Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
Name	Michigan State University
Motto	Advancing Knowledge. Transforming Lives.
Endowment	US $1.449 billion
President	Dr. Lou Anna Simon
Established	February 12, 1855
Type	Flagship Public Land grant Sea grant
Calendar	Semester
Staff	6,355
Faculty	4,985
Students	47,131
Undergrad	36,058
Non-degree	2,025
Postgrad	11,073
Colors	Green & White
City	East Lansing, Michigan
Country	USA
Mascot	Sparty
Campus	Suburban(21 km2) campus10,000 acres (8 km2) in existing or planned development
Sports	Spartans
Website	msu.edu
Logo	}}

Michigan State University (MSU) is a public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, USA. Founded in 1855, it was the pioneer land-grant institution and served as a model for future land-grant colleges in the United States under the 1862 Morrill Act.

MSU pioneered the studies of packaging, hospitality business, telecommunication and music therapy. Today its study-abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the country, offering more than 200 programs in more than 60 countries on all continents including Antarctica.

It is considered to be one of America's Public Ivy universities, which recognizes top public research universities in the United States. Following the introduction of the Morrill Act, the college became coeducational and expanded its curriculum beyond agriculture. After World War II, the number of students tripled as the institution became a major university. Today, MSU is the ninth-largest university in the United States, with 47,131 students and 2,954 faculty members. The school's nuclear physics, engineering, political science, business, journalism, education and osteopathic medicine programs are among the nation's best.

MSU's Division I sports teams are called the Spartans. They compete in the Big Ten Conference in all sports except ice hockey, in which the team is part of the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. MSU's football team won the Rose Bowl in 1954, 1956 and 1988 and boasts six national championships. Its men's basketball team won the NCAA National Championship in 1979 and 2000 while currently enjoying a streak of six Final Four appearances in the last 13 seasons. MSU men's ice hockey has won national titles in 1966, 1986 and 2007. Cross country has historically been Michigan State's most successful sport, especially during a four-decade period spanning roughly 1930–1970 during which the Spartans won eight NCAA championships and numerous other conference and national titles.

History

Agriculture school

The Michigan Constitution of 1850 called for the creation of an "agricultural school", though it was not until February 12, 1855, that Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed a bill establishing the United States' 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. The first president, Joseph R. Williams, designed a curriculum that required more scientific study than practically any undergraduate institution of the era. It balanced science, liberal arts, and practical training. The curriculum excluded Latin and Greek studies, since most applicants did not study any classical languages in their rural high schools. However, it did require three hours of daily manual labor, which kept costs down for both the students and the College. Despite Williams' innovations and his defense of education for the masses, the State Board of Education saw Williams' curriculum as elitist. They forced him to resign in 1859 and reduced the curriculum to a two-year vocational program.

Land Grant pioneer

In 1860, Joseph R. Williams became acting lieutenant governor and helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861. This gave the College 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. The College changed its name to State Agricultural College, and its first class graduated in the same year. As the Civil War had just begun, there was no time for an elaborate graduation ceremony. The first alumni enlisted to the Union Army. The following year, Abraham Lincoln signed the First Morrill Act of 1862 to support similar colleges, making the Michigan school a national model. Williams had died the previous year.

Co-ed college

The college first admitted women in 1870, although at that time there were no female residence halls. The few women who enrolled either boarded with faculty families or made the arduous stagecoach trek from Lansing. From the early days, female students took the same rigorous scientific agriculture courses as male students. In 1896, the faculty created a "Women Course" that melded a home economics curriculum with liberal arts and sciences. That same year, the College turned the old Abbot Hall male dorm into a women's dormitory. 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. President Jonathan L. Snyder invited its president Booker T. Washington to be the Class of 1900 commencement speaker. A few years later, Myrtle Craig became the first woman African-American student to enroll at the College. Along with the Class of 1907, she received her degree from U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, commencement speaker for the Semi-Centennial celebration. The City of East Lansing was incorporated in that same year, and two years later the college officially changed its name to Michigan Agricultural College (M.A.C.).

Big Ten university

During 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 institution's history, with the help of the 1945 G.I. Bill, which helped World War II veterans to receive an education. 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 on a new dormitory. Under his plan, enrollment increased from 15,000 in 1950 to 38,000 in 1965. In 1957 Hannah continued MSU's expansion by co-founding Michigan State University–Oakland, now Oakland University, with Matilda Dodge Wilson. Hannah also got the chance to improve the athletic reputation of M.S.C. when the University of Chicago resigned from the Big Ten Conference in 1946. Hannah lobbied hard to take its place, gaining admission in 1949. Six years later, in its Centennial year of 1955, the State of Michigan renamed the College as Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science. Nine years after that, the University governing body changed its name from the State Board of Agriculture to the MSU Board of Trustees. The State of Michigan allowed the University to drop the words "Agriculture and Applied Science" from its name. Since 1964 the institution has gone by the name of Michigan State University.

Global leader by 2012

Since the end of the Hannah era, Michigan State has shifted its focus from increasing the size of its student body to advancing its national and global reputation. In September 2005, current president Lou Anna Simon called for MSU, one of the public ivy institutions, to become the global model leader for Land Grant institutions by the year 2012. Her plans include creating a new residential college and increasing grants awarded from the National Institutes of Health past the $100 million mark. While there are over 100 Land-grant universities in the United States, she has stated that she would like Michigan State University to be the leader.

Michigan State, the University of Michigan and Wayne State University created the University Research Corridor in 2006. This alliance was formed to transform and strength Michigan's economy by reaching out to businesses, policymakers, innovators, investors and the public to speed up technology transfer, make resources more accessible and help attract new jobs to the state.

Campus

MSU's sprawling campus is located in East Lansing, Michigan. The campus is perched on the banks of the Red Cedar River. Development of the campus started in 1856 with three buildings: a multipurpose building called College Hall, a dormitory later called "Saints' Rest", and a barn. Today, MSU's contiguous campus consists of , of which are developed. There are 556 buildings: 100 for academics, 131 for agriculture, 166 for housing and food service, and 42 for athletics. Overall, the university has of total indoor space. Connecting it all is of roads and of sidewalks. MSU also owns 44 non-campus properties, totaling in 28 different counties.

North campus

The oldest part of campus lies on the north bank of the Red Cedar.

It includes Collegiate Gothic architecture, plentiful trees, and curving roads with few straight lines. It was in this area that the College built its first three buildings, of which none survive. Other historic buildings north of the river 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 Eustace–Cole Hall, America's first freestanding laboratory for horticulture. Other landmarks include the bronze statue of former president John A. Hannah, the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, and the painted boulder known as "The Rock", which is a popular spot for theatre, tailgating, and candlelight vigils. On the northwest corner of campus lies the University's hotel, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The university also has a museum, initiated in 1857. MSU Museum is one of the oldest museums in the Midwest and is accredited by the American Association of Museums.

South campus

right|thumb|The Wharton Center for Performing Arts hosts many productions throughout the year and was host to the final US Presidential Debate before the 1992 election. The campus south of the 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, 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 modernist terra cotta statue, which can still be seen inside Spartan Stadium. Notable academic and research buildings on the South Campus include the Cyclotron and the College of Law.

This part of campus is home to the MSU Horticulture Gardens and the adjoining 4-H Children's Garden. South of the gardens lie the Canadian National and CSX railroads, which divide the main campus from thousands of acres of university-owned farmland. The university's agricultural facilities include the Horse, Dairy Cattle, Beef Cattle, Sheep, and Poultry Teaching and Research Farms, as well as the Air Quality Control Lab and the Diagnostics Center for Population and Animal Health.

Dubai Education Center

In 2007, Michigan State University established an education center in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. MSU Dubai was the first American university with a presence in Dubai International Academic City, with classes beginning in August 2008. The University offered six undergraduate programs: Business Administration; Child and Youth Development; Construction Project Management; Early Childhood Education; Media Management and Research; Computer Engineering, which later was changed to Electrical and Computer Engineering; and a Master's Degree in Human Resources & Labor Relations. The University attracted over 100 students from all over the Middle East and beyond. During the 2009-2010 academic year MSU Dubai intended to seek licensure through the Commission for Academic Accreditation of the U.A.E. with the goal of full program accreditation prior to the graduation of its first class in 2012. After two years of activity, MSU shut down all undergraduate programs in Dubai due to financial reasons. The Dubai campus remains as a research site, a Study Abroad center, and for its dozen graduate students.

Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center

The Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center doubles as a 4-star hotel and a business friendly conference center. It is located on the northwest corner of Michigan State University’s campus, across from the Brody Complex, on Harrison Road just south of Michigan Avenue. The hotel has 160 rooms and suites which can accommodate anyone staying in East Lansing for a business conference, sporting event or an on-campus visit, but it originally served as a dormitory for MSU students. Besides a lodging facility, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center serves as a “learning laboratory for the 300-400 students each year that are enrolled in The School of Hospitality Business and other majors.” The Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center strives to facilitate education by hosting conferences and seminars.

Academics

MSU has the ninth largest student body in the U.S. For the fiscal year of 2009–10, the Office of the Registrar conferred 11,140 degrees. The student body is 55% female and 45% male. While 89% of students come from all 83 counties in the State of Michigan, also represented are all 50 states in the U.S. and about 130 other countries. In 2010-2011 5,351 international students enrolled at MSU. The top five countries represented: China, Korea, India, Taiwan and Canada. MSU has about 4,500 faculty and 6,000 staff members, and a student/faculty ratio of 19:1. Listed as a Public Ivy, Michigan State is a member of the Association of American Universities. Michigan State University Ombudsman is the longest continually operating ombudsman office at a college or university in the country. Albert Fert, an Adjunct professor at MSU, was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Peter Grünberg. MSU's study abroad program is the largest of any single-campus university in the United States with 2,461 students studying abroad in 2004–2005 in over 60 countries on all continents, including Antarctica. MSU has six faculty members elected to the National Academy of Sciences (NAS); Martin Bukovac (1983), James Dye (1989), Pamela Fraker (2007), Richard Lenski (2006), Michael Thomashow (2003), and James Tiedje (2003).

Its admissions are moderately difficult; for 2009's entering class, the 25th/75th percentiles for the SAT were 1030 and 1240/1600, and its 25th/75th percentiles on the ACT were 23 and 27/36.

Rankings

gur	36–39
arwu w	86
arwu n	48
arwu soc	32
arwu bus	34
cmup	43
usnwr nu	79
usnwr bus	46
usnwr medc	7
usnwr eng	58
usnwr ed	17
wamo nu	33
forbes	282
fspi	86 }}

Michigan State ranks 80th in the world, according to a Shanghai Jiao Tong University study, which measures scientific research leading towards a Nobel Prize. ''U.S. News & World Report'' ranks MSU 79th in the U.S.

The university has over 200 academic programs. ''U.S. News'' has ranked MSU's graduate-level elementary education", secondary education, and Industrial and Organizational Psychology programs No.1 for the last 14 years. The National Communication Association (NCA) ranks MSU’s Ph.D. programs as No. 1 in educating researchers in the rapidly growing fields of health communication and communication technology.

MSU is also ranked number four in several other fields, including international/intercultural communication, mass communication, and interpersonal communication based on the November 2004 NCA report.

