History of Michigan State University
Date | Name change |
---|---|
February 12, 1855 | Agricultural College of the State of Michigan |
March 15, 1861 | State Agricultural College |
June 2, 1909 | Michigan Agricultural College |
May 13, 1925[2] | Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science |
July 1, 1955 | Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science |
January 1, 1964 | Michigan State University |
The
Together with the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (now
After World War II, its president
Agricultural Roots
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/c1/Holmes-John_Clough.jpg/170px-Holmes-John_Clough.jpg)
The rise of scientific agriculture in
The Michigan State Agricultural Society, founded in 1849 to promote the organized advancement of farming statewide, almost immediately determined the State should establish and support an agricultural college. To that end, the Society tasked its trustee, Bela Hubbard, a natural scientist and farm owner in Detroit, to draft a memorial for presentation to the Michigan State Legislature requesting the establishment of such a college, which he did in 1850. In the document, Hubbard, a Hamilton College graduate, noted the Society’s belief that a liberal education promoting a thorough knowledge of the “fundamental laws of science” was essential to intelligent farming. He therefore rejected the notion of creating a mere trade school for farmers, with his memorial noting: “Nor should the claims of literature and fine arts be wholly neglected as they tend to polish the mind and manners, refine the taste, and add greater luster to life.” [6] Thus, Hubbard tasked the future college to offer what he termed an “enlightened liberal education.” [7]
Following the Society's request, the state constitutional convention of 1850 adopted Article 13, Section 11 which states in part: “The Legislature shall encourage the promotion of intellectual, scientific and agricultural improvement, and as soon as practicable, provide for the establishment of an Agricultural School.” [8] The constitution, however, specified that this school could be either an autonomous institution or be a branch of the University of Michigan. This provision set off a bitter controversy between supporters of the existing university and proponents of a new, independent institution.[9][10]
John Clough Holmes, secretary of the agricultural society, worked tirelessly to convince the legislature to establish an agricultural college. Holmes was born in Massachusetts and moved to Michigan in 1835. He served as president of the Detroit Horticultural Society in 1847, and then in 1849, he co-founded the Michigan State Agricultural Society. Henry Philip Tappan, president of the university, forcefully made the case for creating a department of agriculture in the university. Holmes and advocates for the separate institution feared that agricultural studies would not receive the attention needed to survive and thrive in the university, which put great emphasis on the study of medicine and law and a literary curriculum rooted in classical languages. In addition, Tappan made no provision for the “model farm”—deemed essential by farmers.[10]
To no one man is the College so much indebted as John Clough Holmes.
— Theophilus C. Abbot, 3rd President of the State Agricultural College[11]
In early 1855, Holmes 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,
Classes began in May 1857 with three buildings, five faculty members, 63 male students, and a college president. The College's first president Joseph R. Williams, a Harvard graduate, was a passionate promoter for interdisciplinary education. Under Williams, following input from the faculty, the College established a curriculum offering two-thirds science and one-third liberal arts coursework.[12][13]
It is noteworthy that the agricultural college’s enabling legislation mandated 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.
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.[17] In 1859, Williams resigned. The Board then reduced the curriculum to a two-year, vocation-oriented farming program,[18] a move that resulted almost overnight in a drastic reduction in enrollment.[19] The school was soon in dire financial straits and threatened with dissolution.[citation needed] After resigning from the College, Williams was elected to Michigan's legislature, and thereafter, elevated to president pro tem of the Michigan Senate. He helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861. Following Bela Hubbard’s foundational memorial conceptualizing an "enlightened liberal education," the Reorganization Act mandated the College offer courses in English language and literature, mathematics, moral philosophy, history, civil engineering, technology, and household economy. [20] The new law also mandated that the College have a four-year curriculum and 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. At that time, the legislature adopted the name of State Agricultural College.[10]
The school's first class graduated in 1861.
Financial Struggles and the Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act
In 1862, President
In 1862 the newly created State Board of Agriculture appointed English Literature professor Theophilus Capen ("T.C.") Abbot president, much to the professor's surprise. Abbot remained president for twenty-two years and helped stabilize the College during and after the Civil War. During the presidency of Theophilus C. Abbot, a proposal was brought before the legislature by the University of Michigan to merge with the Agricultural College. Andrew Dickson White, who was president of newly-opened Cornell University, argued, "The State of Michigan... indeed gave its Agricultural College an excellent faculty and they have achieved much success considering their means but infinitely better would it have been to combine that Agricultural College with their noble University."[22] Nevertheless, the Legislature voted down the proposal in 1863, but it returned to the floor in 1865, 1867, and again in 1869.[23]
Abbot worked hard to perpetuate Williams' vision of a "whole man" educational approach. He took the College back to its original mixed liberal/practical curriculum taught by learned scholars. By the 1880s these included
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.
