, mottoeng = "Arts, Knowledge, Truth"
, former_names = Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania (1817–1821)
, budget = $10.3 billion (2021)
, endowment = $17 billion (2021)
[As of October 25, 2021. ]
, president =
Santa Ono
Santa Jeremy Ono ( ja, 小野 三太; born November 23, 1962) is a Canadian-American immunologist and academic administrator, currently serving as the 15th president of the University of Michigan since October 2022. Ono previously served as t ...
, provost =
Laurie McCauley
, established =
, type =
Public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...
, academic_affiliations =
, students = 48,090 (2021)
, undergrad = 31,329 (2021)
[
, postgrad = 16,578 (2021)][
, administrative_staff = 18,986 (2014)]
, faculty = 6,771 (2014)
, city = Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
, state = Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
, country = United States
, coor =
, campus = Midsize City,
Total: , including arboretum
, colors = Maize & Blue
, nickname = Wolverines
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscu ...
, sporting_affiliations =
, website =
, logo = University of Michigan logo.svg
, logo_upright = 1.0
, accreditation = HLC
, free_label = Newspaper
, free = ''The Michigan Daily
''The Michigan Daily'' is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Michigan. Its first edition was published on September 29, 1890. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the University's administration and other stu ...
''
, free_label2 = Yearbook
, free2 = ''Michiganensian
The ''Michiganensian'', also known as the ''Ensian'', is the official yearbook of the University of Michigan. Its first issue was published in April 1896, as a consolidation of three campus publications, The Res Gestae, the Palladium, and the Ca ...
''
The University of Michigan (U-M, UMich, or Michigan) is a public
In public relations and communication science, publics are groups of individual people, and the public (a.k.a. the general public) is the totality of such groupings. This is a different concept to the sociology, sociological concept of the ''Öf ...
research university
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kn ...
in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Ann Arbor is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of Washtenaw County. The 2020 census recorded its population to be 123,851. It is the principal city of the Ann Arbor Metropolitan Statistical Area, which encompasses all ...
. Founded in 1817 by an act of the old Michigan Territory
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit ...
as the ''Catholepistemiad'' or the "School of Universal Knowledge," the university is the oldest in Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...
; it was established 20 years before the territory
A territory is an area of land, sea, or space, particularly belonging or connected to a country, person, or animal.
In international politics, a territory is usually either the total area from which a state may extract power resources or a ...
became a state. The institution was moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto of what is now known as Central Campus, a U.S. historic district. The university has been governed by an elected board of regents independently of the state since 1850, when the state's second constitution was officially adopted. The University of Michigan is ranked among the most prestigious universities in the world.
The university consists of nineteen colleges and offers degree programs at undergraduate
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...
, graduate and postdoctoral
A postdoctoral fellow, postdoctoral researcher, or simply postdoc, is a person professionally conducting research after the completion of their doctoral studies (typically a PhD). The ultimate goal of a postdoctoral research position is to pu ...
levels in some 250 disciplines. Michigan has nine professional schools: the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, also known as Taubman College, is one of the nine professional schools at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Taubman College offers the following degrees: Bachelor of Science ...
, Ross School of Business
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...
, Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...
, Law School
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
, Ford School of Public Policy, College of Pharmacy, School of Social Work
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...
, School of Public Health, and School of Dentistry. It affiliates with two regional universities located in Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...
and Dearborn (each separately accredited universities) and operates a center located in Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
. Michigan is home to the country's oldest continuously existing legal organization, oldest international professional dental fraternity, oldest continuously running university hospital and longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences. Michigan also has the largest stadium in the Western Hemisphere
The Western Hemisphere is the half of the planet Earth that lies west of the prime meridian (which crosses Greenwich, London, United Kingdom) and east of the antimeridian. The other half is called the Eastern Hemisphere. Politically, the te ...
and the second largest research library in the country.
Michigan has been a coeducational
Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...
institution since 1871. The university's enrollment is approximately 32,000 undergraduate students and 16,000 graduate students.[ Undergraduate admission to the university is categorized as "most selective."] Nearly half of the students are from out of state. International students from some 130 countries account for 15 percent of the entire student body.[
Michigan is one of the earliest American ]research universities
A research university or a research-intensive university is a university that is committed to research as a central part of its mission. They are the most important sites at which knowledge production occurs, along with "intergenerational kno ...
and a founding member of the Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 63 universities in the United States ( ...
. As a major research center, it ranked 2nd among American universities in research expenditures and produces a large proportion of the country's publications and citations. It has been consistently ranked among the top universities in the United States by college and university rankings. In international comparison, the university occupies top positions in rankings and enjoys a distinguished academic reputation. , 26 Nobel Prize laureates, six Turing Award laureates, two Abel Prize
The Abel Prize ( ; no, Abelprisen ) is awarded annually by the King of Norway to one or more outstanding mathematicians. It is named after the Norwegian mathematician Niels Henrik Abel (1802–1829) and directly modeled after the Nobel Pri ...
laureates, and two Fields Medalist have been affiliated with the university. It is also a leading producer of Fulbright Scholars
The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States Cultural Exchange Programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...
and MacArthur Fellows
The MacArthur Fellows Program, also known as the MacArthur Fellowship and commonly but unofficially known as the "Genius Grant", is a prize awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation typically to between 20 and 30 indi ...
.
The university's noted alumni include eight domestic and foreign heads of state
A head of state (or chief of state) is the public persona who officially embodies a state Foakes, pp. 110–11 " he head of statebeing an embodiment of the State itself or representatitve of its international persona." in its unity and ...
or heads of government
The head of government is the highest or the second-highest official in the executive branch of a sovereign state, a federated state, or a self-governing colony, autonomous region, or other government who often presides over a cabinet, a ...
; 47 U.S. senators
The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States.
The composition and power ...
; 218 members of the U.S. House of Representatives; 42 U.S. Cabinet Secretaries; 41 U.S. governors; and 26 living billionaires
A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The American busin ...
. As of 2022, Wolverine athletes have won 188 medals at the Olympic Games
The modern Olympic Games or Olympics (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques) are the leading international sporting events featuring summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a multi ...
. Michigan produced 921 venture capital
Venture capital (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth potential or which h ...
-backed company founders as alumni or current students from 2006 to 2021, and these founders had raised a total of $26.7B, ranked 7th globally among universities overall.
History
The University of Michigan was founded on the 26 of August, 1817,[ as the ''Catholepistemiad'', or the ''Catholcpistemiad Michigania'', under an act of the ]Territory of Michigan
The Territory of Michigan was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from June 30, 1805, until January 26, 1837, when the final extent of the territory was admitted to the Union as the State of Michigan. Detroit ...
. The corporate existence of the university had its rise in the Act of 1817, and has been continuous throughout all subsequent changes of its organic law
An organic law is a law, or system of laws, that form the foundation of a government, corporation or any other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state.
By country France
Under Articl ...
. The seven-syllable ''Catholepistemiad'' was a mish-mash of Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic pe ...
, translates to roughly "School of Universal Knowledge."
Established in 1817, the ''Catholepistemiad'' was not a university in the contemporary sense but rather a centralized system of schools, libraries, and other cultural institutions borrowing its model from the Imperial University of France founded by Napoleon I
Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
a decade earlier. Besides carrying on the central institution, the President and Didactoriim of the ''Catholepistemiad'' were also authorized to establish private colleges, academies, libraries, etc., throughout the Territory of Michigan. It was only after the State of Michigan entered the Union in 1837 that a new plan was adopted to focus the corporation on higher education. The charter of the ''Catholepistemiad'' is an extraordinary example of the marked French influence upon American institutions which found its inception during the course of the Revolutionary War, and continued until it began to give way to German influence in the third or fourth decade of the 19th century.
Shortly after the passage of the Act of 1817, Rev. John Monteith became the first president of the ''Catholepistemiad'', and Father Gabriel Richard, a Catholic priest, was vice president. Monteith and Richard enacted that private schools
An independent school is independent in its finances and governance. Also known as private schools, non-governmental, privately funded, or non-state schools, they are not administered by local, state or national governments. In British En ...
should be established in Detroit, Monroe and Mackinaw, and before the end of September, 1817, the three private schools were in operation. The cornerstone of the first school house, near the corner of Bates Street and Congress Street in Detroit, was laid on September 24, 1817. Subscriptions amounting to $5,000 payable in instalments running over several years were obtained to carry on the work. Of the total amount subscribed to start the work two-thirds came from Zion Masonic Lodge and its members. In August 1818, a private Lancasterian school The Monitorial System, also known as Madras System or Lancasterian System, was an education method that took hold during the early 19th century, because of Spanish, French, and English colonial education that was imposed into the areas of expansion ...
taught by Lemuel Shattuck
Lemuel Shattuck (15 October 1793, Ashby, Massachusetts – 17 January 1859, Boston, Massachusetts) was a Boston politician, historian, bookseller and publisher.
Biography
He taught at Troy and Albany, NY and from 1818 to 1821 at the frontier o ...
was opened in the building. These schools' tuition rates ranged from $1.00 to $3.50 per one quarter of a year.
On April 30, 1821, the Territory of Michigan passed a new act changing materially the appearance, and slightly the nature of the existing educational organization. A board of trustees was appointed to oversee the corporation; the positions of president and vice president were eliminated, and Monteith and Richard were appointed to the board.[ The University of Michigan took the place of the ''Catholcpistemiad Michigania'' as the legal name of the corporation.
]
After the State of Michigan entered the Union in 1837, the new state's early constitution granted the university an unusual degree of autonomy as a “coordinate branch of state government”. It delegated full powers over all university matters granted to its governing Board of Regents. On June 3–5, the Board of Regents held its first meeting in Ann Arbor
Anne, alternatively spelled Ann, is a form of the Latin female given name Anna. This in turn is a representation of the Hebrew Hannah, which means 'favour' or 'grace'. Related names include Annie.
Anne is sometimes used as a male name in the ...
and formally accepted the proposal by the town to locate the university there.[ The town of Ann Arbor had existed for only 13 years and had a population of about 2,000. The original was the basis of the present Central Campus.] This land was obtained through the Treaty of Fort Meigs
The Treaty of Fort Meigs, also called the Treaty of the Maumee Rapids, formally titled, "Treaty with the Wyandots, etc., 1817", was the most significant Indian treaty by the United States in Ohio since the Treaty of Greenville in 1795. It resulte ...
.
Since the founding period, the private sector has remained the primary provider of university financing to supplement tuition collected from students. Early benefactors of the university included businessman Dexter M. Ferry
Dexter Mason Ferry (August 8, 1833 – November 10, 1907) was a businessman from Detroit, Michigan who founded D.M. Ferry & Co., at one time the largest seed company in the world.
Early life
Dexter M. Ferry was born in Lowville, New York ...
(donor of Ferry Field
Ferry Field is a multi-purpose stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It opened in 1906 and was home to the Michigan Wolverines football team prior to the opening of Michigan Stadium in 1927. It had a capacity of 46,000. It is currently used as a ta ...
), Arthur Hill (regent, donor of Hill Auditorium
Hill Auditorium is the largest performance venue on the University of Michigan campus, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The auditorium was named in honor of Arthur Hill (1847-1909), who served as a regent of the university from 1901 to 1909. He bequeath ...
), the Nichols family (regents, donors of the Nichols Arboretum
Nichols Arboretum (123 acres, 49.7 hectares), locally known as the Arb, is an arboretum operated by thMatthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols Arboretum (MBGNA)at the University of Michigan. Located on the eastern edge of its Central Campus at 16 ...
), William E. Upjohn
William Erastus Upjohn (June 15, 1853 – October 18, 1932) was an American medical doctor and both founder and president of The Upjohn Pharmaceutical Company. He was named Person of the Century by the Kalamazoo, Michigan, newspaper."Person ...
(donor of the Peony
Garden), William P. Trowbridge
William Petit Trowbridge (May 25, 1828 – August 12, 1892) was a mechanical engineer, military officer, and naturalist. He was one of the first mechanical engineers on the faculties of the University of Michigan, the Sheffield Scientific School ...
, John S. Newberry, who funded the construction of Helen H. Newberry Residence, and Henry N. Walker, a politician who led a group of prominent Detroit businessmen to fund the Detroit Observatory
The Detroit Observatory is located on the corner of Observatory and Ann streets in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1854, and was the first scientific research facility at the University of Michigan and one of the oldest observatories of its ty ...
