Anyways, thanks for coming back, is what I’m trying to say.

The somewhat sketchy outside view of Altu's. Don't let it discourage you.

This month I decided to check out an Ethiopian place, Altu’s, that’s just off campus, west down Michigan Avenue. Ethiopian is really popular in D.C., and I tried it for the first time when I was there. I loved it, so this month I turned to my trusty Yelp! to try and find somewhere to get it in the East Lansing area. Only two options came up – Altu’s, and weirdly, a place in Ann Arbor (which had 3.5 starts to Altu’s 4, just another way East Lansing owns Ann Arbor), which means there can’t be too many Ethiopian restaurants around if the second closest place is an hour away.

On one hand, I’m glad I can help introduce people to a new kind of cuisine, and one the other WTF Michigan?? Ethiopian is super popular in the bigger cities, and I like to think of Michigan, and especially the college areas, as pretty cultured and diverse. Let’s step it up guys. There’s more than Tex-Mex out there.

Ethiopian food involves a lot of stew-like dishes, usually spicy (but you can almost always order them mild if you prefer), that are served with a spongy, sourdough-ish bread called injera. The injera is used to scoop up the meat and veggies, as Ethiopian food is intended to be eaten with your hands instead of silverware.

Don’t be lame and let this scare you away. Eating with your hands is fun, trendy (see a recent story in the New York Times: http://nyti.ms/xoMADN) and a cool way to try out an element of a traditional culture that you might not be that familiar with. Take a date there, and it will give you something interesting to talk about, or teasingly mock him/her about if they suck at it. Hopefully they won’t since it’s pretty easy, but who knows, maybe your date is motor-skill deficient. And if you’re really set against the eating-with-your-hands thing, you can always ask for silverware – the restaurant is bound to have some for super American Americans like you.

Back to Altu’s. I wasn’t expecting it to measure up to the Ethiopian I’d had in D.C., being nowhere near as popular in Michigan, but it totally did. You guys, it was so good. Which actually makes more sense now that I’ve done a little more research on the place. The owner, Altu Tadesse, was born and raised in Ethiopia, and opened the restaurant when her husband accepted a job at Michigan State. She doesn’t just own the place, she’s in charge of the cooking too, so you can be sure your food will be authentic.

If you want to check out your options before heading over, the menu (with prices – dinner ranges from about $8 to $12, slightly more if you get a bigger plate to share) is available on the restaurant’s website, eatataltus.com. I got a combo with spicy chicken stew and garlic lentils and OMG LOL as my dad would say (he doesn’t understand popular acronyms). First off, all the meals come with salad, cabbage and of course injera bread, in addition to the main dishes. If you like, you can have rice instead of the bread, or do half-rice, half-bread (which I did just so I could report back to you guys on the best choice).

The salad, although it was just a small amount, a basically just lettuce and tomato with a vinagrette dressing, was super fresh and very good. I wished I had had twice as much. As for the cabbage, usually I’m not fan, but I actually like what was served with my meal. It was buttery and flavorful, but not super cabbage-y if that makes sense. Still, it wasn’t my favorite part of the meal. My friend who came with me loved it though, and in her words, “I’m not a cabbage girl.” Put that on a bumper sticker.

On to the main dishes. My chicken was delicious – pretty much exactly what I had expected from my prior experiences

Salt and...berbere?

with Ethiopian food. It was tender and spicy (but not like Tabasco spicy, more like a slow-growing, lasts-for-an-hour-after-the-meal kind of spicy) and went really well with the slightly sour injera bread. There’s a spice mixture used in a lot of Ethiopian cooking called berbere that was used on the chicken and you’ll probably run into if you try Ethiopian food anywhere – it’s a combination of chili powder, garlic, pepper, dried basil and other, less-known spices like rue, korarima and fenugreek. It’s so ubiquitous, that instead of salt and pepper shakers on the table, there was one shaker filled with salt, and one filled with berbere.

My lentils were good, but not as flavorful as the chicken. I expected a strong garlic taste, but it was much more subtle, and almost hard to detect when combined with the injera, which has its own flavor. If you’re going for a vegetarian dish, I would suggest going with the half-rice, half-bread option. The blander rice allows you to taste the veggie dishes better, but the definitely try the bread – it’s traditional and interesting and like I said, fun to eat with.

Salad, cabbage, injera bread, spicy lentils, whole white peas and potatoes, spicy ground peas with greens and chickpea sauce.

My friend went for the vegetarian combo, which is a really nice option because you can choose any four of the veggie options, which gives you a chance to try a variety of things. She went with the spicy lentils, the whole white peas and potatoes, the spicy ground peas with greens and the chickpea sauce. She said the spice lentils and spicy ground peas with greens kind of ran together since they both were flavored with the berbere, and that her favorite was the white peas with potatoes which she said were slightly sweeter, with an almost squash-like texture and taste. The chickpea sauce, she said, was a little bland, but went the best with the injera. I tried all of her dishes (and ate the leftovers today) and my favorite was the spicy ground peas with greens, which were spicy and flavorful, with a little more texture than the white peas or chickpeas.

