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Michigan State University student Jazmine Skala-Wade

Students work to overcome stigma around mental illness

According to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, one in 20 American adults live with a serious health condition, but people living with mental illness, believe there is a negative stigma attached to it. Michigan State University student, Jazmine Skala-Wade was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, known as ADHD, when she was 11. “People have this idea that mental illnesses aren’t real, that you need to pray them away, that you are making it up or that you are crazy,” Skala-Wade said. “I have been judged and looked at as crazy. People have made up stories about my mental illness and I’ve been treated like I shouldn’t be smart.”

Skala-Wade said she’s doing things in college that people did not think she was capable of because of her ADHD.

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Inclusion campaign aims to address discrimination on campus

Michigan State University has launched an inclusion campaign to address issues of race, gender and discrimination on campus. “Inclusion is defined as creating a living, learning and work environment where differences are valued, respected and welcomed,” said Paulette Granberry-Russell, senior adviser to the president for diversity and inclusion. “We’ve committed resources to the reducing the graduation gap between white students and black and Hispanic students, and we recognize there is more that we need to do to reduce the gap,” she said. In fall 2015, MSU launched the Office of Institutional Equity to oversee the university’s efforts to address discrimination and harassment based on factors such as race, gender and sex. The office allows students and faculty to file reports of discrimination on its website.

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New student group works to promote health issues on campus

With more than 600 registered student organizations on campus, students at Michigan State University can find a group for just about any interest

The the leaders of Raising Awareness with Students believe they have a mission unlike others. RAWS promotes health issues, with a focus on preventable illnesses. It was created by Kady Cox, an interdisciplinary studies in social science student. The concept of RAWS started with her annual event, “Diabetes is Not Sweet.” “I got the idea for the ‘Diabetes is Not Sweet’ event because mom and my grandmother both have diabetes,” Cox said.

MI First Election 2016
MSU students protest the results of the 2016 presidential election on campus.

Minority groups battle stereotypes in the media

A series of police shootings of African-Americans and acts of terrorism by followers of the Islamic State group thrust racial, ethnic and religious minorities into the media spotlight during the 2016 presidential campaign. And that’s led to an increase in negative stereotypes portrayed in the media, some say. “The media plays a major role in perpetuating stereotypes. Whenever a crime is committed, I start looking to see what race the person is,” said Joe Darden, a professor in Michigan State University’s Department of Geology who researches issues of racial inequality. “Whenever it’s a black person it’s mentioned, but when the media fails to mention race, I know it’s a white person.

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MSU athletes explore multicultural issues in student group

At the MSU vs. Wisconsin football game on Sept. 24, Spartan players Delton Williams, Kenney Lyke and Gabe Sherrod raised their fists during Star-Spangled Banner to protest racism. During the next game six other players joined in protest. Why did Gabe Sherrod feel it was important to speak up?

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Should college athletes get paid?

The University of Georgia, North Carolina, Southern California, Alabama and Auburn: All Division I programs sanctioned by the NCAA because athletes accepted payments and gifts under the table. According to the NCAA rules, student-athletes cannot be paid for their athletic skills. They also cannot advertise, promote or endorse any product. However, their image and name can be used by the institution they attend for a wide variety of purposes. For example, a game program including a team’s roster and stats at a football game is sells for about $10.

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Junior linebacker Sean Harrington talks about being a walk-on athlete

Athletes on scholarship have their tuition, room and board, and more paid for. But, what happens with walk-on athletes? Michigan State University redshirt junior linebacker Shane Jones of the Spartan Newsroom, who came to the university on an athletic scholarship, talks with junior linebacker Sean Harrington, who began as a walk-on on the team and earned a scholarship.

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Members of the student group Refugee Outreach Kalamazoo at Michigan State University show up to cheer on the Newcomers youth soccer team.

Lansing area provide supports for hundreds of refugees

More 4,900 refugees have been resettled in Michigan so far in 2016, including 864 in the Lansing area, according to the U.S. State Department’s Refugee Processing Center.

That’s up from 2,714 refugees statewide in 2015, and 611 in the Lansing area.

The growth comes despite criticism of some refugee re-settlement programs. During the campaign, President-elect Donald Trump pledged to shut off immigration from Syria to stop terrorists from slipping into the country.

Yet local refugee services groups say they’re committed to continuing to help people fleeing their homelands.

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Principal Les Key of Hamady High School near Flint, Michigan, has been an advocate for efforts to fix the city's lead-contaminated water system.

Flint advocate: ‘You can live poor, but you don’t have to live dirty’

Les Key says he is on a mission to help Flint’s youth overcome the city’s struggles. Key is principal of Hamady High School, with is just outside the city. He said half of his students live in the city of Flint, which has been in a state-declared financial emergency since 2011. In 2014, as part efforts to resolve its budget deficit, the city switched its water supply to the more corrosive water of the Flint River, which damaged the city’s water infrastructure and caused lead to leach from the system’s pipes into the water supply. Spartan Newsroom: If you could sum up the attitude of Flint toward politics what would you say? Les Key: When it comes to our city, we just want justice.