are. Let’s anchor the important pieces and optimize opportunities to reinforce the other emerging areas in our college. And then dream. Are there spaces where we can be first that will prepare this college for the next 50 years or more?”Jackson shares some thoughts on challenges and opportunities ahead around issues like handling race issues in schools to finding the right hybrid arrangements for remote learning.“We must be able to show parents and the community that we’re addressing these issues. We have amazing faculty, staff, and students in the college. We attract students from a full spectrum of backgrounds and experiences. MSU’s College of Education is a significant crown jewel that deserves the recognition and support it has warranted locally and across the state, nation, and globe. We're thinking very responsibly about the future with a keen eye toward the beneficiaries being our graduates, and the state, and the localities that count on the College of Education to be a strong partner with them.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“Strategic communication is one of those terms that we hear thrown around a lot in the communication field. And what we're talking about with strategic communication really is the idea that we all communicate with each other daily, in organizations, interpersonally, with family and friends. And that communication is designed to relay a message between you and me right now to achieve some objective. When we talk about strategic communication, we're really talking about looking at a vision, objective, or goal for an organization and developing the communication that will help us achieve those objectives or those goals over time.“It's a field that's evolved over the years and one that I really enjoy working in because it involves not only helping organizations get from where they are today to where they want to go. But it also involves elements of crisis communication, issue communication, and a range of other things that organizations are dealing with daily. I still enjoy teaching and helping the next generation of communicators.”What made you want to take on the assignment?“When I got to know the team here at WKAR, what I found was just a great group of people who come to work every day with this idea that there's a community out there that needs information, a community out there that needs support, a community out there that relies on this station and the people at this station to keep them informed. And while it's very different than the type of service that I spent my career engaged in, it's still service to people who need your support. And so, I felt this natural kinship with the folks here. When this opportunity came along, I will tell you the only thing that gave me pause was the fact that Susi Elkins was such a phenomenal general manager here and has done such great work that I think you have to stop and think about following in the footsteps of someone like that.“The members of the WKAR team know what they're doing, and they don't need me to tell them what to do or how to do it. What they needed was someone to step in and be a leader and provide the space for them to continue to serve this community and to continue to do the things that they've been doing for so long and so well in this community. And so I said, ‘Yeah. I'll take this opportunity to do that.’"What do you see as some of the challenges facing WKAR and the opportunities inherent in some of those challenges, and what are some of your goals to meet those along the way?“We're at a sort of inflection point in public media where the days of simply turning on your television or turning on your radio and reaching your audience over the air are quickly going to be behind us. Now, to be clear, there will always be people who want to receive their news and information by turning on the television and getting it that way. And we are never going to abandon those people. We'll always be there for them. But what we've found is that there is an increasing number of people out there who want to receive their news and information on different platforms and through different digital means at different times. Sometimes they want it on demand and sometimes they want it live. And as I said, they want it from many different sources. And we must respond to that. “It's one of the reasons why during my time as interim, I'm very focused on a digital transformation that looks across our enterprise and makes sure that all the information that we are distributing and providing to the community is getting out through multiple digital platforms. We've got to make some adjustments. We've got to change. Every time I see a challenge, I see an opportunity. This is a really great opportunity for us to not only do better for our listeners and for our viewers, but to also be leaders in the public media space with the approach that we take.”What is the Century of Service?“WKAR will celebrate 100 years of service this year on August 18. WKAR Radio will be 100 years old that day. It is an unbelievable milestone that we are going to celebrate. WKAR Radio started out 100 years ago providing agricultural information to farmers in the Greater Lansing area. And over the years, we have been innovators at every turn with the support of MSU. We were an early adopter of television, and WKAR was one of the founding members of NPR and of PBS. There's an amazing amount of history and a great legacy here at this station.“When I think about things that excite me in the digital transformation, there's an opportunity to grow our audience. Public media tends to have an older audience. We tend to have people who are less entrenched in all things digital. But here's where it gets interesting. When you look at the content that's being developed here at WKAR and you look at the content that's being developed by PBS across the enterprise, that content speaks to a diverse cross section of audiences. It speaks to different communities across the country. We know that we have content that will appeal to people who may not be traditional public broadcasting consumers. The challenge for us is to figure out how to get that content to them.“We know that once we get it to them, they engage with it. We know that they like it, and we know that they'll keep coming back for more. I see this as a real opportunity for us to expand the audience of public media. I also see this as a way to serve the community. We like to refer to this as super serving the community, that is to give them more than what they expect and constantly exceed their expectations.“WKAR has been serving this community for 100 years, and we are going to continue to serve the Greater Lansing community, not only over the air, but out in the community. In order to stay connected with you, we have to be where you are. We have to get information into the channels that you want us to communicate through in order to reach you. Our objective is to provide news and information that gives our audience a view of the world that they might not get in other places. We are here to serve the community and to be a part of the community, and we're going to continue to make that our priority.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get yours shows.

The academy in Detroit is the first in the United States, launched as part of Apple’s Racial Equity and Justice Initiative. The free program offers students an opportunity to become entrepreneurs and app developers by learning the fundamentals of coding, design, marketing, and project management — with an emphasis on inclusivity and making a positive impact in local communities.HEAR the ceremony HERE: (00:00) Sarah Gretter, PhD – Director of the Apple Developer Academy(:55) – “Supa” Mario Crippen, Academy graduate(3:48) - MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D.(6:57) – Raven Scott, Academy graduate(7:45) - James Feagin, Director of Economic Mobility for the Gilbert Family Foundation(12:13) – Detroit Mayor Michael Duggan(15:18) - Team Powerhouse BiteSight presentation(21:14) – The Crew Expose presentation(26:49) – BeAware presentation(34:04) - Lisa Jackson, Apple’s Vice President of Environment, Policy and Social Initiatives(42:33) – Raven Scott’s final commentsFor more information on the programs and ways to get involved, visit the Apple Developer Academy.MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

You're in Detroit this week to congratulate the inaugural class of graduates of the Apple Developer Academy. Remind us of the academy's evolution and mission.“The academy is a groundbreaking opportunity for individuals in Detroit and all of Michigan. And this is the first Apple Developer Academy in the United States. It's an opportunity for individuals 18 and above to learn how to code and develop apps for the Apple operating system. When students finish, they're well prepared to code for Apple apps and maybe even start their own companies.”Back on campus, we're preparing for the coming academic year already. The MSU Board of Trustees last week laid the financial groundwork for the university's new fiscal year with approval of a $3.2 billion budget that supports goals outlined in our MSU Strategic Plan 2030. What are some areas of the budget you'd like to highlight for Spartans?“Student success remains a critical element. A lot of the spending that we're doing going forward, and new spending particularly, is devoted to student success, particularly economically disadvantaged first-generation students and others to help them successfully matriculate and earn degrees at Michigan State University. Our goal is to keep Michigan State University accessible to excellence.”Talk about the grant from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration that lets MSU continue our long legacy of service to the people of Michigan by working with Merit Network to expend high speed internet to areas of Michigan with limited or no broadband service.“This grant is going to make a huge difference to people in rural areas who don't have access to internet or have inadequate internet to do the things they need to do. Something we take for granted here in East Lansing is something that many don't have, or they don't have in a way that works as well as it could.” For the second time, MSU has earned a gold rating for sustainability achievements from the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. “Our goal is to get to platinum before 2030; that's part of our strategic plan. We don't want to rest on gold. This is an issue that's so important for our students, faculty and staff, and our community. It's one which we take very seriously.”President Stanley welcomes two new leaders to Spartan Athletics in softball coach Sharonda McDonald-Kelly and men’s tennis coach Harry Jadun. He shares his reflections on MSU’s Juneteenth celebration, too. And he reflects on the passing of former MSU first lady Joanne McPherson. She might best be remembered as the guiding spirit behind the creation of the MSU Safe Place in 1994, the first university-based shelter where students, staff, faculty, and their partners experiencing abusive relationships can find refuge and support.President Stanley, any final thoughts as we settle into summer but already look forward to the fall?“It's going to be exciting this year. Get ready to feel a crowd. We're looking at, perhaps, a record enrollment for this coming year. MSU has been a place that many students want to attend, and we're very happy about that. Vennie Gore is getting ready for the onslaught of the dorms, and the provost is getting the faculty and staff ready. We're adding advisors and more faculty and staff to help deal with the increase in students. And we're going to make sure that the quality of what we're doing is not hurt at all by the number of students. Instead, we'll have more outstanding individuals getting an MSU education and more opportunities for our current students to meet people from around the world and get to know what a great university is first-hand.”You can read the president's June 2022 Spartan Community Letter that we've been discussing by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu, and follow along on Instagram too, @msupresstanley. MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“Our overall goal at MSU Sports Medicine is to be a single location for patients and athletes alike to come when they're having pain, ailments, or even just looking for advice on how to get active and stay active,” says Nate Fitton, a team physician at the MSU Health Care Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center. “Our ultimate goal for all patients is to lead a fulfilling, active life. We see a wide variety of acute injuries, chronic injuries, as well as people just looking to get active and talk about nutrition, weightlifting regimens, and things like that. And so our mission is to provide that service to the community and be a nationally recognized location for patients to come and have access to world renowned providers. We really strive to be a destination for sports medicine and preventative care.”“We treat everyone,” says Jill Moschelli, a team physician at the MSU Health Care Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center. “All ages and backgrounds are welcome. You do not need to be an elite athlete to come to the Sports Medicine office. That's a question we always get. Do I need to be an athlete to come and see you? The answer is no. We will see everyone and treat everyone similarly. We just want to keep people active and doing what they love.”I didn't really realize that proactive mission either. That's really cool that you'd rather have people not have to see you, frankly.“We get that a lot, where patients come in and they're worried that we're going to tell them to stop running or walking,” continues Fitton. “That's not our goal at all. Our goal is to be creative but keep you moving. Maybe running isn't the best thing for you but riding a bike or doing the elliptical absolutely can be. It's not that we would totally eliminate things, it's really about being creative and keeping you going. That's really our ultimate goal. I tell patients regularly, yes, if you hurt because you run too much and you've got poor form, well, continuing to do that is not what we want for you. But at the same time, we want to keep you active. We look for ways to help you stay active. Sure, if you just stopped running for four weeks, it would get better, but you're going to have other issues from not running. We want to find ways to keep you going, keep you moving.”Are there new treatments on the horizon that have you excited about treating patients better?“We are all really involved in sports medicine and are at the cutting edge of what's happening in the field of sports medicine,” Moschelli continues. “Many of us are presenting at national conferences and are really involved on a national level with different societies and committees, and so we are really trying to bring that into our office. We really are offering availability to all of the cutting-edge opportunities or treatments.”“This is where we separate ourselves in that we have the power of a research university behind us,” says Fitton. “We regularly collaborate with PhD candidates and researchers on campus who are looking to advance the delivery of healthcare. That's another thing patients can look forward to when they come see us is that we have ongoing research projects. We're looking at things like osteopathic manipulative medicine and recovery from concussions to see if we can enhance or speed up the recovery by adding that treatment modality. Over in the Department of Kinesiology, they're doing a tremendous amount of ongoing research that is at the leading edge of what next-level care is going to look like. With us being involved in that, we can also provide that to our patients. I think that's really exciting.”Increasingly, more women are getting involved in sports medicine.“Historically, sports medicine has maybe not been as inclusive,” Moschelli says. “But I am very honored to be a part of the group at MSU Sports Medicine. Dr. Sheeba Joseph and I are two female providers there, and we're both team physicians for MSU athletes. There are a lot of female athletes at MSU, and they have their own set of challenges that you need to think about when treating them.”What would be some tips for the weekend warriors, or even regular exercisers, to not have to come and see you guys?“It's about moderation and approach,” says Fitton. “When you decide you’re going to start running or working out, we are in full support of that. Because the healthier you are, the less you're going to need us. Our goal is for healthy, active people.“We regularly encourage diversity in what you do. Don't run seven days a week. Run three days a week; cycle a couple days a week; try to get some swimming in or incorporate some strength training. We know that through activity and interactions that the body can start to have some overuse injuries. The best way to avoid those is through diversity of your activities. That diversity promotes full body wellness and health and strength.”“And find something you like,” Moschelli says. “Find something you enjoy doing because that's going to hopefully lead to further success in being active if you find something you enjoy. It’s good to get your joints moving in a variety of directions. We can help you be creative with your exercise and nutrition plan.”“The team approach to your delivery of care is how we're going to interact,” says Fitton. “We’re not only going to evaluate and manage and make recommendations. If we need to draw upon skills from other providers within our office offer, we're going to do so and vice versa. Additionally, we'll take it one step further. If you need to see physical therapy or another specialist, we're going to help coordinate that. And we're going to coordinate your care with your physical therapist and make sure that everyone's on the same page, and we collaborate and work together to getting you back. Rarely do we get someone in the door and say, ‘You know what? We've got nothing for you.’ That's a failure on our end. We want to always have an option to help you get better. If it's me, if it's my partners, or someone else within MSU Health Care, we're going to do that.”The MSU Health Care Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Center is in the Eyde Building on South Hagadorn Road. You can call (517) 884-6100 or go to healthcare.msu.edu.“We have availability to see people now,” says Moschelli. “If you need to be seen for any particular injury, pain, or question about your plan, we have openings now. MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

This year's keynote speaker is College of Arts and Letters English professor Julian Chambliss, who has a focus on popular culture, comics, and digital humanities, and his research explores race, identity, and power in urban spaces. His address is titled “Not Only Darkness: The Legacy and Future of Black Speculative Practice.” Chambliss' keynote will focus on Afrofuturism, what it is, and its impact on society today. His keynote will also examine the relationship between Afrofuturism and speculative practice, which refers to the exploration of new ideas and pathways that will ultimately lead to liberation. What is Afrofuturism and what has been its impact on society?“Afrofuturism is the intersection between speculation and liberation born of African diasporic experiences. It often touches on science, technology, and knowledge production and how we do that and what are our aims are for that. Ultimately, Afrofuturism is really rooted in a set of concerns that are connected to the Black experience, and it’s theorized by people who are concerned with hierarchies and control and oppression looking through ways to create a system that's less hierarchical, less oppressive, more equitable, and safer. Ultimately, the impact of that is that there is a group of people, regardless of discipline, who are committed to the idea of trying to create a more equitable and safe society. That is the thing that makes Afrofuturism so appealing.”What is speculative practice and what is its relationship with Afrofuturism?“Afrofuturism is a term that's really describing Black speculative practice. Afrofuturism was really important when it was coined in 1994 because it captured a set of practices that Black people were having. But in a hierarchical system, Black people's contributions, actions, and perspectives get erased. And so, what the term does is it calls attention to Black people who have had to speculate around liberation over and over again because the system they've been involved in is unequal. They're thinking about ways to make it more equal. It's very difficult for us to think about the United States today without the context of African Americans. In moments good and ill. Slavery is an ill. The good is its coming to an end. African Americans have been a part of this country from the beginning and their contributions in every one of those stages is something that we can't really deny.”What is the significance of Juneteenth and how has commemorating it evolved?“Juneteenth is a particularly complex holiday in part because it has come to the center of public awareness at a time when African Americans are increasingly articulating a set of understandings about the nature of a coercive society and a systemic anti-Blackness in a new way. I think one of the things that's interesting about Juneteenth is that there is an idea of commemoration within it that is celebrating the triumphs of African Americans in a very particular context and it's celebrating that context unapologetically, I would argue. This is a holiday or a commemoration that's very well known within the Black community, but it only recently became a federal holiday. And I think it has a lot to do with the fact that we had a Black president; so, celebrating Blackness is okay.“At some very basic level, Juneteenth represents the celebration of the end of a horrible system. For people of African descent and their allies, that's a very important thing. It was a horrible thing. Let's celebrate its end. That has not necessarily been the case in the public square for decades upon decades. It makes a lot of sense to say, hey, let's celebrate this thing and celebrate its perspective on the American experience.”How do Juneteenth and Afrofuturism fit together and complement each other?“With Afrofuturism, there's an element of going back to recover the reality, the knowledge, the production, and the contributions of people of color. There's also a shifting from a Eurocentric perspective to a more open, diverse one. A more open and diverse society celebrates a major milestone related to African American freedom and its contributions to the broader American context. One of the benefits of African American speculation around liberation is really a more liberal society, a more equal society for everybody. And that is also something that we can all as Americans agree on and understand.”What are some key messages you hope to convey in your talk at MSU's Juneteenth celebration?“I'm going to try to define Afrofuturism and try to define what it is and try to make clear this transformation, this shift in perspectives, that is represented by it and how Juneteenth and commemoration and memory from an African American or African diasporic perspective is different. But in that difference is a kind of affirmation of the ideology of liberation that's very important to the United States. There's an element here where the Black experience is American history, too. Commemoration around the Black experience is an American commemoration. It is not unreasonable for every American to celebrate their fellow Americans' feeling of pleasure about the end of a great evil. I think that's one of the things about Juneteenth that's particularly interesting because the story of Juneteenth is very particular in the sense that it's not exactly celebrating emancipation. It's celebrating the moment that people in Texas find out about emancipation. And so in an era of viral messaging and instant transfer of ideas, both good and bad, you have to stop and think. In January of 1865, they passed the 13th Amendment. It's not until June that the people in Texas know that they're free. The question I always ask is are you free if you don't know you're free?“With Juneteenth, we're seeing literally the end of an oppressive system crystallize in a particular moment. The news reaches these people. These are the farthest reaches of the Confederacy. That's when it's over. When everybody knows, that's when it's over. The idea that there's a kind of element of truth made real by a particular moment when information arises, when the order is made and said out loud. That's the moment. That's the clarion call that rung the bell. That's the end of the evil. And you can point to it. From a historical standpoint, there are moments where things don’t have a definitive stop. It just doesn't seem as bad anymore. I think about the pandemic. Is the pandemic over? No. But this is one of those things that's a great human suffering and we can point to its end. Like, this is the moment. And I think that resonates with people in a very particular way.“The American experience is integrated into the Black experience and the Black experience integrated into American experience. The nature of those integrations, though, when you tell it from the Black perspective, it is this speculation around liberation. Then you have a more liberal society. You have a more open society. Black history is American history and a history that tells a struggle and a strife, but that struggle and strife gets you a better world. I think, if we thought about it that way, then we have a better sense of why Black history or Chicano history, all the histories of the people on the margins, matter. Because those are the people who have to ideate around what it means to be free. Because they're at the bottom; they're on the outside. What does it mean to be free in a system where my lived experience has told me I'm not free? That becomes the real trauma. And, of course, it plays itself out every day now.“It is not unreasonable to make a connection between the kind of zeal and explosion of interest in Afrofuturism with the kind of reactionary feelings that you see in politics. In part because with those voices taking up space in the public sphere, this question of what the truth for the American experience is being asked and you have to process that. The good thing about this is that we have places like MSU where people process things. Our job is to process things and make it easier for people. So, hopefully, people will come away with a better sense of clarity.“I appreciate the committee's decision to pursue Afrofuturism as a theme for the Juneteenth celebration. I think it's very appropriate for an institution like MSU where our job is to think through complex issues and try to make knowledge accessible to the public. That's our mission. It's a great opportunity for the implications of Black speculative practice or the implications of what does it mean to speculate on our liberation to be brought to people in a variety of forms. Hopefully, people will come away from this with the opportunity to think more about Afrofuturism and think more about the ways that that speculation around liberation has a positive impact in their world. I think ultimately every American can see the benefits of people on the margins speculating about what makes the world a more liberatory system.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your show.

Read President Stanley's May 2022 Spartan Community letter here. MSU brought a very successful academic year to a close this month with graduation ceremonies honoring 6,917 undergraduate degree earners and 2,684 advanced degree recipients. What struck you and will stay with you about this spring’s ceremonies?“It was wonderful to be in person. We had the opportunity because of low COVID transmission to be without masks for people who didn't want a mask, and so that was great. There was really a sense of being together that we haven't had in prior ceremonies. That made it very exciting, and the turnout was phenomenal. “Steve Smith gave a remarkable speech where he talked about how much Michigan State University has meant to him. He talked about his relationship with his mother and the transformational gifts he's given to the university to help student athletes. Even though Steve played against people like Michael Jordan, he said it's not about beating others so much; it's about pushing yourself to be the best you can be. That was a great message for our graduates.”In addition to celebrating our graduates' accomplishments, you helped honor outstanding faculty and academic staff this month at the annual All-University Awards Convocation and support staff in the annual Jack Breslin Distinguished Staff and Ruth Jameson Above and Beyond Awards presentations. You always say MSU's people are the heart and soul of the university.“Faculty and staff achievement and development are key to us; we want our faculty and staff to reach their full potential. And then recognizing the extraordinary work they do is an important part of our strategic plan. These ceremonies are our chance to say thank you and recognize people who are doing exemplary work for the university, and it's a wonderful honor for me to be a part of that. I love the spring semester at Michigan State University because it’s the time to acknowledge and recognize the key people who help make this university work.”The U.S. Senate approved President Joe Biden's nomination of MSU economist and professor Lisa Cook to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She's the first Black woman to sit on the board, which sets monetary policy for the nation's central bank.“I've had a chance to talk to her several times during this process. And she's an extraordinary person in addition to being an extremely qualified candidate for the Federal Reserve Board. Her background and scholarly activity make her a unique choice.”Another distinguished Spartan you'll be honored to introduce at an upcoming recognition event is Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Teresa K. Woodruff, named a Distinguished Woman in Higher Education Leadership by the American Council of Education Michigan Women's Network.“Provost Woodruff is extraordinarily accomplished. She's a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a member of the National Academy of Inventors. And she's a champion for our university and our academic mission and a champion for students and faculty and staff. It's wonderful for her to be acknowledged in this way. She is a leader in higher education. She is a leader in Michigan. We're very fortunate that she's working at Michigan State University.”And Provost Woodruff welcomed you into the membership of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Congratulations!“It's remarkable. And I'm still humbled by this award and very appreciative to those who elected me to this very prestigious society. When you're in a society that contains Thomas Jefferson and others, it's remarkable. And this is a group that really puts as its goal bringing together the talent from the United States and the world to bear on critical issues for our society.“It's not just an honorary society, but rather publishes reports, investigates, does research on critical issues facing the nation, and uses the expertise of its members to do that. I look forward not just to being a member and being surrounded by so many very accomplished people, but also the opportunity to give back and to do work with the Academy on issues that are important, including things like global pandemics, which are an area of interest for me, and, of course, higher education and the impact we can have on these global challenges.”This year's Times Higher Education Impact rankings, which assesses progress toward the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, ranked MSU number 33 in the world and number two in the nation among participating universities. “This is wonderful. And the sustainable development goals or SDGs really span several areas, including things like food security, where Michigan State University has very powerful research efforts. From food to poverty, this really reflects the breadth of our efforts in MSU and helps us achieve one of our strategic plan goals. Now we must continue to maintain it and sustain it, no pun intended, but we're very proud of this work we do.”We achieved another major milestone this month with the opening for user operations of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.“Someday when I look back at my career at MSU, one of the highlights will be that I had the opportunity to cut the ribbon for FRIB. This has been an incredible effort for not just Michigan State University, but the state of Michigan and the people who came together to make this possible. This event came 13 years after the Department of Energy Office of Science awarded the project to MSU and eight years after we broke ground for the $730 billion facility. It's already had a significant economic impact from the jobs it created in Michigan, but it's going to have more going forward.“MSU has the number one nuclear physics graduate program in the country. This facility helps ensure that we can keep that ranking. We generate 10 percent of the nuclear scientists graduated every year; that's amazing for MSU. And this is going to help us keep that lofty status and continue to have an impact on nuclear physics here and around the world.”There are some new Spartan leaders on their way to campus. Jerlando Jackson will be the new dean for MSU's world renowned College of Education. At Wharton Center, Eric Olmscheid has been selected to succeed Mike Brand as executive director. And Spartan hockey has a new head coach in alumnus Adam Nightingale. Your thoughts on these additions to the MSU family?“Professor Jackson is going to be outstanding as the dean of the MSU College of Education. He's going to also hold the title of Chief Foundation Professor of Education. Eric Olmscheid comes to us from Des Moines. He led a significant programmatic expansion there, built a comprehensive education program, and expanded community partnerships, all of which are things we want to see continue at Wharton Center. And Adam Nightingale has had a lot of experience working with young athletes. He brings roots and connections to the Green and White, but also experience in the National Hockey League coaching some of the most talented young hockey players in the country.”And two long-time Spartan coaches are retiring. MSU's winningest men's tennis coach Gene Orlando is retiring after completing his 31st season and recording 361 victories. In addition, women's softball coach Jacquie Joseph announced her retirement from coaching after 29 seasons and 753 wins here.“I play tennis. So, I've gotten to know Coach Orlando. He's been a legend here. His dedication to MSU is extraordinary. It's amazing to be at a place for that number of years and to have the success he's had. Everyone, including me, wishes him all the best as he goes forward. Jacquie Joseph is also a legend. She's going to remain with the athletics department in an administrative role. She's really been an advocate for women in sports, and she is going to continue to push us to make sure that we're living up to the promise of Title IX and giving women every opportunity to succeed and student-athletes to succeed in women's sports.”What are you watching for throughout this year's state appropriations process and what is the Spartan Advocate Program?“We're really working to get at least modest increases in funding. We would like to see that go to our base funding. Certainly, we’ll take some one-time money as that's available as well, but we're really interested in increasing the base funding going forward. And both the executive budget and the Senate budget do have increases, significant increases, built into the budgets. The House budget unfortunately does not do that. The House budget provides some money for other capital projects but doesn't really raise the state allocation. “Higher education is so critical for Michigan's future and competitiveness. We have a Spartan Advocate Program in the Office of Government Relations that allows people to get engaged and reach out to their elected officials to tell them how important Michigan State is and how much it's meant to them or their families and the lives they lead. It's amazing that people don't always recognize the value of higher education. It's somewhat disappointing to me that we spend a lot of time trying to convince people that the return on investment from tax dollars that comes in to support Michigan State University or other institutions of higher education in Michigan is incredible. People's lifetime earnings go up and their health improves with a college degree. It really makes a difference to so many facets of people's lives.“I encourage people to consider joining the Advocate Program. We need all the help we can get here. And your voices often are heard more loudly than mine. People see me as advocating for the institution as part of my job. When you do it when it’s not your job to do so but rather because it’s something you care about, that's very important to elected officials.”Any final thoughts as we head into the summer? “I've told students and faculty and staff to find time for yourselves this summer. People have been under so much stress the last two years. The opportunity to take some time and relax is important. I plan to do some of that for sure. And I've encouraged all the people who work with me at Michigan State University to do the same. And for our students, it's okay to take some summer courses; it's good to get ahead. But try and find some time to relax and recharge, particularly for those of you coming back because we'll have an exciting fall and a big class coming in.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows. 

