Michigan State University (Michigan State or MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States.
After the introduction of the Morrill Act in 1862, the state designated the college a land-grant institution in 1863, making it the first of the land-grant colleges in the United States. The college became coeducational in 1870. In 1955, the state officially made the college a university, and the current name was adopted in 1964. Today, Michigan State has rapidly expanded its footprint across the state of Michigan with facilities all across the state and one of the largest collegiate alumni networks with 634,000 members.

The university is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". The university's campus houses the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams, the W. J. Beal Botanical Garden, the Abrams Planetarium, the Wharton Center for Performing Arts, the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, and the country's largest residence hall system.

The university's six professional schools include the College of Law (founded in Detroit, in 1891, as the Detroit College of Law and moved to East Lansing in 1995), Eli Broad College of Business; the College of Nursing, the College of Osteopathic Medicine (the world's first state-funded osteopathic college),<ref>{{cite book |last=Gevitz |first=Norman |title=The DO's: osteopathic medicine in America |year=2004 |publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore, Maryland |isbn=0-8018-7833-0}}</ref> the College of Human Medicine, and the College of Veterinary Medicine. The university pioneered the studies of music therapy, packaging, hospitality business, supply chain management, and communication sciences.

University faculty, alumni, and affiliates include 2 Nobel Prize laureates, 20 Rhodes Scholars, 20 Marshall Scholars, 18 Churchill Scholars, 17 Truman Scholars, 5 Mitchell Scholars, 13 Udall Scholars, 53 Goldwater Scholars, 215 Fulbright Scholars, and 8 Pulitzer Prize winners.

The Michigan State Spartans compete in the NCAA Division I Big Ten Conference. Michigan State Spartans football won the Rose Bowl Game in 1954, 1956, 1988, and 2014, and the university has won six national football championships. Spartans men's basketball won the NCAA National Championship in 1979 and 2000, and has reached the Final Four eight times since the 1998–1999 season. Spartans ice hockey won NCAA national titles in 1966, 1986, and 2007.

 History

The rise of scientific agriculture in Europe in the first half of the nineteenth century and the desire for formal agricultural education at the college level by forward looking agriculturalists in Michigan gave impetus to a movement that led to the establishment of the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan in 1855, the first of its kind in the United States, predating the Agricultural College of Pennsylvania (founded in 1855, renamed in 1862), the Maryland Agricultural College (founded in 1856), the Iowa Agricultural College (founded in 1858), the State Agricultural College within the University of Georgia (founded in 1859), and the Massachusetts Agricultural College (founded in 1863). The Michigan Farmer, a leading agricultural periodical, and the Michigan State Agricultural Society led public discussions relative to the virtues and benefits of an agricultural college for the state's farmers and economy.

In early 1855, John Clough Holmes, secretary of the agricultural society, convinced the legislature to pass an act establishing "a State Agricultural School" to be located on a site selected by the Michigan State Agricultural Society within ten miles of Lansing. On February 12, 1855, Michigan Governor Kinsley S. Bingham signed a bill establishing the nation's first agriculture college, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan. Professor Lautner contrasts Holmes' legacy with that of John Harvard, whose donation of a modest library and four hundred British pounds led to a major university that bears his name, implying that the college's debt to Holmes is far greater. William J. Beal called Holmes "the most important agent" of the college. Holmes Hall, the home of the Lyman Briggs College, is named in his honor.

The State Board of Education was designated as the institution's governing body. The board also oversaw the Michigan State Normal School in Ypsilanti, which had opened in 1852. Classes began on May 13, 1857, with three buildings, five faculty members, and 63 male students.

Joseph R. Williams, the first president and a passionate promoter of interdisciplinary liberal arts education, encouraged a curriculum that went far beyond practical agriculture: "The course of instruction in said college shall include the following branches of education, viz: an English and scientific course, natural philosophy, chemistry, botany, animal and vegetable anatomy and physiology, geology, mineralogy, meteorology, entomology, veterinary art, mensuration, leveling and political economy, with bookkeeping and the mechanic arts which are directly connected with agriculture..." From its inception, the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan offered courses of study that would characterize the land-grant philosophy of higher education after the passage of the Morrill Act in 1862. Michigan's agricultural college educated people to be well-informed citizens, as well as good farmers.

However, after just two years, Williams ran into conflict with the managing State Board of Education. Despite Williams' eloquent defense of an all-round education for the masses, the board saw the college as inefficient and had far deviated from the agriculture focus as the founder, John Clough Holmes, had anticipated. Indeed, some agriculturalists began protesting against the college's unpractical curriculum with some even calling for the college's abolition. Williams eventually resigned in 1859. The board then reduced the curriculum to a two-year, vocation-oriented farming program, which proved catastrophic and resulted almost overnight in a drastic reduction in enrollment.Kuhn 1955, p. 32. There was a high demand for an all-round education grounded in the liberal arts tradition instead of a specialized agriculture program, a fact the board disregarded. With a sharp decrease in tuition revenue, the college was soon in dire financial straits and threatened with dissolution.

In 1860, Williams became acting lieutenant governor and helped pass the Reorganization Act of 1861. This restored the college's four-year curriculum and gave the college the power to grant master's degrees. 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.

In 1862, President Abraham Lincoln signed the Morrill Land-Grant Acts to support similar colleges nationally, the first instance of federal funding for education. Shortly thereafter, on March 18, 1863, the state designated the college its land-grant institution making Michigan State University the nation's first land-grant college. The federal funding had rescued the Agricultural College from extinction.

Although the school's then-isolated location limited student housing and enrollment during the 19th century, the college became reputable, largely due to alumni who went on to distinguished careers, many of whom led or taught in other land-grant colleges. While the institution emphasized scientific agriculture, its graduates went into a wide variety of professions.

The college first admitted women in 1870, although there were no female residence halls. The few women who enrolled boarded with faculty families or made the arduous stagecoach trek from Lansing. 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 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. A few years later, Myrtle Craig became the first woman African American student to enroll at the college. Two years later, the college changed its name to Michigan Agricultural College.

During the early 20th century, Michigan Agricultural College expanded its curriculum well beyond agriculture. By 1925, it had expanded enough to change its name to Michigan State College of Agriculture and Applied Science (MSC), or "Michigan State" for short. In 1941, the Secretary of the State Board of Agriculture, John A. Hannah, became president of the college.

After World War II, Hannah began the largest expansion in the institution's history, with the help of the 1945 G.I. Bill, which helped World War II veterans gain college educations. One of Hannah's strategies was to build a new dormitory building, enroll enough students to fill it, and use the income to start construction of another dormitory. Under his plan, enrollment increased from 15,000 in 1950 to 38,000 in 1965. 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. During the 1950s, Michigan State University was the "preeminent" example of a group of former agricultural colleges which had already evolved into state colleges and were attempting to become research universities. In 1957, Hannah continued MSU's expansion by co-founding Michigan State University–Oakland, now Oakland University, with Matilda Dodge Wilson.

During the school's centennial year of 1955, the State of Michigan officially designated the school as a university, even though Hannah and others felt it had been one for decades. The college then 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.

In September 2005, President Lou Anna Simon called for MSU to become the global model leader for land-grant institutions by 2012. Her plans included creating a new residential college and increased grants awarded from the National Institutes of Health past the US$100million mark. While there are over 100 land-grant universities in the United States, she stated she would like Michigan State University to be the leader.

 Recent history

 Michigan State University-Oakland

MSU was affiliated with Oakland University (then known as Michigan State University-Oakland), in Rochester Hills, until Oakland University gained institutional independence in 1970.

