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Michigan State’s Independent Voice

Changing direction

CO M M U N IT Y

Fall 2019: A semester review A look back at the semester’s biggest stories from the MSU community PAGES 4-5

CAMPUS

In a league of their own MSU’s League of Legends team and other esports bring new competition PAGE 11

SPORTS

It’s time to end bowl games ‘Sports are changing faster than ever. It is time college football changes, too’ PAGE 13

2 out of 3 MSU students change their major while in school. Few people find the right major the first time — and that’s okay PAGES 8-9 PHOTO BY ANNIE BARKER

Keep up with news over break Our print edition will be on pause until January, but get the latest news and sports online at: STATENEWS.COM

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THE STATE N EWS

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Vol. 110 | No. 15

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2019 ASK US QUESTIONS What questions do you have about your community? What do you want to know about MSU and the city of East Lansing? Submit what you’re curious about — we want to find answers for you. Submit your questions at editorinchief@statenews.com

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Madison O’Connor

SEND US YOUR STORIES Is something happening that you wish other readers knew about? Send us story ideas and news tips, we’d love to hear from you. Email us at feedback@ statenews.com

CITY EDITOR Evan Jones

TELL US WHAT YOU THINK Send us a letter to the editor with your name, email and class year or university affiliation. Letters can be dropped off or mailed to The State News at 435 E. Grand River Ave., East Lansing, MI 48823, or submitted online at statenews.com/page/submit-letter

FOR NEWS RIGHT AT YOUR FINGERTIPS FOLLOW US AT:

MANAGING EDITOR Mila Murray COPY CHIEF Alan Hettinger CAMPUS EDITOR Kaitlyn Kelley

SPORTS EDITOR Paolo Giannandrea PHOTO EDITOR Sylvia Jarrus MULTIMEDIA EDITOR Haley Sinclair SOCIAL MEDIA & ENGAGEMENT EDITOR Wolfgang Ruth Former MSU and current Golden State Warriors basketball player Draymond Green waits to enter the arena before his number-retirement ceremony at the Breslin Center on Dec. 3. The Blue Devils defeated the Spartans, 87-75.

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COMMUNITY

2019 FALL

Congratulations, Spartans!

Graduating from college is a huge accomplishment.

As you enter the next phase of your life, remember MSUFCU is here to help make that transition as smooth as possible.

The same friendly and convenient service you’ve grown to rely on doesn’t end when you walk across the graduation stage.

Receive MSUFCU’s lowest loan rates for credit cards, auto loans, computers and more, regardless of your credit score, or if you don’t have credit established. Plus, there are no application fees.

KEEP YOUR MSUFCU ACCOUNT WHEREVER LIFE TAKES YOU Did you know that MSUFCU members live all over the world? Managing your MSUFCU account is simple with MSUFCU’s Mobile app. Move money, deposit checks, pay bills, locate nearly 30,000 CO-OP ATMs, and more!

Take advantage of our fall 2019 graduate specials.

Visit msufcu.org/gradspecials for more details!

Black Student Alliance of MSU president Sharron Reed-Davis and others pose following her speech protesting the newly-implemented block tuition at MSU during Spartan Remix behind Wells Hall on Sept. 5. PHOTO BY CONNOR DESILETS

BY KARLY GRAHAM KGRAHAM@STATENEWS.COM

The fall 2019 semester brought beginnings and endings. For some, this semester marks the beginning of their collegiate career and for others, it’s their last semester before graduation.

Keeping up with what’s going on can be difficult, so here’s a recap of the important things you might’ve missed this semester at Michigan State.

SAMUEL L. FLAT RATE TUITION STANLEY JR. IS IMPLEMENTED BEGINS HIS TENURE MSU began a new flat rate AS MSU PRESIDENT t uit ion model where a ll Samuel L. Stanley Jr. became president of the university Aug. 1. He was unanimously approved by the MSU Board of Trustees to serve as the next president at a board meeting May 28. Prior to taking over at MSU, Stanley was the president of Stony Brook University.

T he sea rc h for a new president began after Lou Anna K. Simon’s resignation after the fallout regarding the university’s handling of Larry Nassar’s sexual abuse. Her resignation came in January 2018, which began a string of temporary presidents at MSU. Simon faces a trial in Eaton Count y centered a round accusations that she lied to police about her knowledge of Larry Nassar’s abuse.

Former Michigan Gov. John Engler ser ved as interim president of MSU until his resignation in January 2019.

T h r oug hout h i s te nu r e , Engler received criticism for his treatment of survivors of sexual assault, and even faced being potentially terminated from the position.

Satish Udpa took over as interim president after being unanimously approved by the board to serve as interim president while the search for a permanent replacement to fill the role was going on. He was the last interim president before Stanley was selected to fill the role.

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students taking 12 to 18 credits are charged at the same rate.

The board approved the model when Lou Anna K. Simon was president, but hadn’t switched to it. Engler liked the system, so he switched MSU over to the block tuition model under his tenure.

Students taking between 12 and 18 credits are charged the price of 15 credits. This is beneficial to students taking 15 and more credits, but ends up costing students taking between 12 and 14 credits more money than before.

MSU faced criticism from mu lt iple st udent g roups for making the change. For example, the Black Student Alliance of MSU, or BSA, was against the change. Members of BSA have called to charge for 12 credits instead of 15 so more students can afford it.

RESIGNATIONS, CHANGES IN THE ADMINISTRATION

Sept. 5, June Youatt resigned from her position as provost after a report following an investigation conducted by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. Youatt was one of the people under investigation.

The report stated that MSU failed to comply with Title IX regulations, in addition to charging a $4.5 million fine for failing to comply with the Clery Act Compliance Division.

At a pre ss con ference following the Board of Trustees

T H E STAT E NE WS

meeting the next day, Stanley said Youatt tendered her resignation after the two had a discussion. He also said he did not ask her to resign and that she did so by her own volition.

Sept. 30, Udpa resigned from his position as executive vice president at MSU, a position he had held since 2013 until being unanimously chosen to fill the interim president role. Udpa now works in research labs at the College of Engineering.

In late October, Nanc y Schlichting resigned from the Board of Trustees, citing the failure of the university to move forward with an independent investigation into MSU’s handling of reports against Nassar.

For me r G ove r nor R ic k Snyder appointed Schlichting in December 2018 to join the board following George Perles’ health-related resignation.

In Schlichting’s letter of resignation, she mentioned she couldn’t remain on the board when not all board members supported an independent investigation.

