From helping farmers grow Michigan’s agricultural economy to training future physicians and protecting the state’s water resources, Michigan State University works alongside communities across southern Michigan to address challenges and create opportunities. This fall, the Spartan Bus Tour heads to the region to highlight these partnerships and search out new opportunities to advance the state.
President Kevin M. Guskiewicz, Ph.D., will join faculty and university leaders on a three-day exploration of southern Michigan in late October. Along the way, participants will visit farms, research facilities, healthcare organizations, businesses and historic sites that reflect the region’s industries, communities and connections to MSU.
Now in its fifth iteration, the Spartan Bus Tour builds on previous visits to West Michigan, metro Detroit, the Upper Peninsula and northern Michigan, and the Flint and bay region. The tours are designed to strengthen existing partnerships, spark new collaborations and give faculty and university leaders a deeper understanding of the communities MSU serves.
“From visiting our MSU Extension research centers to getting a close-up look at Michigan International Speedway, I look forward to opportunities for our faculty and leaders to engage with the communities we serve,” Guskiewicz says.
Michigan State University’s work generates approximately $9.7 billion in total economic impact across the state. In the region featured in this upcoming tour, MSU generates over $4.8 billion in impact and contributes over $380 million in spending with local businesses.
The region is also home to many Spartans. Michigan State remains the top choice for Michigan students, and there are over 6,000 students currently enrolled at MSU that call southern Michigan home. Plus, more than 95,000 of Michigan’s more than 306,000 Spartan alumni live in the region.
Supporting Michigan agriculture and innovation
Southwest Michigan’s unique climate makes it one of the state’s most productive regions for specialty crops. At the Southwest Michigan Research and Extension Center in Benton Harbor, MSU is supporting innovative research, education and Extension programming for a variety of Michigan’s crop industries. The 350-acre farm specializes in crops that require unique labor — produce like peaches, apples, plums, pears, grapes, blueberries and more. Plus, chestnuts and vegetables.
“If you think of Michigan as the United States, our part of the state is California,” says Mike de Schaaf, the farm manager at the research center. “We are like the little California of Michigan. And you can do anything and everything here.” De Schaaf explains that Lake Michigan keeps the area cooler in the spring and extends the growing season longer into the fall.
The team of Extension educators and staff works with researchers and farmers to improve growing techniques across a variety of specialty crops. As Ben Phillips, the vegetable crops educator at the center, puts it: “You’re a public resource when you work for Extension.”
MSU is making a positive impact across other food and beverage industries across the state, as well. The tour will stop at Preston Farms in Algansee Township near the Indiana border, which has partnered with MSU Extension for over three decades and recently put new research into practice, including high-oleic soybeans as feed for dairy cattle, which improved milk yields.
Participants will also visit St. Julian Winery and Distillery in Paw Paw to learn about its longstanding connection to MSU’s viticulture and agriculture research, which helped the winery evaluate grape varieties and growing techniques.
Improving health and strengthening communities
In southwest Michigan, MSU’s partnership with Corewell Health Lakeland is helping prepare future physicians and strengthen healthcare in the region. Headquartered in Berrien County, Corewell Health serves an estimated 240,000 people across its southwest Michigan service area, with hospitals in St. Joseph, Niles and Watervliet, along with numerous outpatient locations and primary and specialty care providers. Corewell Health Lakeland has served as a base hospital for the MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine since 2010, providing clinical education and training opportunities for medical students and residents.
“The partnership between Corewell Health Lakeland and MSU College of Osteopathic Medicine is structured around clinical education, quality of care, workforce pipeline development, research and innovation,” says Michelino Mancini, the vice president of academic affairs at Corewell Health Lakeland. “These collaborative initiatives are focused within southwest Michigan and impact our community by improving local outcomes in population health, preventative care and health equity.”
The bus tour will also visit the Jackson Community Foundation, a nonprofit community foundation in Jackson County that connects donors and community resources with local organizations, students and initiatives. The foundation administers numerous scholarships, many to students who have gone on to enroll at MSU. It has also provided funding for MSU’s Rx Kids, the nation’s first community-wide prenatal and infant cash prescription program.
Along with health and community initiatives, bus tour participants will visit the Bovee Drain field outside of Adrian to see how MSU is collaborating with partners to protect a valuable resource: water. MSU’s Water Alliance partners with the Institute of Water Research to safeguard the Great Lakes and tackle watershed challenges.
Learning from history and culture
Along with an exploration of industry and community partnerships, the bus tour will stop at distinct regional sites that showcase the area’s history, culture and hidden gems.
Michiganders know cars, and at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, the tour will visit the 1,400-acre motorsports facility known for NASCAR racing and hosting concerts and community events.
The Croswell Opera House in Adrian, open since 1866, is one of the oldest continuously operating theaters in the U.S. In Vandalia, the James E. Bonine House is a centerpiece of Cass County’s history as an important hub of Underground Railroad activity in Michigan. Bonine and his wife, Sarah Ann Bogue, aided freedom seekers traveling north and, according to historical accounts, the carriage house across the street sheltered some of those freedom seekers.
The tour will also stop at one of Michigan’s hidden gems: Hidden Lake Gardens in Tipton Michigan. The 755-acre botanical garden and arboretum is managed by MSU Infrastructure Planning and Facilities. The gardens provide opportunities for education, conservation and public engagement, connecting visitors with Michigan’s natural environment.
“Hosting the Spartan Bus Tour provides us a chance to show and tell how Hidden Lake Gardens fulfills its and MSU's mission,” says Paul Pfeifer, the center's director. “Hidden Lake Gardens serves and impacts the local and MSU communities as well as the people of southeast Michigan and the Great Lakes region.”
In Ann Arbor, tour participants will also learn about MSU’s role as a member of Research Universities for Michigan, an alliance of Michigan's four leading research universities to demonstrate and strengthen collective contributions to research, innovation, talent development and economic growth.
These visits offer opportunities to learn from community leaders, explore regional priorities and better understand the people and places that make Michigan distinctive.
Connecting Spartans and Michiganders
For more than 170 years, MSU’s mission has centered on making education, research and university expertise accessible and useful to the people of Michigan.
The Spartan Bus Tour carries that commitment beyond campus, creating opportunities for faculty and university leaders to listen, learn from and strengthen relationships with the communities they serve.
“These visits allow us to see our vital partnerships in action and explore how we can grow them,” Guskiewicz says. “As ‘Michigan’s state university,’ we are proud to work alongside our partners to expand opportunities for Michiganders and Spartans.”
You can follow the Spartan Bus Tour on social media while it’s on the road by using the hashtag #SpartanBusTour and by following along on the president’s accounts.
Learn more about the Spartan Bus Tour.