 Agriculture Hall Arson
In a 1999 incident, eco-anarchist activists, including Rod Coronado, burned down part of Agriculture Hall, with four additional suspects being arrested and charged nearly a decade later, in 2008. It was the second case of domestic eco-terrorism at MSU resulting in indictments. In 1992, arsonists attacked the offices of two faculty members in Anthony Hall and vandalized campus mink research facilities.

 Sexual assault investigation

On May 1, 2014, Michigan State University was named one of 55 higher education institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights "for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints" by President Barack Obama's White House Task Force To Protect Students from Sexual Assault. "The investigation at Michigan State involves its response to sexual harassment and sexual assault complaints involving students," according to one reporter. It was later reported in the same paper that "An investigation by the U.S. Department of Education into how Michigan State University handles sexual assault complaints was spurred by an incident in Wonders Hall in August 2010, a spokesman said."

In 2018, three former Michigan State football players who were charged with sexual assault, Donnie Corley Jr., Demetric Vance, and Josh King, pled guilty to seduction. All three were involved in the alleged rape of a woman in a bathroom at an on-campus party in January 2017. As a result of the plea, however, the players were not convicted of the more serious sexual assault charges and only received 36 months probation, but were also ordered to undergo sex offender treatment.

 USA Gymnastics sex abuse scandal

In 2016, a police report was filed alleging that in 2000, USA Gymnastics team doctor and MSU physician Larry Nassar (also a professor in the MSU College of Human Medicine) had sexually assaulted a minor named Rachael Denhollander under the guise of medical treatment. The allegation and allegations of physical abuse by others led to the arrest and eventual conviction of Nassar. A federal court sentenced him in 2017 and state courts in 2018. Between the police report filing and the time of sentencing, 156 victims, including Olympic gymnasts and MSU student athletes, came forward to speak of abuses inflicted by Nassar. The Detroit News reported that 14 MSU representatives—including athletic trainers, coaches, a university police detective, and administrators—had possibly been alerted of sexual misconduct by Nassar across two decades, with notification of an incident in 2014 documented by a Title IX investigation. Michigan State and USA Gymnastics have been accused of enabling Nassar's abuse and are named as defendants in civil lawsuits that gymnasts and former MSU student athletes have filed against Nassar. On May 16, 2018, it was announced that Michigan State University had agreed to pay the victims of Nassar $500million, equivalent to $million in .

MSU's role in the scandal, as well as mounting pressure from the public and alumni, led to several high-level staff changes, including the resignation of President Lou Anna Simon in January 2018, as well as the retirement of athletic director Mark Hollis and gymnastics coach Kathie Klages. Former Michigan Governor John Engler replaced Simon as interim president of the university, but resigned in January 2019 after a pattern of controversial comments about the ongoing scandal including that Nassar's victims were "enjoying" the spotlight. In addition, several conspirators saw charges brought against them:

 March 2018 - William Strampel was arrested and charged with felony misconduct in office and criminal sexual conduct for allegedly groping a student and storing nude photos of female students on his computer. Strampel was the former dean of the College of Osteopathic Medicine and oversaw Larry Nassar's clinic.
 August 2018 - former coach Klages was charged with two counts of lying to police regarding knowledge of Nassar's sexual abuse.
 November 2018 - former university president Simon was charged with two felonies and two misdemeanor counts for lying to the police about her knowledge of sexual abuse committed by Nassar.
 June 2019, former dean Strampel was convicted of one count of felony misconduct in office and two counts of misdemeanor willful neglect of duty.

Strample was sentenced in August 2019 to one 11-month term and two one-year terms in county jail, with the sentences to run concurrently.

In February 2020, former coach Klages was found guilty on the charges of lying to police. A judge dismissed the criminal case against former president Simon in May 2020. In June, the Michigan Attorney General appealed to reinstate the charges.

 COVID-19 shutdown
After sending the vast majority of students home and ending in-person classes in March 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic began to affect Michigan, the smallest number of students in decades returned to campus housing at the outset of the Fall 2020 semester for what MSU president Samuel L. Stanley Jr. said would be an almost fully remote learning school year – the first such arrangement in school history. As of September 2020, the Ingham County Health Department had accused MSU of underreporting COVID-19 cases among students and staff by more than 50 percent. Men's Basketball Coach Tom Izzo recorded a PSA together with President Stanley at the outset of the Fall 2020 semester, encouraging the use of face masks among students to discourage "superspreader" events, such as an off-campus gathering at Harper's Restaurant and Brew Pub which led to exponential infection rates over the summer of 2020. In December 2020, two veterinary students appeared before MSU's board of trustees, on behalf of the graduating classes of 2023 and 2024, to request a tuition rebate for months of online instruction after originally expecting a mix of in-person and online courses. President Stanley commented that a refund wouldn't be practical due to the university's fixed costs, and that the change in instruction was "one of the unfortunate casualties of the pandemic."

While in-person classes were increased from roughly 40 in the fall to 400 in the new year, the spring 2021 semester was postponed for one week at the request of state authorities, and spring break was canceled and replaced with "wellness days" to be held on March 2–3 and April 22–23, 2021. On January 30, 2021, MSU instituted its first pandemic lockdown, asking all in-person students to primarily stay in their residences for two weeks, citing a rapid increase in the university's COVID-19 positivity rate. In February 2021, MSU issued back pay to a university MRI technologist who had been given an unpaid suspension in October 2020 for asking a patient to wear a face mask properly.

On June 28, 2021, MSU president Samuel L. Stanley Jr. announced that the university would begin the 2021 fall semester in a nearly typical manner, with residence halls returning to a "fuller capacity," resumption of campus activities, and a majority of classes being held in person. Vaccinated students would no longer be required to quarantine if exposed to COVID‑positive individuals, yet mask mandates would continue to be enforced at university medical facilities and, as required by federal law, on- and off-campus CATA buses. MSU subsequently decided to require COVID-19 vaccination for all new and returning students by August 31, and temporary resumption of masking, citing new CDC data regarding the contagiousness of the Delta variant. The Omicron variant delayed in-person instruction for several weeks in early 2022 and comprised the university's final pandemic-related disruption of operations.

2021 Hazing death
On November 20, 2021, Phat Nguyen died during a hazing incident in Pi Alpha Phi fraternity. The 21-year-old freshly admitted member of the fraternity and four other people were found unresponsive at 2 a.m. and transported to the local hospital. Despite performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Nguyen, firefighters were unable to save him.

 2023 mass shooting

On February 13, 2023, a mass shooting occurred on campus that resulted in three killed and five injured before the gunman took his own life. Police have yet to identify a motive. Classes were canceled for one week following the shooting, and several student-led protests supporting gun control legislation were held at the Michigan State Capitol in the week that followed.

 Campus

MSU's sprawling campus is 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 College Hall building, a dormitory later called "Saints' Rest", and a barn. Today, MSU's contiguous campus consists of ,  of which are developed. There are 563 buildings: 107 for academics, 131 for agriculture, 166 for housing and food service, and 42 for athletics. Overall, the university has  of indoor space. Connecting it all is  of roads and  of sidewalks. MSU also owns 44 non-campus properties, totaling  in 28 different counties.

In early 2017, construction of a $22.5million solar project began at five parking lots on campus. MSU's solar carport array is constructed on five of the university's largest commuter parking lots and covers 5,000 parking spaces. The solar carports are designed to deliver a peak power of 10.5 Megawatts and an annual energy of 15 million kilowatt-hours, which is enough to power approximately 1,800 Michigan homes. The solar carport project was recognized at the Smart Energy Decisions Innovation Summit 2018, earning the Onsite Renewable Energy award for "The Largest Carport Solar Array in North America."

