Firth: How did you like the audience?

Tracey Ashley: The audience was fantastic. They were great. They got everything, they were on top of it. They knew when to laugh. So obviously you guys get a lot of comedy here, so it was fun. This was a fun show.

Firth: Do you tend to get stuck up crowds once in awhile?

TA: Oh yeah. It’s not even that they’re stuck up sometimes. They might just be too young. We did a show last night and it was little sibs weekend so they had all their brothers and sisters, and like the youngest was eleven years old. You know, I’m talking politics, I’m talking about marriage, all kinds of things. I felt bad, so I did a joke for her so she could feel comfortable. It was just like a little kid joke, you know? They were fine, but there were some things I said and they were really like “Aww!” but they really thought, they took it literally. And their hearts were broken and I was like, “Come on you guys, just join reality.” But they were okay. But tonight was fantastic.

Firth: What did you think of the opening acts?

TA: They’re great. The young lady, Felicia Gillespie, she travels with me and she’s an up and coming star and you’ll hear her name a lot and I’m sure she’s going to be doing a lot of colleges. So I like her brand of humor a lot. And I like the young man, I think his name was Ryan, he was excellent. And you can tell he’s been doing this quite a bit, coming out here. And I like the twist with the guitar at the end. So it made for a, we had a variety show kind of tonight. So it made it, I thought it was great. It was a good build up.

Firth: Do you go to a lot of college campuses?

TA: I do a lot of college campuses. It’s funny that I didn’t do this school. A few years ago, I did a bunch of schools in Michigan. I started up in Sault St. Marie and I worked my way all the way back. I did big schools, small schools, but I never made it here because I think I was booked somewhere, so it was great to come back up here. We’ve done three schools in Michigan this week.

Firth: Well we’re glad to have you here!

TA: Thank you! Thank you!

Firth: How long have you been telling jokes?

TA: I’ve been doing comedy now for a total of 10 years, but not ten years straight doing comedy. I had a day job. I worked in advertising sales. I sold for a radio station that used to broadcast the Minnesota Vikings, so I sold there. I worked at a hip hop station for awhile and then when I decided to do comedy, I left the station and started doing temp work, so I could do a temp job and then go on the road. It wasn’t till I was able to get an agent and a manager that I could do it full time. Then I did Last Comic Standing and a lot of college students watch that. That ended up getting me on a lot of conferences, so since then I’ve been doing a lot of colleges and clubs.

Firth: Were you funny growing up?

TA: It’s so funny, cause in school I was funny. My family didn’t know cause, you know, I was raised by preachers, so at home I had to be contained and be on my best behavior. They would be shocked because they would get these phone calls from school, like, “Your niece won’t shut up in class.” I had one teacher, my professor, science professor, he threw me out of class and I wasn’t even talking. I said, “I wasn’t even talking!” and he said, “Well if you weren’t, you were gonna.” That’s how bad I was! He threw me out and I turned around and I just started acting out, like, “I’ma get you. I’ma get you!” and all the students were laughing. I just always liked to make people laugh, so it was something that I knew that I always wanted to and I couldn’t wait for the opportunity.

April — Sexual Assault Awareness month — ended yesterday, and feminist groups were all over trying to spread the word. E5m, a student theater troupe at MSU, put on a performance to showcase the kinds of problems college-aged women, and even men, face with this.

In an attempt to explore what some feminist groups on campus were doing, I spoke with some people to see what they think the flaws for women in society are.

Summer sex moves from those classy people over at Cosmopolitan:

• Stairway to Heaven
• Ladder Lovin’
• Breakin’ the Waves
• Hot Tub Hug
• Deep Water Dare
• The Randy Raft

Yeah, they’re probably all painfully uncomfortable, but hey, you only live once, right?

MSU has over 36,000 undergraduate students, it is located East Lansing, Mich. and it is public and secular.

Tulane University has about 5,500 undergraduate students, it is located in New Orleans, La. and it is private and secular.

Brigham Young University has about 30,000 undergrads, it is located in Provo, Utah, and it is private and religious, owned by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

What would it be like to go to one of these schools? And in comparison, what does it mean to be a Spartan?

