Campus is home to 51,316 students, 5,696 faculty and academic staff, 565 buildings, 124 miles of sidewalk, 115 miles of storm sewers, nine bridges, 32,163 parking spaces, 21,710 trees, 1,477 streetlights … you get the idea.
There are many ways to measure the size of Michigan State University.
It can be hard to grasp, especially when the forces that make life at MSU possible — that feed it, power it, sustain it, protect it, heal it — often work behind the scenes.
In an attempt to better illustrate the magnitude of the university, The State News spent weeks collecting data from MSU spokespeople, organizations, annual reports, university webpages and previous reporting.
The result is a collection of over 100 statistics showing what happens during an average week on campus, from the number of blueberry bagels delivered to dining halls to the number of students reported for academic misconduct.
The State News calculated nearly every statistic from the most recent annual information, meaning the statistics listed don’t account for variations between fall, spring and summer semesters.
Click below to jump between sections:
A week in dining
Thousands of mouths are fed each week by the university’s nine dining halls, 14 Sparty’s and a handful of other culinary projects. MSU Culinary Services sources food from nearly 400 vendors from as far as 600 miles away, according to a 2021 food procurement guide.
Much of the food is sourced locally. The majority of the baked goods in dining halls and Sparty’s, for example, are made by MSU Bakers, a campus bakery.
Also, 154 people are served over 1,923 pounds of food by the MSU Food Bank.
In the average week:
Additionally:
- 149,653 combo exchanges are redeemed.
- 115,388 IDs are swiped to enter dining halls.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
A week in sustainability
It’s unclear exactly how much of that food is eaten. A now-inactive initiative found in 2019 that dining-hall-goers produced an average of 2.96 ounces of food waste per person per meal.
What’s more easily understood is how much waste is produced by campus overall and where it goes.
The university has its own recycling center, whose roughly 90 employees process and ship out about two semi truck loads of recycled material a week. Over a million worms transform dining hall waste into premium compost in MSU’s vermicomposting facility. And its two anaerobic digesters use bacteria to turn food and farm waste into methane.
In the average week:
Additionally:
- Five gigawatt hours of electricity are generated by the campus power plant, equivalent to the annual energy consumption of 463 average U.S. households.
-
267-288 megawatt hours of electricity are generated by MSU’s carport solar panels, equivalent to the annual energy
consumption of 25 to 27 average U.S. households.
A week in health
Flushing out the massive amounts of waste MSU produces keeps campus healthy and running. So do MSU’s health clinic and gyms, whose services are used by thousands each week to maintain their physical and mental wellness.
In the average week:
A week in safety
There are several safety apparatuses on campus.
MSU’s Office of Civil Rights (OCR) handles reports of sexual misconduct and bias, though these cases are usually dropped before they end in a formal decision by the department. MSU’s campus police department, which employs over 60 officers, responds to 911 calls referred to it by Ingham County 911 Dispatch and makes rounds across campus.
In the average week:
Additionally:
-
One OCR case is resolved through formal investigation. This case:
- Took an average of 176 days for OCR to complete.
- Has a 37% chance that the respondent in the case is a student, a 56% chance they’re an employee, and a 7% chance they’re neither.
- Has a 25% chance of being appealed and a 0% chance that the appeal will overturn the decision.
A week in education
Between the meals, workouts and police calls, it’s easy to lose sight of why students enroll in a university in the first place. In terms of education, MSU offers over 400 areas of study across its 17 colleges, according to a university webpage.
In the average week:
Additionally:
- 15,018 people enter the main library.
- 82,923 digital titles are viewed, downloaded, or streamed through the library.
- 10 reports of academic misconduct are filed against students.
- 19 faculty members are hired.
- 6 faculty members resign.
- 2 faculty members retire.
Illustrations by Addie Ogburn. Designed by Zachary Balcoff.