Whitmer appointed legal ethics scholar Renee Knake on Dec. 4 to fulfill the position on the board, which expires Jan. 1, 2023.

BOMB THREAT REPORTED AT HANNAH ADMINISTRATION BUILDING

Following the Sept. 6 Board of Trustees meeting, the Hannah Administration Building was evacuated after the MSU Police Department, or MSUPD, received a bomb threat.

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COMMUNITY

SEMESTER IN REVIEW

MSU President Samuel L. Stanley Jr. speaks to the press during move in day at South Hubbard Hall on Aug. 25.

PHOTO BY CONNOR DESILETS

MSUPD issued alerts to be sent out throughout campus, but many students did not receive any notifications.

After a search of the building was conducted, an alert was issued at 12:37 p.m. stating that the building was open for regular operations, and that they took the threats seriously.

DANTONIO EARNS 110TH WIN, BREAKS ALL-TIME WIN RECORD

On Sept. 21, Mark Dantonio earned his 110th win as MSU’s football head coach. After being hired in November 2006, he ultimately passed Duffy Daugherty’s 109-win record as coach.

After a tough loss to Arizona State University on Sept. 14, Dantonio and the football team made their way to Evanston, Illinois the following weekend to de f e at Nor t hwe s te r n University 31-10, officially making him the winningest coach in the universit y ’s history.

In his 13 years as coach, Dantonio’s record at MSU is currently at 113 wins and 57 losses.

SEVERAL RACIST ACTS OCCUR ON CAMPUS

In October, two students in Bryan Hall reported having a toilet paper noose hung outside their door, which was initially described as a “Halloween prank.”

Students were notified by the Resident Education and Housing Services, or REHS, when they sent out a mass email to students.

Head coach Mark Dantonio speaks to the crowd after being honored for his 110th win after the football game against Indiana on Sept. 28 at Spartan Stadium.

The Spartans beat the Hoosiers, 40-31.

PHOTO BY SYLVIA JARRUS

Just a few days later, a Sona survey sent out through the College of Communication Arts and Sciences included racist, homophobic, transphobic and xenophobic slurs.

After both events, various disc ussion s were hosted

by BSA , t he A ssoc iated Students of Michigan State University and the College of the Communication Arts and Sciences.

During a community forum, BSA developed a list of demands for Stanley and the administration, three of which Stanley agreed to.

The various forums provided students with the opportunity to speak directly to MSU staff about their concerns on what was happening and how MSU responses might have been counterproductive.

EAST LANSING ELECTS NEW COUNCILMEMBERS

On Nov. 5, East Lansing residents took to the polls for the East Lansing City Council election. The low turnouts at the various precincts made for a close race: one that resulted in Mark Meadows holding onto his seat by two votes, which pushed incumbent Erik Altmann out of his position.

Ultimately, the three open City Council seats went to Jessy Gregg with 2,944 votes (25.08%), Lisa Babcock with 2,871 votes (24.45%) and Mark Meadows with 1,951 votes (16.62%).

Follow ing t he election, Ruth Beier, who has served on the council since 2013, was unanimously elected mayor. Aaron Stephens was

unanimously elected mayor pro tem by the council.

WOME N ’ S CROSS COUNTRY BECOMES BIG TEN CHAMPIONS

For the first time since 2014, the women’s cross country team earned the title of Big Ten Champions, ending the University of Michigan’s reign.

This title is the team’s seventh Big Ten Championship, and the fifth of the decade.

Five MSU runners ended the championship in the top 18, with India Johnson, Lynsie Gram and Jenna Magness ending the race in positions 14-16.

KNOW MORE @ MSU CAMPUS CLIMATE SURVEY RESULTS ARE RELEASED

On Nov. 21, a 75-page report outlining the findings in the Know More @ MSU Campus Climate survey conducted last spring was released. The report outlined student, faculty and staff experiences with sexual misconduct and revealed the differences in risk between different groups of people based on race, gender and sexuality.

It also detailed student, faculty and staff perceptions of MSU’s campus culture.

T here were more t han 15,000 responses analyzed by an independent research organization, RTI International.

MSU intends to use the data to track the progress regarding the climate around sexual misconduct, and it will be data driven, Stanley said.

Computer science freshman Aja Stokes sits inside Wilson Hall on Oct. 22.

Stokes was one of the many students who received a survey from her Media and Information class filled with racist language. PHOTO BY SYLVIA JARRUS

Newly-elected East Lansing City Councilmember Lisa Babcock hugs friend Gary Barbarino during her watch party on Nov. 5 at Pizza House in East Lansing. PHOTO BY SYLVIA JARRUS

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CAMPUS

Q&A with Spartan Marching Band’s fifth female drum major STORY AND PHOTOS BY ANNIE BARKER ABARKER@STATENEWS.COM

WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO YOU BEING THE FIFTH FEMALE DRUM MAJOR?

When I think about that, I don’t think about being the fifth female that much. I think it is very cool and an honor to be that...

It’s becoming more prominent since 1995’s number one, but I still think it’s hard to comprehend. Women weren’t allowed in the band until the 70s. So, that’s partly why we didn’t have a female drum major for a long time, but it still took a while for us to get there and it’s still kind of rare. I think it’s cool, but in the bigger picture, it’s more like I love all the former drum majors and getting to be one of them is amazing.

Lisa Lachowski rehearses at Munn Field on Oct. 22.

HOW MANY PEOPLE WERE DRUM MAJORS IN THE BAND?

About two thirds of our band is comprised of former drum majors from high school.

I don’t know the exact number, but many people come here. Sometimes, a freshman will go around the circle and it’s like, “Say something interesting about yourself,” and they’ll say, ‘I was a drum major in high school,’ and we’re like, “Hold up, who else was a drum major here?” And most people raise their hands. That’s the nature if you put a bunch of people together who really love band... You don’t have to be a drum major to be the best band person at all. A lot of them are just driven, leadership driven as well, and they end up coming in as drum majors.

Lisa Lachowski cheers in the stands after their pregame show in Spartan Stadium during the MSU football game against Penn State on Oct. 26.

WHAT MISCONCEPTIONS DO PEOPLE HAVE ABOUT DRUM MAJORS?

People generally think that — and there have been drum majors who have done this — we don’t do anything because we don’t play an instrument, we don’t conduct in the Big Ten, really... So they’re like, “What do drum majors do besides wear a tall hat?” I kinda get that because coming in it’s like, “I really don’t know what they would do.” But, to me, I wouldn’t give up playing my instrument for a tall hat and a back-bend. It means way more than that... We do a lot more than that

and most of it is behind the scenes, which is what people don’t see. You kind of give up the performance aspect of it so you can help the whole band be better performers in the long run, hopefully."