“The scope of Title IX extends well beyond athletics,” says Dr. Ashely Baker, chief diversity officer for Spartan Athletics. “Title IX legislation was really focused broadly on access to education and access to opportunities for women, and sport has been a space where we've really been able to see that more tangibly than in other places. When you think about the root and the focus of what this initial legislation was about, it was looking at what was happening in education and employment and areas that weren't covered under the Civil Rights Act that women were wanting to have access to. We're talking about admissions, recruitment, housing, financial aid, and making sure that there was no discrimination against women when these resources or opportunities were allocated or becoming available and that women weren't excluded from that.”Baker talks about the significance of the “Godmother of Title IX” Bernice Sandler and discusses how Title IX has evolved.“We have certainly made progress. There is no doubt about the fact that women and girls have been afforded more opportunity. But when you start to really look at the details and the climate of where we are in sports and across society, we're not as far along as we tend to say we are. We've seen an increase in the number of girls participating in sport at all levels and access to more careers. So, we've opened this door, and there are more women like me who have opportunities we're able to pursue, but we're still faced with several barriers. We still encounter challenges because the bias still exists. Maybe not the overt discrimination, as, ‘Hey, go home and have kids and be in the kitchen.’ But it can still be difficult to really thrive and persist in some areas.”How would you like to see Title IX evolve in its next 50 years and what are both some challenges and opportunities ahead?“There are three areas that we must think about of how this legislation needs to be updated to be more reflective of where we are in society and even consider other factors that in the 1960s and 1970s weren't necessarily a priority at that time. We have the intersection of race and gender, we have the impact on the experiences of LGBTQ+ young people who are participating in sport or accessing education, and then we have young people with disabilities.“While this legislation has certainly impacted women, it failed to and now still fails to look at the intersection of what happens to women of color and what happens to Black women in these spaces where we've opened opportunity. And it doesn't consider what has been coined intersectionality. I have the barrier of being a woman, but I also have the barrier of being a Black person in spaces that maybe aren't as accepting or have continued to create barriers for people like me. I think this legislation needs to be expanded to consider that there are so many other identities that are impacted when we're talking about discrimination.”Baker describes her role as chief diversity officer for Spartan Athletics. And she talks about the DEI Roadmap for Spartan Athletics and its areas of impact like culture and environment; education and awareness; and recruitment, retention, and advancement. And she talks about the importance of Spartan Athletics being deeply involved in the community.“We are truly committed to being better and always pushing ourselves to do the right thing to value our staff and the people on the campus and in our community. And we want to be a model for what this looks like. Our student athletes are going to thrive. And when they thrive, we win. When they thrive, they graduate. When they thrive, they go on to become positive members of our society. And all that starts with what our culture and our environment is here and how we treat one another. “We really love people being champions for Spartan Athletics and supporting what we do and challenging us to be better. Sometimes the feedback is a little tough, but it continues to give us the perspective of individuals who may be outside of our spaces. Are we at our best? How can we be better? What challenges exist and how can we better meet the needs of those around us, who again, support us usually without waver?”What are your reflections on the 50th anniversary of Title IX?“We still have a long way to go, but we have really made progress. We must celebrate and acknowledge it, and we will do that in Spartan Athletics over the next year. There will be several events that are centered on celebrating the trailblazers specifically within our athletics department. There have been some incredible women who have had a wide variety of experiences who have challenged this institution, that have pushed this institution, and have also shown up and been role models for the young women we have on our teams now and the women who work in our department.“You will see over this next year our commitment to celebrating those women because that is extremely important. The work that they did, many of us would not be where we are right now without it. We know the impact of the first 50 years of Title IX. How are we going to impact the next 50? What will we do differently? What have we learned? How do we push ourselves to move forward to make sure that future generations can say some of the same things about us that we say about the women and men and leaders who have come before us who have impacted these spaces and made them better for us to operate in?“That's my hope, and that's what I'd like to see, not just over the next year, but continuing into the future. This is a monumental moment in terms of this legislation being 50 years old and it gives us a reality check of where we are and some hopes and dreams of where we could go from here.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“I've been doing a lot of reflecting lately as you can probably imagine because I truly have grown up here. I started at WKAR as a student in their student employment program and never looked back. I love WKAR and MSU. This whole community has just been a wonderful place to be. I learned everything I know through the staff at WKAR.”What are some key accomplishments you're proud of the station has made under your leadership?“It's probably our education services. We often say we're so much more than a TV and radio station even though that's so cool that we are those things. But there's so much work that goes on behind the scenes in support of the community. I think the education piece is key.“My first full-time job here was working with faculty on distance education courses and helping them make sure they could reach students wherever they were in the country or in the world. It was so cool, and the faculty were so innovative. It inspired me to get a master’s in educational technology because I could see what technology can do as a tool for education.“During that time, I moved over to the public broadcasting side and really wanted to use my degree and expertise to help kids and families and teachers. I started producing QuizBusters working with high school kids and their families. Curious Crew is another accomplishment that I'm proud of. A theme for me has been to use my abilities to build capacity around others who really can change the world. Rob Stephenson is a person who approaches science education for kids in a cool way.  Rob wants the kids to be the focus in their own understanding of science. There are nine kids that host the show with him, and they have become family for us. These kids are such incredible students. We've touched so many lives. It's broadcast in markets around the country, and that's something I'm proud of.“Our innovation work with the Next Gen Media Innovation Lab is another piece that I've been proud of. Our whole team just said ‘We don't really know what the future holds, but we want to have a part in creating something exciting for our community, and our industry, and for the university. So, let's create this lab and study what broadcasting will be in the near future.’ That's exciting.“And I’ve had the opportunity to work at the national level and be elected to America's Public Television Stations and PBS boards. The work that they're doing on the national level for the citizens of this country is just amazing. To have been a part of that is something I'll never forget.”How have broadcasting and WKAR's missions evolved over the years? Where do you see them going?“The amazing part is that we're coming up on 100 years of broadcasting at WKAR, and I don't think our mission has changed. It's always been to take the power of our learnings from the university and the power of education and bring it to the people, all the people. That's what public media is about. It needs to be free and over-the-air and educate and inspire literally everyone.“There's no other organization that has a mission like that. I've been thinking about this, I've had people say to me, ‘Is public media even needed anymore?’ There's so much content out there. We can learn about anything. It's at our fingertips. It’s wonderful that there's so much content out there. I am a creator. It just reinforces the whole reason that public broadcasting was created in the first place. There is still no one who is going to create this for free without influence and provide it to every citizen in this country. In rural areas where there aren't large populations, it just doesn't make sense. You're not going to make a lot of revenue. There's no reason to do it if revenue is your core base mission. It isn't for us.“We push through all the noise of all the content and make sure that the local person at the local level has the information they need to, for instance, vote for the person that they want to be in leadership. We really cut through all the noise to reach those individuals who need us to be there for them. It's exciting that our mission really hasn't changed. We've just had to evolve. Certainly, society has changed. Technology has changed. We've changed to make sure we can accomplish that mission, but it really hasn't changed much.”What are some challenges and opportunities you see ahead for your successor?“There's no shortage of challenges, that's for sure, but there's also no shortage of opportunity. I think we're in a moment where we're constantly having to re-evaluate what's the best way to meet the moment. I can certainly talk about all the challenges there are and will continue to be around funding and resources, but I think those are challenges that anyone is facing in any industry anywhere. Those are always going to be challenges.“What I'm more interested in are the challenges and opportunities around the work that we do. We're in the business of bringing people together when there are so many forces pulling people apart. We have to really think about what this means for us now. If we are here to bring people together around conversation, how can we best do that given what's happening nationally and globally? We have to work differently in order to accomplish those goals.“We're in the business of supporting teachers and families, and the role of education and educators is in flex at this point. It used to be that was a no brainer. Now, they're really challenged. We have to be there for them even more than ever. I think we are as public broadcasters, but our role in education becomes increasingly important and that's a challenge. But it's also an opportunity.“Also, the role of journalism has changed significantly. We want to hold leaders accountable. We want to provide context. That becomes a challenge when facts aren't agreed upon as they may have been in the past. Really adding that context and going deeper is so much more important now than it's ever been because of all these other forces at work. To me, those are the real challenges. How do you make good on this mission? How do you make good on the whole reason for being for this organization when so many things are in flux and the societal norms are shifting so rapidly? You need to still make sure you're there for folks. It just looks different and feels different, and that's certainly a challenge.”What attracted you to this new position you're taking as chief community development officer at the Michigan State University Federal Credit Union?“So many things attracted me to this position, and it would have to be that attractive to pull me from WKAR. As you can hear, I'm very passionate about the work of the station and the work of the university. There are only two organizations in this community that I've been a member of for 30 years, and that would be WKAR and MSUFCU. We're both very oriented toward community and want to make sure that our members are supported and have the most innovate products and services.“I see that at MSUFCU. I've seen it for decades and have been inspired by it. I want to be a part of what they're doing, and it allows me to stretch myself creatively and professionally. I'm able to do that at WKAR and have for years, which is why I've always stayed. I see the ability to continue to do that, but there are just some challenges that I want to approach for myself personally that this role will allow me to do. I will be thinking through philanthropically what the community needs and how I can support that work. We have been a beneficiary at the station of the power that MSUFCU has to really help people achieve their dreams within the community. That's extremely exciting to me.“The innovative work that they're doing around their products and services and the role that work can play for smaller credit unions in communities is very similar to how I think about public broadcasters and how the system is only secure when the smallest station has access to resources within their community. I think the credit union plays that role in supporting smaller credit unions who need to stay strong for their community members. They play an active role here in this community but also nationally to make sure that all citizens have access to the funds that they need to make their lives better. It's just inspiring and exciting to me.”Say some more about what your role will be at MSUFCU.“I will have a significant portfolio that I'm excited about. It will include marketing, which means I will support a lot happening in a lot of different areas across the credit union. We have an excellent marketing team there. I'll learn a lot from them, but I think I'll be able to help provide an umbrella for all the various subsidiaries and for the foundation and make sure that we're all leveraging resources across the entire credit union.“That also means that I'll have connection to the university, to MSU, which is exciting to me. Campus to Career will also be part of my portfolio. That is connecting students to internships, and we would really like to build an infrastructure where students are increasingly able to have more responsibilities as they move through their internships and into job placement. I'm obviously a product of the work that WKAR does to support students. So, being able to do that work for the credit union is exciting to me. I see constantly through social media and everywhere how much every single person, no matter what job they have at the credit union, loves their job and they talk about that a lot. I think that speaks a lot to the leadership team and to April Clobes’ leadership. The growth that's happened since she's taken over is just phenomenal, and it makes me want to be a part of it to see what I can do.“There are so many people that I want to thank as I leave WKAR, and it's impossible to name all the names. Because of their hard work and because the station is in such a fantastic space right now and we have such a phenomenal leadership team, I feel in good conscience I can go and explore opportunities that are exciting to me and know that the station is in such solid hands.“I want to thank everybody not only for helping me to learn and grow but for nurturing my own professional career and for seeing in themselves what I see in them and rising to the occasion and supporting our members and our community. It's just been such a phenomenal ride, and I just want to thank all our staff past and present, all our members, all our partners, our national partners, and my peers.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Good afternoon! Go Green! President Stanley, Provost Woodruff, and the Board of Trustees:  Thank you for inviting me back home. To the administration, faculty, and staff — to the proud families and friends who traveled here to celebrate your loved ones —  to my forever dorm-mates from Wonders Hall — and to each and every one of you in the resilient, inspiring Class of 2022: I am so proud to be your fellow Michigan State alum. Congratulations! I am deeply honored that you have let me be a part of your special day. And I am so grateful for this honorary degree. We all came to Michigan State for different reasons. I came for two: Magic Johnson, and my mama, Clara Bell Smith.  I wanted to be on this campus because I wanted to stay close to family. By the time I graduated, the people I met here had become family. To this day, they still are.  They’re my closest friends. They were my groomsmen. They’re the people who call me when things are going well and who show up for me when the going gets tough. Above all else, graduates, I hope that many years from now, you will still feel as close to one another as you do today.  Even through the long, lonely months that kept so many of us apart, you went through this once-in-a-lifetime chapter together. And these Spartans will always be there for you. *** Now, maybe you didn’t choose Michigan State because of Magic or because of your mama. But in coming here, you chose to surround yourselves with good and giving people: your roommates and friends, your classmates and teammates, your professors and T.A.s.  You’ve chosen to surround yourself with smart and supportive Spartans.  Spartans who stand up for what’s right and who speak out against what’s wrong.  Spartans who are courageous and effective, and who deserve credit for pushing the school to be more multicultural and more inclusive — and to take nice words about diversity in a strategic plan and make sure they’re made real. And as you walk together this weekend — in the same way that you’ve stuck by each other through an extraordinary and exhausting experience — you are fulfilling my favorite proverb: “They who walk with the wise will become wise, but a companion of fools will suffer harm.”  In choosing to come to this campus, you chose to walk with the wise. When you cross the stage and take hold of your diplomas, you’ll be doing it one more time. And when you stay in each other’s lives in the years ahead, you’ll grow even wiser thanks to one another. But once you go out into the wider world, how can you make sure you’re still surrounding yourself with good, giving, grounded people? How do you even figure out who is wise — and who to walk with? Here’s one thing I know for sure: you can’t tell that by someone’s age, race, or gender. You can’t tell it by their degrees, their title, or the car that they drive. You certainly can’t tell it by the number of followers they have. One thing I know for sure is that while it sometimes feels easier to walk with people who look and think like you, that’s not the wisest way. The equity and inclusion we value has many dimensions: race, nationality, gender, wealth, education. At its heart, it’s about giving everyone an opportunity. Everyone. So as you leave Michigan State and go on to great things, I hope you’ll find a way to give an opportunity to someone who doesn’t look like you. Another thing I’ve come to realize about the people I want to be around — and the person I want to be — is something I learned from my coaches, including Johnny Goston, Jud Heathcote, and Coach Izzo, who made me his first recruit 35 years ago. It’s something that I found myself learning all over again from the kids I’ve coached, covered, and cheered for, including my sons. And it’s what I want to talk with you about today. *** President Stanley[1] was kind enough to recall that when I graduated, I held Michigan State’s all-time scoring record.  I can remember the intensity growing as I got closer and closer to that number. A teammate told me how many points I’d need to average my senior year. Reporters noticed when I was 200 points away, and then 100, and then when I was in striking distance. And then the big moment came. [pause] Usually, this would be the part of the story where I tell you about the feeling of breaking the record. How it felt to charge down the lane, lose my defender with a half-spin move, and see the ball swish through the net. But here’s the honest truth:  To this day, I don’t know if it was a free throw, a floater, or a three from downtown. I don’t know if it happened in the first half or the second. I truly don’t remember the shot. And maybe that sounds surprising. But here’s what I do remember: My mind immediately flashed back to playing in my backyard on Detroit’s East Side. My dad Donald Smith, had poured concrete behind our house and put up a hoop. On that little court, I learned to dunk by jumping off milk crates and learned how to pivot and dribble around the cracks in the concrete. That’s where my mind went at the end: it went to the beginning. To my fifth-grade championship at Courville Elementary. To the pickup games, the Hawthorne Rec Center scrimmages, the high school tournaments playing for Pershing, and to the practice drills. All of those baskets were part of this record — even if they weren’t recorded anywhere but in my heart. People like to celebrate the shots you make in the last game of a season, or the closing seconds of a game, or in the final moment as you mark a milestone. But what I remember, more than those last shots, are the thousands upon thousands I took at the start. The reason, I think, is this: there’s a difference between achievement and fulfillment. People like to collect accolades and polish trophies. And yes, gold medals might be valuable. But that’s not what makes them meaningful. The work is what makes the achievement feel fulfilling. And loving the journey is what makes us happy. The truth is, I wasn’t ever trying to break anyone’s record. I was only pushing myself to see how high I could climb while doing what I love. So when I think about walking with the wise, I think about walking with people who know these two truths: First: the joy is in the journey — not in the result.  And second: you should only compete against yourself — not against anyone else. *** Watching people who love their work, respect the process, and find joy in the journey is one of the reasons I love covering college basketball as a broadcaster and coaching youth teams.  A few weeks ago I was covering March Madness – and I noticed a certain look in so many of the players’ eyes. Some of them knew they were playing in their last game ever. They were playing for the pure joy of it. Years ago, when I coached my sons Brayden and Davis’s teams, I saw the same look.  Kids who were living in the now and giving it their all — not in pursuit of any trophy or title, just enjoying the journey of getting better. As I watched them learn what they were capable of, I learned something, too — and it’s this lesson: The thing about most achievements is that someone else created them, and someone else is doing the counting. So if you’re asking, “Who is the best at this?” or “Who is the most successful at that?” you also have to ask, “Who decides what those measures even mean?” When we define ourselves by someone else’s goals, we might miss out on the experiences that matter the most to us as individuals. But when we write our own definition of success and compete against our own limits, we can’t lose. We can only grow. What stuck with me most about breaking the scoring record wasn’t the experience of getting to the top — it was the experience of going to the top. And the moment I broke it, I started thinking about what I could top next. Not because I wanted another achievement, but because I needed a new journey. *** The reality is that anyone can work really hard at something and still not reach the top.  You might study really hard, research really hard, practice really hard — and still not be the best, fastest, or greatest. In fact, by definition, only one of us will be the best at something.  So how do you still find the drive to push yourself? How do you still sustain excellence? That’s the second trait I’ve found in the people I consider wise: They make sure that the person they’re competing against the hardest is themselves. A lot of people are surprised when I tell them that in the NBA, practice was harder than games. That’s because it was just about the work, the work, the work. There’s no score, no fans, no cameras. It was just us versus us.  I tried to keep that mentality when it mattered.  One year, in the NBA playoffs, I was matched up against Michael Jordan for an entire series. Sports Illustrated called it my “week of hell.” But that’s not how I felt about it. The only way I could play my best against Michael was to not think of it as competing against him at all. The competition was to see if I could be the best I could be. Every night, I walked out onto the court and said, “Today, I’m better.” And on the nights when Michael got the best of me, I didn’t let that change my mind. No matter what, I always said to myself: This is the year, this is the day, this is the game, this is the play, this is the moment. And thanks to that competition with myself, I did have my moments – it’s just that Michael had a few more. I used Michael to push me. But I didn’t let him define me.  You can set high standards and use them to motivate you, too. But they’re only useful if they focusyou, not if they distract you. *** It’s good to set goals.  But Class of 2022, I’m asking you to remember that it’s more fulfilling to find purpose in the process — and in that process, to know that you are your most important competitor. There are a lot of mountaintops we won’t reach.  We can strive to be selfless, but we can always do more. We can dream of being a perfect person, but we will always find flaws. We can fight for a more equal society, but we will always have more work to do. Perfection isn’t a realistic goal.  But growth? Growth is always a worthy one. Achievements shouldn’t be our only measures of success.  But fulfillment? Fulfillment is undefeated. When you find fulfillment, you’re more likely to find wisdom — and, in the end, you’ll be the kind of person who others want to walk with, too. Congratulations, graduates, and good luck! 

Do you have any experience with either MSU or the state of Michigan?“Growing up on the north shores of Lake Superior, I would drive through the great state of Michigan many times on the way to my grandmother's house in Sarnia, Ontario on the other side of the Blue Water Bridge in Port Huron. And my first college football game was in Spartan Stadium in 1992. My dad was a huge Spartans fan. He brought the whole family down, and I was just shell shocked on what a great experience it was to see all the people and Spartans fans; that just blew me away. And then a few years later, my second game was here, and it was 10/10/1998. I was with my fiancé at the time, who is now my husband of 23 years. It was Michigan State versus Indiana. The game went into overtime and Michigan State won. It was very exciting and very loud and just a lot of energy and excitement. That left an impression on me.”What’s your background?“I've just come off 7,060 days at Colorado State. I’ve been working and living in Colorado for the last 19 years and four months. And it's been a wonderful journey. I've done many different things working at Colorado State University advancing from working in two different colleges to working centrally and ultimately becoming the vice president of Advancement. Prior to that, I worked at two Canadian universities, and that's where I got my fundraising start. And before that, I worked in the arts; my undergraduate degree is in arts management. The beginning of my career was working with the Toronto International Film Festival and the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Royal Ontario Museum.”What got you interested in higher education fundraising originally? And why do you love the work?“My background is in arts management. Revenue generation is of utmost importance in the arts. That was interesting to learn about, but I really started working in cultural programming on campus at my alma mater, the University of Toronto. And then I was recruited by the executive director of development. At the time, the university was in a billion-dollar campaign. And they asked me if I'd join the team and the Great Minds for a Great Future Campaign. My boss assured me he'd teach me everything he knew about advancement and development. And then two weeks later, he promptly quit and went back to the private sector. So, it was a sink or swim moment. And I've always been a swimmer, Russ. So, I dove into the deep end and swam and have continued that career. Passion and leadership have been predisposed in me almost from birth. I've had great sponsors and mentors along the way who have helped me learn and grow, and now it culminates in this great experience at Michigan State and being a Spartan.”What attracted you to MSU at this time to lead Advancement here?“You mean beyond Sparty? I love Sparty! What a great mascot program. I was attracted to the caliber of the programs, research, creativity, artistry, and AAU status at MSU. I think Michigan State has it all. Obviously, the athletics program and being a part of the Big Ten is exciting. I love the land grant mission. That speaks to me and my family and my values. I think I can parlay some of those experiences and that real commitment and passion to the land grant institution and mission that I was introduced to in Colorado at Michigan State, being the original land grant. I really feel privileged to be here as part of that history.”What's the mission of University Advancement?“We work to advance the institution by connecting alumni and donors to the institution, whether it be through time, talent, treasure, or testimony. We work with folks to keep them connected and engaged in the great work happening at MSU to advance the mission, whether it's alumni, parents, grandparents, or community members. It's the difference between good and great. And at MSU the mission is defined as advancing MSU's excellence and enriching its future. Who doesn't want to be part of that?”Why is raising private dollars so important for maintaining and expanding MSU's excellence and impact?“I just mentioned that private dollars are the difference makers between good and great. This is a fine institution where just being good wouldn't allow us to realize our full potential. Philanthropy allows us to endow funds for students and to attract the brightest minds to the campus, whether it's faculty, students, or facilities - all those aspects that really allow us to reach those heights of excellence and create a margin of excellence for an institution.”How have advancement activities evolved over the years?“The real change I've seen over the years is the focus on donor relations and stewardship. And I feel strongly about that. There's a moral and ethical imperative to engage our alumni and donors and to have a level of accountability and transparency in what we do at the institution in what we are doing with their funding. For a lot of people, once they make a gift, that's when the relationship really starts. Previously, there wasn't as much attention given post gift. And that's really important. We really owe that to our contributors, our investors, and the people who believe in us.“Additionally, women have always been engaged in philanthropy, but a lot of times in the past it was more behind the scenes. There's a real movement to see women in philanthropy engage outwardly in the whole process. And as institutions, we’re thinking about how we engage women and families in different ways. And I'm really excited to know that there's a Women in Philanthropy program here at Michigan State. MSU is ahead of the curve on that. I also think technology, automation, data management, privacy and topics like diversity, equity, and inclusion are being embraced as a nation.”How would you describe your fundraising philosophy?“I see philanthropy as an opportunity to build authentic relationships based on mutual respect. I once worked with a dean who was a philosopher and he said to his faculty, ‘If you don't respect the person giving you a gift, then you shouldn't accept the gift.’ It really is at the heart of things that there must be a mutual interest and values alignment and interest in the work. Philanthropy is an optimistic act. There’s a core of optimism in supporting disease eradication or giving somebody an opportunity they wouldn't otherwise have. We need to think about that and remember that people believe in us to make the world a better place and to really inspire them with what we're doing that will change the world in a way that they want to see that aligns with the work we're doing.”What are some of your short and long-term goals for MSU University Advancement?“We have a lot of work to do, and a lot of great work has already happened here. People are ready to move forward. Our next campaign is the big opportunity out there. And how do we align with the university's strategic plan and create a strategic plan for the division that is for the long term? We're building the forever future for Spartans and for this university. There is a lot of planning to do, and I’m excited to get going to ignite what will come after that.”What are challenges and opportunities ahead?“Right now, my biggest challenge is time, Russ. I just need more hours in my day. People want to move quickly; they're ready. But we also need to spend time listening and thinking and reflecting on what has happened before us. In balancing those two things, I think there's a great opportunity as people are able to come back to campus. As we reemerge from the last two years, there’s nothing like coming to campus for Homecoming and other events. And yet, we've also learned the upside to offering virtual programming for our alumni and donors who live abroad or nationwide who want to participate. I look forward to working with the team to create a strategy that accomplishes and meets the needs of all people in all different ways to really continue to advance Michigan State University.“What a great opportunity to be here today. I just feel like this is an absolute honor to work in the advancement world. I'm at the nexus between a great institution and wonderful people who care and want to make a difference. I take that as a real honor and privilege and look forward to serving alongside everybody else who's been here before me and all those who will join us along the way. With that, Go Green!”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Michigan State University’s Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), a user facility for the U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science, opened its doors to discovery with a ribbon-cutting ceremony on 2 May. U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm and MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D., cut the ribbon to officially mark the start of FRIB’s scientific mission.HEAR the speakers’ comments HERE: ·      FRIB Lab Director Thomas Glasmacher (:00)·      MSU President Stanley (2:25)·      Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (6:40)·      MSU Board of Trustees Chair Dianne Byrum (17:20)·      U.S. Representative Tim Walberg (21:03)·      U.S. Representative Brenda L. Lawrence (26:15)·      U.S. Representative Elissa Slotkin (31:03)·      U.S. Senator Gary Peters (35:09)·      U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (41:32)·      Secretary Granholm (47:56) About 900 guests attended the ribbon-cutting to celebrate FRIB officially opening for scientific research. FRIB was completed in January, ahead of schedule and on budget. FRIB’s first scientific-user experiments start on 9 May.

Michigan State University is furthering its investment in a greener future, announcing a commitment to converting 369 internal combustion engine vehicles in its fleet to fully electric vehicles over the next decade. MSU also is investing in two DC fast chargers for public use through the PowerMIFleet program; the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy’s ChargeUp Michigan program; and Capital Area Transportation Authority. The chargers will be available for public use at the Capital Area Multimodal Gateway on Harrison Road this fall.The addition of new electric vehicles on MSU’s campus adds to the growing list of sustainability efforts over the past several years designed to make campus greener. In this conversation, I discuss the project and the future of electric vehicles with Adam Lawver, director of campus services in Infrastructure Planning and Facilities at MSU; Jeff Myrom, director of electric vehicle customer products for Consumers Energy; and Brad Funkhouser, chief executive officer for the Capital Area Transportation Authority.Conversation highlights:(4:50) - “We've been a partner with Michigan State University for pushing 20 years now. And recently there's been a big push in the region to look at zero emissions. And that's been a priority for both the university and CATA independently. We want to test this technology as it unfolds. There are a lot of agencies that are testing electric buses right now. We want to make sure that the battery life is adequate because ultimately what we're trying to do is put out great service while we improve sustainability. It's important because we spend a lot of money on fuel by design; we have diesel and unleaded buses. You have 30 percent of the fossil fuels in Michigan greenhouse gas emissions coming from public transit.”(6:28) - “We do want people to charge overnight. Absolutely. People may not realize it but at night, especially in the residential sector and frankly probably even at universities, when most of those people go home or they're sleeping, they are not using a lot of electricity.”  (9:12) - “Electrification really is the way of the future. And that's why Michigan State is such a great partner because this is an institution very interested in the success of the future and what's groundbreaking, what's new, and what can we learn?” (10:37) - “I think it’s awesome when you have multiple entities that are similarly aligned strategically. As we look at trying to reduce our overall carbon footprint that Michigan State generates and reduce our greenhouse gases, one of the components of that is the solar carports. The university fleet is another element that we can really look at. This project will learn from these initial 40 vehicles. But over the next nine years to 10 years, we really expect to replace at least 370 vehicles across our fleet. As the economics change and as electric vehicle pricing becomes cheaper in the future and the technologies become better, then we'll probably continue to increase that quantity of vehicles over the next decade.”(15:45) - “Michigan State University wants to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions. This project of converting our fleet from internal combustion engines vehicles to electric vehicles aligns in support of that.” (17:10) - “Transportation and clean energy are an excellent pair. When you look at emissions and potential pollution from the transportation and utility sectors using fossil fuels, that's about 50 percent of the greenhouse gases in the United States. If we can get to clean energy and then battery electric vehicles that are being powered by that clean energy, we're taking half the greenhouse gas pollution off the table within our generation, which is a huge win.” (18:37) - “My advice is to get behind the wheel. I'm six feet five. I fit in that thing just fine. It kind of shocked me. But when you have a smaller motor and you don't have that transmission and all the extra parts that run through the center of the vehicle, you open the cabin quite a bit.”(19:20) - “The other thing that surprised me was the instant torque. It's not like a little four cylinder; this thing took off and it's fast. That performance tends to shock people in addition to just kind of the creature comfort of being inside. And then another thing that really impressed me was you get in highway speeds, and you don't realize how much wind and car noise there is. But when you're in an electric vehicle, it's quiet. And so, you can hear all these things that you can't normally hear. And you're like, wow, this is just a really different experience and it's much more relaxing.”(19:55) - “Get behind one. I think people will be impressed. I understand its new technology and you have to get used to it. And yes, there's getting used to charging being different, but most people find that when they can charge overnight, they wake up in the morning and have a full fuel tank. That's a significant benefit. And in the wintertime, one of the things I absolutely love about EVs is there's instant torque and there's instant heat. So, I'm not waiting for this thing to warm up and that little blue light to go off before I can accelerate. And the cars tend to be heavier with that battery, so you get better grip in the snow. So, there are a lot of benefits to being in a northern state too and driving an EV that don't often come across when people hear about electric vehicles.”(21:32) - “They require less maintenance. You need brakes less because a cool feature of electric vehicles is what's called regenerative braking. You can set up the vehicle so that when you take your foot off the gas, the vehicle automatically starts breaking. But it's by the motor essentially running in reverse, which is charging the battery rather than energy coming from the battery. This is called one-pedal driving. Once you get used to one pedal driving, you only need to hit the brakes in an emergency or when you have to stop quickly during rush hour. But I know people who've driven a hundred thousand miles in their EV and never replaced the brakes. I don't know anybody who's done that in a combustion vehicle.” (25:02) – What is a frunk?(25:35) - “One of the things that I'm most proud of and I feel is most important about this project is it's a partnership. These things don't happen in a silo. Without the financial partnership of Consumers Energy and CATA, these projects wouldn't have happened.”(27:07) - “Price parity is going to happen even without government subsidies, and we're seeing experts predict that right around 2025. Auto manufacturers will have over a million EV production capacity per year by 2025. We're looking at a rapid transformation here.” MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and 8 p.m. Sundays on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Charleston describes his background and what attracted him to MSU. He talks about how a person knows whether they have a headache or facial pain they can treat themselves or whether they need to schedule a headache specialty visit. He talks about stigmas surrounding headaches and discusses current research underway and treatments on the horizon that may aid in treating headaches and facial pain.Conversation highlights:(:43) – “I’m from Detroit Michigan, and I decided I wanted to be a neurosurgeon when I wrote my fifth-grade career research paper.”(2:12) – “Michigan State University is a great institution. We can add tremendous value to our community and the region with exceptional headache care and research. We’re working toward becoming the premier headache destination in the Midwest.”(4:07) “If headaches are not responding to treatment and are incapacitating or debilitating or you’re taking a lot of different medications to treat your pain, that may be the time to seek medical attention.”(5:31) – “Migraines are the most common headaches that people seek medical attention for. Tension headaches are the most prevalent, but a lot of people don’t seek medical attention for these.”(5:50) – Dr. Charleston describes the stigmas surrounding headaches.  (9:07) – Dr. Charleston describes the difference between headaches and facial pain. “Your face is part of your head.”(10:35) – What is a headache specialty visit? “History is king when it comes to headache medicine as there are more than 300 headache diagnoses, and the treatment will vary from headache to headache.”(13:37) – Is there exciting research on the horizon that has you excited about treating headaches and facial pain? “Migraines are the second most disabling neurological disorder in the world.”(15:22) – What are challenges and opportunities ahead for treating headaches and facial pain? “There needs to be more awareness and greater funding of research. When we look at federally funded research dollars and the impact headaches have on so many people and their quality of life, headache research should be funded 10 times more than it is now.”(18:30) – “We’re always learning. We always want people to have hope. A lot of people who come to see me have lost hope. If we don’t have hope, we don’t have anything. Headache disorders don’t define a person. We don’t have a cure, but we strive to make things manageable.”Dr. Charleston’s practice is in MSU’s Clinical Center on Service Road. For more information, call 517-353-8122 or visit healthcare.msu.edu.MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Classes are wrapping up, final exams are next week and Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. is eagerly anticipating graduation ceremonies for some 9,000 soon-to-be Spartan alumni.  He talks about feeling like a proud father to all the graduates preparing to go out and make the world a better place. And President Stanley congratulates the 179 students who have maintained 4.0 grade point averages in their time at MSU and have now been named Board of Trustees Scholars. “As we prepare to say goodbye to most students for the summer, we’re already welcoming new ones for the fall. More than 7,000 prospective students and family members joined us this month to visit colleges and attend the Green and White football game and a Breslin Center pep rally during Admitted Student Day. Admitted students visited from 37 states and 11 countries — as far as India.” Last week we celebrated Earth Day, following a month of events reminding us how MSU has made strong commitments and progress in sustainability through cutting-edge research, experiential learning, community engagement and improved operations.  “Our strategic plan commits us to climate neutrality by 2050 and several more near-term goals through our four-pillar sustainability framework of campus, curriculum, community and culture. Last week we also hosted Michigan Lt. Gov. Garlin Gilchrist and other special visitors for a roundtable event focused on public/private partnerships supporting Michigan’s leadership in electric vehicles and advanced mobility and MSU’s great work in this field.” Stanley talks about key leadership changes at MSU. Kim Tobin will become our next vice president for advancement on May 1. Pero G. Dagbovie, who served as an associate dean in the Graduate School and is a University Distinguished Professor in the Department of History, was confirmed as associate provost for graduate and postdoctoral studies and dean of the Graduate School. After ably serving the College of Human Medicine as interim dean, Dr. Aron Sousa’s appointment as dean was also confirmed by the Board this month. The Board also endorsed the selection of  Christina K. Brogdon for vice president of human resources and chief human resources officer. Starting June 1, she will be a key player in the university’s efforts to attract, retain and develop the best people possible to help us pursue the university’s mission. “With the appointment of Kim Tobin, this month we say goodbye to Vice President for Advancement Marti Heil, retiring after a 45-year career of accomplishment across three universities. I also want to acknowledge the pending retirement of University Physician David Weismantel May 16. Dr. Weismantel has served MSU with great dedication in a variety of capacities for the past 23 years, including the last challenging couple of years through the COVID-19 pandemic. “I’m thrilled to congratulate a highly accomplished faculty member in our College of Engineering who retires after 57 years and eight months as MSU’s longest-serving faculty member. Professor Martin Hawley was appointed as an assistant professor of chemical engineering in 1964 and was a Spartan even before that, earning his bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from MSU. “Dr. Hawley has served in numerous key capacities over his tenure, and the college estimates Professor Hawley has educated at least 80% of MSU chemical engineering students. Last year, an alumnus endowed a chair in the college in his honor. Thank you, Professor Hawley! “Congratulations are also in order for Vashti Sawtelle, associate professor of physics in Lyman Briggs College and the Department of Physics and Astronomy. She is among three professors named 2022 Michigan Distinguished Professor of the Year by the Michigan Association of State Universities, which represents Michigan’s 15 public universities. Dr. Sawtelle is noted for her scholarly focus on inclusivity in teaching of physics and is a wonderful example of MSU faculty members’ engagement in the success of all of our students.” President Stanley says great educational programs deserve great facilities. Last week, MSU celebrated the groundbreaking for the School of Packaging’s building expansion after a fundraising campaign that raised more than $10 million. This project, with a new endowed professorship, will help the school maintain its leadership in packaging education. Also last week, the university broke ground for its Service Road recreation turf fields, which is our first construction project applying proceeds of the student recreational facility fee. This new facility, which will be ready in the fall, will serve more than 8,500 intramural sport participants, more than 550 club sport participants, plus youth camps, tournaments and other uses, supporting MSU’s priority of student health and well-being. And on May 2, years of planning, construction and testing will be capped with the opening of the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams on our campus. Through FRIB, MSU will build its position as a destination for scientists from around the world, a training ground for the next generation of researchers and a valuable asset for the region’s economy. I’m excited to see how FRIB contributes to new scientific discoveries as well as practical applications that improve people’s lives. “April is Sexual Assault Awareness Month, and we are in the final stages of collecting responses to the Know More Campus Survey, which was emailed to campus community members on March 16. If you received the survey link and haven’t taken the survey, I strongly urge you to do so to assist those planning MSU’s programs of prevention and response.”  MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