Tulane University

Marisa Muniak is a 20-year-old junior at Tulane University who is studying cellular biology. She calls New Orleans “the greatest college town ever” and says she absolutely loves her school, but she isn’t from the city, or from Louisiana, or even from the South – in fact, she was born and raised in Michigan. She attended Boyne City High School, where she graduated in 2007. So why Tulane?

“I had visited New Orleans before and loved the city,” Muniak said. “I grew up in a small little boring city, so actually seeing a huge city with lots of life, it was amazing. And they also had the program I wanted…it was meant to be.”

Tulane is a private school with about 1,500 incoming freshman each year. With about 5,500 undergraduates total, the student to faculty ratio is eight to one, and the average class size is 22 students. There are about 75 majors available and on-campus students live in one of eight residence halls. Tuition along with mandatory fees, such as for the student health and recreation centers, comes to about $42,000 for an academic year.

In her third year now, Muniak lives off-campus after spending her two required years in the dorms. Unlike many students here at MSU who live in housing that is essentially exclusive to students, Muniak and her roommate live in an area where they are the only Tulane students, although their neighbors are Tulane professors. She added that the rest of the people living around them are non-student New Orleans residents.

“But we’re like a five, seven minute walk from campus,” Muniak said. “I’m sure if you were just like one or two blocks off campus there would be a lot more students.”

A five or seven minute walk? To a Tulane student, that might be a long way away, but to an MSU student, it’s probably shorter than a walk between buildings on campus. Five to seven minutes would get you from some of the closest East Lansing apartments to about the Union. So what’s it like going to such a small school?

“I can walk around campus and even though I may not know somebody’s name, or even what year they are or major or anything, it’s still a familiar face,” Muniak said. “And all the workers on campus, they’re all so sweet.”

Muniak said that attitude is part of the southern culture.

“What they say about southern hospitality, it totally exists,” she said. “It’s so different, we make jokes all the time on campus because a lot of us are from the Midwest or the East, we’re always joking about like, ‘Oh, in the North people don’t hold doors open for us.’”

Going to a college that was built in a pre-existing city instead of one that essentially created its own city like MSU has also had an effect on Muniak’s experience. She said she loves the fact that when she’s in New Orleans, not everybody is a student – in fact, most people aren’t. She frequents jazz clubs and other venues for local music, loves southern cooking (red beans and rice is her favorite dish) and has adjusted to a whole new way of life.

“We’re all on New Orleans time down here – things will happen when they happen, and it doesn’t, no worries,” Muniak said. “It’s definitely become something I love.”

She added that college culture is a lot different than at a big state school – freshman usually only go to one or two football games at Tulane before they give up on the team. “Anything [athletic] we do, we’re horrible,” Muniak said. But there are some things that are somewhat universal.

“There’s definitely plenty of partying,” she said. “There’s huge Greek life here. One side of campus – there’s plenty of houses along there and a lot people go to those.”

From nightlife to housing, Muniak’s experience gives an idea of what it’s like to live and study at a relatively small private school located in a big city.

“It’s been a lot of hard work as far as academics, but the environment that I’m in has really made it worth it,” Muniak said. “Knowing I’m going to have a hard exam on Friday but then Saturday I can go and listen to this world-renowned jazz musician – something to look forward to at the end of the road – has been great.”

Brigham Young University

Sabrina Smith is one of the very few African American students on her campus in Provo, Utah. In the fall of 2009, BYU had 29,587 undergraduates. Smith, an elementary music education sophomore and Florida native was one of only 165 African Americans – that’s about 0.5 percent. In comparison, about eight percent of MSU undergraduates in fall of 2009 were African American.

“Utah itself isn’t as diverse as where I’m from,” Smith said. “It’s primarily Caucasian people here…I wish that there was more diversity, but I think that every year it gets a little bit better.”

Smith may be a minority in racial terms, but in another way she is part of the most significant majority population on campus. Like 98.7 percent of students at BYU, Smith is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, also known as the Mormon church.

BYU was founded by Brigham Young himself in 1875, when Young was the president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. According to BYU’s website, Young told the principal of the school at the time, “Brother Maeser, I want you to remember that you ought not to teach even the alphabet or the multiplication tables without the Spirit of God.”