WHAT GOES INTO AUDITIONING FOR DRUM MAJOR?

In previous years, we have an initial meeting, you buy your baton, you buy a couple whistles and get the equipment that you need. And then, as soon as you figure out that you want to start training for that, you need to be running and doing cardio and training your body first and foremost because a lot of the audition is physical itself. In the second semester, you go to clinics once or twice a week with the current drum major who will be training the next one.

They teach you the pregame routine, (and) ... the strutting to get out into that routine.

The strut is when you lean back — which is very unnatural for your body, which is why you need to train for it... Then, we have whistles and commands and some basic marching with the baton just so we can watch and see what your basic fundamentals are because you should technically already be an exemplary marcher before you do any of the wacky stuff.

Then, there’s a teaching portion where you pull a concept out of a hat like two minutes before you go and you teach a group of novice marchers for ten minutes just that concept. That’s probably the most important part of the audition because we want to see how are you as a visual teacher, you know, because that’s going to be your main job. Following that is an interview with the top three people... January to April you’re training. This year it’ll be in February.

ANYTHING TO ADD?

Band is something that — at least the Spartan Marching Band — is something that people don’t know a whole lot about, but you can easily learn more by going to our rehearsals, coming to games, watching us and even if you're a high school student, by auditioning yourself and seeing what this has to offer.

Lisa Lachowski practices a backbend in Spartan Stadium before the MSU football game against Penn State on Oct. 26.

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SPOTLIGHT

PATH TO PASSION If you haven’t changed your major yet, you’re in the minority As a bright-eyed freshman, Colleen Ryan had 117 different undergraduate degrees to choose from concentrated into 97 majors, across 14 different colleges at Michigan State. And despite the wide variety of choices, finding something she was passionate about was difficult.

Forty percent of MSU students change their major once, according to Assistant Dean for University Advising Deb Dotterer, and Ryan falls into that category. She began her freshman year as an economics major. However ,she quickly realized the classes weren’t of interest to her and switched to animal science less than a semester into her time at MSU. “I’m pretty happy with the switch,” Ryan said. “I did economics because I thought I wanted to be a lawyer but once I got into the classes, I realized that it was really boring. I changed to animal science because I originally wanted to be a vet and the classes are a lot better.”

Only 30% of MSU students never change their major, and aside from the 40% that change once, there are another 20% that change twice and 10% that change three or more times.

Senior Thomas Corner is part of that 20%.

He started out as a Lyman Briggs student, unsure what path he wanted to take. He then switched to actuarial science because of his passion for math, before changing again to mechanical engineering in the middle of his sophomore year.

As a senior, Corner said he never felt pressed to finish classes in order to graduate on time.

Corner said the change has made him a lot more satisfied with his education and excited for his future.

“It’s a nice challenge, and that’s what I’m looking for,” Corner said. “I (now) enjoy the stuff that I’m doing.”

Dotterer, who oversees training and development for academic advisors at MSU, said students changing their major — especially at a school as large as MSU — is quite common.

“They’re coming and approaching college and (their) career with what they know, what they have experienced in high school and from their years at home,” Dotterer said. “Then they come to a university environment where they’re exposed to a multitude of majors, particularly at large institutions like ours.”

The same goes for college students all over the country.

In December 2017, 52% of math majors

switched, 35% of all STEM majors switched and 31% of business majors switched, according to the U.S. Department of Education.

Twenty six percent of healthcare field majors also switched, like sophomore Alexis Kilgren.

Kilgren was a kinesiology major at first, planning to take a pre-med track until she found herself “really unhappy” pursuing that goal. By the end of her freshman year at MSU, Kilgren had switched her major twice — first to hospitality business and then to finance.

“I’m definitely a lot more focused,” Kilgren said. “I’ve put studies a lot more on the front end of things. I’ve really been trying to do well in my classes and focus on making a four-year plan ... because I don’t want to graduate late.”

Although the change was drastic — and required Kilgren to switch between two completely different MSU programs — she said she’s a lot happier with where she is now.

However, students like sophomore Charlotte Bachelor didn’t have to journey as far to find their best fit. (Bachelor is a former State News employee.)

Bachelor began her college career as a journalism major before switching to media and information. She said making this change was fairly easy since both majors are in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.

“They share the same advisers, so it was pretty easy going to those classes,” Bachelor said.

However, when Bachelor made another switch to public and professional writing in the College of Arts and Letters, she found the process a bit more time-consuming. Bachelor spent a lot more time meeting with academic advisers to discuss the change, which she described as very beneficial.

“One of the advisers ... sat down with me and kind of talked to me about the different requirements and what classes I would need to take. So they’ve been very helpful,” Bachelor said.

In the switching process, students are instructed to meet with an adviser for the major they want to switch to prior to making the change, Dotterer said. This meeting is intended to help students understand how their previous credits will transfer, as well as the path they must take to graduate in their desired amount of time.

When Ryan made her transition to animal science, she followed this process and said advisers had a list of classes she needed to graduate and walked her through what courses she needed to sign up for within the next year.

Corner described his experience with academic advisers at MSU as helpful, and said

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THURSDAY, DECEMB E R 5, 2 01 9

BY JAYNA BARDAHL JBARDAHL@STATENEWS.COM

THE STATE N E WS

A student walks past the Beaumont Tower on Dec. 3. Only 30% of Michigan State students never change their major. PHOTO BY ANNIE BARKER

“They’re coming and approaching college and (their) career with what they know, what they have experienced in high school and from their years at home.

Then they come to a university environment where they’re exposed to a multitude of majors.”

Deb Dotterer Assistent Dean for University Advising

they guided him toward a path he was passionate about.

“They helped me decipher what path I should take, what classes I nee ded to take and what could fulfill certain credits,” Corner said.

However, not everyone felt the same support when switching majors.

Kilgren said when she switched, she wishes she was given more guidance from advisors on how to discover what she was passionate about. She said they were helpful logistically, but not in terms of the big picture.

“I would say they were helpful to an extent,” Kilgren said. “They helped actually make the changes, but at the same time, for me, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. So when I switched to (hospitality business), they weren’t super helpful in guiding me.”

