The fact that campus acts like a condenser is important. MSU is not near a large enough body of water to pull cooling water from it. Therefore they have to use some of the power they generate to run cooling towers to chill the water. Cooling towers are the large, industrial-looking rectangular structures that you often see water vapor emanating from at all times of the year. If you drive by the power plant you will see them across from the power plant, on the north side of service road.
Evaporation causes cooling.
Water Treatment Ion Exchange. Inlet water has to be treated to remove anions and cations. Here is a picture of the cation exchange units using ion exchange resins. They work on the same principles as home water softeners. The anion resin tanks are larger and not shown.