BYU takes that instruction to heart. Religion is incorporated into every aspect of student life, from academics to housing to behavioral guidelines. Fourteen religion credits are required to graduate, which Smith says means students are taking a religion class almost every semester. In addition, religion is a common theme throughout other classes as well.

“Every class is supposed to incorporate the gospel as far as the curriculum allows it to,” Smith said. “So in pretty much any class they can bring up a scripture and associate it with whatever we’re talking about, and in most syllabi you get there will be at least one quote from the scriptures.”

Smith was raised in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (she calls herself LDS), so she said the environment at BYU wasn’t a big change for her. One of the 439 non-LDS students enrolled in the fall of 2009 might have found it hard to adjust to not being able to drink coffee, tea or alcohol or conforming to strict dress and grooming standards. All behavioral standards are explained in BYU’s Honor Code, which requires students to “seek to demonstrate in daily living on and off campus those moral virtues encompassed in the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

This means no alcohol, no sex, no profanity, no beards for the men and no sleeveless shirts for the women, among other things.

“All lot of it has to do with dressing, grooming, which is like how you’re obviously dressing your body and also your hair,” Smith said. “Boys have to keep their hairstyle pretty short, it has to be above their ears and no one, girl or boy can have any kind of drastic hair color or style, and dress is supposed to be modest. On-campus and off-campus you’re not supposed to be using profanity, you’re not supposed to be watching anything that is in appropriate. Basically you’re just saying with the Honor Code that you’re going to uphold the gospel of the church.”

All off-campus housing must be approved by the university as meeting certain living standards and visiting hours are from 9 a.m. to 12 a.m.. No members of the opposite sex are allowed in bedrooms, and no members of the opposite sex are allowed to use bathroom facilities “unless emergency or civility dictates otherwise,” according to the Honor Code. All students must be in good Honor Code standing in order to receive a diploma.

The Honor Code may seem restricting to an outsider, but Smith said following it isn’t that different from simply following the rules of the LDS religion in daily life.

“It’s supposed to be what you’re living your life as anyways if you’re LDS,” Smith said. “And the people I know who aren’t LDS that go to BYU say that it isn’t really that big of an adjustment, because before they came to the school they knew what they were getting into.”

Even with strict behavioral guidelines, Smith said there is a lot that BYU students can do to have fun. Popular activities include going to the dollar theater, the bowling alley or attending one of the frequent university-organized activities.

“There is a lot of partying at BYU, but it’s different,” Smith said. “There isn’t any alcohol, but there isn’t any smoking, so in that respect it’s different. But there are a lot of dance parties and that kind of thing in Provo. There’s a lot of dancing.”

In addition, many male and female students actually do live together –  because they are married. Smith said it is very common for undergraduate students to marry at a young age, something she found very odd when she moved from Florida to Utah.

“Most students I know of get married by the time they graduate BYU, and that’s pretty standard,” Smith said. “There are lots of people in my classes who are engaged or married and I’m only a sophomore, so they’re about my same age, about 19 or 20.”

In spite of the cultural adjustment, Smith said she has enjoyed her time at BYU so far.

“I’m in the music program, so I really like the music aspect,” Smith said. “There are so many classes on music you can take, and they’re all very interesting. I also like that in any class you can have a gospel-centered discussion and that’s open. In some universities you can’t really bring up religion that much, and at BYU it’s very open.”

Michigan State University

We all know the basics about MSU. Over 47,000 students, non-religious, public. Great athletic programs, hundreds of possible majors and even more student organizations. The majority of us are from Michigan, so we grew up cheering on the Spartans in football and basketball, maybe even visiting friends or siblings on campus. We know what life is like here – what to expect from our classes, what clubs and organizations are most popular, what students tend to do on the weekends. But what does MSU look like to someone who didn’t grow up around this environment?

Rosie Williamson, a 20-year-old arts and humanities sophomore from New Jersey said she toured over 20 colleges, including Ohio State University, Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania State University before deciding on MSU. She chose MSU for several reasons, including the respected Spartan Marching Band in which she plays the trumpet, the location and the campus itself.

“It’s just one of the prettiest campuses I’ve ever visited,” Williamson said. “It’s so lush green, and the fact that we get all the seasons – I know everyone hates the snow, but I love the snow.”