The Eli Broad College of Business was ranked No. 9 among public institutions and No. 20 nationally in 2010 by ''Business Week''. The 2008 ''U.S. News'' ranked Michigan State's Supply Chain Management program in the Eli Broad College of Business No.1 in the nation for the second year in a row. In addition, the Eli Broad College of Business undergraudate accounting program is ranked 11th overall and 8th among public schools, the graduate accounting program is ranked 9th overall and 6th among public schools, and the doctoral program is ranked 8th overall and 5th among public schools according to the 2010 ''Public Accounting Report'''s Annual Survey of Accounting Professors.

The College of Communication Arts and Sciences was established in 1955 and was the first of its kind in the United States. The college's Media and Information Studies doctoral program was ranked No. 2 in 2007 by ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'' in the category of mass communication. The communication doctoral program was ranked No. 4 in a separate category of communication in ''The Chronicle of Higher Education'''s 2005 Faculty Scholarly Productivity Index, published in 2007. The college's faculty and alumni include eight Pulitzer Prize winners and a two-time Emmy Award winning recording mixer.

MSU’s graduate program in nuclear physics is ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News. In primary medical care, ''U.S. News'' ranks MSU's College of Osteopathic Medicine at No.5, College of Veterinary Medicine at No.9, and the College of Human Medicine at No.18.

Other programs of note include criminal justice, music therapy, hospitality business, packaging, political science, dietetics and communications. The Sustainable Endowments Institute awarded Michigan State with an overall grade of "B" on the 2009 Campus Sustainability Survey, including "A"s in the categories of Administration, Transportation, Endowment Transparency, and Investment Policies.

Research

The university spent nearly $405 million in 2008–09 on research, capping a long history of academic research. In 1877, botany professor William J. Beal performed the first documented genetic crosses to produce hybrid corn, which led to increased yields. MSU 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. The U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science named Michigan State University as the site for the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB). The $550 million facility will attract top researchers from around the world to conduct experiments in basic nuclear science, astrophysics, and applications of isotopes to other fields.

In 2004, scientists at the Cyclotron produced and observed a new isotope of the element germanium, called Ge-60 In that same year, Michigan State, in consortium with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 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. Since 1999, MSU has been part of another consortium called the Michigan Life Sciences Corridor, which aims to develop biotechnology research in the State of Michigan. Finally, the College of Communication Arts and Sciences' Quello Center researches current issues of information and communication management.

Endowment

MSU's (private, non-Morrill Act) 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. There was a time when MSU lagged behind peer institutions in terms of endowments. As recently as the early 1990s, MSU was last among the eleven Big Ten schools, with barely over $100 million in endowment funds. That changed dramatically in the first decade of the 21st century, when the University started a campaign to increase the size of the endowment. At the close of fiscal year 2004–2005, the endowment had risen to $1.325 billion, raising the University to sixth of the 11 Big Ten schools in terms of endowment; within $2 million of the fifth-rated school. The rapid increase in the size of the endowment will help to improve outdated facilities, such as the Music Building, which the College of Music hopes to soon replace with money from its alumni fundraising program.

Colleges

MSU has over 200 academic programs offered by 17 degree granting colleges.

Residential colleges

MSU has several residential colleges, based on the Oxbridge "living-learning" model. By putting classes in student dormitories, these colleges improve student access to faculty and facilities. MSU's first residential college, Justin Morrill College started in 1965 with an interdisciplinary curriculum. MSU closed Morrill College in 1979, but today the university has three residential colleges, including the recent opening of the Residential College in Arts & Humanities (RCAH) located in Snyder and Phillips halls.

Established in 1967, James Madison College is a smaller component residential college in political science housed in Case Hall. Classes in the college are small, with an average of 25 students, and most instructors are tenure track faculty. James Madison College has about 1150 students total, with each freshman class containing about 320 students. Each of Madison's four majors—Social Relations and Policy, International Relations, Political Theory and Constitutional Democracy, and Comparative Cultures and Politics—requires two years of foreign language and one semester of "field experience” in an internship or study abroad program. Although Madison students make up about 4% of MSU graduates, they represent around 35% of the MSU’s Phi Beta Kappa members.

Also established in 1967, Lyman Briggs College teaches math and science within social, historical and philosophical contexts. Many Lyman Briggs students intend to pursue careers in medicine, but the school supports over 30 coordinate majors, from human biology to computer sciences. Lyman Briggs is one of the few colleges that lets undergraduates teach as "Learning Assistants."

MSU's newest residential college is the Residential College in Arts & Humanities. Founded October 21, 2005, the college provides around 600 undergraduates with an individualized curriculum in the liberal, visual and performing arts. Though all the students will graduate with the same degree, MSU encourages students in the college to get a second degree or specialization. The university houses the new college in a newly renovated Snyder-Phillips Hall, the location of MSU's first residential college, Justin Morrill College.

Professional schools

The Michigan State University College of Law is an independent, non-profit corporation affiliated with the public institution. Founded in Detroit in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, the law school moved to East Lansing in 1995 becoming an integral part of the university. Students attending MSU College of Law come from 42 states and 13 countries. The law school publishes the Michigan State Law Review, the Michigan State Journal of International Law and the Journal of Medicine and Law. The College of Law is the home of the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute, the first trial practice institute in the United States. The Intellectual Property and Communications Law program was ranked seventeenth nationally, in 2006.

The Eli Broad College of Business has programs in accounting, information systems, finance, management, marketing and supply chain management, and hospitality business. The school has 4,775 undergraduate students and 776 graduate students. The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, which ''Business Week'' magazine ranks 11th among public institutions, offers three MBA programs, as well as joint degrees with the College of Law. The opening of the Eugene C. Eppley Center for Graduate Studies in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management brought the first program in the United States to offer a Master of Business Administration degree in Hotel, Restaurant and Institutional Management to MSU.

The Michigan State University College of Nursing grants B.S.N., M.S.N., and Ph.D. degrees.

Medical schools

The MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine was the world's first publicly funded college of osteopathic medicine. It has a long-standing tradition of retaining its alumni in Michigan to practice – more than two-thirds of the college’s graduates remain to practice in Michigan. Recently, the Michigan State University Board of Trustees approved a resolution endorsing the expansion of the College of Osteopathic Medicine to two sites in southeast Michigan, a move board members and college officials say will not only improve medical education in the state, but also address a projected physician shortage. According to U.S. News & World Report, the College of Osteopathic Medicine (DO degree) ranked No.8 medical schools in the country for primary care and the College of Human Medicine (MD degree) has regularly ranked among the top thirty medical schools in the country for primary care.

The College of Human Medicine graduates students with medical doctor MD degrees and is split into seven distinct campuses located in Lansing, Kalamazoo, Flint, Saginaw, Marquette, Traverse City and Grand Rapids. Each campus is affiliated with local hospitals and other medical facilities professionals in the area. For example, the Lansing campus includes Sparrow Hospital and Ingham Regional Medical Center. The College of Human Medicine has recently gained attention for its expansion into the Grand Rapids area, with the new Secchia Center completed in the Fall of 2010, that is expected to fuel the growing medical industry in that region.

Though Michigan State has offered courses in veterinary science since its founding, the College of Veterinary Medicine was not formally established as a four-year, degree-granting program until 1910. Ranked ninth in the nation, the college has over of office, teaching, and research space, as well as a veterinary teaching hospital.

Other academic units

In recent years, MSU's music program has grown substantially. Music major enrollment increased more than 97% between 1991 and 2004. In early 2007, this growth led the university board of trustees to spin the music program off into its own college unit: The MSU College of Music. The new college faces many new challenges, such as working with limited space and funding. Nevertheless, MSU's music college plans on continued success, placing an annual average of 25 graduate students in tenure stream university positions.

MSU's College of Education at Michigan State University offers graduate and undergraduate degrees in several fields, including counseling, educational psychology, special education, teacher education and kinesiology. The college has had high-ranked programs in elementary, educational technology, educational policy, and secondary education. In addition, Michigan State ties the University of Wisconsin–Madison for the top spot in rehabilitation counseling.

Founded in 1956, the MSU Honors College provides individualized curricula to MSU's top undergraduate students. Though the college has no majors of its own, it has its own dean and academic advisers to help Honors students with their educational pursuits. High school students starting at MSU may join the Honors College if they are in the top 5% of their high school graduating class and have either an ACT score of at least 30 or an SAT total score of at least 1360. Once admitted, students must maintain a 3.20 GPA and complete eight approved honors courses in order to graduate with Honors College designation on their degree.

After three years of planning, The College of Engineering successfully launched the first stages of its Residential Experience for Spartan Engineering, formally known as the Residential Option for Scientists and Engineers (ROSES), the new program is located in Wilson Hall after being housed in Bailey Hall for a number of years. The Residential program essentially combines with a brand new academic component, Cornerstone Engineering, where freshman engineering students not only get an overview of the engineering field(s) but get a hands-on experience along with it. Global Engineering is a new subject that is of certain interest for not only the Cornerstone Engineering and Residential Experience programs but for the entire College of Engineering at MSU. Engineering in today's society has shown to have a monumental impact on the global economy due to advancements in education, interdependence on economics with infrastructure, computers, transportation, technology and other manufactured goods as well as Michigan State University's study-abroad program being ranked #1 in the nation, allowing for students to experience education and learn cultures in hundreds of countries. Also of note is the innovative Visiting International Professional Program, which connects professional education to the expertise of Michigan State University, a world leader in global research and leadership training. VIPP creates practical links between the world-class faculty at MSU and global industries, businesses, governments and societies. The newly established Cornerstone Engineering and Residential Experience programs for College of Engineering have started programs abroad for more courses in engineering including Study abroad seminars.

MSU currently offers a 30 credit graduate program for Masters in Educational Technology in 3 different formats; completely online, hybrid in East Lansing, Michigan, or overseas. MSU.edu The overseas program is offered at universities around the world. Past locations have included England, France, Switzerland and Thailand. The program lasts one month a summer for three summers, with each summer covering 9 credit hours. One online class is required between the second and third summer. The classes are focused on preparing teachers in integrating technology into their classrooms and helping them understand the affordances and constraints of using different programs. The courses are taught by MSU professors and are open to students around the world.

Athletics

Michigan State's NCAA Division I-A program offers 12 varsity sports for men and 13 for women. Since their teams are called the Spartans, MSU's mascot is a Spartan warrior named Sparty. The university participates in the Big Ten Conference in all varsity sports except ice hockey, which competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The current athletic director is Mark Hollis, who was promoted to the position on January 1, 2008. Hollis replaced Ron Mason, who served as head hockey coach from 1979 to 2002, retiring with a record total of 924 wins, and a 635–270–69 record at MSU.

Michigan State is among only sixteen Division 1A programs to win multiple national titles in football, and the only school to win multiple national titles in football, basketball, and hockey (MSU was the first athletic program to win multiple national titles in both football and basketball). MSU has won all of its football championships playing only division 1A opponents. The Spartans have participated in two events, in basketball and ice hockey, which have set world records for spectator attendances for both sports.

In 1888 Michigan State University (then as known as Michigan Agricultural College) along with Olivet, Albion and Hillsdale Colleges was a founding member of the nation's oldest athletic conference, the Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA). MAC left the conference in 1907.

Football

Football has a long tradition at Michigan State. Starting as a club sport in 1884, football gained varsity status in 1896. MSU football teams won the Rose Bowl in 1954, 1956 and 1988. The Spartans accounted for four of the top eight selections in the 1967 NFL Draft, the only time a college football program has accomplished such a feat.

