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Today Michigan State University is known throughout
the world, celebrated not only for its sports teams but also for
its legacy of research, its glorious agricultural
tradition, and for its academic excellence.
But that history reflects 150 years of growth. As documentary producer Christopher
Cook points out, MSU has come a long way.
The Great Experiment: MSU, the Pioneer Land Grant University is a one hour film
that examines the origins of MSU and how it became the flagship of the Land Grant
university and college system. The film concentrates on how MSU presented opportunities
for those where none had existed before, including African Americans, women and
poorer Americans. It also celebrates MSU's successes and historical legacy. Those
familiar with the buildings on campus will find it fascinating to discover more
about those for whom they were named.
Don Gonyea, National Public Radio's White House correspondent, MSU graduate and
a one-time employee at WKAR Radio, narrates the film.
In 1855, higher education was accessed only by the wealthy and was designed to
prepare "gentlemen" for professional lives as lawyers, ministers, bakers,
doctors and teachers. The new college growing up in the rural area east of Michigan's
state capitol was anything but gentrified. When the first students arrived in
1857, part of their curriculum required spending at least three hours each day
clearing the land, which included swamp, trees and the Red Cedar River.
The film includes some re-creations of the first arrivals, and readings from
diaries and letters of the early students about the harshness of life at the
college.
The Great Experiment also examines a new idea, which originated with progressive
thinkers in the east, that this new nation might actually grow more rapidly and
produce a dynamic economy if it was to educate poor people. The poorest people
at the time were farmers, and so the Michigan Agricultural College began by offering
an education to rural children of farmers. The experiment had the opposite effect
for some, who expected their sons to go off and learn how to grow better crops
and then return to the farm with techniques for making more money. Instead, the
students moved into other, non-labor professions and eventually created a huge
middle class in America. This caused friction with the farmers, but it also proved
to the federal government that the Michigan model would work elsewhere, and the
Land Grant act was passed and signed by Abraham Lincoln.
The film examines Michigan Agricultural College's efforts to establish itself
as the first class of seven graduated just as the Civil War broke out. All the
graduates fought for the Union Army; two died.
In the 1870s, the college began admitting women and by the 1890s also took in
African American students. In 1900, as the century turned, President Jonathan
Snyder invited ex-slave Booker T. Washington to deliver the commencement address,
a highly unusual step.
The film then looks at John Hannah, his life, times and legacy, and moves into
the Clifton Wharton era and forward to today. It closes with a look at MSU students
through history and the unusual nature of how demanding they often are of the
university, more so than at other colleges and universities.
Cook has compiled an extensive list of guests who share their insight and perspective
on the university, including its current president Lou Anna Simon, former presidents
Peter McPherson and Dr. Clifton Wharton, Dolores Wharton, author Keith Widder,
Fred Bohm, Dr. David Bailey, former U.S. Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham, Dr.
Frank Telewski, Dr. Paula Hitzler (horse farm manager), Jack Siebold, Roger Wilkinson,
Tom Dutch, Ernest Geen (MSU graduate and one of the Little Rock Nine); Dr. Laurie
Thorp (RISE); Dr. John Bierenbaum (student organic farm), Ted Simon, and many
others.
"The Great Experiment" is a co-production of WKAR Television,
University Relations, University Archives and Historical Collections
and the Office of the President, MSU.
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