The East Coast-native said that moving to the Midwest was definitely an adjustment.

“New Jersey and New York are very fast-paced and really loud and kind of have jagged edges everywhere, and the Midwest doesn’t,” Williamson said. “Even the major cities like Chicago, it’s got the charm of New York City, but it’s slower and nicer and cleaner.”

Gabe Santi, director of communications in the MSU Office of Admissions, and a graduate from the MSU School of Journalism, also emphasized the attitude of MSU students, faculty and staff as one of the best things about the university.

“One hundred and fifty years ago to go to college you had to be rich, you had to be white, you had to be male,” Santi said. “And Michigan State being the nation’s pioneer land-grant institution kind of changed that a little…Down-to-earth, hardworking, real, authentic, tangible – those are the words that come to mind when people talk about Michigan State and there’s a reason for that and it’s certainly because of the history of this place, but it’s also a testament to the current student body – people get that Spartan tradition. We use the word Spartan family a lot. It’s a large institution, but when you get right down to it, it’s a pretty close-knit place.”

Williamson agreed that in spite of MSU’s large size, the university has a small-town feel to it, which was another of the factors that attracted her to the university, in addition to the fact that MSU is a Big Ten school.

“I absolutely love the athletics at this school,” Williamson said. “I love the spirit that this school has for all the athletics, whether or not people attend. At least people are watching it and talking about it – I think that’s really great.”

Santi added that it is the Spartan spirit that tends to bond people together, whether it is current students, professors or alumni.

“Once you’re on campus and you interact this place a little, you start to bleed green,” Santi said. “It’s going to be with you for the rest of your life. You’re going to see people throughout the country, throughout the world and you’re going to have that instant bond…I think there is something a little indescribable that’s part of this place, that’s kind of just woven into the fabric of its founding.”

Sometimes traveling along is more dangerous than laying on a beach (photo credit: sxc.hu).

Last year, for the first time, over half of MSU students relocated outside of Michigan for a job said Karin Hanson, a Communication Arts and Sciences field career consultant. “Usually 50 percent of our students relocate, but last year we reached 51 percent,” she said.

If offered an interview or position at their dream job some students wonder if it will be worth making the move alone to a new place. It can be scary, confusing and sometime lonely, but overwhelmingly the response is yes.

“Jump in head first, even if you’re unsure, because you never know what is going to happen,” said acting and advertising senior Matt Kaufmann. “You’re going to work out if you have a good work ethic.”

Hanna Kleiner, child life senior, agrees.

“If you are questioning it, at least go and try it. If worse comes to worst you can leave and go home,” she said.

Antonio Gentile, civil engineering junior, compared his experience to a study abroad trip, which thousands of Spartans go on every summer.

“An internship in a new place is a chance to enjoy life,” he said. “It’s like a study abroad thing; take as much from it as you can.”

In most cases, the opportunities and benefits outweigh the worries that students have.

“The best parts of moving are the new people and change of pace,” said Gentile who moved to Texas for an internship. “It’s like a new life because you can start over fresh. And I liked the weather, too.”

In Kleiner’s opinion the best part was meeting new people and having new experiences.

“Also, it’s fun when you actually get to see what the city has to offer,” she said. “Nashville has so much. The worst part is that you want someone you know to share those experiences with. Sometimes you get lonely, but that doesn’t last for long.”

Kaufmann, who lived in New York City last summer, experienced the same feeling.

“If you are going to a big city just be prepared,” he said. “No one gives a shit about you, and that can be very intimidating. Just know that you have to put on your thickest skin, and it takes a while to get comfortable.”

But once you start to get comfortable a strange city can feel like home.

“It wasn’t until the end of the summer, but I had a routine and friends that I would always call,” he said. “Just give it time.”

It helps to have friends or family around when you are getting acquainted to a new place, but it’s not necessary.

“I had one roommate, and that was the only negative part of my trip,” Gentile said. “I didn’t know the guys that I would be living with, and I did not get along with one of them. He was a religious nut. And when I would call home my friends would be busy. I could understand, but that’s when it would get lonely down there.”

Hanson said that career services does a great job of matching students with alumni organizations in new cities. “Knowing alumni can make the transition easier because MSU has connections and resources around the country and even the world,” she said.