Today, the football team competes in Spartan Stadium, a renovated 75,005 seat football stadium near the center of campus. The current coach is Mark Dantonio, who was hired on November 27, 2006. Dantonio had an 18–17 record in his three year tenure at the University of Cincinnati, including a 1–0 Bowl Game record. He led the team in its first season to a 7–6 record. The Spartans played in the Champs Sports Bowl against Boston College on December 28, 2007 and the Capital One Bowl against Georgia on January 1, 2009. MSU's traditional archrival is the University of Michigan, against whom they compete annually for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Their record against the Wolverines currently stands at 30-67-5. Michigan State is one of three Big Ten teams to have an annual non-conference football game against Notre Dame. MSU's record against the Fighting Irish is 25–44–1 but the Spartans have had much success against the Irish recently, becoming the first team ever to win six straight games at Notre Dame Stadium. In 2010, the Spartans finished 7-1 in conference play were Co-Big Ten Champions along with the University of Wisconsin and Ohio State.

Men's basketball

MSU's men's basketball team has won the National Championship twice: in 1979 and again in 2000. In 1979, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, along with Greg Kelser, Jay Vincent and Mike Brkovich, led the MSU team to a 75–64 win against the Larry Bird-led Indiana State Sycamores. In 2000, three players from Flint, Morris Peterson, Charlie Bell and Mateen Cleaves, led the team to its second national title. Dubbed the "Flintstones", they were the key to the Spartans' win against the University of Florida. On December 13, 2003, Michigan State and Kentucky played in the ''Basketbowl'', in which a record crowd of 78,129 watched the game in Detroit’s Ford Field. Kentucky won 79–74. The basketball team currently plays at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center under head coach Tom Izzo, who has a 336–137 record. The student spirit section at Breslin is called the Izzone. Izzo's coaching has helped the team make six Final Fours since 1999, winning the title in 2000, and thirteen consecutive NCAA tournament appearances (beginning in 1998). In 2009 the Spartans made it to the National Championship game and lost 89–72 to North Carolina. In 2010, the Spartans made it to the Final Four and lost 50-52 to Butler. The Spartans lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament in 2011 to UCLA 76-78.

Men's ice hockey

The Michigan State University men's ice hockey team started in 1924, though it has only been a varsity sport since 1950. The team has since won national titles in 1966, 1986 and 2007. The Spartans came close to repeating the national title in 1987, but lost the championship game to the University of North Dakota. They play at MSU's Munn Ice Arena. Former head coach Ron Mason is college hockey's winningest coach with 924 wins total and 635 at MSU. The current head coach is Rick Comley, who has a 181-133-39 record at MSU and will be retiring at the end of the 2010–11 season. Since the Big Ten Conference does not include Division I men's ice hockey, Michigan State competes in the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. Michigan State leads the CCHA in all-time wins, is second in CCHA Conference championships with 7, and is first in CCHA Tournament Championships with 11. Along with the University of Michigan (U-M) 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, and on October 6, 2001, MSU faced U-M in the Cold War, during which a world record crowd of 74,554 packed Spartan Stadium to watch the game end in a 3–3 tie. In the 2006–2007 season, the Men's Ice Hockey team defeated Boston College for its third NCAA hockey championship.

Men's cross country

Between World War I and World War II, Michigan State College competed in the Central Collegiate Conference, winning titles in 1926–1929, 1932, 1933 and 1935. Michigan State also experienced success in the IC4A, at New York’s Van Cortlandt Park, winning 15 team titles (1933–1937, 1949, 1953, 1956–1960, 1962, 1963 and 1968). Since entering the Big Ten in 1950, Michigan State has won 14 men’s team titles (1951–1953, 1955–1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1970 and 1971). Michigan State hosted the inaugural NCAA cross country championships in 1938 and every year thereafter through 1964 (there was no championship in 1943). The Spartans won NCAA championships in 1939, 1948, 1949, 1952, 1955, 1956, 1958 and 1959.

Student life

East Lansing is very much a college town, with 60.2% of the population between the ages of 15 and 24. President John A. Hannah's push to expand in the 1950s and 1960s resulted in the largest residence hall system in the United States. Around 16,000 students live in MSU'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. Yet despite the size and extent of on-campus housing, the residence halls are complemented by a variety of housing options. 58% of students live off-campus, mostly in the areas closest to campus, in either apartment buildings, former single-family homes, fraternity and sorority houses, or in a co-op.

Greek life

With over 3,000 members, Michigan State University's Greek Community is one of the largest in the nation. Started in 1872 and re-established in 1922 by Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity, Alpha Gamma Rho Fraternity, and Alpha Phi Sorority; the MSU Greek system now consists of 55 Greek lettered student societies. These chapters are in turn under the jurisdiction of one of MSU's four Greek governing councils: National Panhellenic Conference, North American Interfraternity Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council, and Independent Greek Council. National Pan-Hellenic Council is made up of 9 organizations, 5 Fraternities and 4 Sororities, that were founded on Historically Black College and Universities (HBCU's). The Interfraternity Council and the Women's Panhellenic Council are each entirely responsible for their own budgets, giving them the freedom to hold large fundraising and recruitment events. MSU's fraternities and sororities hold many philanthropy events and community fundraisers. For example, in April 2011 the Greek Community held Greek Week to raise over $260,000 for the American Cancer Society, and $5,000 for each of these charities: Big Brothers Big Sisters, The Listening Ear and previous charities include: the Make-a-Wish Foundation (MSU Chapter), Share Laura's Hope, The Mary Beth Knox Scholarship, and the Special Olympics.

Student organizations

The Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU) is the undergraduate student government of Michigan State University. It is unusual amongst university student governments for its decentralized bicameral structure, and the relatively non-existent influence of the Greek system. ASMSU representatives are nonpartisan and many are elected in noncompetitive races.

Students pay $16.75 per semester to fund the functions of the ASMSU, including stipends for the organization's officers and activities throughout the year. Some students have criticized ASMSU for not having enough electoral participation to gain a student mandate. Turnout since 2001 has hovered between 3 and 17 percent, with the 2006 election bringing out 8% of the undergraduate student body.

Student-run organizations beyond student government also have a large impact on the East Lansing/Michigan State University community. Student Organizations are registered through the Department of Student Life, which currently has a registry of over 550 student organizations. One example is the Tower Guard honor society. Tower Guard is the oldest and one of the most respected student organizations on campus

The Eli Broad College of Business includes 27 student organizations. The three largest organizations are the Finance Association (FA), the Accounting Student Association (ASA), and the Supply Chain Management Association (SCMA). The SCMA is the host of the university's largest major specific career fair. The fair attracts over 100 companies and over 400 students each year.

Activism

Activists have played a significant role in MSU history. During the height of the Vietnam War, student protests helped create co-ed residence halls, and blocked the routing of Interstate 496 through campus. In the 1980s, Michigan State students convinced the University to divest the stocks of companies doing business in apartheid South Africa from its endowment portfolio, such as Coca-Cola. MSU has many student groups focused on political change. Graduate campus groups include the Graduate Employees Union and the Council of Graduate Students. Michigan State also has a variety of partisan groups ranging from liberal to conservative, including the College Republicans, the College Democrats and several third party organizations. Other partisan activist groups include Young Americans for Freedom and Young Americans for Liberty on the right; Young Democratic Socialists, Students for Economic Justice, Young Communist League and ''MEChA'' on the left. Given MSU's proximity to the Michigan state capital of Lansing, many politically inclined Spartans intern for state representatives.

Sustainability

The MSU Office of Sustainability works with the University Committee for a Sustainable Campus to "foster a collaborative learning culture that leads the community to heightened awareness of its environmental impact." The University is a member of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the world’s first greenhouse gas emission registry, and boasts the lowest electrical consumption per square foot among Big Ten universities. The University has set a goal of reducing energy use by 15%, reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15%, reducing landfill waste by 30% by 2015.

The university has also pledged to meet LEED-certification standards for all new construction. In July 2009, the University completed construction of a $13.3 million recycling center, and hopes to double their 2008 recycling rate of 14% by 2010. The construction of Brody Hall, a residence hall of Michigan State University Housing, was completed in August 2011 and qualified for LEED Silver certification because the facility includes a rain water collection tank used for restroom fixtures, a white PVC roof, meters that will monitor utilities to make sure they are used efficiently, and the use of recycled matter and local sources for building materials.

The Environmental Steward’s program support’s President Simon’s "Boldness by Design" strategic vision to transform environmental stewardship on campus within the seven year time frame. Environmental stewards promote environmental changes among co-workers and peers, be points of contact for their department for environment-related concerns, and be liaisons between the Be Spartan Green Team and buildings.

ECO is the leading student-run sustainability organization on campus. They are also affiliated with regional and national groups such as Campus Climate Challenge and the Michigan Student Sustainability Coalition.

The Student Organic Farm is a student-run, four-season farm, which teaches the principals of organic farming and through a certificate program and community supported agriculture (CSA) on ten acres on the MSU campus. The certificate program consists of year round crop production, course work in organic farming, practical training and management, and an off-site internship requirement.

Media

MSU has a variety of campus media outlets. The student-run newspaper is called ''The State News'' and free copies of the paper are available online or at East Lansing newsstands. The paper prints 28,500 copies of the paper Monday through Friday during the fall and spring semesters, and 15,000 copies Monday through Friday during the summer. The paper is not published on weekends, holidays, or semester breaks. The campus yearbook is called the ''Red Cedar Log''. ''Red Cedar Review'', Michigan State University's premier literary digest for over forty years, is the longest running undergraduate-run literary journal in the United States. It is published annually by the Michigan State University Press.

MSU also publishes a student-run magazine during the academic year called Ing Magazine. Created in 2007 by MSU alumnus Adam Grant, the publication is released at the beginning of each month and currently publishes 7 issues each school year.

Electronic media include three radio stations and one public television station, as well as student-produced television shows. MSU's Public Broadcasting Service affiliate, WKAR-TV, the station is the second-oldest educational television station in the United States, and the oldest east of the Mississippi River. Besides broadcasting PBS shows, WKAR-TV produces its own local programming, such as a high school quiz bowl show called "QuizBusters". In addition, MSU has three radio stations; WKAR-AM plays National Public Radio's talk radio programming, whereas WKAR-FM focuses mostly on classical music programming. Michigan State's student-run radio station, WDBM, broadcasts mostly alternative music during weekdays, and electric music programming nights and weekends.

People

The current president of the University is Lou Anna Simon who took over on January 1, 2005, after being appointed by MSU's governing board, the Board of Trustees. The Board receives its mandate from the Michigan Constitution since MSU is a state-owned school. The constitution allows for eight trustees who are elected by statewide referendum every two years. Trustees have eight-year terms, with two of the eight elected every other year. As of 2007, the Board is made up of three Republicans and five Democrats.

19th century

Important College leaders in the 19th century include John C. Holmes, who kept the Agriculture School from being a part of the University of Michigan and is widely credited with being the prime mover for the school's founding; Joseph R. Williams, the first president; and Theophilus C. Abbot, the third president who stabilized the College after the Civil War. Also of importance was botany professor William J. Beal, an early plant (hybrid corn) geneticist who championed the laboratory teaching method. Another distinguished faculty member of the era was the alumnus/professor Liberty Hyde Bailey. Bailey was the first to raise the study of horticulture to a science, paralleling botany, which earned him the title of "Father of American Horticulture". William L. Carpenter, a jurist who was elected to the Third Judicial Circuit of Michigan in 1894, and member of the Michigan Supreme Court from 1902 until 1904. Other famous 19th century graduates include Ray Stannard Baker, a famed "muckraker" journalist and Pulitzer Prize winning biographer; Minakata Kumagusu, a renowned environmental scientist; and William Chandler Bagley, a pioneering education reformer.

