(!) Smoking Ban by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, December 10, 2009 at 4:26 PM

Just an FYI--as of this morning, the public smoking ban MSC has supported for numerous semesters has passed the legislature and is headed to the Governor's desk, where it is expected to pass. More info here: http://bit.ly/4Ta6jt. (Indeed, we just received an elated email from a former MSC'er who had originally proposed it within the caucus.)

Congratulations to those who worked hard to make that happen!

(!) Presentation thanks by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, December 08, 2009 at 3:20 PM

Thanks to all who attended the hearing today, and a special big thank you to Representative Warren and all the other legislators and agency people who sat on the panel. Presenters, you all did a fine job.

Authors of any MSC proposal, but especially those who got feedback today, please take a few moments to look at your proposal again and revise if necessary, based on the comments and questions from the panel and/or other understandings you gained at the hearing.

(!) Notes about December 8 by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, November 23, 2009 at 9:57 PM

As previously noted, you will be presenting the MSC platform before the Michigan House of Representatives Special Commission on Civic Engagement, and the hearing will take place 9:30 - 11:30am on Tuesday, December 8, in the Michigan State Capitol building (room TBA). Please plan to arrive no later than 9:15am; speakers and coordinators should arrive by 9:00. Lansing is about an hour from Ann Arbor or Flint by car, and you will need to arrange your own transportation there and back.

This is the culminating event for the MSC semester, and your best chance for your ideas to have a direct impact on lawmakers. Attendance is MANDATORY for all UM caucus members, whether or not you are a topic coordinator, and whether or not you end up speaking to the Commission.

The hearing will take place roughly as follows:

At 9:30, the chairpersons of the Michigan House of Representatives Special Commission on Civic Engagement will introduce the commission members and representatives from the various state agencies. We (Gary, Jay, and Jeff) will then give a brief history of the MSC, and introduce the agenda for the hearings.

Topic coordinators will then be introduced. (Each coordinator will speak, with one of you taking the lead role.) The coordinators will give a 1-2 minute summary of the most prominent ideas and issues that were discussed in that topic. They also may mention any noteworthy proposals that did NOT make it into the platform.

Then, the topic coordinators will introduce the author(s) of each resolution that has PASSED into the platform. ("And now, Mark Goldfaden and Raashid Gupta will talk about a resolution to improve tourism in the Thumb area ...") The authors will then spend NO MORE THAN 3 MINUTES explaining the underlying problem, the specifics of their resolution, and a summary of what was learned in discussion. Be sure to include specific facts and statistics in here, and above all be prepared to thoughtfully answer questions in a reasonable, highly informed way. The author(s) of each resolution in the platform should prep a BRIEF (no more than 4 slides) powerpoint presentation for these, as well as a written copy of the resolution for the committee.

AUTHORS OF SERVICE PROPOSALS currently being enacted should similarly be prepared to give a very brief (1-2 minutes) overview of the need for the action, the action itself, and progress to date.

AUTHORS OF RESOLUTIONS IN THE PLATFORM and ENACTED SERVICE PROPOSALS: Please send a copy of your presentation and the text of your speech to your TOPIC COORDINATORS *and* to Gary, Jay, and Jeff no later than Thursday, December 3.

Remember that this is FORMAL TESTIMONY before the House of Representatives. Your name and testimony will be entered into the public record. This is not a demonstration or a show; these are elected officials genuinely interested in reaping the benefits of hard work by thoughtful, intelligent, informed people. They are taking a considerable chunk of time out of their day in a busy part of the year to hear what we have to say. You will need to be well prepared, which is why the topic coordinators will need copies of everything several days in advance. Dress, needless to say, is business attire.

ALSO:

It is possible to make final revisions to proposals in topics where the vote has ended. (We purposely restricted editing on published proposals as they went into voting, for fairness and to avoid confusion.) Authors of proposals in the platform should take special care to make sure that the proposals are complete and free of grammatical and spelling errors. You may also add or change wording for clarity. As mentioned earlier, authors of other proposals may want to revise as well, since all published proposals will become part of the MSC archive. To revise, authors and co-authors should follow the "edit" link next to the listing of their proposal.

AND FURTHERMORE:

As you enact your service activities, please remember that you need to be documenting what you do (in narratives, photos, videos, etc.) and uploading that documentation to the proposal.

