Michigan State University

Michigan State University (MSU) is a public university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded on February 12, 1855 as an act of the Michigan Legislature, it was the first agricultural college in the United States. It served as a prototype for future agricultural institutions under the 1862 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act. Under the Morrill Act, the College became co-educational and expanded its curriculum beyond just agriculture. After World War II, the number of students tripled as school became a major university. Today, MSU has 45,166 students and a 5,200 acre (21 km²) campus, making it the nation's sixth-largest university.

Michigan State is best known for its academic programs in education, agriculture, hospitality business, engineering, and veterinary medicine. The school pioneered the study of packaging, criminal justice, horticulture, and music therapy. As a research university, MSU faculty developed the homogenization of milk and the cancer fighting drug cisplatin. MSU's study abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the nation. It offers more than 200 programs in more than 60 countries on all continents, including Antarctica.

The university's Division I sports teams are nicknamed the Spartans. They compete in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except ice hockey, which is part of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. MSU's football team has won the Rose Bowls in 1954, 1956, and 1988. Its men's basketball team garnered the NCAA National Championship in 1979 and 2000.

History

Main article: History of Michigan State University

Agriculture school

The Michigan Constitution of 1850^[1] called for the creation of an "agricultural school". University of Michigan (U-M) President Henry P. Tappan tried to convince the legislature to build it as part of his university in Ann Arbor, but the secretary of the Michigan State Agricultural Society, John C. Holmes argued that the young farmers wouldn't get the attention they needed in the established university. Holmes' argument won out, and 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.^[2]

The Red Cedar River is at the heart of campus.

Classes began in May 1857 with three buildings, five faculty members, 63 male students, and a president named Joseph R. Williams. Williams designed a curriculum that blended theory and practice. The school required more scientific study than practically any undergraduate institution of the era. It balanced the science with liberal arts and practical vocational studies. However, the College excluded Latin and Greek studies so that classical language requirements weren't a barrier to the mostly rural applicants. The College did however require three hours of daily manual labor, which helped students defray costs and cheaply develop the campus while learning scientific principles.^[3] Despite these innovations, Williams ran into conflict with the State Board of Education, which managed the College. They saw Williams' curriculum as elitist, despite his defense of higher education for the masses. After forcing Williams to resign in 1859, the Board reduced the curriculum to a two-year vocation-oriented farming program.

The Abrams Planetarium (bottom left) lies in one of the most urbanized parts of campus.

Land Grant pioneer

In 1860, Williams became acting lieutenant governor^[4], and helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861. It mandated that the College have a four-year curriculum and the power to grant master's degrees comparable to those of the University of Michigan. 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,^[5] and school changed its name to State Agricultural College. The school's first class graduated that same year, but there was no time for an elaborate graduation ceremony. The American Civil War had just begun, and the first alumni were drafted into the war effort. The following year, U.S. President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act to support similar colleges in the several states, making a national model out of the Michigan school. Sadly, Williams never witnessed this cause to which he had dedicated so much of his life, having taken ill and died the previous year.

In 1862 English Literature professor Theophilus Capen ("T.C.") Abbot launched a 22-year reign that stabilized the College after the Civil War. He took the College back to Williams' mixed general/practical curriculum, hiring learned scholars such as botany professor William J. Beal. Beal was an early plant (hybrid corn) geneticist who corresponded with Charles Darwin and championed the laboratory teaching method. He conducted his classes in the first freestanding botanical laboratory in America. Another distinguished faculty member was the alumnus-turned-professor Liberty Hyde Bailey. Bailey was the first to raise the study of horticulture to a science paralleling botany, earning him the title of "Father of American Horticulture".^[6].

The Hannah Administration Building is named after former president John A. Hannah.

