others felt it had been one, in fact, for decades the College thus became Michigan State University of Agriculture and Applied Science. After the ratification of the Michigan Constitution of 1964, the university's governing body changed its name from the State Board of Agriculture to the Michigan State University Board of Trustees. Michigan State University (1964-present) In the 1960s, Nigerian President Nnamdi Azikiwe invited the University to partner with Nigerians to build the first land-grant model university in Africa, the University of Nigeria. The many years of faculty experience in Nigeria created the foundation for a major MSU African Studies Center. By the 1990s MSU had the largest faculty in the nation of Africa specialists (170) and was producing more Ph.D.s on Africa, offering more study abroad in Africa (26), and teaching more African languages (30) than any other university. The faculty is deeply engaged in many African development problems in food security, health (especially tropical diseases such as malaria, river blindness, and filariasis), education, and gender equity. In 1978, the University divested the stocks of companies doing business in apartheid-governed South Africa from its endowment portfolio. By 1969, the student body had become politically active over issues such as the Civil Rights Movement. Protests led to the resignation of President John A. Hannah and the blocking of the construction of Interstate 496 through the campus. In 1970, the Board of Trustees appointed President Clifton Wharton, the University's first African-American president and the first minority president of a major public American university. Under Wharton, the University created co-ed residence halls and residential colleges. In 1988, the university won its third Rose Bowl, this time beating Trojans 20–17. As the pioneer land grant university, it has historically sought to provide educational opportunities to a wide variety of students, especially to those from the farming and working classes. Former President Peter McPherson stated "access to MSU and the education it offers is one of our roots" while noting the challenge, even irony, in maintaining such openness as the University's quality makes it ever more popular and difficult to be admitted into.Changing the World: The Revolution at 150. MSU Today. Retrieved April 14, 2007. In more recent years, "town and gown" relations have soured as students and permanent residents looked at each other with increasing hostility. This erupted in clashes involving the police in 1997, 1998, and 1999. Local and national news referred