On Saturday nights at Altu’s they have live music, which was cool, but a little annoying when it got loud enough to make our conversation difficult. Also, we were slightly confused because the band was definitely bluegrass-y, when we would have expected something African or at least not so…American. But they were good, and obviously local, so it’s kind of cool that Altu’s is giving local musicians a place to play every week. But still. Weird.

My conclusions about this place:

-       OMG LOL it’s good

-       Great place for vegetarians, lots of the hearty and diverse choices

-       Eating with your hands is highly underrated

-       I love berbere

-       Ethiopian food + bluegrass music = odd, but overall not unpleasant

Students involved with Spartan Global at MSU have impacted the lives of entrepreneurs in developing countries by making microloans to help sustain their businesses.

Starting off as a student club in 2009, Spartan Global has now turned into a successful non-profit organization here at MSU as of May 2011.

Photo Credit: Michael Thelen

According to the Spartan Global website, the organization is made up of a “collection of students, professors and alumni dedicated to the social and financial betterment of people around the globe.”

Economics senior Dan Zaharia is the current president of the organization. He said Spartan Global is an organization that gives microloans to small entrepreneurs around the world who need it via Kiva.org.

Kiva allows Spartan Global and other loaners to read about the individual circumstances of the people in developing countries who need loans in order to be lifted from poverty, Zaharia said. Once a person is chosen, donators can lend money in increments of $25 to help chosen recipients sustain their businesses, families and lives.

However, Zaharia said Spartan Global wants to move beyond Kiva because it does not reach the people who don’t have access to the internet.

The founder of Spartan Global, Michael Thelen, graduated from MSU in December 2009.

“My passion for global poverty related issues was born when I spent one-on-one time working with young orphaned boys in Guatemala City and I experienced in a very visceral way, how the difficulties these boys were destined to face in their lives as the result of inaction by those with the ability to do something,” Thelen said.

“I realized I had a choice to do something, or do nothing,” he added. “When I give a speech, or a start to get passionate about microfinance or other issues, I’m still thinking about Franscisco, one of the boys who I worked with in the winter of 2006.”

Like Thelen, Paulette Stenzel, a professor of international business law at MSU and the advisor of Spartan Global, is very passionate about the organization.

“I am totally committed to sustainability projects,” she said.

Stenzel said Spartan Global started out with four loans in July of 2009. Since then the organization has made 349 loans to date.

Photo Credit: Michael Thelen

“In micro-loaning, the repayment rate is higher than any other type of loan in any advanced western country,” Zaharia said. This means people are more likely and able to pay back their loans when they receive a microloan.

The types of people that receive micro loans from Spartan Global basically have nothing, Zaharia said. With a little bit of money and intuition in the form of business training, they are able to provide for their family and keep their businesses going.

“By financially empowering them, they can lift themselves from poverty in a dignified manner,” Zaharia said. “Usually, ready-made solutions fail because there is a lack of cultural understanding.”

For instance, if an organization tries to stop hunger in a country by simply donating food, it can actually do damage, Zaharia said. For example, it can run farmers out of business and isn’t generally sustainable because the country is not receiving tools or methods to stop hunger by itself.

Spartan Global is excited to have obtained their non-profit status in May 2011, Stenzel said, adding that people are more likely make donations to a non-profit organzation because the donor can receive tax deductions by donating.

Spartan Global also signed a contract with Esperanza en Acción (Hope in Action), a fair trade organization based in Nicaragua that has strong ties in the Lansing area, Stenzel said.

According to the Esperanza en Acción website, the organization provides “Nicaraguan artisans with the tools to lift themselves out of poverty by offering technical assistance and quality consultation in addition to education and practice in calculating a fair wage.”

Fair trade is a social movement to make fair wages, to give more money to the producers and to promote respect for cultural identity, Stenzel said.

The Esperanza en Acción website states that fair trade is “specifically focused on people in third world countries, who have traditionally been exploited through trade agreements that seek to maximize retailers and intermediaries profits at the expense of the artisans.”

“Microfinance and fair trade are companion tools,” Stenzel said. Therefore, by working together, Spartan Global and Esperanza en Acción can create a more powerful impact.

“Education and access to finance are huge in influencing people’s standards of living,” Zaharia said. “We are extremely grateful for Esperanza.”

“I really like breaking the paradigm that no matter what you do, your efforts are ineffective,” he added.  “With a little bit of work, networking and intuition, we have helped a lot of people that need it.”

Spartan Global meets every other Tuesday in 110 Berkey Hall, and the organization is looking to expand membership and find people for the next executive board.

Sports are a constant cultural machine in the United States. They posses both the power to excite and the power to disappoint, but also have the ability to unify – to bring an entire school, city, state or nation together. Occasionally, that power travels, crossing borders, oceans, and cultures in the process. International sports have experienced growing popularity in the United States, and the East Lansing are as well as the campus of Michigan State University are not exempt from this trend.

Photo Credit: Jenna Chabot

There are plenty of clubs at MSU that promote awareness of international sports. One such club is the Kendo Club, whose members practice a historical and popular Japanese martial art and compete against other schools.