Brianna Aiello, the Associated Students of Michigan State University vice president for academic affairs, has never changed her major personally — but as the MSU administration’s student representative, she recalled a time when a student came to her with concerns about how advisers handled another

SPOTLIGHT

“It’s a nice challenge, and that’s what I’m looking for. I (now) enjoy the stuff that I’m doing.”

Thomas Corner Mechanical engineering senior

Mechanical engineering senior Thomas Corner, photographed at the MSU College of Engineering on Dec. 4. PHOTO BY MATT ZUBIK

student’s situation.

“The adviser kept trying to keep them to stay for the full semester to just wait and see if that major was good for them,” Aiello said.

“They ended up staying a whole semester and then they didn’t do very well in their classes because they weren’t engaged in the material.”

Aiello said she sees room for improvement “in regard to advisers listening to students when they’re unhappy and finding ways to help them out of those situations.”

“I think normally, most advisers do a pretty good job with that,” Aiello said. “But I think a lot of times what happens is, our university is kind of decentralized where not a lot of departments work together very well, so I think if more of them worked together we would see more success.”

Dotterer said, to jump start the path to their passion, exploratory students can seek guidance with the Neighborhoods’ Student Success Collaborative, the Marathon of Majors event and various student organizations.

“The university is always looking at, ‘How can we better inform students about the different majors we have and about the different opportunities we have across campus?’”

Dotterer said. “Some of the major advisers certainly help students understand by talking about what the major involves, what kind of career path they can do, and how they can get engaged in student organizations that relate to that major. So, all of those are a part of the advising experience.”

“All major” Career Adviser Lauren Hinkel works closely with exploratory students. Hinkel described the different resources she provides to students, including an interest profile assessment called “Career Compass.” The tool assesses different aspects of a student’s interests, talents and passions in order to lead them toward careers that might interest them.

Hinkel noted that her biggest piece of advice she gives to students who are unsure of what they want to do in their future is, “It’s okay to not know right now and it’s okay to know and then not know again later on in your career.”

“I think that, oftentimes, we really put this schema and this pressure in our head that we have to find that one perfect career. And if we don’t find it, we feel lost,” Hinkel said. “You will have — on average — about 10 to 14 jobs in your lifetime ... your life will be full of transitions and you will continue to find self-discovery throughout your adulthood and into your career.”

“The university is always looking at, ‘How can we better inform students about the different majors we have and about the different opportunities we have across campus?”

Brianna Aiello

Only 30% of

MSU students never change their major

40% of MSU

students change their major once

20%

of MSU students change their major twice

10% of MSU

students change their major three or more times SOURCE: Assistant Dean for University Advising Deb Dotterer

Vice President for Academic Affairs Vice President of Academic Affairs for ASMSU Brianna Aiello poses for a portrait in the ASMSU office Dec. 4. PHOTO BY MATT SCHMUCKER

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OPINION

I knew my major from the start, and I’m choosing to stick with it

BY WENDY GUZMAN WGUZMAN@STATENEWS.COM

Out of everyone I know, I am the least likely person to ever change their major. And most people I know would agree with me.

No one could ever imagine me studying anything other than journalism, and as happy as that makes me, it also makes me realize that it wasn’t always so clear.

When one moves to a different country in search of the American Dream, you don’t always expect your eldest daughter to tell you she wants to be a journalist, and not even necessarily a TV one, just a

writer.

So, I really can’t imagine the horror my poor parents must’ve faced the moment I finally told them, “I want to be a journalist,” on our way home after they picked me up from my high school junior year winter semi-formal.

They were rather quiet, to say the least. But, I mean, they weren’t not supportive.

When I was little, I would tell everyone I wanted to be a model. To that innocent little girl’s disappointment, I only grew to be a whopping five feet, two inches tall, and I also lack the proper balance.

When I was about 10, I wanted to be a dentist because I had a big gap between my two front teeth. And when I was 12, I wanted to be a fashion designer because I was obsessed with “Project Runway.”

But, past that point, I didn’t know what I actually wanted to do. As I got older, the question came up more and more and family dinner parties became “Wendy interrogations.”

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” and, “What do you

“Being a student journalist took over my life. It was something that fulfilled me like nothing really had before. It was always changing. I got to be creative. I had a voice. I gave others a voice.”

Wendy Guzman State News Reporter plan on studying in college?” they’d ask me.

I didn’t know. I genuinely never thought I was ever going to find something I would want to commit to learning for at least four years in

college, let alone doing something every day for the rest of my life.

Ironically enough, when I first applied to be on my high school’s newspaper staff, I submitted a writing sample of a girl who didn’t know what she wanted to be when she grew up. I didn’t apply with the intention of being a journalist at all.

Since I had transferred my freshman year, I wanted to become involved in some way, and all the most involved kids seemed to be on the newspaper staff.

To everyone who knew me at the time, it was probably obvious from the beginning that I really (and I mean really) enjoyed working on the school’s newspaper.

Any awkward silence and I began talking about whatever article I was currently working on. Any new person I met, I would immediately let them know I was on staff. And any time someone had a question about what was going on in the school I was the first to answer.

It got to the point where no matter what I was doing at school or at home, I’d much rather be working on something for the newspaper.

Every moment I was awake, I was coming up with new story ideas, trying out new graphic techniques, and volunteering to photograph just about every event and sport the school had to offer.

Being a student journalist took over my life.

It was something that fulfilled me like nothing really had before.

It was always changing. I got to be creative. I had a voice. I gave others a voice. And I got quick feedback.

I spent around a year refusing to believe I wanted to be a journalist, but I think throughout that year my passion for journalism grew. So, I ultimately I had to admit it to myself.

I was going to become a journalist, and I am going to be really good at it.

How I knew it was time to change my major

BY SAMYA OVERALL SOVERALL@STATENEWS.COM

Since my junior year of high school, I knew I wanted to be a journalist.

I was pretty good in my high school newspaper. I was able to get an internship at the Detroit Free Press the summer before my senior year. I enjoyed what I did.

I knew I wanted to major in journalism.

I knew I wanted to be an editor for a small news outlet in New York City. I knew what I was getting into and I knew that I was good at it.

I knew I wanted to be a journalist, until I knew that I didn’t.

To many college freshmen, changing your major can seem like a daunting thing, especially if you thought you knew what you were

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doing with your life prior to entering college.

I thought I loved all aspects of journalism.

But being good at something and actually enjoying it are two very different, but often confused, things.

My doubts started before I came to MSU, whether I wanted to acknowledge it or not.

I remember looking up “should I major in English or journalism?” quizzes on Buzzfeed before I even went to orientation.

