How do Facebook messages and text messages affect the way that we communicate? How does that communication affect our relationships? Stephanie Tong, assistant professor of communications at Wayne State University, discusses her studies regarding how people initiate, maintain and terminate relationships using computer-mediated communication.

Dara O'Byrne grew up in Grosse Pointe Park but found her calling in the City of Detroit. She had been passionate about environmental issues throughout her childhood and after high school won a cancer research internship at Wayne State University. "That's where I got engaged in the urban environment," O'Byrne says. An opportunity arose through the Detroit Revitalization Fellows program -- a Wayne State University project (funded by Kresge Foundation, Ford Foundation, Hudson-Webber Foundation, the Skillman Foundation and Wayne State) that matches rising professionals with organizations working at the forefront of Detroit revitalization efforts. O'Byrne is one of 29 Fellows, chosen from a field of 647 applicants from across the country. She's now working with the City's Planning and Development Department to update design standards for commercial streets as part of the effort to revitalize Detroit's neighborhoods.

The Michigan Reading Association (MRA) honored the Taylor Reading Corps (TRC) with its statewide agency award during the MRA's winter conference and convention in Grand Rapids earlier this month. Now in its second year, the TRC has sought to aid Taylor School District pupils at the preschool and lower-elementary school level. It started recruiting, training and supervising adult reading volunteers last year, beginning on the kindergarten level. Through a partnership with Wayne State University, which analyzes data from the TRC program each year, last year's results indicated that pupils involved in the corps' mentoring program "closed the gap" on their more academically ready peers in the school system. Kate Roberts, assistant professor of Reading, Language and Literature at Wayne State, is scheduled to analyze the TRC data each year to add objective, third-party creditability to the program's results.

When Patrick Hannah entered Wayne State University in 2008, he had a vague notion of finding a career that would somehow help veterans. Little did he suspect he would accomplish his goal - several times over - before graduation. Hannah, 49, a retired Marine from Wyandotte, rejuvenated a student veteran group, cajoled the school into opening a resource center and helped develop mentoring, tutoring and psychological counseling programs. He did all that while working on his bachelor's degree and then a master's degree in social work, which he will receive in a few weeks. Wayne State, like other colleges, is seeing an influx of veterans after the wars in Iran and Afghanistan. But many vets drop out, failing to adjust to academia. The center, which offers mentors, tutors and counselors, has started to pay off. The graduation rate of veterans, is 43 percent at Wayne State, according to a school study this month, compared with 15 percent to 35 percent at other schools.

A promo links back to an earlier story published last January discussing the release of the Top Ten words in 2013 by Wayne State University's Word Warriors. You might not be tossing buncombe or persiflage into regular conversation - but you could and maybe should! Wayne State University published the Word Warriors' 2013 Top 10 list - a tribute to the diversity of the English language - to highlight words that its linguistic team feels should be saved from the brink of extinction. To liven up your next conversation, check out Save the words! Language lovers campaign to revive old timey terms! Describing the purpose behind the Word Warriors' efforts, Jerry Herron, Wayne State University dean of the Honors College, said: "We want people to take full advantage of the extraordinary richness of the English language. The world of our experience is only as interesting as our capability to communicate it, to describe it."

The Detroit Economic Growth Corporation (DEGC) says it has the support of 11 "significant" companies and four anchor institutions as it launches a website to boost Detroit-to-Detroit trade. DEGC says the combined group represents $550 million in goods and services from local suppliers. Participants include Wayne State University, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Comerica Bank, Compuware, Detroit Medical Center, Detroit Lions, DTE Energy, Ernst & Young, Greektown Casino, Henry Ford Health System, Quicken Loans, Skidmore Studios, Strategic Staffing Solutions, Urban Science and University of Detroit Mercy. The website and initiative, dubbed D2D, partners with Pure Michigan Business Connect database, in which businesses can be listed in a directory for Detroit- and Michigan-based companies.

Mike Smith, UAW archivist at Wayne State University's Walter P. Reuther Library, commented in a story about the 1936 sitdown strike at General Motors - in light of the passage of right-to-work in Michigan. Will history repeat itself in a right-to-work Michigan? "I don't know if we are destined to repeat history. The only thing that history does tell you is that things change," said Smith. He said the sitdown strike of 1936 was a well-planned reaction to an increase in the speed of an assembly line by a post-depression General Motors - when older workers were unprotected. Smith believes that right-to-work laws will push today's unions to prove themselves. "I think the unions can make a strong case … especially where we see certain instances where companies do abuse workers."