The basic idea of Kendo is to strike the top of the head, wrists, throat, or abdomen of an opponent with a bamboo sword called a shinai.  In the competition version of the game, each hit earns a player two points, and the player with the most points at the end of a match wins.

The competitive nature of Kendo makes it very popular in its native country.

“In Japan, [Kendo’s] popularity is similar to that of football in America, with about a million people practicing the art,” said Ron Fox, the club’s adviser, who also works as a physicist at MSU’s National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory.

Despite its popularity abroad however, Fox said that kendo hasn’t quite caught on yet at MSU.

“At MSU, only 25 people practice the club, in addition to an introductory one credit class that about 40 people enroll in each year,” he said. “We don’t have much of a fan base.”

Although he wishes more students were currently participating, Fox continues to promote his club and push his students to their full potential.

“[The club’s] participation rate looks to be increasing over the next few years,” said Fox. “We hope that our fan base will increase as well.”

The Kendo Club organizes a yearly tournament held at Michigan State every year: the Midwest Kendo Federation Student tournament, and Fox encouraged those interested to attend.

Photo Credit: Jenna Chabot

Another international sports club at MSU is the Polo Club, which boasts a slightly larger population.

“Our club has almost forty members, the biggest program for a university in the U.S. We have a strong fan base as well,” said club vice president Cassie Scarfone, a senior majoring in human biology.

Scarfone said the club hosts a yearly benefit match against the University of Michigan that “draws in quite a crowd.”

This match, called Poloat the Pavillion, benefits both the polo clubs of Michigan State and the University of Michigan. It is the biggest match of the year for both clubs, and usually provides the polo club with their highest attendance of the season at an affordable cost – tickets are just $5 for students and $10 for other guests.

International sports are also drawing interest in the East Lansing area. West Michigan Capoeira, a martial arts studio that practices an ancient Brazilian sport, has branched off into East Lansing with hopes of sparking an interest wider than just the undergraduate community at MSU.

Capoeira is an art form based on an ancient Brazilian war dance. Individuals who practice capoeria begin by forming a “hoda” circle, then proceed through a series of motions that combine rhythmic dance and martial arts, often in formation with others.

“Right now, we have about ten participants, and most of them are grad students,” said instructor Show Grande . “I’m hoping that eventually interest will spark, and people will investigate and look into capoeira.”

Grande’s biggest wish is that individuals interested in capoeira will have an “epiphany” moment, similar to one he had when he was younger.

“I just walked into a capoeira studio and was amazed at the gracefulness of those involved,” said Grande. “I was so entranced that I had to keep reminding myself that the sport was real, and ever since then I’ve been blown away.”

While international sports clubs are always working to improve their fan base and gain awareness amongst the student body, they are also invested in the passion and drive that team members have.

“I tell my team, ‘Just shut up and do it’. They are all dedicated to the art, and open to what the sport can offer them,” Fox said.

This passion and drive is mixed with a willingness to cross cultural borders. International sports clubs have both American members as well as many who are, of course, international.

“We have had many international students in the kendo club; this year, we have several Japanese members” Fox said.

Many international members are drawn in by their native loyalties to the sport, or want to contribute to bringing the sport into light at MSU, in Michigan, or even the nation, and fight to raise cultural awareness of the sport by changing stereotypes.

“Currently, the polo community is trying to change the stereotype of the sport as an ‘elitist’ game,” said Scarfone. “In reality, anyone can become involved [in polo] and it can be much more affordable than one might think.”

According to Grande, “Investing in an unknown sport is like continued learning.” International sports can help broaden the cultural horizons of students at Michigan State, and, much like American sports, they have the power to bring us all together as one globally united city and campus.

“Practicing a difficult sport gives students confidence in everyday life,” Grande said. “When we all feel like we are accomplishing something together, we become united.”

For more information, contact:

Michigan State University Kendo Club: kendo.msu.edu

Michigan State University Polo Club: msupolo@msu.edu

West Michigan Capoeira: CDOWestMichigan@gmail.com

New Aladdin's Restaurant, located in Frandor

Welcome back to Tengo Hambre. At least, I hope you’ve come back. I hope you didn’t read my first column and realize the truth (that I’m extremely underqualified to review restaurants) (that I should buy a thesaurus) (that I’m mostly motivated by hunger instead of journalistic integrity).

Either way, if you’re here, thanks. I appreciate it.

In Round 2 of this great experiment, I tried to make it a little easier for you guys, and I split the distance between East Lansing and Lansing to go hang out in that monstrosity of a strip mall called Frandor.

If you’ve ever been to Frandor, you know that it must have been designed by some civil engineer who either barely graduated community college or who was really smart but had an evil streak. It’s like a series of interconnected parking lots with no real way to get from one to another so you just kinda have to make it up. A successful trip to Frandor depends as much on your knowledge of sign language (to communicate with the other poor souls who find themselves there) as it does your driving ability.