RCPD is celebrating its 50th anniversary.“We've been working busily over the past five decades to help people maximize ability and opportunity,” says Hudson. “We began back in the 1971/72 academic year with a simple goal of helping people with disabilities realize the power of education to change their lives and to promote careers and lives of distinction. Our resource center is intent on maximizing ability and opportunity and helping students as they arrive at the university realize their challenge is simply that - a challenge - and not a blockade to where they want to go with education.”Hudson leads a team of about 20 professionals who work “to receive students as they arrive here at campus to figure out what they need to be successful in the way of accommodations, adjustments, and pathways around campus. Then we go to work helping students solve those problems. We identify the challenge, identify a path forward and work to deliver things what will help them be effective.”About how many people does RCPD help?“Our office works with approximately 3000 students today. If you do the math, that's about six percent of the university population identifying with our program. And disabilities today have really broadened. When I got started in the work, we worked with about one percent of the student population, about 420 when I started here in 1992. And that one percent really consisted of the classic disabilities like the mobility challenges, chronic health, visual, and hearing. And as time went on, the population broadened, and we started to understand the dynamic of learning disabilities and how some people learn differently or need different tools to really make the most of a reading situation or a writing situation.“And then we worked and learned about autism spectrum disorders and how people sometimes have different social interaction capabilities and how we could support those students. The area of invisible disabilities now includes mental health challenges. We work with people who experience anxiety, depression, and other dynamics that make higher education challenging. So, there’s a very broad audience now that is calling on our program for assistance.”Hudson talks about how he became involved in the program and what motivates his work in this field. “My own experience with a disability informed me about the way situations can be hoisted upon us in a way that we don't expect it. We don't welcome it generally, but it's all about how we can learn to adapt to it that really turns out a success story in the end. In my world, I knew that I needed to keep adapting as my vision changed and my disability evolved, and that education was going to be imperative for me. My experience and my investment in this program is really centered on helping other people embrace the challenges they've been given, a disability, and to figure out how education can help them build a life success story and how we can help education be more available and accessible to people who are really hungry to learn. They're ambitious students who need a little something to make this place all it can be.“When I think about what it means to acquire or to have a disability, one of the first things that comes to mind is most people just receive one without asking; it's something that comes. It just lands on you. So how do we embrace the situation at hand? It's probably nothing anybody's going to look forward to having. But when it happens, can you build a network and partnerships that help normalize it and help people realize there is a path forward, even in dire situations? How we deal with the surprise of a disability is one of the things that education's good at helping navigate, taking a challenge and not making it a blockade.“As we look at our next 50 years, I think we're looking at understanding the ways disabilities may continue to evolve. As technology happens, we find ourselves in new dynamics, many of the physical barriers break down for people. When you can Zoom or Microsoft Teams your way to a location, you no longer have to think of about some of the transportation dynamics or the mobility identity. So, for people with mobility challenges, I think redefining how accessibility works in the future will be on our mind. If you came into the program today, you'd probably look around you and say, ‘I don't know who has a disability here and who doesn't.’ It's not like it's always going to be visible. It's continuing to recognize that disabilities affect people in different ways that may not always be immediately visible. And how do we work to understand those dynamics and to understand the needs those students have and to really make sure those hidden identities don't become the reason people can't succeed?“As we reflect on our 50 years of progress at Michigan State University, we realize that our institution has worked for a long time to be inclusive and to welcome people with all sorts of backgrounds. And I'm so happy to say that disabilities have been a part of our fabric and work so well with the university's mission. And I hope that our next 50 years will be as rich as the past 50 years in helping people see the potential that comes from pursuing higher education.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Heil has a career spanning 45 years across three universities raising critical funds, tirelessly promoting the value of philanthropy and expanding alumni engagement efforts.She came out of retirement in October of 2018, returning to MSU, where she has now spent more than 33 years in advancement. Marti was born and raised in Lansing, Michigan and is a 1976 graduate of MSU's College of Communication Arts and Sciences with a bachelor's degree in advertising. “It has been my absolute pleasure and honor to serve Michigan State University and a privilege to do what I have done for 45 years. And it’s been even a greater privilege to have done it at my alma mater.”What originally attracted you to advancement work? What do you love about it? Why do you do what you do?“When I got started in fundraising, it was not something that you sought. You mostly fell into the career. I started in public relations. That's what I always wanted to do. And someone that I worked with said, ‘You'd be good as a fundraiser.’ And I thought, ‘Well, how would I ever do that?’ And it truly has been my passion, and it has been a privilege to be able to serve in this capacity as a fundraiser for so many years.“I like to refer to it as making magic. It's that goosebump moment when you're bringing together passionate donors and alumni who have a desire to make a difference and to make a positive impact in the life of a university. And they're visionary because they see a need and they have financial resources.“And our job as fundraisers is to be able to match those visionary donors and alumni with visionary faculty who are making a difference through their research. It's matching them with students who will also make a difference in the world and make the world better. And to watch a donor get joy from seeing their financial resources put to good use to make a difference in a student's life or to make a difference in a faculty member’s research discovery is magic.”What attracted you back in 2018 when your alma mater needed you and called you back?“It was special to be able to serve MSU for 30 years as I grew my career, and it was special to be able to take that experience and apply it at two other institutions. But to cap off a career by being asked to come back and serve in a leadership role was a dream come true. It felt like more than a duty. It was a respect for the institution and having a sense that I could make positive impact at a time that MSU was going through a lot of changes.”How has advancement work evolved over the years?“Our donors continue to become more and more sophisticated. And that has been an absolute joy to be able to be part of teaching our alumni how important private philanthropy is to an institution, a public institution in particular. I started at Michigan State in 1980. And I think at that time, our entire staff, including gift processing, including our receptionist, including the vice president, our total staff might have been 20 people. And I remember that first year we were raising around $12 million.“I remember we had a champagne toast for our first million-dollar gift. Fast forward and we now have around 320 staff in University Advancement. And we're raising currently $224 million with three months to go (in the fiscal year). That's quite a significant growth. And so, credit to our very devoted alumni and our extraordinarily generous donors. It takes a village. We have an incredibly talented staff. And the university has embraced alumni engagement and fundraising to the point where everyone on campus understands the value, the importance, and the impact that private philanthropy can make.”Why is the private fundraising so important to a place like MSU?“Well, it would appear as though we have a huge budget, and we do have a huge budget. Most of it is earmarked. And so private philanthropy provides that margin of excellence to be able to attract outstanding faculty from across the country because there are endowed chairs affiliated with the positions. Most faculty when they're researching and they're teaching and they're providing service, they are also obligated to raise money to help with the research.“And what often makes the difference in attracting those outstanding faculty and retaining the superstar faculty is having an endowed chair that pays for the margin of excellence so that they don't have to spend time going out and raising funds to do their research. They have a pool from that endowed fund that helps them. And scholarships often make a difference in whether a student can attend school. And that student may become a brilliant doctor or policymaker in government or a social worker or educator who will change the world.”What are some challenges and opportunities ahead for higher education advancement in general and particularly for MSU?“There are always challenges. Part of the challenge for Michigan State is that comparatively speaking our sister institutions in the Big Ten have all been raising money for many years longer than Michigan State has. We didn't start private philanthropy as an active strategic department until the late '60s. And most of the other Big Ten institutions started raising money in the early 1920s or 1930s. We have some catching up to do in educating our alumni about why private philanthropy is so important.“We also were categorized early on in Michigan State's history as being a state-supported institution. And we really are no longer state-supported. We certainly are state-assisted, and we depend heavily on the state of Michigan for much needed funding. But in terms of our total budget, it is more and more imperative that private philanthropy helps make up the difference.”Your successor is Kim Tobin. She will take over as vice president for University Advancement. Obviously, you don't want to tell her what to do, but do you have some advice for Kim as she comes in?“I have had the privilege of meeting with Kim several times since her appointment. She's someone who I am very excited about. It makes a difference when you've put as much time and years and effort into an organization. I have no qualms handing the leadership over to Kim. I think she's going to be terrific. I think the staff is going to respond to her as a leader. I know our alumni and our donors are going to embrace her.“The best piece of advice I would give Kim is to embrace being a Spartan and to be a sponge and learn as much as she can about Michigan State and the culture of Michigan State and our alums. One of the first things we've all tried repeatedly to say to her, and it's become a joke with us, is that when someone says, ‘Go Green,’ what do you say back? And she very quickly learned that saying ‘Go White’ is the proper response.“So, I'm just so excited about Kim. It's a great opportunity for her. She's bringing 20 years of experience to the table. She's doubling her staff. She's doubling the amount that she's responsible for raising. She'll be able to bring that talent to Michigan State and be able to build upon the foundation that the team and I have put into place and take it to the next level. I will be her biggest cheerleader and the staff's biggest cheerleader.“Once a Spartan, always a Spartan. Being born and raised in Lansing, there was never any question where I was going to go to school, and I'm not going anywhere. I will always be around as a donor. I will always be around as an alum. And whatever I can do to assist in the transition, I'll be there because being a Spartan is very, very special.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Russ King, ’70, saw his first college football game at MSU and has been attracted to the campus ever since. “I just absolutely loved the environment and the physical surroundings. I just felt like I was in a paradise—even in the winter, because it can be very beautiful then, too,” he says. “Michigan State really fit my personality because it focused on people who maybe would never have a chance to go to school. And they personify that by going back to the community. We can apply our knowledge and help people who are living there right now.” That love for the MSU, and for helping others led King to donate his time, talent and treasure to help make the university even better. He also credits his Christian faith for encouraging his dedication to service. King is particularly active among MSU Extension’s Detroit Partnership for Food, Learning and Innovation, which centers around urban food research and seeks to develop solutions to economic and nutritional challengers unique to urban environments. Since 2014, King has generously supported DPFLI’s mission to transform how people and communities interact with their local food systems. He’s even advanced his own knowledge in the subject. King is a graduate of MSU Extension’s Master Gardener Program, which he joined to further his then-elementary knowledge of plants. It stems from a love of nature that has followed King his entire life.“I did a lot of lawn mowing when I was growing up, and I just had a great appreciation for God’s creation,” he says. “But I didn’t know anything about it.”King grew up in Ypsilanti, Michigan, and graduated from MSU in 1970 with a business degree. After starting his work life selling copiers, he transitioned into the investment industry where he established a successful career and went on to open his own firm—White Pine Investment Co.—in 1997.He says that name was intentional; it was an important part of starting the business. “I wanted to find a name that represented the values and the culture that we were hoping to build. White Pine is the Michigan state tree. It’s a fast-growing tree. When there’s a storm, there might be a branch or two that gets torn off, but that gives it more character. It withstands an awful lot of turmoil, which you must do in this business.”Resilience and generosity, the latter of which has been part of his character for as long as he can remember, are what continue to drive King today.“When I was growing up, I had a paper route and three or four jobs until I graduated from high school,” he says. “I paid for college myself. During that time, I would buy gifts for my siblings. I got a lot more joy out of it than they did. It was just fun to do, and so I sort of got used to that.”It’s clear that King’s greatest joys come not from what he’s done himself, but from discovering what he can do for others.“If it’s all about you,” he says, “then boy, you’re not going to have a whole lot of impact on anybody.”  

We're joined by Inspector Chris Rozman, who's public information officer and Dana Whyte, who's a new communications manager at MSU Police and Public Safety. “We have officially launched our community engagement unit,” says Lynch. “What that means is we have officers who are now assigned full time to community engagement. So, when they work, they are spending times with our students in residence halls, with our students at the Union, with fraternities and sororities at their events, and with registered student organizations and others. Their areas of responsibility are primarily based in residential and education housing services and the residence hall neighborhoods.“There is a sergeant assigned to each neighborhood. We also have a sergeant in the Union and a lieutenant with overall responsibility for the unit. They are actively engaged meeting and working with students and integrating themselves within the housing professional staff and our student life staff. And so coming up on a first full month, we've already seen some very positive results. For our students who live in residence halls, if you're out and about and you want to get to know your community engagement officer or sergeant, they should be easy to find because they're there just about every day.“Communication in general is extremely important. It’s the ability to communicate effectively and establish that two-way communication to tell our story. How do we prepare our community to understand what and why and how we operate? Most importantly, the communication should be frequent. And knowing who within the department has that responsibility is a key component. Establishing a public information officer allows us to operate at a higher level. And then by having a communications manager allows us to effectively communicate, not only just through a public information officer perspective, but from a written communication and overall strategic communications plan and through social media. We had to enhance that area. We've been fortunate enough to find internally someone with the skillset to be our public information officer in Chris Rozman. And Dana Whyte brings to us her professional experience in both print and TV media.”“Traditionally public information has really been more reactive and about responding to daily requests from external news sources,” says Rozman. “In my role what I realized early on was that we need to be a lot better and more proactive in telling our story because we do so many good things behind the scenes every day. Sometimes we fail at communicating that or sharing that information with the community. It's very important as we move forward with telling our story in an authentic and genuine way for the purpose of building genuine trust with the community, which is something that we're focused on. Communication plays right into that. It's just a key and crucial component.”“I just started January 10, so I'm a couple months in,” adds Whyte. “I noticed right away there is a lot that police departments do that I wasn’t aware of because I've never been inside of a police department. And now that I am, I want people to know these things. Being able to tell our story and put it out there on our website and social media gives people a better perspective on what we do to better connect with the community.”“We have to be proactive and communicate regularly because we're part of the community,” Lynch continues. “We should not just be a tool that is utilized when there's a crisis or there's something wrong. Because we are part of the community, it makes us more effective and better able to serve our community. We’re more familiar with our community, and our community is more familiar with us. Having that level of transparency and communicating regularly and telling our story of how we add to the community helps everything in that overall capacity.”Chris and Dana, what are some of both the challenges and opportunities in your roles communicating about MSU Police and Public Safety?“Some of the challenges are just the speed at which information moves these days,” Rozman continues. “If something does happen, gone are the days of waiting until the next newspaper is printed. We recognize that we must be communicating information immediately in any situation that occurs. There's a timeliness to our messaging. We recognize that we need to leverage a lot of different communication platforms. We make ourselves available for in-person and phone interviews. But at the same time, we leverage our social media pages and networks to amplify our message. And that can be a message about something that just occurred, or that can be telling our story about something that's very important that we want to share with the community. The mechanism to communicate is very important, and it's ever changing. And that's what's so beneficial about having Dana here to tap into a lot more of those platforms and communicate more frequently and tell those stories.”“It’s important for our community to know that we are taking steps inside and trying to be better,” Whyte adds. “And we have such a large and diverse audience. We have older people, we have parents, and we have students. We work to find which platforms work for each different community and adapt towards that.”“We don’t want the community to look at us just as a heavy-handed law enforcement agency because that's not our approach,” Rozman adds. “Our approach is to provide a very high level of service and a lot of supportive services as well that some people may not associate with a law enforcement agency. We really want to let people know all the services that we offer and that we are here to help. We are a resource for our community, and we want to make sure that message gets conveyed in a very genuine way. “The biggest thing from our perspective is just to really help people. And like Dana said, our community reaches far off campus. We understand that our community is not just students and faculty and staff but visitors who come here to see performances, who come here to attend events, and parents who may be in different states or sometimes in different countries. We have an obligation to connect with that community member where they may be in a different region of the state or a different area of the country. Our communication efforts really need to stretch beyond just the borders of campus.”“We're ambassadors for MSU,” adds Lynch. “And sometimes we are the first point of contact for something as simple as where do I park or how do I get to the specific locations? Then we can be a first point of contact when you need assistance and maybe you're the victim of a crime. That's a different set of responsibilities.”“I love being able to highlight some of the things that go unseen,” continues Rozman. “It's often hard for our officers and our employees to showcase what they've done. And what I mean by that is some of our employees are so humble in what they do. We go to them to try to highlight that, and they don't want recognition for it. We try to find those stories within our department that may go untold otherwise and showcase some of the genuine spirit and humility that most of our employees have that go unnoticed.”“The most rewarding thing for me is that community connection,” says Whyte. “Being able to make a difference in people's lives is what originally drew me to reporting, and Police and Public Safety does that every day. And like Chris said, a lot of the officers don't want recognition for it. Working to get those stories out there and connect with our community is a big thing for me.”“Telling the good is just as important as highlighting areas where we can improve,” concludes Lynch. “We want the feedback from our community on how we can do that. Creating the SafeMSU app came directly from our communications area. We’ve created an internal newsletter so that we communicate better internally and we’re using social media platforms so that we are communicating externally. It's a very important component. We're fortunate to have both Chris and Dana in that role with their abilities to do that.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“I really like brands,” says Austin. “When you look at the Michigan State brand, it's not just a local brand. It's regional, it's national, and it's international. Sparty the mascot is very well known; I felt like the equity in the brand is here. There are always things that we can do to further the equity in the brand. But the brand, the school, the academic programs, and MSU’s reputation itself drew me to come here.”What is university licensing? And what does it mean at Michigan State?“University licensing really is three prongs. We're here to promote the brand so that we can generate revenue that then can be sent over to the general scholarship fund and other university programs. We are here to support the students. Every time someone buys licensed merchandise, a portion of the royalties goes back to the general scholarship fund. The general student body benefits from those funds through scholarships. And the merchandise programs that we develop garner revenue and royalties that then come them back to the university.“And then the second part really is protecting the brand. We want to make sure that people aren't infringing on our brand. And I don't think of us as the logo cops or the no police. Our stance is more that if you want to use the university brand, you can, but just go through the proper processes and procedures and become a licensee and do it the correct way. By protecting the brand, we're adding equity into the brand. You have the promotion piece, you have the profit piece, and then you have the protection piece. And it’s looking at our trademarks portfolio. That doesn’t just mean our logos. It also means our wordmarks. Even the name, Michigan State University, and Go Green Go White, and some of our taglines are protected as well.“And we have great licensees and partners that want to work with us to develop great merchandise. We want to make sure we have merchandise that is diverse that meets all sizes, all identities, and all genders. Of course, we have some things that we don't license, like tobacco. But our primary goal is to make sure our brand is out there. And if people want product with Michigan State's logos on it, we want them to be able to find it and get it.”Austin emphasizes the importance of purchasing officially licensed product.“Also, we do a lot of work with the Fair Labor Association and the Worker Rights Consortium. We make sure that the product is being produced in reputable factories and not sweat shops. With the infringed and the non-licensed product, we can't guarantee where that product is being produced. I can't guarantee the quality and the customer service behind that product if it's infringed product.”How can someone tell if a product is officially licensed?“The easiest way is to look for the hologram sticker. We make it a requirement that all our licensees have to include the hologram sticker on all of the product. And when you look at the product and you see the Spartan head, does it have a circle R behind it? Or is that little identifier missing? Is there a small TM after some of our marks? Or is that missing? That's the easiest way to tell. The hologram sticker also has an identifying mark on it; it has a code on it. If I see the number on the hologram sticker, I can even tell you which licensee made that product, and then I can tell you if it's not a licensee.”As you get started as the director of university licensing at MSU, what are some of your goals?“I want to learn this campus and the campus community. I want to know from the academic side who are our top departments, clubs, and organizations? What fundraising do we do? What cause marketing do we do? Because all of that information will generate marketing campaigns that we can then tie merchandise to. So learning the campus community is my number one goal right now. And then just trying to figure out who is doing the buying, what are they buying, what are they missing, and what opportunities are out there? That's definitely my number one goal. I would say second is learning who our key retailers are and where they’re located. Where are our alumni?How do we get product to states that may not be selling it now? “I want to make sure that we have healthy e-commerce retailers. We do, but I want to be sure that they're getting the merchandise that they need. With COVID and everything you're hearing in the news, we are as well dealing with supply chain issues and our licensees are dealing with supply chain issues. And then through COVID when a lot of the stores were closed, the product was just sitting on shelves in the stores. A lot of the product that's in the stores is a year old, and those retailers aren't really looking to buy new product because they have to sell the product they have.“And then my favorite part of the business is the business development part. I want to get started on developing some marketing campaigns where we can include merchandise with them, whether that's with Athletics, with the Alumni Office, or with the general student body and organizations. How can we help further their brand?”Austin talks about how NIL (name, image, and likeness) and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) will impact university licensing in the months and years ahead.“This upcoming athletic season will be interesting to see the availability of custom jerseys with student athletes’ names and numbers on them. How are we going to handle that? And that will translate from football into basketball. And what does the product selection look like for the fans? And are they really interested in custom jerseys? We don't know yet. This will be a real test year for NIL. We’re still trying to figure out the value of NFTs. And how do we work with the NFT companies to make sure our brand is still gaining equity and being protected in that space? If I sell an NFT to somebody, can they then take it and do something to it that goes against our brand? Those are the unknowns right now. I do think a lot of the NIL opportunities are going to mirror what's being done in the professional sports.”Austin is impressed with diversity, equity, and especially inclusion initiatives at MSU.“I don't think I've ever worked at any place where inclusion has been at the forefront of the mission statement. And being a minority myself, it's very refreshing to come. One of the first questions that I was asked during the interview process was how I support inclusion. That was so important to me. I have gotten positions because I'm a minority so the diversity box or the equity box could be checked. But I think what has always been missing in my experience is the inclusion. And it means a lot to me that MSU is really focusing on the inclusion part.“I'm focusing on the inclusion part when it comes my licensing portfolio and our portfolio of licensees in retailers. I'm starting to look at who are the minority-owned businesses? Who are the woman-owned businesses? Who are the smaller mom and pop businesses that we can either license, or if they aren't in the financial area to be able to acquire the license, can they work with one of our current licensees and get the education behind it? I have heard from a lot of small individual entrepreneurs that are interested in entering the world of licensing, but they might not know how or have the resources.“And so how can our current licensing family help them and teach them the roles of licensing and how to get started? Are there some diverse printing companies that are local that maybe some of our larger licensees can work with to print the merchandise and get it into our retail locations? I want to continue the great work that MSU has done with inclusion and make sure that I am also paying attention to inclusion as well.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The hope is that this effort will allow all Spartans, students, faculty, staff, alumni, and community members to shape future physical investments in support of our teaching, research, and outreach mission. Guided by the university's strategic plan, this planning process provides an opportunity to advance equity, bolster community health, and enhance support systems for students, faculty, staff, alumni, and visitors through the physical environment of MSU's land and facilities.The resulting framework plan will provide the university with a roadmap to guide MSU's future campus composition for the next generation. Barbara Kranz is assistant provost for Institutional Space Planning and Management, and Stephen Troost is a campus planner in Infrastructure Planning and Facilities. They're leading this project.“The plan is rooted in the university's strategic plan,” Troost says. “That is where we get guidance from. The second tenet is it's a decision-making tool, and it's really guided by overarching timeless planning principles that help us look at every project moving through the system and how it supports the vision for the campus. Third, it's a flexible framework, and that's an important concept to remember. It guides the highest and best use of our land and our facilities. It doesn't dictate growth. It doesn't say things will happen, but it stays flexible because one thing we know for certain in higher education is we will always have changing dynamics to deal with. The fourth tenet is it enhances safety, and it does that through the optimal organization of campus systems and operations. The final tenet deals with process. I really think that sometimes the process is more important than the product. Campus plans allow the entire Spartan Nation to give voice to what they think the campus of the future should be. Everyone's passionate about campus.”“If we think about our DEI plan and the strategic plan and the values within them, how do we think about and incorporate those principles from those plans and think about community engagement, social engagement, transportation mobility, social mobility, health and wellness, and a whole range of things,” asks Kranz? How do we leverage our campus? We have a beautiful campus. We hope to retain the arboretum around teaching and learning, but it also contributes to health and wellness, both mental and physical. MSU is very interested in weaving the role of the arts in and across both, not only our curriculum, but research and everyday activity of our students, faculty, staff, and students. There's a whole component around sustainability in the plan, too. That's not just buildings, but financial sustainability and evolving cultural changes for all of us coming to campus.”Input and feedback from Spartan Nation are being sought. Details on how to share your views are at campusplan.msu.edu. “Where's your special place? Where are places you think need to be fixed? What's your route through campus? Are there areas of concern that you want to make sure get addressed in the plan? And we're looking to get quite a bit of input from faculty, staff, students, and alumni, as well as community members who come here as visitors,’ continues Troost. “We want to understand how we can enhance the physical campus of composition through that map on the My Campus website. It'll be open through April 22nd, and then there will be opportunities throughout the planning process to go to that website, campusplan.msu.edu, and offer your input or ideas on things that you're hearing or seeing. We'll also have some extensive town hall meetings coming up in the fall when folks are back on campus and have a chance to settle down and get into the new semester. And then we'll be able to look at some of those scenarios and alternatives and get input on what people think about those.”“The plan is a 10 to 20+ year look ahead,” Kranz says. “Whatever we build and develop will be here for many generations. If staff and faculty are here three days a week, for example, what kinds of engagements are important to have to both build community and relationships within the work environment to accomplish our work and to be efficient and supportive? How do we be thoughtful about that to make sure our students experience our topnotch university, and our faculty staff are supported as well so that we have a vibrant and sustainable community.”“Through the listening sessions we've conducted to date, Barb and I are hearing that the value-added proposition of why you'd come back to campuses is that people want to collaborate,” says Troost. “Now, you can do your work from home. And there are aspects of that that are fine. But when people do come to campus, they want to have small seminar rooms and open atrium spaces for a cup of coffee, just areas where they can get together and collaborate. There are a lot of ways you can learn, and you can continually learn throughout your life, but you come to campus to be with people. And that's why we have campuses. And that's the most important aspect to me. The elephant in the room is how we blend that hybrid work, teaching, learning, research environment with the very high touch environment we need when we're on campus.“The key to the plan is its flexibility. The plan will not tell us where we're going because the beauty of higher education is that top research institutions are continually evolving and changing, and we're a land grant or a world grant if you will. And so, we're constantly evolving and looking at what it is we can be doing as the state's institution. And that's going to continually give us challenges in the future for how we grow and how we develop the campus. That flexible framework gives us the guiding principles of what we want it to be. And then as every project folds into it, we continually assess how it can expand upon and allow for successful completion of those planning principles.”“We have MSU Extension and AgBioResearch,” says Kranz. “We have over 20,000 acres across the state, and we're in every county in the state. While a big piece of the plan focuses on the physical assets in East Lansing, we are all over Michigan. We're national and international, too. How do we plan going forward to acknowledge all of that?”“I would add, too, that one of the things to remember is we often go back to maybe the 2020 plan 20 years ago, or we go back to the founding of the institution in 1855. But our legacy goes farther back than that. We occupy ancestral ends of the Anishinaabeg and the three tribes. We need to remember those decisions when we make land-use decisions,“ concludes Troost. MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU Strategic Plan 2030 identifies goals within six key themes: student success; staff and faculty success; discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact; sustainable health; stewardship and sustainability; and diversity, equity and inclusion. On this edition of MSU Today, we'll be focusing on the diversity, equity and inclusion theme of the plan with its executive sponsor, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer Jabbar Bennett. “I’m really pleased you’ll be talking with our very distinguished CDO Jabbar Bennett today about DEI and its role in the strategic plan,” says Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. “Even though we have a separate plan for diversity, equity and inclusion, everybody who was involved in this process felt it was important that it be in included as a pillar in the strategic plan as well. It cuts across so many aspects of our campus and it’s so important to us going forward. I've talked many times about the need to have a place where people feel welcome and where people feel that they're a part of this university and are welcomed at this university. And that's what DEI is about. It's providing opportunity, it's providing support and it's providing ways in which we can continue to help people reach their full potential.”How does MSU Strategic Plan 2030 define diversity, equity and inclusion?“It's important for all of us to recognize that diversity, equity and inclusion are three different things with their own definitions and application that work together and complement each other,” says Bennett. “And all three are foundational principles and practices that we must embrace as Spartans if we really want to get where it is we say we want to go.“Diversity represents our very collective and individual identities and differences, and we recognize that diversity is a central component of inclusive excellence in research, teaching, service and outreach and engagement. We are committed to engaging, understanding, promoting and fostering a variety of perspectives and affirm our similarities and value our differences. “Equity is the ability to, or actions taken, to ensure access to resources that promote success and address past and present educational and professional disparities. Equity goes beyond fair treatment, opportunity and access to information and resources for all. Equity can only be achieved in an environment built on respect and dignity that acknowledges historic and contemporary injustices.“Inclusion is the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded. Inclusion actively invites all to contribute and participate. We strive to create balance. Every person's voice is valuable and no one person is expected to represent an entire community. Here at MSU, we're committed to an open environment and campus where students, faculty, staff, alumni and community voices are equally respected and contribute to the overall institutional mission.”And one of the boldest and clearest desired outcomes stated in the strategic plan is the complete elimination of race and ethnicity opportunity gaps across all subgroups of students by 2030. Bennett talks about how MSU will get there.“A goal mentioned in the strategic plan calls for ensuring equity and eliminating disparities on our campus and beyond. MSU has long been invested in student success and that is evident. For the sixth straight year, MSU saw a record high graduation rate of 82 percent for first-time, full-time undergraduate students. Graduation rates for students who identify as American Indian, Alaskan Native, Asian American, Black or African American, Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander and Hispanic or Latinx, all increased as well. However, Black and African American undergraduate students continue to have slightly lower graduation rates of around 65 percent. MSU 2030 has a goal of guaranteeing an 86 percent graduation rate for the entering 2024 class that will require persistence enabled by the student success initiative, which aims to support the success of all Spartans.“Equity, inclusion, diversity and global competency are integrated into every aspect of the undergraduate experience. Utilizing a lens of racial equity in teaching and educational outcomes is central to understanding, naming and working to proactively tackle those issues to further eliminate educational opportunity gaps. Closing opportunity gaps requires a focus on ensuring our faculty and staff are also able to succeed.”MSU has a whole plan dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Bennett describes how that plan relates to and complements the DEI theme in the strategic plan and how they fit together. And he talks about how MSU will look different by 2030 and what we will have achieved if we’re successful in implementing the plan.“I'd like to underscore that the plan was developed by members of this community: students, faculty, staff and alumni. It'll take every member of this community to recognize their role and the work that they and we must do to make this work successful. We all have a responsibility, and there are ways that we can contribute to advancing these efforts within our local circles and communities as well as collectively when we work with groups and partner with colleagues in different units.”On this edition of MSU Today, we've been talking about the diversity, equity and inclusion theme of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030: Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity, Expanding Impact with the executive sponsor of the theme, Vice President and Chief Diversity Officer, Jabbar Bennett. Read and learn more about MSU Strategic Plan 2030 at strategicplan.msu.edu. MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