The results would all point to English, but I ignored them. What did a stupid quiz know about me, anyway?

Apparently, the quiz knew quite a bit.

The best way to describe how I finally knew it was time for a change was that something just didn’t click.

I originally thought it was the university, which terrified me because I had no idea where I’d even transfer. But that didn’t make sense because I felt fine on campus most of the time.

I thought I was just homesick, but that didn’t fit either. I wasn’t the type to generally miss home, and like I mentioned before, I was usually fine on campus.

So, when did I feel lost?

Every time someone would ask me, “What type of reporter do you want to be?” I would inwardly cringe. I didn’t want to report. I couldn’t even answer the question most of the time.

It wasn’t like I hated reporting, but I didn’t love it. I did because I had to, but if there was a miraculous way to be a journalist and not report, I’d choose it.

However, I loved writing. I always have and I always will. When I started looking for majors for future writers, the choice was obvious: English.

The Buzzfeed quizzes had tried to warn me.

My instinct tried to warn me. Even my roommate, with her little interest in anything writing related, would joke that I would change to

“Changing my major felt like this monumental thing; like I was changing part of my identity.”

SaMya Overall State News Reporter

an English major.

It was like all of the signs were flashing “Change your major!” in bright neon lights, and I decided to close my eyes and proceed blindly.

Why? Because preparing to be a journalist was something I’d been doing forever.

Changing my major felt like this monumental thing; like I was changing a part of my identity. All my family members, old teachers, friends, and acquaintances knew me as a journalism major.

I felt like a fraud. How was I supposed to tell everyone I didn’t love it anymore?

Simple. You just have to.

Changing my major, though initially terrifying, was one of the best decisions of my life.

When I walked out of the English department advisor’s office, I felt like I made the right decision. That uneasy feeling in my stomach about my future was gone.

Changing your major doesn’t make you a new person. Journalism major SaMya is the same person as English major SaMya, just with a different title.

I still love writing. I still love working at The State News. I’m still me.

I’m not saying that a Buzzfeed quiz should determine your major, but maybe, every once in a while, they are right.

CAMPUS

League of Legends team, MSU esports bring a new kind of competition

BY WELLS FOSTER WFOSTER@STATENEWS.COM

C

ompetitive college sports are a long-standing tradition — but when most think of “college sports,” they’re probably thinking of traditional, physical sports. However, a new form of college competition is making its way into the spotlight.

Esports are competitive video gaming competitions with roots back in the early 1970s, when players competed for prizes by obtaining high scores in competitions sponsored by big names such as Atari and Nintendo. Modern esports have a more traditional, sportslike structure, with leagues, tournaments, sponsors and even collegiate teams.

Michigan State has its own esports club.

Casual and competitive players alike come together and enjoy gaming with their classmates. MSU has collegiate teams for a variety of games, but their League of Legends A-Team made a splash.

ESPORTS AT MICHIGAN STATE In 2018, the team placed third in the Big Ten conference with five wins and two losses. In 2019, they placed first in the Big Ten Conference with a 6-0 record and most recently placed first in the Upsurge Premier League, or UPL, fall season with a 5-0 record.

League of Legends is a competitive, multiplayer online battle arena video game, or MOBA, where players on each team choose a character and attempt to break into the opposing team’s base and destroy their “Nexus” structure. Players level up their character throughout the match by killing enemy players’ characters or computer-controlled monsters, and then by attempting to destroy their enemy’s Nexus.

League of Legends was developed by California-based Riot Games and was initially released in 2009. It quickly grew into the world’s most popular video game, and professional League of Legends tournaments can receive more than 99.6 million total viewers.

MSU’s team qualified for the 2019 College Championship, an event organized by Riot Games itself.

Professional League of Legends players compete for prizes of up to $2 million, and while collegiate players won’t be playing for that money, there are still high stakes.

Teams that compete in tournaments can receive monetary compensation. Last year, MSU’s A-Team players received $5,000 in scholarships for playing in Riot-affiliated leagues. The team also received a portion of the $1,500 prize pool for coming in first in the UPL fall season.

Akash Gupta is the head coach for MSU’s League of Legends A-Team. Gupta plays under the screen name “ArgentumSky.” “I come from a background in leadership,” Gupta said. “In high school, I started a bunch of clubs. I was always the treasurer or president of the club. Whatever the name of my role was, I was always leading the operation.”

One thing that separates esports from traditional sports is how competitions and practices are held. For esports, scrimmages, practices and most games are online, and the players stay at home and communicate via voice and text using a chat program called Discord.

Ryan “Slythion” Felten, president of the League of Legends club and computer science junior, said the team rarely meets in person for team-based events.

“We do meet for (video on demand) reviews, but the majority of the time we meet up is as friends for dinner or something,” Felten said.

MSU has more than a League of Legends team on its esports roster. Students can also play for MSU’s Counter-Strike: Global Of-

Computer science senior Don Nakashima and supply chain senior Sungjin Cho share a laugh. “I made a lot of friends here,” Cho said. PHOTOS BY SYLVIA JARRUS

The MSU League of Legends A-Team play on Dec. 2 at Communication Arts Building.

MSU League of Legends president, Ryan Felten, laughs with teammates while playing League of Legends.

fensive team, compete in local Super Smash Bros. tournaments and play Pokémon, Rocket League, Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege and Fortnite competitively.

HISTORY OF ESPORTS Esports might seem like a recent phenomenon, but competitive video gaming dates back to the early 1970s. In 1972, students at Stanford University held a tournament for the video game Spacewar called the Intergalactic Spacewar Olympics. The winner of the tournament won a year-long subscription to Rolling Stone magazine, according to Kotaku. com, a gaming news website.

The first large-scale esports tournament took place in 1980. The Space Invaders Championship was an event held by Atari Games where players competed for high scores in the classic game Space Invaders. The tournament had more than 10,000 participants and is widely regarded as the first major esports event in history, according to a 1981 New York Times issue.

Esports would continue to grow in the 1980s, where competitions would be held for a variety of games. The arguably most famous 1980s e-athlete is Billy Mitchell, a controversial figure in the gaming community. Mitchell held the world records for highest scores in

six popular arcade games, including Donkey Kong and Pac Man. However, several of his records are disputed for being fraudulent.

The 1990s and 2000s fostered esports as we know them today. With the growing popularity of the internet, online competitive player vs. player games would become commonplace.