But if you can get past the potential for a few minor traffic accidents, there’s some pretty good things in Frandor. Michaels – for supplies to decorate your beer pong table. A Coney Island – a good alternative for Saturday/Sunday hangover breakfast that not as many students go to. A slightly sketchy Kroger – for groceries when you just can’t take going to Meijer one more time. And of course, my destination: New Aladdin’s Restaurant, for Middle Eastern food.

When my friends and I set off for Aladdin’s, we had high hopes. It had earned 4.5 starts on Yelp! (with the all-important lone dollar sign under the price section) and great reviews about both the food and the service. And for me, it pretty much fulfilled those expectations. For my friends – some yes, some no.

We went on a Saturday night, and although it was far from full, there were enough people there to not make us nervous. We were the only students, which is pretty much standard, I’ve noticed, for places off Grand River.

The menu was pretty extensive, and pretty well priced. Pretty much anything you would want or expect from a Middle Eastern restaurant was available (with an optional side of fries – always a plus).

Three of us ordered entrees, (the ones we got were all around $8-$9, but the more expensive ones got up to about $15) and one ordered a sandwich (which was around $5). All of them came with a side (soup or salad) and the entrees included hummus and pita, which came out almost immediately after we ordered.

On the hummus front, we were divided. I thought it was pretty standard, good but nothing special, but others thought it was some of the best they’d had in a while and complimented it on being super fresh. There definitely was a lot of it, which was nice, because it lasted throughout my whole meal – which also arrived really quickly, by the way.

Clockwise from left: Fattoush salad, lentil soup, hummus, tabouli

We all ended up getting different sides (ideal for you readers out there just dying to know more about New Aladdin’s). I got the fattoush salad, with romaine, tomato, green pepper and toasted pita bits. It was hands down the best part of my meal. I could tell it was super fresh, and it had this light, lemony vinaigrette dressing that I wished I could have bought a gallon of because I would eat it on every salad for the rest of my life. Seriously.

My three friends got the tabouli salad (also super fresh, though a bit too onion-y for some of us, but perfect for others), a lentil soup (a little too lemon-y, my friend thought, but otherwise good) and one daring (aka hungover) soul went for the French fries. The one I tried was a little mushy, but I guess that’s what you get for ordering fries at a Middle Eastern place.

On to the main course. I had the yes, conservative, but ultimately good choice of chicken shwarma over rice. It was literally that – just chicken and rice – but it was really, really good. The rice was perfectly cooked, the chicken was well-spiced and delicious, and there was a lot of it. The leftovers are sitting in my fridge right now, calling to me, but I told myself I have to finish writing this before I eat them.

Chicken shwarma

My friends had varying experiences with their meals. One got the eggplant and falafel sandwich which she described as “dense” (whatever that means – I told her you guys need more varied descriptors than that but she wasn’t having it) but good. She added some turnip from another plate that she said broke it up well. The second got a vegetarian combo, which included grape leaves, falafel and mujadara (a rice, lentil, onion combination). This was not as much of a success. The falafel was deemed “nothing special – a little dry”, the mujadara “kind of flavorless” and finally – and I quote – the grape leaves were so lemony that eating them was “like sucking on a lemon-chamomile tea bag.” So. You might not want to order the grape leaves.

My last friend had kind of a terrible experience. I’m hesitant to write about it too much because I don’t think it’s typical of the restaurant but I don’t want to gloss over it, either. She ordered vegetarian cabbage rolls, which she thought tasted a little weird, but ate anyways. As we were paying, our waitress came over and apologized because – psych – the kitchen had messed up and given her the meat version. The waitress and the owner were super distraught and apologetic and rightfully didn’t make her pay, but my friend is a strict vegetarian, so it was a traumatic experience for her. I don’t think this should make you never go to Aladdin’s, because it’s the kind of mistake that I could see happening (a scribbled-down order or a too-quick glance at what was written could easily cause it), but still. Pretty big mistake.

My conclusions about this place:

-       Food was good, but order carefully – some things aren’t as great

-       They really like lemons

-       I want more fattoush salad

-       Frandor needs to install a full infrastructure of lanes, traffic lights and preferably some of those people who wave down planes at airports to direct confused drivers

-       Thank god I’m done writing this because now I can go eat my leftovers

But let me explain. I spent a little over six months living in Washington, D.C. during last spring and summer. D.C. is a great city, and one of the many things it’s known for is its ethnic food. With the help of Yelp!, I experienced some pretty great meals – everywhere from food trucks to kinda fancy (but still within my intern budget) sit-down places and every cuisine from the ubiquitous Thai to Vietnamese, Indian, Middle Eastern and Ethiopian. I miss it. I want to go back. But I can’t afford the plane ticket.

Solution? I’m going to seek out the best ethnic places in East Lansing and Lansing, take one for the team, and go try them out. Hopefully they’ll be places you haven’t ever been to or didn’t even know existed, and you might be inspired to try one out. If not you can just be jealous of me.

Round 1 led me to Thai Village in Lansing, located at 400 S. Washington Square right near the capitol building.