In September of 2021, MSU cut the ribbon on its state-of-the art and now multiple award-winning STEM Teaching and Learning Facility. Stephen and Julie talk about MSU's evolving STEM curriculum and about some of the things that go on inside the STEM building. The goal for the position for a STEM dean at MSU initially wasn’t thought of to be for two people.“So, if you read the job ad for the position, it's a very complex position,” Libarkin says. “Stephen and I were talking about it, and we both said that alone, neither one of us could do that job. But we realized that together, we really are sides of a multi-faceted die, and we have different communities we engage with. We have different strengths, and we collaborate well together. We've co-taught, we've had grants together, and we've created curriculum together. And so, we decided to ask if we could apply as a team. And they said we could, and we did. And I think they saw what we saw.”We know that STEM stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. Why have we heard so much about STEM in the last decade or so? Why is it so important to focus more in this area?“There are multiple reasons,” Thomas says. “I think a lot of times when people talk about career preparation, a lot of the jobs that are available plug into those disciplines or those skill sets that those disciplines will train. And I think there's also a link to this desire for innovation. I feel like societally, we really are always focusing on this idea of innovation, and we see STEM as a pathway to getting that type of innovation.”“I take a very expansive view of what STEM is,” continues Libarkin. “To me, it's this systematic investigation of solving of problems and understanding the world around us. That includes people and all the things that people do. The other thing that's really of value for thinking about innovating in STEM is really recognizing that STEM is happening in the arts. STEM is happening in the humanities. STEM is happening in business and communication. And if you look across our campus, there are people who teach STEM-focused courses and people who do research in STEM education housed everywhere on this campus. So, it's important, I think because it's integrated in how humans live in the world.”What about adding the A, which we often do, for arts to make STEAM?“Adding the A has some interesting roots and discussion around that,” continues Thomas. “So, if you talk to various communities, there's a discussion about why just the arts? There's also a role for humanities and the social sciences. Medical health education is sometimes left off STEM or not seen as being included in that depending on who you ask. With STEAM, we think about it more inclusively.“How do we have more communication and dialogue between these disciplines? Historically, when we've seen STEAM, there's been this bringing in of the arts to make STEM more entertaining. But there hasn't been this more, maybe robust discussion about how their ways of knowing can inform each other and improve the process for both.“And so, how do we not just take from the arts, but also participate and have a richer engagement between those communities? We’re passionate about having these conversations and dialogues. The ones that we've been having on campus are just fascinating. How do you get people engaged in science who may not view themselves as scientists? That's one of the hopes that we're seeing for the STEM building; that if we have these relationships with other disciplines, that it will allow others to come into STEM spaces and view themselves as able to engage with that work.”How is the STEM or STEAM curriculum evolving at MSU?“I think we're at a cusp of potential growth,” says Libarkin. “And this really is an ideal time for the building to have the ribbon cutting ceremony, and it's ready for use; because now we have a place, and it's a building. It’s turning into a place where people want to be, where students want to be, and where faculty want to teach. People want to understand and be part of a particular place, and that gives us an opportunity to grow the community in unforeseen directions. You must get a lot of voices around a table. I really want to build community among anyone who thinks of themselves in any way, shape, or form as trying to understand learning in STEM, writ large, and build a community and have us work together to elevate the entire community.“Honestly, I think the best part of this job has been having the space and the opportunity to connect with people and just hear what people are doing, from undergraduates through upper administrators, learning how the institution functions at many levels. Reach out if you want to share, if you have ideas, or if you have needs.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“It was nice to be included,” says Lupien. “I recognized a lot of names on there and some folks whose work I've been following for years.“Mass Timber is an umbrella term for a variety of engineered wood building construction materials. And typically, these are panelized materials and they're really large. Imagine a big beam made of layers of 2x4s laminated together in the shape of a steel I-beam so that you could use that instead of a steel I-beam in a large building. Or imagine a large panel, like a wall or a floor that's made of layers of 2x4s or 2x6s in opposing layers, stacked in layers that are in the opposite direction of one another. That's called cross-laminated timber. And you can drop that in to create a wall or a floor. So, these are big materials that are typically used in larger buildings.” Why is Mass Timber a good fit for construction, like at the MSU STEM Teaching and Learning Facility that uses it extensively and has won many awards?“The Michigan State University STEM Teaching and Learning facility opened in July, and it's the first building in Michigan to use mass timber for its structural system. The STEM Facility uses two types of mass timber. One is glue-laminated timber. Those are typically beams and columns. People who like buildings and know buildings will know that glue-laminated timber columns and beams aren't really new. They've been in use for a few decades here in the United States. And the building also uses cross-laminated timber, which are those big panels that I was talking about. And that's a newer technology that's just starting to emerge in North America.“People are excited about mass timber for a variety of reasons, but the main driver behind the interest is the sustainability benefits of building with big wood in combination in hybrid models like we did in the STEM Facility with materials like steel or concrete, which are more historically or typically used in large buildings.“Mass timber is great because to produce mass timber and transport mass timber typically emits less carbon than other types of building materials. Wood is a renewable material; it's a renewable resource. You're not using a finite resource. So, that's a more sustainable way of building as well. But the thing that I think is powerful about mass timber in addition to those features is how trees work. In a forest, trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere during photosynthesis. They take in that carbon dioxide. As we know, they emit oxygen, which we breathe. But they take in that carbon dioxide as gas and then they store it in their trunks, in their branches, in their roots, and ultimately, in the soil as carbon.“While that carbon is stored in the trees, it's not being emitted into the atmosphere. We know that carbon dioxide going into the atmosphere warms the atmosphere contributing to global climate change. There are many other types of greenhouse gases that also contribute to climate change. Methane being one that we hear a lot about as well. And methane is admitted by trees when they are dying and decomposing in the forest. So, when you have trees storing carbon in the forest, that's a very important benefit of forests. It helps to contain that carbon by either delaying it or preventing it from going back in the atmosphere at a rapid pace, which is what we want to avoid to curb climate emissions.“When you cut a tree and you use it in a long-lived durable product like mass timber, which can last for 50, 100, 150 years in a building, you're storing a significant amount of carbon that tree in the forest has sequestered, absorbed, and stored. You're storing that carbon in the building, further delaying the amount of time before that carbon would go into the atmosphere. So, you're really helping your buildings to become centers of carbon storage. And other materials such as steel and concrete, of course, don't store carbon. They don't have a carbon storage capacity.”Lupien talks about how MSU is leading in the research and application of mass timber and about how a growing and evolving mass timber industry can impact Michigan’s economy.“Mass Timber@MSU is funded in large part by Michigan Department of Natural Resources and the Michigan Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Both of those agencies are very interested in advancing mass timber in Michigan in large part because they see significant potential opportunities for rural-forested communities to revive some forest economies that have been a little bit tired for many reasons in recent years, maybe creating some new opportunities in milling, some new opportunities in kilning, and, of course, new opportunities in manufacture of mass timber. On the construction side, there's also the opportunity to train new types of builders. This is a different way of building. We can perhaps develop new types of construction jobs. So, there's a lot of potential economic development opportunities associated with this.“On the manufacturing side, it's important to note that most mass timber in North America is coming from the Pacific Northwest or the Pacific Coast of Canada. Some is coming from Quebec. For example, the mass timber that you'll see if you visit our STEM Teaching and Learning Facility is from black spruce from Quebec. And then some is starting to come from the Southeast United States using yellow pine. The reason for that is that all the mass timber technologies currently certified for use in North America are made from soft wood species like spruce, pine, and fur.“In Michigan, we have about 20 percent soft wood in our forest but about 80 percent hardwood. That's an interesting opportunity for Michigan to think about. How can we use hardwoods in mass timber in North America? Europe has been using hardwoods in mass timber. Can we do it here? From an engineering and structural standpoint, the answer is yes. It just is a matter of doing the research, development, and product certification to make that happen. Our friends at Michigan Tech University have been doing some exciting research along those lines, developing cross-laminated timber using hardwoods. So, we're watching that very carefully.“I think it's exciting to see mass timber in person. We have the first example of mass timber construction right here on MSU's campus. For those interested in visiting the STEM Facility here on MSU's campus, please feel free to reach out to me, Sandra Lupien. My email address is lupiensa@msu.edu. And I will be happy to find a time when you or perhaps a group of your colleagues can come and see the building, or we can do an introduction to mass timber presentation. When people see it, they really understand ‘Oh, this is how it works.’ And in addition to the benefits that I mentioned, it's also just very beautiful; it's a nice feeling to be in a building made from wood that's exposed. People love that. The students are really enjoying the building. I think we're going to see more mass timber buildings in Michigan in the coming months and years. And I hope that we'll also realize mass timber manufacturing in Michigan before too long.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The sixth annual Give Green Day was on March 15th. This year, more than $1.34 million was raised from over 7,000 gifts for causes including alumni club scholarships, the MSU Center for Survivors Survivor Emergency Fund, and several college-based funds supporting Spartan students of today and tomorrow. That's an increase over last year's $1.2 million raised.“It really is impressive how people came together. The number of people who are contributing continues to grow every year,” Stanley says. “I'm impressed by our incredible alumni. I'm also impressed by our faculty and staff who gave during this time. Obviously, they give so much to the university daily, and it means a lot to me to see them kicking in afterwards as well and parting with some of their well-earned treasure to support the university.“We still want people to give when it's not Give Green Day. But the day is a way in which the campus comes together, and we can see the support and the tremendous affection and investment people are willing to make in MSU.”A person who will help lead giving in the future is Kim Tobin, who you recently selected to be our next vice president for University Advancement. She arrives on May 1st. “Kim was an outstanding candidate who was a very powerful choice of the select search committee that worked on this search. She comes from Colorado State University, which is another land grant university where she's led them to several very successful campaigns and has been raising in the $150 million range and above during her time at CSU, which is a smaller institution than Michigan State University.“If you spend any time in her presence, she's incredibly enthusiastic about what she does, and she really cares about the institution where she's been, CSU. And now she's learning a lot about MSU and learning to care about it as well. Her enthusiasm, energy, and knowledge and sophistication in terms of fundraising are going to serve us very well. I'm looking forward to great things. I do want to say how much I've appreciated all the work that Marti Heil has done. She's been amazing. Marti is leading us to a great year this year.“We're doing very well. We're ahead of where we want to be. Everybody should keep giving, but we're ahead of where we want to be. But it's really going to be good to have Kim on board. She'll bring some new perspectives and energy to the position.”Financial stewardship is an ongoing imperative for MSU and an element of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030. We recently issued $500 million in century bonds, which mature in 100 years. “Century bonds were things I wasn't familiar with until I came to Michigan State University, but our chief financial officer and vice president Lisa Frace had some experience with century bonds. Basically, it's a vehicle by which you can borrow money and pay it back at the end of 100 years. We're borrowing $500 million. In a hundred years, we'll have to pay that $500 million back. In the meantime, we pay interest on the outcoming balance during that hundred-year period. 2122 is when this becomes due.“It's an opportunity for us to get dollars for capital projects at a very good price right now. Interest rates remain near historic lows. We have money that we can utilize. The idea is to create a replenishing fund with this $500 million and use it for projects that will have some type of return on investment. That could be a parking garage. That could be a laboratory. There are a lot of things we can do with this, but the idea is to keep the fund going so we'll have a continuous fund for capital projects that have some return on investment and use that money for a very long period.”You attended the ribbon cutting of McLaren Health Care's new health campus in the University Health Park on the south end of campus. The $600 million facility includes a new 240 bed hospital, a multi-specialty outpatient healthcare center, and a Karmanos Cancer Center in partnership with MSU Health Care. It offers new facilities for MSU's education, research, and service to our regional community in collaboration with McLaren. “It’s the beginning of an even closer collaboration with McLaren. They're a very outstanding health care provider, and this is another step forward in building closer collaborations. We have collaborations with them. We have collaborations with Spectrum. We have collaborations with Sparrow. And we have our Henry Ford affiliation, which is a deep-set partnership as well. We're going to continue to work with people to improve health throughout the state, but it’s nice to be able to do something major right in our own backyard.”On March 16th, we launched the second Know More campus survey to follow up on the first one conducted in 2019 to measure the culture, perceptions, and policies associated with relationship violence and sexual misconduct. “It's so important that we understand what our campus culture and climate are like and what people are experiencing on campus. Really the only way to do this is by this kind of very confidential survey so we can get information and people can feel comfortable telling us what's happening on campus. We're hoping things have improved since we did the survey in 2019. But if they haven't, or even if they've not improved that much, we need to find ways to do things better.“But without knowing what the problems are, we can't come up with the solutions. We had about 15,000 individuals fill out this survey before. That's a great total for the university. We're a little behind schedule in terms of people filling out right now. I think St. Patrick's Day and the NCAA Tournament may have had something to do with that. I encourage people to fill it out and complete it.“It's so important to help guide what we do in relationship violence and sexual misconduct, and to look at how we treat each other on the campus. Civility and other issues are addressed by this survey. Please fill it out students, faculty and staff. It really does make a difference for us.”You recently had the fun opportunity to honor an amazing faculty member and teacher by announcing this year's President's Distinguished Teaching Award in a surprise classroom visit. College of Social Science Associate professor john Waller is an exemplary scholar and teacher well deserving of the award. His scholarship, enthusiasm, and mentorship are highly admirable and a great example of the world class education and support for student success at MSU. “Our faculty are amazing, and this is always a fun thing. This is now I think the third time I've done this. Last time I did it, I broke into a Zoom meeting. But this time I was able to come in person, which was much better. Professor Waller was very funny. As we walked into the room – I was there, the provost was there, and the dean of his college, Mary Finn, was there. He looked at one of the students and said in a whisper, ‘I think I'm being fired.’ Of course, it was exactly the opposite. We were there to congratulate him for his excellence in teaching.“We can't say enough about the quality of education that one can receive at MSU. Faculty and staff and graduate students who have teaching roles are all critical in getting this done. We very much appreciate their efforts, and it's nice to be able to thank them. My thanks to the donors who provide this kind of support for these awards because it really does make a difference in our ability to recognize and retain these great faculty.”Can you reflect a bit on March was Women's History Month and Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month?“These reflections are so important. We get caught up in the hustle and bustle of daily life, but it's important to be reminded of the things that are happening around us and the things that have happened in history that really matter. Women's History Month is very important. During Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Heritage Month, there'll be several celebrations. You learn about culture and history that adds to the experience of being at MSU. One of the advantages of being at a university is taking time to celebrate these events and recognize and look back and forward at the same. I encourage everybody to be a part of it.”President Stanley, around these parts, we read a calendar January, February, Izzo, April, May, etc. “I had a chance to go to Greenville and see the team play those two games. What I told the people I talked to there was we can't take this for granted. It's 24 years in a row now we've gone to the NCAA Tournament, and it's easy to take that for granted. But please don't. I was at Stony Brook University before I came here, and I had the opportunity to preside over the first time Stony Brook University had been to the Division I NCAA tournament. Our campus came together and enjoyed it in a very big way.“To have that opportunity every year for 24 years in a row is spectacular. We've got to enjoy it. I thought the first-round game was a thriller against Davidson. So wonderful to win. We had Duke on the ropes, but they wiggled away and ended up winning the game. But it was a great game. People were not considering us serious contenders in that game, and we showed that we absolutely were. You can never discount a Tom Izzo team, particularly in March. We'll be back. You can count on that. Tom will continue to bring us back. Maintaining that level of excellence speaks volumes about his leadership in the program and, of course, the student athletes who've elected to participate with us.“It's been a very good semester. We're in a good place right now. If you haven't been boosted, get your booster shot because that's important for keeping the campus safe. Overall, I'm very pleased with where we're going as we work towards about six weeks to go to complete spring semester.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

AAAS at MSU was initially founded as a PhD granting program in 2002. On July 1, 2019, AAAS became a department. In Spring 2020, MSU appointed Brown the inaugural chair.“We insist that Black studies uncovers and creates technologies of living for Black people and Black futures,” says Brown. “And when we say Black people, we mean all Black people. And when we say Black futures, we mean beyond survival into wellness. We are continuing to build and expand with the addition of new faculty hires and new courses.”Brown says that students can major in African American and African Studies at MSU. And she describes how the department is evolving. The department is getting exciting new physical space in Kedzie in time for fall semester that will include wellness and social rooms.“That was a resounding message that I heard from the students is that they want opportunities to be together, certainly for our triple AAAS majors, but for all students who feel connected to our curriculum and are excited about the vision in Black feminisms, Black genders, and Black sexualities studies.”Brown talks about the accomplished and passionate additions to the department’s faculty. Dill talks about her background and what attracted her to AAAS at MSU.“What attracted me to AAAS was the centering, the unapologetic centering of Black feminisms, which is unique and rare and nuanced, particularly in Black studies, but also across disciplines in the academy,” says Dill. “It was this calling and shouting out that Black feminisms are the center. It's not an elective, it's not an afterthought; it's the center for everything they do. And so, much like I've lived my life and grounded my scholarship in that, that attracted me.“I sometimes describe myself as a unicorn. Having this horn sticking out, this mythical character. But I specifically came here to AAAS because I realized that there were other unicorns. There was a whole department of unicorns, knocking through doors with our magic horn. But also landing safely and sometimes softly here at MSU that is welcoming us. Being here is not the disruption. We're realizing that the other dreams that we have and are still manifesting might be the disruption.“I am focused on Black girl wellness. I'm trained in public health, so a lot of my public health training has been thinking about not just illness and not just disease, but wellness, thriving, and resilience. And I love that part of AAAS's mission and vision of beyond survival into wellness. I'm excited here at AAAS to think even more broadly around wellness.”Dill talks about how poetry goes hand in hand with her scholarly work and how it perhaps even informs it.“I've been a poet longer than I've been a scholar. I've been writing poetry since I was in elementary school. I developed more of my poetic techniques as a high school student, using it as my own coping mechanism, running to my journals, but also running to Black poets either on my mom's bookshelf or in the bookstores that I found in my community who were sometimes reflecting my life, sometimes imagining lives that I hadn't even imagined, but also running to the pin to get out some things that I couldn't always articulate in words or out loud.”Dill shares her poem Testimony and talks about some of her responsibilities in AAAS. She also describes the importance of mindfulness and meditation. Brown describes the “creative intention” that permeates AAAS and shares the poem Study by Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz.“We have a tremendous amount of gratitude for our MSU colleagues for being there and welcoming us at every step of the way,” Brown says. “They have served on committees and shared their generosity and ideas. It has made a world of difference in terms of us being able to do our best work. We are indebted to the sacrifice and receive well the responsibility to carry forward the dreams of generations, and we are acting with great hope and with great enthusiasm for the generations yet to come. So, to the alumni, please keep sending students to us. We look forward to actively working and building with you all. And to all those administrators who are noticing what we're doing, who are creating the space and providing the resources for us to do our best work, we are in partnership, and I like to think we are just getting started.”MSU Today airs Saturdays at 5 p.m. and Sundays at 5 a.m. on WKAR News/Talk and Sundays at 8 p.m. on 760 WJR. Find “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“It’s rightfully been on everyone’s minds,” said Ben Cabanaw, state refugee coordinator in the state’s Office of Global Michigan, and special guest during the Institute’s monthly broadcast. “There’s a lot of details still not known as this time.”Estimates are that more than 3.6 million people have fled Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s attack on its neighboring country.This month’s podcast features Host Arnold Weinfeld, IPPSR associate director, IPPSR Director Dr. Matt Grossmann and MSU economist Charles Ballard. Podcasts predicted the conflict in Ukraine will likely have lingering economic effects and traced legal questions about redistricting as statewide candidates file for 2022 elections.“We can always find that Michigan is quite connected to events that occur all over the world,” Grossmann said.Michigan is a welcoming state, Cabanaw said, and his office within the state Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity works with local health, education and nonprofit agencies to resettle refugees into new housing, schools, and employment.Between last fall and this spring, his office helped Michigan to welcome about 1,800 refugees from Afghanistan and provides ongoing support services to about 3,000 people each year, he said. Public and media interest ebbs and flows with each international crisis posing, a challenge for continuing refugee support, Cabanaw said. “We try to use this moment to educate and advocate. Michigan is traditionally a welcoming state and provides a lot of support for the programming that we do,” he said.Michigan’s Legislature is also settling the state’s budget with tax cut proposals as a better-than-expected economy and federal pandemic relief funds yield surplus state finances. “The recession caused by COVID turned out not to be as severe as many of us feared,” Ballard said. He cautioned the state will still need to pay its bills should tax cuts be too generous. “Once you cut a tax, it’s hard to bring it back,” he said.With balanced budgets required in nearly every state, states have funds to cut taxes and increase spending at the same time, Grossmann said.  “They’re good times to be a state legislator or governor. You have lots of goodies to give out, some from the federal government and some from unexpected surpluses.”Candidates for variety of statewide offices are filing now for upcoming political party conventions and primary votes under new election districts. While state courts and the U.S. Supreme Court are now ruling on legal redistricting challenges, Michigan’s early filings indicate candidates expect to run under the new district boundaries, Grossmann said. 

MSU Strategic Plan 2030 identifies goals within six key themes: student success; staff and faculty success; discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact; sustainable health; stewardship and sustainability; and diversity, equity, and inclusion.On this edition of MSU Today, we'll be focusing on the sustainable health theme of the plan with its executive sponsor, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Norman J. Beauchamp Jr.  “Sustainable health is a particularly important component of the strategic plan,” says Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. “Some of the things we’ve done recently like our partnership with Henry Ford Health impact the state of health across the state of Michigan. We need to end health disparities in urban and rural areas in Michigan. Michigan State University can play a critical role in helping to do that.” How does the plan define sustainable health? “It’s about hope, health, and healing for all people,” says Beauchamp. “It’s consistent with our land grant mission. All people deserve the opportunity to improve their health and wellness.” Conversation Highlights: “To be sustainable we must train the next generation of individuals who are going to bring health, hope, and healing to all,” continues Beauchamp. “An ethos of health and wellness must permeate the entire campus. It’s about how we enable those who want to improve the health and wellness of others and then how we accomplish that in a sustainable way, day after day for generations to come.” Innovations that make MSU a leader in sustainable health include the College of Human Medicine’s competency-based education, the College of Osteopathic Medicine’s Street Care program, and the College of Nursing’s simulation training.  Beauchamp explains how the county one is born in can dramatically impact a person’s health and wellness. And he describes curricular pathways into health for students to serve all of Michigan’s communities. “MSU is unique in its breadth of these opportunities.”    He elaborates on MSU’s collaborative ethos “to seek first to understand and bring value.” He cites MSU’s work in Flint and the Flint Registry as an example. “What are the challenges the community is working with us to solve? It’s an asset-based community approach. The strength of addressing any challenge exists in the community. Our job is to learn from the community about the ways they believe we can be helpful to them.” Advancing equity is a critical focus of the strategic plan. Beauchamp paraphrases Martin Luther King Jr. who said, ‘Of all forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman.’  “The color of your skin should not determine your likelihood of survival from cancer and negatively affect health outcomes or the length of your life for up to a decade,” Beauchamp says. “That’s inhuman and unacceptable. Those who can address that challenge must accept that challenge as an imperative.” Partly through MSU’s presence in every one of Michigan’s counties through MSU Extension, Beauchamp says “MSU is uniquely poised to reach out to rural and urban Michigan, offer advice, have it accepted, and then evaluate if it’s working.” He also comments on the deficiencies in access people of color have to clinical trials for cancer and their impacts.  Beauchamp says the secret sauce that can lead to more funding for sustainable health initiatives is “our ability to collaborate internally, to partner with institutions that have similar values of improving health and the ability to find win-wins with those partners, and it’s absolutely being focused on the needs of the community in a way that resonates with them.” He weighs in on the significance of the year 2030 in the title of the plan. “For things that matter, there must be a sense of urgency.”          On this edition of MSU Today, we've been talking about the sustainable health theme of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030, Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity, and Expanding Impact with the executive sponsor of the theme, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Norman J. Beauchamp Jr.Read and learn more about MSU Strategic Plan 2030 at strategicplan.msu.edu. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU's Strategic Plan 2030 identifies goals within six key themes: student success, staff and faculty success, discovery; creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact; sustainable health; stewardship and sustainability; and diverse, equity, and inclusion.On this edition of MSU Today, we'll be focusing on the stewardship and sustainability theme of the plan with its executive sponsors: Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Information Officer Melissa Woo and Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Lisa Frace. Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. says Spartans care deeply about Planet Earth and about MSU's financial sustainability.“Stewardship and Sustainability is the fifth pillar of the strategic plan and one of the most important,” says Stanley. “Our students, faculty, and staff care deeply about the planet and climate change. This is incredibly important to them, and the concept of sustainability and being stewards of our environment and our financial situation here at MSU is important to everyone on the campus. We're a leader in this area. We're among the top-ranked college campuses in what we're doing, and the goal of the strategic plan is to continue that leadership and put us in the forefront of people who are making a difference in this area. “We've already been making changes in our financial stewardship. Our financial situation has improved significantly over the past couple years. Despite COVID, we've been able to improve our balance sheets, and we're going to continue to work to make sure that our budget is aligned with our strategic goals to make sure that we're using the dollars we have at MSU in a way that furthers the strategic goals and the strategic plan and makes a difference.”Michigan State is working toward climate neutrality by mid-century. Why is it critical MSU take this step, and what are some of our key action plans?“It's just one of the pieces of a total holistic institutional sustainability and climate action plan, which is going to be based on a four-pillar framework focused on four C's: campus, curriculum, community, and culture,” says Woo.“As we continue to move forward in meeting energy goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we'll also be looking at taking systemic, sustainable actions and adopting a culture that enables the institution to reach those goals. Some of the other things that we're working on will be to foster resource stewardship through application of leadership and environmental design. We’re organically managing land and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, increasing sustainable source purchases, increasing campus-grown and locally sourced food, and reducing the transportation carbon footprint.“Another place we're really focusing on is expanding sustainability teaching and learning opportunities through formal courses and co-curricular activities. And of course, we can't forget research. We also want to expand sustainability research and innovation through inter- and intra-institutional partnerships to address climate solutions. And finally, because we also can't forget outreach, we want to make sure we enhance sustainability outreach and engagement by expanding volunteer opportunities for our faculty, staff, and students in support of local, state, regional, national, and global partnerships.”“Sustainability also refers to a sustainable model for financial and other types of resources. We are looking at transforming the university's budgeting process as part of that,” adds Frace.Are there some other plans for us to be a greener campus?“We want to achieve platinum ranking in what's known as the Sustainability Tracking Assessment and Rating System, STARS for short, by 2030 if we can,” continues Woo. “We also really want to achieve the Top 100 Times Higher Education global impact ranking by 2030.“Another thing we're looking at is reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent from our 2010 baseline. And ultimately, we want to ensure that faculty, staff, and students can live, work, and learn in buildings and spaces that promote health and wellness, have access to proximal green space, and enjoy pedestrian- and bicycle-friendly design.”Sustainability also refers to sustainability of financial and other types of resources. MSU will be adapting a new long-term, comprehensive financial model and budget process to align with and support strategic priorities. Can you talk about this model and the process to develop it and the timeline?“When we talk about the university budget process, the first thing we'll start to do is to develop an all-funds budget approach to provide a holistic financial management framework that will allow us to better address strategic priorities,” Frace says. “We're laying the groundwork this year through developing budget and forecasting systems so that we have the tools and processes in place to be able to support a change in budget model and allow all units to be successful when we get to that.“Once we have developed those tools, we will engage the campus in a comprehensive redesign, but that won't likely be for at least another 18 months because we really do need to develop the systems, tools, processes, and reports to enable that success. And it's going to be critically important that we take the time to get it right so that we understand and can address any unintended consequences before we launch into a new model.“We have proposed and sold century bonds that are repayable in 100 years. And those proceeds from those bonds will help us to create a revolving fund that will allow us to invest in perpetuity in projects that support the strategic plan, and that's critically important. It creates a stewardship tool for not only this generation but for generations to come.”The university master plan is referenced in this section of the strategic plan. I understand that planning work has begun and that it has an emphasis on embedding priorities like diversity, equity, and inclusion; faculty, staff, and student success; and sustainable health in the physical and space planning. Talk about how that's done and how it will strengthen outcomes at MSU. What's the goal of the plan?“This is really exciting,” Woo says. “In the past, this has been known as the Land Use Master Plan, which only focused on the East Lansing campus. However, we have so many activities all over the state. We have great things happening in Flint and Detroit and Grand Rapids and a presence in every county in the state because of MSU Extension. How this plan differs from the old land use master plans is it really looks at all 26,000 acres of land that we hold and the facilities on them. The way we're going through this is that we're really looking at a comprehensive and strategic framework for guiding future decisions regarding land use, which is why we want to be all inclusive. It should support the institution's three mutually reinforcing strategic plans and the academic strategic plan implementation.“Our goal is to complete this plan by the end of 2022, and we are going to be incorporating multiple perspectives into the planning process, including consideration of the history of the land MSU occupies, tribal consultation around archeological sites, and environmental impact reviews. We want to have a very broad group of stakeholders, including our surrounding communities, to make sure that we are truly inclusive of people's concerns and their thoughts and brainstorm around how we can best utilize our land, our buildings, and our facilities.“What we're really hoping to do is to incorporate campus district plans to encourage collaboration and innovation. We’re also planning for construction and renovation of high priority facilities that support MSU-articulated priorities and values. So for example, I think you've heard about the Multicultural Center. We're also improving our recreational sports facilities, and we have goals for improving our greenhouses and an engineering facility.“We also want to make sure we ensure wayfinding is accessible for all users. And what's exciting is that we want to enhance public art on the campus and ensure it includes multiple modalities and diverse perspectives.”Let's talk about the reference to developing a sustainable information technology strategic plan to power the academic enterprise. What will be some of the key things that plan addresses, and what are some of the challenges and opportunities?“We have four key things that the plan addresses,” Woo continues. “The first is to improve and enhance IT services and infrastructure to improve access and reliability and enable greater avenues for innovation in teaching, research, and scholarly activity.“Another key thing that the plan will address is to expand access to technology such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and augmented and virtual reality to enhance learning, research, community engagement, and MSU's reach throughout our communities. Another key thing is to provide operational excellence by leveraging technology to provide informed decision-making, reduce operating costs, and optimize the capabilities of our teams. And finally, another key thing that the plan will address is to ensure faculty, staff, and students have the tools and network connectivity needed to succeed in remote, virtual, and hybrid modalities.“As far as challenges and opportunities go, this is an excellent opportunity to ensure that technology services are delivered in alignment with supporting MSU's research, education, and outreach mission. Technology should support and enable people’s excellent work in support of our mission.“In being able to truly understand stakeholder goals and needs in order to deliver technologies that support their work in alignment with MSU's mission, we're really going to be looking across the board for a lot of stakeholder input.”“I agree with Melissa's evaluation that this is really going to be transformative, but I also think that in terms of the operational savings that she mentioned, it's not only about operational savings,” Frace says. “It's about providing better data for better decision-making so that we can continue to innovate not only on the academic and research side but really on the operational side of the house, too.”Engaged alumni, donors, and friends are vital to MSU's long-term sustainability. MSU is fortunate. We have more than 1 million alumni, friends, corporations, foundations, and organizations connected with the institution. How does their engagement play a role in the success of achievement of key initiatives within this theme, and how can they best engage?“Their engagement is vital to staying at the forefront of excellence, and it's really crucial in advancing Michigan State University's reputation for excellence and innovation,” Frace continues. “There are a few ways that we can think about engaging with them. Public-private partnerships is one. And the role of a private-public partnership is that there are opportunities for corporations, foundations, and others to engage with MSU to bring certain sorts of financial structures to the table. That might be building buildings for us or doing a ground lease or working with them on research innovation.“What it allows us to do is to attract other types of activity to the campus. Think about Grand Rapids, where we have the medical innovation happening. Think of the Apple Academy. Those are good examples of activities we've already undertaken. And there are other good examples of institutions that have gone down this path. The University of Illinois has a good tech innovation campus. Georgia Tech has a well-known one. Arizona State has a well-known set of P3 activities. All of those are good exemplars for us to be able then to choose the best and build our own design.“We also look to establish reciprocal opportunities for partnering with businesses and community organizations, like the work we've done with McLaren on the hospital that's been built adjacent to our campus. They work very collaboratively with our colleges of medicine in terms of providing residencies and other opportunities for learning.“We also have the TechSmith project being built on our campus, a fundamental project that the MSU Foundation has brought forward. Melissa's the president of the MSU Foundation, and it has really been a critical set of work that she's done.”“The MSU Foundation exists to support MSU,” says Woo. “Something that's fantastic about the foundation is the foundation board has incredible talent. It includes alumni and friends of MSU, and this is a pool of talent that we absolutely need to engage. We have so many talented alumni with great business acumen and talents and knowledge and connections that MSU should and can focus on and engage with. Alumni are so important to us.”“As executive sponsors of this theme of the plan, Melissa and I work very closely together,” Frace says. “We will engage with one another, our teams, and with the campus community to really allow this to move forward and evolve. And as those things evolve, we'll develop ways to consistently communicate the progress with the campus community and to update the whole strategic plan implementation.”“The way I look at stewardship is that we have to be good stewards of university resources,” Woo says. “This doesn't necessarily mean we have to be cheap. We do need to look at value versus cost of resources because what we really want to do is to make sure we provide sufficient value to the university. And sometimes, being the most efficient is not the best or high value way to do that. So, what we really want to look at is effectiveness and weigh that value versus cost. That is part of being a good steward of university resources.”“I agree with that,” concludes Frace. “The way I would characterize it is we need to take all of the information that we have available to us and bring that all together to make the best decisions that support the long-term viability of the institution from an academic, research, and operational standpoint so that as students come to MSU and ultimately graduate, they see that the value of the degree that they've earned continues to increase.”On this edition of MSU Today, we've been talking about the stewardship and sustainability theme of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030: Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity, and Expanding Impact with the executive sponsors of the theme: Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Information Officer Melissa Woo and Senior Vice President, Chief Financial Officer and Treasurer Lisa Frace. Read and learn more about MSU's Strategic Plan 2030 at strategicplan.msu.edu.MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows. Please share this conversation if you’re so inclined.