. Clara Harrison Stranahan
Clara Harrison Stranahan (, Harrison; pen name, C. H. Stranahan; April 9, 1831 – January 22, 1905) was an American author and the founder of Barnard College. Long identified with the higher education of women in the United States, she was at one ...
, a close friend of Scottish-American industrialist Andrew Carnegie
Andrew Carnegie (, ; November 25, 1835August 11, 1919) was a Scottish-American industrialist and philanthropist. Carnegie led the expansion of the American steel industry in the late 19th century and became one of the richest Americans in ...
, donated $25,000 to the university in 1895 as a memorial of her father, Seth Harrison. The Waterman Gymnasium
The Waterman Gymnasium was the first on-campus gymnasium at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The building was the first home of the Michigan Wolverines men's basketball team. The building stood at the corner of North University ...
was financed by donations from wealthy citizens and matched Joshua W. Waterman's pledge of $20,000. When opened, the total cost of the building was $61,876.49, to which private donors contributed $49,524.34.
In 1838, the Regents contracted with Alexander Jackson Davis
Alexander Jackson Davis, or A. J. Davis (July 24, 1803 – January 14, 1892), was an American architect, known particularly for his association with the Gothic Revival style.
Education
Davis was born in New York City and studied at ...
, who according to Superintendent John Davis Pierce
John Davis Pierce (February 18, 1797 – April 5, 1882) was a Congregationalist minister, public schools advocate, and Michigan legislator. He was Michigan's first superintendent of public schools, a position new to the United States, where he ...
provided truly "magnificent designs" in the Gothic Revival style
Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...
; but unfortunately the completion of them at that day would, as Pierce said, involve an expenditure of half a million dollars. Although approving the designs, the tight budget of the fledgling university forced the Regents to ultimately abandon them and instead adopted a much less expensive plan. The superintendent of construction on the first structure to be built for the university was Isaac Thompson, an associate of Davis. Asa Gray
Asa Gray (November 18, 1810 – January 30, 1888) is considered the most important American botanist of the 19th century. His ''Darwiniana'' was considered an important explanation of how religion and science were not necessarily mutually excl ...
was the first professor appointed to Michigan on July 17, 1837. His position was also the first one devoted solely to botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
at any educational institution in America. The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen and a sophomore, taught by two professors. Eleven students graduated in the first commencement in 1845.
The years 1837-1850 disclosed serious weakness in the organization and working of the university. Regents of the university discovered that the organic act from which they derived their powers, made them too dependent upon the legislature. The subject was brought to the attention of the legislature more than once but without securing the desired action in order to achieve increased independence. By the late 1840s, the Regents achieved a strong position relative to collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is a process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees aimed at agreements to regulate working salaries, working conditions, benefits, and other aspects of workers' compensation and rights for workers. The ...
with the legislature as the opinion was becoming common among capitalists
Capitalism is an economic system based on the private ownership of the means of production and their operation for profit. Central characteristics of capitalism include capital accumulation, competitive markets, price system, private pr ...
, clergymen
Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...
and intellectual elites, since by then the state derived significant tax revenue
Tax revenue is the income that is collected by governments through taxation. Taxation is the primary source of government revenue. Revenue may be extracted from sources such as individuals, public enterprises, trade, royalties on natural resour ...
through them. Such a situation ultimately led to a change in the organic act of the university. Remodelled, the act, which was approved April 8, 1851, emancipated the university from legislative control that would have been injudicious and harmful. The office of Regent was changed from an appointed one to an elected one, and the office of President was created, with the Regents directed to select one. As Hinsdale argued, "the independent position of the university has had much to do with its growth and prosperity. In fact, its larger growth may be dated from the time when the new sections began to take effect."
Michigan was the first university in the West to pursue professional education
Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive ...
, establishing its medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...
in 1850, engineering courses in 1854, and a law school
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
in 1859. The university was among the first to introduce instruction in fields as diverse as zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...
and botany
Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...
, modern languages
A modern language is any human language that is currently in use. The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such ...
, modern history
The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also called modern history or modern times) is the period of history that succeeds the Middle Ages (which ended approximately 1500 AD). This terminology is a historical periodization that is appli ...
, American literature
American literature is literature written or produced in the United States of America and in the colonies that preceded it. The American literary tradition thus is part of the broader tradition of English-language literature, but also inc ...
, pharmacy
Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...
, dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...
, speech
Speech is a human vocal communication using language. Each language uses phonetic combinations of vowel and consonant sounds that form the sound of its words (that is, all English words sound different from all French words, even if they are th ...
, journalism
Journalism is the production and distribution of reports on the interaction of events, facts, ideas, and people that are the " news of the day" and that informs society to at least some degree. The word, a noun, applies to the occupation (p ...
, teacher education
Teacher education or teacher training refers to programs, policies, procedures, and provision designed to equip (prospective) teachers with the knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, approaches, methodologies and skills they require to perform their t ...
, forestry
Forestry is the science and craft of creating, managing, planting, using, conserving and repairing forests, woodlands, and associated resources for human and environmental benefits. Forestry is practiced in plantations and natural stands. ...
, bacteriology Bacteriology is the branch and specialty of biology that studies the morphology, ecology, genetics and biochemistry of bacteria as well as many other aspects related to them. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classificat ...
, naval architecture
Naval architecture, or naval engineering, is an engineering discipline incorporating elements of mechanical, electrical, electronic, software and safety engineering as applied to the engineering design process, shipbuilding, maintenance, and ...
, aeronautical engineering
Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is sim ...
, computer engineering
Computer engineering (CoE or CpE) is a branch of electrical engineering and computer science that integrates several fields of computer science and electronic engineering required to develop computer hardware and software. Computer engineers n ...
, and nuclear engineering
Nuclear engineering is the branch of engineering concerned with the application of breaking down atomic nuclei ( fission) or of combining atomic nuclei ( fusion), or with the application of other sub-atomic processes based on the principles of n ...
. In 1856, Michigan built the nation's first chemical laboratory. That laboratory was the first structure on the North American continent that was designed and equipped solely for instruction in chemistry. In 1869 Michigan opened the first university hospital
A university hospital is an institution which combines the services of a hospital with the education of medical students and with medical research. These hospitals are typically affiliated with a medical school or university. The following i ...
in the country. James Burrill Angell
James Burrill Angell (January 7, 1829 – April 1, 1916) was an American educator and diplomat. He is best known for being the longest-serving president of the University of Michigan, from 1871 to 1909. He represented the transition from sma ...
, who served as the university's president from 1871 to 1909, expanded the curriculum to include professional studies in dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...
, architecture
Architecture is the art and technique of designing and building, as distinguished from the skills associated with construction. It is both the process and the product of sketching, conceiving, planning, designing, and constructing buildings ...
, engineering
Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
, government
A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state.
In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government i ...
, and medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
.
The University of Michigan conferred the degree of Bachelor of Science
A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years.
The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University o ...
in 1855, four years after the Lawrence Scientific School at Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
conferred the degree in 1851, for the first time in the United States, making Michigan the second institution in the country to confer the degree. The degree of Bachelor of Philosophy
Bachelor of Philosophy (BPhil, BPh, or PhB; la, Baccalaureus Philosophiae or ) is the title of an academic degree that usually involves considerable research, either through a thesis or supervised research projects. Unlike many other bachelor's d ...
was conferred for the first time in the university's history upon six students in 1870. The degrees of Master of Philosophy
The Master of Philosophy (MPhil; Latin ' or ') is a postgraduate degree. In the United States, an MPhil typically includes a taught portion and a significant research portion, during which a thesis project is conducted under supervision. An MPhil ...
and Doctor of Philosophy
A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...
was first offered in 1875.
Methods of instruction had also undergone important changes. The ''seminar
A seminar is a form of academic instruction, either at an academic institution or offered by a commercial or professional organization. It has the function of bringing together small groups for recurring meetings, focusing each time on some parti ...
'' method of study was first introduced into the university by Charles Kendall Adams
Charles Kendall Adams (January 24, 1835 – July 26, 1902) was an American educator and historian. He served as the second president of Cornell University from 1885 until 1892, and as president of the University of Wisconsin from 1892 until 1901. ...
in 1871-1872, making the university the first American institution to naturalize this product of the German soil.
By 1866, enrollment had increased to 1,205 students. Women were first admitted in 1870, although Alice Robinson Boise Wood
Alice Robinson Boise Wood (May 15, 1846 – March 28, 1919) was a classicist and poet, and the first woman both to attend classes at the University of Michigan and to matriculate and graduate from the Old University of Chicago.
Early life
Ali ...
had become the first woman to attend classes (without matriculating) in 1866–7. Among the early students in the School of Medicine was Jose Celso Barbosa
Jose is the English transliteration of the Hebrew and Aramaic name ''Yose'', which is etymologically linked to ''Yosef'' or Joseph. The name was popular during the Mishnaic and Talmudic periods.
* Jose ben Abin
* Jose ben Akabya
*Jose the Galil ...
, who in 1880 graduated as valedictorian and the first Puerto Rican to get a university degree in the United States. He returned to Puerto Rico to practice medicine and also served in high-ranking posts in the government. Michigan was involved with the building of the Philippine education, legal, and public health systems during the era of the American colonization of the Philippines through the efforts of Michigan alumni that included Dean Conant Worcester
Dean Conant Worcester, D.Sc., FRGS (October 1, 1866 – May 2, 1924) was an American zoologist, public official, and authority on the Philippines. He was born at Thetford, Vermont, and educated at the University of Michigan (A.B., 1889). He first ...
and George A. Malcolm
George Arthur Malcolm (November 5, 1881 — May 16, 1961) was an American lawyer who emerged as an influential figure in the development of the practice of law in the Philippines in the 20th century. Constitutional scholar and academic Joaquin Be ...
.
Throughout its history, Michigan has been one of the nation's largest universities, vying with the largest private universities such as Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
in Cambridge
Cambridge ( ) is a university city and the county town in Cambridgeshire, England. It is located on the River Cam approximately north of London. As of the 2021 United Kingdom census, the population of Cambridge was 145,700. Cambridge bec ...
and Columbia University
Columbia University (also known as Columbia, and officially as Columbia University in the City of New York) is a private research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Church in Manhatt ...
(then known as Columbia College) in New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
during the 19th and early 20th centuries, and then holding this position of national leadership until the emergence of the statewide public university systems in the post-WWII years. By the turn of the 19th century, the university was the second largest in the United States after Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
.
Michigan is sometimes referred to as the "Harvard of the West" (though separated by over 600 miles, Michigan is located exactly west of Harvard, at 42.278 degrees north). There are several versions regarding the origin of the analogy. Still, it is widely believed that the analogy was initially circulated among the Bostonians, as the Eastern people were called, in the Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
. Descendants of Massachusetts founding families made up a large portion of the university population in the 19th century; among them was Regent Charles Hebard, a lineal descendant of William Bradford, a founding father of Plymouth Colony
Plymouth Colony (sometimes Plimouth) was, from 1620 to 1691, the first permanent English colony in New England and the second permanent English colony in North America, after the Jamestown Colony. It was first settled by the passengers on the ...
. It was in the first half of the twentieth century that the analogy gained increased exposure nationally with the rise of the broadcasting industry. The idea became commonly parodied in reverse after Harvard alumnus John F. Kennedy referred to himself as "a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University" in the 1960 presidential campaign.
From 1900 to 1920, the growth of higher education
Higher education is tertiary education leading to award of an academic degree. Higher education, also called post-secondary education, third-level or tertiary education, is an optional final stage of formal learning that occurs after compl ...
led the university to build numerous new facilities. The Martha Cook Building
Martha Cook is a Collegiate Gothic women's residence hall at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. The building houses approximately 140 women pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees from the University. Women may live in the building th ...
was constructed as an all-female residence in 1915 as the result of a gift from William Wilson Cook in honor of his mother, Martha Walford Cook.
Cook planned to endow a professorship of law of corporations, but eventually made possible the development of the Law Quadrangle. The five buildings comprising the Law Quadrangle were constructed during the decade of 1923–33 on two city blocks purchased by the university: Lawyers Club, Dormitory Wing, John P. Cook Dormitory, William W Cook Legal Research Library, and Hutchins Hall. The buildings, in the Tudor Gothic style, recalled the quadrangles of the two English ancient universities Oxford and Cambridge.
In 1920, the university reorganized the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
and formed an advisory committee of 100 industrialists to guide academic research initiatives.