I think that Lansing is underrated. I don’t know if it’s the distance, the number of options for food, the entertainment here in East Lansing, or the fact that there are not many students wandering around downtown — which the rest of us take that as some sign that we’re not allowed — but most people I know never bother to take the five-minute drive downtown.

I talked to a friend to the other day who said he had literally never been to Lansing, and he’s been here for four years. It’s kind of a shame because there’s a ton of cool stuff down there. The capitol is awesome, and you can take tours for free. There’s cool events like Oktoberfest, which just went on last month. There are coffee shops and places to study where you don’t know anybody who’s going to distract you. Most importantly: there’s good food.

The Starters

Yelp! recommendation in hand, I headed downtown with three friends on a Friday evening. If you’re worried about parking in Lansing, don’t be. There were plenty of metered spots near the restaurant, and meters in Lansing are free after 6 p.m. Thai Village looked slightly sketch from the outside, but I find that most good Thai places do. Also, have you ever noticed how all Thai restaurants have to have “Thai” in the name? I know of a Thai Inn, Thai Fortune, Thai 102, Thai Kitchen, there’s that new No Thai! Place in EL. C’mon, guys. Creativity.

We were one of only a few tables of people in there that night – not as good of a sign. Maybe they do a big takeout business? Anyways, the menu was pretty big, and we all decided on something different after a short dispute about who got to order the pad pak as I had forbidden anyone to order the same thing for the benefit of this story. By the way, I won.

I also ordered a Thai iced tea, which if you’ve never had one before, you should stop reading right now and go find some because they’re really, really good. It’s kind of like milk tea you would get at a bubble tea place but sweeter and with a stronger flavor. Basically, it’s a cold drink that consists of strong, dark tea, condensed milk and sugar, sometimes with some spices like anise mixed it. Thai Village’s Thai iced tea was definitely worthy of anything I ever had in D.C., which is to say it was great. Also, at $2, it was just about the same price as ordering a Coke and way, way better, and its creaminess is a great match for spicy Thai food.

Next up, miso soup, which came free with all of our entrees, a really nice plus. Normally, I don’t order miso soup because I’m not a fan. It’s kinda gross and watery and has that weird…miso-y flavor. I know, but still. But I had free soup in front of me, and I’m poor. There’s no way I was turning that away. And surprisingly, I really liked this variation. It was a thicker broth than I’ve seen before, and the flavor was more spicy than miso-y, and it was actually pretty hearty with tofu and mushrooms.

The Entrees

I had the pad pak for my entree, which consisted of broccoli, pea pods, mushrooms, carrots, baby corn, napa and bamboo shoots in a brown sauce. I added chicken, but if you can’t tell, I ordered it basically because it had the widest variety of vegetables and I’m usually too lazy to make anything but the occasional salad or side of broccoli for myself at home.

Sidebar: We had a serious debate about baby corn while deciding what to order. I mean, baby corn is weird, right? It looks like a tiny corncob, but you can eat the whole thing which is unnatural. It tastes good, but still, how the hell did they engineer that?

Anyway. It was really good. I ordered it hot, and it was definitely spicy but not over the top. The mix of vegetables was great and the sauce had great flavor. I’m trying to come up with another adjective to describe it other than great, but I can’t. Sorry. I’m obviously no Ruth Reichl. Basically, I’m telling you it was good so you should just go try it.

Everybody else was pretty happy with their meals as well. One of my friends had the drunken noodles (“I get it everywhere and I wasn’t disappointed,” she said. “The veggies were cooked perfectly but it could have used some more basil”), another had bell peppers and Thai holy basil with shrimp (“Could have used a lot more basil and some more shrimp, but otherwise good”) and the last had the sinn pak delight with tofu (“Delightful,” she said. Just kidding. “The tofu was cooked perfectly and the mushrooms were really good” was what she actually said).

So I guess maybe they’re really good chefs but have a basil shortage? On the plus side, the portions were huge, definitely big enough to take half home for another meal, which is basically the best part of any restaurant meal as any college student knows.

Prices weren’t bad either. Most of the entrees are between $8 and $9 for dinner and between $6 and $7 for lunch, and come with a choice of chicken, pork, tofu, beef, shrimp, scallop or squid.

Conclusions

My conclusions about this place:

-       Food was great (I don’t own a thesaurus)

-       They have a mysterious lack of basil

-       I am now craving Thai iced tea

-       I wish I still had the other half of my entrée left but I ate it at 3 a.m. the same night

-       I should probably have more vegetables in my diet

So there you have it! You should eat probably eat here if you like Thai food.

Lemme know if you have any suggestions for more places I should check out.

Everyone knows the facts about MSU’s world-renowned study abroad program. Thousands of students each year, hundreds of trips, all seven continents. But what happens when you come home? Do you just go back to living your normal life? Or does study abroad affect the direction your life will take?

As the effects of globalization reach every edge of the planet, MSU strives to provide global opportunities for its students that go beyond study abroad and into the professional world. Alumni Dan Redford and Dan Coyne graduated from the banks of the Red Cedar and have continued their success overseas – both currently reside in Asia.