Alumni can help build you network wherever you decide to move. They can also give advice and help students select neighborhoods and housing. This year, the Chicago Alumni Association is throwing a huge event to welcome students who are relocating and get connected in the area.

It is also beneficial to make connections with coworkers like Gentile did to combat the bad roommate he had been assigned.

“The guys at my job really liked me because I could always make them laugh,” he said. “I adjusted really well to life down there because I like meeting new people, and every place you go is different, so it’s interesting to see the kind of people you meet.”

When moving to an unfamiliar city and traveling alone for the move or interview, it is very important to be safe. Just because you have stayed safe in East Lansing doesn’t mean other cities are similar. Traveling for an interview can be some student’s first experience traveling alone, and it is a good idea to take some precautions.

“I am pretty comfortable traveling alone because I do it about six times a year,” said Britt Hegarty, accounting senior who traveled to Chicago to interview with Price Waterhouse Coopers. “I definitely take a lot of precaution, though. I am more aware of my surroundings because you never know who is at an airport. You also want to make sure all of your personal information is taken care if, just in case it gets stolen, you want to be able to get to your location.”

Kleiner also made sure she was aware of her surroundings and also kept her boarding pass, luggage and purse close to her at all times.

“I made sure that I was checking the departure and arrival times on the TVs because I was alone and didn’t want to miss my flight,” she said.

Boarding the plane is only half the battle. Once landed, students must find a way to their hotel or interview destination. This may be riskier for women travelers who can become an easy target for criminals when traveling alone.

“If you’re in a taxi, you want to have an idea of where you are, especially if you are a girl,” Hegarty said. “If you feel like someone is taking you to a weird location, you want to be on higher alert and be able to describe where you are. That is the most important thing: to be alert enough to describe where you are.”

Kaufmann agrees that girls have a lot to worry about when traveling or living alone.

“There’s a heightened statistic that women get taken advantage of, but in New York City it’s such a diverse place. It would be easy for me to get put in the same situation, masculine and feminine men are different. Also, girls are more likely to get help than men if they are being attacked.”

Either way, it is important to get in the habit of traveling safely because many MSU students will soon become business professionals that are asked to travel for their jobs.

Forbes.com reported that many business travelers think they are traveling safe but are not. They have offered some tips that may come as a surprise to some people.

First, secure your home. Many people don’t think they will need to take this step, but something as simple as a few lights left on or an alarm system sticker on the front window can deter burglars from entering your home.

Don’t get absorbed in phone calls or texting while traveling because when you’re immersed in something you exclude everyone around you and are setting yourself up as a prey.

“Criminals strike most when people aren’t paying attention,” Forbes.com warns.

For women travelers, Forbes.com suggests buying an inexpensive portable lock for hotel room doors. The device can attach to the strike plate and slide over the door knob, which keeps it in place. This may be a good precaution.

“Female business travelers need to be extra cautious since they are perceived as more vulnerable than men,” according to Forbes.com.

Finally, don’t connect to an unsecure network at an airport. Hackers can set up these networks just to steal passwords and information from travelers. Surprisingly, many travelers don’t see this as a threat.

If you are still not convinced to try something new this summer, take Gentile’s advice.

“Be open-minded and stay positive. If something gets to you, just remember that it is temporary. If you like change and meeting new people, go for it.”

Hanson agreed and said she hasn’t met a student who wouldn’t travel to a new city again. She also urges students to remember that being flexible can only help your career, and you will always learn something from the experience.

“There is a risk associated with doing it, but it is an experience to build upon,” she said.

Kleiner sums it up best when she said, “there are so many new experiences that you can have, if you don’t go you’ll never know they are out there.”

So go forth Spartans, and enjoy your new summer experiences. Just remember to travel safe while getting there.

According to a review by Ann Hornaday for The Washington Post, Rock was inspired to make the film after one of his young daughters asked why she didn’t have good hair.

Chris Rock's documentary focused on the pressure for black people to have "good hair" (photo credit: sxc.hu).

“The concept of ‘good hair’ — which, simply put, has come to mean ‘the straighter the better’ in the African American community,” Hornaday wrote.

So, what really is good hair?