Shortly after the war, in August 1946, Rensis Likert
Rensis Likert ( ; August5, 1903September3, 1981) was an American organizational and social psychologist known for developing the Likert scale, a psychometrically sound scale based on responses to multiple questions. The scale has become a method ...
and his team formed the Survey Research Center at the University of Michigan. This became the Institute for Social Research
The Institute for Social Research (german: Institut für Sozialforschung, IfS) is a research organization for sociology and continental philosophy, best known as the institutional home of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Currently a pa ...
(ISR) in 1949 when Dorwin Cartwright moved the Group Dynamics Research Center, the first institute devoted explicitly to group dynamics
Group dynamics is a system of behaviors and psychological processes occurring within a social group (''intra''group dynamics), or between social groups ( ''inter''group dynamics). The study of group dynamics can be useful in understanding decision- ...
, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
to the University of Michigan.
In 1947, the Regents appointed a War Memorial Committee to consider establishing a war memorial in honor of students and alumni who fell in World War II, and in 1948, approved a resolution to “create a war memorial center to explore the ways and means by which the potentialities of atomic energy may become a beneficent influence in the life of man, to be known as the Phoenix Project of the University of Michigan,” leading to the world's first academic program in nuclear science and engineering. The Memorial Phoenix Project was funded by over 25,000 private contributors by individuals and corporations, such as the Ford Motor Company
Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. The company sells automobi ...
.
The University of Michigan has been the birthplace of some important academic movements, establishing the Michigan schools of thought and developing the Michigan Models in various fields. Several distinguished philosophers, John Dewey
John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...
, Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead
George Herbert Mead (February 27, 1863 – April 26, 1931) was an American philosopher, sociologist, and psychologist, primarily affiliated with the University of Chicago, where he was one of several distinguished pragmatists. He is regarded a ...
, and Robert Ezra Park
Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 – February 7, 1944) was an American urban sociologist who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology. Park was a pioneer in the field of sociology, changing it from a pas ...
, first met at Michigan. There, they would influence each other greatly. In sociology, Angus Campbell co-authored the seminal book ''The American Voter'', in 1960, alongside Philip Converse, Warren Miller and Donald Stokes, which provided the basis for the Michigan school of thought in American political behavior. One of the book's primary contributions was the introduction of the social-psychological concept of partisan identity and investigations into its effects on political behavior. This theory became known as the Michigan model of voting. In business administration
Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...
, Michigan Business School developed the Michigan model of HRM in 1984; it is one of the two vying approaches to human resource management. In contrast to the Harvard model, the Michigan model is considered an example of hard HRM, while the Harvard model is viewed as an example of soft HRM. The Michigan model of leadership, developed by Robert E. Quinn, Kim Cameron, and other Michigan faculty, is now one of the most important management frameworks.
During the 1960s, the university campus was the site of numerous protests against the Vietnam War and university administration. On March 24, 1965, a group of U-M faculty members and 3,000 students held the nation's first-ever faculty-led " teach-in" to protest against American policy in Southeast Asia. In response to a series of sit-in
A sit-in or sit-down is a form of direct action that involves one or more people occupying an area for a protest, often to promote political, social, or economic change. The protestors gather conspicuously in a space or building, refusing to mo ...
s in 1966 by ''Voice'', the campus political party of Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...
, U-M's administration banned sit-ins. In response, 1,500 students participated in a one-hour sit-in inside the Administration Building, now known as the LSA Building. In April 1968, following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr., an African-American clergyman and civil rights leader, was fatally shot at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 4, 1968, at 6:01 p.m. CST. He was rushed to St. Joseph's Hospital, where he died at ...
, a group of several dozen black students occupied the Administration Building to demand that the university make public its three-year-old commitment as a federal contractor to affirmative action and to increase its efforts with respect to recruiting more African American students, faculty and staff. At that time there were no African American coaches, for instance, in the Intercollegiate Athletics Department. The university's Spectrum Center is the oldest collegiate LGBT student center
LGBT student centers and services are administrative offices of a college, university or students' union that provide resources and support for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) students. LGBT has expanded to LGBTQ2IA+ to include ...
in the U.S, pre-dating Penn's.
Due to concerns over the university's financial situation there have been suggestions for the complete separation of the university and state through privatization
Privatization (also privatisation in British English) can mean several different things, most commonly referring to moving something from the public sector into the private sector. It is also sometimes used as a synonym for deregulation when ...
. Even though the university is a public institution ''de jure'', it has embraced funding models of a private university
Private universities and private colleges are institutions of higher education, not operated, owned, or institutionally funded by governments. They may (and often do) receive from governments tax breaks, public student loans, and grant (money ...
that emphasize tuition funding and raising funds from private donors. Considering that "the University of Michigan already has only minimal fiscal ties to the state," the legislature convened a panel in 2008 that recommended converting the University of Michigan from a public to a private institution.
Historical links
The University of Michigan was the first attempt in the New World
The term ''New World'' is often used to mean the majority of Earth's Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas."America." ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (). McArthur, Tom, ed., 1992. New York: Oxford University Press, p. ...
to build a modern university in the European sense. The institution was the clearest and strongest presentation that had yet been made of what, in this country, at once came to be called the " Prussian ideas." It was a radically different approach to higher education; a complete civil system of education, in contradistinction to the ecclesiastical system made out of the colonial colleges
The colonial colleges are nine institutions of higher education chartered in the Thirteen Colonies before the United States of America became a sovereign nation after the American Revolution. These nine have long been considered together, notably ...
. Michigan alumni and faculty members carried this newer concept of the university with them as they founded other institutions. Most notably, Andrew Dixon White
Andrew Dickson White (November 7, 1832 – November 4, 1918) was an American historian and educator who cofounded Cornell University and served as its first president for nearly two decades. He was known for expanding the scope of college curricu ...
and Charles Kendall Adams
Charles Kendall Adams (January 24, 1835 – July 26, 1902) was an American educator and historian. He served as the second president of Cornell University from 1885 until 1892, and as president of the University of Wisconsin from 1892 until 1901. ...
at Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
. Cornell alumni David Starr Jordan
David Starr Jordan (January 19, 1851 – September 19, 1931) was the founding president of Stanford University, serving from 1891 to 1913. He was an ichthyologist during his research career. Prior to serving as president of Stanford Univer ...
and John Casper Branner passed the concept to Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is conside ...
in the Late 19th Century.
Michigan also has many historical links to other American universities through its graduates.
* University of California
The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, University of Califor ...
: had its early planning based upon the University of Michigan.[ Page 138 of this source incorrectly states that the date of the final negotiations in which Governor Low participated was October 8, 1869, but it is clear from the context and the endnotes to that page (which cite documents from 1867) that the reference to 1869 is a typo.]
* University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
: Michigan alumnus Robert Ezra Park
Robert Ezra Park (February 14, 1864 – February 7, 1944) was an American urban sociologist who is considered to be one of the most influential figures in early U.S. sociology. Park was a pioneer in the field of sociology, changing it from a pas ...
played a leading role in the development of the Chicago School of sociology. The University of Chicago Laboratory School was founded in 1896 by John Dewey
John Dewey (; October 20, 1859 – June 1, 1952) was an American philosopher, psychologist, and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. He was one of the most prominent American scholars in the fi ...
and Calvin Brainerd Cady, who were members of the Michigan faculty.
* Cornell University
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to tea ...
: had its Law School
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
founded by Michigan alumni Charles Kendall Adams
Charles Kendall Adams (January 24, 1835 – July 26, 1902) was an American educator and historian. He served as the second president of Cornell University from 1885 until 1892, and as president of the University of Wisconsin from 1892 until 1901. ...
and Harry Burns Hutchins
Harry Burns Hutchins (April 8, 1847 – January 25, 1930) was the fourth president of the University of Michigan (1909–1920).
Biography
On April 8, 1847, Harry B. Hutchins was born in Lisbon, New Hampshire. Hutchins got his education at New Ha ...
.
* Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of highe ...
: Michigan alumnus Edwin Francis Gay was the founding dean of the Harvard Business School
Harvard Business School (HBS) is the graduate business school of Harvard University, a private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. It is consistently ranked among the top business schools in the world and offers a large full-time MBA ...
from 1908 to 1919, instrumental in the school's planning.
* Johns Hopkins University
Johns Hopkins University (Johns Hopkins, Hopkins, or JHU) is a private research university in Baltimore, Maryland. Founded in 1876, Johns Hopkins is the oldest research university in the United States and in the western hemisphere. It consi ...
: had its pharmacology department established by John Jacob Abel
John Jacob Abel (19 May 1857 – 26 May 1938) was an American biochemist and pharmacologist. He established the pharmacology department at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in 1893, and then became America's first full-time professor o ...
, an alumnus of Michigan.
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of th ...
: had its Media Lab, the world's leading research laboratory
A research institute, research centre, research center or research organization, is an establishment founded for doing research. Research institutes may specialize in basic research or may be oriented to applied research. Although the term often im ...
, founded by Michigan alumnus Jerome Wiesner
Jerome Bert Wiesner (May 30, 1915 – October 21, 1994) was a professor of electrical engineering, chosen by President John F. Kennedy as chairman of his Science Advisory Committee (PSAC). Educated at the University of Michigan, Wiesner was asso ...
.
* Northwestern University
Northwestern University is a private research university in Evanston, Illinois. Founded in 1851, Northwestern is the oldest chartered university in Illinois and is ranked among the most prestigious academic institutions in the world.
Charte ...
: Michigan alumnus Henry Wade Rogers
Henry Wade Rogers (October 15, 1853 – August 16, 1926) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Education and career
Born on October 10, 1853, in Holland Patent, New York, Rogers receive ...
was instrumental in transforming Northwestern from a small cluster of colleges into a major, nationally recognized university. His wife, Emma Winner Rogers, founded the Northwestern University Settlement Association.
* Tufts University
Tufts University is a private research university on the border of Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1852 as Tufts College by Christian universalists who sought to provide a nonsectarian institution of higher learning. ...
: had its College of Civic Life founded by John Angelo DiBiaggio, an alumnus of Michigan.
* Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial ...
: Michigan alumna Alice Freeman Palmer
Alice Freeman Palmer (born Alice Elvira Freeman; February 21, 1855 – December 6, 1902) was an American educator. As Alice Freeman, she was president of Wellesley College from 1881 to 1887, when she left to marry the Harvard professor George He ...
, the President of Wellesley College from 1881 to 1887, "transformed the fledgling school from one devoted to Christian domesticity into one of the nation's premier colleges for women."
* Yale University
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the w ...
: had its residential college system co-organized by James Rowland Angell
James Rowland Angell (; May 8, 1869 – March 4, 1949) was an American psychologist and educator who served as the 16th President of Yale University between 1921 and 1937. His father, James Burrill Angell (1829–1916), was president of the Un ...
, a graduate of Michigan. Michigan alumnus Henry Wade Rogers
Henry Wade Rogers (October 15, 1853 – August 16, 1926) was a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.
Education and career
Born on October 10, 1853, in Holland Patent, New York, Rogers receive ...
introduced the "case system" and the college degree requirement into the Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & World ...
.
Campus
The Ann Arbor campus is divided into four main areas: the North, Central, Medical, and South campuses. The physical infrastructure
Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and priv ...
includes more than 500 major buildings, with a combined area of more than . The Central and South Campus areas are contiguous, while the North Campus area is separated from them, primarily by the Huron River. There is also leased space in buildings scattered throughout the city, many occupied by organizations affiliated with the University of Michigan Health System. An East Medical Campus was developed on Plymouth Road, with several university-owned buildings for outpatient care, diagnostics, and outpatient surgery.
In addition to the U-M Golf Course on South Campus, the university operates a second golf course on Geddes Road called Radrick Farms Golf Course. The golf course is only open to faculty, staff and alumni. Another off-campus facility is the Inglis House, which the university has owned since the 1950s. The Inglis House is a mansion used to hold various social events, including meetings of the Board of Regents, and to host visiting dignitaries. The university also operates a large office building called Wolverine Tower in southern Ann Arbor near Briarwood Mall
Briarwood Mall is a shopping mall in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The mall's three anchor stores are Macy's, JCPenney, and Von Maur. Surrounded by office and other development, the mall anchors the southern Ann Arbor commercial area ar ...
. Another major facility is the Matthaei Botanical Gardens
The University of Michigan Matthaei Botanical Gardens (300 acres, 121 hectares) includes botanical gardens, natural areas with trails, and several research-quality habitats and is part of the organization Matthaei Botanical Gardens and Nichols ...
