Michigan State University

Michigan State University

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Michigan State University is a university in East Lansing, Michigan near the state capital of Lansing. Michigan State University is known for its programs in education, agriculture and veterinary medicine. Michigan State University was founded as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan in 1855 as an act of the Michigan Legislature; the school was the first agricultural college in the United States and served as a prototype for future agricultural institutions as would be defined by the Morrill Act.

Campus

The Michigan State University campus is located in East Lansing on the banks of the Red Cedar River; the campus is bordered by Michigan and Grand River Avenues to the north, Mount Hope Road to the south, Harrison Avenue roughly west, and Hagadorn Road to the east. The southwest corner of the university has access to Interstate 96.

The W. J. Beal Botanical Garden is a notable botanical garden on campus.

History

Name Changes

• Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (1855) - This was the name by which the 1855 legislation referred to the nascent college.
• State Agricultural College (1861) - After a massive reorganization in 1861, the name was changed to something less unwieldy.
• Michigan Agricultural College (1909). By 1909 there were many agricultural colleges in the US. The name was changed to M.A.C. to remove ambiguity about what state the college was in.
• Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (1925). M.A.C. wanted to remove the word "agriculture" from its name, but the University of Michigan opposed the name change. This name was created as a compromise, but M.S.C. rarely used the "Agriculture and Applied Science" part of its name. M.A.C. is almost always spelled with periods after each letter, which not only reflects early 20th Century spelling practices, but also lets readers know that the acronym is always pronounced M-A-C, and never "mack".
• Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science (1955) On its hundredth anniversary, M.S.C. became a university, but wasn't allowed to remove its "agriculture" moniker.
• Michigan State University (1964). With the Michigan Constitution of 1964, MSU finally dropped the words "Agriculture and Applied Science" from its name. Unlike M.A.C., MSU very rarely uses periods in its acronym.

2005 Sesquicentennial

As of 2005, Michigan State is celebrating its 150th anniversary Sesquicentennial events include:

• Replacing the terra cotta statue of "The Spartan" with a more durable bronze replica.
• Excavating Saints' Rest, the school's first dormitory building.
• Adding a western tower to Spartan Stadium that will include box seats and the original terra cotta Sparty statue.
• Dedicating a new bronze statue of former MSU president John A. Hannah in front of the eponymously named administration building.
• Installing sesquicentennial plaques in 12 historic campus buildings.
• Hosting a sesquicentennial exhibit in the MSU Museum

Academics

Accomplishments

MSU continued its excellent record of students earning prestigious scholarships with the naming of Truman and Goldwater winners in 2003. The scholarship count now stands at: Rhodes, 16; Churchill, 14; Truman, 13; Goldwater, 11; Marshall, seven; and Mitchell and Gates, one each. The university has had more Rhodes Scholars than any other Big Ten Conference university in the past generation.

U.S. News & World Report ranks 10 of MSU’s graduate departments in the top 10 in their field nationally. The College of Education’s elementary and secondary education graduate programs have been ranked No. 1 for eleven consecutive years, and eight of the College of Education's programs rank in the top ten nationwide. A leader in research and headquarters for several international programs, the College of Education is considered one of the world's best.

The criminal justice program is the largest such program in the nation. Established in 1935 as a school of police administration, it is a world leader in cyber security, forensic science, and the study of youth violence.

The university's Study Abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the nation; 1,819 MSU students studied abroad in 2001-02. Study Abroad offers more than 190 programs in more than 60 countries on all continents, including Antarctica.

MSU is home to a world-class particle accelerator, the National Superconducting Cyclotron. In 2004 a new isotope of the element germanium was produced and observed at the National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory. The new germanium isotope is Ge-60.

Michigan State University is also credited with developing cisplatin, a leading cancer fighting drug, and homogenization of milk amongst many other recent innovations.

Academic programs

Bachelors, master's, and doctoral programs are offered through MSU's colleges:

• The College of Agriculture and Natural Resources
• The College of Arts and Letters
• The Eli Broad College of Business and The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management
• The College of Communication Arts and Sciences
• The MSU College of Law (formerly the Detroit College of Law)
• The College of Education
• The College of Engineering
• The College of Human Ecology
• The College of Human Medicine
• The Lyman Briggs School of Natural Science
• The James Madison College (which offers Public Affairs degrees for undergraduates only)
• The College of Natural Science
• The College of Nursing
• The College of Osteopathic Medicine
• The College of Social Science
• The College of Veterinary Medicine.