Coed college

The College first admitted women in 1870, though there were no female dormitories. The few women who enrolled either boarded with faculty families or made the arduous stagecoach trek from Lansing. They took the same rigorous scientific agriculture course as the men. In 1896, the faculty finally created a "Women Course" that melded a home economics curriculum with liberal arts and sciences. That same year, the school made old Abbot Hall a women's dormitory. As the number of women grew, so did the number of international students. By the 1880s, they were a significant presence on campus. In 1887, for example, two percent (6 out of 312) of the student body was Japanese. However, it wasn't until 1899 that the State Agricultural College admitted its first African American student, William O. Thompson. He went on to teach at what is now Tuskegee University under the wing of Booker T. Washington, whom President Jonathan L. Snyder invited to be the Class of 1900 commencement speaker. A few years later, Myrtle Craig became the College's first African American woman. Along with the Class of 1907, she received her degree from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, commencement speaker for the school's Semi-Centennial celebration. The City of East Lansing incorporated in that same year,^[7] and two years later, the College officially changed its name to Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.).

John A. Hannah was president of MSU from 1941 to 1969. The university erected this statue of him on February 12, 2005.

Big Ten university

During the the early 20th century. M.A.C. expanded its curriculum well beyond agriculture. By 1925, it had expanded enough that it changed its name to Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (M.S.C.). In 1941, the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, John A. Hannah, became president of the College. He began the largest expansion in the school's history, with the help of the 1945 G.I. Bill, which helped World War II veterans get an education. One of Hannah's strategies was to build a new residence hall, enroll enough students to fill it, and use the income to start construction on a new dormitory. Under his plan, enrollment increased from 15,000 in 1950 to 38,000 in 1965.^[8] Hannah also got the chance to improve the school's athletic reputation when the University of Chicago resigned from the Big Ten Conference in 1946. Hannah lobbied hard to take its place, gaining admission in 1950. Five years later, on the College's centennial year of 1955, the State of Michigan made it a university, Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science.^[9] Nine years after that, the Michigan Constitution of 1964, the governing body changed its name from the State Board of Education to the MSU Board of Trustees, and the State of Michigan finally allowed the university to drop the words "Agriculture and Applied Science" from its name. Since 1964, the school gone by the name of Michigan State University.

Campus

MSU's campus is heavily forested. This trail runs behind several residence halls, including Owen Hall, McDonnell Hall, and Holmes Hall.

Main article: Campus of Michigan State University

MSU's sprawling campus is located in East Lansing on the banks of the Red Cedar River south of Grand River Avenue and Michigan Avenue. With 5,200 contiguous acres (21 km²), 2,000 acres (8 km²) of which are developed, the campus is one of the largest single university campuses in the country. The size of the campus, combined with its omnipresent trees, its lack of a centralized quadrangle, and its myriad curves, often confuses freshmen, visitors, and other newcomers. The layout of the campus tends to polarize visitors, who either love its beauty, or despise its inefficiency.

North campus

The oldest part of campus is north of the Red Cedar River. It consists of Gothic architecture, plentiful trees, and curving roads with few straight lines. In the center of the north campus lies the "Sacred Space", which is surrounded on all sides by West Circle Drive. Before the white settlement of the region, this area was an clearing in the dense virgin oak forest. It was in this "oak opening" that the school built its first buildings. While none survive, there are still some important historical buildings on and near the Sacred Space. These include Cowles House, the president's official residence, and Beaumont Tower, a carillon clock tower marking the site of College Hall, the original classroom building. To the east lies Laboratory Row, a group of laboratory buildings constructed at the turn of the 20th century. These include Eustace-Cole Hall and Marshall-Adams Hall, America's first freestanding laboratories for horticulture and bacteriology, respectively.^[10] Just south of Laboratory Row is the statue of former president John A. Hannah, erected February 12, 2005, on the university's 150th anniversary. Another landmark just north of the river is the spray painted boulder known as "The Rock", which is a popular spot for theatre, tailgating, and candlelight vigils. Just downstream from The Rock lies the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden. Finally, on the northwest corner of campus lies the university's hotel/convention center, the Kellogg Center.