20th and 21st centuries

There are currently around 442,000 living MSU alumni worldwide giving the school one of the largest number of alumni of any institution of higher learning. Famous MSU alumni include former Michigan governors James Blanchard and John Engler, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow and Tim Johnson, U.S. ambassador to Brazil Donna Hrinak, former Jordan Prime Minister Adnan Badran, billionaire philanthropists Tom Gores and Eli Broad, Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court Wallace B. Jefferson, trial lawyer Geoffrey Feiger, former Food and Drug Administration official Peter Rheinstein, former Detroit mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, Teamsters president James P. Hoffa, Quicken Loans founder and Cleveland Cavaliers owner and billionaire Dan Gilbert, Sergeant at Arms of the U.S. House of Representatives Wilson Livingood, former Michigan U.S. Senator and Secretary of Energy Spencer Abraham, former Vice President of the Republic of Liberia Harry Moniba, and former U.S. Ambassador to Italy Peter Secchia. Alumni in Hollywood include actors James Caan, Anthony Heald, Robert Urich and William Fawcett; comedian Dick Martin, film director Sam Raimi, and Academy Award winning film editor of ''The Hurt Locker'' and the ''Spider-Man'' films, Bob Murawski, as well as screenwriter David Magee. Puerto Rican comedian Sunshine Logroño (who has played the occasional Hollywood movie) was a graduate student at MSU. Journalists include NBC reporter Chris Hansen, AP White House Correspondent Nedra Pickler, and NPR Washington Correspondent Don Gonyea. Novelist Michael Kimball graduated in 1990. Author Erik Qualman graduated with honors in 1994 and was also Academic Big-Ten in basketball. Susan K. Avery, the first woman president and director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, received an MSU bachelor's degree in physics. In addition, two of the Little Rock Nine attended Michigan State, including Ernest Green, the first black student to graduate from Little Rock Central High School, and Carlotta Walls LaNier. The University awarded an honorary degree to Robert Mugabe in 1990, but revoked it in 2008.

Spartans formerly or currently in the NBA include Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Greg Kelser, Jay Vincent, Steve Smith, Scott Skiles, Jason Richardson, Mateen Cleaves, Alan Anderson, Zach Randolph, Morris Peterson, Charlie Bell and Shannon Brown. On the American Football League's All-Time Team are tight-end Fred Arbanas and safety George Saimes. In the National Football League, MSU alumni include Carl Banks, who was a member of the Giants teams that won Super Bowls XXI and XXV. Banks was a standout in their Super Bowl XXI victory in which he recorded 14 total tackles, including ten solo tackles, as well as being part of the NFL's 1980's All-Decade Team Morten Andersen, Plaxico Burress, Andre Rison, Derrick Mason, Muhsin Muhammad, T. J. Duckett, Flozell Adams, Julian Peterson, Charles Rogers, Jim Miller, Earl Morrall, Wayne Fontes, Bubba Smith and Drew Stanton. Former MSU quarterback Jeff Smoker now plays in the Arena Football League. Former Michigan State players in the National Hockey League include All Star Defensemen Duncan Keith, Rod Brind'Amour, Anson Carter, Donald McSween, Adam Hall, John-Michael Liles, Justin Abdelkader, brothers Kelly Miller and Kip Miller, as well as their cousins, brothers Ryan Miller and Drew Miller. Former Michigan State players in Major League Baseball include Hall of Fame inductee Robin Roberts, Kirk Gibson, Steve Garvey and Mark Mulder. Olympic gold medalists include Savatheda Fynes and Fred Alderman. The Spartans are also contributing athletes to Major League Soccer, as Kevin Reiman, Doug Demartin, Dave Hertel, Greg Janicki, Kenzo Webster, Rauwshan McKenzie, John Minagawa-Webster and Ryan McMahen have all played in Major League Soccer. In addition, Alex Skotarek, Steve Twellman and Buzz Demling played in the North American Soccer League, with Demling playing in the 1972 Summer Olympics and the United States Men's National Soccer Team in the 1970s.

See also

List of land-grant universities

* Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Act

List of colleges and universities in Michigan

State of Michigan Education

References

Further reading

External links

Official site

Official athletics site

Michigan Agricultural College artifacts, a private collection

Category:Association of Public and Land-Grant Universities Category:Committee on Institutional Cooperation Category:East Lansing, Michigan Category:Educational institutions established in 1855 Category:Education in Lansing, Michigan Category:Forestry education Category:Grand River Avenue Category:Land-grant universities and colleges Category:North Central Association of Colleges and Schools Category:Oak Ridge Associated Universities Category:Universities and colleges in Michigan Category:Universities and colleges in Ingham County. Michigan

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Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
name	Michigan
fullname	State of Michigan
flag	Flag_of_Michigan.svg
flaglink	Flag
seal	Seal of Michigan.svg
map	Map_of_USA_MI.svg
nickname	The Great Lakes State, The Wolverine State
motto	Si quaeris peninsulam amoenam circumspice (If you seek a pleasant peninsula, look about you)
former	Michigan Territory
capital	Lansing
demonym	Michigander Michiganian
largestcity	Detroit
largestmetro	Metro Detroit
governor	Rick Snyder (R)
lieutenant governor	Brian Calley (R)
legislature	Michigan Legislature
upperhouse	Senate
lowerhouse	House of Representatives
senators
representative	9 Republicans6 Democrats
postalabbreviation	MI
tradabbreviation	Mich.
officiallang	None (English, ''de-facto'')
arearank	11th
totalareaus	96,716
totalarea	250,493
pcwater	41.5
poprank	8th
2010pop	9,883,640 (2010)
densityrank	19th
2010densityus	102.2
2010density	39.46
medianhouseholdincome	$44,627
incomerank	21st
admittanceorder	26th
admittancedate	January 26, 1837
timezone	Eastern: UTC-5/-4
tz1where	most of state
timezone2	Central: UTC-6/-5
tz2where	4 U.P. counties
latitude	41° 41' N to 48° 18' N
longitude	82° 7' W to 90° 25' W
widthus	386
width	621
lengthus	456
length	734
highestpoint	Mount Arvon |
highestelevus	1,979
highestelev	603
meanelevus	902
meanelev	275
lowestpoint	Lake Erie
lowestelevus	571
lowestelev	174
isocode	US-MI
website	www.michigan.gov }}

Michigan () is a U.S. state located in the Great Lakes Region of the United States of America. The name Michigan is the French form of the Ojibwa word ''mishigamaa'', meaning "large water" or "large lake".

Michigan is the eighth most populous state in the United States, with the 2010 census placing its population at 9,883,640 residents. It has the longest freshwater coastline of any political subdivision in the world, being bounded by four of the five Great Lakes, plus Lake Saint Clair. Michigan is one of the leading U.S. states for recreational boating. The state has 64,980 inland lakes and ponds. A person in the state is never more than six miles (10 km) from a natural water source or more than from a Great Lakes shoreline. It is the largest state by total area east of the Mississippi River.

Michigan is the only state to consist entirely of two peninsulas. The Lower Peninsula, to which the name Michigan was originally applied, is often noted to be shaped like a mitten. The Upper Peninsula (often referred to as "The U.P.") is separated from the Lower Peninsula by the Straits of Mackinac, a five-mile (8 km)-wide channel that joins Lake Huron to Lake Michigan. The Upper Peninsula is economically important for tourism and natural resources.

History

Michigan was home to Native American cultures before colonization by Europeans. When the first European explorers arrived, the most populous and influential tribes were Algonquian peoples, specifically, the ''Ottawa'', the ''Anishnabe'' (called ''Chippewa'' in French, after their language ''Ojibwe''), and the ''Potawatomi''. The Anishnabe, whose numbers are estimated to have been between 25,000 and 35,000, were the most populous.

The Anishnabe were well-established in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan, and also inhabited northern Ontario, northern Wisconsin, southern Manitoba, and northern and north-central Minnesota. The Ottawa lived primarily south of the Straits of Mackinac in northern and western Michigan, while the Potawatomi were primarily in the southwest. The three nations co-existed peacefully as part of a loose confederation called the Council of Three Fires. Other tribes in Michigan, in the south and east, were the ''Mascouten'', the ''Menominee'', the ''Miami'', and the Wyandot, who are better known by their French name, ''Huron''.

17th century

thumb|right|''Père Marquette and the Indians'' (1869), Wilhelm LamprechtFrench ''voyageurs'' and ''coureurs des bois'' explored and settled in Michigan in the 17th century. The first Europeans to reach what later became Michigan were those of Étienne Brûlé's expedition in 1622. The first permanent European settlement was founded in 1668 on the site where Père Jacques Marquette established Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan as a base for Catholic missions. Missionaries in 1671–75 founded outlying stations at Saint Ignace and Marquette. Jesuit missionaries were well received by the Indian populations in the area, with relatively few difficulties or hostilities. In 1679, Robert Cavelier, Sieur de la Salle built Fort Miami at present-day St. Joseph.

18th century

thumb|Approximate area of Michigan highlighted in Guillaume de L'Isle's 1718 map.In 1701, French explorer and army officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac founded Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or "Fort Pontchartrain on-the-Strait" on the strait, known as the Detroit River, between lakes Saint Clair and Erie. Cadillac had convinced King Louis XIV's chief minister, Louis Phélypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain, that a permanent community there would strengthen French control over the upper Great Lakes and discourage British aspirations.

The hundred soldiers and workers who accompanied Cadillac built a fort enclosing one arpent (about , the equivalent of just under per side) and named it Fort Pontchartrain. Cadillac's wife, Marie Thérèse Guyon, soon moved to Detroit, becoming one of the first European women to settle in the Michigan wilderness. The town quickly became a major fur-trading and shipping post. The ''Église de Saint-Anne'' (Church of Saint Ann) was founded the same year. While the original building does not survive, the congregation of that name continues to be active today. Cadillac later departed to serve as the French governor of Louisiana from 1710 to 1716.

At the same time, the French strengthened Fort Michilimackinac at the Straits of Mackinac to better control their lucrative fur-trading empire. By the mid-18th century, the French also occupied forts at present-day Niles and Sault Ste. Marie, though most of the rest of the region remained unsettled by Europeans.

From 1660 to the end of French rule, Michigan was part of the Royal Province of New France. In 1759, following the Battle of the Plains of Abraham in the French and Indian War (1754–1763), Québec City fell to British forces. This marked Britain's victory in the Seven Years War. Under the 1763 Treaty of Paris, Michigan and the rest of New France east of the Mississippi River passed to Great Britain.

During the American Revolutionary War, Detroit was an important British supply center. Most of the inhabitants were French-Canadians or Native Americans, many of whom had been allied with the French. Because of imprecise cartography and unclear language defining the boundaries in the 1783 Treaty of Paris, the British retained control of Detroit and Michigan after the American Revolution. When Quebec split into Lower and Upper Canada in 1790, Michigan was part of Kent County, Upper Canada. It held its first democratic elections in August 1792 to send delegates to the new provincial parliament at Newark (now Niagara-on-the-Lake).

