Robert Sedler, Wayne State University law professor, commented on the Mitch Albom Show about the Supreme Court's ruling Monday which struck down significant portions of the controversial Arizona immigration law, but allowed to stand a provision that requires police officers to review the immigration status of any detainees they suspect of being in the United States illegally. Sedler said that the court found that most of the immigration law was preempted by federal law.

Wayne State University students got the keys to a 2013 Chevrolet Malibu last week that they're going to re-design to make more eco-friendly as part of an international, three-year auto-engineering contest. WSU is the only Michigan school competing in the EcoCAR2 contest - and one of only 13 American universities, according to associate engineering professor Jerry Ku, the team's faculty advisor. GM donated the new white car, which the 40 undergrads and grad students - most of whom are studying mechanical, control and electrical engineering - have spent the last year planning to re-design. Years two and three are used for the actual rebuilding, refining and testing of their prototypes. The competition was created by The U.S. Department of Energy and GM to allow students to get real-world, hands-on experience with vehicle integration of advanced propulsion technologies. A photo gallery of the event is included.

TechTown, Wayne State University's research and technology park and business incubator, invites metro Detroiters to see what's brewing among local entrepreneurs at its inaugural Startup SOUP, a novel business plan pitch competition, at 5:30 p.m., August 3, located at 2051 Rosa Parks Blvd., in Detroit. Participants have a chance to win more than $1,500, plus business training from TechTown. Since 2007, TechTown has provided support to more than 647 companies, which have created more than 1,085 jobs. TechTown's client companies generated roughly $52 million in revenue last year alone. Nominations close Sunday, July 1.

A community coalition founded to boost adult literacy across metro Detroit will award $180,000 in grants this week to nine literacy agencies, partners in its mission to increase job readiness and add to education efforts in southeast Michigan. The coalition, Reading Works, is an organization of business, education, media, civic and faith leaders that raises money -- and community support -- for partner organizations that help thousands of adults learn to read or read better each year. Wayne State University is noted as one of the leaders in establishing the program about two years ago.

The typical University of Michigan student in Ann Arbor will pay 2.8 percent more in tuition and fees next school year, the Board of Regents decided yesterday. Regents voted 5-3 to pass the tuition rate increase on a voice vote. Last year, U-M raised tuition by 6.7% and has averaged a 5.36% increase over the last five years. The increase will raise an additional $66 million in revenue for the university. U-M is set to receive a 1.6 percent increase in state funding next year. U-M is the first of the state's major universities to set tuition rates for next year. Michigan State University is expected to set its rates Friday morning, and Wayne State University is expected to set its rate next Wednesday. Michigan Technological University also set its rate yesterday at 3.9 percent. U-M's Board of Regents set tuition rate increases at 3.6 percent for U-M-Flint and 3.7 percent at U-M-Dearborn.

A feature story examines the remarkable year of the Wayne State University Warriors football team under the leadership of coach Paul Winters. For four weeks, the "Road Warriors" won four playoff games away from Adams Field before advancing to the title game - one step away from the national championship. The outcome of the final game against Pittsburg State was not a win for the Warriors, but it capped a year of culture change. "Wayne State was bad in football and the perception was it was going to remain that way," Winters said. "We could not think that way; we can't talk that way we can't act that way. We tried to make everybody who dealt with us expect more and demand more." Winters was named the American Football Coaches National D-II Coach of the Year. "He changed the approach. He changed the culture around here," said WSU athletic director Rob Fournier. "And I think that has trickled to the other coaches. Because of his personality, I think he relates to people and not just recruits. He brought back a winning attitude for all our departments. You can have other good programs but if football and basketball don't win, nobody pays attention to the others." Winters has been selected as one of this year's outstanding "Michiganians of the Year," an honor extended by the Detroit News since 1978.

This summer members of Wayne State University's Hilberry graduate theater program has decided to stage shows of its own. The Drastic Theater Company plans to mount three plays in the Elizabeth Theatre space above downtown Detroit's Park Bar, starting this Sunday with a double feature of "Red Light Winter" and an original production, "Hurts So Good." "When we first arrived last August, a group of us latched onto each other and pretty much became instant best friends," says Joshua Blake Rippy, a 24-year-old Hilberry performer and producing artistic director of the new company. In October, the students began kicking around ideas for a theater company they could start in the summer. "Each one of us loves to do classical repertory theater. That's why we joined the Hilberry," says Rippy. A photo of "Red Light Winter" cast members Curtis Green, Danielle Cochrane and Brent Griffith is included.