MSU alumnus Dan Redford with Chinese colleague at the Terracota Soldiers in Xi'an (July 2009)

Redford graduated in 2010 with a degree in Chinese language and international relations and is a former participant in the Spartan study abroad program. He now works as a fund manager for the Chinese branch of Milwaukee-based FirstPathway Partners, where he helps Chinese clients to obtain green cards, and eventually, citizenship.

“MSU is really such an international university – we have one of the largest populations of foreign students,” Redford said. “In my opinion, study abroad should be a mandatory part of education in America today.

Coyne, a finance major who graduated in 2008, works for the Department of Defense in South Korea, as a civilian budget analyst. His work involves allocating financial resources for NETCOM, a division of the Army that handles information technology.

“My experience has been amazing working overseas,” Coyne said. “I love having the chance to experience a new culture, learn a new language and work in a role supporting the military. I also became a certified National Ski Patrol alpine patroller and I spend my winters patrolling the slopes of nearby ski resorts.”

For current students, study abroad can be the key factor in aspiring to an international career.

Jon Sharp, a junior and an urban planning major, studied Spanish culture and business in Madrid last summer.

“I did an internship where I worked at an immigration program and helped with after school programs, gave tours of the city and taught English,” Sharp said. “I just like Europe a lot and I find myself more aligned more with European views and culture.”

Sharp said he enjoyed his time abroad and was proud of his accomplishments (for example, running with the bulls in Pamplona), including meeting new friends.

“Our group had 17 people I had never met before and I still talk to a fair amount of them every week,” he said.

Sharp plans on returning to Spain to teach English in Spain upon graduation.

Students with experience abroad also have a huge impact while they’re still in East Lansing. Clair Brender,  MSU’s director of international alumni relations studied abroad in China as a student and now works at Michigan State, keeping in touch with 41,000 international alumni.

“Living and working abroad provides an unparalleled opportunity to learn about yourself, and to see yourself and your own culture through a vastly different filter,” she said. “Beyond the amazement of successfully communicating in a second language, the China study abroad brought out a fearlessness I didn’t know I had.”

Through her current job, Brender gets a first-hand look at how those alumni influence the world and also checks in on current international students living in East Lansing.

“International students are strong contributors to Michigan’s economy,” she said. “One of the less-understood points by the average citizen is the fact that the fantastic skill sets international students bring to Michigan to help us maintain our strength in research.”

From sending students to study and work abroad to recognizing the significance of foreign students here in East Lansing, MSU clearly works hard to be a truly international university. Is it successful? It’s hard to say, but for Dan Redford at least, his experiences at MSU led him to a life and career abroad that he loves.

“If you love to learn, love, and don’t mind eating something squishy every now and again, I’d encourage you to come abroad,” he said.

Students are trying to remove Coca Cola from campus. (Photo credit: Jenna Chabot)

On Dec. 5, 1996, Isidro Gil, a Coca Cola plant worker and a Columbian union leader, was shot and killed inside the entrance of a Coca Cola plant in the city of Carepa by paramilitary forces.  After the shooting, other union leaders were kidnapped and tortured, and the local union building was burned.  Two days later, paramilitary forces returned to the plant to tell workers they had to quit the union by 4 p.m., or they would be killed.  It is said that a Coca Cola manager had prepared resignation forms in advance, and had previously instructed the paramilitaries to destroy the union.  A 2001 lawsuit charged that Coca Cola bottlers in Columbia contracted with and directed the paramilitary forces to act as they did.

For many people, Coca Cola products are associated with good taste and cheery advertising, but others worldwide associate the soft drink giant with murder.  The “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” is a worldwide movement that aims to hold Coca Cola accountable for its alleged human rights violations.  The campaign has now reached the MSU campus.

According to the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” website, Coca Cola has been responsible for numerous human rights and labor violations worldwide.    It is claimed that systematic intimidation, kidnapping, torture and murder are occurring at Coca-Cola bottling plants in Colombia and elsewhere.    The website also states that Coca Cola has refused independent investigations into the allegations.  Other countries claiming crimes against Coke include Guatemala, China, El Salvador, India, Mexico, Pakistan, The Philippines, and Turkey.

Local Impacts

Along with human rights violations, the MSU Killer Coke Campaign recognizes watershed pollution in Michigan as another reason to end contracts with Coca Cola.  Residents of Paw Paw, Mich. have filed a lawsuit against Coca Cola for groundwater contamination from a Coca Cola bottling plant located near the watershed.  The 80 residents that are part of the lawsuit claim soil contamination has affected their drinking water, daily use of their homes, property taxes and health.

“It is a high quality water body for southwest Michigan,” said Matt Meerson, Van Buren Conservation District watershed coordinator.  “It still has a lot of flood plain forests intact; a lot of wetlands, the water quality in general is good for the Paw Paw. Compared to other rivers in southwest Michigan it is in pretty good shape, which is why people are more committee to protecting it.”

The MSU Campaign

In cafeterias and in Sparty’s convenient stores across campus, Coca Cola products are a common sight.  Drinks such as Coke, Sprite, Minute Maid Lemonade, A&W Rootbeer, and Nestea are just a few of the Coca Cola products that fill various fountain drink machines.  Coca Cola’s time on campus could be limited, however, as the MSU Chapter of Amnesty International leads an initiative to remove Coca Cola from the university.

