Statistics classes were first taught in the Mathematics Department in 1920. The Department of Statistics was formed in 1955 around five faculty transferred from the Department of Mathematics. On November 1, 1965, the department was renamed Statistics and Probability.

There were five charter members of the Department of Statistics. W. Dowell Baten (PhD, University of Michigan, 1929) came to MSU as an Associate Professor in 1936 and had a partial appointment in the Agricultural Experiment Station. Leo Katz (PhD, University of Michigan, 1946) joined in 1946; Ingram Olkin (PhD, University of North Carolina, 1951) joined in 1951; Kenneth Arnold (PhD, MIT, 1941) joined as an Associate Professor in 1952; and James Hannan (PhD, University of North Carolina, 1953) joined in 1953.

In its early days, 1955-61, the department was housed in the “Math-Physics” Building (now the Psychology Building). The building then housed three departments. The departments grew along with the increase in MSU student enrollments from 15,000 in 1955 to 40,000 in 1970, necessitating a move to the basement of Berkey Hall, 1961-67, an unattractive location, but having large faculty offices. After Wells Hall, on the southern bank of the Red Cedar River, was completed in the Spring of 1967, the department was assigned to the 4th floor, and later in 1993 was allocated additional offices on the 5th floor of the seven-story A wing.

[Source: Department of Statistics and Probability website, 2014]