(!) Platform for Environment & Science by Wade Merrill on Sunday, November 22, 2009 at 4:50 PM

The following proposals have entered the platform in Environment and Science:

1. Energy Efficient Light bulbs

2. Five-cent deposits on plastic grocery bags

3. In addition, the authors of "Recycling goods at the end of the school year" and "Recycling paper at end of the semester" will be combining their proposals into one proposal, with a broader scope, that will also enter the platform.

Thanks to all who have contributed ideas and comments in this topic!

(!) As we move into the final weeks by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, November 17, 2009 at 8:30 AM

As the online part of this semester's MSC begins to wind down (voting wraps up today in Environment and Science; voting will end Nov. 23 in Justice and Security), there is still a lot to do, though your activity will be shifting a bit.

1. All service activities should be in full swing, or at least in the middle of organizing. If you haven't been in touch with the author of the action you have committed to, please be sure to contact them right away. Also be sure to document your service participation with photos, video, notes, or in any other way you think appropriate. (For UM students, that documentation needs to be part of your final portfolio.)

2. Authors of proposals in the platform should be working with topic coordinators to refine their proposals and prepare a brief presentation for the Dec. 8 hearing in Lansing (more details on that in a future announcement, but remember attendance is mandatory for *all* MSC members). Others may continue to comment on and make suggestions about those proposals. Keep in mind that the MSC Platform is a permanent, public statement about the interests and values of students in Michigan right now, so it should be the most thoughtful, complete, well-written set of proposals you can possibly make.

3. Also keep in mind that EVERY published proposal is part of the permanent, public MSC archive. Once voting is done in a topic area, you can go back to your proposals and edit them further, so it's worth taking another look at all of your proposals and making edits as appropriate.

(!) Poverty Platform update by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, November 09, 2009 at 11:34 AM

In the Poverty topic, three proposals on similar themes regarding children and hunger received high support, and the Poverty coordinators have asked the authors to work together to combine their proposals into one. The proposals to be combined are:

"Subsidized meals for the underprivileged children"
"Corporations sponsoring free lunches for impoverished children" and
"Growing poverty and starvation rate in Michigan, help homeless youth"

In addition, "Peer mentoring for inner city elementary school students" will also enter the platform.

(!) IMPORTANT: MSC Hearings date by Gary Weisserman on Wednesday, November 04, 2009 at 9:44 AM

The House Commission on Civic Engagement Hearings for the Michigan Student Caucus will be held on December 8, from 9:30 AM-11:30, most likely in room 426 of the House Capitol Building. MSC members are asked to arrive by no later than 9:15 AM, with speakers and chairpersons arriving around 9:00. More details will be made available as we get closer to the date. As a reminder, these hearings are MANDATORY for all EDU 362 students.

(!) Service activities addendum by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, November 02, 2009 at 9:48 PM

After consultation with the authors, the Service coordinators have decided that "Bowling for Cancer" proposal is not feasible as imagined, and so will not be enacted. Those who have already committed to it are asked to commit to one of the other proposals. Thank you for your understanding.

(!) Service activities chosen for enactment by Jeff Kupperman on Sunday, November 01, 2009 at 2:31 PM

Nine service activities have been chosen for enactment, as follows:

1. Howell High School Students Meet U of M MSC Members

2. Donating Clothing to Homeless

3. Band-Aid Drive for Children's Hospital

4. Donating School Supplies

5. Penny Wars

6. Bowling for Cancer

7. Mural Arts Program for Inner City Students

8. Students Should Get Involved With Cognitively Impaired Students

9. Volunteering at Gleaners Food Bank

Please see the "service" section for details. Importantly, if you are not already committed to one of those nine proposals (or an author of one of them), YOU MUST RECOMMIT to one of them now. Please do this as soon as possible but no later than 5:00pm TUESDAY.

(If you are an author of one of the chosen proposals and have committed to another that was chosen, please give priority to the one you have authored, though you are welcome to participate in the other.)

Be aware that each action must take place within the next few weeks, so be ready to move quickly and respond to the authors as they organize the details.