Our graduates show that a love of knowledge has been infused into them by frequently returning to study or by resorting to other institutions of learning to continue their studies. They have gone from us to the University [of
Yale, Harvard, England, France and Germany to continue their studies.— Theophilus C. Abbot, 3rd President of the State Agricultural College, wrote in the 1878 report of the State Board of Agriculture[28]
Notable 19th-century graduates include the aforementioned Bailey;
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/c/ca/Portrait_of_Liberty_Hyde_Bailey.jpg/170px-Portrait_of_Liberty_Hyde_Bailey.jpg)
While the College had many successful alumni, many of Michigan farmers still feared that a college education would dissuade their children from agriculture. President Abbot helped win them over by taking the College to the farm. In 1876 the Agricultural College held the first "Farmers' Institutes" in rural communities across the state, where school professors shared experimental and practical information with Michigan farmers. This concept led to the Hatch Act of 1887, which provided federal funding for agricultural experiment stations operated by each state's Land Grant college. Through these "Farmers' Institutes", T.C. Abbot converted many skeptical farmers into ardent College supporters.[30][31][32][33]
Pioneer in Coeducation
The College first admitted women in 1870 but the school's relative isolation and lack of women's living quarters tamped coeducational enrollment for decades.[34] The few women who enrolled either boarded with faculty families or were locals who made the daily three-mile trek from Lansing by stagecoach over unpaved Michigan Avenue. The women were educated in the same scientific agriculture courses as men, excepting "practical agriculture." Since the late 1880s, local Granger leader Mary Ann Bryant Mayo advocated for a curriculum tailored to the skills women would need as future farm and household managers.[35] In 1896, the College became one of only fourteen other colleges and universities in America to adopt and meld a home economics curriculum within the liberal arts and sciences program, increasing female enrollment.[34] That same year, the school relocated male students from the old Abbot Hall dormitory to allow for greater a number of women to enroll in the course.[36]
![panorama of a large, multi-story building, with smaller buildings nearby](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/be/MSU_Morrill_Hall_1912_sepia.jpg/400px-MSU_Morrill_Hall_1912_sepia.jpg)
![photograph of building on campus](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d9/MSU_Laboratory_Row_1912_sepia.jpg/400px-MSU_Laboratory_Row_1912_sepia.jpg)
Considering the Morrill Act's original mandate that Land Grant Colleges teach engineering (then called "mechanic arts"), the State Agricultural College had developed civil and electrical engineering programs to complement the original mechanical program of 1885.
In 1899, the State Agricultural College finally admitted its first African American student, William O. Thompson. After graduation, Thompson taught at what is now Tuskegee University, founded and headed by Booker T. Washington. Washington later delivered one of his most memorable addresses to the class of 1900 at commencement: in the 1900 commencement address, Booker T. Washington said "Without industrial development there can be no wealth; without wealth there can be no leisure; without leisure, no opportunity for thoughtful reflection and the cultivation of the higher arts."[44] MSU President Jonathan L. Snyder had invited Washington to be the College's Class of 1900 commencement speaker. A few years later, Myrtle Craig became the first African-American woman to enroll at the College. Graduating with the Class of 1907, she received her degree from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, commencement speaker for the Semi-Centennial celebration of the College's opening. [45] In addition to President Roosevelt, the Semi-Centennial brought to campus college and university presidents and representatives from across the country, including several from future Ivy League schools. [46] Two years later, the college officially changed its name to Michigan Agricultural College, since by this time there were many other agricultural colleges across the country.[47]
Smith–Lever Act
In 1914, the United States Congress passed the
Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 and Expansion
School year | Number of students |
---|---|
1857–1858 | 123 |
1907–1908 | 1,191 |
1954–1955 | 21,295 |
In 1941, Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture
On 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, in fact, for decades the College thus became Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science. 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.[51]
Michigan State University (1964-present)
President | Start year | End year |
---|---|---|
Joseph R. Williams | 1857 | 1859 |
Lewis R. Fiske | 1859 | 1862 |
Theophilus C. Abbot | 1862 | 1885 |
Edwin Willits | 1885 | 1889 |
Oscar Clute | 1889 | 1893 |
Lewis G. Gorton | 1893 | 1895 |
Jonathan L. Snyder | 1896 | 1915 |
Frank S. Kedzie | 1915 | 1921 |
David Friday | 1922 | 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 |
M. Cecil Mackey | 1979 | 1985 |
John A. DiBiaggio | 1985 | 1992 |
Gordon Guyer | 1992 | 1993 |
M. Peter McPherson | 1993 | 2004 |
Lou Anna K. Simon
|
2005 | 2018 |
Samuel L. Stanley | 2019 | 2022 |
Kevin Guskiewicz | 2024 |