MSU’s Chapter of Amnesty International has adopted a “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke”, and aims to remove Coca Cola from campus.  The campaign is in response to Coke’s alleged human rights violations in Colombia and other places of the world along with environmental problems that have occurred near bottling facilities worldwide and in Michigan.  The “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” is a worldwide movement.

Many students take advantage of the availability of the brand that aims to “refresh the world”, but some students like linguistics and philosophy freshman, Adam Liter, refuse to drink such products.  Liter, who hasn’t consumed a Coca Cola product since his sophomore year in high school, has helped lead the campaign at MSU.

Liter, and others involved in Amnesty International have been petitioning on campus since February.  So far, they have approximately 120 signatures.

“Some people are not willing [to sign], but a lot of people were interested and definitely wanted to learn more about it,” Liter said.  “They stuck around long enough to talk to and they definitely seemed concerned, especially when they learned that Coca Cola has been complicit with murder.  It’s not something that people will take lightly.”

The group plans to get at least 5,000 signatures before approaching the administration.

“The administration hasn’t been officially notified,” said Liter.  “I have been in contact with them before a little bit because I was trying to figure out what our contract with Coca Cola is like, so they know that there is at least one person out there that is concerned about it.”

Campus Impacts

“Certainly MSU is a very big client of the Coca Cola Company, because it is such a large university and it has an exclusive contract,” said Ray Rogers, the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” director.  “You represent two major things for a company: a source of revenue and the most important place in which they build their brand name identity.”

Coca Cola has an exclusive contract with the cafeterias that lasts until 2016, Liter said.  The contract with Sparty’s is separate.  Liter hopes to persuade the university to break the contract before 2016, or to commit to not renewing it after that time.

“Students are being identified with the Coca Cola Company, and I would suggest that the Coca Cola Company has misrepresented itself to the university when they signed their contract,” Rogers said.  “They ought to be able to break that contract, and if not, what we are hoping is that students will believe in justice and that they will make enough clamor on the campus that students simply won’t purchase the products.”

Those involved in the campaign plan to look into possible alternatives to Coca Cola once they have more signatures on the petition.

“Pepsi would be the easiest alternative, but I mean there is still the concern that soda is actually really bad for you,” Liter said.  “Ideally we would like to propose a different alternative than Pepsi, but Pepsi is a possibility at this point.”

“And why not promote some Michigan alternatives, like Faygo or Blue Sky,” said international relations junior and MSU Amnesty International secretary, Tabitha Skervin.  “There are a lot of local carbonated products I think we could look into as well.”

Other Initiatives

This is not the first time efforts have been made to end contracts with Coca Cola.  MSU Students for Economic Justice tried to persuade the administration to remove Coca Cola from campus in 2006 for similar reasons.  The SEJ held protests and a former Coca Cola bottling plant worker from Colombia came to campus to speak out against unethical practices.

“It was near the end of the school year and many of the students involved were graduating,” said Rogers.  “There were some efforts to educate the university, but now I know there is a whole new effort.”

The campaign was part of the ongoing national “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” that Amnesty International is partnered with today.

Adam Liter was involved in a similar “Killer Coke” campaign at his alma mater, Eden Prairie High School in Minnesota.

“He had done some good work and some of the students at the high school told me that Adam is now at MSU, so they hooked me up with him,” said Rogers.  “He decided to get things going again, which I was excited about.”

Efforts have also been made at other colleges nationwide, including the University of Michigan.  According to The Michigan Daily, Coca Cola was removed from the university in 2005 while allegations of unethical practices were investigated and was then reinstated months later.

“I have great respect for what the students [at UofM] did,” Rogers said. “But I have no respect for what the administration has done; they set a very bad example as to what morality and ethics are about.”

New York University had similar results.  Administrators “kicked” Coke off of the campus for a short time, but later reinstated their contracts with Coca Cola.

A complete list of colleges, universities and high schools active in the campaign can be found here.

The Future

Liter said he hopes to do a kickoff next semester to raise awareness for the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke”.  Those involved in the campaign hope to work on it throughout the summer, so it is ready to go come fall.

“The hope is that mid fall semester next year we will reach our goal and try to start the dialogue with the administration,” Liter said.  “We will be doing some petitioning now until the end of the year and then continue to do petitioning next year until we reach our goal.”

It is also important to know that it is not a requirement to give up your favorite Coca Cola product to join the campaign.

“If I stop drinking Coke, that’s just one person,” Skervin said.  “If a school of 47,000 people decided not to drink coke because the administration stops buying it, I think that sends a larger message, and is a more effective boycott.”

The group also hopes to involve other Michigan chapters of Amnesty International in the campaign, as well as environmental groups on campus.  They have also gained support from MSU Students for Fair Trade.

“What you are doing is getting a kickback from the Coca Cola Company for their right to have a captive audience, to have a monopoly, to get all kinds of advertising, and to basically put their brand on the forehead of every student that graduates from the campus,” Rogers said.

