Yesterday, MSU celebrated its 155th anniversary of its first day of classes on May 14, 1857.

Assistant Director of the MSU Archives Portia Vescio said the number of changes since classes first began at the university are countless.

“There’s over 150 years of history in which our school has continually grown and expanded and even to this day still strives to do better,” she said.

Vescio said in 1857, there were three buildings on campus — College Hall, where all classes were held, the dormitory where students lived and a barn that held a variety of farm animals.

In 1857, students could only study agriculture. Now, they can choose from more than 150 majors. Total enrollment amounted to 63 students, comparable the 45,998 enrolled in spring of 2012, according to the Office of the Registrar.

For packaging junior Patrick Hones, a university with less than 100 students would feel more like a school back home.

“What I like about MSU is there’s more people and more diversity than there was in high school,” he said.

Aside from missing the convenience of online classes, Hones said the biggest thing he would miss about MSU if he attended school in 1857 would be the football games.

“There’s tailgating, school spirit and rivalries,” he said. “It’s just kind of the highlight of fall.”

On the other hand, Weal said as much as he loves his iPhone, he feels the 21st century is full of distractions that were not apparent in the 1800s.

“Back then they had to (use) books and (enjoyed) the simple of pleasures of life,” he said. “They probably understood things a little more, like the social aspects of life,” he said, adding the current generation struggles with social media use on websites such as Facebook.

Vescio said in her opinion, in the last 155 years, MSU has grown from a small three-building school to a worldwide force.

“The biggest (change) is just the broadening of the mission of the school from being just an agriculture school to this big university with this mission to bring our research around the world.”