Valentine’s Day stories around campus, capitol CAMPUS+CITY, PAGE 6
Beatdown breakdown — what went right during MSU v. U-M SPORTS, PAGE 8
40 years of love, music for MSU professors FEATURES, PAGE 9
Clarinetist Elsa Ludewig-Verdehr DANYELLE MORROW/THE STATE NEWS
Weather Rain High 40° | Low 27° Three-day forecast, Page 2
Michigan State University’s independent voice | statenews.com | East Lansing, Mich. | Thursday, February 14, 2013
ACADE M ICS
MORE ADULTS HAVE EARNED BACHELOR’S IN PAST DECADE
Tangled on the
web
By Michael Koury kourymic@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
A national survey indicates more people are graduating with bachelor’s degrees, and both current and former Spartans see this as a mixed bag in finding jobs after graduation. About 33 percent of young adults in the U.S., from ages 25 to 29, attained at least a bachelor’s degree in 2012, according to the November survey from the Pew Research Center. The number is a 1 percent increase form 2011 and a 4 percentage point increase from 2000. For the graduates from MSU of 2011, 85 percent either were employed after graduation or decided to continue their education. Alumna Becca MacLennan said she had some difficulty fi nding a job after she graduated in 2008, and there might be more competition because of the trend.
Students learn dangers of falling for someone before meeting in real life
shayaisa@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
K
ate Smith knew there was something off about him. Maybe it was how his profile didn’t say much. Maybe it was how he kept messaging Smith — a student whose name has been changed to protect her
privacy.
Or, maybe it was how he asked for personal information, including her address. Because when Smith finally met the student she had been talking to online, she knew her intuition was right. “He was looking for really sexual things,” she said. “I was really repulsed by him.” Online dating sites provide the option for students to misrepresent, exaggerate or even create things about themselves, with no way of others knowing the truth. This was seen in the recent case of former Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o, who announced the “alleged” girl he was talking to online since 2009 was not real. The announcement of the “death” of his girlfriend was made before the team played MSU in September 2012, and reports later revealed his girlfriend was fake. What happened to Te’o is known as catfishing, a term made popular by the movie “Catfish” and MTV’s “Catfish: The TV Show.” Catfishing refers to two people connecting online and forming a virtual relationship, but when the two meet, one person finds out the other was not telling the truth online. Saleem Alhabash, assistant professor of public relations and social media at MSU, said even a small detail on a profile is enough for someone to judge you. “College students and people from other age groups need to be careful about what information they put online because it’s very different than face-to-face interaction,” Alhabash said. “Whatever we put out online will stay there.” The online dating scene has evolved, and students are faced with more than just considering their online date’s attractiveness or charm — there now is the question of whether the person is telling the truth.
Creepers Waterford, Mich., resident Ryan Shaltry created allMSU to get information out to MSU students. He said the site’s dating feature was an afterthought. “It was always just listening to what the community needed and what I thought would be useful for them,” Shaltry said. “It’s a much more safe and controlled environment because it is limited to students.” AllMSU is a place for MSU students to interact on a variety of topics, ranging from housing to finding a date. Some users of allMSU and other online dating sites do tell the truth on their profiles, but might lay on their charm too strong. When Smith met the student she had been talking to on allMSU, he proved to be truthful to his profile and in the picture he sent to Smith. Although Smith said she felt a bad vibe from the male student, she decided to meet him. “I thought, ‘Maybe I’m just reading too much into it, and I’m going to give him the benefit of the doubt,’” she said. Alumna Emily O’Rielly, who has had a profile on allMSU for more than a year, said one man messaged her about his personal problems, such as how he doesn’t have a job. “He seemed really weird,” O’Rielly said. “Just the stories … See SOCIAL MEDIA on page 2 X
33 percent of young adults in the U.S., from ages 25 to 29, attained at least a bachelor’s degree in 2012
To see students’ opinions about online dating, visit statenews.com/multimedia.
ILLUSTR ATION BY DREW DZWONKOWSKI | SN
By Isabella Shaya
“I think it is still fairly hard to get a job,” she said. “Maybe since things are already competitive, that it’ll increase the competition if there (are) more qualified individuals trying to get jobs.” MacLennan said she considered going to graduate school to help increase the chances of getting a good job, but decided it wasn’t the best decision for her. “I was interested in other careers and fields to study and learn about,” she said. “I wasn’t convinced with what I wanted to do, so it wasn’t worth my time and money.” MSU ranked fourth in the Big See DEGREE on page 2 X
ARTS
EAST LANSING
MSU alumnus wins MSU TO HELP PROPOSE IDEAS FOR E.L. Grammy for jazz By Samantha Radecki
The site of the former City Center II project from the intersection of Abbot Road and Grand River Avenue on Wednesday. A banner reading “East Lansing, City of the Arts” is hung on the front of the building.
radeckis@msu.edu
By Katie Abdilla abdillak@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
MSU alumnus Ben Williams expected to walk away from the 2013 Grammy Awards empty handed. The jazz musician received a nomination for best jazz instrumental album with his band, the Pat Metheny Unity Band, in December. Although the band’s guitarist Pat Metheny had won 19 Grammy Awards previously, Williams still felt the rush of surprise when his name was called. “You kind of just go numb for a minute,” Williams said. “It was kind of a blur after hearing we won.” Williams’ kinship with jazz began at 8 years old, when he began to teach himself to play piano. He learned how to play the bass cello, his instrument of choice, in middle school, and never looked back. After graduating from MSU in 2007, he attended the Juilliard School in New York, where
THE STATE NEWS
he became friends with Etienne Charles, now a professor in the MSU College of Music. “He was in town when we met,” Charles said. “He was doing a gig at a club. When he enrolled in Juilliard in the fall of 2007, we had class together.” The two quickly formed a close friendship and began playing music together, which they continue to do. “We played gigs together around the city,” Charles said. “We have a working relationship as well as a friendship. We travel and play together a lot.” Despite the initial shock of receiving the Grammy, Williams was no newcomer to music recognition. In 2012, he was named Up and Coming Artist of the Year by the Jazz Journalists Association. He also won the Thelonious Monk International Jazz Bass Competition in 2009, which got him a recording contract with Concord Records and helped See MUSIC on page 2 X
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A city for short-term students and long-term community members — that is what MSU President Lou Anna K. Simon envisions in the city of East Lansing. “Think about the community that we reside in and our students having a much more dynamic sense of place (in a community) that supports students and also supports them as young professionals,” Simon said. In order to create this sense of place, Simon encouraged the School of Planning, Design and Construction to help develop a new vision for downtown. About two weeks ago, an academic exercise began within the school allowing faculty and students to dream up what redeveloping parts of East Lansing could appeal to students, community members and young-working professionals. The project is termed as part of the Michigan Corridor Proj-
JUSTIN WAN/THE STATE NEWS
ect, with an area that runs from Hagadorn Road, down Grand River Avenue and Michigan Avenue, all the way to U.S. Route 127. It includes the re-envisioning all of the vacant and underdeveloped properties along that corridor, Pat Crawford, the associate director of the School of Planning, Design and Construction said. Crawford said the project still is in its information-gathering
phase with no set plans for development. The school is not planning to tell property owners how to develop their lands, she said. Simon said the project is being funded from donor dollars and, according to Crawford, the cost of the project is unavailable and still in flux. “The goal of the project is to explore what would a model community look like that involves the
town and the university (and) what could make us one of the top ten university communities in the world,” Crawford said. Although there is no solid plan to begin redevelopment, East Lansing Planning, Building and Development Director Tim Dempsey said these types of developments could be actuSee CITY on page 2 X