It will be open to all MSU students, faculty, and staff, and will assess perceptions of the university culture related to sexual misconduct, relationship violence, and workplace incivility. Feedback from the MSU community is valued and necessary to continue the work-improving policies, programming, and services that create a culture that seeks to eliminate discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct, and relationship violence.“Know More is a survey that we did for the first time in 2019, and we’re repeating it this spring,” says Carrie Moylan, associate professor in MSU’s School of Social Work, member of the RVSM Expert Advisory Group, and lead on the Know More Campus Survey project. “It's an opportunity for MSU to learn about how members of our campus - students, staff, and faculty - think about how the university is doing related to relationship violence, sexual misconduct, and stalking. The survey is designed to gather perceptions of the university, perceptions of the climate and culture here at MSU, and a sense of the experiences that student, staff, and faculty are having related to RVSM.”Is Know More related to the Support More initiative?“The name Know More came first, and it was an opportunity for us to have more information to help us think about how to improve programs, policies, services, and support for survivors,” continues Moylan. “Then as we started working on the strategic plan and the Support More initiative, we thought it's a nice way to say when you know more then you can as a campus do more. And if we're doing more, then we'll do a better job at supporting survivors. It seemed a nice way to sort of tie it all together and to think about the work that we've been engaged in as a university and as a community in the past five years to really look at what we're doing to improve our response to survivors and to make sure our policies are appropriate and doing what we need them to do. Know More, Do More, and Support More tie together and feed into each other.”What is the goal of the survey itself?“There are really two goals,” continues Moylan. “One goal is to get an understanding of how our campus is feeling about MSU’s culture and climate and the experiences they've had over the past year or so. It's good for our campus to do that every few years to understand the pulse at any given moment. Because we also did the survey in 2019, this is a chance to see if anything has changed. Have we improved anything? We have a strategic plan, and we've started some different programs, and there have been some policy changes. It's an opportunity to see any of the impact of that work that we've been doing. Because we can now compare from 2019 to 2022.What are some things you found in 2019 that have informed the survey for 2022?“We found that LGBTQIA+ students, staff, and faculty experienced higher rates of sexual harassment and sexual assault than their non LGBTQIA+ peers. We made sure that the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center was a resource that students could go to with some sense of privacy to be able to seek support. They've gotten some training, and so we hope to be able to see some of the effectiveness of making changes like that.“We've added the Sexual Assault Healthcare Program that provides some additional services on campus that are convenient and easy to access for our community members. There've been some policy changes around sanctions for RVSM. We hope to be able to get a sense of how that might be impacting community members' perceptions and experiences here at the university.”Who would you like to take this and how would they take it?“It's a survey designed for all students, staff, and faculty,” Moylan says. “That’s undergraduate, graduate, and professional students. All staff and all faculty will be invited to take the survey. It's really important that we hear from as many of our community members as possible. The more responses that we get and the more people we hear from, the better sense we have that we're getting a clear and complete picture of the climate and the culture here at MSU. We really hope that everyone will, when they get that email, click on the link and take the survey.”“That email will be coming to all students, faculty, and staff on March 16, which is the Wednesday after spring break, from knowmore.msu@rti.org,” says Jacob Nason, a PhD student in social work who is helping with the survey as Moylan’s graduate assistant.“Everyone will get their own email, and in that email will be an access code,” Moylan continues. “When you click on the link, you have a personalized access code. There's no need to forward it to a friend because your friend should already get their own email and access code. It'll be very easy to click on the link and then just stick that access code in and you'll get right to the survey.“We noticed a few things in 2019, including for example, that staff and faculty and students who are Black or from other marginalized racial and ethnic groups experience some higher rates of RVSM. But we also noticed that we had some lower rates of participation among some of those communities. We really want to encourage everyone to share their experiences so we can have a clear and complete picture of their thoughts about our campus climate and culture and the experiences that they've had.“We encourage everybody to consider taking the survey. The survey is administered by an external nonprofit research organization. That's really important because it means that MSU doesn't actually have access to the data. Whatever information you share in the survey is confidential. It won't be linked back to you; MSU won't know whether you took the survey, and that data will never be linked back to you and your specific identity. We hope that makes people feel confident and free to share their experiences knowing that they can remain confidential.”“To underscore the importance of making sure that students, faculty, and staff who we didn't hear from necessarily as much last time, this is a great opportunity for members of those communities to be able to share their voices, especially because a lot of campus climate surveys on other campuses aren't necessarily reaching out to staff,” says Nason. “They're not necessarily going out to faculty and graduate students, but everyone's voice and everyone who is being invited to the survey's voice is important and pivotal to being able to understand and inform change on our campus.”You're going to find what you're going to find, but are there things you hope to learn and will what you learn inform some of the evolving Support More initiatives?“Absolutely, yes,” Moylan says. “We learned a lot in that 2019 survey that we fed into the formation of the strategic plan, and we thought carefully about how this data and this information could teach us where we needed to put additional energy. We hope to find out how our community is feeling about the university and their perceptions of some of those changes in policies and perceptions of just how included they feel on campus in general. We look forward to hearing the good, the bad, the indifferent, and all sides of the issue so that we can have a good sense of what are the remaining areas of need.What can we continue to target to keep MSU on this path of trying to improve our response to survivors?“Most campuses when they do these climate surveys related to relationship violence and sexual misconduct only survey students. We felt like at MSU that it was important to think about our community as a full community and that staff and faculty are a big part of the culture, the climate, and the community at MSU. To do a campus-wide climate survey is still unique among other institutions. We found that we learned so much from staff and faculty and the experiences that they're having. That helped us to think about what MSU could be doing better. We really look forward to getting that sense of experiences and perceptions across the full community.“So, we hope that everyone will click on the link, enter their access code, and take the survey. It takes about 15 minutes so you can do it while you're having your coffee or before you have a meeting that's starting in 15 or 20 minutes. The information really will help us. We will use the information, and we'll share the information back with the community so that the community can also use that information to help MSU continue to improve our response to survivors.”MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU Strategic Plan 2030 identifies goals within six key themes: student success, staff and faculty success, discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact, sustainable health, stewardship and sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.On this edition of MSU Today, we'll be focusing on the discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact theme of the plan with its executive sponsors: Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Teresa Woodruff, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., and Vice President for Research and Innovation Douglas Gage. “MSU has extraordinary people and an extraordinary capacity to really make a difference, and our job is to help them succeed and find ways to reach their full potential in their research work and have the full impact it should,” says Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. “That involves reducing the barriers for them to submit grants and making it easier for them to work within their grants and facilitate the valuable work they’re doing. “That involves exciting new facilities like FRIB and collaboration with scientists around the world. It’s about having impact. Extension helps us to be good at applied research. We have an ambitious goal of $1 billion in research expenditures. That will take a lot of work, but I’m excited about the pathway to get there. This is an area where we really change people’s lives and make a difference, not just on our campus and in our state and the country, but in the world. MSU is doing that every day, and this is an opportunity to do it on an even larger scale and have greater impact.” At Michigan State, we pursue excellence in service to the common good, generating new knowledge and applying it to address complex societal problems. When we say discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact, what do we mean and how will growth and annual research expenditures to $1 billion help us have more local and global impact?“Excellence in the service of the common good is a phrase that I just really gravitate toward,” says Woodruff. “And I think our tripartite mission of teaching, research, and outreach and engagement really represents the different ways in which that excellence in service to the common good is lived out. If you did a word cloud of what I just said, we've got a lot of ands, not ors. We interdigitate in each of these areas. Our faculty teach and do research, and then they apply that work to help solve real-life problems in real communities that affect real people.“And I like to think of MSU as having research and scholarship reach. As we continue to grow our research expenditures, I think we'll be able to accelerate what we're able to learn as we think about the grand challenges that our world faces. I'm really excited about our global impact initiative. It really is going to support the growth and accelerate the pace of discovery by recruiting new faculty in some of the most exciting areas of research. And by growing this annual firepower within research and scholarship, I think we're going to go deeper and broader in what we do. We're going to be able to act locally and globally in solving the world's most pressing needs.”“Growing our research expenditures to $1 billion means that our research activities are going to expand by more than $250 million annually,” adds Gage. “And so, we'll be conducting more research, which means we'll be making more discoveries and ultimately educating more students and bringing more solutions forward. And we're going to be working to expand our research programs across the board and increasing activities in some critical areas, such as equitable healthcare, climate change, mobility, international development, and many other programs which are critical both globally and specifically to Michigan and the United States. We're going to be working across the entire campus to try to build on these new programs. And many of them will be interdisciplinary. We're going to have a lot of interactions over the next few years, and we're really looking forward to that.”“This effort really looks at improving health by promoting treatment and prevention,” Beauchamp says. “It contributes to society by driving economic growth and productivity and by helping to address social determinants of health through access to education and job creation. And it expands biomedical knowledge by funding cutting edge research and cultivating the future biomedical workforce of today and tomorrow. I’m excited about what this means in terms of MSU's land grant mission and this essential arm and what's needed to bring health, hope, and healing to all people.”What are the key areas that will be part of this push to $1 billion?“That $1 billion is a big number, a huge number,” Woodruff continues. “It feels big, and it feels ambitious. And I think that's really exciting. We have enormous strengths that really rise out of our roots of this land-grant university. Our plan is to bring together disciplines in new ways and to think about how we can intersect between new ideas and state-of-the-art equipment and the ways in which problems emerge that we can uniquely solve. An example is the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams.  We have an incredible facility, and that's going to allow us to play a vital role in the next generation of scientific leaders and innovators. “This is a great example because it's coupled with our number one-ranked graduate program in nuclear physics. You combine superb faculty, outstanding facilities, and a number one graduate program. We can create what I call a spiral of excellence. A second area is in improving agricultural practices and food crop yields and food security, something that remarkably is on our horizon and something that MSU can uniquely work in. And then the last one is in educational research and preparing teachers and educational leaders and change-makers. We have a top-ranked College of Education, and the more we educate, the better the world is, and it is something that we're proud of. And it's in that educational domain that we're going to lean into with many other domains to reach that $1 billion.”“The key is that it's not a single investment that's going to get us to that $1 billion,” says Gage. “It's really about building on a whole variety of things. There are areas of strength we can build upon, and we are also going to have an opportunity to go into new areas that are going to give us the chance to expand what we do at Michigan State University. That involves bringing in new faculty, new partners, and commercial entities and funding agencies who might work with us to develop some of these new ideas. If we had to reach the $1 billion number on one strategy, we wouldn't get there. We really must bring everything we have to bear on this. A lot of it is going to be interdisciplinary and developing new areas which MSU is positioned to really develop and take advantage of.”“As we think about this effort in health, it really will take a convergence of strengths across the university,” adds Beauchamp. “You can look, for example, at the Pediatric Public Health Initiative. To be successful there in trying to improve the health of the community, it required expertise from education, communications, geography, toxicology, nutrition, epidemiology, psychology, child development, pediatrics, and more. The point is that as we think about how we'll move the dial on health disparities, it will be a chance for us to mobilize the entire university. One of the things that the strategic plan calls out is this no silos approach to advancing research and connecting strengths and finding ways to foster that.”Say more about how these spirals of excellence cross all our missions and enrich our educational outreach and research excellence.“These spirals of excellence that we're building are predicated on foundations of strength,” continues Woodruff. “And then we build upward towards what we think are going to be beacons, both so people can light the way to coming towards MSU, and to provide assets that the world desperately needs. We're really in a changing time. There's an evolving nature of work and different ways in which we experience health and the workplace. All these changes necessitate new ways of thinking and doing research. Rapid technological advances and artificial intelligence or automation are reshaping education and all our skill sets. So, what we're doing at MSU is really part of a fourth industrial revolution that's changing education systems and labor markets. We're advancing this through our research and helping society to adapt to all these changes.“We believe these spirals can be really catalytic, sparking curiosity and innovation and discovery across the community that now can see each other. And this creates a multiplier effect so that each point of contact becomes new knowledge, new value, and new positive outcomes. And this is because our research is not in isolation. We mentor. We teach. It's all interoperable. And that's what allows MSU to have the biggest, broadest, baddest, best impact.“Our MSU arts strategy integrates arts into all of the ways we think and work. It is research. It is scholarship itself. And it also is a predicate for some of the most creative endeavors. By designing a deliberate environment that understands the world that we found two years ago is no longer the same, our community can walk into this challenge and work effectively and ethically in this world.”“Research and scholarship are really integral to everything we do,” Gage says. “Creating new knowledge and then transmitting that to the next generation of scholars is really essential for an institution of our type. And we extend that knowledge then not just to our students, but to communities we serve through outreach efforts and partnerships. Involving undergraduates in research and scholarship is something we've had a long history of at Michigan State University. I think many of us who ended up in the STEM fields, we started out working in a laboratory or working with a scholar. I started my own career as a dishwasher in a laboratory. That's how you get the exposure to what science and scholarship are all about. That's something we really take great pride in. We don't say research and education are separate. That's not at all the case at this university. We are entirely integrated and synergistic.”“A key part of what our students have asked is how do they learn how to think about discovery,” asks Beauchamp. “Giving our students access to being involved with research is one of the things that can happen at a place like MSU where there are those breadths of opportunity. You can't have that unless there is a depth and a breadth of research happening in the institution. Our goal is to train that next generation of practitioners who help redefine what healthcare can be.”Tell me about the geographic reach of our discovery and innovation work and talk about the importance of our impact in Michigan and our global footprint.“Its reach is one of the things that's so amazing about MSU,” Woodruff continues. “That’s one of the reasons I was so attracted to MSU. It's research within reach. It's not research in some mythical ivory tower. We have a commitment at MSU that's remarkable across the entire state of Michigan and to the global community. It's central to our mission and our values. As a top global university, we continue to push the boundaries to make the world better. True to our land-grant mission, we reach into all 83 Michigan counties through Extension and through our healthcare community. Extension is such an important part of what we do across the state.“That means that the entire state is Michigan State University. We are all part of this great community. That is quite exciting. We're a top 40 research university according to the Washington Monthly 2021 rankings. That should make everyone in Michigan proud of us. We've had about $5.8 billion in economic impact in the state and about 80 percent of our undergraduates are from here in Michigan and 65 percent of them stay in Michigan. That's exciting. That says we're really having an impact.“I'm a globalist. I think about the entire circumference of the world. And we have Spartans literally everywhere in the world. And our research is making a difference, about $82 million in annual funding for international work. We're the number one top-ranked public university for education abroad. And we have about 1,400 of our faculty and academic staff members who are engaged in international research and teaching. And in our International Studies and Programs, we have just over 30, I think, internationally-focused centers. Michigan State has made a commitment to being available to everyone who has need for education and for learning something new and for building across the globe and across the great state of Michigan. It's an exciting place to be.”“It’s important to emphasize that we take our mission to serve the public good very seriously,” continues Gage. “Michigan State University has a reach that goes from the smallest rural counties to the biggest urban centers. And even if we leave the United States, one can wear a baseball cap with a helmet on it and go into Zambia or somewhere like that and someone will say to you, ‘Go Green!” We are there and they know who we are. We serve not just our own interests, but the interests of the world. When we look at international partnerships that really is a key to our service. It's a partnership model; we don't come in with solutions to deliver. We come in to build those solutions together.“And we have a very strong history of that that goes back many decades. If we look at the U.S. Agency for International Development and international foundations, we are very well represented and often a key partner for those agencies and funders. We are very proud of that legacy, and we want to continue it and build upon it. During the pandemic, travel and outreach were certainly impacted, and we're very anxious to get back to work with our international partners and develop capacity for food production, for example, and other things. Particularly, climate change is not just an issue for us. It's a global issue. We can envision that we're going to have a role to play to help develop solutions around the world to assist our partners.”“We are in every county in the state, and we're really proud of how we have pathway programs that are connections from where people are growing up to where we can help them train so that they can serve their communities,” says Beauchamp. “Another component of the work that's being done is recognizing that we live in a knowledge economy. And as we look at partnerships between academia and industry, one of the things that happens is these new ideas of innovation, technology, machines, and decision support can connect into opportunities to connect with industry, which brings both technology and human capability resources to partnerships on campus. It also gives us a global distribution. Education, research, and clinical care and our partnerships make the reach of Michigan State global.”Why is it so important that we do this important research?“One can look at research in a very applied way,” says Gage. “And we do quite a significant amount of applied work, particularly in areas of agriculture, education, and other areas where an outcome is really desired in the short-term. But there's also curiosity-driven research, which will have outcomes which aren't always predictable and are sometimes vastly undervalued when they're initiated. And often, even the developers of some research may not even initially have realized the value of it. In the early days of computer science, it was the dabblings of some mathematicians. Now it's really transformed the world. There are a lot of things like that that happen in very unpredictable ways.“We have to have a place where that can happen. Universities are positioned for that. Companies can't afford to take the long view like that and hope something good comes out of it. Those days where that sort of opportunity was present in the corporate sector have really diminished. When fundamental research looks promising, we partner with commercial entities to help to develop it into something practical. That happens many times. There are a lot of opportunities for us to do that. Some things are practical from the very beginning and some things are unpredictable.“And, of course, there's failure along the way. Investment will happen. There's always value in it in terms of education and in terms of learning from our mistakes or learning what didn't work. We are good stewards of the funds that we are given by the state and by the federal government for research. We don't take that lightly. We don't take it as play money. It's something that we have to do our very best to deliver what we promise as we begin to conduct research.”“Many of the great advances over the past century such as computers, radars, lasers, x-rays, nuclear energy, and even mRNA vaccines are traceable to basic science discoveries, some made decades before their application,” adds Beauchamp. “And the practical use may not be seen by the researchers who first made those discoveries. But if you look at industry, they often aren't going to invest in that work. They need a limited time to which they can bring things to market in order to meet the imperatives of their shareholders. But for us in higher education, we can have a longer view. And then one of the strengths of the breadth that the university brings is you can bring together these cohorts of people who do applied and basic research and individuals whose focus is clinical care. This is a milieu where they will connect. And I think that's also where some of that magic happens that brings the return for basic science research.”“At MSU, we do structured and unstructured work,” says Woodruff. “In some cases, we're trying to get to a cure. In other cases, we're just trying to learn something new. And it's something extraordinary about MSU faculty because they run the gamut from creation to invention to discovery to expression to revealing elements about ourselves and our world and our place in that world. And that's really quite the gamut. And some of our faculty work examines the minutia of a bacteria or a plant cell or a chloroplast, and others look at the complex significance of artistic performance. I was at the MSU Wind [Symphony] performance yesterday, which just was an extraordinary level of expression. The nature of this work helps us to understand, it helps us to contextualize, and it can help to improve the human condition. In fact, it may be completely abstracted from utility and exist solely as revealed knowledge.“That's what's special about Michigan State University. We value and celebrate the ephemeral, from the half-life of the shortest FRIB discovery to a single note played by a bass bassoon to new knowledge about how we can engineer a chloroplast to have plant resilience. In the end, all these diverse products of the work of MSU can be lauded by many. They might be known by a few, or they might be appreciated for their extraordinary audacity or cited for their wisdom, or they may just be something that's talked about in a classroom setting.“That's the nature of work within a university. It is the most extraordinary place that doesn't exist anywhere else. And the fact that MSU takes this work and makes it unified and interoperable with teaching is what makes this one of the most special places for discovery, for research on our way to those billion dollars, and for all those students along the way who both participate in that basic or translational or clinical work or that performance and the rest of us whose lives are made better because of all of it.”“There's a real sense of excitement at what lies ahead right now,” adds Gage. “We see FRIB coming online. New opportunities for research across all areas have captured the imagination of the folks at MSU. Research and the culture that we create are going to outlive all of us. And that's really our goal is to create the next generation and position the institution for a continued ability to deliver for decades to come. Our challenge and our responsibility are to really put our full effort into doing that. It's all about what comes next, not what we do or what happens today when we're around. That's the exciting part. All of us are really looking forward to how that's going to develop and how we're going to be able to make those contributions.”“One of our goals is to be inclusive in the research that we do in terms of clinical trials,” Beauchamp adds. “Participation in research should reflect the diversity of our culture and conditions and consider race, ethnicity, gender, and age. That lack of diversity among researchers and research participants has both ethical and research consequences. And one of the wonderful things about Michigan State by virtue of the breadth of the people who are compelled to be a part of the work that we do is I that we're well positioned to be a place where people of all backgrounds can participate in research and we can help train the next generation of a more diverse group of scientists at Michigan State.”“Excellence and equity in research and teaching is really what we're all about,” says Woodruff. “We’re here to advance the institution and the future, but we're also creating new possibilities for its future. And this strategic plan that we're all working on contemplates our 175th year in 2030. Work towards our 175th year is not the destination. That's what we create now. We're really creating the predicate for a long future because that's what higher education does. We'll be here for the long run. Our values of bringing as many people as possible into this way of thinking and working is something that I think is just so exciting and so uniquely done at Michigan State. I can't think of a better place to put my own research and scholarship than with the partners that I have in Norm and Doug and everyone who's here. It's a very exciting time for all of us.”On this edition of MSU Today, we've been talking about the discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact theme of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030, Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity and Expanding Impact with the executive sponsors of the theme, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Teresa Woodruff, Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Norman J. Beauchamp Jr., and Vice President for Research and Innovation Douglas Gage.Read and learn more about MSU Strategic Plan 2030 at strategicplan.msu.edu. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Uncertainty sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has already pushed up the price of gasoline. Russia and Ukraine are major wheat and corn growers, and their conflict will raise prices at the grocery stores, said Charles Ballard, MSU economist and a member of the Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) podcast team.“There’s already been an effect,” he said during the podcast recording. “I don’t think that will be enormous.” With war-strangled supply disruptions and shortages, along with rising demand powered by economic stimulus checks, extra unemployment benefits, consumers are likely to find goods and services in short supply or delayed, Ballard said.This month’s IPPSR State of the State Podcast features IPPSR Director Dr. Matt Grossmann and IPPSR Associate Director Arnold Weinfeld.Other highlights from the monthly internet broadcast produced in partnership by IPPSR, a campus center for policy education, political leadership development and survey research, and WKAR Radio:·       Inflation, up 5.2% in January and the biggest annual gain since 1983, is likely to make a “negative dent” in President Biden’s approval, Grossmann said. How large a dent depends on inflation’s duration, how long inflation stays in the news and how strong public perceptions are in the wake of rising prices.·       Retirees’ effect on the economy looks under the public radar, Ballard observed. In the past 20 years, Baby Boomers, the generation of people born from 1946 to 1964, have hit retirement years. In the past months, workers wrung out by the pandemic have left jobs. “That contributes to the supply disruptions,” he said. “It contributes to higher prices.”·       IPPSR’s latest State of the State Survey (SOSS) shows an especially sour Michigan view of inflation and politicians. The latest survey, in December 2021, found that 70 percent of those responding to the survey expect the rate of inflation to rise; only 11 percent expect decline. In the 2020 survey, some 48 percent of SOSS respondents expected inflation’s uptick, 12 percent foresaw downturn. “As we know, perception is everything,” Weinfeld commented.·       Rising gasoline prices is a particular distaste, Grossmann said. “Voters notice those gas prices. “Voters take note and react negatively. Voters don’t like it.” Historically, rising gasoline prices are related to declining voter favor not only for the president, but also for election losses for the president’s political party.·       Even Biden’s Build Back Better initiative, addressing infrastructure and now before the U.S. Congress, came in for doubt in the State of the State Survey. When interviewers asked about Biden’s Build Back Better plan, it was opposed 47 percent-30 percent, Grossmann said. When the plan’s components were explained, it gained majority support from SOSS respondents.·       In statewide politics, Michigan still favors Gov. Gretchen Whitmer in the state’s 2022 gubernatorial race and Democrats in congressional voting, Grossmann said. However, races should narrow as November draws nearer, he cautioned.·       Tax cuts are on the table in Michigan’s Legislature with budget surpluses, due primarily to federal economic stimulus, giving rise to proposals to cut taxes for individuals, corporations, retirees with pensions and certain 401(k) investments. ·       Resources are available now to pay down long-term debt, cut taxes and increase benefits, Grossmann said. During times of strong resources, decisionmakers can make changes “we then regret a few years later,” he added. Strong resources now don’t mean “good times are here for good.”The Institute for Public Policy and Social Research is a part of the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. It specializes in policy education, leadership training and survey research. IPPSR is the home of the Michigan Political Leadership Program, the Office for Survey Research, State of the State Survey, Legislative Leadership Program, Rosenthal Legislative Internship Program, more than 60 affiliate faculty members, student policy fellows and major research databases on topics of interest to academic researchers, legislators, policy makers, elected leaders and journalists around the world. IPPSR’s monthly State of the State Podcast is broadcast with the assistance of WKAR Radio along with radio stations on the air and over the internet, on SoundCloud and ITunes. You'll also find this edition of the State of the State Podcast on MSU Today with Russ White. Find IPPSR on social media @IPPSR on Twitter and Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) | Facebook on Facebook.MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to "MSU Today with Russ White" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Colleen Hoffman is the radiology administrator for MSU Health Care Imaging Services. And Holly Peterson is the assistant radiology administrator.“We oversee the day-to-day operations within the imaging services department,” says Hoffman. “We've split up the modalities. I'm in charge of PET, CT, and MRI.”“And I'm in charge of ultrasound, mammography and general x-ray,” adds Peterson.“MSU Health Care has been around for years,” continues Hoffman. “The Department of Radiology has been around since the mid-1980s. It was started by Dr. James Potchen. We provide outpatient imaging in the modalities I mentioned. We serve the community. We try to be patient-centric. We try to meet the needs of our patients while addressing the needs of our referring physicians within our own MSU Healthcare and outside the community.”“I think people believe that it's just for MSU employees or retirees or students,” says Peterson. “And although we do take care of those people, we serve the entire community.”What do you mean by patient-centric? “We try to provide appointment times that are flexible,” Hoffman says. “In MRI, we start at 6:15 in the morning and we run until 10:30 at night so people can come before or after work. Most outpatient doctor’s offices are only open 8:00 to 5:00. We have expanded hours to help meet patient needs. We run on the weekends to help patients get in in a timely fashion without having to impact their life.”Tell me about the new facility. What are you going to be able to do that you haven't been able to do before?“We are joining in this great joint venture with McLaren, bringing the best of both worlds together and providing quality patient care,” adds Peterson. “We have a brand-new facility with all brand new equipment.“I like to say we’re a full circle women's imaging and breast care facility. We do screening mammograms and follow up diagnostic ultrasounds. We do biopsies, ultrasound biopsies, and stereo biopsies. And then if there is an unfortunate situation where a woman or man does have cancer, we're able to continue care right there in one facility.”“Right, patients don’t have to leave the community for care,” adds Hoffman. “We're trying to keep everything within the community for our patients and draw in those from the outside the community.“We’re going to be going live with imaging in our new facility on February 28. The hospital proper is going live on March 6. By moving us early because we're outpatient-based, we will be in what's called the Outpatient Care Center, which is on the north side of the hospital. So, we're connected, but we're sort of outside. There’s convenient parking; you don't have to go in the hospital. And I have to say, McLaren has done a phenomenal job on the interior.”The facility features a coffee shop, smoothie bar, and a Walgreens. “There are a lot of added features that patients and their families can enjoy,” says Peterson.  If a patient or a family member has to spend the day there, there will be a lot of things to do, and they should be comfortable while they're there.”“We’re very excited about the state-of-the-art facilities, but we want people to know that we have the same staff,” Peterson says. “We have patients who we have seen for years who want to see familiar faces. Those familiar faces from both MSU and McLaren will be there. We’ll have easy parking and access. Even though we are moving locations, patients will see the same people they've seen year after year after year. I think that's going to provide some comfort to people. It's not totally new, it's just a new location. We are going to provide a new biopsy modality for those women who must have breast biopsies. Currently, we do them in an upright position where the patient must be upright so we can access it with a needle. Sometimes it's not always accessible that way and so we may end up taking the patient to surgery to do it. We have a new piece of equipment that is known as a prone biopsy table where you lie face down on the table and the radiologist can access your breast that way. That's going to open more biopsy potential.”“Between the supine biopsy, prone biopsy, and ultrasound biopsy, we should be able to do exactly what we need to do there,” adds Hoffman. “And with added staff physicians, our goal is to be able to be one-stop shop where patients get in and out as quickly as possible with no delay.”Are people referred to you from a primary care physician or do they just come right to you or both?“For screening mammograms, they don't really need a referral, but we do have to have a doctor to send a report to and then any follow ups from that,” says Peterson. “If you're having problems, if you're having breast problems, you would need to go see your primary care physician or your OB-GYN doctor, and we would need a referral for that.”How have you seen the technology change over your time doing this and what excites you the most now?“Mammography has gone from 2D to 3D, and even getting to 2D was a big jump,” says Peterson. Now all our machines are 3D. You don't have to have a 3D mammography, but most people do. Insurance is now on board with 3D mammography where they didn't used to be. With that technology alone, we're able to look at the breast in a totally different way. A lot of women have dense breasts, and this helps with that. Ultrasound-wise, the machines and the technology are so much better. Our technologists are very experienced. I have one technologist who’s at the breast center all the time. She's registered in breast ultrasound, and we have a couple techs who are registered and they're phenomenal. That's 90 percent of what they do. And having that experience does make a difference.”“The design both inside and outside the hospital has been thoughtfully done,” Hoffman adds. “Most patients will come to us off Forest Road and will enter parking lot C; there's a parking structure right there. We're conveniently located up on the third floor. We have a beautiful suite. There are four check-in desks, a pretty waiting room, and private dressing rooms for all the modalities. And in the back of our suite, we’re staffed by breast surgeons available on certain days of the week. We can coordinate visits so everything can be done in one visit.”“We will also continue to offer bone density exams at the new location,” Peterson continues. “A lot of patients correlate their yearly mammogram with a bone density exam, and we will continue to offer that service. Our bone density machines do great things. And our bone density techs are certified as well.”“MSU Health Care at McLaren Greater Lansing has been in the works for approximately three years, and we've divided it up into two different phases,” says Hoffman. “Phase one is the one that's going live with the breast imaging center. Everything that is currently within our Eyde Building sixth floor women's imaging facility will be moving over to the new location. Our website will have the latest information on the change in our phone numbers. We're going to transfer calls and all that information can be found there.“Phase two is when we're going to be moving some other modalities. Currently, everything will stay the same at the MSU Clinical Center, and x-ray will be available on the Eyde fourth and fifth floors. In late summer of 2023, we're moving into a new building that's going to be built. It's under construction right now, but with it being winter, they've only moved dirt. It's going to be on the south side of the hospital. We've been very involved in the construction and the design working with the architects. We're extremely excited about that. We will be moving general x-ray and ultrasound. We will have another DEXA machine there. CT, PET and MRI will move there. Everything that is currently at the MSU Clinical Center will move over in the summer of 2023. We'll keep our website and the community updated.”MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to MSU Today with Russ White on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows. And please share this conversation if you're so inclined.