(!) Justic & Security panelist by Jeff Kupperman on Thursday, October 29, 2009 at 8:09 AM

Here is some more information on the featured panelist for the Justice & Security town hall meeting Monday:

Sergeant Forsberg has a bachelor's degree from Skidmore College in psychology. He went to the Washtenaw Regional Police Academy and has been a police officer at DPS for 10 years. The Sergeant is currently a day shift supervisor, the community policing coordinator, and the K9 Unit supervisor. In his 10 years at DPS, he has been a detective, a patrol officer, a bike officer, and the special events coordinator.

(!) Voting discussion link in Poverty fixed by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 3:00 PM

A technical issue that had prevented the "discussion" link from working properly in the Poverty voting has been fixed. Thank you for your patience.

(!) Last day for service commitments by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, October 26, 2009 at 7:21 AM

Today is the last day to commit to service proposals -- please be sure you have committed to at least one (other than ones you have authored or co-authored). After today, the Service coordinators will choose proposals for actual enactment, based primarily on the number of commitments.

(!) Poverty town hall this Monday; Justice & Security Nov 2 by Jeff Kupperman on Friday, October 23, 2009 at 4:25 PM

The Poverty town hall with Michael Appel has been rescheduled for this coming Monday, Oct. 26, 6:30 - 7:30pm in room 2310 School of Education Building. Even though we will be in the voting phase, please come with your questions and ideas, keeping in mind that discussion continues through the voting phase and that resolutions in the platform can be revised after voting is completed.

Also, the final town hall of the semester -- for Justice & Security -- will be held Monday, Nov. 2, 6:00 - 7:00pm, in room 2340, also in the School of Ed. The guest panelist will be Sgt. Jason Forsberg of the University of Michigan Department of Public Safety.

(!) Poverty town hall *cancelled*, Env & Sci to be held as planned by Jeff Kupperman on Wednesday, October 21, 2009 at 10:58 AM

UM-Ann Arbor students may have seen this already in emails, but the Poverty town hall has been canceled due to unavoidable circumstances on the part of the panelist; however, the Environment & Science town hall will be held as planned, starting at 7:00pm tonight.

Also, the platform for Health has been finalized; please see that section for a listing of proposals that have been elected. Thanks to all who submitted proposals and contributed ideas.

(!) Poverty proposal construction phase extended by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 9:56 PM

Please note: In order to allow time for authors to incorporate ideas from tomorrow's town hall, the proposal construction phase for Poverty has been extended to midnight Friday, October 23. All other calendar dates remain the same.

(!) Environment & Science town hall meeting panelist by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 12:45 PM

... from the E & S topic coordinators, this brief bio of Shelley Vinyard, who will be joining tomorrow's town hall meeting at 7:00pm.

Shelley Vinyard is the Environmental Associate at Environment Michigan, where she is currently building support for federal climate change legislation. She graduated from the University of Texas at Austin with a B.S. in Psychology and a B.A. in Sociology. During her time in college, she interned for Texas Interfaith Power & Light and was the Recruitment and Communications Director for Texas 4000 for Cancer.

(!) Location for town hall meetings tomorrow by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, October 20, 2009 at 9:24 AM

The town hall meetings tomorrow (Wednesday) will be held in room 2346 in the School of Education. More details in the announcement below....

(!) Poverty AND Environment & Science town halls this Wednesday by Jeff Kupperman on Monday, October 19, 2009 at 10:58 PM

Town hall meetings for both the Poverty and the Environment & Science topics are scheduled for this Wednesday, October 21. The Poverty meeting will start at 6:00pm, followed by the Environment & Science meeting at 7:00pm. A brief message about the Poverty panelist is below; details on the E & S panelist, along with the room location, will be posted shortly. The coordinators apologize for the late notice.

***
(From the Poverty topic coordinators:)
Michael Appel is the executive director of development and finance at Avalon Housing. Avalon Housing is a community-based, non-profit organization that assists people with low incomes in Washtenaw County with housing. This group works towards providing affordable housing for people who were once homeless or have a mental or physical disability. [Also see http://avalonhousing.org/] Please come with questions for Michael. We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday.

(!) Commit to service proposals starting tomorrow by Jeff Kupperman on Sunday, October 18, 2009 at 10:15 AM

Service proposal construction ends today, and between tomorrow and October 26, everyone should commit to at least one service proposal (not counting ones you have authored yourself). Shortly thereafter, the service proposals with the most commitments will be chosen for actual enactment, and at that point those people who are not already committed to a chosen proposal will be asked to recommit.