In 2000, the South Korean government founded the Korean E-Sports Association. The real-time strategy game StarCraft took South Korea by storm, and StarCraft tournaments were broadcast on live TV and garnered millions of views in the early 2000s.

The early 2000s would also see the formation of Major League Gaming, or MLG, a network aiming to bring esports into the mainstream by holding tournaments for popular console games such as Call of Duty and Halo.

In the 2010s, esports became a household pastime. Olympic organizers are considering holding esports competitions in events following the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics, according to a report by BBC. FUTURE OF COLLEGE ESPORTS The college esports scene is still in its infancy and still has a ways to go until it breaks into the mainstream, but Gupta said it is still a high level of competition.

F E E DB AC K@ STAT E NE WS .COM

“(League of Legends), it’s very complicated, and I compare it a lot to basketball because there’s a similar amount of players on the field at one time, and you have to work with each other to set up plays,” Gupta said. “There’s a high level of coordination in this game, and it is a team sport. It is very complicated and you have to be able to work together. … It is a competition. Who is better at being coordinated, and who is better at being talented and playing the game.”

Political science and pre-law freshman Joseph “Ruination” Riebschleger plays “Top Lane” for the team, a player who mostly stays at the top portion of the field. He said League of Legends and esports are their own entity and not comparable to traditional sports.

“You can’t compare esports to regular sports, because I know everybody does that when talking about esports,” Riebschleger said.

“They’re like, ‘It’s not a sport.’ It’s not as physically active as other sports like football or baseball, but you realize that the higher you go in the ranks competitive-wise, it gets harder to process everything that’s going on because you’re fighting for something that’s on the line, like school pride or actual money. It’s just a game until you get to a very high competitive level, and then it becomes an esport.”

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CITY

A Q&A with East Lansing’s new mayor about her goals for the city

BY MADDIE MONROE MMONROE@STATENEWS.COM

On Nov. 12, City Councilmember Ruth Beier was unanimously voted mayor by East Lansing’s city council.

The State News sat down with Beier, who has served on the council since 2013, to talk about her plans for the city and how the council will work with students.

EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE ONLY BEEN IN OFFICE FOR A FEW WEEKS, HOW HAS THE TERM GONE SO FAR? Surprisingly well, one of my goals is to make sure all council people feel equal and I thought that would be sort of complicated but it’s not.

It’s worked out very well.

WHAT ARE SOME OF YOUR CURRENT SHORT TERM GOALS AS MAYOR? DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING YOU ARE TRYING TO ACHIEVE WITHIN THE NEXT FEW MONTHS? Yes, I want to get down in black and white exactly what we want on the Valley Court Park area, the Evergreen properties, because we’re having a request for a poll to go out and I don’t want it to be confusing. I want anybody that applies for that development to understand

what we want ... I’m certain that not any one of us will get exactly what we want, but I think the five of us can come to a consensus on something that we think is best for that area. I also want to start talking about alternatives to dealing with the $5 million debt on that property.

DO YOU HAVE ANY LONG-TERM GOALS? What I’d like to do is move our development focus away from more expensive student housing, which is what we’ve done toward other things in the downtown and actually all of East Lansing. So, we’re gonna have a couple of marijuana dispensaries, that’s new, I don’t like it but at least it’s different. In the downtown I really want to see an office building and I really want to see something related to tech downtown because I want to attract people back to East Lansing.

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Tied to that ... I want to repair and rebuild our relationship with MSU because I don’t know how well known this was but the previous president was really not interested in the city. So, I never could figure why, it might be because the mayorship turned over so much which is legitimate ...

If we make it clear that we’re going to stop building student housing next to campus and one of the reasons I think is we’re starting to hurt MSU’s housing because these are like dorms but they’re nicer, so if we do that and we work on all the issues that MSU and East Lansing have together that we can build a relationship and MSU can come across the street more.

So, I know they need housing for some of the (Facility for Rare Isotope Beams) people.

They need housing for visiting professors and we’ve got a lot of housing right now. So that would be excellent if we can get tied into that somehow I think it would make both the university and the city stronger.

DO ANY OF YOUR PLANS OR GOALS HAVE AN IMPACT ON STUDENTS? We deal with students, we have been dealing with students and trying to make things better for them ever since I was on council and I think we continue to do that. The thing that was most important to me then and still is to make sure the rentals are all safe. At one point, we tried to get the landlords to push back the rental period so that everybody didn’t have to scramble for money a month after they got here and there was just no way to do that, we failed at that.

So, what I’m focused on after that is to make sure the place a student lives is safe and we do that with pretty rigorous inspections and immediate response if anybody calls.

GIVEN SEXUAL ASSAULT SCANDALS INVOLVING MICHIGAN STATE OFFICIALS, DO YOU THINK IT IS IMPORTANT FOR THE CITY TO INTERVENE AT ANY POINT? I think that anything that happens in East Lansing we deal with immediately and things that happen on campus we are not allowed to deal with. So, it would be very hard to intervene, but I don’t wanna say that we never should.

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Newly-elected East Lansing Mayor Ruth Beier is sworn in during the East Lansing City Council meeting at the East Lansing City Offices on Nov. 12. PHOTO BY CONNOR DESILETS

We have a pretty femalecentered council now and I think that’s good. ... If I personally ... or the council knew of anything that was happening on campus that was atrocious or even any kind of sexual harassment, we would certainly do something. I don’t know what we could legally do but we could definitely stomp over there and say, ‘What the heck?’

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT OR LOOKING FORWARD TO AS MAYOR? I’m looking forward to finally having enough money to do what we need to do. We don’t have a lot, but the income tax gives us enough money to start, this is gonna sound really boring, to start replacing sewers and roads.

Now that might not excite the average person, but it excites me and starting to make a future plan for all of our capital.

IS THERE ANYTHING YOU THINK STUDENTS SHOULD KNOW ABOUT YOU? Well, when I was an undergraduate, I was not interested in city government at all, and as you’ve seen with Nathan Triplett and Aaron Stephens, if you have any interest at all, city government is a good place to start your political career. I mean, you can learn a lot and there are a lot of ways to do it. So, not so much about me, but if students are interested in being on our boards and commissions or even running for office, I would really like them to look at that and put their applications in and get to work because they’re half of our population and we have maybe three on our commissions and they’re open to everybody.

SPORTS

NCAA, it’s time to reform the football postseason

BY ELIJAH MCKOWN EMCKOWN@STATENEWS.COM

After edging out Maryland Nov. 30, the Spartans made themselves bowl eligible for the 12th time in the Mark Dantonio era. Currently, the Spartans project to play in either the Quick Lane Bowl or the New Era Pinstripe Bowl.