Wayne State University President Allan Gilmour wrote about the importance of the economic impact of public universities, and particularly Michigan's University Research Corridor (URC) member institutions - Wayne State, Michigan State and the University of Michigan. He cited the recently released Anderson Economic Group report, which focused on the auto sector. Between 2007 and 2011, the three URC universities spent $300 million on more than 1,400 auto projects. Private industry provided 28 percent of auto research funding, which is nine times more than the average share of industry support for all research and development at these universities. He wrote: "This investment underscores the importance of research universities to for-profit companies. The economic impact of public universities is undeniable. They employ thousands of people. They develop and contribute to their communities. They introduce new technologies, some of which result in new business opportunities. They attract talent from around the world. They even help start and nurture new businesses, a direct source of new jobs and economic growth." A photo of President Gilmour is included.

While RTP is the oldest and most famous research consortium, University Research Corridor in Michigan is following in its footsteps, and generating significant economic impact. Allan Gilmour, president of Wayne State University, details in the Huffington Post how universities (such as Duke University, UNC-Chapel Hill and N.C. State in the Triangle) impact the local economy. It's not just about the talent they train. "Research universities… also contribute mightily to the economy through research and development, inventions and patents, technology transfer and business startups," he writes.

Detroit News, dbusiness, CBS Detroit, 6/19 Detroit firms, colleges create program to promote IT careers A group of Detroit companies and colleges have formed a partnership to deal with the shortage of information technology workers in the area. Online mortgage leader Quicken Loans, Compuware Ventures, GalaxE.Solutions, Quicken Loans company Fathead and Marketing Associates are working with Wayne State University, Wayne County Community College District and Washtenaw Community College on "IT in the D," a two-month program to give students and IT professionals more experience to advance their technology careers. The inaugural Michigan Economic Development Corp.-supported program starts today with students selected through the participating colleges and runs through the end of August. About 35 trainers from the companies will work with the 32 students twice a week in two-hour classes.

A profile piece highlights the work of former Detroit City Councilwoman Sheila Cockrel, who is fighting for a new Detroit. She's on a mission to educate young people about the city's past to make a difference for its future. Cockrel teaches and mentors at Wayne State University and runs community workshops for the Forum on Contemporary Issues in Society's CitizenDetroit program. A photo of Cockrel is included.

A feature story highlights the progress of the Detroit Revitalization Fellows Program (DRFP), a Wayne State University project that connects rising mid-career professionals to organizations at the forefront of efforts to boost economic development in the city. Initiated by Wayne State Associate Vice President Ahmad Ezzeddine in partnership with the Kresge Foundation, the Hudson-Webber Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the Skillman Foundation, the project drew inspiration from a fellowship program in post-Katrina New Orleans. The fellows--16 women and 13 men--range in age from 25 to 42, with more than one-third being people of color. Seventeen fellows grew up outside the Detroit region and 12 had no previous experience living in the area, while seven of the locals were working outside Michigan when they were chosen for the program. A photo of the fellows is included.

It may seem intuitive to believe that working with animals has a positive effect on people, but a Wayne State University researcher is trying to determine the nature of that effect, and whether it holds true for various groups. "Because it's so face valid, a lot of people believe it's common sense that these things work," said Annmarie Cano, associate professor of psychology in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. "But there are a lot of things common sense tells you that don't pan out when tested scientifically." She recently received a $152,000 grant from two sources to study if instructing incarcerated teens to train animal shelter dogs in basic obedience skills will improve the teens' social skills and quality of life. The funding comes from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development of the National Institutes of Health and Mars Inc.'s Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition. A photo of Cano is included.