Some land owned by MSU is in Lansing, Lansing Charter Township, and Meridian Charter Township.

 North campus

The oldest part of campus lies on the Red Cedar river's north bank. It includes Collegiate Gothic architecture, plentiful trees, and curving roads with few straight lines. The college built its first three buildings here, of which none survive. Other historic buildings north of the river include the president's official residence, Cowles House; 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 horticulture laboratory. 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", a popular spot for theater, tailgating, and candlelight vigils. On the campus's northwest corner is the university's hotel, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center. The university also has two museums. MSU Museum, initiated in 1857, is one of the Midwest's oldest museums and is accredited by the American Alliance of Museums. The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, designed by Zaha Hadid, opened in 2012 as MSU's primary art gallery, and features art from MSU's permanent collection as well as from graduate students on campus.

 South campus

The campus south of the river consists mostly of post-World War II International Style buildings, and is characterized by sparser foliage, relatively straight roadways, and many 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 to be placed at the intersection of Chestnut and Kalamazoo, just south of the Red Cedar River. 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, the College of Law, the Facility for Rare Isotope Beams (FRIB), Interdisciplinary Science and Technology Building, and the Broad College of Business.

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, Swine, Sheep, and Poultry Teaching and Research Farms, as well as the Air Quality Control Lab and the Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory.

 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 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's 160 rooms and suites can accommodate anyone staying in East Lansing for a business conference, sporting event or an on-campus visit. Besides a lodging facility, the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center is 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.

 Dubai campus
MSU ran a small campus at Dubai Knowledge Village, Dubai, United Arab Emirates. It first offered only one program, a master's program in human resources and labor relations. In 2011, it added a master's program in Public Health.

Previously, MSU established an education center in Dubai that offered six undergraduate programs, thereby becoming the first American university with a presence in Dubai International Academic City. The university attracted 100 students in 2007, its first year, but the school was unable to achieve the 100–150 new students per year needed for the program to be viable, and in 2010 MSU closed the program and the campus.Andrew Mills "Low Enrollment Led Michigan State U. to Cancel Most Programs in Dubai" The Chronicle of Higher Education July 6, 2010

 Detroit Campus
MSU has a large presence in downtown Detroit. This campus includes programs with the College of Education, Detroit Outreach Admissions, MSU Community Music School of Detroit, and the Study of Active Neighborhoods in Detroit (StAND). MSU began a partnership with Apple in 2022, creating the Apple Developer Academy. On June 13, 2023, MSU purchased a majority stake in Detroit's iconic Fisher Building. The MSU Research Foundation opened a startup incubator inside the Fisher Building later that year. In early 2023 MSU announced they would begin collaborating with Henry Ford Health on a new research center in Detroit.

 College of Human Medicine Alternate Campuses
The College of Human Medicine currently operates smaller campuses as partnerships with local health systems in multiple Michigan cities. The Grand Rapids Secchia Campus is the largest of these campuses, with plans to expand the campus in coming years. The Secchia Campus partners with multiple hospitals on Grand Rapids' Medical Mile. Other Michigan cities with campuses include Flint (Ascension Genesys Hospital, Hurley Medical Center, and McLaren Flint), Midland, Traverse City (Munson Medical Center), Marquette (UP Health System), Southfield (Ascension Providence Hospital), and Detroit (Henry Ford Health).

 Admissions

 Undergraduate

Michigan State offers a rolling admissions system, with an early admission deadline in October, and does not offer an early decision plan. The 2022 annual ranking of U.S. News & World Report categorizes MSU as "more selective." For the Class of 2025 (enrolled fall 2021), Michigan State received 50,629 applications and accepted 42,150 (83.3%). Of those accepted, 9,028 enrolled, a yield rate (the percentage of accepted students who choose to attend the university) of 21.4%. MSU's freshman retention rate is 92%, with 81.5% going on to graduate within six years.

The university started test-optional admissions with the Fall 2021 incoming class in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and has extended this through Fall 2025. Of the 48% of enrolled freshmen in 2021 who submitted SAT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite scores were 1110-1310. Of the 16% of the incoming freshman class who submitted ACT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite score was between 23 and 29.

The university has seen steady increases to its applicant pool in recent decades, and the number of applications has more than doubled since the Class of 2007 received 24,436 applications. Michigan state law does not require the state's public universities to reserve their spaces for Michigan residents.

Together with Michigan Technological University, Wayne State University, Kalamazoo College, Hillsdale College, Calvin University, and Hope College, Michigan State is one of the seven college-sponsors of the National Merit Scholarship Program in the state. The university sponsored 30 Merit Scholarship awards in 2020. In the 2020–2021 academic year, 38 first-year students were National Merit Scholars.

 Graduate

For Fall 2022, the Michigan State University College of Law received 1,449 applications and accepted 636 (43.89%). Of those accepted, 208 enrolled, a yield rate of 32.7%. The College of Law had a middle-50% LSAT range of 153-159 for the 2022 first year class.

 Academics

 Rankings

In its 2023 rankings, Times Higher Education World University Rankings ranked MSU 106th in the world. Michigan State ranks 157th in the world for 2022, according to the Academic Ranking of World Universities. Washington Monthly ranks MSU 45th nationally for 2023. The 2023 QS World University Rankings placed it at 136th internationally. In its 2023-2024 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked it as tied for the 28th best public university in the United States, tied for 60th nationally and tied for 36th among best universities for veterans.

In its 2020 edition, U.S. News & World Report ranked the following MSU graduate programs number one in the country: elementary teacher education and secondary teacher education (#1 for 26 straight years), African history (tied), curriculum and instruction (tied), industrial and organizational psychology, nuclear physics, rehabilitation counseling (tied), and supply chain management/logistics.

The Eli Broad College of Business was ranked No. 39th nationally for 2019–20 by Bloomberg Businessweek. Ninety-two percent of the school's graduates received job offers in 2019. The latest edition of U.S. News ranked Michigan State's undergraduate and graduate supply chain management/logistics programs in the Eli Broad College of Business first in the nation. In addition, the Eli Broad College of Business undergraduate accounting program is ranked 22nd, the master's accounting program is ranked 15th, and the doctoral program is ranked 18th, according to the 2018 Public Accounting Report's Annual Survey of Accounting Professors. The MBA program is ranked 27th in the U.S. by Forbes magazine.

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 Educations 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.

 Collections and museums

 Eli and Edyth Broad Art Museum
The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum is the university's contemporary art museum.

 MSU Museum
The MSU Museum is the university's main museum covering Anthropology, Folklife and Cultrual Heritage, History, Mammalogy, Ornithology, Herpetology, Ichthyology, and Vertebrate Paleontology.

 Michigan State University Libraries
Michigan State University Libraries comprise North America's 29th largest academic library system with over 4.9 million volumes and 6.7 million microforms.

 Research

The university has a long history of academic research and innovation. 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 improved the process for the homogenization of milk in the 1930s, making it more commercially viable. In the 1960s, MSU scientists developed cisplatin, a leading cancer fighting drug, and followed that work with the derivative, carboplatin. Albert Fert, an Adjunct professor at MSU, was awarded the 2007 Nobel Prize in Physics together with Peter Grünberg.

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) facility. Construction began in 2014 and was completed in 2022. The $730million facility has a goal to 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 a 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 issues of information and communication management.

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

 Endowment
MSU's (private, non-Morrill Act) endowment started in 1916, when the Engineering Building burned down. Automobile magnate Ransom E. Olds helped the program stay afloat with a gift of $100,000, equivalent to $Million in .

