Trim time?
Any time now is a good time to have a beard.”
Victors on ice MSU sweeps Princeton at home
Mick Haley,
statenews.com | 12/2/13 | @thesnews
Danyelle Morrow/The State News
MSU Beardsmen Club president
sports, pg. 6
features, pg. 5
Michigan State University’s independent voice
Senior forward Lee Reimer
to indy and beyond
photos by Julia Nagy/The State News
Senior safety Isaiah Lewis, right, celebrates with sophomore cornerback Trae Waynes after Waynes intercepted the ball Saturday.
MSU caps 11-win regular season with Minnesota victory; OSU awaits in Indy By Stephen Brooks
spartan football
sbrooks@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS nn
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istory was made on Saturday, clearing the way for significantly more momentous milestones before the book is closed on MSU’s 2013 football season.
DILLON DAVIS ddavis@statenews.com
No. 10 MSU concluded the regular season with a 14-3 win against Minnesota (8-4 overall, 4-4 Big Ten) at home, earning the Spartans’ third 11-win season in four years and their first 8-0 Big Ten record in history.
Team sees roses in future after strong play
The winningest senior class to ever wear the green and white notched career win No. 40, and now has the opportunity to become the first MSU team to win 12 games in either the Big Ten Championship Game against No. 2 Ohio State on Dec. 7 or the team’s bowl game. “Not too many football programs in the country can say those things,” head coach Mark Dantonio said. After a disappointing 2012, the Spartans have reversed their fortunes in games at home and against Big Ten opponents this season. For the third time in four seasons, See VICTORY on page 2 u
Things are looking pretty rosy for Mark Dantonio these days. Following a 14-3 victory against Minnesota on Saturday, the No. 10 Spartans are in fantastic shape to reach the Rose Bowl, regardless of what happens in next week’s Big Ten Championship Game — a rare position for a team that hasn’t made a trip to Pasadena in more than two decades. That’s not to say Dantonio isn’t concerned. He’s been here before. Just two years ago, to be exact.
Redshirt freshman tight end Josiah Price runs in for a touchdown Saturday during the game against Minnesota at Spartan Stadium.
Playing in the inaugural Big Ten title game against Wisconsin in 2011, the Spartans dropped a 42-39 affair and were shutout of the BCS in favor of the Badgers and Michigan — both of whom the Spartans previously had beaten during the regular season. It set off a feeling of outrage among the MSU fan base, who saw a team who won 10 games and had proved themselves in head-to-head matchups, only to be left out in the cold. But even with all of that in mind, it’s highly unlikely for that type of scenario to play out again. Asked about earning a BCS bid regardless of the result of this week’s Big Ten
Championship Game, head coach Mark Dantonio said there’s considerable risk in playing for the title, which should be taken into consideration when handing out BCS bowl games. “We’re going to risk moving forward, we’re going to put all the chips on the table and try to go to the Rose Bowl,” Dantonio said. “I think when you do that, you put yourself at risk a little bit. That’s someone else’s decision. All I can do is lay it out there that we’ve got a good team. We’ve got a great, great crowd base that’s going to travel to games. “We’ve got an exciting football team.” See COLUMN on page 2 u
To view a video recap and see footage from postgame press interviews, visit statenews.com/multimedia.
politics
university
msu pushing D.C. on immigration
Ongoing campaign looks to build Spartan brand
By Michael Gerstein
By Justine McGuire
mgerstein@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS nn
Heralded by many as a light at the end of the tunnel for both the state economy and its universities, MSU is taking a firm stance on immigration policy, channeling part of its 2013 total of $90,000 in lobbying expenses toward a massive reform bill currently stalled in the U.S. House. “We as an institution have a large number of not only international students but also international faculty,” said Mark
Burnham, vice president for governmental affairs. “A lot of times, it’s in the nation’s best interest…. to keep them in-country, and give them a chance to become permanent citizens.” Universities across the nation are following suit, echoing Burnham’s concern that if they don’t make it easier for international students to get work visas soon, states could lose graduates with degrees in science, technology, engineering and math to other nations. It’s similar to the “brain drain”
See LOBBYING on page 2 u
jmcguire@statenews.com THE STATE NEWS nn
Early testing showed that MSU’s Spartans Will campaign to change the university’s image is working, but the early success hasn’t deterred those in charge from pushing new projects full speed ahead. The campaign uses the ph rase ‘Spa r ta ns Wi l l,’ showing members of the MSU community doing good through research, outreach and education, among oth-
ers. The ads run across a variety of media. The Spartans Will rebranding campaign began in 2009 and although the results are positive so far, the job isn’t done, said Heather Swain, vice president of Communication and Brand Strategy, or CABS. CABS recently found that between 21 and 33 percent of people in the MSU audience could identify Spartans Will as the two-word tagline when the words were not provided. Those figures were made up of 17 percent of graduate students, 21 percent of under-
graduate students, 22 percent of alumni, 24 percent of faculty and 33 percent of staff. Swain said those are high numbers, especially when compared to national campaigns like Nike’s “Just Do It” slogan, which gets about a 58 percent identification rate and has been used for more than 20 years. McDonald’s “I’m Lovin’ It” campaign is identified about 37 percent of the time. Swain said comparing with national campaigns is not apples-to-apples, but is helpful. In addition, surveys showed that the majority of people
have either positive or very positive feelings toward Spartans Will. To keep the campaign fresh, Swain and others at CABS have looked to constantly innovate, coming up with new products like 360.24, a documentary that will show Spartans who’ve submitted videos and photos from across the world on Nov. 6, 2013. It will premiere on the Big Ten Network in January. More than 1,000 videos and stills already have been collected globally, Swain said.
See IMAGE on page 2 u