In the 1960s, Nigerian President Nnamdi Azikiwe invited the University to partner with Nigerians to build the first land-grant model university in Africa, the University of Nigeria.[52] The many years of faculty experience in Nigeria created the foundation for a major[citation needed] MSU African Studies Center.[53] By the 1990s MSU had the largest faculty in the nation of Africa specialists (170) and was producing more Ph.D.s on Africa, offering more study abroad in Africa (26), and teaching more African languages (30) than any other university. The faculty is deeply engaged in many African development problems in food security, health (especially tropical diseases such as malaria, river blindness, and filariasis), education, and gender equity. In 1978, the University divested the stocks of companies doing business in apartheid-governed South Africa from its endowment portfolio.[54][55]
By 1969, the student body had become politically active over issues such as the
As the pioneer land grant university, it has historically sought to provide educational opportunities to a wide variety of students, especially to those from the farming and working classes. Former President Peter McPherson stated "access to MSU and the education it offers is one of our roots" while noting the challenge, even irony, in maintaining such openness as the University's quality makes it ever more popular and difficult to be admitted into.[58][59]
In more recent years, "
In a 1999 incident unrelated to the riots, eco-anarchist activists including Rod Coronado burned down the Agriculture Hall.[64]
East Lansing's plan to redevelop Cedar Village (a student-dominated neighborhood at the center of several riots) has increased the tensions between the school and local government. In 2005, East Lansing City Council declared the neighborhood "
In 2004, President
2023 mass shooting
On the evening of February 13, 2023, a mass shooting occurred on campus that resulted in three students being killed, among them Arielle Anderson, Brian Fraser, and Alexandria Verner, and five injured.[70] The gunman, 43-year-old Anthony Dwayne McRae, took his own life via a self-inflicted gunshot wound after a confrontation with the police.[70]
References
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- ISBN 0-87013-222-9.
- ^ "Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections". August 6, 2007. Archived from the original on August 6, 2007. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
- ^ "Cover Story: What It Means To Be A Land-Grant University". Alumni. Retrieved May 12, 2023.
- ^ Miller, Matthew. (2014). "MSU tops 50,000 students". Retrieved November 18, 2014.
- ^ Michigan History, January/February 1988, p. 37
- ^ Kuhn 1955, p. 5
- ^ Michigan Constitution, 1850
- ^ "Michigan Constitution of 1850: Article 13, Section 1". Michigan Legislature. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ a b c d e Widder, Keith (January 16, 2004). "Origins of MSU". MSU Sesquicentennial Celebration committee. Archived from the original on June 3, 2004. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ Beal 1915, p. 401.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, pp. 16, 27, 29.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, p. 26
- ^ Kuhn 1955, pp. 26, 31.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, pp. 26–7
- ^ Darling 1950, p. 121.
- ^ Darling 1950, pp. 123–25.
- ^ Darling 1950, p. 129.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, p. 32.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, p. 63
- ^ "Backgrounder on the Morrill Act". Basic Readings in U.S. Democracy. US State Department. Archived from the original on April 11, 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ White, Andrew Dickson (1869). N.Y. State Agricultural Society. Address on Agricultural Education, by Andrew D. White, President of Cornell University. (1869).
- ^ Kuhn 1955, pp. 76–78.
- ^ Hugo 1997, p. 68.
- ^ "Liberty Hyde Bailey - A Man for All Seasons".
- ^ "123915032". viaf.org. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ "A Brief History of the Sibley College and School".
- ^ The Seventeenth Annual Report of the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture of the State of Michigan for the Year 1878, pp. 39, 40.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, pp. 26–29.
- ^ "MSUE Portal". Michigan State University Extension. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ "Milestones Of MSU's Sesquicentennial". University Archives & Historical Collections. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ "SESQUICENTENNIAL COVER STORY".
- ^ "Act of 1887 Establishing Agricultural Experiment Stations (Hatch Act)". Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center. Archived from the original on February 7, 2007. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ a b Momin 2002, p. 4.
- ^ "Exhibits | Home Economics, 1895–2005". On the Banks of the Red Cedar. Michigan State University Archives & Historical Collections. Retrieved May 13, 2023.
- ^ "Origins of MSU". MSU Sesquicentennial committee. Archived from the original on June 3, 2004. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ Forsyth, Kevin S. (2003). "M.A.C. – Morrill Hall". A Brief History of East Lansing, Michigan. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
- ^ "Haines Photo Co., Conneaut, Ohio.". Library of Congress Prints and Photographs division, July 12, 1912. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ Forsyth, Kevin S. (2003). "M.A.C. – Laboratory Row". A Brief History of East Lansing, Michigan. Retrieved September 11, 2009.
- ^ Kuhn 1955, p. 112–13, n. 6.