To commit, pull up the text of the proposal and follow the "commit/view commitments" link near the top. When you commit, please say a few words about why you have selected that particular proposal.

(!) Winning resolutions in Education and the Arts by Gary Weisserman on Tuesday, October 13, 2009 at 7:27 PM

On behalf of the topic coordinators for the Education and the Arts committee, the following resolutions were selected for inclusion in the platform:

Tax-Free Weekend on School Supplies in Michigan, originally proposed by Randi Botwinick
Graduate School Admissions Testing Preparation incorporated into University of Michigan curriculum, originally proposed by Sam Palazzolo
Mandatory Community Service Projects in Elementary School Classrooms, originally proposed by Stephanie Nosan

Congratulations to the authors of these resolutions, who will be asked to present at our end-of-session hearings!

(!) Save the date by Jeff Kupperman on Wednesday, October 07, 2009 at 8:02 PM

The town hall meeting for Service is scheduled for October 15th, 7-8pm, in room 2224 School of Education in Ann Arbor. Details on the panelists coming soon....

(!) Poverty Town Hall Meeting Postponed by Jeff Kupperman on Sunday, October 04, 2009 at 9:33 PM

The Town Hall Meeting for the Poverty topic area, originally scheduled for this coming Tuesday, has been postponed. Details on the new date and time will be posted when available....

(!) Voting by Jeff Kupperman on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at 11:35 PM

As voting starts in the Education topic, please take note of three important points:

1. SET YOUR WEIGHTS

Before you vote, be sure to set your "weights" (follow the tab in the left-side column). You should set them to reflect the relative importance of the various topics to you. Keep in mind that these are *weights*, not rankings -- so the most important topic to you should get a weight of 6, the next important a 5, and so on. Your votes will be *multiplied* by the weight you assign. (Needless to say, you won't need the weight of 1 for anything except maybe the sandbox.)

Weights can be changed at any time, with the following exception: once the voting phase for a topic has ended, your weight for that topic can no longer be changed.

Also: The drag-and-drop function for setting weights will not work on IE. Please use Firefox.

2. MAXIMIZE YOUR VOTE. Voting is done by rating each proposal on a scale of 0 to 100, using a slider next to the name of that proposal. Without going into the mathematical details, you will maximize your vote if you set your favorite proposal(s) at 100, and your least favorite proposal(s) at 0, with everything else rated proportionally in between. This system is designed to allow caucus members to express precise preferences about all proposals, without having to "split" one's influence.

3. DISCUSSION IS PART OF VOTING

It is important to understand that the voting phase is more than simply indicating your preferences with the weights and sliders -- there is a discussion link on the voting page, and it is important to use that discussion to argue the relative merits of the proposals up for consideration. Remember that the voting will determine the proposals that will represent the entire MSC membership as part of its platform. The goal isn't just to get your favorites in the platform, but to end up with a set of proposals that has, as much as possible, the backing of the whole MSC. That's where the discussion comes in. When judging the proposals, be sure to consider a range of factors, including the need for the proposal, as well as potential impact, feasibility, clarity, completeness, and creativity.

FOR TECHNICAL DETAILS, PLEASE SEE THE SECOND SCREENCAST, available via the links at the top of this "updates" area.

(!) Town Hall Meeting on HEALTH Wednesday; meeting on Poverty Oct 6 by Jeff Kupperman on Tuesday, September 29, 2009 at 11:12 AM

The Health topic coordinators have scheduled a town hall meeting TOMORROW (Wednesday), 7:30-8:30pm, in room 2229 School of Education. Dr. Louis White who has owned his own family practice for 20 years in Michigan and Professor Mary White who has been a nurse and professor will be featured guests. Please bring your proposal ideas and questions, and/or email send questions in advance to the topic coordinators.

SAVE THE DATE: The Poverty topic area will be hosting a town hall meeting on October 6, 6:30-7:30 pm (room TBD). Panelists will include Rosangel Cruz, part of Development-Volunteering & Community Outreach at the Shelter Association of Washtenaw county.