Under terms negotiated in the 1794 Jay Treaty, Britain withdrew from Detroit and Michilimackinac in 1796. Questions remained over the boundary for many years, and the United States did not have uncontested control of the Upper Peninsula and Drummond Island until 1818 and 1847, respectively.

19th century

During the War of 1812, Michigan Territory (effectively consisting of Detroit and the surrounding area) was surrendered after a nearly bloodless siege in 1812. An attempt to retake Detroit resulted in a severe American defeat in the The River Raisin Massacre. This battle is still the bloodiest ever fought in the state and had the highest number of American casualties of any battle in the war. Ultimately, Michigan was recaptured by Americans in 1813 after the Battle of Lake Erie. An invasion of Canada which culminated in the Battle of the Thames was then launched from Michigan. The more northern areas were held by the British until the peace treaty restored the old boundaries. A number of forts, including Fort Wayne were built in Michigan during the 19th century out of fears of renewed fighting with Britain. The population grew slowly until the opening in 1825 of the Erie Canal connecting the Great Lakes and the Hudson River and New York City. The new route brought a large influx of settlers, who became farmers and merchants and shipped out grain, lumber, and iron ore. By the 1830s, Michigan had 80,000 residents, more than enough to apply and qualify for statehood. In October 1835 the people approved the Constitution of 1835, thereby forming a state government, although Congressional recognition was delayed pending resolution of a boundary dispute with Ohio known as the Toledo War. Congress awarded the "Toledo Strip" to Ohio. Michigan received the western part of the Upper Peninsula as a concession and formally entered the Union on January 26, 1837. The Upper Peninsula proved to be a rich source of lumber, iron, and copper. Michigan led the nation in lumber production from the 1850s to the 1880s. Railroads became a major engine of growth from the 1850s onward, with Detroit the chief hub.

The first statewide meeting of the Republican Party took place July 6, 1854 in Jackson, Michigan, where the party adopted its platform. The state was heavily Republican until the 1930s. Michigan made a significant contribution to the Union in the American Civil War and sent more than forty regiments of volunteers to the Federal armies.

Modernizers and boosters—especially Yankees set up systems for public education, including founding the University of Michigan (1817; moved to Ann Arbor in 1837), for a classical academic education; and Ypsilanti Normal College, (1849) now Eastern Michigan University, for the training of teachers. Michigan State University (1855) in East Lansing was founded as the pioneer land-grant college, a model for those authorized under the Morrill Act (1862). In 1899, as Michigan State Normal College, the former Ypsilanti was the first normal college in the nation to offer a four-year curriculum. Many private colleges were founded as well, and the smaller cities formed high schools late in the century.

20th and 21st centuries

Michigan's economy underwent a transformation at the turn of the 20th century. The birth of the automotive industry, with Henry Ford's first plant in Highland Park, marked the beginning of a new era in transportation. Like the steamship and railroad, it was a far-reaching development. More than the forms of public transportation, the automobile transformed private life. It became the major industry of Detroit and Michigan, and permanently altered the socio-economic life of the United States and much of the world.

With the growth, the auto industry created jobs in Detroit that attracted immigrants from Europe and migrants from across the U.S., including those from the South. By 1920, Detroit was the fourth largest city in the U.S. Residential housing was in short supply, and it took years for the market to catch up with the population boom. By the 1930s, so many immigrants had arrived that more than 30 languages were spoken in the public schools, and ethnic communities celebrated in annual heritage festivals. Over the years immigrants and migrants contributed greatly to Detroit's diverse urban culture, including popular music trends, such as the influential Motown Sound of the 1960s led by a variety of individual singers and groups.

Grand Rapids, the second-largest city in Michigan, is also an important center of manufacturing. Since 1838, the city has also been noted for its furniture industry and is home to five of the world's leading office furniture companies. Grand Rapids is home to a number of major companies including Steelcase, Amway, and Meijer. Grand Rapids is also an important center for GE Aviation Systems.

Michigan held its first United States presidential primary election in 1910. With its rapid growth in industry, it was an important center of union industry-wide organizing, such as the rise of the United Auto Workers.

In 1920 WWJ (AM) in Detroit became the first radio station in the United States to regularly broadcast commercial programs. Throughout that decade, some of the country's largest and most ornate skyscrapers were built in the city. Particularly noteworthy are the Fisher Building, Cadillac Place, and the Guardian Building, each of which is a National Historic Landmark (NHL).

Detroit continued to expand through the 1950s, at one point doubling its population in a decade. After World War II, housing was developed in suburban areas outside city cores; newly constructed U.S. Interstate Highways allowed commuters to navigate the region more easily. Modern advances in the auto industry have resulted in increased automation, high tech industry, and increased suburban growth since 1960.

Michigan is the leading auto-producing state in the U.S., with the industry primarily located throughout the Midwestern United States, Ontario, Canada, and the Southern United States. With almost ten million residents, Michigan is a large and influential state, ranking eighth in population among the fifty states. Detroit is the centrally located metropolitan area of the Great Lakes Megalopolis and the second largest metropolitan area in the U.S. linking the Great Lakes system.

The Metro Detroit area in Southeast Michigan is the largest metropolitan area in the state (roughly 50% of the population resides there) and the eleventh largest in the USA. The Grand Rapids metropolitan area in Western Michigan is the fastest-growing metro area in the state, with over 1.3 million residents as of 2006. Metro Detroit receives more than 15 million visitors each year. Michigan has many popular tourist destinations which include areas such as Traverse City on the Grand Traverse Bay in Northern Michigan. Tourists spend about $17 billion annually in Michigan supporting 193,000 jobs.

Michigan typically ranks third or fourth in overall Research & development (R&D;) expenditures in the U.S. The state's leading research institutions include the University of Michigan, Michigan State University,and Wayne State University which are important partners in the state's economy and the state's University Research Corridor. Michigan's public universities attract more than $1.5 B in research and development grants each year. Agriculture also serves a significant role making the state a leading grower of fruit in the U.S., including blueberries, cherries, apples, grapes, and peaches.

Government

State government

Michigan is governed as a republic, with three branches of government: the executive branch consisting of the Governor of Michigan and the other independently elected constitutional officers; the legislative branch consisting of the House of Representatives and Senate; and the judicial branch consisting of the one court of justice. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification. Lansing is the state capital and is home to all three branches of state government.

The Governor of Michigan and the other state constitutional officers serve four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The current Governor is Rick Snyder. Michigan has two official Governor's Residences; one is in Lansing, and the other is at Mackinac Island.

The Michigan Legislature consists of a 38-member Senate and 110-member House of Representatives. Senators serve four-year terms and Representatives two. The Michigan State Capitol was dedicated in 1879 and has hosted the state's executive and legislative branches ever since.

Law

The Michigan Court System consists of two courts with primary jurisdiction (the Circuit Courts and the District Courts), one intermediate level appellate court (the Michigan Court of Appeals), and the Michigan Supreme Court. There are several administrative courts and specialized courts. The Michigan Constitution provides for voter initiative and referendum (Article II, § 9, defined as "the power to propose laws and to enact and reject laws, called the initiative, and the power to approve or reject laws enacted by the legislature, called the referendum. The power of initiative extends only to laws which the legislature may enact under this constitution").

In 1846 Michigan became the first state in the Union, as well as the first English-speaking government in the world, to abolish the death penalty. Historian David Chardavoyne has suggested that the movement to abolish capital punishment in Michigan grew as a result of enmity toward the state's neighbor, Canada. Under British rule, it made public executions a regular practice.

Politics

Voters in the state elect candidates from both major parties. Economic issues are important in Michigan elections. The three-term Republican Governor John Engler (1991–2003) preceded the former two-term Democratic Governor Jennifer Granholm (2003–2011). The state has elected successive Republican attorneys general twice since 2003. The Republican Party has won a majority in both the House and Senate of the current Michigan Legislature (2011–present). Michigan supported the election of Republican Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. The current Governor Rick Snyder (2011–present) is a Republican.

+ Presidential elections results
!Year	Republican Party (United States)>Republicans	Democratic Party (United States)>Democrats
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However, the state has supported Democrats in the last five presidential election cycles. In 2008, Barack Obama carried the state over John McCain, winning Michigan's seventeen electoral votes with 57% of the vote. Democrats have won each of the last three, nine of the last ten, and fifteen of the last eighteen U.S. Senate elections in Michigan with confidence on national economic issues posing a challenge. Republican strength is greatest in the western, northern, and rural parts of the state, especially in the Grand Rapids area. Republicans also do well in suburban Detroit, which tends to be an important factor in deciding statewide elections. Democrats are strongest in the east, especially in the cities of Detroit, Ann Arbor, Flint, and Saginaw.

Historically, the first formal meeting of the Republican Party took place in Jackson, Michigan on July 6, 1854 and the party thereafter dominated Michigan until the Great Depression. In the 1912 election, Michigan was one of the six states to support progressive Republican and third-party candidate Theodore Roosevelt for President after he lost the Republican nomination to William Howard Taft.

Michigan remained fairly reliably Republican at the presidential level for much of the 20th century. It was part of Greater New England, the northern tier of states settled chiefly by migrants from New England who carried their culture with them. The state was one of only a handful to back Wendell Willkie over Franklin Roosevelt in 1940, and supported Thomas E. Dewey in his losing bid against Harry Truman in 1948. Michigan went to the Democrats in presidential elections during the 1960s, and voted for Republican Richard Nixon in 1972.

Michigan was the home of Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States. He was born in Nebraska and moved as an infant to Grand Rapids, Michigan, and grew up there. The Gerald R. Ford Museum is located in Grand Rapids, and the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library is located on the campus of his alma mater, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

Administrative divisions

State government is decentralized among three tiers — statewide, county and township. Counties are administrative divisions of the state, and townships are administrative divisions of a county. Both of them exercise state government authority, localized to meet the particular needs of their jurisdictions, as provided by state law. There are 83 counties in Michigan.

Cities, state universities, and villages are vested with home rule powers of varying degrees. Home rule cities can generally do anything that is not prohibited by law. The fifteen state universities have broad power and can do anything within the parameters of their status as educational institutions that is not prohibited by the state constitution. Villages, by contrast, have limited home rule and are not completely autonomous from the county and township in which they are located.

There are two types of township in Michigan: ''general law'' township and ''charter''. Charter township status was created by the Legislature in 1947 and grants additional powers and stream-lined administration in order to provide greater protection against annexation by a city. As of April 2001, there were 127 charter townships in Michigan. In general, charter townships have many of the same powers as a city but without the same level of obligations. For example, a charter township can have its own fire department, water and sewer department, police department, and so on—just like a city—but it is not ''required'' to have those things, whereas cities ''must'' provide those services. Charter townships can opt to use county-wide services instead, such as deputies from the county sheriff's office instead of a home-based force of ordinance officers.