- ^ a b Forsyth, Kevin S. (2003). "Engineering Building". A Brief History of East Lansing, Michigan. Retrieved April 12, 2008.
- ^ "M.S. & PH.D. Programs in Electrical Engineering" (PDF). MSU Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. August 2003. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 26, 2004. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ Rodriguez 2004, p. 117.
- ^ Simon, Lou Anna Kimsey (February 12, 2005). "The Next Bold Experiment: A Land-Grant Revolution for the World". MSU Today. Archived from the original on March 10, 2005. Retrieved August 25, 2012.
- ^ Widder
- ^ Semi-Centennial Celebration of Michigan State Agricultural College, Thomas C. Blaisdell, 1907
- ^ Miller 2002, p. 26.
- ^ "Reports of the Deans" (PDF). msu.edu. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- ^ Kiernan, Vincent. "Michigan State Asks Students to Turn Off Their Computers Over Winter Break". The Chronicle of Higher Education. January 2, 2003. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ Heineman 1993, p. 21.
- ^ "Michigan Constitution of 1963". Article VIII. Section 5. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
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- ^ "African Studies Center :: Home".
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- ^ U.S. Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. (1985). The Anti-Apartheid Act of 1985. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 213.
{{cite book}}
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- ^ "1987 Yearly Bowl Games Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine". College Football Data Warehouse. Retrieved April 14, 2007.
- ^ McPherson, M. Peter. "Keep the Drive Alive". Michigan State University. September 24, 2002. Retrieved April 14, 2007. Archived June 7, 2011, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Changing the World: The Revolution at 150. MSU Today. Retrieved April 14, 2007. Archived January 8, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Terlep, Sharon. "E.L. turmoil angers city". The State News. September 9, 1997.
- ^ Mullin, Greg. "17 arrested in weekend riot". The State News. May 4, 1998.
- ^ Staff reports. "Thousands of revelers crowd streets in violent, fiery riot". The State News. March 28, 1999.
- State News. Archived from the originalon March 11, 2007. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ "Four arrested in 1999 New Year's Eve Agriculture Hall arson". MSUToday | Michigan State University. Retrieved August 1, 2023.
- State News. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ McMahon, Kathleen. "First Round of Life Sciences Corridor Funds Awarded". Michigan Economic Development Corporation press release. December 14, 2000. Retrieved April 13, 2007.
- ^ Darrow, Bob (September 9, 2005). "Simon: MSU to be model university". State News. Archived from the original on August 14, 2007. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
- ^ "MSU selected as site for $550 million Facility for Rare Isotope Beams". Archived from the original on February 12, 2010. Retrieved February 16, 2010.
- ^ "Welcome to FRIB". Retrieved February 16, 2010.
- ^ a b "Suspect dead, 3 killed, 5 injured in Michigan State shooting: What we know". Detroit Free Press. Retrieved February 14, 2023.
Bibliography
- Darling, Birt. (1950). City in the Forest; The Story of Lansing. New York: Stratford House. LCCN 50008202.
- Davis, Anderson (2005). Michigan State University: Off the Record. New York: College Prowler. ISBN 1-59658-083-6.
- Heineman, Kenneth J. (1993). Campus Wars: The Peace Movement at American State Universities in the Vietnam Era. New York: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-3512-6.
- Hugo, Nancy (1997). Earth Works: Readings for Backyard Gardeners. University of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-1831-6.
- Kuhn, Madison. (1955). Michigan State: The First Hundred Years, 1855–1955. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. ASIN B0007E4VX6.
- Momin, Shenila (2002). The History of Woman's Course at Michigan Agricultural College, 1896–1905, PDF Retrieved March 21, 2006.
- Nixon, Mark (2004). Journal of Our Times: 150 Years in the Life of Greater Lansing. Lansing, Michigan: Lansing State Journal. ISBN 1-932129-85-5.
- Miller, Whitney. (2002). East Lansing: Collegeville Revisited (Images of America). Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-2045-4.
- Rodriguez, Michael (2004). R.E. Olds and Industrial Lansing. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. ISBN 0-7385-3272-X.
- Widder, Keith (2005). Michigan Agricultural College: The Evolution of a Land-Grant Philosophy, 1855–1925. East Lansing: Michigan State University Press. ISBN 0-87013-734-4.
External links
Official Michigan State websites
- Main university site
- Michigan State University Museum
- MSU Archives & Historical Collections
- MSU Campus Buildings That No Longer Exist
- On the Banks of the Red Cedar Collections
- MSU Facts Archived March 20, 2016, at the Wayback Machine
Other websites
- A Brief History of East Lansing, Michigan includes a chronology of campus buildings during the M.A.C. years.
- Artifacts from Michigan Agricultural College – A private collection
- Association of American Universities website
- Morrill Act and related resources at the Library of Congress