Athletics

The school's sports teams are called the Spartans. The mascot is Sparty. They participate in the NCAA's Division I-A and in the Big Ten Conference; its hockey program competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association.

Michigan State has been involved in the most-attended hockey and basketball games in history. On October 6, 2001, the Spartans set up a hockey rink in the middle of their football stadium, Spartan Stadium, and played their historic archrival (see below), the University of Michigan before a crowd of 74,554. On December 13, 2003, Michigan State and Kentucky played basketball in front of 78,129 at Ford Field, a domed stadium in Detroit.

Rivalries

The Spartans have several athletic rivalries. Their traditional archrival is the University of Michigan, although with the ascent of the Men's Basketball team under Tom Izzo, this has become less competitive, and other Big Ten schools such as Illinois and Wisconsin have taken U-M's place. However, the Spartan rivalry with U-M remains important, as it 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. Their ice hockey rivalry has been referred to as "the fiercest rivalry on ice."

MSU has several other rivalries. MSU is one of three Big Ten teams, along with the University of Michigan and Purdue University, to have an annual non-conference football game against Notre Dame University. In recent years, MSU's men's basketball team has had an annual faceoff with Duke University as part of the Big Ten/ACC Challenge. Many MSU hockey fans consider Lake Superior State a big rival, and a growing rivalry in football is taking hold with Penn State, as the teams have met annually in their last Big Ten game since 1993.

Fight Song

MSU's fight song was written in 1917 by Francis Irving Lankey. The original lyrics reflected the school's role as an agriculture college. The lyrics have since been changed several times. The lyrics had to be modified when the the school changed its mascot from the Aggies to the Spartans. In addition, whereas the original lyrics refered specifically to an American Football game against the University of Michigan ("line of blue" refers to the Wolverine defensive line), the modern lyrics can be used for any opponent in any sport.

Student Life

With about 45,000 students, MSU has a wide variety of campus activities. ASMSU is the undergraduate students' union. It is known for its unusual bicameral structure, which includes the parallel Student Assembly and Academic Assembly. The State News is the Nation's most widely distributed campus newspaper. Other important campus groups include COGS, the Council of Graduate Students, RHA, the MSU Resident Life Association, and the Greek System, which has had a moderate but loyal following compared to other major universities.

Administration

Board of Trustees

As of 2005:

• Lou Anna Simon (ex officio member)
• David L. Porteous — Chairperson
• Joel I. Ferguson — Vice Chairperson
• Dolores M. Cook
• Melanie Foster
• Dorothy V. Gonzales
• Colleen M. McNamara
• Donald W. Nugent
• G. Scott Romney

Presidents past and present

• Joseph R. Williams (1857-1859)
• Lewis R. Fisk (1859-1862)
• Theophilus C. Abbot (1862-1884)
• Edwin Willits (1885-1889)
• Oscar Clute (1889-1893)
• Lewis B. Gorton (1893-1895)
• Jonathan L. Snyder (1896-1915)
• Frank S. Kedzie (1915-1921)
• David Friday (1921-1923)
• Kenyon L. Butterfield (1924-1928)
• Robert S. Shaw (1928-1941)
• John A. Hannah (1941-1969)
• Walter Adams (1969-1970)
• Clifton R. Wharton Jr. (1970-1978)
• Edgar L. Harden (1978-1979)
• Cecil Mackey (1979-1985)
• John DiBiaggio (1985-1992)
• Gordon Guyer (1992-1993)
• M. Peter McPherson (1993-2005)
• Lou Anna Kimsey Simon (2005-)

Notable people

• List of Michigan State University people

External links

• Main university site (http://www.msu.edu/)
• Interactive Map of Campus (http://www.msu.edu/dig/msumap/)
• NSCL - National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory at Michigan State University (http://www.nscl.msu.edu/)
• Official MSU athletics site (http://www.msuspartans.com/)
• Michigan State University information page (http://michigan.stateuniversity.com)
• Introducing First-Year Student-Athletes to the Library: The Michigan State University Experience (http://www.libraryinstruction.com/athlete.html)
• ASMSU, the undergraduate student government (http://www.asmsu.msu.edu)
• The State News, the campus newspaper (http://www.statenews.com)
• WDBM-The Impact, the campus radio station (http://www.impact89fm.org)

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