MSU Today with Russ White

Spring has sprung, so let's welcome Kevin Frank back to MSU Today. Kevin is an MSU Extension turf specialist, and an associate professor in Michigan State University's Department of Plant, Soil and Microbial Sciences.  

Kirk Heinze welcomes widely read and highly respected Detroit Free Press automotive columnist Mark Phelan to MSU Today. Phelan is a proud alumnus of the MSU J-School.  Heinze and Phelan discuss the state of the auto industry and of journalism itself, so much under siege these days.

Affectionately known as the "Dean of Sports," Lansing-based WILX-TV and WVFN Radio’s Tim Staudt has been broadcasting in the area for 50 years. He has hosted "Staudt on Sports" on The Game 730 AM since 1993. And he has anchored the sportscasts at Channel 10 since 1980. Prior to that, he was the sports director at the former WJIM-TV in Lansing from 1970-1980. He graduated from Michigan State University in 1971 with a degree in journalism.

“We have a mission that serves a variety of constituencies,” says Jim Forger, dean of MSU’s renowned College of Music. “Our goal is to provide the best professional education we can to a highly select group of 600 music majors, 48 percent of whom come from the state of Michigan. Thirty two percent come from 38 states, and the balance from about 24 countries.

“Well, it's been wonderful and I confess, and you can figure out the age if I give the year, I came here 50 years ago as a student as a freshman living in Phillips Hall,” says Sue Carter. “So I have seen this university evolve over the course of a number of years. It is a wonderfully respected university. 

Michigan residents are worried about a spill of the Line 5 underwater oil pipeline in to the Straits of Mackinac and are even more concerned about a rupture during winter’s icy conditions, new Michigan State University research finds.

Pulitzer Prize winning journalist, Washington Post Columnist, and MSNBC contributor Eugene Robinson visited MSU on February 21 to talk about the interconnections between politics and culture as part as the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicines 2019 Dr. William G. Anderson lecture series, Slavery to Freedom.

Renowned Michigan State University sociologist Carl Taylor is being honored by the university with the MSU Community Engagement Scholarship Lifetime Achievement Award. 

Detroit Tigers radio play-by-play broadcaster Dan Dickerson is a busy man from mid-February through October. So how does he spend part of his offseason? Teaching what he does to MSU students who hope to follow in his footsteps.

Michigan residents support a transition from coal-fired energy to more solar and wind powered electricity, a new Michigan State University research report finds.

Public support of natural gas-generated electricity was more mixed, says MSU College of Engineering researchers who queried Michigan residents through a combination of interviews, focus group and general public attitudes.  

I recently caught up with Michigan State University Provost June Pierce Youatt for an update on the academic side of MSU. One of the challenges is developing the right resources and facilities for MSU’s burgeoning research enterprise.

For a segment of Greening of the Great Lakes within MSU Today, Kirk Heinze talks with Jim Byrum, president of the Michigan Agri-Business Association, about the challenges and opportunities facing the agriculture industry nationally and in Michigan in 2019. 

More than 30,000 students, faculty and staff have received prevention training since April 30th as MSU redoubles efforts to combat relationship violence and sexual misconduct through revised and expanded prevention programs.  Kelly Schweda is director of the Prevention Outreach and Education Department (POE) at Michigan State University.  

Michigan State University’s Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) is a neutral entity that reviews concerns related to discrimination, harassment, sexual misconduct, relationship violence and stalking.

Bianca Stepanyan is an accommodation specialist for the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX Education Compliance.  She coordinates interim measures or accommodations for the OIE on campus.

Dr. Andrea Amalfitano is the dean of Michigan State University’s prestigious College of Osteopathic Medicine.

“It's humbling and also thrilling at the same time to know that the faculty and staff of the college have enough confidence in me to proceed forward as the permanent dean,” says Amalfitano. “The other faculty and staff at the university and other deans have been tremendously supportive. Our alumni, our external partners, the Michigan Osteopathic Association, and a number of groups outside of the college all came together. I feel like I have the support of thousands as we go forward to produce the best physicians in the country.”