Filmed on Tuesday, July 4 2023, I drive around Michigan State University and downtown East Lansing to see what's going on.
In early 1855, John Clough Holmes, secretary of the Michigan 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. 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.
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.
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.
In 1860, Williams became acting lieutenant governor 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.
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.
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.
By 1925, it had expanded enough to change its name to Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science, or "Michigan State" for short.
After World War II, college president John A. 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.
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.
For the Class of 2025, Michigan State received 50,629 applications and accepted 42,150 (83.3%). Of those accepted, 9,028 enrolled.
For Fall 2022, the Michigan State University College of Law received 1,449 applications and accepted 636 (43.89%). Of those accepted, 208 enrolled.
As of 2023, MSU's endowment had a market value of $3.9 billion.
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