Loading AI tools
Public university in East Lansing, Michigan, US From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan, United States. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the country.[8][9][10] After the introduction of the Morrill Act in 1862, the state designated the college a land-grant institution in 1863, making it the first of the land-grant colleges in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1870. Today, Michigan State has facilities all across the state and over 634,000 alumni.
| |
Former names | Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (1855–1861) State Agricultural College (1861–1909) Michigan Agricultural College (1909–1925) Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (1925–1955) Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science (1955–1964) |
|---|---|
| Motto | |
| Type | Public land-grant research university |
| Established | February 12, 1855 |
| Accreditation | HLC |
Academic affiliations | |
| Endowment | $4.4 billion (2023)[4] |
| President | Kevin Guskiewicz |
Academic staff | 5,703 (fall 2023)[5] |
Administrative staff | 7,365 (2023)[5] |
| Students | 52,089 (fall 2024)[5] |
| Undergraduates | 41,234 (fall 2024)[5] |
| Postgraduates | 10,855 (fall 2024)[5] |
| Location | , , United States 42°43′30″N 84°28′48″W |
| Campus | Small city[6], 5,300 acres (21 km2)[5] |
| Colors | Green and white[7] |
| Nickname | Spartans |
Sporting affiliations | NCAA Division I FBS – Big Ten |
| Mascot | Sparty |
| Website | msu |
 | |
Michigan State is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity".[11][12] The university's campus houses the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, the Abrams Planetarium, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and the country's largest residence hall system.[13]
The university's six professional schools include the College of Law (founded in Detroit, in 1891, as the Detroit College of Law and moved to East Lansing in 1995), Eli Broad College of Business; the College of Nursing, the College of Osteopathic Medicine (the world's first state-funded osteopathic college),[14] the College of Human Medicine, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. The university pioneered the studies of music therapy,[15] packaging, hospitality business, supply chain management, and communication sciences.
University faculty, alumni, and affiliates include 2 Nobel Prize laureates, 20 Rhodes Scholars, 20 Marshall Scholars, and 8 Pulitzer Prize winners. The Michigan State Spartans compete in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference. Spartan teams have won national championships in many sports, including football, men's basketball, ice hockey, and women's cross-country.
The rise of scientific agriculture in Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century and the desire for formal agricultural education at the college level by forward looking agriculturalists in Michigan gave impetus to a movement that led to the establishment of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan in 1855, the first of its kind in the United States, predating the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (founded in 1855, renamed in 1862), the Maryland Agricultural College (founded in 1856), the Iowa Agricultural College (founded in 1858), the State Agricultural College within the University of Georgia (founded in 1859), and the Massachusetts Agricultural College (founded in 1863). The Michigan Farmer, a leading agricultural periodical, and the Michigan State Agricultural Society led public discussions relative to the virtues and benefits of an agricultural college for the state's farmers and economy.
To no one man is the College so much indebted as John Clough Holmes.
In early 1855, John Clough Holmes, secretary of the agricultural society, convinced the legislature to pass an act establishing "a State Agricultural School" to be located on a site selected by the Michigan State Agricultural Society within ten miles of Lansing. On February 12, 1855, Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed a bill establishing the nation's first agriculture college, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan.[17][18] Professor Lautner contrasts Holmes' legacy with that of John Harvard, whose donation of a modest library and four hundred British pounds led to a major university that bears his name, implying that the college's debt to Holmes is far greater. William J. Beal called Holmes "the most important agent" of the college.[16] Holmes Hall, the home of the Lyman Briggs College, is named in his honor.
The State Board of Education was designated as the institution's governing body. The board also oversaw the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, which had opened in 1852.[19] Classes began on May 13, 1857, with three buildings, five faculty members, and 63 male students.
Joseph R. Williams, the first president and a passionate promoter of interdisciplinary liberal arts education, encouraged a curriculum that went far beyond practical agriculture: "The course of instruction in said college shall include the following branches of education, viz: an English and scientific course, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, animal and vegetable anatomy and physiology, geology, mineralogy, meteorology, entomology, veterinary art, mensuration, leveling and political economy, with bookkeeping and the mechanic arts which are directly connected with agriculture..." From its inception, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan offered courses of study that would characterize the land-grant philosophy of higher education after the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. Michigan's agricultural college educated people to be well-informed citizens, as well as good farmers.[20]
However, after just two years, Williams ran into conflict with the managing State Board of Education. Despite Williams' eloquent defense of an all-round education for the masses, the board saw the college as inefficient and had far deviated from the agriculture focus as the founder, John Clough Holmes, had anticipated. Indeed, some agriculturalists began protesting against the college's unpractical curriculum with some even calling for the college's abolition.[21] Williams eventually resigned in 1859. The board then reduced the curriculum to a two-year, vocation-oriented farming program, which proved catastrophic and resulted almost overnight in a drastic reduction in enrollment.[22][23] There was a high demand for an all-round education grounded in the liberal arts tradition instead of a specialized agriculture program, a fact the board disregarded. With a sharp decrease in tuition revenue, the college was soon in dire financial straits and threatened with dissolution.
