Good morning, everyone.
Joel Ferguson
Many here today are aware of the passing of Board Chair Emeritus Joel Ferguson last Saturday.
As I said in a joint statement with Chairperson Kelly and Athletic Director Alan Haller, Joel was a true champion for our university. He earned his degree here and served on the Board for more than 30 years. He advocated for improved access for underrepresented students, worked with those he didn’t always agree with to advance the university and was a strong supporter of MSU Athletics.
He was a civil rights leader, a successful businessperson and community leader and a strong proponent for the Lansing area. His legacy will be strong and everlasting on our Spartan community.
I’d like us to pause now for a moment of silence, after which I want to offer members of the board an opportunity to share any thoughts they might have.
Thank you. Turning now to members of the Board to offer reflections.
Spartan Bus Tour
I want to continue today with some reflections on our inaugural Spartan Bus Tour this week, which took us to more than a dozen communities around parts of the Lower Peninsula.
It was a wonderful time to see the state in its autumn beauty and meet people where they live and work.
Those communities are the homes of many of our students and alums, and where Michigan State’s impact is felt daily through our research, education and outreach.
So, I want to thank all those who worked so hard planning the tour, which involved months of work. I also want to thank the more than 60 faculty members and administrators who joined us on the tour and all the people who so warmly received us at each of our stops over three days.
Through the trip, we have a better understanding of the challenges and opportunities in front of our fellow citizens and these communities. We learned about how we can bring our expertise into these communities to improve quality of life and help drive the economy of Michigan.
We started the tour on Monday at the Ziibiwing Center for Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways in Mt. Pleasant. There, we toured a cultural museum, met with tribal council members, including Chief Tim Davis, and tribal college leadership of the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe and shared a blanketing ceremony celebrating our growing partnerships.
We ended the day at Camp Grayling and Camp Wa Wa Sum in Grayling, where we learned about our Extension partnership with Michigan National Guard as well as some of the important work conducted in Fisheries and Wildlife.
On Tuesday, we met with our geography and geological sciences researchers conducting important research on coastal erosion to protect Michigan’s coastlines.
And we ended the day at the Muskegon Museum of Art, where we met the staff and talked about the importance of art and creative activities to a university and a community. We toured the exhibits and met MSU faculty member and artist Teresa Dunn, who has one of her paintings on display there.
The next morning, Day 3, we met with students and staff at Muskegon High School and learned more about the pre-college teaching programs offered there by our College of Education. It was clear to everyone that MSU is changing the lives of these students and creating many opportunities for upward mobility while helping to fill a teacher workforce shortage in parts of the state.
And among our final visits, we stopped at two vital MSU research facilities.
We saw the Kellogg Biological Station, where important long-term environmental research is conducted, and had an opportunity to meet with several of our researchers who are informing farmers and environmentalists across the mid-west.
And at our Grand Rapids Research Center, we met MSU faculty and physicians conducting groundbreaking medical research in cancer, women’s health, neuroscience related conditions such as Parkinson’s Disease and other health conditions.
I want to give you a brief visual summary of the tour, so if we can run the video, please ...
I’m optimistic there will be new and interdisciplinary collegial relationships, as well as valuable research and service outcomes, following from this year’s trip.
And I look forward to growing and repeating the trip along new routes across Michigan in the years ahead.
Investiture initiatives
I want to close with a brief discussion of the initiatives I announced at my presidential investiture Sept. 29. I want to thank the board and all those who participated or attended.
We are now in the process of developing implementation plans for the initiatives I announced, among them:
Joseph R. and Sarah L. Williams Scholarship: Full-ride, merit based scholarships with funded experiential opportunities; award 30 for incoming class in 2025
Native American Tuition Advantage Program: In-state tuition for those with tribal affiliation credentials, potentially qualifying for the Spartan Tuition Advantage
Expand transfer capacity/Envision Green: $1 million in state grant funding in its Sixty by 30 initiative, including a transfer student success center with a campus transfer support center
Lansing M.A.D.E. bridge program to support local high school graduates coming to MSU
First Gen Center: targeting student support services
Spartan athletics
It’s been an exciting season for sports, and I’ve enjoyed attending games including women’s soccer and volleyball this month.
I want to offer congratulations to several Spartans, starting with junior Ozan Baris. Ozan is the first Spartan men's tennis player to win the Intercollegiate Tennis Association Regional Singles Championship. That happened recently here at the MSU Indoor Tennis Center.
Congratulations, also, to the MSU ice hockey program, which recorded its 600th win at Munn Ice Arena with a victory over No. 2 Boston College. The victory came as MSU celebrates the 50th anniversary of Munn Ice Arena this season.
And finally, congratulations to men’s basketball Head Coach Tom Izzo, who as part of a pre-season matchup at his alma mater, Northern Michigan University, this month was honored with the retirement there of his No. 10 jersey.
It was wonderful to be in Marquette to help Tom celebrate his personal homecoming in Marquette.
Conclusion
To wrap up, I’m looking forward to our groundbreaking later today for the new Plant and Environmental Science Building, which will open new opportunities for research and educational excellence for our faculty and students.
And I’ll just conclude with another reminder for everyone to exercise the most basic right under a democracy, which is to vote, in the Nov. 5 election. I sent an email yesterday reminding our campus community and offering a number of voting resources.
Let’s now move ahead with the rest of this morning’s agenda.