, which is located on the eastern outskirts of Ann Arbor.
All four campus areas are connected by bus services, the majority of which connect the North and Central campuses. There is a shuttle service connecting the University Hospital, which lies between North and Central campuses, with other medical facilities throughout northeastern Ann Arbor.
The 2021 state budget
A government budget is a document prepared by the government and/or other political entity presenting its anticipated tax revenues (Inheritance tax, income tax, corporation tax, import taxes) and proposed spending/expenditure (Healthcare, Educa ...
boosted University of Michigan funding by 5% across all 3 campuses.
The university has also seen increases in their sustainability efforts through climate, energy, food systems, water, and construction.
Central Campus
Central Campus was the original location of U-M when it moved to Ann Arbor in 1837. It originally had a school and dormitory building (where Mason Hall now stands) and several houses for professors on of land bounded by North University Avenue, South University Avenue, East University Avenue, and State Street. The President's House, located on South University Avenue, is the oldest building on campus as well as the only surviving building from the original campus. Because Ann Arbor and Central Campus developed simultaneously, there is no distinct boundary between the city and university, and some areas contain a mixture of private and university buildings. Residence halls located on Central Campus are split up into two groups: the Hill Neighborhood and Central Campus.
Central Campus is the location of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, and is immediately adjacent to the medical campus. Most of the graduate and professional schools, including the Ross School of Business
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...
, the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, the Law School
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
and the School of Dentistry, are on Central Campus. Two prominent libraries, the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library
The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United Stat ...
and the Shapiro Undergraduate Library
The University of Michigan Library is the academic library system of the University of Michigan. The university's 38 constituent and affiliated libraries together make it the second largest research library by number of volumes in the United Stat ...
(which are connected by a skywalk
A skyway, skybridge, skywalk, or sky walkway is an elevated type of pedway connecting two or more buildings in an urban area, or connecting elevated points within mountainous recreational zones. Urban skyways very often take the form of enclos ...
), are also on Central Campus. as well as museums
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...
housing collections in archaeology
Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landsc ...
, anthropology
Anthropology is the scientific study of humanity, concerned with human behavior, human biology, cultures, societies, and linguistics, in both the present and past, including past human species. Social anthropology studies patterns of be ...
, paleontology
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
, zoology
Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, an ...
, dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...
and art. Ten of the buildings on Central Campus were designed by Detroit-based architect Albert Kahn between 1904 and 1936. The most notable of the Kahn-designed buildings are the Burton Memorial Tower
The Burton Memorial Tower is a clock tower located on Central Campus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan, Ann Arbor at 230 North Ingalls Street. Housing a grand carillon, the tower was built in 1936 as a memorial for University ...
and nearby Hill Auditorium
Hill Auditorium is the largest performance venue on the University of Michigan campus, in Ann Arbor, Michigan. The auditorium was named in honor of Arthur Hill (1847-1909), who served as a regent of the university from 1901 to 1909. He bequeath ...
.
North Campus
North Campus is the most contiguous campus, built independently from the city on a large plot of farmland—approximately —that the university bought in 1952. It is newer than Central Campus, and thus has more modernist architecture
Modern architecture, or modernist architecture, was an architectural movement or architectural style based upon new and innovative technologies of construction, particularly the use of glass, steel, and reinforced concrete; the idea that form ...
, whereas most Central Campus buildings are classical or Collegiate Gothic
Collegiate Gothic is an architectural style subgenre of Gothic Revival architecture, popular in the late-19th and early-20th centuries for college and high school buildings in the United States and Canada, and to a certain extent Europ ...
in style. The architect Eero Saarinen
Eero Saarinen (, ; August 20, 1910 – September 1, 1961) was a Finnish-American architect and industrial designer noted for his wide-ranging array of designs for buildings and monuments. Saarinen is best known for designing the General Motors ...
, based in Birmingham, Michigan
Birmingham is a city in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor ( M-1). As of the 2010 census, the population was 20,103.
History
The area comprising what is now the ...
, created one of the early master plans for North Campus and designed several of its buildings in the 1950s, including the Earl V. Moore School of Music Building. North and Central Campuses each have unique bell towers that reflect the predominant architectural styles of their surroundings. Each of the bell towers houses a grand carillon
A carillon ( , ) is a pitched percussion instrument that is played with a keyboard and consists of at least 23 cast-bronze bells. The bells are hung in fixed suspension and tuned in chromatic order so that they can be sounded harmoni ...
, 2 of only 57 globally. The North Campus tower is called Lurie Tower
The Ann and Robert H. Lurie Tower, a memorial built in 1996 for Michigan alumnus Robert H. Lurie, is located on North Campus at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. It houses a 60-bell grand carillon, one of the university's two grand caril ...
. The University of Michigan's largest residence hall, Bursley Hall
Bursley Hall is a University of Michigan residence hall located on the University of Michigan#North Campus, University of Michigan North Campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest dormitory at the University of Michigan, housing approximate ...
, is located on North Campus.
North Campus houses the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, the Stamps School of Art & Design, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning
The A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, also known as Taubman College, is one of the nine professional schools at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
Taubman College offers the following degrees: Bachelor of Science ...
, and an annex of the School of Information This list of information schools, sometimes abbreviated to iSchools, includes members of the iSchools organization.
iSchools organization
The iSchools organization reflects a consortium of over 100 information schools across the globe. iSchools pr ...
. The campus is served by the Duderstadt Center, which houses the Art, Architecture and Engineering Library. The Duderstadt Center also contains multiple computer labs, video editing
Video editing is the manipulation and arrangement of video shots. Video editing is used to structure and present all video information, including films and television shows, video advertisements and video essays. Video editing has been dramatical ...
studios, electronic music studios, an audio studio, a video studio, multimedia workspaces, and a 3D virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...
room. Other libraries located on North Campus include the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and the Bentley Historical Library
The Bentley Historical Library is the campus archive for the University of Michigan and is located on the University of Michigan's North Campus in Ann Arbor. It was established in 1935 by the regents of the University of Michigan. Its mission ...
.
South Campus
South Campus is the site for the athletic programs, including major sports facilities such as Michigan Stadium
Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "The Big House," is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third largest stadium in the world, and the ...
, Crisler Center
Crisler Center (formerly known as the University Events Building and Crisler Arena) is an indoor arena located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the home arena for the University of Michigan's men's and women's basketball teams as well as its women's ...
, and Yost Ice Arena. South Campus is also the site of the Buhr library storage facility, Revelli Hall, home of the Michigan Marching Band
The Michigan Marching Band (also known as the University of Michigan Marching Band or simply MMB) is the official marching band of the University of Michigan. The band performs at all Michigan Wolverines football home games, select away games, and ...
, the Institute for Continuing Legal Education, and the Student Theatre Arts Complex, which provides shop and rehearsal space for student theatre groups. The university's departments of public safety and transportation services offices are located on South Campus.
U-M's golf course is located south of Michigan Stadium and Crisler Center. It was designed in the late 1920s by Alister MacKenzie
Alister MacKenzie (30 August 1870 – 6 January 1934) was a golf course architect whose course designs span four continents. Originally trained as a surgeon, MacKenzie served as a civilian physician with the British Army during the Boer War ...
, the designer of Augusta National Golf Club
Augusta National Golf Club, sometimes referred to as Augusta or the National, is a golf club in Augusta, Georgia, United States. Unlike most private clubs which operate as non-profits, Augusta National is a for-profit corporation, and it does ...
in Augusta, Georgia
Augusta ( ), officially Augusta–Richmond County, is a consolidated city-county on the central eastern border of the U.S. state of Georgia. The city lies across the Savannah River from South Carolina at the head of its navigable portion. Geor ...
, home of the Masters Tournament
The Masters Tournament (usually referred to as simply The Masters, or the U.S. Masters outside North America) is one of the four major championships in professional golf. Scheduled for the first full week of April, the Masters is the first ma ...
. The course opened to the public in the spring of 1931. The University of Michigan Golf Course was included in a listing of top holes designed by what ''Sports Illustrated
''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence tw ...
'' calls "golf's greatest course architect". The U-M Golf Course's signature No. 6 hole—a par 4, which plays from an elevated tee to a two-tiered, kidney-shaped green protected by four bunkers—is the second hole on the Alister MacKenzie Dream 18 as selected by a five-person panel that includes three-time Masters champion Nick Faldo
Sir Nicholas Alexander Faldo, (born 18 July 1957) is an English retired professional golfer and television commentator. A top player of his era, renowned for his dedication to the game, he was ranked No. 1 on the Official World Golf Ranking fo ...
and golf course architect Tom Doak. The listing of "the best holes ever designed by Augusta National architect Alister MacKenzie" is featured in SI's Golf Plus special edition previewing the Masters on April 4, 2006.
Organization and administration
The University of Michigan consists of a flagship campus in Ann Arbor, with two regional campuses in Dearborn and Flint
Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start ...
. The Board of Regents, which governs the university and was established by the Organic Act of March 18, 1837, consists of eight members elected at large in biennial state elections for overlapping eight-year terms. Between the establishment of the University of Michigan in 1837 and 1850, the Board of Regents ran the university directly; although they were, by law, supposed to appoint a Chancellor to administer the university, they never did. Instead, a rotating roster of professors carried out the day-to-day administration duties.
The President of the University of Michigan
The president of the University of Michigan is a constitutional officer who serves as the principal executive officer of the University of Michigan. The president is chosen by the Board of Regents of the University of Michigan, as provided for ...
is the principal executive officer of the university. The office was created by the Michigan Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Michigan is the governing document of the U.S. state of Michigan. It describes the structure and function of the state's government.
There have been four constitutions approved by the people of Michigan. The fi ...
of 1850, which also specified that the president was to be appointed by the Regents of the University of Michigan and preside at their meetings, but without a vote.[State of Michigan, 1850, Article 13, section 8] Today, the president's office is at the Ann Arbor campus, and the president has the privilege of living in the President's House, the university's oldest building, located on Central Campus in Ann Arbor. Mark Schlissel
Mark Steven Schlissel (born November 24, 1957) is an American medical scientist and academic administrator who served as the 14th president of the University of Michigan from 2014 to 2022.
Schlissel's initial contract with the University of M ...
was the 14th president of the university and served in that role from July 2014 to January 2022. Schlissel was fired by the board after an investigation determined he "may have been involved in an inappropriate relationship with an employee of the university". Mary Sue Coleman
Mary Sue Wilson Coleman (born October 2, 1943) is an American chemist and academic administrator who served as the president of the University of Iowa from 1995 to 2002, the 13th president of the University of Michigan from 2002 to 2014, and a ...
, who previously had served as Michigan's president from 2002 to 2014, is serving as interim president subsequent to Dr. Schlissel's dismissal.
There are thirteen undergraduate schools and colleges. By enrollment, the three largest undergraduate units are the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
, and the Ross School of Business
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...
. At the graduate level, the Rackham Graduate School
The Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, commonly known as the Rackham Graduate School, is the graduate school of the University of Michigan. Founded in 1912 with an endowment from Mary Rackham in 1935, the Rackham Graduate School is res ...
serves as the central administrative unit of graduate education at the university. There are 18 graduate schools and colleges, the largest of which are the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, the College of Engineering, the Law School, and the Ross School of Business. Professional degrees are conferred by the Schools of Architecture, Public Health, Dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the teeth, gums, and mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, disorders, and conditions of ...
, Law, Medicine
Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...
, Urban Planning and Pharmacy.[ The Medical School is partnered with the ]University of Michigan Health System
Michigan Medicine (University of Michigan Health System or UMHS before 2017) is the wholly owned academic medical center of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Michigan Medicine includes the Universi ...
, which comprises the university's three hospitals, dozens of outpatient clinics, and many centers for medical care, research, and education.
Student government
Housed in the Michigan Union, the Central Student Government (CSG) is the central student government of the university. With representatives from each of the university's colleges and schools, including graduate students, CSG represents students and manages student funds on the campus. CSG is a 501(c)(3) organization, independent from the University of Michigan. In recent years CSG has organized Airbus, a transportation service between campus and the Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport, and has led the university's efforts to register its student population to vote, with its Voice Your Vote Commission (VYV) registering 10,000 students in 2004. VYV also works to improve access to non-partisan voting-related information and increase student voter turnout. CSG was successful at reviving Homecoming
Homecoming is the tradition of welcoming back alumni or other former members of an organization to celebrate the organization's existence. It is a tradition in many high schools, colleges, and churches in the United States, Canada and Liberia. ...
activities, including a carnival and parade, for students after a roughly eleven-year absence in October 2007, and during the 2013–14 school year, was instrumental in persuading the university to rescind an unpopular change in student football seating policy at Michigan Stadium. In 2017, CSG successfully petitioned the Ann Arbor City Council to create a Student Advisory Council to give student input into Ann Arbor city affairs.