In 1860, Williams became acting lieutenant governor[24] and helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861. This restored the college's four-year curriculum and gave the college the power to grant master's degrees. Under the act, a newly created body, known as the State Board of Agriculture, took over from the State Board of Education in running the institution.[18] The college changed its name to State Agricultural College, and its first class graduated in the same year.
In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Acts to support similar colleges nationally, the first instance of federal funding for education.[25] Shortly thereafter, on March 18, 1863, the state designated the college its land-grant institution making Michigan State University the nation's first land-grant college.[26] The federal funding had rescued the Agricultural College from extinction.
Although the school's then-isolated location limited student housing and enrollment during the 19th century, the college became reputable, largely due to alumni who went on to distinguished careers, many of whom led or taught in other land-grant colleges. While the institution emphasized scientific agriculture, its graduates went into a wide variety of professions.
The college first admitted women in 1870, although there were no female residence halls. The few women who enrolled boarded with faculty families or made the arduous stagecoach trek from Lansing. From the early days, female students took the same rigorous scientific agriculture courses as male students. In 1896, the faculty created a "Women Course" that melded a home economics curriculum with liberal arts and sciences. That same year, the college turned the Abbot Hall male dorm into a women's dormitory.
It was not until 1899 that the State Agricultural College admitted its first African American student, William O. Thompson. After graduation, he taught at what is now Tuskegee University. A few years later, Myrtle Craig became the first woman African American student to enroll at the college.[27] Two years later, the college changed its name to Michigan Agricultural College.
During the early 20th century, Michigan Agricultural College expanded its curriculum well beyond agriculture. By 1925, it had expanded enough to change its name to Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (MSC), or "Michigan State" for short. In 1941, the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, John A. Hannah, became president of the college.
After World War II, Hannah began the largest expansion in the institution's history, with the help of the 1945 G.I. Bill, which helped World War II veterans gain college educations. One of Hannah's strategies was to build a new dormitory building, enroll enough students to fill it, and use the income to start construction of another dormitory. Under his plan, enrollment increased from 15,000 in 1950 to 38,000 in 1965.[31][32]
Six years later, during the school's centennial year of 1955, the State of Michigan officially designated the school as a university, even though Hannah and others felt it had been one for decades. The college then became Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.[33] During the 1950s, Michigan State University was the "preeminent" example of a group of former agricultural colleges which had already evolved into state colleges and were attempting to become research universities.[34] In 1957, Hannah continued MSU's expansion by co-founding Michigan State University–Oakland, now Oakland University, with Matilda Dodge Wilson. After the ratification of the Michigan Constitution of 1964, the university's governing body changed its name from the State Board of Agriculture to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees.[35]
MSU was affiliated with Oakland University in Rochester Hills, Michigan, from the time of the latter's founding in 1957 (as Michigan State University-Oakland), until 1970 when Oakland University gained institutional independence.