Yawn.

Listen to some of these other names for bowls this season. We have the Tropical Smoothie Cafe Frisco Bowl, the Bad Boys Mowers Gasparilla Bowl and my personal favorite, the Tony the Tiger Sun Bowl. I wish I were joking.

My entire life, I have watched these bowl games because I was a diehard college football fan. I suffered through the Redbox Bowl. Not only that, but also the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl. I even watched the infamous CheezIt Bowl (or should I say, Cheez-INT bowl). Why do we do this?

No seriously, why? What did Michigan State get by winning the Buffalo Wild Wings Bowl? Sure, the university got money and the players received recognition, but what did they actually win? The answer is absolutely nothing.

This is not to discredit Michigan State or any other program for saying their season meant nothing, but rather a critique on the college football postseason system itself. This season, 78 teams will participate in bowls, but only four of those teams will actually participate in the only thing that truly matters after the conference championship games: a national championship.

As we approach the College Football Playoff Selection show, there are eight teams that currently have a valid argument to be in the playoff, but only four will make it. LSU, Clemson and Ohio State are all essentially locks barring an unprecedented meltdown in their championship games.

Georgia, depending on how the SEC Championship goes, has a chance.

However, you still have Oklahoma, Baylor and Utah on the outside looking in.

So this begs the question, why does

the NCAA have a system that only allows at most four of the conferences to participate, when five of them produce playoff caliber teams each season?

It is time to reform the postseason of college football because frankly, it is well overdue.

First, let's eliminate the bowl games.

The bowl games each season have little meaning. The marquee athletes i these games end up sitting out to avoid risk of injury. Shouldn’t that tell the NCAA something? That a player would rather skip out on their last game than play in the bowl. However, under this proposal, this wouldn’t be the absolute end of some of the historic ones like the Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl.

Next, let’s expand the playoff to at least eight. I, as a fan, would prefer 16, but I also understand having up to 17 games for student athletes just is not fair at the end of the day. Then, give an automatic bid to each Power Five school (ACC, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, SEC) and another automatic bid to the highest ranked non-Power Five school. Then make the last two remaining spots at large bids for the highest ranked remaining schools. The first four games would be named and

Freshman wide receiver Julian Barnett (2) dances in celebration after the game against Maryland on Nov. 30 at Spartan Stadium. The Spartans beat the Terrapins 19-16. PHOTO BY SYLVIA JARRUS

played at the historic sites that we all know and love like the Orange Bowl in Miami, the Cotton Bowl in Dallas and the granddaddy of them all, the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.

Under this system, every team across the country would have a chance to compete for a title. As it stands now, the non-Power Five schools such as UCF and Boise State have zero chance to truly compete. I understand that they are not the cream of the crop, but how can programs improve if they have no chance at a title?

An eight-team system would help make sure that a deserving team would not be left out of the discussion.

Yes, there would be years where a team thinks they were screwed and there will be years where a team that

gets in probably shouldn’t be in, but the eight-team system will offer more tams a fair shot.

I understand that if you do not make it into the eight-team playoff you have nothing to play for with no bowl games. However, how many sports can you name that have .500 teams, or even in some cases a losing record, competing in the postseason? The only time you see that is in rare cases in the NFL or currently in one of the worst Eastern Conferences the NBA has ever seen, and even the NBA is considering changes to their postseason.

In an ever-changing world, companies and sports are changing faster than ever. It is time college football changes, too.

STAY INFORMED

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CAMPUS

RELIGIOUS DIRECTORY

MSU alumna competing in Miss International 2020

Stay up to date at: www.statenews.com/religious

All Saints Episcopal Church 800 Abbot Rd. (517) 351-7160 Sun. Worship: 8am, 10am, & 5pm Sunday School: 10am www.allsaints-el.org Ascension Lutheran Church 2780 Haslett Road East Lansing (517) 337-9703 Sunday worship: 10:00am Sunday Bible study: 8:45am Thursday Bible study: 2:00pm www.ascensioneastlansing.org Crossway Multinational Church 4828 Hagadorn Rd. (Across from Fee Hall) (517) 917-0498 Sun: 10:00am crosswaymchurch.org Greater Lansing Church of Christ 310 N. Hagadorn Rd. (Meet @ University Christian Church) (517) 898-3600 Sun: 8:45am Worship, 10am Bible Class Wed: 1pm, Small group bible study www.greaterlansing coc.org Hillel Jewish Student Center 360 Charles St. (517) 332-1916 Shabbat – Services@ 6pm / dinner @ 7, September–April www.msuhillel.org instagram: @msuhillel

The Islamic Society of Greater Lansing 920 S. Harrison Rd. (517) 351-4309 Friday Services: 12:15-12:45pm & 1:45-2:15pm For prayer times visit www.lansingislam.com/ Martin Luther Chapel Lutheran Student Center 444 Abbot Rd. (517) 332-0778 Sun: 10:30am & 7pm Wed: 7pm Mini-bus pick-up on campus (Fall/Spring) www.martinluther chapel.org The People’s Church Multi-denominational 200 W Grand River Ave. (517)332-6074 Sun. Service: 10:30am with free lunch for students following worship ThePeoplesChurch.com Riverview Church- MSU Venue MSU Union Ballroom, 2nd Floor 49 Abbot Rd. (517) 694-3400 Sun. Worship: 11:30am-ish www.rivchurch.com St. Paul Lutheran Church (ELCA) Worship with us on Sundays at 10am 3383 E. Lake Lansing Rd 517-351-8541 www.stpaul-el.org officemanagerstpaul el@gmail.com

St. John Catholic Church and Student Center 327 M.A.C Ave. (517) 337-9778 Sun: 8am, 10am, Noon, 5pm, 7pm M,W: 5:30pm T & Th: 8:45pm F: 12:15pm www.stjohnmsu.org University Christian Church 310 N. Hagadorn Rd (517) 332-5193 Sun. Bible Study: 10am Sun. Worship: 11:15am www.universitychristianwired.com University Lutheran Church (ULC) “We’re open in every way” 1120 S. Harrison Rd (517) 351-7030 Sun. Worship: 8:30am & 10:45am Fridays@Five: Dinner, discussion & fun 5pm Mon. Bible Study: 6:30pm @Wells Hall Quad www.ulcel.org Facebook: ULC and Campus Ministry University United Methodist Church 1120 S. Harrison Rd (517) 351-7030 Main Service: Sun: 11am in the Sanctuary Additional Services: NEW contemporary service Sundays at 9am with band titled ‘REACH’ TGiT (Thank God its Thursday): Thur: 8pm in the Chapel of Apostles universitychurchhome.org office@eluumc.org WELS Lutheran Campus Ministry 704 Abbot Rd. (517) 580-3744 Sat: 6:30pm msu.edu/~welsluth

Religious Organizations:

Don’t be left out of the Religious Directory!

