A new path

Imagine a bleak future where news articles are compiled not by humans, but by highly-complex algorithms.

This was the bleak future painted by Robin Sloan in his short film "EPIC", which envisioned a future without traditional news

Robin Sloan, a 2002 MSU graduate, exemplifies the type of new thinking required in the rapidly changing field of journalism.

Sloan, the VP of strategy at Current_, a cable news channel aimed at young adults, explained how the future of journalism lies in start-up companies.

Sloan believes small, start-up companies will be most successful at forming the future of journalism.

"It's sorta like the difference between writing in a battleship and trying to turn it compared to driving a speed boat around".

Read more on Sloan and his views in the Friday edition of the LSJ.

NCAA 2009

The MSU basketball team is on a race towards he final four of the NCAA basketball tournament. This year is special in that the Spartans play all their games in the midwest.

Along with the team's advances comes the administration's guidelines on "celebrating". This comes as a reaction to "riots" that have become synonymous with MSU,much to the administration's dismay.

The funniest thing about cedarfest last year were the flyers sent out in the dorms prior to it. The flyers essentially told us that our first amendment right to assemble (on both public AND private property) was gone. I believe that it like all parties, it would have fizzled out on its own due to a combination of drunken fatigue and hunger. the mere presence of police in riot gear combined with the students' expectations of the police to use that gear made cedarfest a self-fufilling prophecy of students, police, and university officials.

Push to Unionize

“Our working conditions are your learning conditions” said American Federation of Teaches Michigan organizer Jon Curtiss about the push by nontenure-track faculty at Michigan State University to unionize.

The group of about 1000 faculty members is pushing for job security over all else, but also hope to receive increases in base salaries, base raises, and health insurance coverage. These changes would put nontenure-track faculty at MSU on a level similar to that at the University of Michigan, which unionized its non-tenured faculty in 2003.

The push to unionize requires 30% of the affected group to sign union member cards.

At U of M, the unionization of nontenure-track faculty resulted in an increase of base salaries from the high $10,000 to the low-to-mid 20,000 with a potential 7% raise granted they pass a performance review.

Curtiss believes that an increase of salaries and benefits for nontenure-track faculty will not significantly increase costs for students. At U of M, nontenure-track faculty wages account for about 5 percent of the general university budget.

Spring Break

Spring break is about to begin again for students in the midst of a frigid semester. This break is typically used by students to catch up, get ahead, and relax.

Economic troubles have prevented some from going on vacation,but the general spring break trip is still alive among MSU students.

When my ISP class was asked whether or not they were leaving the state for break, the majority raised their hands. This maybe surprising considering the state of the economy.

Despite the poor state of the economy, the economic crisis reduced the price of a barrel of oil, which in turn lowered gas prices across the board. This allowed light relief and incentive to students seeking to escape the Michigan cold

Not all students are so fortunate to leave. Scott Coy, a mechanical engineering sophomore,plans to go home to Cadillac, Mich., for spring break because he has "no money"

"Going home and seeing friends is enough for me. I wish I could go to Cedar Point" said Cory Taylor, a chemistry freshman.