This month Michigan State University marked the 167th year since its establishment by the State of Michigan. From the 63 students, five faculty members, and three buildings on campus when we opened our doors in May 1857, we now enroll almost 50,000 students, boast 5,700 faculty and academic staff and 564 campus buildings. “These kinds of anniversaries are helpful in allowing us to take stock of where we're going as an institution,” Stanley says. “The founders would be very pleased with what they saw from Michigan State today. We’re a top-100 ranked global university with half a million degreed Spartans who bleed green in our alumni network around the world. And all 83 counties in Michigan are being served by MSU. Those who envisioned this land grant mission would see it fulfilled on the state level as they wanted, but they would also see the impact MSU has on the national and international level as well through our work. We're taking the mission and working exponentially to expand it to be an institution that touches peoples' lives in so many different dimensions in so many ways.”President Stanley talks about recognition for MSU faculty from the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. “We have outstanding faculty who are really the lifeblood of what we do at MSU.”MSU has a new dean of our renowned Lyman Briggs residential college in the sciences, Kendra Spence Cheruvelil, who has served as interim Dean of Lyman Briggs College since December 2020. “Dean Cheruvelil has really made a difference in her interim time and there was extraordinary support in Lyman Briggs for her elevation to the role of dean. She's very much deserving of that. She's an internationally recognized ecology researcher who's an expert on lakes and bodies of water around this area and does tremendous work in analyzing their vibrancy and health. Water is so important to Michigan State, so to have someone who's an expert in that is important.“The residential colleges are a unique aspect of what we do, and they really allow students to experience the kind of small college experience that people can find very valuable. It's not for everybody, but it's an opportunity to be on campus and live with some of your faculty and instructors and fellow students who are interested in the same major. “James Madison, Lyman Briggs, and the Residential College in the Arts and Humanities allow this kind of coming together to occur and allow for a more intense educational experience. You can have a great educational experience at MSU without doing a residential college. You can create your own kind of nooks of knowledge and leadership with your roommates and people you want to live with who may share common interests. Those options are always available, too. President Stanley talks about the transition in the head coaching position for MSU Volleyball.“Cathy George was such a pioneer in women's sports, and we must put this in the context of all the ways in which she contributed as the first woman coach to take a team to the NCAA tournament in volleyball. Leah Johnson comes to us from Illinois State University, a Division I school where during her five seasons there, her team made five postseason tournaments, including four straight NCAA tournaments. That's where we want to be. As I think about our Michigan State teams, we want to compete for championships, and we believe we can. Coach Johnson has really shown her capabilities, and we look forward to her first season in the fall.”Give Green Day is Tuesday, March 15th when Spartans come together to support our students through a wide range of impactful programs. It's a chance for all of us to make a big difference in the space of 24 hours. Givingday.msu.edu is the place to go. Talk a bit about the important contributions to MSU's excellence that our donors make.“They are so important, Russ, and philanthropy is really the margin of excellence. I had a chance to attend with our students some alumni events over the weekend and hear their inspirational stories. The way they talked about the way in which Michigan State University has changed their lives and helped change the lives of their families and their siblings and everyone they know was extraordinary. These are all people who are committed to doing something to help their communities going forward. They're in different areas, but all related to science. They're all students who did research, but what they talked about at MSU was opportunity. They said very few institutions provided the opportunity to allow them to fulfill their dreams, and MSU did that.“They also had financial support to do this; all of them were recipients of scholarships. The scholarships that donors provide to our students and grant support for our faculty translates into changing lives and impact that goes far beyond just that gift. There's really a tremendous effect that comes from peoples' willingness to donate. This day is a chance to make a big difference in a mere 24 hours. I encourage everybody to participate. I appreciate all the giving that people are doing already, but this is a time to step up a little bit and make a difference in a student's or a faculty member's time at MSU.”President Stanley reflects on Black History Month, and in circling back to the first topic in our conversation adds “We've had 167 years now to make a difference, and we continue to do it every day. I thank everybody who's a part of it at Michigan State. We're going to continue to push the limits and make our state a better place to be.”Read President Stanley’s Spartan Community letter by clicking on the communications tab at president.msu.edu. And as President Stanley said, there are links to more information throughout the letter on everything we've been talking about. You can also keep up with President Stanley on Instagram @msupresstanley. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to MSU Today with Russ White on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

“The Support More initiative is a critically important communication initiative that focuses on providing guidance for how respond to disclosures of relationship violence or sexual assault or sexual misconduct on campus, and it helps our faculty, staff, and anyone contacted to respond to those experiences in an empathic manner. It promotes the availability of related campus resources and services,” says Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. “This really grows out the work of several outstanding faculty at MSU who have developed trauma-informed approaches to responding to people who've undergone one of these events.“I'm really grateful to the RVSM Expert Advisory Workgroup. Their members have been dedicated to this work, and I’m grateful to the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Division of Victim Services for support of this work through a Victims of Crime Act grant award. You can learn much more about this at the Support More MSU website. Again, it's an important program, and I encourage you to go to the site because there are ways in which you can help make a difference in this important problem.”Dr. Katie Gregory is a faculty member in the Psychology Department and co-director of the Support More project at MSU. Gregory concurs with President Stanley that Support More is about changing the culture at MSU and giving Spartans the tools to make a difference.“Really what this is about is helping change the culture at MSU and about how we can give people the tools to respond when a friend or a colleague has disclosed that they've experienced relationship violence or sexual assault,” Gregory says. “We look at this in two directions. We want to support people by giving them the language to appropriately respond. If somebody's disclosed, what can you say to be supportive of that person? And we want to educate our community about the resources available to help survivors.”How does a person know they need your services?“Part of the journey of somebody who may have been assaulted is that they may not know whether they were”, continues Gregory. “They may not have a way to define what they've experienced and talking to other people is a way to help figure that out. Programs on campus include the Sexual Assault Healthcare Program, Center for Survivors, and MSU Safe Place. We also have the Employee Assistance Program and Gender and Sexuality Campus Center. Those are programs on campus where people can go to talk to somebody to figure out what's going on and to get services and help.”MSU is striving to create a trauma-informed culture and to help our community respond to survivors of relationship violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and or stalking in an informed and caring way.“Being trauma-informed means meeting people where they are,” says Lauren Wiklund, a fourth-year student in the Clinical Psychology PhD program at MSU. “It’s believing what a survivor says has happened to them and meeting them there and providing them support on their terms.”Who can take advantage of the resources you offer?“The majority of the services on campus are for students, faculty, and staff,” says Gregory. “But the Sexual Assault Healthcare Program is also for the larger Greater Lansing community. People can come in if they've experienced an assault and get medical care right at the program on campus. MSU Safe Place is also a program that provides services to the Greater Lansing community.”How can one help another person who has experienced relationship violence and sexual misconduct?“The first step is just to listen and say that you are there for them and let them know they can share with you as much or as little as they want to at that point in time,” Wicklund continues. “Let them know that you believe them and you're there to support and help with whatever decision they might make or to listen as they maybe explore and talk about what happened or what they might want to do, even if they're not at the decision-making point yet.”“And we know that friends and family and even professors sometimes can be the first people who are disclosed to by somebody,” adds Gregory. “Having the right words and the right language is so key in helping people move on that trajectory of healing. It really opens that door to then talk about what else they may or may not want to do in terms of accessing services.“It is often scary to hear when somebody's experienced domestic violence or sexual assault. There are so many opportunities to be supportive. One of the things that we're trying to do with this initiative is actually show people what they can do. And we've built out a lot of materials where people can actually see examples. So we have videos on our website showing how people say supportive language. The nice thing about having all these programs on campus is that if you don't know how to support someone, you can go to a program and say, ‘I don't know what to do.’ And they're there to help. This is not something that anybody should do on their own, be it having been a survivor or supporting a survivor through this process.“The great thing about this project is that we've received funding from the State of Michigan through the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and their Division of Victim Services program. They have been very supportive in seeing the vision that we must change campus culture. They've been very invested in this, and they want to see it be successful.“The approach that we've taken with this is not just thinking about having people from the RVSM Workgroup be the ones who are pushing this forward. We've really worked hard to engage who we call community partners on campus. The programs that provide services to survivors are the MSU Sexual Assault Healthcare Program, Center for Survivors, MSU Safe Place, Employee Assistance Program, the Gender and Sexuality Campus Center, the Title IX Office and MSU Police.“We've had people from those programs come to meetings and provide feedback on the materials that we've created. We’ve asked community leadership what we may be missing. Should we be doing more? This is how we've been able to get traction and get support for this, to make sure that there are a lot of people involved.”“RVSM affects our whole community,” Wicklund adds. “It affects all of us. We want folks to know that we're here. There are a lot of resources on campus, and we're working hard to change the culture on campus so that everyone can be a part of making MSU a safer place for everybody. MSU is a big campus and there are a ton of resources. Part of Support More is letting folks know exactly what resources there are. That approach can help demystify some of that process.“Realistically, you're more likely to tell a friend or a TA or a close professor that something may have happened to you before you even get to the step of accessing those resources. We really want to provide this Support More language for those first responders, the people who you disclose to first, to not only help bridge that person on their healing journey to the campus resources, but also start that process with them with the very first thing that they say in response.”“This initiative really is focused on survivors and on the people who they're disclosing to,” says Gregory. “We want to be supportive and let survivors know they're not alone going through this and that we have a community on campus to support anyone who has experienced it and anyone who is supporting somebody who's experienced it. This is for students, faculty and staff, and the greater MSU community.“If we’re successful, we are going to see the culture change. The supportmore.msu.edu website has links to all of the resources on campus, and we have a page that talks about how to support someone - what to do and what you can say to really help somebody when they've disclosed that they've experienced violence.”MSU Today airs every Sunday morning at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to MSU Today with Russ White on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows. And please, share this conversation if you're so inclined.

“I'd like to start first by recognizing the passing of former MSU Chief of Police, Kelly Roudebush,” says Lynch. “My time with Kelly was not necessarily here at MSU as a professional in police and public safety, but we were classmates together here in the School of Criminal Justice and served a year at Meridian Township Police Department as police cadets. We had an opportunity to establish a relationship and kept in touch over the years. She touched a lot of people, that's for certain. She was a quality person, and she will definitely be missed, but never forgotten.”Joining Chief Lynch is Assistant Chief Doug Monette, who leads the Police Services Bureau.“I spent about nine and a half years over at the East Lansing Police Department before coming here,” Monette says. “I have been at MSU for over 25 years. The roles that I've had as a police officer include patrolman, patrol supervisor, detective, detective sergeant, detective lieutenant, captain, assistant chief, and until Vice-President Lynch was named, I was the interim chief here at the Michigan State University Police Department. I've been here a long time. I've been here roughly around 35 years and I've loved every minute of it. This is a great organization, and I look forward to the future.”How would you say policing has changed in that time? “Policing has changed over the years,” continues Monette. “Some of it has been cyclical because when I first got into it, community policing was a big piece of this. We are getting back to community policing, which is known as community engagement, getting to know our community, and getting to know our faculty staff and students because that's important. That's why we're here. And in doing that, we’re developing relationships and contacts so we can better service our community.”And Chief Lynch, wasn't the concept of community policing developed at the MSU School of Criminal Justice, which you graduated from?“Yes, Russ,” says Lynch. “It was Dr. Robert Trojanowicz, and I was fortunate enough to have him as a professor. He was one of the founding fathers of the theory and its practical components. The School of Criminal Justice here has been a leader in the overall concept of community policing.”How do you define community policing and how does it meet your goal of better meeting the needs of the Spartan community?“For us, it’s something we do all the time, not just some of the time,” says Lynch. “Day-to-day engagement and being part of the community and not just responding during a times of crisis or a critical incident is important. The community needs to feel comfortable enough with us to share important information with us, and we need to maintain an open line of communication both formally, whether that's through an advisory committee, and informally by the officer who is responsible for a particular neighborhood working in in partnership with community stakeholders.”Monette talks more about the importance of building relationships and being connected, supportive, and engaged to provide better service. And Lynch says it’s important to monitor officers’ mental health as well as their physical health.“That’s part of the overall health of our community,” Lynch says. “Officer wellbeing is just as important. If our officers and staff are not comfortable and healthy and may need assistance themselves, how could we have the expectation that they could provide that for the community?“Doug's area is the most visible. The patrol unit is what everyone knows, the marked police vehicles and the uniformed police officers. Those are the officers who respond to you directly when you need assistance. It’s very important to us to have our officers on board regarding the community engagement components while we deliver quality service to the community. It’s probably the largest area of the department as far as number of officers assigned to it as well. The Police Services Bureau is a key component to what goes on. It is the beginning and sometimes the end of the cycle of services for us. Assistant Chief Monette's area encompasses a lot. The familiarity with what they do and how they do it is important to how our relationship will be with our community.”“That's one of the things that I think is really important is that people have a good understanding that the patrol unit provides service 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year,” Monette continues. “The patrol officers are typically the first responders to incidents and respond directly to calls when dispatched from the Ingham County regional 911 center.“When they're not on calls, they're patrolling and actively engaging with our campus partners to solve quality of life issues and problems proactively. It's important that we're out there and that we're a resource for our community. Our officers get out of their cars. They walk the buildings and sidewalks, even in the winter. They're out there engaging with people because putting the name with a face is important. And it's better if people know who to contact. If someone is in a crisis, we want them to feel comfortable to call us. That's why we're here.“I really appreciate this opportunity to have a conversation about what we do, how we do it, and the way to do it. We're very proud of our organization. We're very proud of our people. They are highly trained. They are highly skilled. They provide a wonderful service for our community.”MSU Today airs every Sunday morning at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to MSU Today with Russ White on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows. And please share this conversation if you're so inclined.

MSU's Strategic Plan 2030 identifies goals within six key themes: student success, staff and faculty success, discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact, sustainable health, stewardship and sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.On this edition of MSU Today, we'll be focusing on the staff and faculty success pillar of the plan with its executive sponsors: Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Teresa Woodruff, Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Information Officer Melissa Woo, and Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Norman J.Beauchamp.Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. says MSU's staff and faculty are key assets of the university whose work determines the success of the university. And it's important to find ways to make MSU a place where people want to come to work and achieve their potential.“Faculty and staff are absolutely critical to everything we do at MSU,” Stanley says. “And if you look at what the assets are that we value at the university, we have an amazing physical plant and amazing facilities. We have incredible students. They're remarkable, but our outstanding faculty and staff are our core assets, and their work really determines the success of the university.“What we want to do in this part of the plan is really talk about how we help faculty and staff succeed in their important work. How can we enable them? They have the talent and the capabilities, but how do we do what we can to remove barriers and help them fully succeed in what they're trying to do? How do we find avenues for advancement for faculty and staff? How do we help them achieve? How do we help them reach the next goal? For assistant professors, how do you reach full professor or associate professor first with tenure? For staff, how do you get promoted? How do you move up the ladder? How do you take on more responsibilities?“Finding ways to help individuals do this is key to our success at MSU. Finding ways to help them accomplish their research by providing the right support for them is key at MSU. What we'll talk about in this session is some of the things we're thinking about in this area and some of the steps we need to take to make MSU a place where people want to come to work to fulfill their dreams and reach their full potential.”Provost Woodruff echoes President Stanley's sentiments that the plan is all about putting MSU people first.“The entire strategic plan is about the people of this institution,” says Woodruff. “There's no part of it that doesn't touch on what we are as individuals within this great institution. Faculty and staff represent the institution, and what we want to do in the strategic plan is really to provide opportunities for every individual to reach their full potential. And in as much as we support the individuals, the institution will rise.“In many ways, the strategic plan contemplates a series of steps that one can imagine are somewhat like leavening that they begin to help each part to contribute then to the overall elevation of the institution. And as long as we put people at the center of everything we do, including our strategic thinking, the better MSU will be in the end. Every part of this plan really is about the people.”Woo says the plan is about creating an environment where people can thrive.“We can't get things done without great people who understand that we have an environment where they're going to thrive, and we need to create conditions where they believe they can do truly meaningful work,” Woo says. “We can't achieve our goals without people. We can buy all this what I call stuff that we can, but ultimately we have to have people who are truly talented and really want to be here to achieve great things and go where we need to go.”“To be successful, it has to be about the people and the mission,” adds Beauchamp. “We need an environment that supports and empowers the goals of people who choose to make MSU the place where they work, learn, and practice.”Woo adds that inclusivity is key to the plan.“We are working very hard to create an inclusive environment, one that is truly inclusive of diverse voices,” Woo continues. “We are really starting to excel in this area, particularly with the onboarding of our first chief diversity officer as well as an awareness of the need for inclusivity and diversity. We can see this in the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Strategic Plan. We can see it in all of the efforts across the entire university. It's all of us together working towards creating this inclusive environment. I think this is where we excel, and we are getting even better.”Beauchamp adds that accountability is also key to the plan.“We excel in having a community that cares,” Beauchamp says. “In those difficult moments, what I've been struck by is how the MSU community comes together to be intentional in solving those challenges. We're also excelling in having a culture of accountability. It's something that we have to do better, and the strategic plan gets at that, but we have to be accountable to all of those who come to us in search of help or goal attainment.”“We think of spirals of excellence in the specific areas of work,” Woodruff continues. “As we think about people, one of the things I have said and believe is Michigan State has a very high excellence to humility ratio. The humility of this place is just extraordinary. So, one of the things that we collectively have tried to do is really spotlight the excellence of individuals - faculty, academic staff, and staff. And we know of this excellence because of our rankings. We're a member of the great AAU, the Association for American Universities, because of our great people across this institution. The AAU is widely regarded as the most important metric for research intensive institutions across North America.“And there are a number of other rankings that represent this kind of spiral of excellence. So, what we want to do is really spotlight that excellence through the strategic plan, developing a portfolio for honorifics, both for individuals as well as for the institution. And we can hopefully then enable every one of the individuals within the organization to be able to not only achieve that which is good for them, but also to be able to let the world know what they're doing.“In the context of the strategic plan as well, each one of our offices is working to enable a new generation of work that continues to help to elevate each one of our folks. I think of the Office of Faculty and Academic Staff Development. We've started a new dean school to orient both our new and interim deans to some of the core aspects of what we're doing to build community, not just the administrative work or the disciplinary depths, but really thinking about effective team building, equitable budgeting, and evaluating faculty and staff in ways that help them to succeed.“These are really specific areas that we've been honing in on, creating and sustaining a respectful work environment series that we've been developing and that's across our offices of Human Resources and the Office for Institutional Equity and the RVSM team. So, again, we’re trying to think very holistically about how we build competencies to enable the institution made up of excellent people to be able to thrive, and then we can both spotlight them and a great institution. All of those are opportunities for focused engagement that within a learning community and a research community can build the best MSU we can be.”“Another thing that we do is we collaborate well because of that humility to excellence ratio that Teresa provided,” says Beauchamp. “The barriers to collaboration here are incredibly low, and an aphorism I like is from Helen Keller who said ‘Alone I can do so little. Together, we can do so much.’ And when we think about staff and faculty success, it’s about helping it not feel like this solo journey but that there's a community that is willing and enthusiastic to partner. The low barriers to collaboration are defining for MSU.”What key goals does the strategic plan identify for staff and faculty success?“The plan identifies key goals and metrics, but I think my colleagues will agree that part of what the strategic plan is it's a living document,” Woodruff says. “It is an ethos for how we all lean into developing that environment in which excellence and opportunity naturally thrive. If we create that environment holistically, we will attract and keep talent to continue to create the conditions where faculty and staff can do their best work, both individually, autonomously, and collectively.“One of the things we want to do is to actively seek recognition for the excellence and innovation that this culture cultivates and fosters. And if we do that, we think we can increase faculty and staff external awards year on year perhaps by 10 or 15 or even more percent. And these are research awards, career grants, NSF grants, foundation awards, the Kellogg Foundation, and honorifics. We really have a great deal of faculty who should be recipients of prestigious academic awards, national academy membership, etc.“So, our goal really is to support everyone towards creating that kind of workplace that advances every individual, every voice, and with a few metrics of some number of increase every year. Again, I think that that a by-product of the excellence we create will be the recognition that is won.”“Among the key goals of the strategic plan for staff and faculty success includes supporting their career development, and perhaps most importantly, their wellbeing,” says Woo. “We really want to support the wellbeing of our staff, faculty, academic staff, and postdoctoral associates so we can focus on creating a best-in-class workplace culture.”“As we help the excellence at MSU be recognized, and I really like this initiative, that in turn brings more resources and opportunities.” says Beauchamp. “And as we look at the scope and scale of the need and the urgency in our nation, our ability to draw attention to the excellence that exists here in ways that are magnetic for more resources to come is a critical part of this effort.”With faculty representing so many different disciplines and the wide variety of roles for support staff, what does it take to make MSU a workplace of choice?“It means we empower everyone to be engaged in a community that's inclusive and equitable,” continues Beauchamp. “It is cultivating, caring, and accountable leadership, and it's a culture that's transparent, open, trusting, and safe. And it's really listening so that we understand the goals of the individuals and ensuring that there are ways for everyone to contribute and to really recognize and embrace their goals and be responsive to the challenges that are faced at an individual and a unit level.”“What it'll take to make MSU a workplace of choice is to provide an environment where people feel they can do meaningful work without limitation,” Woo says. “That can include providing a flexible work environment, whether it is to identify those roles that can work from other sites or perhaps at different times of the day than we are used to. We need to look to see what roles can work more flexibly so they can do meaningful work on the timeframe that they are able to provide that work. It means providing support for caregivers. It means making sure that we're inclusive of diverse voices and continue to advance our DEI efforts.“It's also taking the lessons that we've learned from the pandemic. We have learned different ways to work in many cases much more efficiently and effectively, and that will help create this workplace of choice where people feel they can do their best work.”“Melissa and Norm have said it so well,” continues Woodruff. “I echo everything they said, and I also really think about the ways in which our university policies and procedures and practices can enable that good work. And we must continue to engage in participatory engagement in each of those parts of what we think are ossified in some stone somewhere that tells us exactly what to do. We are an organization that values listening and allowing people to be part of the discussion while developing an environment in which learning can take place.“All of our work is designed to develop the right kind of scholarship in conjunction with the learning that happens for 50,000 students at this institution. We must provide educators with access to the professional development necessary for them to feel comfortable and confident in this space to create evidence-based learning experiences through all modes of instruction. There are different ways in which a budding clinician will learn their practice versus someone who is in a performance space or someone who is in the scientific discipline or someone who is in computer science.“Really understanding the plurality of the way we teach, of the way we learn, and the way the staff enables all of this to take place is something that I think really creates a context for improving campus culture while remaining firm in the goals and ambition of a learning community.”This pillar seems like an area where faculty and staff would have a lot to contribute. How might you plan to engage staff and faculty in contributing to a dialogue as this area develops?“What we've done in the Office of the Provost is to really engage faculty, academic staff, and students on many committees so that their voices are part of our dialogue,” Woodruff says. “We have summits with our leadership, with the deans, and with the assistant associate provost. And we've really done an environmental or landscape analysis to really understand how people see the strategic plan playing out in their lives. We’re really trying to gather as much ongoing input as we had input to the strategic plan.“It really was an extraordinary thing for this president to say we are going to move ahead with the development of a strategic plan that invites all voices during a time of transition and the COVID context that we had not seen before at a time when the organization was changing its top-level management in real time. So that extraordinary level of leadership led to an exceptional level of engagement in thinking about our aspirations.“We have to keep those principles in mind as we move into this next stage of implementation and encourage everyone to continue to contribute in a living way to that ultimate set of goals that will be adjusted, just as our teaching is never the same. What we learn is always developing because of the way we do our research. We have to think about the strategic plan in that same way. We've invited dialogue in diversity, equity, and inclusion and are thinking about advancing social justice and connecting all the pillars through promoting inclusion to each of the problem sets that the Provost’s Office is engaged in.“We are really thinking about intentionally shifting our culture, not thinking about this as something that is passive; there is an intentionality there. And I think that in as much as we continue to have feedback and campus-wide engagement, we have a high impact document that is foundational. We, I think, will be able to continue to develop strategies going forward that will be the all souls approach that everyone in this institution is part of the success of this institution. And that's how I think we'll continue to have the best outcomes because all of us have been involved.”“As the three of us are the executive sponsors of this theme, we will be collaborating with each other, and of course, among all of our key audiences and stakeholders that we serve, as we move through the implementation of this initiative,” says Woo. “We will be working together to make sure that we've identified strategies for implementation and prioritize the different initiatives as we move forward. And we'll be consistently communicating our progress to the campus community and make sure that we incorporate feedback from the campus community as well.”“We’re making sure that we recognize that there are barriers to voices, and so we’re creating multiple ways that people can have input, whether that's town halls or surveys,” Beauchamp says. “We incorporated something called rounding for outcomes where you go to where people work and find out what are the barriers to what they're trying to accomplish and how can we help. Part of what we are building in and will incorporate into this is multiple avenues to receive the guidance. This isn't top down. It's really the voices of the people who are accomplishing the mission.”“My hope is that through this process that I hope is transparent, we gather further momentum,” Woodruff says. “We are not stuck in a moment. We are part of a trajectory and that trajectory can be up or down. It can be fast or slow. And I feel that we're really on an upward march that has pace, and that's because people are involving themselves in every aspect of this. And to echo Norm, this is not top down. This is all of us. And that represents the best input towards what I think will be an extraordinary output, and I can't wait for 2030 to look back and see what we've accomplished.”“We probably, Russ, should add the use of the term shared governance because that is essentially what this is,” adds Beauchamp. “The strategic plan can serve us in the way that will proceed as really a structure and process for partnership, accountability, and ownership. It helps make these decisions be connected to the individuals who are so central to operationalizing the decisions. We’re really committed to that. I'm proud of all the efforts to roll up sleeves together that I've seen over the last three years from the president and the provost. It's just been fun to be a part of and to see, that as shared governance is engaged, the enthusiasm from the faculty, students, and staff when their voices are heard.”“This is MSU's time,” concludes Woo. “There is no better time to be moving forward and to be really putting in the effort and engagement in implementation of the strategic plan and truly focusing on the success of our staff and faculty. Let's do it!”On this edition of MSU Today, we've been talking about the staff and faculty success pillar of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030, Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity and Expanding Impact with the executive sponsors of the pillar: Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Teresa Woodruff, Executive Vice President for Administration and Chief Information Officer Melissa Woo, and Executive Vice President for Health Sciences Dr. Norman Beauchamp.Read and learn more about MSU Strategic Plan 2030 at strategicplan.msu.edu. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

