Downtown EL shop workers talk student and customer mask habits

As mask mandates are rescinded and the weather is beginning to break, some shop employees in downtown East Lansing have noticed a change in the student population’s mask-wearing habits.

For Moosejaw employee Leah Ring, masking hasn’t been a requirement at Moosejaw since October 2021.

She said the amount of people coming into the store masked or unmasked is negligible.
“For the most part, we don’t have many students come in – we have a lot of regulars and locals that come in a lot,” Ring said. “They, on occasion, do and don’t (wear masks). It’s kind of a mix, but mostly they don’t wear masks.”

While some businesses do not have a strict policy on masking, store owners and front shopkeepers have their own comfort levels when addressing shoppers without masks, Quark! employee Levi Jaroszewicz (yur-a-so-vitz)said.

Jaroszewicz said “I do feel comfortable even though the amount of people not wearing masks has increased slightly.”

Meet Jon Vsetecka: The Fulbright scholar who had to flee Ukraine

When John Vsetecka arrived in Ukraine this October, his only objective was to finish his dissertation on the history of famine in Soviet Ukraine, and to travel.

The Fulbright student is enrolled at Michigan State University, in pursuit of a doctoral degree in history. Instead, Vsetecka found himself in the midst of a war zone.

Vsetecka has been studying Ukrainian politics and history for years, only to live through a part of it when Russia invaded Ukraine in February.

“Bombings were taking place just a few blocks from where I lived,” Vsetecka said. “I’m not actually sure if the apartment that I was living in is still there.”

Three weeks after returning to Ukraine from a holiday, Vsetecka was evacuated. “That night I got the message that we were going to have to leave in two days. … In 72 hours, I had to basically clean up my life in Ukraine and get out of there,” Vsetecka said.

This was the start of a chaotic few weeks that were full of uncertainty, Vsetecka said. He arrived back in Lansing at the end of March, having to leave many people that he cared about.

While Vsetecka said he is worried about those he had to leave in Ukraine, he also said, “There’s a lot of resolve in those people. They’re very brave, but they’re stubborn. They have to be. Look at what happened, look at their history.”

MSU Track’s Morgan Beadlescomb begins final championship pursuit with a memorable Spartan Invite victory

Since the indoor championships, Beadlescomb has been resting and preparing for the final run for gold in his long collegiate career. The first step in gearing up for competitive racing again was Saturday’s race and standing in the way was fellow distance runner and friend John Petruno.

Petruno, who set the program record for the men’s 1500m last week in Raleigh, ran with Beadlescomb in heat one. The two spend lots of time in practice competing against each other and believe that the friendly competition has helped bring the best out of both of them.

I’ve been saying all week, I broke the school record last week,” Petruno said. “I’ve been joking all week. He’s gonna take it from me this weekend. The weather didn’t exactly let us do that today.”

On Saturday, Beadlescomb ended up on top of the friendly battle. After teammate Alex Penski served as a “rabbit” for the race and set a breakneck pace for the runners, Beadlescomb and Petruno broke away from the pack and stayed with each other stride for the first 1400 meters of the race.

In the final stretch, Beadlescomb turned on the burners and pulled away to finish with a time of 3:42.81, while Petruno finished second with a time of 3:43.18 and his record still intact.

Based on original reporting by Claire Grant, Raenu Charles and Jared Ramsey. Script by Shakyra Mabone.