Geography

Michigan consists of two peninsulas that lie between 82°30' to about 90°30' west longitude, and are separated by the Straits of Mackinac. The 45th parallel north runs through the state—marked by highway signs and the Polar-Equator Trail—along a line including Mission Point Light near Traverse City, the towns of Gaylord and Alpena in the Lower Peninsula and Menominee in the Upper Peninsula. With the exception of two small areas that are drained by the Mississippi River by way of the Wisconsin River in the Upper Peninsula and by way of the Kankakee-Illinois River in the Lower Peninsula, Michigan is drained by the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence watershed and is the only state with the majority of its land thus drained. The Great Lakes that border Michigan from east to west are Lake Erie, Lake Huron, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. It has more lighthouses than any other state. The state is bounded on the south by the states of Ohio and Indiana, sharing land and water boundaries with both. Michigan's western boundaries are almost entirely water boundaries, from south to north, with Illinois and Wisconsin in Lake Michigan; then a land boundary with Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula, that is principally demarcated by the Menominee and Montreal Rivers; then water boundaries again, in Lake Superior, with Wisconsin and Minnesota to the west, capped around by the Canadian province of Ontario to the north and east.

The heavily forested Upper Peninsula is relatively mountainous in the west. The Porcupine Mountains, which are part of one of the oldest mountain chains in the world, rise to an altitude of almost 2,000 feet (610 m) above sea level and form the watershed between the streams flowing into Lake Superior and Lake Michigan. The surface on either side of this range is rugged. The state's highest point, in the Huron Mountains northwest of Marquette, is Mount Arvon at . The peninsula is as large as Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island combined but has fewer than 330,000 inhabitants. They are sometimes called "Yoopers" (from "U.P.'ers"), and their speech (the "Yooper dialect") has been heavily influenced by the numerous Scandinavian and Canadian immigrants who settled the area during the lumbering and mining boom of the late 19th century.

The Lower Peninsula, shaped like a mitten, is long from north to south and from east to west and occupies nearly two-thirds of the state's land area. The surface of the peninsula is generally level, broken by conical hills and glacial moraines usually not more than a few hundred feet tall. It is divided by a low water divide running north and south. The larger portion of the state is on the west of this and gradually slopes toward Lake Michigan. The highest point in the Lower Peninsula is either Briar Hill at , or one of several points nearby in the vicinity of Cadillac. The lowest point is the surface of Lake Erie at .

The geographic orientation of Michigan's peninsulas makes for a long distance between the ends of the state. Ironwood, in the far western Upper Peninsula, lies 630 highway miles (1,015 km) from Lambertville in the Lower Peninsula's southeastern corner. The geographic isolation of the Upper Peninsula from Michigan's political and population centers makes the U.P. culturally and economically distinct. Occasionally U.P. residents have called for secession from Michigan and establishment as a new state to be called "Superior".

A feature of Michigan that gives it the distinct shape of a mitten is the Thumb. This peninsula projects out into Lake Huron and the Saginaw Bay. The geography of the Thumb is mainly flat with a few rolling hills. Other peninsulas of Michigan include the Keweenaw Peninsula, making up the Copper Country region of the state. The Leelanau Peninsula lies in the Northern Lower Michigan region. ''See Also Michigan Regions''

thumb|left|Little Sable Point Light south of Pentwater, Michigan.Numerous lakes and marshes mark both peninsulas, and the coast is much indented. Keweenaw Bay, Whitefish Bay, and the Big and Little Bays De Noc are the principal indentations on the Upper Peninsula. The Grand and Little Traverse, Thunder, and Saginaw bays indent the Lower Peninsula. Michigan has the second longest shoreline of any state—, including of island shoreline.

The state has numerous large islands, the principal ones being the North Manitou and South Manitou, Beaver, and Fox groups in Lake Michigan; Isle Royale and Grande Isle in Lake Superior; Marquette, Bois Blanc, and Mackinac islands in Lake Huron; and Neebish, Sugar, and Drummond islands in St. Mary's River. Michigan has about 150 lighthouses, the most of any U.S. state. The first lighthouses in Michigan were built between 1818 and 1822. They were built to project light at night and to serve as a landmark during the day to safely guide the passenger ships and freighters traveling the Great Lakes. See Lighthouses in the United States.

The state's rivers are generally small, short and shallow, and few are navigable. The principal ones include the Detroit River, St. Marys River, and St. Clair River which connect the Great Lakes; the Au Sable, Cheboygan, and Saginaw, which flow into Lake Huron; the Ontonagon, and Tahquamenon, which flow into Lake Superior; and the St. Joseph, Kalamazoo, Grand, Muskegon, Manistee, and Escanaba, which flow into Lake Michigan. The state has 11,037 inland lakes (totaling of inland water) in addition to of Great Lakes waters. No point in Michigan is more than six miles (10 km) from an inland lake or more than from one of the Great Lakes.

The state is home to a number of areas maintained by the National Park Service including: Isle Royale National Park, located in Lake Superior, about southeast of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Other national protected areas in the state include: Keweenaw National Historical Park, Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore, Huron National Forest, Manistee National Forest, Hiawatha National Forest, Ottawa National Forest and Father Marquette National Memorial. The largest section of the North Country National Scenic Trail passes through Michigan.

With 78 state parks, 19 state recreation areas, and 6 state forests, Michigan has the largest state park and state forest system of any state. These parks and forests include Holland State Park, Mackinac Island State Park, Au Sable State Forest, and Mackinaw State Forest.

Adjacent states & provinces

Climate

thumb|Michigan USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map.Michigan has a continental climate, although there are two distinct regions. The southern and central parts of the Lower Peninsula (south of Saginaw Bay and from the Grand Rapids area southward) have a warmer climate (Koppen climate classification ''Dfa'') with hot summers and cold winters. The northern part of Lower Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula has a more severe climate (Koppen ''Dfb''), with warm, but shorter summers and longer, cold to very cold winters. Some parts of the state average high temperatures below freezing from December through February, and into early March in the far northern parts. During the winter through the middle of February the state is frequently subjected to heavy lake-effect snow. The state averages from of precipitation annually, however some areas in the northern lower peninsula and the upper peninsula average almost 160" of snowfall per year. Michigan's highest recorded temperature is at Mio on July 13, 1936 and the coldest recorded temperature is at Vanderbilt on February 9, 1934.

The entire state averages 30 days of thunderstorm activity per year. These can be severe, especially in the southern part of the state. The state averages 17 tornadoes per year, which are more common in the extreme southern portion of the state. Portions of the southern border have been nearly as vulnerable historically as parts of Tornado Alley. For this reason, many communities in the very southern portions of the state are equipped with tornado sirens to warn residents of approaching tornadoes. Farther north, in the Upper Peninsula, tornadoes are rare.

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colspan="13" style="text-align: center;font-size:120%;background:#E8EAFA;"|Monthly Normal High and Low Temperatures For Other Michigan Cities in °F(°C)

City

Jan

Feb

Mar

Apr

May

Jun

Jul

Aug

Sep

Oct

Nov

Dec

Flint

29/13

(−2/−11)

32/15

(0/−9)

43/24

(6/−4)

56/35

(13/2)

69/45

(21/7)

78/55

(26/13)

82/59

(28/15)

80/57

(27/14)

72/49

(22/9)

60/39

(16/4)

46/30

(8/−1)

34/19

(1/−7)

Grand Rapids

29/16

(−2/−9)

33/17

(1/−8)

43/26

(6/−3)

57/36

(14/2)

70/47

(21/8)

78/56

(26/13)

82/60

(28/16)

80/59

(27/15)

72/51

(22/11)

60/40

(11/4)

46/31

(8/−1)

34/21

(1/−6)

Muskegon

30/17

(−1/−8)

32/18

(0/−8)

42/25

(6/−4)

55/35

(13/2)

67/45

(19/7)

76/54

(24/12)

80/60

(27/16)

78/59

(26/15)

70/51

(21/11)

59/41

(15/5)

46/32

(8/0)

35/23

(2/−5)

Sault Ste. Marie

22/5

(−6/−15)

24/7

(−4/−14)

34/16

(1/−9)

48/29

(9/−2)

63/39

(17/4)

71/46

(22/7)

76/52

(24/11)

74/52

(23/11)

65/45

(18/7)

53/36

(12/2)

39/26

(12/−3)

27/13

(−3/−11)

Geology

The geological formation of the state is greatly varied. Primary boulders are found over the entire surface of the Upper Peninsula (being principally of primitive origin), while Secondary deposits cover the entire Lower Peninsula. The Upper Peninsula exhibits Lower Silurian sandstones, limestones, copper and iron bearing rocks, corresponding to the Huronian system of Canada. The central portion of the Lower Peninsula contains coal measures and rocks of the Permo-Carboniferous period. Devonian and sub-Carboniferous deposits are scattered over the entire state.

Demographics

As of 2010, Michigan had a population of 9,883,640, at – 0.6% since the year 2000, retaining its rank as the eighth most populous state in the nation.

The center of population of Michigan is located in Shiawassee County, in the southeastern corner of the civil township of Bennington, which is located northwest of the village of Morrice.

As of the 2009 American Community Survey for the U.S. Census, the state had a foreign-born population of 614,111, or 6.2% of the total. In recent years, the foreign-born population in the state has grown. Michigan has the largest Dutch, Finnish, and Macedonian populations in the United States.

The 2010 Census reported:

White: 78.9% (Non-Hispanic Whites: 76.6%)

Black or African American: 14.2%

American Indian: 0.6%

Asian: 2.4%

Pacific Islander: <0.1%

Some other race: 1.5%

Multiracial: 2.3%

Hispanic or Latino (of any race): 4.4%

The ten largest reported ancestries in Michigan are: German (22.9%) Irish (12.0%) English (10.6%) Polish (9.1%) French or French Canadian (7.0%) Dutch (5.2%) Italian (4.9%) American (4.8%) Scottish (2.5%) Swedish (1.7%)

The large majority of Michigan's population is Caucasian. Americans of European descent live throughout Michigan and most of Metro Detroit. Large European American groups include those of German, Irish, French, Belgian and British ancestry. People of Scandinavian descent, especially those of Finnish ancestry, have a notable presence in the Upper Peninsula. Western Michigan is known for the Dutch heritage of many residents (the highest concentration of any state), especially in metropolitan Grand Rapids.

About 300,000 people trace their descent from the Middle East. Dearborn has a sizeable Arab community, with many Assyrian/Chaldean/Syriac, and Lebanese who immigrated for jobs in the auto industry in the 1920s along with more recent Yemenis and Iraqis. African Americans, who came to Detroit and other northern cities in the Great Migration of the early 20th century, form a majority of the population of the city of Detroit and of other cities, including Flint and Benton Harbor.

An individual from Michigan is called a "Michigander" or "Michiganian". Also at times, but rarely, a "Michiganite". Residents of the Upper Peninsula are sometimes referred to as "Yoopers" (a phonetic pronunciation of "U.P.ers"), and Upper Peninsula residents sometimes refer to those from the lower as "trolls" (they live below the bridge).

Religion

The Roman Catholic Church was the only organized religion in Michigan until the 19th century, reflecting the territory's French colonial roots. Detroit's St. Anne's parish, established in 1701, is the second-oldest Catholic parish in the country. French-Canadian Catholics were reduced to a small minority by the influx of Protestants from the United States in the early 19th century. By the mid-19th century, there was a wave of immigration of Catholics from Ireland and, later, from eastern and southern Europe.

Change was rapid in the 19th century. The Lutheran Church was introduced by German and Scandinavian immigrants; Lutheranism is the second largest religious denomination in the state. The first Jewish synagogue in the state was Temple Beth El, founded by twelve German Jewish families in Detroit in 1850. Islam was introduced by immigrants from the Near East during the 20th century.