South campus

The campus south of the Red Cedar River consists mostly of post-World War II International Style buildings with sparse foliage, relatively straight roadways, and numerous parking lots. The "2020 Vision" Master Plan proposes replacing these parking lots with parking ramps and green space,^[11] 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. This replica replaced the original terra cotta statue, which can still be seen on the west concourse of the Spartan Stadium. Notable academic and research buildings on the South Campus include the Cyclotron and the College of Law. This part of campus is also home to the MSU Horticulture Gardens and the adjoining 4-H Children's Garden. South the gardens lie the Canadian National and CSX railroads, which divide the main campus from thousands of acres of university-owned farmland.

Academics

The Library is located on the oldest part of campus between Beaumont Tower and the Red Cedar River.

Michigan State ranks 77th amongst the world's top 500 universities, according to a 2005 study by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.^[12] U.S. News & World Report ranks it 74th nationally.^[13] Since the 1970s the school has had 16 Rhodes Scholars, 14 Churchill Scholars, 13 Truman Scholars, 11 Goldwater Scholars, 7 Marshall Scholars, 1 Mitchell Scholar and 1 Gates Scholar.^[14] MSU's study abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the nation. 2,461 MSU students studied abroad in 2004-05. The university offers more than 200 programs in over 60 countries on all continents, including Antarctica.^[15]

Demographics

MSU has the sixth largest student body in the United States. There are 45,166 total students, 35,678 undergraduates and 9,488 graduate and professional students. The student body is 54 percent female/46 percent male. Minority enrollment totals 7.9 percent African American, 5.3 percent Asian/Pacific Islander, 3.0 percent Chicano or other Hispanic, and 0.8 percent Native American. Matriculating freshmen have on average a high school GPA of 3.3-3.8 on a standard 4.0 scale. Incoming freshmen average an SAT score of 1040-1260, or an ACT score of 22-27. Students come from all 83 counties in Michigan, all 50 states in the U.S., and about 125 other countries. MSU has about 4,500 faculty and 6,000 members of its support staff.^[16] The school has a student/faculty ratio of 19:1.^[17]

South Kedzie Hall is a 1960s addition to the 1920s-era North Kedzie Laboratory building. Amongst other things, it houses the philosophy and political science departments.

Programs

The College of Education’s elementary^[18] and secondary^[19] education graduate programs have been ranked No. 1 for eleven consecutive years, and eight of the education programs rank in the top ten nationwide. Michigan State was the first to establish the university-level study of such fields as criminal justice, music therapy and packaging. Its School of Criminal Justice,, established in 1935, was the first to hand out Bachelors degrees in police administration.^[20] Today the school trains students in cyber security, homeland security, forensic science, and the study of youth violence. MSU's School of Music established the world's first music therapy department in 1944.^[21] The school started the first packaging program in 1952, handing out the first packaging B.S. in 1955.^[22]

Research

The Chemistry building is connected by skywalks to other scientific research buildings.

The university spent $289,787,000 (USD) on research in 2002,^[23] capping a long history of productive research. In 1877, botany professor William J. Beal performed the first documented genetic crosses to produce hybrid corn which led to increased yields. Michigan State dairy professor G. Malcolm Trout invented the process for the homogenization of milk in the 1930s. In the 1960s, MSU scientists developed cisplatin, a leading cancer fighting drug. Today Michigan State continues its research with facilities such as the U.S. Department of Energy-sponsored MSU-DOE Plant Research Laboratory, and a particle accelerator called the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. In 2004 scientists at the Cyclotron produced and observed a new isotope of the element germanium. The new germanium isotope is Ge-60. In that same year, Michigan State, in consortium with the University of North Carolina and the government of Brazil, broke ground on the 4.1-meter Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope (SOAR) in the Andes Mountains of Chile. The consortium telescope will allow the Physics & Astronomy department to study galaxy formation and origins.^[24]

