By Michigan State University Interim President Theresa Woodruff:
We believe the threads of town and gown are strengthened when intertwined into a tapestry of neighbors and friends.
We believe, quite simply, in the power of collaboration — of working side by side with the Lansing region to uplift our citizens, prepare the workforce of tomorrow and ensure sustained prosperity.
To strengthen our community, we often ask ourselves and we have asked you: What can we and the Lansing region uniquely do together that we could never do working apart? As interim president of Michigan State University, I think of that challenge as one of purpose, placemaking and partnerships.
MSU’s purpose is clear: to present extraordinary opportunities to people that can help transform their lives. We do this through our three-part mission of teaching and learning, research and innovation, and outreach and engagement. And we bring a lot of scale to this work, including enrolling over 50,000 students and serving as one of the largest employers in mid-Michigan. In Ingham, Clinton, Eaton and Shiawassee counties alone, we create over $3 billion in total economic impact, spend over $140 million with local businesses and have over 70,000 alums.
Our purpose complements beautifully the goals laid out in the first State of the Lansing Region Benchmarking Report, which was produced by our partners at the Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce and Lansing Area Economic Partnership. We share the vision of “a more prosperous, innovative, diverse and exciting future” and commit to leveraging such strengths as MSU’s research investments and seizing opportunities to expand educational attainment and nurture entrepreneurial activity.
MSU and the Lansing region’s common purpose translates to placemaking in service to the larger community — along with an understanding that a 21st-century workforce requires 21st-century facilities. Our new, state-of-the-art health education building, for example, will include high-tech spaces for simulation and anatomy, better preparing the future doctors, nurses and veterinarians who will care for our loved ones and animals at such places as Sparrow, McLaren and local primary care and veterinary clinics.
Read the rest of the article in Lansing State Journal.