“Healthy hair is good hair,” said Rhonda Stokes, owner of Rhonda’s Reflectiosn Styling Salon in Lansing. ” Hair comes in all different textures; no texture is better than the other.  And it depends on the individual.  But for most African American women, good hair is healthy hair.”

Stokes said that African American hair requires more effort and attention to keep it healthy.   She has clients that come in to get their hair done as often as once a week, because they are unable to style it themselves or would prefer that a professional style it.

Hair is an important beauty priority because women want to look their best, Stokes said.

According to Stokes, as long as it is nice and neat, it is beautiful.

“I would say the most beautiful styles would be styles that are nice and neat,” she said.  ”Whether it’s short, long, or even natural.  Something that’s beautiful and every hair is in place…something that looks like you take care of your hair.”

At Michigan State University, young African American women wear their hair based on their own personal preference.

LaTrice Davis, an advertising senior, prefers to wear her hair straight using a pressing comb and a flat iron.  She said that she has her hair styled about every two weeks, which costs about $45 per visit.  She then wraps her hair at night in a silk scarf to preserve the style from getting frizzy.

Davis said having her hair styled bi-weekly is not always possible on a college budget, so sometimes she waits longer in between hair appointments or finds a friend to style her hair for her.

Long hair is a desired style, whether it is straightened or curled with a curling iron, is seen as attractive to men, Davis said.

“In the African American community, beauty…correlates to having longer hair, which is why a lot of black girls get hair extensions,” she said.  ”Because having long hair makes them look a lot better to….most guys.  They prefer girls with really long hair.”

However, more natural styles like locks are another way of having beautiful hair, Davis said.

“Most of my friends…that have locks…which are dreadlocks or forms of dreadlocks, they are more like earthy…they are content with themselves and they don’t believe in straightening their hair,” she said. “And they feel that having natural hair is more beautiful.”

Susah McPherson, a senior studying interdisciplinary studies in social science, wears her hair in locks, which she has re-twisted once a month and ties her hair up at night.

McPherson said that while she prefers to wear her hair in a natural, low-maintenance style, having beautiful hair is dependent on personal preference.

“I think it’s to each his or her own,” she said.  ”It depends on what the person prefers.  I am an advocate for natural hair, but if you want to add artificial hair to your hair, and that makes you happy and that adds to your beauty, then go right ahead.”

According to McPherson, hair can be representative of personal style in the African American community.

“It represents a person’s style, who they are, their identity,” she said.  ”It shows how you… value your looks and yourself, if you put a lot of time into your hair and maintenance.  To someone else it may seem like it is not maintained or styled to their liking.  But to that person it could be styled how they like it and it fits them well.”

According to Davis, beauty associated with hair is also a personal viewpoint.

“I have a cousin who has locks and she puts lock’s in her daughter’s hair, because she believes that’s what beauty is, because it makes you natural,” Davis said.  ”It’s not chemically processing your hair.  It’s not straightening your hair.”

Although society may have standards that explain what good hair is, it’s the wearer’s opinion that’s important, whether the person wears their hair straight, in locks, or another style.

“They are just two different…styles that come with two different mindsets,” Davis said.

Products with natural ingredients line the walls at Douglas J Aveda Institute in downtown East Lansing (photo credit: Emily Lawler).

Douglas J Aveda Institute, 331 E. Grand River Ave., sells beauty products made from 95 percent plant ingredients, said Kate House, a Douglas J guest services coach. “There’s no plastics, synthetics, things like that,” she said. “People in their lives are trying to become more green. This is a way they can switch their beauty regimens over to a more sustainable product.”

Evan Miller, director of global communications for beauty products manufacturer Aveda, said its products are not certified as organic, but use as many natural ingredients as possible. According to Aveda’s website, it also has agreements with organic ingredient providers in Peru, Bulgaria, South Africa, Australia and Morocco. “We have a mission … to not only provide people with the most high-performing products possible, but to be as environmentally friendly as possible,” he said. “Aveda’s philosophy is that you shouldn’t put anything on your body … that you wouldn’t consider putting in your body or back into the earth.”