The largest denomination by number of adherents, according to a survey in the year 2000, was the Roman Catholic Church with 2,019,926 parishioners. The largest Protestant denominations were the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod with 244,231 adherents; followed by the United Methodist Church with 222,269; and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with 160,836 adherents. In the same survey, Jewish adherents in the state of Michigan were estimated at 110,000, and Muslims at 80,515.

Economy

The Bureau of Economic Analysis estimated Michigan's 2009 gross state product at $368 B. In May 2011, the state's unemployment rate was 10.3%.

Some of the major industries/products/services include automobiles, cereal products, pizza, information technology, aerospace, military equipment, copper, iron, and furniture. Michigan is the third leading grower of Christmas trees with of land dedicated to Christmas tree farming. The beverage Vernors was invented in Michigan in 1866, sharing the title of oldest soft drink with Hires Root Beer. Faygo was founded in Detroit on November 4, 1907. Two of the top four pizza chains were founded in Michigan and are headquartered there: Domino's Pizza by Tom Monaghan and Little Caesars Pizza by Mike Ilitch.

Since 2009, GM, Ford, and Chrysler have managed a significant reorganization of their benefit funds structure after a volatile stock market which followed the September 11, 2001 attacks and early 2000s recession impacted their respective U.S. pension and benefit funds (OPEB). General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler reached agreements with the United Auto Workers Union to transfer the liabilities for their respective health care and benefit funds to a 501(c)(9) Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association (VEBA). Manufacturing in the state grew 6.6% from 2001 to 2006, but the high speculative price of oil became a factor for the U.S. auto industry during the economic crisis of 2008 impacting industry revenues. In 2009, GM and Chrysler emerged from Chapter 11 restructurings with financing provided in part by the U.S. and Canandian governments. GM began its initial public offering (IPO) of stock in 2010. For 2010, the Big Three domestic automakers have reported significant profits indicating the beginning of rebound.

Michigan ranks fourth in the U.S. in high tech employment with 568,000 high tech workers, which includes 70,000 in the automotive industry. Michigan typically ranks third or fourth in overall Research & development (R&D;) expenditures in the United States. Its research and development, which includes automotive, comprises a higher percentage of the state's overall gross domestic product than for any other U.S. state. The state is an important source of engineering job opportunities. The domestic auto industry accounts directly and indirectly for one of every ten jobs in the U.S.^Outdated

Michigan was second in the U.S. in 2004 for new corporate facilities and expansions. From 1997 to 2004, Michigan was the only state to top the 10,000 mark for the number of major new developments; however, the effects of the late 2000s recession have slowed the state's economy. In 2008, Michigan placed third in a site selection survey among the states for luring new business which measured capital investment and new job creation per one million population. In August 2009, Michigan and Detroit's auto industry received $1.36 B in grants from the U.S. Department of Energy for the manufacture of electric vehicle technologies which is expected to generate 6,800 immediate jobs and employ 40,000 in the state by 2020. From 2007 to 2009, Michigan ranked 3rd in the U.S. for new corporate facilities and expansions.

As leading research institutions, the University of Michigan, Michigan State University,and Wayne State University are important partners in the state's economy and the state's University Research Corridor. Michigan's public universities attract more than $1.5 B in research and development grants each year. The National Superconducting Cyclotron Laboratory is located at Michigan State University. Michigan's workforce is well-educated and highly skilled, making it attractive to companies. It has the third highest number of engineering graduates nationally.

Detroit Metropolitan Airport is one of the nation's most recently expanded and modernized airports with six major runways, and large aircraft maintenance facilities capable of servicing and repairing a Boeing 747 and is a major hub for Delta Air Lines. Michigan's schools and colleges rank among the nation's best. The state has maintained its early commitment to public education. The state's infrastructure gives it a competitive edge; Michigan has 38 deep water ports. In 2007, Bank of America announced that it would commit $25 billion to community development in Michigan following its acquisition of LaSalle Bank in Troy.

Michigan led the nation in job creation improvement in 2010.

Taxation

Michigan's personal income tax is set to a flat rate of 4.35%. Some cities impose additional income taxes. Michigan's state sales tax is 6%. Property taxes are assessed on the local level, but every property owner's local assessment contributes six mills (six dollars per thousand dollars of property value) to the statutory State Education Tax. In 2007, Michigan repealed its Single Business Tax (SBT) and replaced it with a Michigan Business Tax (MBT) in order to stimulate job growth by reducing taxes for seventy percent of the businesses in the state. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, recent growth in Michigan is 0.1%.

Agriculture

A wide variety of commodity crops, fruits, and vegetables are grown in Michigan, making it second only to California among U.S. states in the diversity of its agriculture. The state has 55,000 farms utilizing of land which sold $6.6 billion worth of products in 2008. The most valuable agricultural product is milk. Leading crops include corn, soybeans, flowers, wheat, sugar beets and potatoes. Livestock in the state included 1 million cattle, 1 million hogs, 78,000 sheep and over 3 million chickens. Livestock products accounted for 38% of the value of agricultural products while crops accounted for the majority.

Michigan is a leading grower of fruit in the U.S., including blueberries, cherries, apples, grapes, and peaches. Plums, pears, and strawberries are also grown. These fruits are mainly grown in West Michigan due to the moderating effect of Lake Michigan on the climate. There is also significant fruit production, especially cherries, but also grapes, apples, and other fruits, in Northwest Michigan along Lake Michigan. Michigan produces wines, beers and a multitude of processed food products. Kellogg's cereal is based out of Battle Creek, Michigan and processes many locally grown foods. Thornapple Valley, Ballpark Franks, Koegel's, and Hebrew National sausage companies are all based in Michigan.

Michigan is home to very fertile land in the Flint/Tri-Cities and "Thumb" areas. Products grown there include corn, sugar beets, navy beans, and soy beans. Sugar beet harvesting usually begins the first of October. It takes the sugar factories about five months to process the 3.7 million tons of sugarbeets into 970 million pounds of pure, white sugar. Michigan's largest sugar refiner, Michigan Sugar Company is the largest east of the Mississippi River and the fourth largest in the nation. Michigan Sugar brand names are Pioneer Sugar and the newly incorporated Big Chief Sugar. Potatoes are grown in Northern Michigan, and corn is dominant in Central Michigan. Alfalfa, cucumbers, and asparagus are also grown. Michigan State University is dedicated to the study of agriculture.

Tourism

Michigan's tourists spend $17.2 billion per year in the state, supporting 193,000 tourism jobs. Michigan's tourism website ranks among the busiest in the nation. Destinations draw vacationers, hunters, and nature enthusiasts from across the United States and Canada. Michigan is fifty percent forest land, much of it quite remote. The forests, lakes and thousands of miles of beaches are top attractions. Event tourism draws large numbers to occasions like the Tulip Time Festival and the National Cherry Festival.

In 2006, the Michigan State Board of Education mandated that all public schools in the state hold their first day of school after the Labor Day holiday, in accordance with the new Post Labor Day School law. A survey found that 70% of all tourism business comes directly from Michigan residents, and the Michigan Hotel, Motel, & Resort Association claimed that the shorter summer in between school years cut into the annual tourism season in the state.

Tourism in metropolitan Detroit draws visitors to leading attractions, particularly The Henry Ford, the Detroit Institute of Arts, and the Detroit Zoo, and to sports in Detroit. Other museums include the Detroit Historical Museum, the Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History, museums in the Cranbrook Educational Community, and the Arab American National Museum. The metro area offers four major casinos, MGM Grand Detroit, Greektown, Motor City, and Caesars Windsor in Windsor, Ontario, Canada; moreover, Detroit is the largest American city and metropolitan region to offer casino resorts.

Hunting and fishing are significant industries in the state. Charter boats are based in many Great Lakes cities to fish for salmon, trout, walleye and perch. Michigan ranks first in the nation in licensed hunters (over one million) who contribute $2 billion annually to its economy. Over three-quarters of a million hunters participate in white-tailed deer season alone. Many school districts in rural areas of Michigan cancel school on the opening day of firearm deer season, because of attendance concerns.

Michigan's Department of Natural Resources manages the largest dedicated state forest system in the nation. The forest products industry and recreational users contribute $12 billion and 200,000 associated jobs annually to the state's economy. Public hiking and hunting access has also been secured in extensive commercial forests. The state has highest number of golf courses and registered snowmobiles in the nation.

The state has numerous historical markers, which can themselves become the center of a tour. The Great Lakes Circle Tour is a designated scenic road system connecting all of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence River.

With its position in relation to the Great Lakes and the countless ships that have foundered over the many years in which they have been used as a transport route for people and bulk cargo, Michigan is a world-class scuba diving destination. The Michigan Underwater Preserves are 11 underwater areas where wrecks are protected for the benefit of sport divers.

Transportation

Michigan has nine international crossings with Ontario, Canada:

Ambassador Bridge, North America's busiest international border crossing the Detroit River

Blue Water Bridge, a twin-span bridge (Port Huron, Michigan and Point Edward, Ontario, but the larger city of Sarnia, Ontario is usually referred to on the Canadian side.)

Blue Water Ferry (Marine City, Michigan and Sombra, Ontario)

Canadian Pacific Railway tunnel.

Detroit–Windsor Truck Ferry (Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario)

Detroit–Windsor Tunnel.

International Bridge (Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan and Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario)

St. Clair River Railway Tunnel (Port Huron, Michigan and Sarnia, Ontario)

Walpole Island Ferry (Algonac, Michigan and Walpole Island First Nation, Ontario

A second international bridge is currently under development between Detroit, Michigan and Windsor, Ontario.

Railroads

Michigan is served by four Class I railroads: the Canadian National Railway, the Canadian Pacific Railway, CSX Transportation, and the Norfolk Southern Railway. These are augmented by several dozen short line railroads. The vast majority of rail service in Michigan is devoted to freight, with Amtrak and various scenic railroads the exceptions.

Amtrak passenger rail services the state, connecting many southern and western Michigan cities to Chicago, Illinois. There are plans for commuter rail for Detroit and its suburbs (see SEMCOG Commuter Rail).

Roadways

Interstate 75 is the main thoroughfare between Detroit, Flint, and Saginaw extending north to Sault Sainte Marie and providing access to Sault Sainte Marie, Ontario. The expressway crosses the Mackinac Bridge between the Lower and Upper Peninsulas. Branching highways include I-275 and I-375 in Detroit; I-475 in Flint; and I-675 in Saginaw.

Interstate 69 enters the state near the Michigan-Ohio-Indiana border, and it extends to Port Huron and provides access to the Blue Water Bridge crossing into Sarnia, Ontario.

Interstate 94 enters the western end of the state at the Indiana border, and it travels east to Detroit and then northeast to Port Huron and ties in with I-69. I-194 branches off from this freeway in Battle Creek. I-94 is the main artery between Chicago, Illinois and Detroit.

Interstate 96 runs east–west between Detroit and Muskegon. I-496 loops through Lansing. I-196 branches off from this freeway at Grand Rapids and connects to I-94 near Benton Harbor. I-696 branches off from this freeway at Novi and connects to I-94 near St Clair Shores.