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 (of the time), with barely over $100million in endowment funds. This changed dramatically in the 2000s decade, 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 $1.325billion, raising the university to sixth of the 11 Big Ten schools in terms of endowment; within $2million of the fifth-rated school. As of June 30, 2021, MSU's endowment had a market value of $4.4billion.

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

 Residential colleges

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 featuring multidisciplinary programs in the social sciences, founded on a model of liberal education. James Madison College is 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 the Arts and Humanities (RCAH). Founded October 21, 2005, RCAH 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

Founded in Detroit in 1891 as the Detroit College of Law, the law school moved to East Lansing in 1995, becoming Michigan State University College of Law. 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, the Journal of Medicine Law, and the Journal of Business & Securities Law. The College of Law is the home of the Geoffrey Fieger Trial Practice Institute, the first trial practice institute in the United States. In October 2018, MSU's board of trustees voted to fully integrate the College of Law into the university, thereby converting it from a private to a public law school. By August 2020, the College of Law had become fully integrated into the university.

The Eli Broad College of Business has programs in accounting, information systems, finance, general management, human resource management, marketing, supply chain management, and hospitality business. The school has 2,066 admitted undergraduate students and 817 graduate students. The Eli Broad Graduate School of Management, which Businessweek magazine in 2012 ranked 35th in the nation and 14th 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., Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and PhD degrees, as well as post-graduate certificates. It was founded in 1950 and has trained more than 6,000 nurses. The college's mission focuses on research, education and practice, and it is housed in the Life Sciences Building and Bott Building for Nursing Education and Research on the southeastern part of campus. The dean of the college, Randolph Rasch, was appointed to a statewide task force in 2020 by the governor to help establish an implicit bias training initiative for all health care workers in the state.

The Michigan State University 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. In 2008, 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 2016 rankings, the College of Osteopathic Medicine (D.O. degree) ranked tied for 12th among U.S. medical schools for primary care, and the College of Human Medicine (MD degree) was ranked 70th among the U.S. medical schools for primary care.

The College of Human Medicine graduates students with a Doctor of Medicine (M.D. degree) and is split into seven distinct campuses located in East 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 McLaren–Greater Lansing Hospital. 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. In 2011, the Michigan State University College of Veterinary Medicine was ranked No. 9 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.

The 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 graduate school has several programs ranked in the top five in the country by U.S. News & World Report for 2016: elementary teacher education (1st), secondary teacher education (1st), curriculum and instruction (3rd), educational psychology (4th), and higher education administration (4th). The College of Education is housed in Erickson Hall. MSU offers a 30 credit graduate program for a Master of Arts in Educational Technology in 3 different formats; completely online, hybrid in East Lansing, or overseas. Founded in 1956, the MSU Honors College provides individualized curricula to MSU's top undergraduate students. Though the college offers 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 an ACT score of at least 30 or an SAT total score of at least 1360. Students can also be admitted after their first semester, generally if they're in the top 10% of their College in GPA. Once admitted, students must maintain a 3.20 GPA and complete eight approved honors courses to graduate with Honors College designation on their degree. If membership is relinquished, it cannot be reclaimed.

After three years of planning, The College of Engineering launched the first stages of its Residential Experience for Spartan Engineering, formally known as the Residential Option for Scientists and Engineers (ROSES). The program was 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, but also get a hands-on experience along with it. Global Engineering is a new subject that is of interest for not only the Cornerstone Engineering and Residential Experience programs, but 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, as well as interdependence on economics with infrastructure, computers, transportation, technology and other manufactured goods. The newly established Cornerstone Engineering and Residential Experience (CoRe) program in the College of Engineering has started programs abroad for more courses in engineering, including study abroad seminars. In 2014, the Detroit Free Press wrote a news article referencing Michigan State University's Recruiting Trends 2014–15 report, which ranked engineering among the top 20 college degrees with the highest starting salaries.

MSU's original mission as an agricultural college continues today in the .

 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, including the new Big Ten hockey conference, featuring 6 teams. The current athletic director is Bill Beekman who replaced Mark Hollis. Bill Beekman officially assumed the role of MSU's 19th athletic director on July 17, 2018. He was appointed interim athletic director on February 5, 2018, before taking over the position full-time on July 17, 2018.
Hollis 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.

In 1888 Michigan State University (then 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. The Spartans won the Rose Bowl in 1954, 1956, 1988, and 2014. They won national championships in 1951, 1952, 1955, 1957, 1965 and 1966. 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. As of 2020, MSU was one of only four schools to have at least 1 player selected in every NFL Draft in the common draft era, starting in 1967. The 2021 NFL Draft marked the first time since 1941 that no Michigan State players were selected.

Today, the football team competes in Spartan Stadium, a renovated 75,005 seat football stadium near the center of campus. The current coach is Mel Tucker, the new head coach after Mark Dantonio left.

Mark Dantonio led the team in its first season to a 7–6 record. In 2010, the Spartans finished 11–2 (7–1 in conference play) and were Co-Big Ten Champion along with the Wisconsin Badgers and the Ohio State Buckeyes. In 2011, the Spartans finished first in the Legends Division of the Big Ten with a 7–1 (11–3) conference record, logging back-to-back 11 win seasons for the first time in Spartan history. In 2014, MSU achieved an 11–2 overall record with losses only to the Oregon Ducks and the Ohio State Buckeyes, and ended the season ranked number 5.

MSU's traditional archrival is the Michigan Wolverines, against whom they compete annually for the Paul Bunyan Trophy. Their overall record against the Wolverines currently stands at 38–71–5 and 29–38–2 since 1953 when the Paul Bunyan Trophy was established and MSU joined the Big Ten Conference.

 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 and Jay Vincent led MSU to a 75–64 win against the Larry Bird-led Indiana State Sycamores in the Championship game. 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' victory over Florida in the Championship game. In 2009 the Spartans made it to the National Championship game before losing 89–72 to North Carolina.

The basketball team plays at the Jack Breslin Student Events Center under head coach Tom Izzo, who has a 603–231 record as of March 22, 2019 ( .723 winning percentage). The student spirit section at Breslin is called the Izzone. Izzo's coaching has helped the team make seven Final Fours since 1999, winning the title in 2000, and 23 consecutive NCAA tournament appearances (beginning in 1998).

On December 13, 2003, the Spartans and the Kentucky Wildcats played in the Basketbowl, in which a record crowd of 78,129 watched the game in Detroit's Ford Field. The Wildcats won 79–74.

On March 11, 2021, Michigan State announced that the men's basketball team would be known as "MSU Spartans Presented by Rocket Mortgage" The next day, Michigan State issued a clarification stating that it was not renaming its basketball team. The announcement and clarification were discussed on national sports programs and commentaries were published on news and sports sites.

 Men's ice hockey

The Michigan State University men's ice hockey team started in 1924, though it has been a varsity sport only 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 North Dakota Fighting Hawks. 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 Adam Nightingale. The men's ice hockey team competes in the Big Ten conference. They formerly competed 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. As with other sports, the hockey rivalry between the Spartans and the Michigan Wolverines is a fierce one, and on October 6, 2001, the Spartans faced the Michigan Wolverines 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.Erickson, C. (2007). 2007–2008 Michigan State Cross Country and Track and Field Media Guide. East Lansing: MSU Sports Information Office.

 Wrestling
MSU Spartan Wrestling won their only team NCAA Championship in 1967. The current Spartans Head coach is Roger Chandler in his second season. The team competes on campus at the Jenison Field House. Spartan Wrestling has over 50 Big Ten Conference Champions, over 100 All-Americans, and 11 individual wrestlers have NCAA Division I Wrestling Championships. Notable former Spartan wrestlers include Rashad Evans and Gray Maynard.

