East Lansing, city, Ingham County, southern Michigan, on the Red Cedar River, a residential suburb east of Lansing; incorporated 1907. The community, settled in 1851 and known as Collegeville from 1887 to 1907, grew around Michigan State University, founded in 1855 as the nation's first state agricultural college. Population 51,392 (1980); 50,677 (1990); 46,525 (2000).