“MSU would be so huge if the students are successful in getting Coke kicked out of there,” Rogers said.  “It would just be a huge victory.”

More information about the “Campaign to Stop Killer Coke” can be found on their website.  To get involved with the campaign on campus, contact the MSU Chapter of Amnesty International.

The Justice Department is holding a series of public hearings to discuss possible changes to Titles II and III of the ADA.  The four major topics being addressed are:

• Accessible websites for blind and visually impaired users- installing technologies that read web content to users
• Movie captioning and video description services for deaf, hard of hearing, visually impaired and blind viewers
• Accessible 9-1-1 call centers for persons with disabilities- equipping dispatch centers to receive text and video messages
• Accessible public equipment and furniture for the disabled

Photo credit: Jenna Chabot

John Shumway, a communication technology senior and the president of the MSU Council for Students with Disabilities (CSD), would like to see the changes occur, but is unsure of how the public will react since they will come at a price for businesses.

“In our culture, we look at the immediate gratification not the long term benefits; but in the long term they [businesses] are going to have to revamp their websites and move up technology anyway,” he said.  “It’s shoving them towards the inevitable, but this way it has the government stamp on it.”

In regard to the descriptive technology proposed for movie theaters, Shumway said, “It’s a catch-22.  I think it would disrupt the movie because you’re watching the movie while the device is describing it to you, but the movie is going to go on to another scene. I like the direction the government is going, but there are some things you can’t change without wrecking it.”

MSU Disability Resources

Shumway, a visually and mobility impaired individual, is one of the approximately 1200 students that are registered with the MSU Resource Center for Persons with Disabilities (RCPD) each year.  The RCPD provides services to students including: accessible textbooks, alternative testing, housing accommodations, alternative transportation, note-taking assistance, assistive technology, classroom accommodations, and other accommodations listed here.  MSU began accommodating disabled students in 1933, decades before there were laws in place requiring universities to do so.

“The RCPD often entertains visitors from other universities,” said Stephen Blosser, the RCPD Assistive Technology Specialist.  “We have been accommodating students for a long time, and universities just getting started look to us as experts.”

Blosser works with students to provide them with assistive software and textbooks, among other tools.  He explained that more than 70 volunteers work at the RCPD to help create alternative format textbooks in a process that requires cutting the binding and individually scanning pages into a computer. Volunteers spend most of their time editing the books by describing captions, charts and pictures that the software can’t pick up on.

“This type of work needs to be done by the publishers,” Blosser said.  “It is our hope at the Assistive Technology Center (ATC), to convince publishers to provide materials ready to go.”

Stephanie Forton, an athletic training sophomore, is also a student registered with the RCPD with a visual impairment.  She used large print and pdf formatted textbooks last year in her IAH class.  She has found the textbooks helpful, and one reason she chose to attend MSU was because of the RCPD.

“The fact that the RCPD director has a visual impairment, and that my specialist has a similar condition as I do, makes me feel like they better understand what I need,” Forton said.

Challenges Remain

Joe Stramondo, a bioethics, political philosophy and disability studies bioethics graduate student, is also registered with the RCPD and is a member of the CSD.

“Barriers to communication technology for me have less to do with the technology itself and more to do with the positioning of it because of my mobility disability,” Stramondo explained.

Currently, the ADA requires accommodations to be made mainly in regard to physical space, such as wheelchair ramps and curb cuts.  The proposed changes are taking the law a step further, but Stramondo still faces some problems with the existing law.  The ADA requires new space to be accessible, but until buildings are renovated, he still doesn’t have equal access to certain areas such as Spartan Stadium.

Stramondo, who described himself as a “huge Spartan football fan” sits on a platform to view the games which he said “doesn’t have nearly enough space.”

“The season ticket holders get to sit in front and the platform isn’t tiered, so everyone else gets pushed behind them.” said Stramondo. “It’s frustrating.”

Shumway and Stramondo, both residents of Owen Hall, have similar concerns about some of the equipment in the building.  There are a number of computer kiosks in the lobby for residents that are raised and require the user to sit on high stools.  One of the computers is lowered for easy access for wheelchair users.

“Everyone uses it now because it’s easy to get to.  People with disabilities hardly get to use it, but that’s how the law is.  You cannot make something specifically for the disabled because that’s segregating.  Everyone wants to use it because it’s easier,” Shumway said.

Shumway described a similar problem with the washing machines in Owen Hall that were made accessible for the disabled.  “Everyone wants to use them because they are newer,” he said.

Attitudes toward the disabled are another obstacle faced by many students that cannot be changed with any kind of government policy.

“I think that when you’re a person with a disability, you experience attitudes that are taught to folks without disabilities and folks with disabilities that are built into our culture every day, and it’s impossible to create a policy to change that.” said Stramondo. “It’s really about culture shift.”

The ADA was established in 1990 and prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability and guarantees equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in public accommodations, employment, transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications.

The RCPD is located in 120 Bessey Hall on the MSU campus and is open Monday through Friday, 8am to 5pm.