 Student life

East Lansing is very much a college town, with 63.5% 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.

In 2014 there were approximately 50,085 students, 38,786 undergraduate and 11,299 graduate and professional. The students are from all 50 states and 130 countries around the world.

 Student body

MSU tied for tenth place among universities with the largest student enrollment in the U.S. for fall 2018. For the fiscal year of 2018–19, the Office of the Registrar conferred 12,354 degrees. The student body is 52% female and 48% male. While 75.1% of students come from all 83 counties in the State of Michigan, also represented are all 50 states in the U.S. and 138 other countries.

 International engagement

In fall 2019, 5,660 international students enrolled at MSU, with the top five countries outside North America being China (2,965), India (506), South Korea (331), Saudi Arabia (222) and Taiwan (144). MSU's study abroad program included with 2,755 Based on 2017–2018 numbers, MSU studied abroad in over 60 countries on all continents, including Antarctica.

According to a Brookings Institution report analyzing foreign student visa approvals from 2008 to 2012, MSU once enrolled the highest number of Chinese international students in the United States, with roughly 4,700 Chinese citizens enrolled during the period of the study. MSU later saw decreased Chinese enrollment and lost its status as the top destination of Chinese students, which former Michigan Department of Education head Tom Watkins attributed to a ramp-up in anti-China rhetoric by then-president Donald Trump and changes in Chinese domestic conditions. MSU saw a roughly 25 percent drop in overall international enrollment in the first full academic year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but numbers had begun to rebound by the fall of 2021, with university officials expecting a full recovery by the 2022–2023 academic year.

Amid the fall of Kabul in August 2021, MSU, in concert with US Representative Elissa Slotkin, facilitated the evacuation of over 70 staff, scholars, and their families related to an MSU-USAID collaborative program in Afghanistan. Twelve of the Afghan evacuees attached to this program were students in the university's Grain Research and Innovation (GRAIN) project, hosted by Kabul University. Bypassing typical financial review procedures, university officials paid $250,000 on a university credit card for the emergency charter of an airplane to reunite evacuees in Albania. MSU facilitated the students' transfer to the Agricultural University of Tirana and then assisted in humanitarian parole into the United States in early 2022.

In February 2023, the Chinese Consulate-General in Chicago announced that two Chinese MSU students had been wounded in the 2023 Michigan State University shooting. Based on 2021 enrollment data from the university's international office, China was still likely the largest source of international students for MSU at the time of the shooting.

 Greek life

With over 3,000 members, Michigan State University's Greek Community is one of the largest in the US. 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 nine organizations, five fraternities and four sororities. 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, in which fraternity and sorority members get to help each other participate.

 Student organizations

The Associated Students of Michigan State University (ASMSU) is the all-university undergraduate student government of Michigan State University. It was unusual among university student governments for its decentralized bicameral structure, and the relatively non-existent influence of the Greek system. The structure has since changed to a single General Assembly as part of reorganization in the late 2000s. ASMSU representatives are nonpartisan and many are elected in noncompetitive races. Some services they offer include: free blue books, low cost copies and printing, free yearbooks, interest free loans, funding for student organizations, free legal consultation, and iClicker and graphing calculator rentals.

Students pay $21 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 800 student organizations.

The Eli Broad College of Business includes 27 student organizations of primary interest to business students. 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.

 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 $13.3million 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.

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 The State News and free copies are available online or at East Lansing newsstands. The paper prints 28,500 copies from 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, but is continually updated online at statenews.com. 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., an undergraduate-operated journal, features undergraduate scholarship at the university, and "strives to reflect the intellectual climate fostered by the Department of History".

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 publishes 7 issues each school year. MSU also publishes a student-run fashion and lifestyle magazine called VIM Magazine' once a semester.

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

MSU has about 5,703 faculty and 7,365 staff members.

 Faculty

Important College leaders in the 19th century include John C. Holmes, the founder; Joseph R. Williams, the first president, and Theophilus C. Abbot, the third president who stabilized the college after the Civil War, were both key in establishing and maintaining the college's early balanced liberal/practical curriculum. Also of importance was botany professor William J. Beal, an early plant (hybrid corn) pre-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.

 Alumni

As of fall 2018, there were about 634,300 living MSU alumni worldwide. Notable politicians and public servants from MSU include current governor of Michigan Gretchen Whitmer, former Michigan governors James Blanchard and John Engler, U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow, Tim Johnson, and Spencer Abraham, (who also served as Secretary of Energy),; U.S. Ambassador to Brazil Donna Hrinak, former Prime Minister of South Korea Lee Wan-koo, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Richard Cordray, former Jordan prime minister Adnan Badran, and Chief Justice of the Texas Supreme Court Wallace B. Jefferson.
Billionaire philanthropists Tom Gores, Andrew Beal and Eli Broad,
Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Richard Ford, Teamsters president James P. Hoffa, and Quicken Loans founder and billionaire Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, are all also MSU alums.

Alumni in Hollywood include actors such as James Caan, Anthony Heald, Robert Urich and William Fawcett; voice actor SungWon Cho, comedian Jackie Martling, film directors Michael Cimino and Sam Raimi, film producer Jeff Katz and film editor Bob Murawski, as well as screenwriter David Magee

Composer Dika Newlin received her undergraduate degree from MSU, while lyricist, theatrical director and clinical psychologist Jacques Levy earned a doctorate in psychology. The university has also produced such jazz luminaries as pianist Henry Butler, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, and keyboardist/composer-arranger Clare Fischer.

Russell Kirk, whose writings influenced the American conservative movement, attended Michigan State on a scholarship for his bachelor's degree. Journalists include NBC reporter Chris Hansen, ESPN sportcaster and columnist Jemele Hill, AP White House correspondent Nedra Pickler and NPR Washington correspondent Don Gonyea. Novelist Michael Kimball graduated in 1990. Novelist and true crime author R. Barri Flowers, who in 1977 earned a bachelor's degree and in 1980 a master's degree in criminal justice, was inducted in 2006 into the MSU Criminal Justice Wall of Fame. 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 have made their mark in all major American sports. MSU alumni formerly or currently in the NBA include point guard and three-time MVP Earvin "Magic" Johnson, Greg Kelser, Jay Vincent, Steve Smith, Scott Skiles, Jason Richardson, and Zach Randolph.

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 and a member of the NFL's 1980's All-Decade Team; twenty-one year veteran quarterback Earl Morrall, defensive end and actor Bubba Smith, former Detroit Lions head coach Wayne Fontes, NFL games-played leader Morten Andersen, Plaxico Burress, Andre Rison, Derrick Mason, Muhsin Muhammad, T. J. Duckett, Flozell Adams, Julian Peterson, Charles Rogers, and Jim Miller.

The American Football League's All-Time Team includes tight-end Fred Arbanas and safety George Saimes.

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, Corey Tropp, 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 Doug DeMartin, Dave Hertel, Greg Janicki, Rauwshan McKenzie, Ryan McMahen, and Fatai Alashe 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.

Ryan Riess, 2013 World Series of Poker Main Event Champion, is a 2012 graduate of MSU. NCAA Gymnastics Champion and former Sesame Street'' Muppet performer Toby Towson are MSU alumni as is professional wrestler George "The Animal" Steele.

Miss America 1961, Nancy Fleming, is a graduate of Michigan State.

Shirley Weis, Mayo Clinic Chief Administrative Officer, is a 1975 graduate of the MSU College of Nursing and received an honorary Doctor of Science degree in 2014.