In September 2005, President Lou Anna Simon called for Michigan State to become the global model leader for land-grant institutions by 2012. Her plans included creating a new residential college and increased grants awarded from the National Institutes of Health past the US$100 million mark. While there are over 100 land-grant universities in the United States, she stated she would like Michigan State University to be the leader.[36]
MSU's sprawling campus is in East Lansing, Michigan. The campus is perched on the banks of the Red Cedar River. Development of the campus started in 1856 with three buildings: a multipurpose College Hall building, a dormitory later called "Saints' Rest",[37] and a barn. Today, MSU's contiguous campus consists of 5,300 acres (2,100 ha),[5] 2,000 acres (810 ha) of which are developed. There are 563[5] buildings: 107[5] for academics, 131 for agriculture, 166 for housing and food service, and 42 for athletics. Overall, the university has 22,763,025 square feet (2,114,754.2 m2) of indoor space.[38] Connecting it all is 26 miles (42 km) of roads and 100 miles (160 km) of sidewalks.[39] MSU also owns 44 non-campus properties, totaling 22,000 acres (8,900 ha) in 28 different counties.[40]
In early 2017, construction of a $22.5 million solar project began at five parking lots on campus. MSU's solar carport array is constructed on five of the university's largest commuter parking lots and covers 5,000[41] parking spaces. The solar carports are designed to deliver a peak power of 10.5 Megawatts and an annual energy of 15 million kilowatt-hours, which is enough to power approximately 1,800 Michigan homes.[42] The solar carport project was recognized at the Smart Energy Decisions Innovation Summit 2018, earning the Onsite Renewable Energy award for “The Largest Carport Solar Array in North America.”[43]
Some land owned by MSU is in Lansing,[44] Lansing Charter Township,[45] and Meridian Charter Township.[46]
The oldest part of campus lies on the Red Cedar river's north bank.[47] It includes Collegiate Gothic architecture, plentiful trees, and curving roads with few straight lines. The college built its first three buildings here, of which none survive. Other historic buildings north of the river include the president's official residence, Cowles House; and Beaumont Tower, a carillon clock tower marking the site of College Hall, the original classroom building. To the east lies Eustace–Cole Hall, America's first freestanding horticulture laboratory.[48] Other landmarks include the bronze statue of former president John A. Hannah,[49] the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, and the painted boulder known as "The Rock", a popular spot for theater, tailgating, and candlelight vigils. On the campus's northwest corner is the university's hotel, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The university also has two museums. MSU Museum, initiated in 1857, is one of the Midwest's oldest museums and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums.[50] The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid, opened in 2012 as MSU's primary art gallery, and features art from MSU's permanent collection as well as from graduate students on campus.[51]
The campus south of the river consists mostly of post-World War II International Style buildings, and is characterized by sparser foliage, relatively straight roadways, and many parking lots. The "2020 Vision" Master Plan proposes replacing these parking lots with parking ramps and green space,[52] but these plans will take many years to reach fruition. As part of the master plan, the university erected a new bronze statue of The Spartan in 2005 to be placed at the intersection of Chestnut and Kalamazoo, just south of the Red Cedar River. This replica replaced the original modernist terra cotta statue,[53] which can still be seen inside Spartan Stadium. Notable academic and research buildings on the South Campus include the Cyclotron, the College of Law, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building,[54] and the Broad College of Business.[55]
This part of campus is home to the MSU Horticulture Gardens and the adjoining 4-H Children's Garden. South of the gardens lie the Canadian National and CSX railroads, which divide the main campus from thousands of acres of university-owned farmland. The university's agricultural facilities include the Horse, Dairy Cattle, Beef Cattle, Swine, Sheep, and Poultry Teaching and Research Farms, as well as the Air Quality Control Lab and the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.[56]
The Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center doubles as a 4-star hotel and a business-friendly conference center. It is on the northwest corner of Michigan State University's campus, across from the Brody Complex, on Harrison Road just south of Michigan Avenue. The hotel's 160 rooms and suites can accommodate anyone staying in East Lansing for a business conference, sporting event or an on-campus visit. Besides a lodging facility, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center is a "learning laboratory for the 300–400 students each year that are enrolled in The School of Hospitality Business and other majors." The Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center strives to facilitate education by hosting conferences and seminars.[57]
MSU ran a small campus at Dubai Knowledge Village, Dubai, United Arab Emirates.[58] It first offered only one program, a master's program in human resources and labor relations. In 2011, it added a master's program in Public Health.[59]
Previously, MSU established an education center in Dubai that offered six undergraduate programs, thereby becoming the first American university with a presence in Dubai International Academic City. The university attracted 100 students in 2007, its first year,[60] but the school was unable to achieve the 100–150 new students per year needed for the program to be viable, and in 2010 MSU closed the program and the campus.[59][61][62]
MSU has a large presence in downtown Detroit. This campus includes programs with the College of Education, Detroit Outreach Admissions, MSU Community Music School of Detroit, and the Study of Active Neighborhoods in Detroit (StAND). MSU began a partnership with Apple in 2022, creating the Apple Developer Academy.[63] On June 13, 2023, MSU purchased a majority stake in Detroit's iconic Fisher Building.[64][65] The MSU Research Foundation opened a startup incubator inside the Fisher Building later that year. In early 2023 MSU announced they would begin collaborating with Henry Ford Health on a new research center in Detroit.[66]
The College of Human Medicine currently operates smaller campuses as partnerships with local health systems in multiple Michigan cities. The Grand Rapids Secchia Campus is the largest of these campuses,[67] with plans to expand the campus in coming years.[68] The Secchia Campus partners with multiple hospitals on Grand Rapids' Medical Mile.[69] Other Michigan cities with campuses[70] include Flint (Ascension Genesys Hospital, Hurley Medical Center, and McLaren Flint[71]), Midland, Traverse City (Munson Medical Center), Marquette[72] (UP Health System), Southfield (
