The Michigan State University reference article from the English Wikipedia on 24-Jul-2004 (provided by Fixed Reference: snapshots of Wikipedia from wikipedia.org)

Michigan State University

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 agriculture and veterinary medicine. The school's most famous alum may be former basketball superstar Magic Johnson. 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.

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.

With its large student body, MSU has a wide variety of campus activities. ASMSU is the undergraduate student government. It is known for its unusual bicameral structure, which includes the parallel Student Assembly and Academic Assembly. The State News is the 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 had has a moderate but loyal following compared to other major universities.

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

Table of contents

1 Name Changes 2 Academics 3 Athletics 4 Administration 4.1 Board of Trustees 4.2 Presidents Past and Present 5 External links

Name Changes

• Agricultural College of the State of Michigan (1855) - This was the name by which the 1855 legislation refered 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.
• 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, M.S.U. finally dropped the words "Agriculture and Applied Science" from its name.

Academics

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 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. There is a long-standing rivalry between Michigan State and The University of Michigan, both academically and athletically. The two teams face off each fall in a football contest which seems to divide the state in two. Additionally, their hockey rivalry has been referred to as "the fiercest rivalry on ice."

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 rivals 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.

Administration

Board of Trustees

As of 2004:

• President M. Peter McPherson (ex officio member)
• Dolores M. Cook
• Joel I. Ferguson
• Dorothy V. Gonzales
• Colleen M. McNamara
• Donald W. Nugent
• Randall L. Pittman
• David L. Porteous
• 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 K. Simon (to be inaugurated January 2005)

External links

• Main university site
• Official MSU athletics site
• Introducing First-Year Student-Athletes to the Library: The Michigan State University Experience
• ASMSU, the undergraduate student government
• The State News, the campus newspaper

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