U.S. Highway 2 enters Michigan at the city of Ironwood and runs east to the town of Crystal Falls, where it turns south and briefly re-enters Wisconsin northwest of Florence. It re-enters Michigan north of Iron Mountain and continues through the Upper Peninsula of Michigan to the cities of Escanaba, Manistique, and St. Ignace. Along the way, it cuts through the Ottawa and Hiawatha National Forests and follows the northern shore of Lake Michigan. Its eastern terminus lies at exit 344 of I-75, just north of the Mackinac Bridge. This is generally regarded as the main route through the Upper Peninsula, although some prefer to travel on M-28 as it tends to save time (U.S. 2 hugs the Lake Michigan shoreline for much of its length.)

Airports

The Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport is Michigan's busiest airport in the western suburb of Romulus, followed by the Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids.

Important cities and townships

The largest municipalities in Michigan are (according to 2010 Census):

! Rank	! City	! Population	! Image
	style="text-align:left;"	713,777
	style="text-align:left;"	188,040
	style="text-align:left;"	134,056
	style="text-align:left;"	129,699
	style="text-align:left;"	114,297
	style="text-align:left;"	113,934
	style="text-align:left;"	102,434
	style="text-align:left;"	98,153
	style="text-align:left;"	96,942
	style="text-align:left;"	96,796

Other important cities include:

Battle Creek ("Cereal City U.S.A.", world headquarters of Kellogg Company)

Benton Harbor / St. Joseph (headquarters of Whirlpool Corporation)

East Lansing (home of Michigan State University)

Holland (home of Tulip Time, the largest tulip festival in the U.S.)

Jackson (headquarters of CMS Energy)

Kalamazoo (Largest city in southwest Michigan and home to Western Michigan University)

Manistee (home to the world's largest salt plant, owned by Morton Salt)

Marquette (largest city in the Upper Peninsula with 19,661 people and home of Northern Michigan University)

Midland (headquarters of the Dow Chemical Company and the Dow Corning Corporation)

Pontiac (major automobile manufacturing center, and home of the Pontiac Silverdome)

Saginaw (the largest of the Tri-Cities, which also consist of Bay City and Midland, and home to Saginaw Valley State University)

Sault Ste. Marie (home of the Soo Locks and Sault Ste. Marie International Bridge)

Traverse City ("Cherry Capital of the World", making Michigan the country's largest producer of cherries)

Half of the wealthiest communities in the state are located in Oakland County, just north of Detroit. Another wealthy community is located just east of the city, in Grosse Pointe. Only three of these cities are located outside of Metro Detroit. The city of Detroit itself, with a per capita income of $14,717, ranks 517th on the list of Michigan locations by per capita income. Benton Harbor is the poorest city in Michigan, with a per capita income of $8,965, while Barton Hills is the richest with a per capita income of $110,683.

Education

Michigan's education system provides services to 1.6 million K-12 students in public schools. More than 124,000 students attend private schools and an uncounted number are homeschooled under certain legal requirements. The public school system has a $14.5 billion budget in 2008–2009. Michigan has a number of public universities spread throughout the state and a numerous private colleges as well. Michigan State University has one of the largest enrollments of any U.S. school. Michigan State University, the University of Michigan, and Wayne State University are the three major research institutions in the state.

Professional sports

Michigan's major-league sports teams include: Detroit Tigers baseball team, Detroit Lions football team, Detroit Red Wings ice hockey team, and the Detroit Pistons men's basketball team. All of Michigan's major league teams play in the Metro Detroit area.

The Pistons played at Detroit's Cobo Arena until 1978 and at the Pontiac Silverdome until 1988 when they moved into The Palace of Auburn Hills. The Detroit Lions played at Tiger Stadium in Detroit until 1974, then moved to the Pontiac Silverdome where they played for 27 years between 1975–2002 before moving to Ford Field in Detroit in 2002. The Detroit Tigers played at Tiger Stadium (formerly known as Navin Field and Briggs Stadium) from 1912 to 1999. In 2000 they moved to Comerica Park. The Red Wings played at Olympia Stadium before moving to Joe Louis Arena in 1979.

Thirteen-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams was born in Saginaw. The Michigan International Speedway is the site of NASCAR races and Detroit was formerly the site of a Formula One World Championship Grand Prix race. From 1959 to 1961, Detroit Dragway hosted the NHRA's U.S. Nationals. Michigan is home to one of the major canoeing marathons: the Au Sable River Canoe Marathon. The Port Huron to Mackinac Boat Race is also a favorite. Professional hockey got its start in Houghton, when the Portage Lakers were formed.

State symbols and nicknames

Michigan is, by tradition, known as "The Wolverine State," and the University of Michigan takes the wolverine as its mascot. The association is well and long established: for example, many Detroiters volunteered to fight during the American Civil War and George Armstrong Custer, who led the Michigan Brigade, called them the "Wolverines". The origins of this association are obscure; it may derive from a busy trade in wolverine furs in Sault Ste. Marie in the 18th century or may recall a disparagement intended to compare early settlers in Michigan with the vicious mammal. Wolverines are, however, extremely rare in Michigan. A sighting in February 2004 near Ubly was the first confirmed sighting in Michigan in 200 years. The animal was found dead in 2010. State song: ''My Michigan'' (official since 1937, but disputed amongst residents), ''Michigan, My Michigan'' (Unofficial State Song, since the civil war)

State bird: American Robin (since 1931)

State animal: Wolverine (traditional)

State game animal: White-tailed deer (since 1997)

State fish: Brook trout (since 1965)

State reptile: Painted Turtle (since 1995)

State fossil: Mastodon (since 2000)

State flower: Apple blossom (adopted in 1897, official in 1997)

State wildflower: Dwarf Lake Iris (since 1998). Known as ''Iris lacustris'', it is a federally listed threatened species.

State tree: White pine (since 1955)

State stone: Petoskey stone (since 1965). It is composed of fossilized coral (''Hexagonaria pericarnata'') from long ago when the middle of the continent was covered with a shallow sea.

State gem: Isle Royale greenstone (since 1973). Also called ''chlorastrolite'' (literally "green star stone"), the mineral is found on Isle Royale and the Keweenaw peninsula.

State Quarter: U.S. coin issued in 2004 with the Michigan motto "Great Lakes State."

State soil: Kalkaska Sand (since 1990), ranges in color from black to yellowish brown, covers nearly in 29 counties.

Sister states

Shiga Prefecture, Japan Sichuan Province, Peoples Republic of China

See also

Great Lakes

List of National Register of Historic Places in Michigan

List of people from Michigan

U.S. state

USS Michigan

References

Further reading

Bald, F. Clever, ''Michigan in Four Centuries'' (1961)/

Browne, William P. and – Kenneth VerBurg. ''Michigan Politics & Government: Facing Change in a Complex State'' University of Nebraska Press. 1995.

Bureau of Business Research, Wayne State U. ''Michigan Statistical Abstract'' (1987).

Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Bibliographies for Michigan by region, counties, etc..

Dunbar, Willis F. and George S. May. ''Michigan: A History of the Wolverine State'' (1995) excerpt and text search

Michigan, State of. ''Michigan Manual'' (annual), elaborate detail on state government.

Press, Charles et al., ''Michigan Political Atlas'' (1984).

Public Sector Consultants. ''Michigan in Brief. An Issues Handbook'' (annual)

Rich, Wilbur. ''Coleman Young and Detroit Politics: From Social Activist to Power Broker'' (Wayne State University Press, 1988).

Rubenstein, Bruce A. and Lawrence E. Ziewacz. ''Michigan: A History of the Great Lakes State.'' (2nd ed. 2008)

Sisson, Richard, Ed. ''The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia'' (2006)

Weeks, George, ''Stewards of the State: The Governors of Michigan'' (Historical Society of Michigan, 1987).

External links

State of Michigan government website

Energy Data & Statistics for Michigan

Info Michigan, detailed information on 630 cities

Michigan Historic Markers

Michigan History Magazine

Michigan Lighthouse Chronology – Clark Historical Library

Michigan State Guide from the Library of Congress

Michigan Official Travel Site

Michigan State Fact Sheet from the U.S. Department of Agriculture

Michigan Underwater Preserves Council

The Michigan Municipal League

USGS real-time, geographic, and other scientific resources of Michigan

Category:States and territories established in 1837 Category:States of the United States

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Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
name	Draymond Green
college	Michigan State University
conference	Big Ten
sport	Basketball
position	Small Forward
class	Junior
career start	2008
nickname	Day-Day
height ft	6
height in	7
weight lb	230
nationality	American
birth date	March 04, 1990
birth place	Saginaw, MI
highschool	Saginaw High School
awards	}}

Draymond Green (born 1990) is an American college basketball player at Michigan State University. He plays the forward position. Green is known for his high basketball IQ and passing skills at the forward position.

High School

In high school, Green led the Saginaw Trojans to two state championships. During his high school career, he averaged 20 points, 13 rebounds, and 2 blocked shots a game. His senior season, his high school team recorded a 27-1 record and was ranked number 4 in the USA Today national high school rankings. Coming out of high school, he was recruited by the Michigan Wolverines, Kentucky Wildcats, Michigan State Spartans, and Indiana Hoosiers.

College

Originally committed to the Kentucky Wildcats, Green eventually decided to play for Tom Izzo and the Spartans. His freshman year, he spent most of his time on the bench for the Spartans averaging 3.3 points per game and 3.3 rebounds per game. During his sophomore year, he would win the Big Ten sixth man of the year award averaging 9.9 points and 7.7 rebounds per game. During his Junior year at MSU, Green averaged 12.6 points per game and 8.6 rebounds per game. On February 10th, Green became the third Michigan State player to record a triple-double to only Charlie Bell and Magic Johnson. In the 2011 NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament he recorded his second triple-double of the season and the seventh in NCAA tournament history in the loss against UCLA.

References

Category:1990 births Category:African American basketball players Category:Basketball players from Michigan Category:Michigan State Spartans men's basketball players Category:Parade High School All-Americans (boys' basketball) Category:Living people

Coordinates	45°30′″N73°40′″N
Name	Kirk Cousins
School	Michigan State Spartans
Currentnumber	8
Currentposition	Quarterback
Class	Junior
Major	Kinesiology
Birth date	August 19, 1988
Heightft	6
Heightin	3
Weight	202
Highlights	Awards and Honors
Bowlgames	2008 Champs Sports Bowl (DNP) 2009 Capital One Bowl 2010 Valero Alamo Bowl 2011 Capital One Bowl
Fansites
Highschool	Holland Christian High School
Pastschools	Michigan State (2007-Present)
Rivals	}}

Kirk Cousins (born August 19, 1988 in) is the starting quarterback for the Michigan State Spartans college football team.

High school career

Cousins attended Holland Christian High School in Holland, Michigan where he starred in football, baseball (as a pitcher), and basketball. Cousins finished his high school football career with 3,204 passing yards and 40 touchdowns and 18 interceptions.

College career

In 2007 newly hired Michigan State head coach Mark Dantonio recruited Cousins to play for the Spartans. Cousins was redshirted for the 2007 season.

In 2008 he spent the season as the back up quarterback to Brian Hoyer. He played in five games passing for a total of 310 yards and 2 touchdowns and 1 interception.

In 2009 he competed for and won the starting quarterback job. He led Michigan State to a 6-7 season with 19 touchdowns, 9 interceptions and 2680 passing yards in 12 games.

In 2010 he established himself as one of the nations top quarterbacks and has led Michigan State to a 11-2 record.

References

External links

MSU Football profile

Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:People from Holland, Michigan Category:Players of American football from Michigan Category:American football quarterbacks Category:Michigan State Spartans football players