House said customers who use natural products see a difference over time, such as less build-up in their hair. “The ingredients are all water-soluble, so every time you wash your hair they all wash out,” she said. “Most people, once you use it, end up using mostly Aveda products. A lot of people come here primarily because it’s an Aveda salon.”

Some of the ingredients in the cosmetics come from traditional communities in the Amazon rainforest. The company has relationships with traditional communities around the world, especially in South America, and has been working with the Yawanawa tribe in Nova Esperanca, a town in the Brazilian rainforest, for 17 years.

“The founder of Aveda went to a summit about climate change in Rio de Janeiro” where he learned about rainforest destruction, Miller said. “What he learned was the Brazilian government was stealing [traditional tribes’] land.” The Yawanawa originally owned 200,000 acres of rainforest land. Miller said Aveda sent the tribe’s Chief, Tashka, to college so he could learn how to defend his tribe’s rights in court. The Yawanawa now have about 160,000, some of which had already been cleared for development. Now, the Yawanawa used the land that was already cleared for urukum, a nut containing a red pigment they use for sun protection. Miller said the urukum is useful for products with sunscreen or red coloring in them.

“We’ve provided them with a sustainable economy,” he said. “We’re helping communities in other parts of the world remain self-sustaining. … We want to not only help ourselves run a successful business, we want to help other people.” He said in addition to providing the urukum trees and jobs for the people who harvest the nuts, Aveda helped to build a pharmacy there. “We’re not just looking to buy an ingredient and leave,” he said.

This natural product features tea (photo credit: Emily Lawler).

Another traditional group with which Aveda has an agreement is a women’s cooperative in Maranhao, Brazil. Miller said the company found the babassu nuts the women harvest in 1996, while looking for a new ingredient for soap and shampoo. “We started looking for an alternative to some of the ingredients in our products that are petroleum-based,” he said. The women’s cooperative had formed before Aveda’s involvement, in response to threats to the women’s traditional way of life. “People … were burning sections of the forest to raise cattle on,” Miller said. “It was the women that actually fought back. They lobbied … and there was a law called the Free Nut Law” which gave forest-dwelling peoples the right to gather nuts and protected the land where they live from development.

Miller said Aveda agrees to pay traditional communities a fair price for ingredients, but he does not consider the agreements to be part of the fair trade movement. “We work as directly as possible with these people to get the products,” said Miller. “The people get all the additional benefits of us helping them economically and socially.”

Still, House said sustainable products are more expensive than others. She said Douglas J’s business dipped with the economy as customers bought fewer products. “It is more expensive, but it’s also a lot better for you,” she said. “Ultimately [our customers] understand that the difference is worth it.” She said, despite display boards highlighting traditional communities, the sustainability is probably not a major motivation for customers who buy their products. “The average guest coming in here probably doesn’t understand the depth of the commitment,” she said.

Jessica Wendlandt, a junior majoring in landscape architecture, said sustainability is one factor she considers when buying beauty products. “I like the fact they’re made of all-natural products. I think they’re good quality too, so that’s why I buy them,” she said, adding that she doesn’t buy them often because of the cost.

Jessica Stull, of Ada, Ohio, who was visiting friends in East Lansing, said sustainability is not usually something she considers when buying beauty products. “Most of the time I just buy name brands,” she said. “I’d rather buy the stuff here than go to WalMart and buy their products.”

The MSU Union has a very large Twitter presence (photo credit: Emily Lawler).

MSU has 119 recognized Twitter feeds belonging to colleges, student groups, schools, buildings and other entities. In theory, each feed is “specialized” — relating to a specific interest of a specific campus demographic. But it turns out that the less specific Twitter feeds may be the most successful.

According to Rachael Zylstra, an electronic media communications specialist with University Relations, there are two official campus-wide Twitter feeds run by University Relations: michiganstateu and MSUnews. The rest fall into “niche” categories that appeal to people of different majors, interests and locations.

But it turns out that some of those niches are more specialized than others.

“Have you seen the renovation at Brody yet? Check it out on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lsv03LU4vdk Really cool stuff!”

You’d expect that tweet to come from a Brody resident, or maybe a residence hall’s Twitter feed. But that tweet was from the MSUUnion, and so are a whole lot of other ones.