Call (517)295-1680 to speak with an Account Executive today

Ashley Lyles, a Michigan State graduate, wlll be attending the Miss International 2020 competition this summer. PHOTO COURTESY OF MATT BOYD

BY CHANDRA FLEMING CFLEMING@STATENEWS.COM

Michigan State alumna Ashley Lyles was recently named Miss New York International 2020. Lyles attended MSU as a professional writing major.

She will be attending the Miss International 2020 final competition from July 30 to Aug. 1, 2020.

She said she started working early to compete for the title.

“That involves a lot of runway lessons, walking lessons, picking out a wardrobe,” Lyles said.

“Preparing for interviews, doing some work and coming up with a strategy with what you want to do if you win the title of Miss International. I am definitely working on that and I have a great team of people who are helping me.”

The Miss International 2020 Pageant will take place in Kingsport, Tennessee.

Lyles was a resident assistant in Holmes Hall and was a student clerical assistant at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory and the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams for three years.

Her professional writing career — and interest in the medical industry — continued when she decided to attend the New York University Science, Health and Reporting Program.

There, she was open to new opportunities that she said have had an impact on her career.

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“One of the things that I did, that kind of set my experience apart from maybe some of my other classmates when I was there, was I participated in a very selective program called NYU Global Beat, which is an international reporting course,” Lyles said.

During the reporting course, Lyles went to Cambodia for an entire semester, where she and her group reported on the malaria epidemic and the genocide and deportation in Cambodia.

“It was the most amazing trip ever. During spring break, we were able to go and report, interview global health experts and different people who are involved in health policy,” Lyles said. “When we returned, we were able to get our work in The New York Times, The Daily 360 and PBS NewsHour. That was a really unique experience because I was actually able to apply the things that I was learning and also use it in a way that would really advance my career.”

Lyles also wrote articles for HuffPost about health concerns after her father experienced cardiac arrest at a gym.

“No one at the gym (who works there) could remember how to perform CPR, or how to use a defibrillator,” she said.

“That means my dad’s lifeless body was laying face down on a moving treadmill. But thankfully, there was a medical resident who just happened to

T H E STAT E NE WS

be in the gym. He saw what happened, rushed over, took charge of the situation. After multiple rounds of CPR, he was able to save my dad’s life.”

The article also touched on how women’s health matters just as much as men’s health and that there needs to be more attention drawn to health differences between men and women.

“That was a piece I was able to write, too, that was really near and dear to my heart,” Lyles said. “I am really passionate about combining my passion and my interest for heart health and women’s health into the work that I do as a journalist.”

When Lyles is not writing, she is participating in pageants.

With her participation in pageants, she has also had the opportunity to join the American Heart Association (AHA) as an ambassador.

There is an alliance between the Miss International Pageant and the AHA. “I had the opportunity to attend luncheons, events and really get involved, whether it is training people on CPR or sharing my dad’s story,” Lyles said. “There are a number of ways we will be partnering throughout the year.”

Lyles said she is excited to be competing for Miss International 2020.

T H U R S DAY, D E C E M B E R 5 , 2 01 9

CAMPUS

Day in the life of Zafri Abd Halim STORY AND PHOTOS BY SYLVIA JARRUS SJARRUS@STATENEWS.COM

8:00 A.M. – RENTING A CAR Halim’s day starts early, when he wakes up around 7 a.m. on Saturday, Oct. 5 in East Lansing. He orders an Uber — which usually arrives late — that takes him to the Capital Region International Airport where he rents a car to make the commute to Detroit.

M

ost students spend their Saturdays gearing up in Spartan apparel for an afternoon football game or savoring a day of sleeping in.

Zafri Abd Halim is not one of those students..

Halim, an international student from Malaysia and a mathematics senior at Michigan State, has delivered halal food products to students around campus every third Saturday of the month for the past two years.

Halal means “permissible or allowed” in Arabic, and for any animal or poultry to be considered halal, it must be slaughtered

in a ritual way by a Muslim. The halal delivery business, Exaira Grocery, started around five years ago among the Michigan State Malaysian community. In 2017, Halim started helping his friend Muaz Norman with deliveries.

Norman has since graduated and Halim is now working the delivery business solo.

Halim said they saw the need when many Malaysian students living off campus didn’t have vehicles to get to stores in Lansing. “We decided to do this delivery to actually help them in a way — they don’t have to go buy it for themselves anymore and we will deliver it straight to their houses,” Halim said.

10 A.M. – PICKING UP ORDERS IN DETROIT Halim fulfills orders at Saad Wholesale Meats in Detroit, then Restaurant Depot in Dearborn, depending on the number of orders, he might just make one stop.

Halim makes the hourlong commute to Detroit because the prices of halal meat products are cheaper than those in Lansing. Chicken legs are a popular order that customers often use to make chicken rendang, a Malaysian dish made with coconut milk and spices, to get a taste of home.

3:45 P.M. – PACKAGING PRODUCTS The process of weighing, packaging and labeling each customer’s order is a laborious process and usually takes more than an hour and a half.

“Sometimes I’ll take a nap in between,” Halim said.

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6:30 P.M. – DELIVERING ORDERS Halim said he avoids game days if possible — delivery once took three hours because of game day traffic. Halim rarely turns a profit off of his business, and said for him, it’s not all about the money. While most of his customers are Malaysian, the delivery business is open to non-Malaysian students and anyone searching for halal products can order them.

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AUG 4 bedroom, Lic 4, 2.5 bath W/D, DW, fireplace, cathedral ceiling, large house. 1635 Melrose. $550 each. Call/text 517-2047902.

Apts. For Rent Across from Hub; nearly half the price! 911 E. Grand River.

2 bed, 1 bth, balcony, w/d, d/w & parking. hrirentals.com. 517-3510765.

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Newly built town home, across from Peanut Barrel. 7 bed, 3 bth, large bsmt. w/d, d/w, covered porch, a/c, great parking. 517351-0765. hrirentals.com.

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