Following his Sept. 29 investiture, Michigan State University President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., announced one of his first initiatives was to bring “MSU to Michigan,” and he did so by leading MSU’s inaugural Spartan Bus Tour. We set out from campus Monday morning Oct. 21 from the Kellogg Center.

(0:20) President Guskiewicz opens the tour.

(1:14) Our first stop was in Mount Pleasant to visit the Ziibiwing Center of Anishinabe Culture and Lifeways. Eric Rodriguez is interim public relations director for the Saginaw Chippewa Indian Tribe. 

(4:20) The next stop on the tour was in Le Roy to visit M&R Pickling, an Amish-owned canning company founded in 2013. The company is a client of the MSU Product Center, which supports innovation and growth for those in food, agriculture and natural resource sectors. Then it was on to a stop at the Camp Grayling Joint Maneuver Training Center, the largest National Guard training facility in the United States and the main training facility for the Michigan National Guard. At the stop, we met Michigan native Colonel Lucas J. Lanczy, the current commander of JMTC and got a brief welcome and history of the site to learn about the center’s economic and environmental impact in the region. 

(6:15) We remained in Grayling for our next stop at a somewhat hidden MSU jewel, Camp Wa Wa Sum. Brandon Baswell is service manager with IPF Real Estate.

(8:13) As we headed to Traverse City to spend the night, President G, as we affectionately called our leader on the tour, reflected on Day 1.

(11:40) Day 2 of the tour began in Traverse City at the Northwest Michigan Horticulture Research Center. The 137-acre Center was founded in 1979 by the area’s fruit growers who wanted a research center of their own — a place that could help with unique issues that come with growing fruit in a region unlike any other — so they turned to MSU. Nikki Rothwell is an MSU extension specialist and coordinator of the center.

(16:02) After a group walk up part of the Sleepng Bear Dunes National Lakeshore in Glen Arbor, we enjoyed lunch at Arcadia Bluffs Golf Club, a nationally renowned golf destination located on the shores of Lake Michigan, offering two championship golf courses. Founded in 1999, the golf club is built on the bluffs above the shore of Lake Michigan.  Arcadia Bluffs is routinely rated a top 50 course in the country. We heard a presentation from club representatives and alumni who graduated from MSU’s top turfgrass management program. Then it was on to Ludington State Park, a public recreation area located two miles north of Ludington, occupying 5,300 acres between the shores of Lake Michigan and Hamlin Lake. Ethan Theuerkauf, an MSU assistant professor and coastal geomorphologist described his research that focuses on how and why coastal landscapes, such as beaches, barrier islands and wetlands change over time. 

As we boarded the bus in Ludington on our way to the Martinez Farm in Conklin, we learned more about MSU Migrant Student Services.

Day 2 of the tour ended with an evening reception at the Muskegon Museum of Art. Teresa Dunn, a Mexican American artist and MSU professor who has artwork on view in the museum joined the group and talked about her art.

(19:25) Day 3 of the tour began with a stop at Muskegon High School to learn about current and future pre-college programs in teaching and osteopathic medicine. 

(23:24) Next was a stop in Rockford to view PFAS remediation sites. MSU’s Center for PFAS Research, formed in 2020, is an interdisciplinary center that leads agricultural and natural resource PFAS research in Michigan and works with communities to create remediation strategies. 

(26:08) Next, the Spartan Bus Tour headed to MSU’s Grand Rapids Innovation Park that anchors the “Medical Mile” in Grand Rapids. It includes the MSU Grand Rapids Research Center, Doug Meijer Medical Innovation Building and Perrigo’s North American corporate headquarters. MSU’s College of Human Medicine has roots here as well, located in the nearby Secchia Center. 

Then it was off to visit Herman Miller, a subsidiary of MillerKnoll that produces office furniture, equipment and home furnishings.

(28:07) As our extraordinary driver, Tina Martin from Dean Trailways, began taking us to Hickory Corners and a visit to the Kellogg Biological Station, KBS interim director Jeff Conner hopped on the bus to prepare us for our visit to this MSU jewel. The W.K. Kellogg Biological Station, or KBS, is MSU’s largest off-campus education complex and one of North America’s premier inland field stations. 

(31:02) President Guskiewicz shares is reflections as the tour ends.

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