There are student governance bodies in each college and school, independent of Central Student Government. Undergraduate students in the LS&A are represented by the LS&A Student Government (LSA SG). Engineering Student Government (ESG) manages undergraduate student government affairs for the College of Engineering. Graduate students enrolled in the Rackham Graduate School are represented by the Rackham Student Government (RSG), and law students are represented by the Law School Student Senate (LSSS) as is each other college with its own respective government. In addition, the students who live in the residence halls are represented by the University of Michigan Residence Halls Association (RHA), which contains the third most constituents after CSG and LSA SG.
A longstanding goal of the student government is to create a student-designated seat on the Board of Regents, the university's governing body. Such a designation would achieve parity with other Big Ten schools that have student regents. In 2000, students Nick Waun and Scott Trudeau ran for the board on the statewide ballot as third-party nominees. Waun ran for a second time in 2002, along with Matt Petering and Susan Fawcett. Although none of these campaigns has been successful, a poll conducted by the State of Michigan in 1998 concluded that a majority of Michigan voters would approve of such a position if the measure were put before them. A change to the board's makeup would require amending the Michigan Constitution
The Constitution of the State of Michigan is the governing document of the U.S. state of Michigan. It describes the structure and function of the state's government.
There have been four constitutions approved by the people of Michigan. The fi ...
.
Finances
, U-M's financial endowment
A financial endowment is a legal structure for managing, and in many cases indefinitely perpetuating, a pool of financial, real estate, or other investments for a specific purpose according to the will of its founders and donors. Endowments are o ...
(the "University Endowment Fund") was valued at $12.4 billion. The endowment is primarily used according to the donors' wishes, which include the support of teaching and research. In mid-2000, U-M embarked on a fund-raising campaign called "The Michigan Difference", which aimed to raise $2.5 billion, with $800 million designated for the permanent endowment. Slated to run through December 2008, the university announced that the campaign had reached its target 19 months early in May 2007. Ultimately, the campaign raised $3.2 billion over 8 years. Over the course of the capital campaign, 191 additional professorships were endowed, bringing the university total to 471 . Like nearly all colleges and universities, U-M suffered significant realized and unrealized losses in its endowment during the second half of 2008. In February 2009, a university spokesperson estimated losses of between 20 and 30 percent. The university achieved the fourth-highest overall research publication output among American research universities in the 2020 Nature Index The Nature Index is a database that tracks institutions and countries and their scientific output since its introduction in November, 2014. Each year, Nature Index ranks the leading institutions (which can be companies, universities, government agen ...
, behind Harvard
Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...
, Stanford
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. S ...
and MIT.
In the 1980s, the university received increased grants for research in the social and physical sciences. During the 1980s and 1990s, the university devoted substantial resources to renovating its massive hospital complex and improving the academic facilities on the North Campus. In its 2011 annual financial report, the university announced that it had dedicated $497 million per year in each of the prior 10 years to renovate buildings and infrastructure around the campus. In the early 2000s, Michigan faced declining state funding due to state budget shortfalls. In fact, the university did not receive direct state appropriations until 1867, and for most of its history, state support has been limited. James Duderstadt, Michigan president from 1988 to 1996, had argued for years that it was a misnomer to call schools like the University of Michigan "state universities." The state's annual contribution to the school's operating budget was less than 6%. "The state is our smallest minority shareholder," he said. In 2011 less than 5% of its support comes from state appropriations, a number continued to drop still further in the years ahead. Between the years 2000 and 2008, the university was engaged in a $2.5 billion capital raising campaign which, after an eight-year duration, raised $3.11 billion, at the time a record for a US public university.
Academics
The University of Michigan is a large, four-year, residential research university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission
The Higher Learning Commission (HLC) is an institutional accreditor in the United States. It has historically accredited post-secondary education institutions in the central United States: Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Illinois, Indiana, Io ...
. The four-year, full-time undergraduate program comprises the majority of enrollments and emphasizes instruction in the arts, sciences, and professions with a high level of coexistence between graduate and undergraduate programs. The university has "very high" research activity and the comprehensive graduate program offers doctoral degrees in the humanities, social sciences, and STEM fields
Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is an umbrella term used to group together the distinct but related technical disciplines of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The term is typically used in the context of ...
as well as professional degrees in medicine, law, and dentistry. U-M has been included on Richard Moll
Charles Richard Moll (born January 13, 1943) is an American actor. He played the role of Aristotle Nostradamus "Bull" Shannon, a bailiff on the NBC sitcom '' Night Court'' from 1984 to 1992. He has also done extensive work as a voice actor, typica ...
's list of Public Ivies
"Public Ivy" is a term that refers to prestigious public colleges and universities in the United States that provide a collegiate experience similar to those in the Ivy League.Richard Moll in his book ''Public Ivys: A Guide to America's best pub ...
. With over 200 undergraduate majors, and 100 doctoral and 90 master's programs, U-M conferred 6,490 undergraduate degrees, 4,951 graduate degrees, and 709 first professional degrees in 2011–2012.
The 2021 ''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Colleges report ranked Michigan 3rd among public universities in the United States. Michigan was ranked 6th in the 2021 ''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Undergraduate Engineering Programs Rankings. Michigan was ranked 3rd in the 2021 ''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Undergraduate Business Programs Rankings. The 2020 ''Princeton Review'' College Hopes & Worries Survey ranked Michigan as the No. 9 "Dream College" among students and the No. 7 "Dream College" among parents. The 2022-23 edition of the CWUR rankings ranked Michigan 12th nationally and 15th globally
Research
Michigan is one of the founding members (in the year 1900) of the Association of American Universities
The Association of American Universities (AAU) is an organization of American research universities devoted to maintaining a strong system of academic research and education. Founded in 1900, it consists of 63 universities in the United States ( ...
. With over 6,200 faculty members, 73 of whom are members of the National Academy
A national academy is an organizational body, usually operating with state financial support and approval, that co-ordinates scholarly research activities and standards for academic disciplines, most frequently in the sciences but also the hu ...
and 471 of whom hold an endowed chair in their discipline, the university manages one of the largest annual collegiate research budgets of any university in the United States. According to the National Science Foundation
The National Science Foundation (NSF) is an independent agency of the United States government that supports fundamental research and education in all the non-medical fields of science and engineering. Its medical counterpart is the National ...
, Michigan spent $1.6 billion on research and development in 2018, ranking it 2nd in the nation. This figure totaled over $1 billion in 2009. The Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...
spent the most at over $445 million, while the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
was second at more than $160 million. U-M also has a technology transfer
Technology transfer (TT), also called transfer of technology (TOT), is the process of transferring (disseminating) technology from the person or organization that owns or holds it to another person or organization, in an attempt to transform invent ...
office, which is the university conduit between laboratory research and corporate commercialization interests.
In 2009, the university signed an agreement to purchase a facility formerly owned by Pfizer
Pfizer Inc. ( ) is an American multinational pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporation headquartered on 42nd Street in Manhattan, New York City. The company was established in 1849 in New York by two German entrepreneurs, Charles Pfize ...
. The acquisition includes over of property, and 30 major buildings comprising roughly of wet laboratory space, and of administrative space. At the time of the agreement, the university's intentions for the space were not fully articulated, but the expectation was that the new space would allow the university to ramp up its research and ultimately employ in excess of 2,000 people.
The university is also a major contributor to the medical field with the EKG and the gastroscope. The university's biological station in the Northern Lower Peninsula of Michigan is one of only 47 Biosphere Reserves
Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) is an intergovernmental scientific program, launched in 1971 by UNESCO, that aims to establish a scientific basis for the improvement of relationships between people and their environments.
MAB's work engag ...
in the United States.
In the mid-1960s U-M researchers worked with IBM to develop a new virtual memory
In computing, virtual memory, or virtual storage is a memory management technique that provides an "idealized abstraction of the storage resources that are actually available on a given machine" which "creates the illusion to users of a very ...
architectural model that model became part of IBM's Model 360/67 mainframe computer
A mainframe computer, informally called a mainframe or big iron, is a computer used primarily by large organizations for critical applications like bulk data processing for tasks such as censuses, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise ...
(the 360/67 was initially dubbed the 360/65M where the "M" stood for Michigan). The Michigan Terminal System
The Michigan Terminal System (MTS) is one of the first time-sharing computer operating systems.. Developed in 1967 at the University of Michigan for use on IBM S/360-67, S/370 and compatible mainframe computers, it was developed and used by a ...
(MTS), an early time-sharing
In computing, time-sharing is the sharing of a computing resource among many users at the same time by means of multiprogramming and multi-tasking.DEC Timesharing (1965), by Peter Clark, The DEC Professional, Volume 1, Number 1
Its emergence ...
computer operating system
An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware, software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs.
Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ef ...
developed at U-M, was the first system outside of IBM to use the 360/67's virtual memory features.
U-M is home to the National Election Studies and the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index. The Correlates of War The Correlates of War project is an academic study of the history of warfare. It was started in 1963 at the University of Michigan by political scientist J. David Singer. Concerned with collecting data about the history of wars and conflict among ...
project, also located at U-M, is an accumulation of scientific knowledge about war. The university is also home to major research centers in optics
Optics is the branch of physics that studies the behaviour and properties of light, including its interactions with matter and the construction of instruments that use or detect it. Optics usually describes the behaviour of visible, ultrav ...
, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, wireless integrated microsystems
Wireless communication (or just wireless, when the context allows) is the transfer of information between two or more points without the use of an electrical conductor, optical fiber or other continuous guided medium for the transfer. The most ...
, and social sciences. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Life Sciences Institute are located at the university. The Institute for Social Research
The Institute for Social Research (german: Institut für Sozialforschung, IfS) is a research organization for sociology and continental philosophy, best known as the institutional home of the Frankfurt School and critical theory. Currently a pa ...
(ISR), the nation's longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences, is home to the Survey Research Center, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Center for Political Studies, Population Studies Center, and Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research. Undergraduate students are able to participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program
An Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program provides funding and/or credit to undergraduate students who volunteer for faculty-mentored research projects pertaining to all academic disciplines.
Participating universities
Universities involved ...
(UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.
The U-M library system comprises nineteen individual libraries with twenty-four separate collections—roughly 13.3 million volumes as of 2012. U-M was the original home of the JSTOR
JSTOR (; short for ''Journal Storage'') is a digital library founded in 1995 in New York City. Originally containing digitized back issues of academic journals, it now encompasses books and other primary sources as well as current issues of j ...
database, which contains about 750,000 digitized pages from the entire pre-1990 backfile of ten journals of history and economics, and has initiated a book digitization program in collaboration with Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
. The University of Michigan Press
The University of Michigan Press is part of Michigan Publishing at the University of Michigan Library. It publishes 170 new titles each year in the humanities and social sciences. Titles from the press have earned numerous awards, including ...
is also a part of the U-M library system.
In the late 1960s U-M, together with Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
and Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
, founded the Merit Network
Merit Network, Inc., is a nonprofit member-governed organization providing high-performance computer networking and related services to educational, government, health care, and nonprofit organizations, primarily in Michigan. Created in 1966, ...
, one of the first university computer networks. The Merit Network was then and remains today administratively hosted by U-M. Another major contribution took place in 1987 when a proposal submitted by the Merit Network together with its partners IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan
Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...
won a national competition to upgrade and expand the National Science Foundation Network
The National Science Foundation Network (NSFNET) was a program of coordinated, evolving projects sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF) from 1985 to 1995 to promote advanced research and education networking in the United States. The p ...
(NSFNET) backbone from 56,000 to 1.5 million, and later to 45 million bits per second. In 2006, U-M joined with Michigan State University
Michigan State University (Michigan State, MSU) is a public land-grant research university in East Lansing, Michigan. It was founded in 1855 as the Agricultural College of the State of Michigan, the first of its kind in the United States. It ...
and Wayne State University
Wayne State University (WSU) is a public research university in Detroit, Michigan. It is Michigan's third-largest university. Founded in 1868, Wayne State consists of 13 schools and colleges offering approximately 350 programs to nearly 25,000 ...
to create the University Research Corridor. This effort was undertaken to highlight the capabilities of the state's three leading research institutions and drive the transformation of Michigan's economy. The three universities are electronically interconnected via the Michigan LambdaRail (MiLR, pronounced 'MY-lar'), a high-speed data network providing 10 Gbit/s connections between the three university campuses and other national and international network connection points in Chicago.