Justice Marilyn Kelly, who served for 16 years on the state's top court, will bring what she has learned over her illustrious career to the halls of her alma mater. She has joined the faculty of Wayne State University Law School as its first "distinguished jurist in residence." "We are honored to have Justice Kelly join the Wayne Law faculty," Dean Jocelyn Benson said. "Both our students and faculty will benefit from the judge sharing her years of expertise and experiences with us. She will be a tremendous asset for the Law School, as she has been for the state." A 1971 alumna of Wayne State University Law School, Kelly, 74, is prevented from running again for the Michigan Supreme Court by the state Constitution, which bars judicial candidates over the age of 70 from running for office. In 2010, Kelly was recognized with a WSU Distinguished Alumni Award, having already been granted an honorary doctorate by the Law School, one of three she has received from Michigan universities. "I look forward to this," Kelly told faculty assembled for an informal luncheon in her honor. "It's an opportunity to be creative. It seems a natural fit to me that I should come back here."

Five Arab American Wayne State University students spent their spring break in Honduras working on projects that bring relief to impoverished people, such as revitalizing current infrastructure and establishing an entirely new framework to improve the quality of life in rural areas. The projects included dam construction, trench digging, installation of piping systems, conduction lines, distribution networks residential connections, but the most important was educating locals, not only on water safety, but also to physically show them how to operate and maintain the new water systems in order to sustain long term water quality that meets or exceeds United Nations Environment Program standards. The students are the founders of the WSU National Student Water Association (NSWA). NSWA is led by WSU Faculty Advisor Dr. Silas Norman, Jr., associate dean of admissions, diversity and inclusion, at Wayne State University's School of Medicine.

What Action should the U.S. Take in Syria? Wayne State University Lecturer, Saeed Khan, joined Craig Fahle to ponder where the latest events in Syria may take the U.S., and the implications. The conversation also expands to issues in Iran, Israel and Palestine.

An extensive story discusses the effort of public employee unions to secure long-term contracts with higher education institutions, school districts and local units of government before the state's right-to-work law takes effect on March 28. Wayne State University ratified an eight-year contract Wednesday even as the legislature threatened to respond by pushing its state aid down to a level last seen in 1987. Moving forward with the contract was a difficult decision, President Allan Gilmour said, but the right decision because of the contract's value to the university and uncertainty about whether the threatened reductions will actually become law. Gilmour said the contract includes high-priority changes involving a new performance evaluation system and merit pay that the university has been trying to get the union to agree to for years. "Oddly enough, the right-to-work legislation helped on this because the union had something that they wanted us to give on," he said, referring to the eight-year length of the contract. The contract includes annual 1.25 percent raises with up to an additional 1.25 percent for high-performers. But if the university's funding is lower than expected in the second half of the contract, the university has three opportunities to lower the raises unilaterally. The union also agreed to higher health insurance co-pays and deductibles.

Dave Hecker, president of the Michigan chapter of the American Federation of Teachers, opined about the House Republicans' proposed budget that would cut $74.8 million from the budgets of the University of Michigan and Wayne State University "in retaliation for negotiating in good faith with their employees." Legislators also are threatening almost $100 million in cuts to K-12 school districts and preschool students. He wrote: "Intimidating teachers and administrators in an attempt to block a legal and fair contract negotiation, then punishing those parties for the agreements they adopt, is the height of cynical policymaking. Lawmakers should be doing what is best for teachers, students and taxpayers. Instead, they're wasting time and money bullying educators, administrators and board members, and ultimately shortchanging Michigan students." Hecker further calls on the Legislature to "respect the collective bargaining process, and the right of educators and board members to negotiate fair agreements in order to maintain stability in our school districts, colleges and universities.

Last April, award-winning director and filmmaker, Betty Bastidas, set out on an important project. She flew from New York City to Detroit, a city where only 4 out of 10 students graduate high school, to shed light on the many youth shrouded in hopelessness. One teen stood out from the rest. Eighteen-year-old Fernando Parraz, was the first in his family on his way to completing his high school degree, and he did complete it magna cum laude this past June. Bastidas chose him as the subject of her 16-minute film to highlight the urgency of increasing high school graduation rates, sponsored by the Independent Television Service. "Can't Hold Me Back" is one of the 25 films currently in the PBS 2013 Online Film Festival, and it is also one of the five films from the American Graduate Latino initiative participating in the festival. Additionally, it will air on PBS in the fall of this year. Today, Parraz is at Wayne State University, armed with a $60,000 scholarship, and taking his pre-requisites to major in business. "I want to graduate college…Then get a steady job and focus on film, and do what I can to help my community more - maybe open up a youth center," he says.