(!) Working in parallel by Jeff Kupperman on Sunday, September 27, 2009 at 3:18 PM

Just a quick note to remind everyone that there is now activity in FOUR areas:

1- Proposal construction will continue through Wednesday in Education & the Arts, after which voting begins in that topic (in other words, Wednesday is the last day to publish a proposal in Ed & Arts and have it considered for the platform)

2- Proposal construction is continuing in the Health topic (until Oct 7)

3- Brainstorming has begun in the Poverty topic

4- Brainstorming continues in Service through Wednesday

Also, a big thanks to the Ed & Arts topic coordinators, and especially panelists Lynn Malinoff and Remi Holden, for starting off the Town Hall meeting series last Thursday. I think those who were able to be there found it very relevant and useful; for those who were unable to attend, we will be posting a video of the meeting soon.

(!) Welcome! by J.McDowell on Friday, September 18, 2009 at 7:41 AM

Welcome to all the Howell HS students that are joining MSC this week!

(!) Education & the Arts Town Hall Meeting: Thursday, Sept 24 by Jeff Kupperman on Thursday, September 17, 2009 at 9:58 PM

See below for a message from the Education & the Arts topic coordinators about an upcoming Town Hall Meeting. Please try to attend in person, but if you can't, it will be recorded and posted on this site. You may also email the topic coordinators questions in advance, if you like. (If you are logged in, you can look up emails using the "users" tab in the column at left.) --Jeff

Fellow MSC Members,

We will be hosting a town hall meeting for the Education and the Arts platform on September 24, 6-7pm in the Whitney Auditorium, 1309 School of Education Building. Our expert panel will include Lynn Malinoff, the director of 21st Century Community Learning Centers at Eastern Michigan University, and Remi Holden, who has worked as a teacher in NYC public schools and then as YouthAction NYC Coordinator for the Citizens Committee for Children of NYC. We suggest you come with a prepared question. Hope to see you all there.

Sincerely,

Brian Grossman

Jordan Marks

Daniel Regenstein

Max Zubrow

(!) Congratulations to this session's MSC chairpersons: by Gary Weisserman on Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 8:26 PM

Congratulations to this session's MSC chairpersons:

Service:

Ross Millman
Ashley Bauer
Max Stern
Jon Glass

Ed and Arts:

Max Zubrow
Jordan Marks
Brian Grossman
Danny Regenstein

Health:

Andrew White
Jon Cohn
Zubair Khan
Orly Drucker

Poverty:

Randi Botwinick
Molly Coleman
Amanda Fleischman
Kasey Rothkopf
Ariel Halperin

Environment and Science:

Dan Gordon
Fara Yackow
Ben Okin
Randy Platnick

Justice and Security:

Steven Miller
Andrew Bosse
Kyle Shenfeld

(!) Flint orientation session Wednesday, Sept 16 by Jeff Kupperman on Thursday, September 10, 2009 at 1:15 PM

The orientation session at UM-Flint will be held in French Hall room 331 on Wednesday, September 16, from 5:00pm to approximately 6:30pm. French Hall is building #13 on this map: http://www.umflint.edu/campus_map.htm. You can park in the surface lot at Saginaw and Kearsley or in the visitor's lot (#19 on the map). Please be on time -- we plan to start promptly at 5:00.

For those of you coming from Ann Arbor, it is mostly a straight shot up US 23 and generally takes about an hour, but longer at rush hour. We strongly encourage you to plan on spending an hour or two in Flint before or after: it's a city with more than it's share of serious problems, but also with many strengths, including some excellent small museums, strong community institutions, and a downtown that has begun an impressive revival. Strike up a conversation at a restaurant or shop, and you'll be almost certain to find someone willing to talk about hopes, dreams, and challenges for their community and for Michigan -- all of which is, of course, an excellent way to start thinking about your own proposals for making Michigan a better place.

(!) Fall 2009 session starts September 10 by Jeff Kupperman on Thursday, September 03, 2009 at 10:09 PM

The Fall 2009 session of the MSC will start on Thursday, September 10 and will continue through early December.

The Ann Arbor orientation session (mandatory for students enrolled in EDUC 362 at UM-Ann Arbor, but all are welcome) will take place September 10, 7:00-9:00pm in room 1202 School of Education Building (Schorling auditorium).