In May 2021, the university announced plans to cut carbon emissions from its campuses. The plan covers all of its operations and goals include removing emissions from direct, on-campus sources by 2040.
Student body
Undergraduate admissions
The requirements for admission to the freshman class were first published in August 1841, with fluency in ancient languages, such as Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
and Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
, being among the many requirements. Candidates for admission to the freshman class were examined in English grammar
English grammar is the set of structural rules of the English language. This includes the structure of words, phrases, clauses, sentences, and whole texts.
This article describes a generalized, present-day Standard English – a form of spee ...
, geography
Geography (from Greek: , ''geographia''. Combination of Greek words ‘Geo’ (The Earth) and ‘Graphien’ (to describe), literally "earth description") is a field of science devoted to the study of the lands, features, inhabitants, an ...
, arithmetic
Arithmetic () is an elementary part of mathematics that consists of the study of the properties of the traditional operations on numbers— addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, exponentiation, and extraction of roots. In the 19th ...
, algebra
Algebra () is one of the broad areas of mathematics. Roughly speaking, algebra is the study of mathematical symbols and the rules for manipulating these symbols in formulas; it is a unifying thread of almost all of mathematics.
Elementary ...
, Virgil, Cicero's Select Orations, Jacob's or Felton's Greek Reader, Andrews and Stoddard's Latin Grammar, and Sophocles's Greek Grammar. In 1851, the university dropped the requirement for students who did not wish to pursue the usual collegiate course embracing the ancient languages, permitting their admission without examination in such languages. This provision may be considered a prelude to scientific education.
Requirements for admission varied from department to department in the early days, and admissions were mostly given by referral. Candidates were required to do no more than satisfying professors on such inquiry as professors saw fit to make of their ability to do the work to obtain admission to the university. Such a practice was deemed flawed, eventually leading to corruption
Corruption is a form of dishonesty or a criminal offense which is undertaken by a person or an organization which is entrusted in a position of authority, in order to acquire illicit benefits or abuse power for one's personal gain. Corruption m ...
. In 1863, a rigid generalized entrance examination was imposed, creating one standard of qualifications for admission to all the departments, academical and professional. The early administration praised the then-new practice for its role in strengthening admission to the university. The entrance examination
An entrance examination is an examination that educational institutions conduct to select prospective students for admission. It may be held at any stage of education, from primary to tertiary, even though it is typically held at tertiary stage.
...
imposed in 1863 had played a significant role in the admission process during the 19th century until the emergence of the nationwide standardized tests
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a predet ...
, which were not offered until 1900.
Admission is based on academic prowess, extracurricular activities, and personal qualities. ''U.S. News & World Report'' rates Michigan "Most Selective" and The Princeton Review rates its admissions selectivity of 96 out of 99. Admissions are characterized as "more selective, lower transfer-in" according to the Carnegie Classification.
Michigan received over 83,000 applications for a place in the 2021–22 freshman class, making it one of the most applied-to universities in the United States. In recent years, annual numbers of applications for freshman admission have exceeded 83,000. Around 16,000 students are offered admission annually, with a target freshman class of more than 7,000 students. Students come from all 50 U.S. state
In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sove ...
s and nearly 100 countries. In academic year 2019–20 full-time undergraduate students made up about 97 percent of the undergraduate student body, with a first-time student retention rate of almost 97 percent.[
In 2003, two lawsuits involving U-M's affirmative action admissions policy reached the U.S. Supreme Court ('' Grutter v. Bollinger'' and '']Gratz v. Bollinger
''Gratz v. Bollinger'', 539 U.S. 244 (2003), was a United States Supreme Court case regarding the University of Michigan undergraduate affirmative action admissions policy. In a 6–3 decision announced on June 23, 2003, Chief Justice Rehnq ...
''). President George W. Bush publicly opposed the policy before the court issued a ruling. The court found that race may be considered as a factor in university admissions in all public universities and private universities that accept federal funding, but it ruled that a point system was unconstitutional. In the first case, the court upheld the Law School
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
admissions policy, while in the second it ruled against the university's undergraduate admissions policy. The debate continued because in November 2006, Michigan voters passed Proposal 2, banning most affirmative action in university admissions. Under that law, race, gender, and national origin can no longer be considered in admissions. U-M and other organizations were granted a stay from implementation of the law soon after that referendum. This allowed time for proponents of affirmative action to decide legal and constitutional options in response to the initiative results. In April 2014, the Supreme Court ruled in '' Schuette v. Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action'' that Proposal 2 did not violate the U.S. Constitution. The admissions office states that it will attempt to achieve a diverse student body by looking at other factors, such as whether the student attended a disadvantaged school, and the level of education of the student's parents.
Enrollment
In Fall 2016, the university had an enrollment of 44,718 students: 28,983 undergraduate students
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-l ...
, 12,565 graduate student
Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree.
The organization and s ...
s and 2,665 first professional students[ in a total of 600 academic programs. Of all students, 37,954 (84.9%) are U.S. citizens or ]permanent residents
Permanent residency is a person's legal resident status in a country or territory of which such person is not a citizen but where they have the right to reside on a permanent basis. This is usually for a permanent period; a person with such ...
and 6,764 (15.1%) are international student
International students, or foreign students, are students who undertake all or part of their tertiary education in a country other than their own and move to that country for the purpose of studying.
In 2019, there were over 6 million internati ...
s.[
In 2014, undergraduates were enrolled in 12 schools or colleges: About 61 percent in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts; 21 percent in the ]College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
; 5.3 percent in the Ross School of Business
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...
; 3.3 percent in the School of Kinesiology; 2.7 percent in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance; and 2 percent in the School of Nursing. Small numbers of undergraduates were enrolled in the colleges or schools of Art & Design, Architecture & Urban Planning, Dentistry, Education, Pharmacy, and Public Policy.[ In 2014, the ]School of Information This list of information schools, sometimes abbreviated to iSchools, includes members of the iSchools organization.
iSchools organization
The iSchools organization reflects a consortium of over 100 information schools across the globe. iSchools pr ...
opened to undergraduates, with the new Bachelor of Science in Information degree. Among undergraduates, 70 percent graduate with a bachelor's degree within four years, 86 percent graduate within five years and 88 percent graduating within six years.
Of the university's 12,714 non-professional graduate students, 5,367 are seeking academic doctorates and 6,821 are seeking master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. s. The largest number of master's degree students are enrolled in the Ross School of Business
The Stephen M. Ross School of Business, also known as Michigan Ross, is the business school of the University of Michigan, a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Founded in 1924, the school is ranked among the best business schools i ...
(1,812 students seeking MBA or Master of Accounting
The Master of Accountancy (MAcc, MAcy, or MAccy), alternatively Master of Science in Accounting (MSA or MSAcy) or Master of Professional Accountancy (MPAcy, MPAcc or MPAc), is a graduate professional degree designed to prepare students for public ...
degrees) and the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
(1,456 students seeking M.S.
A Master of Science ( la, Magisterii Scientiae; abbreviated MS, M.S., MSc, M.Sc., SM, S.M., ScM or Sc.M.) is a master's degree in the field of science awarded by universities in many countries or a person holding such a degree. In contrast to ...
or M.Eng. degrees). The largest number of doctoral students are enrolled in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (2,076) and College of Engineering (1,496). While the majority of U-M's graduate degree-granting schools and colleges have both undergraduate and graduate students, a few schools only issue graduate degrees. Presently, the School for Environment and Sustainability, School of Public Health, and School of Social Work
A school is an educational institution designed to provide learning spaces and learning environments for the teaching of students under the direction of teachers. Most countries have systems of formal education, which is sometimes compuls ...
only have graduate students.[
In Fall 2014, 3,411 Michigan students were enrolled in U-M's ]professional school
Professional development is learning to earn or maintain professional credentials such as academic degrees to formal coursework, attending conferences, and informal learning opportunities situated in practice. It has been described as intensive ...
s: the School of Dentistry (628 students), Law School
A law school (also known as a law centre or college of law) is an institution specializing in legal education, usually involved as part of a process for becoming a lawyer within a given jurisdiction.
Law degrees Argentina
In Argentina, ...
(1,047 students), Medical School
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution, or part of such an institution, that teaches medicine, and awards a professional degree for physicians. Such medical degrees include the Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS, ...
(1,300 students), and College of Pharmacy (436 students).
Student life
Residential life
The University of Michigan's campus housing system can accommodate approximately 10,000 students, or nearly 25 percent of the total student population at the university. The residence halls are located in three distinct geographic areas on campus: Central Campus, Hill Area (between Central Campus and the University of Michigan Medical Center) and North Campus. Family housing is located on North Campus and mainly serves graduate students. The largest residence hall has a capacity of 1,270 students, while the smallest accommodates 25 residents. A majority of upper-division and graduate students live in off-campus apartments, houses, and cooperatives
A cooperative (also known as co-operative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically-contro ...
, with the largest concentrations in the Central and South Campus areas.
The residential system has a number of "living-learning communities" where academic activities and residential life are combined. These communities focus on areas such as research through the Michigan Research and Discovery Scholars, medical sciences, community service
Community service is unpaid work performed by a person or group of people for the benefit and betterment of their community without any form of compensation. Community service can be distinct from volunteering, since it is not always performe ...
and the German language
German ( ) is a West Germanic language mainly spoken in Central Europe. It is the most widely spoken and official or co-official language in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the Italian province of South Tyrol. It is also a ...
. The Michigan Research and Discovery Scholars and the Women in Science and Engineering Residence Program are housed in Mosher-Jordan Hall. The Residential College (RC), a living-learning community that is a division of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, also has its principal instructional space in East Quad. The Michigan Community Scholars Program, dedicated to civic engagement, community service learning and intercultural understanding and dialogue, is located in West Quad. The Lloyd Hall Scholars Program (LHSP) is located in Alice Lloyd Hall. The Health Sciences Scholars Program (HSSP) is located in Couzens Hall. The North Quad complex houses two additional living-learning communities: the Global Scholars Program and the Max Kade German Program. It is "technology-rich," and houses communication-related programs, including the School of Information This list of information schools, sometimes abbreviated to iSchools, includes members of the iSchools organization.
iSchools organization
The iSchools organization reflects a consortium of over 100 information schools across the globe. iSchools pr ...
, the Department of Communication Studies, and the Department of Screen Arts and Cultures. North Quad is also home to services such as the Language Resource Center and the Sweetland Center for Writing.
The residential system also has a number of "theme communities" where students have the opportunity to be surrounded by students in a residential hall who share similar interests. These communities focus on global leadership, the college transition experience, and internationalism. The Adelia Cheever Program is housed in the Helen Newberry House. The First Year Experience is housed in the Baits II Houses and Markley Hall along with portions of all other buildings with the exception of North Quad, Northwood, and Stockwell Hall. The Sophomore Experience is housed in Stockwell Hall and the Transfer Year Experience is housed in Northwood III. The newly organized International Impact program is housed in North Quad.
Groups and activities
The university lists 1,438 student organizations. With a history of student activism, some of the most visible groups include those dedicated to causes such as civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life ...
and labor rights
Labor rights or workers' rights are both legal rights and human rights relating to labor relations between workers and employers. These rights are codified in national and international labor and employment law. In general, these rights infl ...
, such as local chapters of Students for a Democratic Society
Students for a Democratic Society (SDS) was a national student activist organization in the United States during the 1960s, and was one of the principal representations of the New Left. Disdaining permanent leaders, hierarchical relationships ...
and United Students Against Sweatshops (USAS). The latter group seeks to hold accountable multinational companies that exploit their workers in factories around the world where college apparel is produced. Although the student body generally leans toward left-wing politics
Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in ...
, there are also conservative groups, such as Young Americans for Freedom
Young Americans for Freedom (YAF) is a conservative youth activism organization that was founded in 1960 as a coalition between traditional conservatives and libertarians on American college campuses. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizati ...
, and non-partisan groups, such as the Roosevelt Institute.
There are also several engineering projects teams, including the University of Michigan Solar Car Team, which has placed first in the North American Solar Challenge six times and third in the World Solar Challenge
The World Solar Challenge (WSC), since 2013 named Bridgestone World Solar Challenge, is an international event for solar powered cars driving 3000 kilometres through the Australian outback.
