Parking at Michigan State University

With just about 40,000 undergraduate students alone on one of the biggest campuses in the country, it leads to a big problem: parking. Many students move off campus their second year, or at least sometime during their four years (or more) at school. With buildings so far apart, and with another Michigan winter on the way, most students would prefer driving to class.
The first problem: finding parking. There is no where near enough parking to accomodate this many students, not to mention the lots are often no closer to class than if a student had just walked in the first place.
The second problem: The lots are not free, and they operate at various hours. There is parking in front of most dorm, by parking meter, which only lets visitors pay for one hour at a time, for a price of 1.25. This is not sufficent because some classes are longer than that, and there are only about six parking spaces at entrances (two entrances per building). Students can purchase parking passes, which are costly. In order to buy a pass for the year, you must be in sophomore standing, and this passes still only apply for one lot, which is inconvienient because most students have classes across campus on any given day.
The third problem: parking tickets. Students often avoid parking on campus because of the amount of parking tickets they are issued. Students frequently drive around checking meters many times a day for people who have been there longer than the time allotted. And who gets all of that money?
There are solutions, however they have many stipulations and students find that the best way to deal with parking on campus, is simply not to deal with it at all.

It's not just another election day. The weather is perfect, voters are excited, and lines have never been longer.

At 11:30 this morning, lines in the Wilson dorm at Michigan State University were about 100 feet long. Observing the lines 45 minutes later, they had easily doubled in length. Students are filling their time with homework, listening to iPods, and making phone calls. Some students are missing classes, because they were not anticipating the length of the lines.

Some students walking into the building didn't know where to start. Volunteers were trying to organize groups of students in alphabetical order to make thing easier when they reached their turn. Efforts were made to keep it organized, however, there was still some chaos.

I plan to vote after class today, and after seeing the lines multiply after only half an hour or so, it's clear that I will be in line for possibly several hours. 

Spartans take win in final seconds

The Spartan's football season is coming to an end. The team is now 8-2 after an astonishing win last Saturday over Wisconsin at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing. Spartans won with a score of 25-24 in the final seconds of the game.
The game proved to be a difficult one. The Spartans were never leading on the scoreboard. Ringer, the Spartans leading scorer, did manage two touchdowns, however it proved to be possibly his worst game all season (he only managed 54 yards). But he was not the only one to make mistakes. The Spartans could not seem to get their team going.
In the final minutes of the game, the Spartans were trailing by two (24-22). In the Spartans final drive, the team managed to move the ball down the field quickly to put them in field goal range. On fourth down and six to go, Swenson came on to kick a field goal from the 44 yard-line.
Wisconsin called a time out, followed by another to try and ice the kicker. However, with twelve seconds left on the clock, Sweson made the field goal, putting the Spartans on top for the first time that day.
Seven seconds remained, and the Spartans kicked off to Wisconsin, who tried a latteral play to return the ball for a touchdown with no time left. The plan failed, and the Spartans managed to pull out a win.
Michigan State will play two more games: a home game versus Purdue, and their final game, at Penn State, the number one ranked team in the Big Ten.

Voting Questions

It's almost November 4. Election Day. After months of debates, ads not only on television but on websites, and piles of mail urging us to vote every which way. This election has one thing we've never seen before: an overwhelming amount of new voters. 

At Michigan State University, registering students began months ago. And now, with less than a week to go, most students know who they are voting for, but they have other questions. Where to go, what to bring, how the process goes?

With many students having to submit different addresses (their own on campus, dorm addresses), they do not know where to go to vote. Students don't know what kind of id to bring. And who can blame them, because they have never done this before (unless maybe they voted in the primary).

So much time has been spent getting students registered and learning about the candidates, but in order for students to vote, they need to know what to do/what to bring. It does nothing having thousands of new voters registered if no one has told them how to go about voting in the election!

I am impressed how many students are getting into the election and participating. It's overwhelming, but it seems now that the students are overwhelmed, trying to figure out the process.

My advice is to go online and look for your precinct. There are also websites to not only inform you of everything on the ballot, but everything you can vote for, and what you need to have with you come Tuesday.