Endowment

Michigan State's endowment started in 1916 when the engineering building burned down. Automobile magnate R.E. Olds helped the program stay afloat with a gift of $100,000 (USD).^[25] While this opened the door for other types of private donations, MSU has often lagged behind peer institutions in terms of endowment dollars. As recently as the early 1990s, MSU was dead last amongst the eleven Big Ten schools with barely over $100 million in endowment funds. But in the early 2000s, the university started a capital campaign to increase the size of the endowment. At the close of FY 2003-04, the endowment had topped $1 billion, raising the school to seventh of the 11 Big Ten endowments. The rapid increase in the size of the endowment will help improve outdated facilities such as the Music Building, which the music department hopes to soon replace with money from its alumni fundraising program.^[26]

Athletics

Spartan Stadium hosts varsity football games and other events.

MSU's 22 varsity sports teams are called the Spartans. The mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty. The school colors are green and white. The university participates in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Big Ten Conference in all Varsity sports except ice hockey, which competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The Spartan football team has won three Rose Bowls, and the men's basketball team has won two National Championships.

The MSU Fight Song is played at all university sporting events. A student named Francis Irving Lankey wrote the song n 1917. Lankey's original lyrics reflected the College's role as an agriculture college. The lyrics have been changed several times as the school has evolved from a regional agricultural college to a Big Ten university. The MSU Marching Band plays the song at every university event, and both students and alumni sing along.

Football

Football has a long tradition at Michigan State. Starting as an club sport in 1884, football gained varsity status in 1896.^[27] In the 1950's MSU led the nation in desgregation allowing black athletes in all sports. Today, the team competes in Spartan Stadium, a 72,027 person football stadium in the center of campus. The current coach is John L. Smith, who has an 18-18-0 record. MSU's traditional archrival is the University of Michigan, against whom they compete for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. MSU is traditionally the underdog, with a 28-65-5 record against U-M the annual game.^[28] The Michigan/Michigan State rivalry dates back to the days when U-M was still the state's largest university, and MSU (then M.A.C.) was a small agriculture college aspiring to be a rival Big Ten university. MSU is one of three Big Ten teams, along with U-M and Purdue, to have an annual non-conference football game against the Notre Dame. MSU's record against the Fighting Irish is 25-43-1.^[29]

Earvin "Magic" Johnson was one of the university's most famous basketball players.

Men's basketball

MSU's men's basketball team has won the National Championship twice: in 1979 and again in 2000. On December 13, 2003, Michigan State and Kentucky played at the most-attended basketball game when they held a match in front of 78,129 at Ford Field, a stadium in Detroit. Kentucky won 79-74.^[30] The team currently plays at the Breslin Student Events Center under head coach is Tom Izzo, who has a 233-97 record.^[31] Izzo's coaching has helped the team make 4 of the last 7 NCAA Final Fours, winning the title in 2000. Unfortunately, Izzo's successes on the court have led to riots in East Lansing after major wins and losses. While many of the most violent rioters are not enrolled MSU students, the riots have garner much unwanted media attention for MSU.

Ice hockey

The men's ice hockey team plays at the Munn Ice Arena. Its current head coach is Rick Comley, who took over from Ron Mason in 2002, when Mason took a job as Athletic Director. Since the Big Ten Conference does not cover Division I ice hockey, Michigan State competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Along with the University of Michigan and the Ohio State University, it is one of three Big Ten schools in the CCHA. As with other sports, the hockey rivalry between MSU and U-M is a fierce one, though MSU's rivalry against Lake Superior State University has grown in recent years. On October 6, 2001, the hockey team involved in the most-attended hockey in history. The Spartans set up a hockey rink in the middle of their football stadium, Spartan Stadium, and played U-M before a crowd of 74,554. The game ended in a 3-3 tie.^[32]

Student life

Hubbard Hall is a twelve-story residence hall on the eastern edge of campus. It is the university's tallest building.

