MSU president to give speech at GVSU Oct. 31

Contemporary land-grant universities need to adapt their core values of quality, inclusiveness and connectivity to 21st-century realities, according to Lou Anna Simon, president of Michigan State University. 

Simon will be the speaker for the Peter F. Secchia Breakfast Lecture Series October 31 at Grand Valley State University's L. William Seidman Center in downtown Grand Rapids. Her speech, "Land-grant Engagement for the 21st Century," begins at 8 a.m.; breakfast begins at 7:30 a.m. RSVP at http://gvsu.edu/s/0iE

MSU was chartered in 1855 under Michigan law as a state land-grant university, receiving an appropriation of 14,000 acres of state-owned land to fund its creation. Michigan State then became the nation's first land-grant institution under the Morrill Act of 1862, serving as a model for future land-grant universities.

Simon is the 20th president of Michigan State University. She began her career at MSU after earning a doctorate there in 1974, starting as an assistant professor in the Office of Institutional Research. Simon has held a variety of administrative roles at MSU, including assistant provost for general academic administration, associate provost, and provost and vice president for academic affairs. The MSU Board of Trustees appointed her president in January 2005.

Simon chairs the Association of American Universities, a group of 62 leading U.S. and Canadian research universities focused on research funding, research and education policy, and graduate and undergraduate education. She also chairs the National Security Higher Education Advisory Board, a group of presidents and chancellors of several prominent U.S. universities that consults regularly with national agencies responsible for security, intelligence and law enforcement.

The event is sponsored by the Seidman College of Business Alumni Association. For more information contact the Seidman College of Business at (616) 331-7100 or email [email protected].