Verghese Kurien was an Indian social entrepreneur known as the "Father of the White Revolution" for his Operation Flood, the world's largest agricultural development programme. He earned a Master of Science in Metallurgical Engineering from Michigan State University in 1948. Peter Schmidt, an American economist and econometrician, is both an alumnus (1970) and faculty member of MSU, holding a university Distinguished Professor position since 1997. Tyler Oakley, YouTube personality, graduated from Michigan State University in 2011.

See also

 List of land-grant universities
 List of colleges and universities in Michigan
 Education in Michigan
 Michigan State University Spartan Marching Band

Notes

References

Further reading

External links

 Michigan State Athletics website
 Michigan Agricultural College artifacts, a private collection

Michigan State University
Universities and colleges in Ingham County, Michigan
Forestry education
East Lansing, Michigan
Grand River Avenue
Land-grant universities and colleges
Universities and colleges established in 1855
1855 establishments in Michigan
Buildings and structures in Lansing, Michigan
Education in Lansing, Michigan
Universities and colleges accredited by the Higher Learning Commission

Michigan State University


Frederick IV Charles Louis William of Hesse-Homburg (15 April 1724 in Braunfels – 7 February 1751 in Bad Homburg), was Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg.

Life
Frederick Charles was born at Castle Braunfels as the first child of Prince Casimir William (1690–1726) and his wife Countess Charlotte Christine (1690–1751), daughter of the Count William Maurice of Solms-Braunfels.  His father was a son of Landgrave Frederick II of Hesse-Homburg.

Frederick grew up first at Braunfels Castle, and later in Varel.  He was educated in a Humanistic-Christian spirit and attended a few semesters at the University of Leiden.  In 1740, he was introduced to Frederick the Great during a visit to Wesel.  At the latter's suggestion, he joined the Prussian army in 1741 and participated in the two Silesian wars.  He distinguished himself at the siege of Brzeg and was promoted to Captain.  In 1744, he participated in the offensive in Bohemia and the siege and conquest of Prague.  He fell ill there in 1745, and took a leave of absence.

On 10 October 1746 in Hungen, he married his cousin Ulrike Louise (1731–1792), the daughter of Prince Frederick William of Solms-Braunfels.  On 8 June 1746, his uncle, Landgrave Frederick III, died in the Netherlands, without a male heir.  Frederick Charles succeeded him in Homburg as Frederick IV.

His prime ministers, Friedrich Karl von Moser and Casimir of Criss tried to resolve the financial problems of Hesse-Homburg Finance rehabilitate, but the mismanagement that led to the formation of an imperial debit commission to oversee the administration of his predecessor, continued.

He had a claim to inherit the Duchy of Courland after the house of Ketteler died out in 1737.  Frederick Charles claimed to be entitled to the Duchy via his grandmother Louise Elisabeth of Courland.  However, Empress Anna of Russia granted the Duchy to her favourite Ernst Johann von Biron.

In 1747, the senior line of Hesse-Darmstadt tried to regain possession of Homburg.  Troops from Darmstadt marched in and Landgrave Louis VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt claimed to be Frederick's legal guardian.  Frederick, however, was legally an adult and married.  A court case was brought before the Emperor and the Aulic Council.  While the case was still being discussed, Frederick IV died in 1751, at the age of 28 of a "chest disease".  His son and successor, Frederick V, had celebrated his third birthday a week before.

Frederick IV was buried in the crypt of Bad Homburg Castle.

Issue
From his marriage to Ulrike Louise, Frederick Charles had the following children:
 Frederick V Louis William Christian (Homburg, 30 January 1748 – Homburg, 20 January 1820), Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg.
 Marie Christine Charlotte Wilhelmine (Homburg, 4 November 1749 – Homburg, 10 November 1750).

References
 Johann Caspar Bluntschli: Deutsches Staatswörterbuch, p. 180
 Johann I. von Gerning: Die Lahn- und Main-Gegenden von Embs bis Frankfurt, p. 163 ff

Landgraves of Hesse-Darmstadt
House of Hesse-Homburg
1724 births
1751 deaths
18th-century German people
Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Poland)

Frederick IV, Landgrave of Hesse-Homburg


Sonia Molina-Prados (born 14 July 1993) is a Spanish track and field athlete who competes in 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay races.

Career
Molina-Prados moved from Ciudad Real in Castilla–La Mancha to train in Granada with Manola Jiménez in 2019 and she credits this move with an uplift in her performances, even though the move was hampered and disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2022, she lowered her personal best times in both the 100m (11.31) and 200m (23.40). The 100m personal best came at the 2022 Spanish national athletics championships in which she would finish runner-up to Jaël Bestué.

Molina-Prados was part of the Spanish 4 x 100m team that finished  fifth at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, breaking the Spanish national record. The team had initially broken the national record running 42.61 in the qualifying heats to qualify for the final. In the final the following day they lowered the national record again, to 42.58 seconds.

Molina-Prados was announced as part of the Spanish 4x100m relay team for the 2022 European Athletics Championships in Munich. She also competed individually in the 100m in Munich but did not progress past the heats running 11.64 seconds.

References

External links

1993 births
Living people
Spanish female sprinters
21st-century Spanish women
21st-century Spanish people

Sonia Molina-Prados


Funny or Die is a comedy video website and film/television production company owned by Henry R. Muñoz III that was founded by Will Ferrell, Adam McKay, Mark Kvamme, and Chris Henchy in 2007. The website contained exclusive material from a regular staff of in-house writers, producers and directors, and occasionally from a number of famous contributors including Judd Apatow, James Franco and Norm Macdonald. The associated production company continues to make TV shows including truTV's Billy on the Street, Comedy Central's @midnight and Zach Galifianakis' web series Between Two Ferns.

Many videos on the site featured well-known actors (examples include Nina Dobrev, Steve Carell, Charlie Sheen, Ryan Gosling, Patrick Stewart, Daniel Radcliffe, Sophia Bush, Mila Kunis, AnnaSophia Robb, Hilary Duff, Adam West, James Van Der Beek, Jim Carrey, Ariel Winter and Selena Gomez). Michael Kvamme, an aspiring young comedian who is also the son of Mark Kvamme, the venture capitalist who funded Funny or Die, came up with a concept for a new kind of comedy site, and the site was developed by Randy Adams. After the site was funded by his father, Michael Kvamme wrote a screenplay for Will Ferrell and founded Global eSports Resources in partnership with the Saudi Arabian Federation of Electronic and Intellectual Sports.

Funny or Die launched on April 12, 2007 with the site's first video, "The Landlord". "The Landlord" has received over 84 million views and features Ferrell confronted by a swearing, beer-drinking two-year-old landlord. In June 2007, they received venture capital funding from Sequoia Capital, and in June 2008, they announced a partnership with HBO. On August 3, 2016, Funny or Die shut down one of its California offices, reducing its headcount by 30% to 95 employees, with the announcement coming just two months after the new CEO, Mike Farah, took office.

Henry R. Muñoz III bought Funny or Die for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was announced in Variety on May 12, 2021. Muñoz purchased Funny or Die from the company's former stakeholders, which included AMC Networks, WarnerMedia and Sequoia Capital.

Online presence
Unlike other viral video sites, members of Funny or Die are encouraged to vote on videos which they view, with the options of "Funny" or "Die". The video then gets a score of the total percentage of people who voted the video "Funny". If the video receives an 80% or greater "Funny" rating after 100,000 views, it gets an "Immortal" ranking. If the video receives a 20% or less "Funny" rating after 1,000 views, it is relegated to the Crypt section of the site.

The Funny or Die staff can also select a rating of "Chosen One", which disables voting for a video, merely saying "Chosen One" instead.

Television and movie productions
Funny or Die expanded to include a television and film production company in 2011.