I’m remembering Frank on the program today. In 2006 on a beautiful June day at MSU’s Forest Akers Golf Course, Frank told me he was hired on September 11, 1972, in the news department at WJR.“At time, I was the youngest newsman they’d ever hired at WJR; I was 22 years old when I started there. People move around a lot in radio. My goal was to be at one place for five years, and I’m still trying to figure out what I’m going to do next.” Frank cites Van Patrick, Bob Reynolds, and J.P. McCarthy as mentors.Conversation Highlights:On always wanting to be in radio. “I grew up with a tape recorder in my hands and I would announce tabletop games sitting at the dining room table. Then I would watch TV and announce football games that were on television. Then I would critique myself later. My parents had a son who talked to himself at the dining room table so they could either try to nurture that or have me committed, and I’m glad they chose the former!”On the transition from news to sports then to play-by-play: “It wasn’t too long after covering the Jimmy Hoffa disappearance – for which we won a lot of awards – that WJR was looking to do some new things in the sports department, which was run by Bob Reynolds at the time.” Frank became sports director when Reynolds retired. He talks about beginning the transition to play-by-play by doing the Lions pre and postgame shows from the studio. Then he lobbied to go on the road to do the show and began to do that. Eventually Mike Lucci left his role as color analyst and Frank began doing color on the game with Bob Reynolds. “One time Bob became ill when we were in Chicago; he went to the hospital with some heart problems. He was out for a couple weeks so I did the play-by-play while he was sick. Bob’s health continued to deteriorate, and I became the play-by-play guy for the Lions. It became natural, then, that when Bob Ufer became ill, I got that opportunity, too.”On his surprise when WJR transitioned from U of M to MSU: “I was shocked and stunned. You don’t expect 30-year relationships to end that suddenly without warning.” He describes what he says was the right decision that allowed George Blaha to continue to broadcast MSU games while Frank continued to broadcast U of M games.On the notion that he’s somehow anti-Spartan: “Tell that to my father-in-law. He’s a graduate and has a master’s from Michigan State and we get along quite well and never fight. People are going to draw their own opinions, and they’re often misguided. Most of the time you can’t do anything about that, so I don’t worry about it. I’ve always admired Michigan State. I just happen to be the announcer for the University of Michigan, which is State’s big rivals. People should relax and enjoy the lore of the rivalry. There’s no need to have any dislike for one another in the rivalry. What bothers me the most is when people feel they can’t like me because I do U of M football, as if your affiliation with a college should have anything to do with the way you view a person. I’ve never understood that. “Michigan State football has always been close to my heart. The first college game I ever saw was in Spartan Stadium when I was at Cousino High School in Warren. My dad was a huge Spartan fan. He resented Michigan because Michigan kept Michigan State out of the Big Ten for so long. He was a guy who always loved the underdog. We always followed Michigan State at my house and cheered for them. I know who I am. I’ve got great friends at Michigan State. I love them dearly. They’re just two different schools. I do Michigan Football. And Michigan State wants to beat Michigan. That’s it, end of story for me.”We’re remembering WJR radio legend Frank Beckmann talking with me there in 2006. Nine years later in 2015 at that same spot - Forest Akers Golf Course at MSU – Frank reflects on his just-completed 30+ years doing radio play by play for University of Michigan football.Other Highlights:On the changes in college football during his time broadcasting games: “There are people who want to go after it because they think it’s too violent. This is a sport that builds character, teamwork, and personal responsibility in young men. All those skills lead to your success in the real world. The game itself is still about blocking and tackling. That’s the bottom line. You can have all the spread offenses and throw the ball all over the place. You still must block and tackle. If you don’t do that, you can’t play football and that’s never going to change.”On the beginning of the Harbaugh/Dantonio rivalry: “Harbaugh will bring Michigan back; he’s a terrific coach. Mark Dantonio has done a super job at MSU. He’s put Michigan State into the upper echelon of college football. Jim Harbaugh has a chance to do that at Michigan. He’s been successful everywhere he’s been. My question is how long will he stay at Michigan? His track record is that he stays somewhere for about four years and then he’s out.“It’s great to be here. I love East Lansing. I love the golf course. I love the people here. I’ve always had a great relationship with the people at MSU and I hope it continues for many more years.” MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday nights at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

Dickerson made his debut in the Tigers booth in 2000 and has been the lead play-by-play announcer for them since 2002. He is a three-time Michigan Sportscaster of the Year by the National Sportscasters and Sportswriters Association, earning the accolade in 2005, 2006 and 2014. Dickerson is a native of Clarkston, Michigan, and his wife, L.A., is also a professor at MSU. Conversation Highlights: On the labor issues in the Major League Baseball lockout: “These are complicated issues, but I firmly believe in my heart there are solutions out there. We just got fans back in the stands in full force towards the end of last season. We need to build on that momentum and not lose any games.” On the Hall of Fame status of Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens: “This is a museum that’s supposed to reflect the history of the game. Were Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens a big part of the history of the game? Yes! Clearly, they deserve to be in; they’re two of the greatest of all time. And then you just make sure you tell the whole story. That’s the whole point of a museum.” On the pace of play in baseball: He’s not opposed to a pitch clock. “I do think it could pick up the pace of play.” He’s not in favor of moving the mound back. “The extra inning runner is probably here to stay, and I’m in favor of having the designated hitter in both leagues.” On the prospects for the 2022 Tigers: “Greene and Torkelson are the headliners, but this is a pretty deep farm system. I’ve been a Tigers fan since 1967, and I don’t ever remember two prospects with this level of national acclaim. Both are considered top ten if not top five hitting prospects in all of baseball. A.J. Hinch knows you win with pitching and defense, and they’ve got the makings of a team that can do that. Last year, Hinch really wanted to get to 500. I guarantee you they’ll go into spring training with the goal of winning the division. Winning a world championship will be the goal from here on out.” On radio and how fans consume play-by-play: “As long as people are outside in the summer, driving cars, having family get togethers, fishing, walking, or whatever it might be, there will be a place for baseball on the radio. And there are just more ways to listen now. I don’t worry about it at all. I know people aren’t carrying around transistor radios anymore and putting them under their pillows, but they have phones. And for $2.99 a month you can listen not just to Tigers baseball but all broadcasts from around baseball. You can listen on your phone. You can listen on your laptop. There are so many ways to listen, and people are taking advantage of them.” On teaching play-by-play at MSU: “It’s fun. I enjoy interacting with the students. I enjoy it because I know how I do what I do, but how do I teach what I do? Where do you start with someone who’s never done it before? You need to come up with a vocabulary and be able to say the same thing five or six different ways. We practice a lot with college basketball because it’s so fast paced. Don’t have the crowd roaring and you’re still trying to get the ball down the court. As long as you can keep up with the play, think of all things you can describe and describe them well. That takes time. The kids are great, and I love being in the classroom. They energize me.” Find Dan on Cameo with all proceeds going to benefit students in need in sports journalism at MSU and follow Dan Dickerson on Twitter @Dan_Dickerson. (Audio courtesy of Major League Baseball) MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU Strategic Plan 2030 identifies goals within six key themes: student success, staff and faculty success, discovery, creativity, and innovation for excellence and global impact, sustainable health, stewardship and sustainability, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.On this edition of MSU Today, we'll be focusing on the student success theme of the plan with its executive sponsors: Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Teresa Woodruff and Senior Vice President for Student Life and Engagement Vennie Gore. Michigan State University President Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D. says MSU student success is central to everything we're doing at MSU.“It's no accident that student success was the first pillar of our strategic plan, and it's really central to everything we're doing at Michigan State University,” says Stanley. “It touches on everything we do. I think what's exciting about what we're trying to do in this pillar and this area of emphasis is really bring to even further fruition a change in attitude and accomplishment that is taking place at Michigan State.“We believe that every student we admit to Michigan State is capable and should graduate from Michigan State University. They're capable of doing that. When they finish, we're going to continue to support them in having rewarding careers during their lifetime. We’re going to help everyone who comes here graduate because we believe they can.“We're not going to stop at graduation. We're going to continue to be an advocate for them and support them as they continue in their careers and their lives. People have been talking about this before I came, but I really see this as an opportunity for us as an institution to really make this happen. We're going to talk a lot today with Provost Woodruff and Vennie Gore about graduation rates. That's one of the most important measures of success. We’re supporting students’ mental health and supporting them in every way, shape, and form. It’s a holistic approach to see them succeed at Michigan State University. And I couldn't be more excited about that.”Gore says the goal is for every student MSU admits to learn, grow, and thrive.“Our goal is to have every student that we admit learn, grow, and thrive here at Michigan State and make sure they have the opportunity to have access to world class education through our faculty,” Gore says. “And we want them to have access to co-curricular and extracurricular activities, which helps them to grow and develop as people and become lifelong Spartans. That's what we mean when we talk about student success for the whole person.“I meet alumni who have been here in the '50s and the '60s and the '70s and they look back on their educational experiences very fondly. They talk about what they achieved here at Michigan State and how it's helped them in their career and their life. That's what we want for everyone. Because I think when parents send their sons or daughters here, they want them to have that kind of enriched experience so that when they leave here, they can go out in the world and do the things that they hope to do.”“Boy, Vennie, you're spot on,” Woodruff says. “I really echo a lot of what you said. I do agree. I think the student success that we measure at MSU is unique, and it's really the measure of our institution's ability to provide the kind of environment and inclusive, equitable curriculum and environment that really enables every student to learn, thrive, persist, graduate, and succeed after graduation. Each one of those is student success.“The way we really look at it is to be very holistic and to understand that student success is not necessarily a measure of the academic achievement of an individual or the student collectively, but rather really thinking about how well the institution supports its students, which I think is a very MSU way of looking at student success. It really allows us to identify places where there are hurdles.“We don't want a single soul at this institution to stub their toe as they're running down the track towards the world that is awaiting them with open arms with all the problems and the opportunities that exist. This notion of student success really is something that I think I'm really proud of. Vennie, as you said, I think it's something that parents see as really the opportunity for their child or grandchild or niece or nephew or friend to really succeed.”What are some of the ways MSU is excelling in this area now?“Go Green Go 15 is the credit momentum campaign,” continues Woodruff. “And what that really represents is the fact that one of the things that was identified at MSU is that students needed to maintain steady momentum in order to graduate in a timely way. If you graduate in a timely way, it allows you to get to that next destination more quickly and with less financial burden.“That really illustrates the way MSU is able to look at student success with these data informed efforts and allow us to then modulate the institution towards the students' success. Another one that I know that we've done is to really redesign the math course curriculum. We're working on general education and other gateway courses. “Part of that really lives out in the Neighborhood Student Success Collaborative, something that I think, Vennie, you and others really brought to this institution as a way of blending together intellectual and social in the ways in which you learn in a dynamic interface between people and the living setting and the formal learning environment and that we learn from each other. The newest thing we did during my time here is really My Spartan Story. It was started before I arrived, but it's that interactive platform that allows us to capture all these experiences. If in fact we believe that student success is part of this continuum of their experiences at the institution, how can we collate and capture all of that work to allow them to use that as they move beyond this institution? Student success is not of a moment in time. It is of that student's lifelong outcomes of being at a place like MSU.”“One of the other things about being on a residential campus this large for our 50,000 students here on campus, our graduate professional students in Grand Rapids or in Flint or Detroit or up in the U.P. is finding that sense of belonging,” Gore continues. “When I find that sort of sense of belonging in a community, it helps me find my colleagues. My grandmother used to say you are your friends. I didn't really know what that meant, Russ. But I think what it really means is that if I'm a person here who's interested in the sciences and I become part of Lyman Briggs and I meet other students who have similar interests, that enriches my whole experience while I'm here. And that sense of belonging is critically important for everyone because I think what we're learning even in this period of the pandemic is that isolation is bad for students. Being social and having a sense of connection and having that support is critical. Belonging is another thing we are working toward because that helps with students persisting in school.”Recently the Division of Residential and Hospitality Services was merged with the Division of Student Affairs and Services to form the Division of Student Life and Engagement. How is this connected to the strategic plan and how will it support student success?“In many ways, the two divisions have worked side by side together because we are both here for students,” continues Gore. “Residential and Hospitality Services was really focused on the campus experience. Student Affairs and Services had a broader mission of not just our on-campus students, but our off-campus students, fraternity and sorority life, our visitors, and our veterans who are here.“Bringing the two units together allows us to have greater collaboration as we work across the campus. We know that we're not in isolation. Working with the Provost Office and the colleges also allows for us to have the holistic experience. One of the things that I've been really pleased with as the two divisions have come together is I think everybody recognizes the importance of collaboration and to working across our own boundaries. And that's critical for where we are and how we serve this campus community.”“Well, again, I think Vennie's hit it on the head,” says Woodruff. “If we go back to the strategic plan and how engineering the institution best enables the success of every student, it is to invert the traditional definition of student success. Instead of centering on the students' assumed capacity or willingness to earn degrees, the strategic plan really defines student success as the measure of the institution's capacity or willingness to support every student.“When Vennie and I sat down and talked about the living-learning environments, the Neighborhoods, we thought that was really brilliant. But then what we did in addition is to say, ‘Well, what happens when students live and learn for additional time within this setting? Do they succeed?’ Yes, they succeed even better. They succeed in the outcomes, which is getting to their goals academically.“What that really contemplates as we think about the structure of the institution is the opportunity to more flexibly enable those institutional changes that support our objectives. Really that's where the Division of Residential and Hospitality Services and the Division of Student Affairs represented two groups that work together. But by coming together, we synergize in a way that we can better enable the student outcomes.“I think institutions that are confident can make big changes, and it can then lead to extraordinary outcomes. We'll be measuring this. We'll be looking back, Vennie, in 2030 together from some vantage point and be able to say students today are better because of what we did institutionally back in 2020 and 2021. That's the exciting thing about MSU. It’s a place that's not ossified in a particular way of working, rather it’s aspirational for what our students really need.“And then we as leaders implement. I'm really excited about what this is going to do for our student success over time.”“If you think about the ethos at Michigan State, for an institution of our size and as decentralized as it may feel, there is a very low barrier to collaboration,” Gore says. “It's not just between the student life and engagement and provost offices. You see it in the colleges, and you see faculty members and researchers working across disciplines to expand scholarship or advance knowledge to solve big problems. That has been something that I think we have. It's just part of our DNA that we're able to do that. In other institutions I worked at, I would say that wasn't necessarily the case.”With respect to the strategic plan, where do you see this focus on student success leading in the future?“When we look at it in 2030, we would like to have eliminated the opportunity gaps,” Gore continues. “When we talk about the opportunity gaps, there are some subgroups of our community that aren't graduating at the level that we wish for or their parents wish for. It isn't about whether they have the academic ability. There are some non-cognitive things that come into play that make that a difficult hurdle for some students.“Mark Largent (associate provost for undergraduate education and dean of undergraduate studies) is fond to say that if we get a student to their junior year, that we're graduating them at the rate of Ivy League schools, 90 to 94 percent. It's that first and second year that is critical for us. And that's why the second year live-on (on-campus living requirement) was really important because it provides that sense of stability for students so they can get to the junior year. They're in their program, and then they can graduate. We hope in 2030 that we have students who are graduating at a high rate across all demographics. That would be the big change that we'd like to see.”“Absolutely,” adds Woodruff. “Some of the ways we're engineering the environment for student success is in part the merger that we just talked about, but it's also in the way we're using data across a vast network of institutions. We have our institutional data, but also through the University Innovation Alliance, we're able to scale our knowledge node in ways that allow us to gather information and be able to test our hypotheses and be able to then work towards more equitable educational outcomes in some cases that perhaps we couldn't see entirely but that can be revealed through these large networks.“That's something that I think allows this university itself to be a learning institution. I always say I never learn anything from talking to myself. If we simply look inward, we will never actually be able to enable the success that we wish to achieve. That University Innovation Alliance is something that I'm really excited about.“I want to go back to the Neighborhood concept. It was an MSU concept in 2010, and we really began to think about the ways in which we offer opportunities for learning environments in a holistic way. And by having this in a place that students can access easily, it creates that opportunity for the student to casually learn and formally learn in the places and spaces where they are.“Our goal is to eliminate the achievement gaps that we see today, and we've made steady strides. In as much as this institution continues to be thoughtful and intellectual partners in the institutional sense of trying to understand institutional barriers, I'm convinced our students can get there. At some level, our students are running a race. If there's a high hurdle, what we need to do is add that little pole vault so they can get over it. As we go, we hope to learn how to remove barriers and take those high hurdles to low and then eventually have an even playing field. Everyone who comes in races at the same level, and that I think is going to allow everyone to learn, thrive, graduate, and then succeed.”What are the primary goals in this area of student success?“Again, we want to get to an 86 percent five-year graduation rate. That's our goal,” Gore says. “We've been very successful in incrementally moving that up over the last eight years. We want students to have a holistic experience. When they leave here, we want them to not only be good scholars but also have an appreciation for the arts, have good health and wellness, and be good citizens. They're global citizens so they understand the impact of the world. That's what student success looks like to me and that's what we would like to have.”“I agree with that,” says Woodruff. “Our objective is to make this place more accessible and attractive to a wider variety of students. Strengthening our ability to tell our story and really increasing the success of students who are here begins to tell that story. And that's from our undergraduate to our graduate students and to our professional students. Broadening the diversity of the student body provides a way in which our students become a learning community for each other.“That's an important part of what we're driving toward - increasing the number and diversity of learners across campus. We're widening the ways in which students can learn. And of course, part of that has been developed through the pandemic, but we're doing it in a really intentional way to understand the pedagogical ways in which students learn best. Instead of asking students to change, we ask how we can change. That's one of the objectives of the institution.“And we really must make sure that along the way, we're creating a climate that the students can see that they are part of that climate, that there is a give and a get, that it's not just that I come, but that I am a part of, that I am the climate, and I am the institution. If we think about each other and that we are all part of this, we create an MSU that really will thrive and create the best success metrics for every student that comes.”What are some of the biggest challenges to reaching our goals for student success?“Some of our biggest challenges are going to be the time and people part,” says Gore. “The reason why I say this, Russ, is I think everyone in the country has been talking about the Great Resignation. Having good talent in the institution is important to us. It's not a challenge of will, and it's not a challenge of political will. It's just a challenge of making sure that we're staffed at the point where we can provide the experience for our students. I'm an optimist who believes that as we come out of the pandemic, we will start to see ourselves as an employer of choice. This is a place where people want to be. We have a forward thinking plan. Folks can see themselves in this plan and they want to be a part of it. While the talent is a challenge, it's not an overwhelming challenge for me.”“I think that's right,” adds Woodruff. “Our limited resource is ourselves. We might think that's monetary, but I think that the limitation to MSU will only be in the way we think about how this institution grows and evolves and how we become part of that evolution. That's going to take time and trust and coordination. It's going to take each of us seeing each other as part of the solution and believing that a change in the organization isn't a reflection on me or what I do but really a reflection on what the institution needs to do going forward.“Being adaptable through change management, particularly in the current moment, is something that requires an enormous amount of trust. What we've seen across this period in the last several years is that people have started to lose trust in the institutions that once you didn't even think about. I saw a poll recently that trust in pediatricians is at an all-time low. What that says is that we have at a societal level pressure on each one of us as part of organizations and MSU as an institution. How do we build that willingness to give each other the latitude to work in an environment that is changing but is still going to be here for the next hundred years? The value of higher education has been questioned, but there is no other way in society where we have changed more lives, not only by those who go through our institution, but by those who stay. Our student success is linked to our faculty success.“We have to continue to enable each of us to give each other a little benefit of the doubt while we go through the moment and believe that each of us wants the best for each other. I think once we begin to bring that trust back to every circumstance, we're going to reach our goal of a great university and great student success.”What are some of the things that position MSU to be a leader in student success?“It's in our DNA,” says Gore. “When I graduated from graduate school in 1982 from Indiana, there were four institutions that were on the forefront of living-learning: Michigan State, Vermont, UC Davis, and UW Stevens Point. They had a history of residential colleges and what they meant for large public Research 1 institutions and that integration and that set level of collaboration. We've had this long history over the years.“One of the other things too is that we haven't rested on history. If you were to go back and look over time, you could see the evolution of what that meant on our campus. When we started the Neighborhood concept back in 2009 as a pilot at Hubbard Residence Hall, we intuitively knew that it was going to be messy. The pilot would be very different than what the product would be. And that has been true. What that says is that the people who are attracted to this work are thoughtful and innovative, and they don't necessarily think that we have all the answers. We're going to try some things. Some of those things will work and some won’t. The things that don't work we'll forget about, and we'll keep going without feeling we failed. I think that's the big thing. MSU is okay with trying something. And if it doesn't work out, it's all right and we move on to the next thing. It's that messiness that you have to be an organization like Michigan State to be okay with.”“I echo that,” Woodruff continues. “We're experimentalists. When you're actually doing hypothesis-based thinking, you actually are not always right. In fact, I always say we're a batter, not a pitcher. A pitcher has to be right. Most of the time, a batter only has to put the ball in play about a quarter of the time. I really think that you've hit it on the head.“We're really enabling a series of increasingly coordinated and very deliberative and thoughtful approaches across the entire enterprise. There's a saying I have that we have provostial partnerships across the entire institution. We are all provostial in the ecumenical sense of the way the provost is part of the opening and the enabling of everyone towards their academic goals. We're really being very thoughtful.“That includes the merger of RHS and Student Affairs in a way that is an increase in coordination and deliberation that is going to, we believe, enable student success. We're also focusing on the strengths and skill sets of existing leaders and making sure we all see how we can be part of this momentum and then leveraging that talent that exists and trying to maximize the output that we have in ways that really have no silos. We have this egalitarian way of working.“That itself is part of perhaps some of the experimental ways in which Vennie was just talking. But also I think it's just because leaders in this space understand what our goals are, and they really are towards student success and academic excellence. And relative to that, I think our faculty and academic staff from across the university are really engaged with our staff in all the ways that this institution's goals ask them to be. The strategic plan emphasis on student success really helps shine a light on all this work that is happening. That's part of our DNA. That's part of the experimentalist in us to achieve the goals on behalf of those in whose interests we serve.”“I like the baseball analogy,” says Gore. “A Major League player gets paid multimillion dollar to have a batting average of 300, which is getting a hit three out of 10 times. If we were in that genre, we're probably batting 700. Seven out 10 times we get it right. Those three other times, we swing and miss. That happens in life and that's okay. But we're going to try something. If something doesn't work, it's okay. We're going to move on. We're going to do some other things. We have the flexible latitude to do that.”“We' trust each other,” says Woodruff. “Even if I fail, I know I’m going to be picked up. But if we lack coordination, he's going to call me. These are ways in which we develop leadership together with the strategic objectives of the institution and our great faculty and students to holistically come together and have that great batting average.”Vennie, earlier you mentioned the goal of an 86 percent graduation rate. What are some of the ways we will measure the success of the student success initiative?“We keep score, using the baseball analogy,” Gore says. “At the end of the game, you want to know whether you won or lost. Graduation is one of the ways you keep score. Retention is another way that you keep score. How many of our students are staying from their freshman to sophomore to junior years? What are those retention rates? Are we seeing changes in subgroups? It’s like calling balls and strikes in a baseball game. That’s sort of how we look at it. The data analytics are something that we really began moving forward and understanding what the important things are. I like to think of this in three strategic questions: Are you doing the right things? Do you have the capacity to do the right things? And can you do the right things right the first time? And that's all about execution. You can analytically look at all those different things to be able to say that you're being successful.”“Right. I agree,” Woodruff adds. “That 86 percent graduation rate is one piece of this. I also want to look at placement rates for where the students go after getting an undergraduate degree or graduate degree. And that's the going to be important as well as a metric of success. We’re working to reduce probation rates, too. We'll be measuring that this year, and that's going to be an important metric for us on the pathway. We want to see that sense of belonging and the climate assessments continue to improve. One of the things in the merger that Vennie's really focused on across all our affinity and identity groups is to make sure that sense of belonging is there and that folks know that this is not top-down. This is all of us. If you're here, you're a part of creating the culture that exists.“Looking for someone else to create culture is not the same as creating the culture we all wish to be a part of. That's the message that Vennie's been giving, and it's been really a winning and wonderful way of thinking in a really renewed way about the institution. We want to have impactful opportunities for the students for internships and externships and laboratory environments and making sure students know that's an option for them early in their careers. That's an important part of this.“We’ve seen a bit of a decline in the use of student services during this current context. We want to make sure that use of the services that we have created is increasing. I think another one is that student debt upon graduation has been decreased and part of that is the credit momentum. That is to say that we expect you to be here for a period with deep learning and then to graduate. That will be in the student's best interest as they move along.“Part of that is creating an inclusive, equitable curriculum and an environment that enables their academic and social and overall wellness and financial support. That leads back to the student's ability to learn, thrive, persist, graduate, and succeed. All of that's really part of what that last set of metrics really enables.”“We all have a role in student success no matter what your role is at the institution,” says Gore. “Whether you're a faculty member or a staff member who is serving food or you're a TA, we all have a role. At least through the pandemic, what we have heard from our undergraduate students is that college is more than just going to class. It’s the whole experience.“And that impact that we all have on the individual student, no matter what our role is, is significant. Some of the most significant relationships have come through advising and mentoring and saying hello and being there for their well-being and knowing that there's someone in your corner to support you. That's student success. This is the collective responsibility of all of us as members of our community.”“Really well said, Vennie,” says Woodruff. “The strategic plan is really such an asset to have for an institution that, through the COVID context, was able to continue to reach for what its aspirations should be. That's the leadership of our president and every person in a leadership role and everybody who participated in really thinking about what our aspirations are at a time when other institutions were really being grounded by the pandemic.“Out of that has come the opportunity to really change the institution on behalf of the students we serve. I'm so grateful to all my colleagues with whom we've all worked to have this strategic plan, and the opportunity to implement it is just so exciting. I just can't wait to see what happens next to all of the students who come through this institution at this particular time. It's really an exciting time and the world so desperately needs them.“Our students are carrying heavy buckets. No doubt about it. But we've told them that what we're doing is we're putting our hands next to them and we're going to help them carry it. We can't take it away. We wish we could, but we can't. We know that whatever they've learned, both within our academic halls as well as within our residential halls and within the halls of life and the changes that they've experienced, that those buckets have been filled. But we're going to help them with what comes next. We can't predict what their lives are going to be. But we know because of being part of this institution that they're ready for both the expected and the unexpected. That's the best that we can do on behalf of these students. I couldn't be more excited for the future that they will help create.”On this edition of MSU Today, we've been talking about the student success theme of MSU's Strategic Plan 2030, Empowering Excellence, Advancing Equity and Expanding Impact with the executive sponsors of the theme, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Teresa Woodruff and Senior Vice President for Student Life and Engagement Vennie Gore. Read and learn more about MSU Strategic Plan 2030 at strategicplan.msu.edu. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU's excellence is a product of our long presence in the communities we serve. This week, MSU proudly joined the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation in Flint to announce a $25 million grant to support the expansion of the MSU College of Human Medicine’s public health research and educational programs there. This month also marks the first anniversary of another notable partnership focused on supporting healthcare in Michigan communities. Last year, MSU joined Detroit's Henry Ford Health System in a 30-year collaboration inspired by a bold vision to discover and advance a new standard of health to help transform the lives of people in Detroit and beyond. “They really are critical programs for the university that have brought great distinction to the university as well as made a huge impact to communities across the state of Michigan,” says President Stanley. “The Mott Foundation has been a really crucial partner in our work over the years to support the Flint community. And this grant really follows up on the Foundation's support over really a 10-year period and is designed to really help us develop a new model for improving public health outcomes.“We're going to be able to support the addition of approximately 18 tenure system faculty members, boosting the program to more than 25 tenure track faculty and approximately 70 faculty members overall. And a community partner advisory committee will help determine priority public health areas for the program's recruiting focus. And this has been a really important part of this work in Flint. It involves the community and shows how important our community partners are in getting this work done.“And it's not a question where we're coming to them and saying here's the problem we'll help you with. It's rather a partnership where they're talking to us about what are the needs of the community, and then we're working together to develop programs that can make a difference in these areas of priority public health issues.“The Henry Ford partnership is something we're very excited about. This is a 30-year collaboration that we're working together on inspired by a really bold vision. And that's to really discover and advance a new standard of health to help transform the lives of people in Detroit, Southeast Michigan, and beyond. And I think we're making significant progress already.“Our plans include building on our joint cancer research task force to increase research that opens up new opportunities for collaboration and innovation. And we're really trying to lay the groundwork for seeking designation by the National Cancer Institute, known as the NCI, for us to create a comprehensive cancer center in or around Henry Ford's Detroit campus.“We're doing education work as well that's really critical for us. Some of our students who are third- and fourth-year medical students from the Colleges of both Human and Osteopathic Medicine are going to be doing their training programs at Henry Ford Hospital. And the MSU College of Nursing will also offer professional development opportunities for Henry Ford employees. Nurses there can have additional professional development opportunities.“We also have partnership goals in the areas of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. And we're working on ways to define paths for addressing health equity and health disparities through our partnership, particularly in cancer care. As we've seen before with the pandemic, there are huge differences in healthcare outcomes in rural areas versus urban areas and in urban areas versus suburban areas. And what we want to do is really try to get rid of those gaps and make sure that health disparities are not contributing to poor health outcomes in the state of Michigan.“So, the Henry Ford partnership and the work we're doing with the Mott Foundation and others throughout the state of Michigan is designed to really help us have an impact on healthcare and health outcomes in a broad swath of the population of the state.”At MSU, an important facet of maintaining a healthy and caring community is represented by a new effort based on one of the actions in our Relationship Violence and Sexual Misconduct Strategic Plan. Can you talk about the Support More Initiative?“The Support More Initiative is a critically important communication initiative that focuses on providing guidance for how to respond to disclosures of relationship violence or sexual assault or misconduct on campus. It helps our faculty, staff, and anyone contacted to respond to those experiences in an empathic manner, and it promotes the availability of related campus resources and services.“We're really taking steps to transform MSU's culture as it relates to instances of relationship violence, sexual assault, sexual harassment, and stalking. And this really grows out of the work of a number of outstanding faculty at MSU who have developed trauma informed approaches to responding to people who've undergone one of these events.“I'm really grateful to the RVSM Expert Advisory Work Group. Their members have been dedicated to this work and so has the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services Division of Victim Services with support for this work through a Victims of Crime Act Grant Award. It's an important program, and I encourage everyone to go to the site because there are ways in which you can help make a difference in this important problem.”On January 31st MSU returns to in-person learning after a three-week remote start for most classes, which was intended to mitigate the impact of potential classroom absences due to the highly contagious Omicron variant of the COVID 19 virus. While you're cautious, I'm sure you're happy that we can return in person.“We're very excited about it. And I know students are as well. And I know faculty and staff have worked hard to get prepared to be in person in the classroom again. I think the important thing to note is that our cases have started to come down on campus. We're absolutely monitoring it very carefully. We did see a surge with Omicron as expected. The case numbers are coming down; they've been down again the past couple weeks. Our hope is by the 31st we will really have seen the peak and be very much on a decline in Omicron related COVID-19 cases.“The critical thing, though, is that employees have been vaccinated and boosted and are wearing masks, and we believe that the classrooms represent a relatively safe environment.”COVID booster shots are required unless an exemption has been granted with a February 1 deadline for most to update their verification forms online.The excellence of several of MSU online degree programs was validated this week in the latest U.S. News and World Report rankings. MSU College of Education programs placed in the top 10 in all four of the U.S. News Graduate Education Discipline program rankings, with curriculum and instruction rising to number one in the nation. Among other highlights, MSU’s online master’s program in Criminal Justice is ranked number five for the second year in a row. And our non-MBA online master’s program in business jumped nine places to number 12. The online master’s in mechanical engineering program ranked number 14. Will there be more hybrid instruction even when the pandemic eases?“Oh, absolutely. And I think it's a great mark of the quality of our College of Education, our Broad Business College, our Criminal Justice program, and our College of Engineering that they've reached these kinds of accolades.“This is a very competitive area. Delivering this kind of material in a way that allows students to learn and be successful is a challenge. MSU and our faculty have risen to the challenge and really developed programs that are appealing to our students and that have the potential to appeal to other students as well.“As we think about education in the future, having this combination of the ability to deliver both in person and remotely I think becomes incredibly important. With asynchronous learning, particularly, it allows us to expand the kind of students who can take and receive an MSU education. We have a quality combination of in-classroom and online coursed, and that's very special.”This month Spartans took great pride in seeing MSU economist and professor Lisa D. Cook nominated to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System by President Joe Biden. If confirmed, Cook will be the first Black woman to serve on the board in its 108-year history. “It's wonderful. And professor Cook is really a remarkable economist and leader whose nomination just highlights the excellence of our Spartan faculty. I was really honored in 2020 to help welcome former Federal Reserve Chairperson Janet Yellen as a guest speaker for the American Economic Association summer training program, which was hosted by MSU under Cook's direction.“So, I've had a chance to see her in action and to get to know her. She's a great representative for MSU and I'm sure, hopefully, she will be confirmed and will make a big difference to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve.”Also, this month, we say goodbye to another trailblazing Spartan, that's volleyball head coach Cathy George, who announced her retirement after an impressive 35-season career, the last 17 at MSU. She's MSU's winningest volleyball coach, recording 302 wins with an overall record of 667 and 457 across her outstanding career. “I had a chance to meet Coach George and see her in action coaching volleyball, and she was extraordinarily impressive. She has really been a tremendous asset and treasure to the MSU community. She was the first woman to lead a team to the NCAA Division 1 Final Four in 1989. She guided her team to 15 NCAA tournaments in all, 10 of them at MSU, with three Sweet 16 appearances and one in the Elite 8. And her student athletes were successful in the classroom as well, with 37 Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recognitions and seven academic All-America honors. She departs with our admiration and gratitude, and we'll do a national search for the next head volleyball coach. My thanks to her and my congratulations to her on such an extraordinary career.”Any final thoughts as January turns over to February that you'd like to leave Spartans with today?“Just again, we're so excited about this semester. There are great things that are going to happen. We are working very hard to manage successfully, and we will, through the return to campus in terms of in-person instruction. And I really appreciate all the efforts that people are putting in and the community support that comes forward to us as we continue this vital education mission.”Keep up with President Stanley at president.msu.edu and follow along on Instagram @MSUPresStanley.MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

