Madison students, Megan O'Brien (SRP /Urban Planning senior) and Jennifer White (SRP/PTCD junior), won MSU Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum Awards; Megan for her oral presentation, “Squatter Settlements in Latin America: Santa Elena, Venezuela and Lima, Peru,” and Jennifer for her oral presentation, “Assessing the Access to Healthcare: The African-American Infant Mortality Rate.” Professor Louise Jezierski is their advisor. 

Alumnus Dayne Walling (SR ’96) won big in a six-way primary race to be Flint's next mayor, getting 44 percent of the vote, securing a spot on the August ballot.

Alumnus Michael McConnell (JMCD ’76), a federal judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit and well-known constitutional law scholar, will step down from his role on the bench to rejoin the legal academy and direct the Stanford Constitutional Law Center at the Stanford Law School. 

Madison alumnus Wallace Jefferson (PTCD ’85), Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Texas, received an honorary doctor of laws degree during MSU’s undergraduate convocation. [video]

Mark Steven Dobson, II (PTCD/Spanish '09) will represent MSU's Class of 2009 as the student speaker at the Undergraduate Convocation at the Breslin Center on Friday May 8 at 1pm.

Professor Curtis Stokes and colleagues present the Sixth Biennial Race in 21st Century America national conference, which takes place April 8-10 at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. See this news story for more information, including a video interview of Professor Stokes. Vist the Race Conference Website for more details and to register.

Nada Zohdy (IR/CCP) has won (previously a finalist) the Truman Scholarship.  Zohdy is specializing in Muslim Studies.  She is a long-term volunteer with the Refugee Development Center in Lansing, helping to make refugees self-sustaining and productive members of society, and co-founded Peace over Prejudice, a coalition of student groups committed to promoting inclusiveness on the MSU campus.  Zohdy hopes to become a foreign policy advisor to help positively influence US-Muslim world relations and is interested in helping promote economic and democratic development in the Middle East. 

Madison juniors Dan Blue (IR/Economics/Muslim Studies/Arabic) and Cory Connolly (IR/Latin American and Caribbean Studies/Economic and Environmental Policy) have been appointed by the Roosevelt Institution as two of four national senior fellows for 2009.  In their role as senior fellows, these exceptional students will work on their own projects and serve as experts within their field.  The program recognizes members for their exceptional knowledge in a field of study, excellence in policy innovation, and eloquence in written and oral communication.