Philip Swanson, fresh from earning his degree in civil engineering from Wayne State University, already is among a fortunate group of graduates. While more than 50 percent of college grads under age 25 are either jobless or under-employed, Swanson has secured a full-time job in his field of study. And, because he earned a baseball scholarship and worked summers, he has no student debt at a time when 60 percent of college grads in Michigan have student loans, and when the average student loan debt in 2010 was $25,675. That combination means, for the 23 - year-old Detroit resident, college was quite a good return on investment. The same is not true for some students on Michigan's college campuses, according to a controversial study by PayScale.com, a consulting firm specializing in nationwide employee compensation issues. The survey ranked the return on investment over a 30-year period of 853 universities with at least 1,000 undergraduates and found that college may - or may not - be a good use of money.

The AmeriCorps Urban Safety Project at Wayne State University's Center for Urban Studies has partnered with community volunteers to refurbish Scripps Park, at the corner of Grand River and Trumbull in the Woodbridge neighborhood. The park land is the historic site of the home of James Scripps, one of the founding members of the Booth Newspapers chain, and along the Grand River side of the park is the Frederick A. Douglass branch of the Detroit Public Library for the Blind and Physically Handicapped. Last year the AmeriCorps members helped with the planting of a "sensory" garden - plantings that are especially textured and fragrant to create an enhanced garden experience for the visually impaired. This year, the members led a project to expand the garden by moving in raised beds and plants that had been displaced from a former garden at Grand Boulevard and I-75.

A novice entrepreneur, a Muslim woman from Tunisia, with big dreams about the new economy is getting a comprehensive education at TechTown this summer. Souad Rouis works is an associate professor in the Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax in Tunisia. In 2008 she co-founded BiotechRDP, a start-up that specialized in production and development of tools applied in human and animal diagnosis. She is utilizing the educational and mentoring opportunities at TechTown and Wayne State University. "Wayne State is doing significant work," says Faris Alami, one of her business coaches at TechTown. "The Arab American Chamber is putting her in front of a number of groups. And she wouldn't be here without the State Department."

A ceremonial groundbreaking ceremony Friday launched construction of a new medical office building in Midtown that will house Wayne State University's Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences. The five-story, 62,846-square-foot office building is on Beaubien, north of Mack, next to the new Children's Hospital of Michigan Pediatric Specialty Center. WSU will lease the building from Queen Lillian LLC, a Detroit architectural firm, for 25 years and then would have the option to buy it for $1. The $18-million project expects to be completed by January.

Medical school is workload enough for most students. But not for Enea Gjoka, who will start his second year of med school at Wayne State University this summer. Gjoka, 22, is also something of a Renaissance man of the iPhone and iPad, a business owner whose app development company, Ann Arbor-based UnlimApps Inc., has earned more than $100,000 in ad revenue in the past two years. "Enea is an extraordinarily bright guy. He's been quite a phenomenon," said Matt Jackson, assistant dean of academic and student programs and associate professor of immunology and microbiology at the WSU School of Medicine. That includes revamping the way WSU's med school delivers classroom lectures to students online. The school makes all lectures available online, but until last year, Mac users frequently had trouble with downloads, and the videos were only available at normal speed, not helpful for student reviews.

When the largest U.S. union for public sector employees elect its first new president in a generation next week it will be a watershed moment. The new chief will be running an organization whose members are fighting almost unprecedented cuts in jobs, benefits, bargaining rights - and increasingly angry taxpayers who question the size of their pension and healthcare benefits. The public perception is "that public employees are overpaid, that the public sector itself is overstaffed and that the only victims here are the taxpayers," said Marick Masters, a labor historian at Wayne State University. Masters said that to a large extent the unions are being blamed for doing a good job for their members. "Public employee unions have worked very hard to make government a model employer," he said. "They have pushed to make them professional, service oriented, well trained, well-educated and well-compensated for the jobs they do," he added. "Today, public employees are a prime scapegoat for the ails affecting government."

Nearly 200 people learned more about the high-tech future of the auto industry at a WWJ Newsradio 950 business breakfast Thursday morning at Michigan State University's Management Education Center, produced in cooperation with the Michigan University Research Corridor. During the auto panel, Jerry Ku of the College of Engineering at Wayne State University spoke of the school's new electric drive engineering program and its participation in the EcoCar 2 high-mileage federal auto competition for colleges. Patrick Anderson, president of Lansing's Anderson Economic Group, also presented the results of a study showing how the three URC schools - MSU, UM and Wayne State - help drive the high-tech auto industry through their $1.9 billion a year in research. They also produce 18,000 high-tech degree graduates a year.