In the first State of the State Podcast of the new year, podcasters from Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research talk taxes, the economy, the elections near term, mid-term and long-term.Highlights:·      Institute Director Dr. Matt Grossmann: New surveys show Michigan’s public and policy insiders believe Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will win re-election in November 2022’s vote. National trends and election history predict the in-power party – the Democrats – are likely to lose to Republicans in off-presidential year elections. “The mood of the state is relatively sour” in survey results, but Whitmer was upbeat in her State of the State speech. “She said the word ‘bipartisan’ three or four times. Nonetheless, “she still is vulnerable.”·      Associate Institute Director Arnold Weinfeld, host of the IPPSR Podcast, navigated the conversation through Whitmer’s upcoming budget message, new General Motors Corp. investments in Michigan, the choice between short-term tax cuts and investment in long-term state needs, long-term concerns about the viral pandemic COVID-19.·      IPPSR Podcast Guest Simon Schuster, former IPPSR Graduate Fellow and now executive director of the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, outlined a general lack of transparency in campaign finance regulations in Michigan, especially compared to other states.·      Emeritus MSU Economics Professor Charles Ballard noted Whitmer State of the State speech call for more mental health funding, especially for K-12 pupils. He questioned Whitmer’s call to repeal the “pension” tax, primarily on retirees. Affluent retirees still pay fewer taxes than those still in the workforce. He issued a strong call for efforts everywhere to reduce the spread and threat of COVID-19 and its variants. “If you haven’t been vaccinated, please do so. It might save your life and the life of your loved ones.”The Institute for Public Policy and Social Research is a part of the College of Social Science at Michigan State University. It specializes in policy education, leadership training and survey research.  IPPSR is the home of the Michigan Political Leadership Program, the Office for Survey Research, State of the State Survey, Legislative Leadership Program, Rosenthal Legislative Internship Program, more than 60 affiliate faculty members, student policy fellows and major research databases on topics of interest to academic researchers, legislators, policy makers, elected leaders and journalists around the world. IPPSR’s monthly State of the State Podcast is broadcast with the assistance of WKAR Radio along with radio stations on the air and over the internet, on SoundCloud and ITunes. You'll also find this edition of the State of the State Podcast on MSU Today with Russ White. Find IPPSR on social media @IPPSR on Twitter and Institute for Public Policy and Social Research (IPPSR) | Facebook on Facebook.MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to "MSU Today with Russ White" on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The joint venture is a catalyst for change and reimagines how we think about, innovate, and deliver health and wellness. The goal is to set a new standard for how individuals and communities experience care across the state of Michigan and the nation.The partnership is called Henry Ford Health + Michigan State University Health Sciences (HFH+MSU Health Sciences).Launched in January 2021 with the bold purpose of advancing a new standard of health care, HFH+MSU Health Sciences has already created critical infrastructure and new pathways for pioneering research, cancer care, education, and equitable care delivery and outcomes.  At that time, I spoke about the collaboration with Dr. Norman J. Beauchamp Jr, MSU executive vice president for health sciences and Adnan Munkarah MD, executive vice president, and chief clinical officer for Henry Ford Health System. Those two gentlemen joined me again today for a progress report. I think things are doing extremely well,” says Dr. Munkarah. “The excitement that we are seeing among our teams on both sides to deliver on our vision, which is really to be a transformational partnership in health and healthcare across our region and in the nation, is resonating extremely well.“We’re building on the values that we have independently, and now in this partnership we are seeing that people are really committed to what we want to do together.”“We had a hope when we started that, done correctly, individuals, students, staff, and faculty would feel more enabled and more empowered to accomplish the mission that brought them to our respective organizations,” adds Dr. Beauchamp. “And that has perhaps been the most delightful part is that we brought people together to bring hope and healing to all people. And we laid out an aggressive set of goals because of a sense of urgency that people deserve and need better. And I would recognize that this is in the setting of a pandemic that people are carving out time to do this work because it's so important. From an MSU perspective, having a partner like Henry Ford with its scope and scale of practice has been very helpful.”Munkarah and Beauchamp elaborate on the partnership’s achievements and accomplishments so far and about the importance of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice in reaching the collaboration’s potential.“We hold deeply, and you can see it in the strategic plans of both organizations, that all people deserve access to equitable, affordable, safe care,” Beauchamp says. “There's an aphorism that's very meaningful. The great Dr. Martin Luther king Jr. said that of all forms of inequality, injustice in health is the most shocking and inhuman. And he uses the term inhuman because it truly is something that's a call to action.“Communities of color, for example, do not have equivalent access to or participation in clinical trials, which has two really detrimental effects. One is that as you discover new ways to treat cancer, they may not be as effective in the underrepresented communities that weren't allowed to participate or weren't engaged in participating. But second, clinical trials are also a source of hope when all the common and existing treatments for cancer have not been effective. And individuals through clinical trials can access the most recent and advanced ways to treat cancer. Henry Ford has really established themselves as a leader in clinical trials across communities and we believe we can enhance that.”“All of us agree that it is really shameful that in one of the most powerful nations, we still have issues with access and equity in care where we have significant disparities,” Munkarah continues. “Recognizing this is extremely important and is the first step in that journey. Part of the solution is to make sure that the most advanced and the best healthcare is available to every single member of the communities that we serve and beyond. “Clinical trials are going to be extremely important by not only making them accessible but building trust in them. We need to change the way we think, and we need a more diverse group of providers and leaders: women leaders, leaders of color, and people with different backgrounds who can connect with communities that we serve and that the communities trust.“In order to do that, we need to be able to recruit, matriculate, and retain medical and nursing students who will continue to serve the communities that we are in. And the work that Norm and his team and we are doing here at Henry Ford Health System is extremely focused on that. How do we make sure that we have the brightest people who want to come to this partnership so that they get their medical education with Michigan State University? They get their training with our healthcare system, and then they stay with us to be the future physicians and nurses and providers and healthcare workers who provide the services within our communities. We have a clear plan where we want to go. We are very excited about it because we don't think it is pie in the sky. We really think that it is achievable. We have the dedication and determination to make it happen. We are excited about what we have seen so far from our teams.”“The other thing that we're excited about is that when MSU completed its strategic plan, it developed the health sustainability pillar,” Beauchamp adds. “And within that, it talks about not just connecting the health colleges to the partnership with Henry Ford Health System but recognizing the incredible strengths that exist across the campus in improving health. How do we connect these strengths? We've already had very compelling conversations with individuals in social sciences, in communication arts, in engineering, and in supply chain. We see that a key part of addressing these disparities comes from engaging the entire MSU campus in a comprehensive approach to improving health where we can leverage our expertise. Now the momentum is starting to build.”Doctors Munkarah and Beauchamp discuss some next steps in the partnership.“We want to make sure that we have a physical home for our combined researchers so that they will be able to sit together and collaborate and work on many of the great projects that we are looking at,” says Munkarah. “We identified the need to have that home on our Henry Ford Health System Detroit campus, and we've already started the dialogue and discussion regarding what that building looks like. What kind of research is it going to house? What are some of the general topics that we are going to bring our teams together about? We've started to think about that based on the experience that MSU has had in other markets. What does that kind of design look like? What does it mean? What is the size of that entity?”“We want to give a huge thank you to all of those who have helped make this possible by believing in why it matters,” Beauchamp says. “All hands are on deck. This is about how we bring all people together who want to help in this effort, and we want the message to be one of inclusion. This is an opportunity for all; we need the help. We welcome it. Helen Keller said ‘Alone, I can do so little. Together, we can do so much.’ This is truly emblematic of that. Together, we can do so much. Reach out to us.”“I want to echo what Dr. Beauchamp has said,” says Munkarah. “We have so much gratitude and appreciation for the hundreds of people who have made this possible in the past year. The accomplishments have been beyond what I have expected, and we expected a lot. We put a lot of things on the plate of our teams to make happen. There are not enough words to express our gratitude to them for making that happen. Second, it is one of the things when you get into these relationships and into these partnerships, people tell me, ‘Well, it's great. Now you are in the negotiation phase, or you've signed and now this is where the problems get started.’ I'm not naïve. I don't want to simplify things. There are always problems and hurdles to jump, but honestly, I'm more excited today than I was a year ago when we were going through these discussions. The sky is really the limit.“I'm a true believer that this partnership of bringing Henry Ford and MSU together is transformational not only for our state, but nationally. I really think that we will be making history in healthcare by bringing our thoughts and values together to make a difference by transforming healthcare in the United States to make it affordable and providing the best outcomes and equity. This is what drives every one of us every day to make sure that we work on this partnership to drive that. It’s important for us to achieve our goal. And as I told you, I'm more excited today and I'm more optimistic today that we are on our way to achieving that goal.”MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on News/Talk 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

MSU Safe Place provides advocacy, shelter, counseling, support groups, safety planning, information, and referrals to survivors of violence and their minor children. All support services are free and confidential. Additionally, MSU Safe Place works to increase awareness about relationship violence and stalking through community education and outreach efforts.Annually, the program shelters, approximately 35 to 50 adults and children and provides counseling and advocacy services to many more students, staff, and faculty who experience relationship violence and stalking. Michigan State University Safe Place was recently awarded additional federal funding under the Victims of Crime Act to expand its staff and services for MSU students, employees, community members and their families.The grant is for just over $250,000 over one year and has allowed Safe Place to hire three new full-time staff - a full-time counselor, an additional advocate, and a full-time volunteer coordinator. Former MSU first lady Joanne McPherson saw a need for this first-of-its-kind university-based domestic violence shelter and support facility in 1994. More than two decades later, Safe Place will have a greater impact on the community through this grant. “We have been providing stalking and domestic violence support on campus since 1994 with between three and four full time staff,” says Erica Schmittdiel, a licensed master social worker and MSU Safe Place advocacy coordinator. “We've been happy to be able to provide that support, but there is a lot of need out there unfortunately. On a campus of this size, we do see a lot of stalking and relationship violence. So having three additional staff will help us to increase our outreach so that more individuals who work or go to school here at MSU are aware of our services. That's been a barrier that we've had with being a smaller staff is providing that outreach. We know that more people are experiencing these types of victimization but may not know where to go or who to reach out to for assistance.”How do you define stalking?“Stalking is two or more unwanted incidences that would cause a reasonable person to feel fear or to experience substantial emotional distress. That is subjective, so I would encourage anyone who feels like they are experiencing unwanted contact to reach out to us and then we can talk about the definition of emotional distress. Maybe it doesn't rise to the level of a policy violation, but it's still something that shouldn't be happening and there are options for the person who's on the receiving end of that unwanted contact.“A of people are surprised to hear that it's two or more unwanted instances and that it's that low of a threshold. Unfortunately, a lot of times people are experiencing stalking and unwanted behavior for weeks or months, but they don't know that it can be considered stalking. They just think that their ex has not been able to let go or that the person they had class with just won't take no for an answer. They don't like the behavior, but maybe they don't understand that it's stalking behavior.”Are stalking and relationship violence the same thing or what's the distinction?“There is quite a bit of overlap. About half of stalking situations stem from a current or former intimate partner relationship. Several years ago, Safe Place expanded its mission to include stalking as one of the services that we provide. Although that's not always the case, again, about half of stalking situations are where the relationship could be a friend or former friend or an acquaintance. Stranger stalking is rarer, but that can occur as well where somebody's receiving unwanted contact that's anonymous. They don't even know who it is that's contacting them. That certainly can happen although most often it's someone that the person knows.”Are there traits that are similar in most people who stalk?“There is definitely a sense of entitlement that it's okay to behave this way. It is intentional. A lot of times either the person on the receiving end of the stalking - the victim or survivor or others - wants to make excuses for the behavior. They may say, ‘Oh, well maybe they don't know that they're stalking you. Or they're just socially awkward.’ And I think that perhaps could be the case for a small percentage of people, but I think most people who engage in stalking behavior know what they're doing. They are wanting to pursue a relationship despite the other person not wanting that relationship.“They feel entitled. They feel a sense of power and control that they enjoy placing the other person in fear. That is often something that we're talking to people about when they come to our program. You may care about this person. You may have been a friend to them or have been in a relationship with them. That's understandable. But at the same time, they likely know what they're doing. They're doing this intentionally. And there are steps that you can take if they are held responsible by the university or there are consequences for them through the criminal justice system. That is of their own making. Those are choices that they have made to engage in this behavior. Any criminal charges are really on them. And of course, we're not here to tell people who come to us what to do or make decisions for them. We're not insisting that they must make a police report. We're presenting that as an option either now or down the road should they choose to do that. And it’s the same with reporting it to the university.”“What steps can a person take if they feel they are being stalked?“We always recommend that people document the stalking. Whether they're ready to make a report here at the university, they can make a report with law enforcement. They can do either or both. But have that documentation. Whether they're ready now to do that or want to do it down the road, they have that information and they're not trying to think back, ‘Well, I think it was a Tuesday in December that they were outside of my apartment building.’ They have it written down - when it happened, what time, the location, and how it made them feel. All that information can be very helpful to build a case. Every situation is different so we don't have a cookie cutter approach, but we can talk through the situation with people.“If they're being stalked via technology, have they checked their social media for their privacy settings? We know that social media is a part of most people's lives so we're not necessarily telling people not to use it because that may not be practical for them. But how can you use social media or technology more safely? Have they changed the passwords on their accounts? It all depends on the individual situation, but we will talk through that with people and try to come up with solutions.”What can friends and family do to support someone who’s being stalked?“We always want friends and family to believe the person who comes to them and tells them that they're being stalked. Maybe they're not using those words quite yet, but they're describing a situation that sounds like stalking. Don't minimize it if they're expressing fear for their safety. It may not sound like a big deal if you hear somebody saying, ‘This person is always liking my content on social media, and I've seen them where I'm at a few times and it's creeping me out.’ Don't brush it off as a coincidence. Listen to what the person is telling you. And if they're concerned about this behavior, mirror that concern. Refer them to Safe Place and know they may not contact us right away. Often people don't pick up the phone or send us an email immediately upon being referred to us, but plant that seed. Reassure them that If and when they're ready, there are confidential resources that can talk through options with them. And then if somebody's in immediate fear for their safety, call 9-1-1.“Prior to the grant, we were serving all the MSU affiliated individuals who had contacted us for services, but we were not able to do that outreach. We were not able to do additional marketing of our services to let people know that we are a resource here on campus. Our volunteer coordinator is currently in contact with all the registered student organizations to provide that information. The grant will help us to recruit volunteers who will help us expand the services we're able to offer. We know that once individuals are trained in the dynamics of relationship violence and stalking, they become a resource for their family and friends.“We see a ripple effect with more individuals on our campus being educated about these issues and more people then being able to come forward and receive the help that they may need. Not only do we provide confidential services in that we don't share information with anyone else on campus or out in the community once people come to us, but we have a confidential location as well for safety purposes. People can feel safe here in our location whether they're staying in our shelter or coming for counseling or advocacy appointments and know that the individual who is stalking them or the person who's been abusive to them will not be showing up here during their appointment or during their stay.“In summary, I would just like to say that we are the relationship violence and stalking program here on campus. We're here to support people at whatever level they need whether it's having one advocacy appointment to get some basic information about what their options are or ongoing advocacy as they are going through the OIE process or the criminal justice system. We are here for whatever level of help people need. Shelter is available, but that's not the only service we provide. We also provide the counseling if people need that.“We have a fantastic program here to support individuals who may need us. I have been here for 20 years, and I wouldn't still be here at Safe Place if I didn't believe in the work that we do. I encourage individuals to reach out to us and then to spread the word about the services that we provide. We are the only domestic violence shelter on a college campus in the nation that can shelter both individuals and families. There are a number of other colleges and universities that have responded to relationship violence by offering a dorm room for people that may need that, and that's wonderful. However, that doesn't always work for the non-traditional students with children, graduate students, or staff or faculty who may need shelter. I am so proud to work at this unique program and to be able to offer the services that we have.”“For information about MSU Safe Place, visit safeplace.msu.edu. If you or anyone needs support, contact Safe Place confidentially at noabuse@msu.edu or call 517-355-1100. MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and Sunday evenings at 8:00 on 760 WJR. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.

The COVID-19 pandemic has required a lot of attention and decision making at MSU to keep everyone safe and moving forward. Can you give us an idea of how these decisions are made?President Stanley:We begin with the fundamental principle of keeping everyone safe at Michigan State University: faculty, staff, and students. And at the same time, we’re doing everything we can to continue our vital mission of education and economic development. These things and our extension mission are critical to us. And so, those considerations sometimes conflict a little bit or may conflict with what we need to do, but in general, we try to optimize each of those things. I meet very frequently with other Michigan State University leaders like University Physician Dave Weismantel and Norm Beauchamp, who oversees all of our medical areas. I also consult with the provost, of course, because she represents faculty, and with Vennie Gore, who oversees student affairs, and with Melissa Woo, executive vice president for administration representing our staff.It's a group that represents a number of constituents on the campus and allows us to take a very broad view of what we're doing. And then of course, we look at data. Because of my background, I'm very interested in what's happening. We follow what's happened in the past at Michigan State University. What have our patterns been in the past in terms of COVID? We're now well more than two years into this pandemic. So we can look at historical data and understand what happens. We know that when students return to campus, for example, we've seen a surge each time. Even if there was lower background in the community, we've seen a surge. When there's higher background in the community, we see a surge again on top of whatever's happening in the community. So that's happened. We need to be prepared for that.We also know that we've been very successful in safely administering learning during this time in person in our last semester. So we take that into account as well. We also consider guidance from the CDC. We try to adopt CDC guidance and stay with it. We look at what the state department of health and human services is recommending to try and go with that. And then of course, we make recommendations based on the science. We’ve learned a lot about the virus. It transmits probably twice as effectively as the previous virus did. It's also probably about half as virulent in some sense. About a half the people who had to be hospitalized from Delta have to be hospitalized with Omicron.About half the people who were hospitalized with Delta would be hospitalized with Omicron. So that's good. Hospital stays are shorter with Omicron, but still people are hospitalized. And if you go into a situation with with Omicron where you have three times as many people getting infected, then the fact that half as much means you're still getting more people in the hospital than you did with the Delta outbreak. So that's somewhat what we're seeing around the country right now is hospitals are at capacity. Finally, we look to coordinate with others. I talk to the leaders at other institutions. We obviously talk to our health department. We talk to our representatives from some of our cities and townships. So they understand what we're planning to do. All those things come together in making the kind of difficult decisions we do.Russ White:And as you mentioned, sir, we were able to limit the spread of the coronavirus while keeping most classes in person last semester. Why did we start this semester with mostly remote classes?Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D.:It was a difficult decision because we know how much students want to be in person. And I think all of us wanted to be back in person, but I think it had to do with two things. One was just a little bit of uncertainty about Omicron, understanding it better. I think just even in the past few weeks, we've learned more about it and how it spreads. The second was the recognition that there were going to be large numbers of cases associated with this surge and that the measures we'd done before, vaccination and boosters - boosters are imperative by the way – are the difference between getting sick with these viruses and getting hospitalized with these viruses and having to a very mild illness. But what we know about Omicron is the breakthrough infections are more common with Omicron than they were with any variant up to date and it's far more contagious.So again, most of the cases that we've seen as a country are in unvaccinated individuals. And about 90 percent of the cases we've seen that are hospitalizations or deaths, unfortunately, are with unvaccinated individuals. But vaccinated people are getting Omicron. And some of us may know people who've been vaccinated and had their boosters who are getting Omicron. So we knew there'd be more cases to deal with. And the concern was we do have to quarantine or isolate. We have to isolate individuals who've been infected for now, according to CDC guidance, at least five days. Before it was 10 days. So if we came back and we had a major surge, our concern was there would be significant absenteeism, both in classes and in the faculty because of this Omicron surge at this time. So it would make it more difficult to have in person classes because people just wouldn't be able to show up basically.The first three weeks of the semester are critical in learning. It's the time when everyone learns about the course and what's going to be taught and some of the basic principles that are going to be important. And we wanted to make sure there was a consistent first experience for everybody coming back to MSU this semester. So we thought the easiest way to do that would be to be remote in these first three weeks. The goal now is that after we get these first three weeks in that everybody's on the same page. We know there'll still be some absentees. We know there'll be some classes that have to be missed, but people will have started the semester. They'll be in class. They'll know what's going on and it's going to make it I think a better experience.We also cared about what was happening with the opening of other school districts. We wanted to be aware of some of the surges that might take place there with reopening. We want to give parents who have to care for children or who may have children of elementary school age who may have to come home again because they test positive the opportunity to work remotely during this time and to give more flexibility to our faculty and caregivers with their schedules. So that's what's driven it. We're looking to open again to start in person classes on January 31st. That's our goal right now. And we're following numbers very carefully as we look up to that.Russ White:So what else are we doing this semester to control the spread of COVID-19?Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D.:The mask mandate remains incredibly important. I encourage everybody to get the best kind of mask you can. And I think that's very important to do that. Mask wearing indoors remains something that we need to do. And I would really encourage everybody to do that. It's always still disappointing to me that the rest of the state hasn't caught up with that, but I'm really glad that I see it on our campus and people continue to adhere to it. And it's been adhered to at sporting and entertainment events and other things as well. I really appreciate that people are doing that. The really important thing of course is for people to be vaccinated and to make sure you've had your boosters. And we're requiring boosters for all faculty, staff, and students. If you're eligible during this period of time, we expect you to get it by February 1st.When you become eligible, if it's after February 1st, we expect you to get it within two weeks of your eligibility taking place. And so that's the most important thing. We know that this disease can change to something that can be very severe and cause death. Again, we're not seeing a huge decline in deaths right now during this Omicron surge, but they're not increasing proportionally to the number of cases as they would've with the Delta, for example, but that's still concerning. So, getting vaccinated and getting boosted is really critical. To make that easier, we're working within Ingham County to set up some vaccine stations that will be available for more of the mass vaccination efforts like we had early on in the pandemic at the pavilion.We're looking for those opportunities with maybe a capacity of about 1,000 boosters at a time. We're also continuing to talk to other surrounding areas about the availability of vaccinations so that we can put on our Together We Will website the locations of places that are providing vaccines for people who need to get them. We're doing some vaccines in our pharmacy. We're doing some vaccines in student health, but there's about a three week wait, at least for those. So I encourage people to find out where's the place you can get vaccinated. And for those students, faculty, and staff who have not had that booster, this is a great time to do this. While we're working remotely, you can do it while you're at home.Russ White:And President Stanley, I think you'd like to remind listeners too, that we're all in this together. Nobody likes this, but Spartans Will get through this.Samuel L. Stanley Jr., M.D.:I know that people are frustrated by the pandemic. I think all of us and many of us who have really taken this seriously have really thought about our responsibility, not just to ourselves, but to others and family members and the community to try and control some of the spread of disease. It's difficult when we're confronted with this variant that still can infect people, even though they've taken the precautions. And again, there's no shame in getting infected by this virus. It's not anything you did necessarily. It's the virus and its infectivity that's changed. But I think we still need to have the empathy we've had for people. But we also need, again, to think about doing the things that we can do to try and mitigate this to the extent we can.We're all in this together. All of us have the same goal, which is to pursue our education and to pursue our innovative work at Michigan State University and do it in an environment where we're safe and welcome. We all have that goal. Getting vaccinated, getting boosted, and wearing your mask are all ways in which we work together to allow us to get as close to normal as we can during this challenging period. And I think it will get better. What we know from South Africa and the United Kingdom is that this virus goes up and then it goes down in a much more rapid way than we saw with the previous one. I'm optimistic that by mid-February, we'll be seeing significant declines in these numbers and that things will look much better by March.The pandemic has been challenging. There's a high level of frustration, but there will be better days ahead. Pfizer has announced they're making an Omicron specific vaccine that may help us with this variant and may make a difference. We have new antivirals coming in from Pfizer and from Merck that may be helpful in treating individuals who do get COVID who need this. They do more to reduce the severity of disease for people who get it. There are some good things on the horizon, and we just need to recognize that this is a surge. It is going to come back down again. That's what it's done everywhere else. It's not going to sustain at this level. It's not really possible. We've got to get through these next few weeks, but then things are going to be better as we go through the spring semester.MSU Today airs Sunday mornings at 9:00 on WKAR News/Talk and streams at WKAR.org. Find, rate, and subscribe to “MSU Today with Russ White” on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and wherever you get your shows.