Councilmember “amazed” at number of false IDs
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5 ways women’s basketball can beat Purdue
CAMPUS+CITY, PAGE 3
WHAT IS FEATURES, PAGE 6?
SPORTS, PAGE 8
Junior guard Klarissa Bell JULIA NAGY/THE STATE NEWS
Weather Snow High 35° | Low 22° Three-day forecast, Page 2
Michigan State University’s independent voice | statenews.com | East Lansing, Mich. | Thursday, February 28, 2013
TECHNOLOGY
Rare Internet blackout could have been worse By Samantha Radecki radeckis@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
RAGES THROUGH THE
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In lieu of last night’s snow storm, Leah Mohnke thought it might be smart to check local school closings to determine if she would need to wake up at 6 a.m. for her service learning. To the English freshman’s dismay, she only found a frozen Google screen. She had no Internet connection in Rather Hall. Mohnke’s case was not an isolated incident, as the Internet connection at nearly every public university in Michigan was disrupted early Wednesday morning from about midnight to 5 a.m. The disturbances resulted from a router issue within Merit Network, the Internet service provider, or ISP, that supplies Internet to public educational institutions across the state, including MSU.
… this was only the second disruption of its sort, with the likelihood of it happening again very slim Elwood Downing, the vice president of member relations, communications and services for Merit, said an information trafficking problem within a router in Chicago, caused Merit’s greater-Internet system to go down. After engineers identified the problem and rerouted the packets to another router, the Internet was back up at 4:52 a.m. Wednesday, he said. “It’s like, if you open up the refrigerator, it’s on, it’s working, it’s cold. And (then again), you open it up, and everything’s running and it’s warm,” he said. “We had to literally transfer the traffic from that router to another one.” Since this was an ISP problem and not an MSU problem, MSU could do nothing, MSU spokesman Jason Cody said. MSU IT Services responds to issues with MSU’s Internet. “It was an issue with our ISP,” Cody said. “(If) your Internet provider at home goes down, you have to wait until your ISP gets the problem rectified.” In many of her classes, Mohnke uses email to correspond with professors and ANGEL to keep on track of assignments, she said. See INTERNET on page 2 X
THE STATE NEWS ARCHIVE PHOTO
ABOVE: A rioter gets detained by a group of Special Response Team officers at Cedar Fest on April 6, 2008 in East Lansing. Twenty-eight MSU students were arrested. DIRECTLY BELOW: A rioter stands ontop of a burned car near Cedar Village on March 28, 1999.
Spartans have long loved a party, but some see change in past and present mindsets By Darcie Moran
more responsibly, perhaps foreshadowing what might unfold this year as the NCAA Tournament draws near.
morandar@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
W
hen crowds start to gather in East Lansing, 26-year veteran East Lansing police Capt. Jeff Murphy knows points scored and season rankings don’t make a difference in whether a riot, such as Cedar Fest, breaks out. A single bottle being thrown and shattered across the street could be enough to determine if MSU and East Lansing will once again play an unwilling host to a Cedar Fest. “It could be stopped at the beginning,” Murphy said. “But if somebody starts cheering — that gets it going more and more.” Murphy said during his time with the East Lansing Police Department he has seen nights defined by a single moment when a crowd either decides to support or discourage the loose cannons who begin to wreak havoc in large gatherings.
He said he’s seen crowds begin to cheer, join in throwing bottles, fight and then break into riots. He’s also seen crowds self-police by telling off other students for violent and destructive behavior. Alumnus and East Lansing Mayor Pro Tem Nathan Triplett said stricter city ordinances, groups focused on city and university relations and efforts to inform students on how to party safely have made the difference in MSU’s party atmosphere. Once known for the infamous Cedar Fest riots and parties, officials said MSU riots are rare and students are partying
A history of getting down Since MSU’s first days in the 1850s, students have been drinking, smoking, breaking the rules and having a good time, said anthropology professor and Campus Archaeology Program Director Lynne Goldstein. “If people weren’t breaking the rules, why would there be rules?” Goldstein said. “People think of the first students as always being serious students. … They did work really hard, but they did enjoy themselves.” Goldstein said through excavations on campus and digging through the university archives, campus archeology has determined the university’s first students had partying habits not too unlike those of today. She said the group has found See PARTY on page 2 X THE STATE NEWS ARCHIVE PHOTOS
To see a timeline of MSU parties, policies and practices, visit statenews.com.
Izzo defends team against current criticism Sophomore guard Travis Trice and head coach Tom Izzo argue during the game against Indiana on Feb. 19, at Breslin Center. The Hoosiers defeated the Spartans, 72-68. — Julia Nagy, The State News
DIRECTLY ABOVE: Firefighters extinguish a fire on Cedar Street Oct. 15, 1989.
ACADE M ICS
Survey shows decline in doctorate holders By Simon Schuster and Milan Griffes schust61@msu.edu griffes4@msu.edu THE STATE NEWS ■■
See MEN’S BASKETBALL on page 8
Doctoral degrees long have been viewed as sure tickets to a successful career, but that assumption might slowly be diverging from reality. According to a recent survey conducted by the National Science Foundation, job prospects are in decline for doctorate holders across multiple fields. In 1991, approximately 51 percent received employment and in 2011 that
number fell to 38 percent. It also showed an increase in graduates turning to the less secure world of postdoctoral fellowships, from approximately 19 percent obtaining fellowships in 1991 to 28 percent 20 years later. Postdoctoral research fellows have less security than those employed in an industry or academia because their positions are temporary. Their source of income disappears once their research is completed, unless offered a more permanent position. This forces many to scramble to find anothSee PH.D. on page 2 X