Shows

Between Two Ferns
Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis is an Emmy Award-winning comedy series featured on Funny or Die. Galifianakis interviews various celebrities on a low budget set, decorated by a pair of potted ferns. The series often involves interruptions for product promotions and musical guests. The Lonely Island's "Spring Break Anthem" music video was embedded into an episode with James Franco and featured actor Edward Norton.

Galifianakis has interviewed the likes of Brad Pitt, Justin Bieber, Jennifer Lawrence, Samuel L. Jackson, Richard Branson, and President Barack Obama. Galifianakis interviewed President Barack Obama during the launch of the United States health insurance exchange website. The video was released on March 11, 2014 and garnered over 32 million views.

Billy on the Street
Funny or Die's Billy on the Street is a half-hour comedy game show hosted by Billy Eichner. The show's producers include Anna Wenger, Mike Farah and Billy Eichner. Billy on the Street premiered on Fuse TV on December 18, 2011. On October 8, 2015 the show began airing on tru TV. Eichner quizzes people on the streets of New York on pop culture in exchange for cash and prizes. Many episodes feature a special guest and celebrities Lindsay Lohan, Anne Hathaway, Neil Patrick Harris, and Olivia Wilde have made appearances on the show.

In 2013, Eichner received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Game Show Host. The series wrapped its third season on May 14, 2014.

Drunk History
Drunk History is a comedy series on Comedy Central that was released on Funny or Die in December 2007. The show originated as a web series created by Derek Waters and Jeremy Konner. The show features a drunken narrator who attempts to recount an event from American history. The actors are played by celebrity guest stars who lip-sync the narrator's dialogue.

Due to their general drunkenness the narrators are unable to accurately discuss the historical events and oftentimes make up and embellish aspects of the story. Guests include Jack Black, Michael Cera, Bill Hader, Nick Offerman, Winona Ryder, Chris Parnell, Kristen Wiig, Luke Wilson, and Jason Schwartzman.

Gay of Thrones
Gay of Thrones is a comedy web series hosted by Jonathan Van Ness in which he and a guest recap the most recent episode of Game of Thrones in Van Ness' hair salon. Its first episode, recapping the first two episodes of season 3 of Game of Thrones, was released in April 2013 and has covered each episode from then until the finale in May 2019. Guests have included Alfie Allen, Tiffany Haddish, Kumail Nanjiani and Lena Headey.

@midnight
@midnight is a late night comedy panel show hosted by Chris Hardwick and produced by Funny or Die. The show debuted on Comedy Central on October 21, 2013. The show features three guest comedians that respond to different social media postings and pop culture references of the day including responses to actual tweets on Twitter, Craigslist ad postings and comments on Reddit.

@Midnight used social media as a platform to engage with their fans. The show created hashtags including #HashtagWars and #SpookyCelebs that were used by fans to submit their own responses to the game on Twitter.

The Spoils of Babylon
The Spoils of Babylon is a comedy miniseries that aired on January 9, 2014 on IFC. The show was created and written by former Saturday Night Live writers Matt Piedmont and Andrew Steele. Piedmont also directed the series. The series stars Will Ferrell, Kristen Wiig, Tobey Maguire, Jessica Alba, Haley Joel Osment, Tim Robbins, Michael Sheen, Carey Mulligan and Val Kilmer.

Ferrell plays Eric Jonrosh, a fictional author whose novel is being adapted for TV. The Spoils of Babylon novel follows a wealthy oil tycoon's family, the Morehouses. Robbins plays Jonas Morehouse, the patriarch of the family. Wiig and Maguire play Cynthia and her adopted brother Devon.

IFC and Funny Or Die adapted Jonrosh's first novel, The Spoils Before Dying into another miniseries, which aired on July 8, 2015.

Throwing Shade
Throwing Shade is a podcast hosted by Erin Gibson and Bryan Safi, that addresses topics such as mainstream pop culture, women's rights and gay rights. In 2011 Gibson and Safi created the Throwing Shade podcast after InfoMania was cancelled and in 2013 Funny or Die began filming the podcast on a set, and airing the recordings of the podcast on its website.

The podcast occasionally has famous guests including Cheyenne Jackson and Dustin Lance Black. Throwing Shade won a Podcast Award for Best GLBT Podcast in both 2012 and 2013.

The duo have recorded 80 videos since signing on with Funny or Die.

Tween Fest
Tween Fest is an eight-episode Funny or Die series starring John Michael Higgins, Joey King, Drew Tarver, Arden Cho, and Lou Wilson that follows a two-weekend outdoor festival in the middle of the desert where all the acts are internet stars. The show launched on August 3, 2016 on the streaming service go90. Tween Fest was created by Nick Ciarelli and Brad Evans, was directed by Scott Gairdner, and features Jane Lynch, Tim Meadows, Chris Parnell, David Koechner, Dave (Gruber) Allen, Josh Fadem and more in supporting and guest-starring roles.

Other shows

Former
 Funny or Die Presents (2010–2011, HBO)
 Jon Benjamin Has a Van (2011, Comedy Central)
 Brody Stevens: Enjoy It! (2013, Comedy Central)
 American Muscle (2014, Discovery)
 Funny or Die Presents: America's Next Weatherman (2015, TBS)
 The Gorburger Show (2015, HBO; 2017, Comedy Central)
 The Chris Gethard Show (2015–2018, truTV)
 Brockmire (2017–2020, IFC)

Pilots

 What's Going On? with Mike Mitchell (2011, FX)

Specials

Between Two Ferns: A Fairytale of New York
A 2012 special aired on Comedy Central with Zach Galifianakis.

Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles
On November 23, 2013, HBO presented a special in association with Funny Or Die titled, "Sarah Silverman: We Are Miracles" featuring stand-up by comedian Sarah Silverman. During her hour-long set, Silverman made jokes about rape, religion, and her personal insecurities.

The special received a 2014 Emmy Award nomination for Outstanding Variety Special and Silverman's writing earned her an Emmy win for Outstanding Writing For a Variety Special. Record label Sub Pop, went on to release the special on vinyl, CD, and through digital download.

Jerrod Carmichael: Love At the Store
Funny Or Die produced a special featuring comedian Jerrod Carmichael for HBO which aired on October 4, 2014. During the 70 minute special, Carmichael covers topics including poverty and wealth, controversial artists, female empowerment, and crime and race.

"Jerrod Carmichael: Love At The Store," was directed by Spike Lee and was filmed at The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. Carmichael chose the location because it was the first venue he performed in back in 2008.

Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted
Funny Or Die produced a comedy special for HBO featuring comedian Tig Notaro. Tig Notaro: Boyish Girl Interrupted premiered on HBO on August 22, 2015. Notaro promoted the special by walking the streets of Los Angeles to bring awareness to a giant billboard of her face.

During the HBO special Notaro talks about her breast cancer diagnosis, her break up with her girlfriend and the death of her mother. Notaro performs the final third of her set topless to expose the scars of her mastectomy to the audience.

Ferrell Takes the Field
A 2015 special aired on HBO with Will Ferrell.