East Lansing is very much a college town, with 58.6% of the population between the ages of 18 and 24.^[33] President Hannah's rush to expand in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in the largest residence hall system in the nation.^[34] 16,000 students live in the university's 23 undergraduate halls, one graduate hall, and three apartment villages. Each residence hall has its own hall government, with representatives in the Residence Halls Association (RHA).

Activism

Activists have played an important role in Michigan State history, especially during the height of the Vietnam War, which MSU students largely orchestrated, during which student protests led to the resignation of president John A. Hannah and the creation of co-ed residence halls. Student protests in the seventies also blocked the routing of Interstate 496 through campus. There are many student groups focused on political change. The student government is the Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU). It is known for its unusual nonpartisan bicameral structure, which includes the parallel Student Assembly and Academic Assembly. ASMSU serves as an umbrella group for many other campus organizations, such as the Council of Racial and Ethnic Students and the Council of Progressive Students, (CORES & COPS), which themselves are umbrella groups for such organizations as the Black Student Alliance, the Jewish Student Union, and the Women's Council. Graduate campus groups include the Graduate Employees Union (GEU) and the Council of Graduate Students (COGS). The College Republicans and the College Democrats are very active, although several other political groups thrive. Other partisan activist groups include Young Americans for Freedom on the right and Students for Economic Justice on the left. Given the school's proximity to the Michigan state capital of Lansing, many politically-inclined Spartans get internships for the state representatives.

This smokestack, blazoned "M.S.C.", is a reminder of the university's origins as a small college.

Media

MSU has a variety of campus media outlets. The student-run newspaper, the State News, is the nation's most widely distributed campus newspaper. Free copies of the paper are online or at newsstands around campus and the city. The State News prints 28,500 copies of the paper Monday through Friday during the Fall and Spring semesters, and 15,000 copies three times a week during the summer^[35]. The paper is not published on weekends, holidays, or semester breaks. The campus yearbook, the Red Cedar Log, is the largest in the nation. The university has its own television station, a PBS affiliate called WKAR-TV. The staion is the second-oldest educational television station in the United States, and the oldest east of the Mississippi river. Besides playing PBS shows, WKAR-TV produces its own local programming such as the high school quiz bowl show, QuizBusters. MSU has two National Public Radio affiliated radio stations. WKAR-AM plays NPR's talk radio programming, whereas WKAR-FM focuses mostly on classical music programming. Several shows, such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. Michigan State also has a student-run radio station, WDBM, which bills itself as "The Impact". WDBM broadcasts mostly alternative music during weekdays. Nightly block programming features alternative country, jazz, blues, metal music, electronic music, and hip hop. On Sundays, the Impact plays world music and reggae.

Notable people

Main article: List of Michigan State University people

MSU alumni number has 389,000 worldwide. Famous former Spartans include former Michigan governors James Blanchard and John Engler, actors James Caan and Robert Urich, billionaire Eli Broad, and Spider-Man trilogy director Sam Raimi. Famous 19th Century graduates include Charles E. St. John, a prominent early astrophysicist and Einstein associate, Ray Stannard Baker, a famed "muckraker" journalist and Pulitzer Prize winning biographer of Woodrow Wilson, and William Chandler Bagley, a pioneering pedagogy reformer. Prominent 19th century Japanese alumni include Kumagusu Minakata (1888), a renowned environmental scientist, and Michitaro Tsuda, (B.S. 1884), who went on to become a member of the Emperor’s Privy Council.

Former Spartans formerly or currently in the NBA include Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Steve Smith, Scott Skiles, Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleaves, Alan Anderson and Zach Randolph. In the National Football League, MSU alumni include Morten Andersen, Plaxico Burress, Andre Rison, Derrick Mason, Muhsin Muhammad, T.J. Duckett, Flozell Adams, Julian Peterson and Bubba Smith, and many others. Former Michigan State players in the National Hockey League include Anson Carter, Adam Hall, John-Michael Liles, brothers Kelly Miller, Kevin Miller and Kip Miller, as well as their cousin Ryan Miller.

Notes