With the exception of a four-year gap between ...
four times. Michigan Interactive Investments, the TAMID Israel Investment Group, and the Michigan Economics Society are also affiliated with the university.
The university also showcases many community service organizations and charitable projects, including Foundation for International Medical Relief of Children, Dance Marathon at the University of Michigan, The Detroit Partnership, Relay For Life, U-M Stars for the Make-A-Wish Foundation, InnoWorks at the University of Michigan, SERVE, Letters to Success, PROVIDES, Circle K
Circle K Stores, Inc. is a Canadian chain of convenience stores headquartered in Laval, Quebec, Canada. It is owned by the multinational company Couche-Tard. Founded in 1951 in El Paso, Texas, the company filed for bankruptcy protection in ...
, Habitat for Humanity
Habitat for Humanity International (HFHI), generally referred to as Habitat for Humanity or Habitat, is a US non-governmental, and nonprofit organization which was founded in 1976 by couple Millard and Linda Fuller. Habitat for Humanity is a C ...
, and Ann Arbor Reaching Out. Intramural sports are popular, and there are recreation facilities for each of the three campuses.
Fraternities and sororities
Fraternities and sororities are social organizations at colleges and universities in North America.
Generally, membership in a fraternity or sorority is obtained as an undergraduate student, but continues thereafter for life. Some accept grad ...
play a role in the university's social life; approximately seven percent of undergraduate men and 16% of undergraduate women are active in the Greek system. Four different Greek councils—the Interfraternity Council, Multicultural Greek Council, National Pan-Hellenic Council
The National Pan-Hellenic Council (NPHC) is a collaborative umbrella council composed of historically African American fraternities and sororities also referred to as Black Greek Letter Organizations (BGLOs). The NPHC was formed as a permanent ...
, and Panhellenic Association—represent most Greek organizations. Each council has a different recruitment process.
The Michigan Union and Michigan League are student activity centers located on Central Campus; Pierpont Commons is on North Campus. The Michigan Union houses a majority of student groups, including the student government. The William Monroe Trotter House, located east of Central Campus, is a multicultural student center operated by the university's Office of Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs. The University Activities Center (UAC) is a student-run programming organization and is composed of 14 committees. Each group involves students in the planning and execution of a variety of events both on and off campus.
The Michigan Marching Band
The Michigan Marching Band (also known as the University of Michigan Marching Band or simply MMB) is the official marching band of the University of Michigan. The band performs at all Michigan Wolverines football home games, select away games, and ...
, composed of more than 350 students from almost all of U-M's schools, is the university's marching band
A marching band is a group of instrumental musicians who perform while marching, often for entertainment or competition. Instrumentation typically includes brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Most marching bands wear a uniform, o ...
. Over 125 years old (with a first performance in 1897), the band performs at every home football game and travels to at least one away game a year. The student-run and led University of Michigan Pops Orchestra
The Michigan Pops Orchestra is a pops orchestra made up of students at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Of the several orchestras at the University of Michigan, it is the only one that is entirely student-run and student-directed.
The Mic ...
is another musical ensemble that attracts students from all academic backgrounds. It performs regularly in the Michigan Theater. The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club
The University of Michigan Men's Glee Club is an all-male glee club (or choir) at the University of Michigan. With roots tracing back to 1859, it is the second oldest glee club in the United States and is the oldest student organization at the ...
, founded in 1859 and the second oldest such group in the country, is a men's chorus with over 100 members. Its eight-member subset a cappella
''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...
group, the University of Michigan Friars, which was founded in 1955, is the oldest currently running ''a cappella'' group on campus. The University of Michigan is also home to over twenty other a cappella groups, including Amazin' Blue, The Michigan G-Men, and Compulsive Lyres
The Compulsive Lyres is an a cappella group at the University of Michigan. The group includes both music and non-music majors and sings various arrangements of pop, rock, and R&B songs.
The Compulsive Lyres won the International Championship o ...
, all of which have competed at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) finals in New York City. Compulsive Lyres are the first and only group from Michigan to claim an ICCA title, having won in 2002. The Michigan G-Men are one of only six groups in the country to compete at ICCA finals four times, one of only two TTBB ensembles to do so, and placed third at the competition in 2015. Amazin' Blue placed fourth at ICCA finals in 2017. In 2020, The A Cappella Archive ranked The Michigan G-Men and Amazin' Blue at #7 and #13, respectively, out of all groups that have ever competed in ICCA.
National honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa
The Phi Beta Kappa Society () is the oldest academic honor society in the United States, and the most prestigious, due in part to its long history and academic selectivity. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal ...
, Phi Kappa Phi
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi (or simply Phi Kappa Phi or ) is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education ...
, and Tau Beta Pi
The Tau Beta Pi Association (commonly Tau Beta Pi, , or TBP) is the oldest engineering honor society and the second oldest collegiate honor society in the United States. It honors engineering students in American universities who have shown a ...
have chapters at U-M. Degrees "with Highest Distinction" are recommended to students who rank in the top 3% of their class, "with High Distinction" to the next 7%, and "with Distinction" to the next 15%. Students earning a minimum overall GPA of 3.4 who have demonstrated high academic achievement and capacity for independent work may be recommended for a degree "with Highest Honors," "with High Honors," or "with Honors." Those students who earn all A's for two or more consecutive terms in a calendar year are recognized as James B. Angell
James Burrill Angell (January 7, 1829 – April 1, 1916) was an American educator and diplomat. He is best known for being the longest-serving president of the University of Michigan, from 1871 to 1909. He represented the transition from sm ...
Scholars and are invited to attend the annual Honors Convocation, an event which recognizes undergraduate students with distinguished academic achievements.
The University of Michigan also encourages many cultural and ethnic student organizations on campus. There are currently over 317 organizations under this category. There are organizations for almost every culture from the Arab Student Association to Persian Student Association to African Students Association to even the Egyptian Student Association. These organizations hope to promote various aspects of their culture along with raising political and social awareness around campus by hosting an assortment of events throughout the school year. These clubs also help students make this large University into a smaller community to help find people with similar interests and backgrounds.
Collegiate secret societies
The University of Michigan hosts three secret societies: Michigauma, Adara, and the Vulcans. Michigauma and Adara were once under the umbrella group "The Tower Society", the name referring to their historical locations in the Michigan Union tower. Michigauma was all-male while Adara was all-female, although both later became co-ed.
* Michigauma, more recently known as the Order of Angell, was formed in 1902 by a group of seniors in coordination with University president James Burrill Angell. The group disbanded itself in 2021 due to public concerns about elitism and the society's history. The group was granted a lease for the top floor of the Michigan Union tower in 1932, which they referred to as the "tomb," but the society vacated the space in 2000. Until more recent reforms, the group's rituals were inspired by the culture of Native Americans. Some factions on campus identified Michigauma as a secret society
A secret society is a club or an organization whose activities, events, inner functioning, or membership are concealed. The society may or may not attempt to conceal its existence. The term usually excludes covert groups, such as intelligence ...
, but many disputed that characterization, as its member list has been published some years in ''The Michigan Daily
''The Michigan Daily'' is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Michigan. Its first edition was published on September 29, 1890. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the University's administration and other stu ...
'' and the ''Michiganensian
The ''Michiganensian'', also known as the ''Ensian'', is the official yearbook of the University of Michigan. Its first issue was published in April 1896, as a consolidation of three campus publications, The Res Gestae, the Palladium, and the Ca ...
'', and online since 2006 reforms.
*Adara, known as Phoenix, was formed in the late 1970s by women leaders on campus and disbanded itself in 2021 amid campus criticisms of secret societies. In the early 1980s they joined the tower society and occupied the sixth floor of the tower just below Michigamua.
*Vulcans, occupied the fifth floor of the Union tower though were not formally a part of the tower society. They draw their heritage from the Roman god Vulcan. The group which used to do its tapping publicly is known for its long black robes and for its financial contributions of the College of Engineering
Engineering education is the activity of teaching knowledge and principles to the professional practice of engineering. It includes an initial education (bachelor's and/or master's degree), and any advanced education and specializations that ...
.
Media and publications
Several academic journal
An academic journal or scholarly journal is a periodical publication in which scholarship relating to a particular academic discipline is published. Academic journals serve as permanent and transparent forums for the presentation, scrutiny, and ...
s are published at the university:
* The Law School publishes the well-regarded ''Michigan Law Review
The ''Michigan Law Review'' is an American law review and the flagship law journal of the University of Michigan Law School.
History
The ''Michigan Law Review'' was established in 1902, after Gustavus Ohlinger, a student in the Law Departmen ...
'' and six other law journal
A law review or law journal is a scholarly journal or publication that focuses on legal issues. A law review is a type of legal periodical. Law reviews are a source of research, imbedded with analyzed and referenced legal topics; they also p ...
s: The '' Michigan Journal of Environmental and Administrative Law'', '' University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform'', '' Michigan Journal of Race & Law'', '' Michigan Telecommunications and Technology Law Review'', ''Michigan Journal of International Law'', and ''Michigan Journal of Gender and Law
The ''Michigan Journal of Gender & Law'' is a biannual law review published by an independent student group at the University of Michigan Law School. It publishes articles and student-written notes that explore how gender issues (and related issue ...
''.
* The Ross School of Business publishes the '' Michigan Journal of Business''.
* Several undergraduate journals are also published at the university, including the ''Michigan Journal of Political Science'', ''Michigan Journal of History'', ''University of Michigan Undergraduate Research Journal'', the ''Michigan Journal of International Affairs'', and the ''Michigan Journal of Asian Studies''.
The student newspaper
A student publication is a media outlet such as a newspaper, magazine, television show, or radio station produced by students at an educational institution. These publications typically cover local and school-related news, but they may also rep ...
is ''The Michigan Daily
''The Michigan Daily'' is the weekly student newspaper of the University of Michigan. Its first edition was published on September 29, 1890. The newspaper is financially and editorially independent of the University's administration and other stu ...
'', founded in 1890 and editorially and financially independent of the university. ''The Daily'' is published five days a week during academic year, and weekly from May to August. The yearbook
A yearbook, also known as an annual, is a type of a book published annually. One use is to record, highlight, and commemorate the past year of a school. The term also refers to a book of statistics or facts published annually. A yearbook often ...
is the ''Michiganensian
The ''Michiganensian'', also known as the ''Ensian'', is the official yearbook of the University of Michigan. Its first issue was published in April 1896, as a consolidation of three campus publications, The Res Gestae, the Palladium, and the Ca ...
'', founded in 1896. Other student publications at the university include the conservative ''The Michigan Review
''The Michigan Review'' is a news publication in Ann Arbor, Michigan. ''The Review,'' published biweekly, is funded primarily by grants from the conservative/libertarian Collegiate Network, donations, and by advertising revenue.
''The Review'' ...
'' and the progressive ''Michigan Independent''. The humor publication '' Gargoyle Humor Magazine'' is also published by Michigan students.
WCBN-FM
WCBN-FM is the student-run radio station of the University of Michigan. Its format is primarily freeform. It broadcasts at 88.3 MHz FM in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
History (88.3 FM) is the student-run college radio
Campus radio (also known as college radio, university radio or student radio) is a type of radio station that is run by the students of a college, university or other educational institution. Programming may be exclusively created or produced ...
station which plays in freeform format. WOLV-TV is the student-run television station that is primarily shown on the university's cable television system. WJJX was previously the school's student-run radio station. A carrier current station, it was launched in 1953.
Safety
The University of Michigan Division of Public Safety and Security (DPSS) is responsible for law enforcement and safety on the main campus. The Division of Public Safety leadership team is made up of one executive director, three division deputy directors, three police chiefs and four directors. In addition, the team is also joined by two program managers and an executive assistant.
The University of Michigan Police Department (UMPD) is a full-service community-oriented law enforcement agency under the DPSS. Its police officers are licensed by the Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards (MCOLES), and have full authority to investigate, search, arrest and use reasonable force, if necessary, to protect people and property under Michigan law and the U-M Regents’ Ordinance. The Special Victims Unit (SVU) of the U-M Police Department (UMPD) assists those who have experienced interpersonal violence, such as sexual assault, intimate partner violence, dating violence, stalking or child abuse.
Violent crime is rare on the campus though a few of the cases have been notorious including Theodore Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (), is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide ...
