Today’s weather forecast is predicting some sun in the morning with increasing clouds during the afternoon with a high of 41 degrees and a low of 27 degrees.
Though Feb. 14 is most commonly recognized as Valentine’s Day, one national effort that falls on ‘love day’ is beginning to gain more traction all across America. Frederick Douglass’ birthday, also known as Douglass Day, is a day when people celebrate and honor the life of Frederick Douglass and the letters that the many people of the 19th century composed to the public figure.
These letters were written to Frederick Douglass by peers, colleagues and everyday people. In efforts to make these letters more recognizable and accessible, Michigan State, along with many other institutions around the country, have partnered to create the “Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon.”
The main goal of this event is to have people from the community transcribe all 8,731 pages of Douglass’ received letters and writings in one day.
This event, which was hosted last Wednesday afternoon at the MSU Library, brought in a flurry of participants. Participants could also help themselves to baked goods from the Sweet Encounters bakery to celebrate Douglass’ birthday.
While the Douglass Day Transcribe-a-thon has been an annual event for over the past half-decade at many institutions, this was the first year that Michigan State participated.
Martha Brill Olcott, leading scholar in central-Asia and post-Soviet politics, dies at 74
Martha Brill Olcott, 74, a professor in the James Madison College, died on Feb. 5 in her home surrounded by family. Olcott was a leading scholar with an assortment of knowledge and involvement in nationality issues in Central Asia and the USSR as well as Muslim studies.
The news of Olcott’s passing was sent out in an email on behalf of JMC Dean Cameron Thies on Thursday, Feb. 8. The email offered condolences to Olcott’s family and called her “an especially fine mentor.”
Prior to working at MSU, Olcott taught at Colgate University from 1974 to 2002 and served as a consultant to former Secretary of State Lawrence Eagleburger. She was also named as a Director of the Central Asian American Enterprise Fund by former president Bill Clinton.
Her expertise and experience eventually led her to a position as a senior associate of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, where she worked with former dean of James Madison College Sherman Garnett, another senior associate.
Olcott also had a large role in The Living Archive, a grant-funded JMC digital archive that preserves Soviet-era newspapers, political pamphlets, videos and personal papers. The goal of the project was to better understand the factors that led to the USSR falling apart.
According to the college-wide email from the dean, a celebration of Olcott’s contributions to Eurasian and Muslim studies is being planned for late spring or early summer.
Community members rally against gun violence at Michigan Capitol
Students Demand Action and Sit Down MSU rallied against gun violence at the Lansing Capitol last Thursday, exactly a year after their first sit-down protest following the Feb. 13, 2023 MSU shooting.
Before she founded Sit Down MSU, psychology senior Maya Manuel said that she knew very little about gun violence or gun legislation. The Feb. 13, 2023 shooting sparked her passion for gun safety.
Since last Feb. 13, four new gun safety bills have been signed into law. Governor Whitmer signed the Extreme Risk Protection Order in May, which can temporarily remove weapons from households with an individual in crisis. Michigan is expanding universal background checks, requiring guns to be properly stored. This state is also instituting a red-flag law, preventing guns from falling into the hands of individuals in crisis.
Based on original reporting by Kaspar Haehnle, Jack Williams and Willow Symonds.