Movies

 Tim and Eric's Billion Dollar Movie (2012, co-production with Abso Lutely Productions)
 iSteve (2013, released online via Funny Or Die)
 Donald Trump's The Art of the Deal: The Movie (2016, released online via Funny or Die)
 Between Two Ferns: The Movie (2019, released online on September 20, 2019 via Netflix)
 Impractical Jokers: The Movie (2020, release in theaters) The movie follows the four lifelong friends of Joe Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano, and Brian "Q" Quinn from the hit TV show of Impractical Jokers. The movie was announced on March 7, 2018, when the Impractical Jokers got renewed for a season 8. The Movie began production in the end of April 2018. The film was released in 2020.
 Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022, released online on November 4, 2022 via The Roku Channel)

Funny or Die Presents

In June 2008, HBO and Funny Or Die announced that HBO had purchased a stake of less than 10% in Funny Or Die. With this, Funny Or Die will be responsible for developing at least 10 half-hour episodes for HBO, and the companies may organize future comedy tours together. Regarding the agreement, Will Ferrell said, "I don't want to overstate the importance of this deal, but this is the missing link moment where TV and Internet finally merge. It will change the way we as human beings perceive and interact with reality. Okay, I overstated it. But it is an exciting deal."

In August 2008, Funny Or Die hired Andrew Steele, a twelve-year veteran of Saturday Night Live, and one of three head writers in recent years, to oversee content production and development for the site and for the HBO partnership.

Live events

Funny or Die Comedy Tour
In February 2008, Funny or Die launched "Will Ferrell's Funny Or Die Comedy Tour Presented by 'Semi-Pro'", in conjunction with the promotion of the movie Semi-Pro. The tour featured Ferrell, members of the FOD Team and comedians Zach Galifianakis, Demetri Martin, Nick Swardson and Andrea Savage. Adam McKay and Will Arnett served as tour announcers. The eight-city tour hit college campuses in Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, North Carolina and New York. The tour ran February 4–24, 2008.

Funny or Die Oddball Comedy Festival

2013
In June 2013 Funny Or Die announced the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival comedy tour partnered with Live Nation The tour was headlined by Dave Chappelle and Flight of the Conchords. The lineup also included Al Madrigal, Kristen Schaal, Brody Stevens, Demetri Martin, John Mulaney, Jim Jefferies, and Hannibal Buress. The tour ran August 23 – September 22, 2013.

2014
In 2014, Funny Or Die continued the Oddball Festival, touring 20 cities across the U.S. from August 8 – September 21. The tour featured comedians Louis C.K., Sarah Silverman, Aziz Ansari, Chris Hardwick, Amy Schumer, and Jim Gaffigan.

2015
The 2015 lineup included Amy Schumer, Aziz Ansari, Anthony Jeselnik, Ashley Barnhill, Bridget Everett, Dave Attell, Donnell Rawlings, Jak Knight, Jay Pharoah, Jeff Ross, Jim Norton, John Mulaney, Katherine Ryan, Mark Normand, Michael Che, Nick Kroll, Nick Thune, Nikki Glaser, Rachel Feinstein, Rory Scovel, Sebastian Maniscalco, Steve Rannazzisi, T.J. Miller, Tim Minchin, Todd Barry, and Tony Hinchcliffe. The tour ran August 28 – October 18, 2015.

Treasure Island Music Festival: Blah Blah Blah Comedy Tent
Funny Or Die curated a comedy lineup for the 2015 Treasure Island music festival in San Francisco, CA. The Funny Or Die Blah Blah Blah tent featured comedy acts from Tim Heidecker, Jerrod Carmichael, Jonah Ray, Chris Gethard, Jon Dore, Lauren Lapkus, Brian Safi & Erin Gibson, Kate Berlant & John Early, Guy Branum, Michelle Wolf, Max Silvestri, Barry Rothbart, and Jermaine Fowler.

Political activism
Although ostensibly independent of organized politics, site creators Ferrell and McKay are supporters of the Democratic Party and have personal politics that "tend to lean a little left." In addition to their well known March 2014 foray in support of the Affordable Care Act, the previous year Funny Or Die launched a campaign for the legal defense of Shezanne Cassim, a Minnesota resident who was jailed in Abu Dhabi for allegedly endangering national security by posting a parody video to YouTube. Comedians Patton Oswalt and Tony Hale were subsequently made part of Funny Or Die's effort to raise funds and awareness to "Free Shez." Originally sentenced to a year in prison, in the face of growing public pressure Cassim was released in January 2014 after serving 9 months of his sentence.

Funny Or Die has also been responsible for creation of parody videos lampooning California's 2008 traditional marriage initiative, Proposition 8, and taking a pot shot at the National Rifle Association with a video featuring comedian Jim Carrey. The site also worked with television star Alyssa Milano to "leak" a purported sex tape of the actress which was in fact an awareness-raising video on the bloody Syrian Civil War. In July 2013, shortly after the National Security Agency's PRISM surveillance program was first publicized, Sasha Grey starred in a Funny or Die "Sexy NSA Commercial".

Obama interview

On March 11, 2014, Zach Galifianakis interviewed Barack Obama on his show Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis on the website. During the interview, they asked people to sign up for healthcare on the Healthcare.gov site as part of the Affordable Care Act. By the next day, 11 million viewers had watched the video, and more than 890,000 people viewed the website during just that morning.

Michelle Obama's Eat Brighter Campaign
On February 16, 2015, the First Lady of the United States, Michelle Obama, teamed up with Billy Eichner and Big Bird to promote her health initiative called 'Eat Brighter!' In the episode the trio join together at a grocery store in Washington D.C. to play a game titled "Ariana Grande or Eating a Carrot?"

Michelle Obama made an appearance in a Funny Or Die movie trailer for "Snakpocalypse" which was featured on September 2, 2014. The trailer described the events that led to the elimination of a teenage population due to poor food choices offered at their high school. Michelle Obama's Let's Move! campaign supports healthy eating in youth and adults and she appears in the video crunching on a carrot.

Kristen Bell & Christina Hendricks For Women's Wage Equality
"Mary Poppins Quits" with Kristen Bell was featured on Funny Or Die on July 23, 2014. In the video Mary Poppins played by Kristen Bell sings about increasing minimum wage in order to meet living wage standards.

"Modern Office" with Christina Hendricks was published on August 6, 2014. Christina Hendricks who plays fictional character Joan Harris on AMC's Mad Men gets a new job in a modern office. Hendricks transports her character from the 1960s into a modern office environment. The video insinuates that modern office environments maintain antiquated policies regarding women's roles in the workplace.

Prop 8 The Musical
"Funny or Die launched a campaign for the legal defense of Shezanne Cassim, a Minnesota resident who was jailed in Abu Dhabi for allegedly endangering national security by posting a parody video to YouTube. Comedians Patton Oswalt and Tony Hale were subsequently made part of Funny Or Die's effort to raise funds and awareness to "Free Shez." Originally sentenced to a year in prison, in the face of growing public pressure Cassim was released in January 2014 after serving 9 months of his sentence.

Jim Carrey NRA Song for Brady Campaign: Cold Dead Hand
In March 2013, Funny Or Die created the video, "Cold Dead Hand" starring Jim Carrey as both a country singer and former NRA president, Charlton Heston.

In the video, Carrey is joined by singers portraying Mahatma Gandhi, Abraham Lincoln, and John Lennon, all of whom were assassinated by gunmen, as they perform on Hee Haw, the 1970s CBS variety show.

Trump administration
Funny or Die posted various videos showing concern over the Trump administration's activities.

Hoaxes and controversies
On March 2, 2014, two promotional videos were released on a YouTube channel supposedly controlled by HUVr Tech, a company claiming to have invented a hoverboard much like those in the Back to the Future film trilogy. The videos included demonstrations of the board by celebrities such as Tony Hawk and Moby. Two days later the project was revealed to be a hoax perpetrated by Funny Or Die, after the video's costume designer posted the experience on her online resume.

Awards

Webby Awards

Primetime Emmy Awards

References

External links

Will Ferrell
Video on demand services
Gary Sanchez Productions films
Webby Award winners
Internet properties established in 2007

Funny or Die