When compared with the 16 Twitter accounts representing either colleges or buildings at MSU and all the ReTweets or @ messages in the month of March, the Union was at the center of all the activity. The most other feeds mentioned it, and it mentioned the most other feeds.

This represents how the 16 colleges and buildings on campus have connected through @ messages and ReTweets on Twitter. Bigger nodes indicate more connectivity, and bigger lines indicate more tweets between specific actors (graphic credit: Zachary P. Neal).

“I’m a little amazed by the diagram,” said Kat Cooper, who runs the Union feed singlehandedly.

Cooper works for Auxiliary Resources, a Department of the Division of Residential and Hospitality Services. When the feed started a year and a half ago, she said she wanted it to be a virtual place to get information.

“A student union is really the living room of a campus,” said Cooper. “It’s where you get info and go to events and communicate with other students. Our mission with a twitter feed is to create that sense as well.”

Being a generalist has served the Union well. It boasts 1,686 followers, more than either of the official general MSU Twitter feeds or any specialist college.

“I knew that we were among one of the more popular feeds aside from athletics, but I guess the connectivity I was unaware of,” said Cooper.

But in the world of Twitter as with business, networks are key. According to those who study networks, MSUUnion isn’t just popular. It holds a lot of power.

Imagine you’re a dude with a bunch of dude friends and one cousin that’s a Victoria’s Secret model.

That’s what Ron Burt, a business professor at University of Chicago, termed an “open triangle” relationship; you know your dude friend and you know your cousin, but they don’t know each other. That puts you in a position of being able to demand free drinks at your buddy’s parties or his physics notes from last semester in exchange for introducing him to your cousin.

It’s not that the Union is in the market for free drinks, but it has become a central actor in the whole MSU Twitter scene, giving it a lot of social capital. Since the Union interacts with the Breslin Center, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources and Olin and none of those interact with each other, you want the Union as your friend. That way you can be virtually “introduced” to all of those other feeds through ReTweets and @ messages.

Graphic credit: Brianna Ritivoy

But for some university entities, Twitter is less of a networking tool than a Public Relations (PR) mechanism. Wharton Center, for instance, has incorporated their Twitter account into their main website and also had it broadcast to two electronic billboards.

“It’s certainly become a very valuable resource to communicate with patrons but also a good way to spread our name across the country,” said Victor Hamburger, director of marketing at Wharton Center.

But he says there’s a lot of value in the personal connection with patrons messaging the center as well. According to Stanford Sociologist Mark Granovetter, that’s the best kind of connections to have: a mix of strong (personal messages) and weak (everybody on the highway sees Tweets on a billboard).

Communication Arts & Sciences (CAS) is at the center of a “twitter triangle” between the Union, Physical Plant and College of Social Science, and all four entities are strongly connected.

The reason CAS is central in the “strong” Twitter actors may be its combined use of Twitter as a tool for personal connection and PR. According to the college’s Communications Manager, Kirsten Khire, the college has made strong connections with individual students and alumni via Twitter. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have another purpose.

“I see value in the Public Relations sense, because we’re obviously having great conversations with our target audience on all kinds of topics,” said Khire.

The Communication Arts & Sciences Twitter feed is essentially playing both specialist and generalist in trying to find, @ message and link to the broadest variety of things that are of interest to its target audience of its students and alumni.

“There’s still some criteria there,” said Khire. She said the feed mainly ReTweets things “related to our college or related to our audiences.”

Some feeds are expanding into contests and questions that make interaction with users a stronger prospect. And according to Khire, Twitter isn’t in anybody’s job description. University entities usually have Twitter accounts because somebody took it upon themselves.

“It [Twitter] is important, especially with the college demographic,” said Zylstra of university Twitter feeds. And she’s part of a four-person social media team with University Relations — Twitter is in her job description.

Like anything, the more time a person puts into Twitter, the more they get out of it. Excepting star power (this means you, MSU_Basketball), the more a person generates content and @ messages and ReTweets, the more followers they have. And the more followers, the more “open triangles” and important connections.

So next time you’re messing around on Twitter during class, remember that the connections you’re making —  weak and strong –might be important. They may lead to a job. And directly or indirectly, Twitter can lead to jobs or connections you’ve never had. Maybe it’s time to re-think whether or not social networking is “wasting time.”