Technical notes:

The new Michigan Student Caucus site is still in beta. Thanks for your patience in helping us make it better!

At the moment, you'll need the Firefox or Safari browser to be able to access all site capabilities (we strongly recommend Firefox for all platforms). Until further announcement, assigning weights to topics and the "drag and drop" features used while editing proposals do not work in Internet Explorer. We are working on the issue and hope to resolve it soon.

Technical update: A problem has been found in Safari as well. When you upload media files, Safari will not refresh the page properly. For the time being, if you must use Safari, you may need to click on a tab again to refresh. We are aware of the problem and are looking for a fix.

About the Michigan Student Caucus

The Michigan Student Caucus represents students throughout Michigan to the Michigan State Legislature. Since 2001, thousands of students across Michigan have participated in online deliberation, negotiation and voting leading to the construction of a political platform that is presented in formal testimony to the House Commission on Civic Engagement.

The Michigan Student Caucus is not affiliated with any political party or organization. The MSC is open to any Michigan resident (permanent or temporary) who is a student. For information about the program, please contact our faculty advisors at The University of Michigan, Professors Gary Weisserman and Jeff Kupperman.

Twice each year, MSC participants, including hundreds of high school and college students from around Michigan, present testimony about the MSC platform before the Michigan House of Representatives' Special Commission on Civic Engagement.

The following documents may be useful to you in getting started:

• The MSC archives from Winter 2009, Fall 2008 and Winter 2008. (You'll need to join the archived sites separately to view content.)
• The Winter 2009 platform (200 K, PDF format).
• The Fall 2008 platform (200 K, PDF format).
• The Winter 2008 platform (160 K, PDF format).
• The Fall 2007 platform (198 K, PDF format).
• The 2005-2006 platform.
• The 2006-2007 platform.
• Students taking this course for college credit at UM-Ann Arbor may download the Fall 2009 syllabus for EDUC 362.
• Similarly, students taking this course for graduate credit at UM-Flint may download the Fall 2009 syllabus for EDT 532.
• Here is a presentation that was used during the orientation session to introduce the program (Google Docs).

Committee schedule:

The committee schedule will occur along the following schedule (schedule subject to change):

Education and the Arts (Ed & Arts): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on September 10, 2009 and ends on September 18, 2009; resolution construction begins on September 19, 2009 and ends on September 30, 2009; voting on submitted resolutions begins on October 1, 2009 and ends on October 10, 2009.

Health (Health): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on September 15, 2009 and ends on September 23, 2009; resolution construction begins on September 24, 2009 and ends on October 7, 2009; voting on submitted resolutions begins on October 8, 2009 and ends on October 18, 2009.

Poverty (Poverty): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on September 27, 2009 and ends on October 8, 2009; resolution construction begins on October 9, 2009 and ends on October 23, 2009; voting on submitted resolutions begins on October 24, 2009 and ends on November 6, 2009.

Environment and Science (Env & Sci): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on October 11, 2009 and ends on October 22, 2009; resolution construction begins on October 23, 2009 and ends on November 9, 2009; voting on submitted resolutions begins on November 10, 2009 and ends on November 17, 2009.

Justice and Security (Just & Sec): Open brainstorming for resolutions begins on October 23, 2009 and ends on October 29, 2009; resolution construction begins on October 30, 2009 and ends on November 15, 2009; voting on submitted resolutions begins on November 16, 2009 and ends on November 23, 2009.

Service schedule:

The service schedule will occur along the following schedule (schedule subject to change):

Winter 2009 (Service): Open brainstorming for service projects begins on September 10, 2009 and ends on September 30, 2009; construction of service proposals begins on October 1, 2009 and ends on October 18, 2009; participants may commit to a service project beginning on October 19, 2009 through October 26, 2009. Service projects will take place between October 26, 2009 and the end of the session, based on the dates identified in each adopted project. (Projects must be approved by the service chair and faculty advisors.)

Special events, such as expert chats, will take place regularly. Please check the latest news in the "updates" area.

All MSC participants are, of course, strongly encouraged to attend our hearings in Lansing, usually in December and April (dates TBA). Participants earning college credit in EDUC 362 (University of Michigan-Ann Arbor) or EDT 532 (University of Michigan-Flint) are expected to attend per course requirements.