Most book-length documents are divided into three main kinds of parts: the front matter, the main matter, and
the back matter. In memoir (and therefore msu-thesis) these sections are preceded by the commands
\frontmatter, and \mainmatter. The way the thesis office now structures the document means that the
\backmatter should not be used. These commands tell the class when to change the page numbering, for
example, front matter pages use lower case roman numerals, but main matter pages use arabic
numerals.
The basic outline of a dissertation or thesis document is shown in Table 4: (your thesis may not have all of these parts, but if it does, they should be in this order.) You can find an annotated copy of the basic structure in the samples folder of the msu-thesis documentation.
\begin{document}
\frontmatter
\mainmatter
\end{document}