Dr. James Meza, a family medicine and geriatrics physician, was honored with the Faculty Award for Excellence in Clinical Science Teaching recently by the Wayne State University School of Medicine. Meza, who is also an assistant professor of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences at WSU, is the first person to receive the award, which is one of four new accolades developed by the university's medical school. "These awards were created to recognize outstanding accomplishments by faculty in the specific areas of clinical teaching, basic science teaching, outstanding and lifelong research achievement, faculty mentoring, and support for women clinicians and scientists," said Dr. Roberta E. Sonnino, vice dean of faculty affairs at Wayne State's School of Medicine. "The awards will not necessarily be awarded every year if there is not a candidate who surfaces as being outstanding in that area," Sonnino said.

Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour spoke with WDET's Pat Batcheller about the Board of Governors' approval yesterday of a new eight-year contract with faculty. Now, university officials have to convince state lawmakers not to cut the University's funding. Republicans in the Legislature voted this week to cut the funding of any college or school district that approves long-term contracts that would be protected from Michigan's right-to-work law. GOP lawmakers say such contracts violate the spirit of the law, which will ban mandatory union dues and membership. President Gilmour says the University has a strong case for approving the contract.

Detroit City Council has approved a zoning ordinance that legalizes urban farming in Detroit. WDET's Laura Weber-Davis spoke with Kami Pothukuchi, associate professor of urban planning at Wayne State University, about the urban agriculture zoning ordinance and why it's important to gardeners and farmers in Detroit.

A growing number of Wayne State University College of Engineering students are dedicating their free time to promoting science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers to Michigan youth. "There's really no limit to what you can achieve with a STEM degree, especially in engineering or computer science," says Norman Dotson, senior industrial and systems engineering student and president of Wayne State's Engineering Student Faculty Board. "Our goal is to bring greater awareness to these fields and help middle and high schools students realize that they have the ability to excel." Wayne State engineering and computer science students have played significant roles in the Detroit-Area Pre-College Engineering Program (DAPCEP), WSU's Gaining Options-Girls Investigate Real Life (GO-GIRL) program, the Michigan Department of Transportation Youth Development and Mentoring Program (MDOT YDMP) and with the Department of Computer Science's summer camps. "Our students are outstanding," said Wayne State University College of Engineering dean Farshad Fotouhi. "They are energetic, intelligent and incredibly motivated. Their ability to connect with and educate area youth is remarkable. We are grateful to them for their continued efforts."

Wayne State University Law School has earned a perfect score from Law School Transparency for providing full and accurate information online regarding student scholarships and employment outcomes. Wayne Law is among 46 law schools nationwide who earned the perfect score, according to a March 6 article in the American Bar Association Journal. The article found that nearly half of accredited law schools are not posting all of the data required by the ABA Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, or "are reporting misleading and incomplete data." Wayne Law Assistant Dean of Admissions Ericka Matthews-Jackson and Assistant Dean for Career Services Krystal Gardner makes sure the school's posted information meets the required standards, and say they're happy to do so.

Dr. Teferi Mitiku, assistant professor of medicine and director of Wayne State University's electrophysiology unit, was a guest on health reporter Deena Centofanti's "Health Works" segment. Mitiku talked about sudden cardiac arrest occurring when there is an electrical disturbance in the heart. The survival rate is very low especially in Detroit at .2 percent. Mitiku attributes Detroit's low survival rate, in part, to a lack of education about CPR and the inability of bystanders to perform the lifesaving procedure. If a victim receives CPR within a short period of time, their survival rate doubles.

Social media wasn't a part of day-to-day life a decade ago. Today, you can look up almost anyone on Facebook with just a few clicks. For many people, logging onto Twitter or posting a photo to Instagram is as common an activity as making a phone call or watching television. The number of social media outlets is growing exponentially as more people delve into social networking. Karen McDevitt, new media instructor at Wayne State University's Department of Communications, says people flock to sites like these because they're easy to use. "It doesn't take much effort," she says. "It lends itself to quick quips without much hassle." Of Facebook, McDevitt adds it has "become a visual representation of our identity. It's who we are and how we see each other."