WMU

Did you know downtown Kalamazoo is believed to be home to the nation's first building financed and built by and for a women's club, and still used for its original purpose? The Ladies' Library Association of Kalamazoo building turns 140 years old this year. It'll be open for tours during the June 7th Art Hop.

Remember the late celebrated astrophysicist Carl Sagan? An interesting tie exists between science phenom Neil deGrasse Tyson and him besides both having hosted the popular "Cosmos" show begun by Sagan. It's that Tyson met Sagan as a teenager. In fact, Sagan personally invited Tyson to visit Cornell University to convince him to enroll there. Sagan met Tyson in his professor's office on a Saturday, gave him a campus tour, then gifted him one of his books with a foretelling inscription: "To Neil Tyson, future astrophysicist."

On Wednesday, May 22nd, preeminent astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson will hit the stage at Western Michigan University's Miller Auditorium. He's become a pop culture figure for his ability to excite people about science. Today we replay WMUK's Earlene McMichael's interview with him that originally aired on April 15th on the WestSouthwest news and public affairs show.

Western Michigan University’s Robert M. Beam Power Plant is easy to miss in the summer when leaves obscure the view from Kalamazoo’s Stadium Drive. But earlier this year, when the trees were bare, Paul Toth of Kalamazoo noticed something curious about big metal pipes that come out of the plant near the road.

Kalamazoo Superintendent Michael Rice will soon be Michigan’s state Superintendent of Public Instruction. Western Michigan University Professor of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology Brett Geier, says Rice is taking the job at a time when the position of state superintendent “has increased in terms of visibility and power over the last decade or so.”