We Did It This Way

We did it this way back in the 1860s. Our daily routine was: Up at 6 a.m.; breakfast at 7; chapel at 7:40; recitation 8-12; dinner at 1 p.m., and "farm education" until 4. Then there was time for two hours’ recreation before super, after which we studied until bedtime at 9.

School commenced in March and ended in November each year. There was no chance to learn agriculture during the winter months. The education consisted of work with the axe, shovel, grub hoe, scythe and hoe, and we received ten-cents an hour applied toward our board.

I started in March, 1867, and remember arriving at the depot in Lansing along with three other young men, who were to be my schoolmates.

We, with our trunks, were loaded into a lumber wagon and taken over the worst piece of road I think I ever traveled. Arriving at M.A.C., two of us were escorted to the boarding hall, later known as "Saints’ Rest."

I lived there until Williams hall was completed three years later. At that time the college consisted of College hall, the boarding hall, four brick residences, known as President’s row, a brick horse barn and tool shed, a cow barn and a sheep shed. The four brick residences housed President Abbot, Doctor Kedzie, Professor Fairchilds and Professor Beal. There was the faculty.

The above passage was written in 1939 by Warren W. Reynolds, a member of the M.A.C. graduating class of 1870.

We Do It This Way

We do it this way in 2006. Students rarely have the same schedules and often individual schedules vary from day to day. Here is an example of one day in my schedule. I wake up at 6:30 and only eat breakfast on the weekends. I usually have two or three classes a day which I schedule early in the day. In the fall, I work at the library and have marching band rehearsal every day. In the spring, I continue to work but volunteer at the MSU Museum instead of going to band. I stay on campus from 8 a.m. to around 5 p.m. every week day.

MSU uses a semester system and regular classes begin in August and end in May of each year. I came to MSU in August, 2003. Upon arriving in East Lansing, students are immersed in Welcome Week activities that introduce them to the campus, community and their fellow students.

I lived in Emmons Hall during my first year here and moved to Landon Hall during my second year. It is fairly common for students to move off campus, and during my third year I lived in an off campus apartment. The faculty live off campus as well. MSU now has numerous classrooms and dormitories. It has grown remarkably since the 1860s.

The above passage was written in 2006 by Laura McDowell, a member of the MSU graduating class of 2007.