No new State News; cows still rule campus

Jim Rose Rose Beef

Yep, it's another Wednesday in East Lansing.

You might think things would be a little bit different this week - what with the Spartans preparing to play Michigan on Saturday - but, in fact, nothing's changed in and around what might be the best Agricultural College in Ingham County. Fourteen wayward sixth-year seniors guard Sparty with eggs and BB guns. Johnny Spirit is waving his pom-pons in the face of four terrified freshmen girls. An aroma of manure wafts gently in from Munn Field.

Ahh, East Lansing.

It's really too bad that this year's game is in Ann Arbor - it's so much more fun when the Wolverines win in Spartan Stadium. Inside the Big House, victory for the host is expected. Humdrum, even. Happens most weeks. It'd happen even more if Michigan State came to town every week.

Actually, Ann Arbor gets a bit of an unfair reputation on this one. State students think the city is boring. "No parties," they say. The fact of the matter is, there are plenty of parties in Ann Arbor - Michigan students just tend not to burn furniture during them. So they don't make the nightly news.

"Everyone's studying," they say. Well, it's all relative, I say. Truthfully, I can understand the Michigan State point of view on this one. Why would any Spartan study? How much practice do you need to learn how to milk a cow?

And when the neighbors down in Ann Arbor are always doing the important things - building computers, designing skyscrapers, making the sling that Mateen Cleaves wears on his shoulder - why even try to compete? Better for the average Michigan State undergrad to concentrate on more practical uses of time - finding the computer's "ON" switch, for example, or building sturdy loft ladders, or carrying Cleaves' books for him because his shoulder's in a sling.

This year, more than ever, East Lansing suffers a serious hit. Munn Field, formerly Home of the Big Ten's Best Tailgate Parties, has been relegated to Munn Field, Home of the Big Ten's Worst Intramural Football Teams (ask State News staffers about last year's debacle against The Michigan Daily).

Last spring, in a well-planned show of unity normally seen only in groups such as the Michigan Militia, State students rose up in protest of the unfair Munn ruling. Bound and determined to show president Peter McPherson once and for all that, Yes, Michigan State students are mature enough to rally together responsibly with safety in mind, hundreds of Spartans did what they do every weeknight: They threw a party. A good-old, East Lansing, in-the-streets, video-cameras-rolling party.

This time, however, they did it with the police.

The police weren't necessarily invited, per se, but they sure became a part of it once they started getting hit with glass bottles, pig troughs and cattle prods.

Now, I don't know much, but I've seen my fair share of protests here in Ann Arbor - and generally, inciting the local police force is not the best way to go about creating change. You might try writing slogans in chalk.

And so, with personal safety now an issue in East Lansing (not to mention the smell), I suppose it is a good thing, after all, that the game is in Ann Arbor this weekend.

And with two full weeks to prepare - the Spartans didn't play last week - there's a good chance that several Michigan State grads will remember to ask their bosses at McDonald's or Burger King for the day off on Sept. 26.

- Jim Rose is proud to live in Ann Arbor, and can be reached at jwrose@umich.edu

09-23-98