WSU\'s baseball team placed fourth in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate athletic Conference re-season coaches\' poll. The coaches chose Grand Valley State, the defending GLIAC champion, to win the league\'s 2005 championship. A season removed from its highest GLIAC finish since 1999, the Wayne State baseball team\'s expectations are set higher than ever with seven returning players at key positions and three pitchers from the starting rotation back this spring.

Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm of Michigan has proposed replacing the state\'s merit-based program of college scholarships with a pledge to automatically give students $4,000 each if they complete two years of postsecondary education or apprenticeship training. In a State of the State address delivered on Tuesday evening, Governor Granholm, a Democrat, also announced a plan to issue $2-billion in state bonds over 10 years to finance research intended to spur economic development.

Many metro Detroit residents are finding that their bachelor's degrees don't go as far as they used to in the evolving job market. As a result, they are turning toward associate degrees as they are retrained in more marketable skills. According to the U.S. Labor Department, the fastest growing job field is professional and related services such as nurses, computer programmers and library technicians.

An exhibit at Cranbrook will show Steve Mumford's war drawings and paintings from Iraq through April. Wayne State Art History professor Dora Apel will give a talk entitled "Picturing War: Political Strategies from Goya to Abu Ghraib," March 6th.

The Detroit Dance Collective performed at the Maggie Allessee Studio Theatre on the campus of Wayne State.

James Hartway's latest composition, "Island Dances," will premier Feb. 13 during a concert of the Warren Symphony Orchestra. The work, a double concerto for two harps and orchestra, will by his wife Kertstin Allvin and fellow harpist Jung Wha Lee. Hartway, is a distinguished professor in the WSU Music Department.

The Pacifica Quartet, an award-winning ensemble that has played in Carnegie Hall, will perform from 1-3:30 p.m. Feb. 10 at Wayne State University.

Wayne State University is noted along with the University of Michigan and city of Ann Arbor as filing friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the Ann Arbor Public Schools as they defend their policy of providing same-sex benefits. A religious law center and 17 taxpayers are asking the Michigan Court of Appeals to stop the school system from providing the benefits citing the November constitutional amendments known as Proposal 2.

The WSU men's basketball team defeated Central State 60-40 with Morris Hall scoring 19 points and Herb Goliday adding 17 points to the score.

In a brief about the selection of Jeremy Hughes as the state's chief academic officer, former superintendent Tom Watkins is mentioned as accepting a job at Wayne State University.

Wayne State's Law School will host the "Second Annual Gibbs Lecture" on Thursday, Feb. 24, in the Spencer M. Partrich Auditorium. The lecture is titled, "The Protection of Religious Freedom under the American Constitution" and will be delivered by Professor Robert Sedler.

Michigan college students often live in aged dorms in need or urgent repair, while university-owned homes for college presidents fall in the posh range, according to this article by Booth Newspapers. The value of president's homes at the University of Michigan, Michigan State, Eastern Michigan and Lake Superior State top $1 million each. The presidents of Wayne State, Western Michigan and Oakland University live in homes valued at more than $750,000. Mike Boulus, executive director of the Presidents Council, State Universities of Michigan, said it is a tradition, and often a condition of employment, for presidents to live on or near campus in homes provided to them.

Fox 2 morning anchor Charles Pugh interviewed CULMA Associate Dean Robin Boyle regarding Detroit's population decline to 900,000. Boyle discussed Detroit's historical growth and speculated on future growth and development. The report, airing during the 5 p.m. newscast, was videotaped in the atrium of FAB.

An op-ed examined gas taxes and their impact on the state's roads in the recent study of Michigan\'s economic and fiscal health, \"Michigan at the Millennium,\" coordinated by Michigan State, the U of M and Wayne State University.

A 2003 lawsuit petitions the Court of Appeals to bar same sex benefits in the Ann Arbor Public Schools. The case could be the first challenge to domestic partner benefits using Proposal 2, which voters approved 59 percent to 41 percent. The University of Michigan, Wayne State University and the City of Ann Arbor - which offer same-sex benefits - have filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of the school district.

MSU President Lou Anna Simon discussed the importance of higher education for Michigan. Cutting funds for higher education could cost Michigan the next medical breakthrough or fail to prepare a workforce for the new economy. Simon called for major research universities - MSU, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University - to lead the way to discoveries that will fuel economic growth and improve the quality of life.

Rescue 4 Undercover found out just how easy it is to get in to local college dormitories. Hidden cameras captured major security flaws in residence halls at MSU, University of Michigan Ann Arbor and Wayne State University. At WSU's North Hall, the undercover producers were questioned while trying to enter the building but they were still permitted to go in without identification.

The Black Theatre Program (BTP) at Wayne State will begin its 30th annual tour with "The Dream Tunnel." The next Black Theatre Program Production at Wayne State will be the ground breaking "Anna Lucasta" at the Bonstelle Theatre March 4-5 and 11-13.

George Galster, professor of Urban Affairs in CULMA, appeared on Melissa Block\'s \"All Things Considered\" program to discuss President Bush\'s proposed budget cuts to block grants. Galster also talked about the history of community development block grants.

Wayne State University College of Engineering Dean Ralph Kummler and College of Education Dean Paula Wood recently joined outgoing Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham as he announced the selection of Detroit as the host city for the 2006 "What's Next? Expo." The event is a national science education initiative designed to inspire young Americans to pursue studies in mathematics and the sciences. Kummler thanked Abraham for choosing Detroit as the location for "What's Next? 2006" and for "allowing Wayne State to participate in what we understand to be one of our most important tasks facing us for engineering and science for the future." Wood said that there was concern about the international science and math test results showing U.S. students trailing as they advance in grades, but said Michigan fourth and eighth graders consistently rank on par or higher versus peers around the country. "I don't know if it's a crisis but it's a serious concern," Wood said. "Up until 4th grade, our kids hold their own but beyond that, because the curriculum is not as rigorous or as required, we begin to lose ground," she said. A photo of Kummler, Wood, Abraham and The Henry Ford CEO Pat Mooradian is included.