's attempted murder of professor James V. McConnell
James V. McConnell (October 26, 1925 – April 9, 1990) was an American biologist and animal psychologist. He is most known for his research on learning and memory transfer in planarians conducted in the 1950s and 1960s. McConnell also publi ...
and research assistant Nicklaus Suino in 1985. Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, graduated from Michigan with his PhD in 1967.
A radical left-wing militant organization Weather Underground was founded at the university in 1969. It was later designated a domestic terrorist group by the FBI.
In 2014, the University of Michigan was named one of 55 higher education institutions under investigation by the Office of Civil Rights "for possible violations of federal law over the handling of sexual violence and harassment complaints." President Barack Obama
Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, Obama was the first Af ...
's White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault
The White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault was formed on January 22, 2014, after President Barack Obama directed the Office of the Vice President of the United States and the White House Council on Women and Girls to "s ...
was organized for such investigations. Seven years later, in 2021, the university attracted national attention when a report commissioned by the university was released that detailed an investigation into sexual assault allegations against doctor Robert Anderson who reportedly sexually abused at least 950 university students, many of whom were athletes, from 1966 to 2003. Several football players from that time say legendary football coach Bo Schembechler
Glenn Edward "Bo" Schembechler Jr. ( ; April 1, 1929 – November 17, 2006) was an American football player, coach, and athletics administrator. He served as the head football coach at Miami University from 1963 to 1968 and at the University o ...
ignored and enabled the abuse and told players to "toughen up" after being molested. Schembechler reportedly punched his then 10-year-old son Matthew after he reported abuse by Dr. Anderson. Following the exposure of a similar history of abuse at Ohio State University
The Ohio State University, commonly called Ohio State or OSU, is a public land-grant research university in Columbus, Ohio. A member of the University System of Ohio, it has been ranked by major institutional rankings among the best pub ...
, male survivors of both Anderson at Michigan and Strauss at Ohio State spoke out to combat sexual abuse. The University of Michigan settled with the survivors for $490 million.
Athletics
The University of Michigan's sports teams are called the Wolverines
The wolverine (), (''Gulo gulo''; ''Gulo'' is Latin for " glutton"), also referred to as the glutton, carcajou, or quickhatch (from East Cree, ''kwiihkwahaacheew''), is the largest land-dwelling species of the family Mustelidae. It is a muscu ...
. They participate in the NCAA
The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...
Division I Football Bowl Subdivision
The NCAA Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS), formerly known as Division I-A, is the highest level of college football in the United States. The FBS consists of the largest schools in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA). As ...
and in the Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
in all sports except women's water polo, which is a member of the Collegiate Water Polo Association
The Collegiate Water Polo Association is a conference of colleges and universities in the Eastern United States that sponsor 19 men's teams and 17 women's teams that compete in varsity water polo. The winners of the conference tournaments earn one ...
. U-M boasts 27 varsity sports, including 13 men's teams and 14 women's teams. In 10 of the past 14 years concluding in 2009, U-M has finished in the top five of the NACDA Director's Cup
The NACDA Directors' Cup, known for sponsorship reasons as the NACDA Learfield Directors' Cup or simply as the Directors' Cup, is an award given annually by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to the colleges and univer ...
, a ranking compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics The National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) is a professional organization for college and university athletic directors in the United States. NACDA boasts a membership of more than 6,100 individuals and more than 1,600 in ...
to tabulate the success of universities in competitive sports. U-M has finished in the top 10 of the Directors' Cup standings in 21 of the award's 29 seasons between 1993-2021 and has placed in the top six in nine of the last 10 seasons.
More than 250 Michigan athletes or coaches have participated in Olympic
Olympic or Olympics may refer to
Sports
Competitions
* Olympic Games, international multi-sport event held since 1896
** Summer Olympic Games
** Winter Olympic Games
* Ancient Olympic Games, ancient multi-sport event held in Olympia, Greece bet ...
events, and as of 2021 its students and alumni have won 155 Olympic medals.
Michigan Stadium
Michigan Stadium, nicknamed "The Big House," is the football stadium for the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the largest stadium in the United States and the Western Hemisphere, the third largest stadium in the world, and the ...
is the largest college football stadium in the nation and one of the largest football-only stadiums in the world, with an official capacity of 107,601 (the extra seat is said to be "reserved" for Fritz Crisler
Herbert Orin "Fritz" Crisler (; January 12, 1899 – August 19, 1982) was an American college football coach who is best known as "the father of two-platoon football," an innovation in which separate units of players were used for offense and ...
) though attendance—frequently over 111,000 spectators—regularly exceeds the official capacity. The NCAA's record-breaking attendance has become commonplace at Michigan Stadium.
U-M is also home to 29 men's and women's club sports teams, such as rugby, hockey, volleyball, boxing, soccer, and tennis.
National championships
The Michigan football program ranks first in NCAA history in total wins (976 through the end of the 2021 season) and fourth among FBS schools in winning percentage (.729). The team won the first Rose Bowl game
The Rose Bowl Game is an annual American college football bowl game, usually played on January 1 (New Year's Day) at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California. When New Year's Day falls on a Sunday, the game is played on Monday, January 2. The Ro ...
in 1902
Events
January
* January 1
** The Nurses Registration Act 1901 comes into effect in New Zealand, making it the first country in the world to require state registration of nurses. On January 10, Ellen Dougherty becomes the world' ...
. U-M had 40 consecutive winning seasons from 1968 to 2007, including consecutive bowl game
In North America, a bowl game is one of a number of post-season college football games that are primarily played by teams belonging to the NCAA's Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). For most of its history, the Division I Bowl Subdivis ...
appearances from 1975 to 2007. The Wolverines have won a record 43 Big Ten championships. The program has 11 national championships, most recently in 1997, and has produced three Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...
winners: Tom Harmon
Thomas Dudley Harmon (September 28, 1919 – March 15, 1990), known as Tom Harmon, as well as by the nickname "Old 98", was an American football player, military pilot, actor, and sports broadcaster.
Harmon grew up in Gary, Indiana, and playe ...
, Desmond Howard
Desmond Kevin Howard (born May 15, 1970) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football at Michigan, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior. Howard w ...
and Charles Woodson
Charles Cameron Woodson (born October 7, 1976) is a former American football defensive back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers. He played college football at Michiga ...
.
The men's ice hockey team, which plays at Yost Ice Arena, has won nine national championships.
The men's basketball team, which plays at the Crisler Center
Crisler Center (formerly known as the University Events Building and Crisler Arena) is an indoor arena located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It is the home arena for the University of Michigan's men's and women's basketball teams as well as its women's ...
, has appeared in five Final Fours and won the national championship in 1989. The program also voluntarily vacated victories from its 1992–1993 and 1995–1999 seasons in which illicit payments to players took place, as well as its 1992 and 1993 Final Four appearances. The men's basketball team has most recently won back-to-back Big Ten Tournament Championships.
In the Olympics
Through the 2012 Summer Olympics
The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, th ...
, 275 U-M students and coaches had participated in the Olympics, winning medals in each Summer Olympic Games
The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...
except 1896, and winning gold medals in all but four Olympiads. U-M students/student-coaches (e.g., notably, Michael Phelps) have won a total of 185 Olympic medals: 85 golds, 48 silvers, and 52 bronzes.
Fight songs and chants
The University of Michigan's fight song
A fight song is a rousing short song associated with a sports team. The term is most common in the United States and Canada. In Australia, Mexico, and New Zealand these songs are called the team anthem, team song, or games song. First associated ...
, " The Victors", was written by student Louis Elbel in 1898 following the last-minute football victory over the University of Chicago
The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, U of C, or UChi) is a private research university in Chicago, Illinois. Its main campus is located in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood. The University of Chicago is consistently ranked among the b ...
that won a league championship. The song was declared by John Philip Sousa
John Philip Sousa ( ; November 6, 1854 – March 6, 1932) was an American composer and conductor of the late Romantic era known primarily for American military marches. He is known as "The March King" or the "American March King", to dis ...
to be "the greatest college fight song ever written." The song refers to the university as being "the Champions of the West." At the time, U-M was part of the Western Conference, which would later become the Big Ten Conference
The Big Ten Conference (stylized B1G, formerly the Western Conference and the Big Nine Conference) is the oldest Division I collegiate athletic conference in the United States. Founded as the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representati ...
. Michigan was considered to be on the Western Frontier when it was founded in the old Northwest Territory
The Northwest Territory, also known as the Old Northwest and formally known as the Territory Northwest of the River Ohio, was formed from unorganized western territory of the United States after the American Revolutionary War. Established in 1 ...
.
Although mainly used at sporting events, the Michigan fight song is often heard at other events as well. President Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
had it played by the United States Marine Band
The United States Marine Band is the premier band of the United States Marine Corps. Established by act of Congress on July 11, 1798, it is the oldest of the United States military bands and the oldest professional musical organization in th ...
as his entrance anthem during his term as president from 1974 to 1977, in preference over the more traditional " Hail to the Chief", and the Michigan Marching Band
The Michigan Marching Band (also known as the University of Michigan Marching Band or simply MMB) is the official marching band of the University of Michigan. The band performs at all Michigan Wolverines football home games, select away games, and ...
performed a slow-tempo variation of the fight song at his funeral. The fight song is also sung during graduation commencement ceremonies. The university's alma mater song is "The Yellow and Blue
The Yellow and Blue is the alma mater of the University of Michigan, written by Charles M. Gayley. An 1878 graduate, Gayley composed the lyrics in 1886 while he was a professor of English and Latin at UM. He was motivated to write the song in ...
." A common rally cry is " Let's Go Blue!" which has a complementary short musical arrangement written by former students Joseph Carl, a sousaphonist, and Albert Ahronheim, a drum major.
Before "The Victors" was officially the university's fight song, the song " There'll Be a Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight" was considered to be the school song. After Michigan temporarily withdrew from the Western Conference in 1907, a new Michigan fight song " Varsity" was written in 1911 because the line "champions of the West" was no longer appropriate.
Museums
The university is also home to several public and research museums including but not limited to the University Museum of Art, University of Michigan Museum of Natural History
The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. The museum recently moved to a new location at 1105 North University Avenue, in the University of Michigan Biological Sciences ...
, Detroit Observatory
The Detroit Observatory is located on the corner of Observatory and Ann streets in Ann Arbor, Michigan. It was built in 1854, and was the first scientific research facility at the University of Michigan and one of the oldest observatories of its ty ...
, Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry
The Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry is a museum of the history of dentistry, operated by the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Located on the university's Central Campus, the museum is one of only a handful of dentis ...
, and the LSA Museum of Anthropological Archaeology.
Kelsey Museum of Archeology The Kelsey Museum of Archaeology is a museum of archaeology located on the University of Michigan central campus in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in the United States. The museum is a unit of the University of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, an ...
has a collection of Roman, Greek, Egyptian, and Middle Eastern artifacts. Between 1972 and 1974, the museum was involved in the excavation of the archaeological site
An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...
of Dibsi Faraj
Dibsi Faraj is an archaeological site on the right bank of the Euphrates in Aleppo Governorate (Syria). The site was excavated as part of a larger international effort coordinated by UNESCO to excavate as many archaeological sites as possible in ...
in northern Syria
Syria ( ar, سُورِيَا or سُورِيَة, translit=Sūriyā), officially the Syrian Arab Republic ( ar, الجمهورية العربية السورية, al-Jumhūrīyah al-ʻArabīyah as-Sūrīyah), is a Western Asian country loc ...
. The Kelsey Museum re-opened November 1, 2009 after a renovation and expansion.
The collection of the University of Michigan Museum of Art include nearly 19,000 objects that span cultures, eras, and media and include European, American, Middle Eastern, Asian, and African art, as well as changing exhibits. The Museum of Art re-opened in 2009 after a three-year renovation and expansion. UMMA presents special exhibitions and diverse educational programs featuring the visual, performing, film and literary arts that contextualize the gallery experience.
The University of Michigan Museum of Natural History began in the mid-19th century and expanded greatly with the donation of 60,000 specimens by Joseph Beal Steere
Joseph Beal Steere (9 February 1842 – 7 December 1940) was an American ornithologist.
Steere was born in Rollin, Michigan, the son of William Millhouse and Elizabeth Cleghorn (Beal) Steere. He received a B.A. from the University of Michigan in ...
in the 1870s. The building also houses three research museums: the Museum of Anthropology, Museum of Paleontology. Today, the collections are primarily housed and displayed in the Ruthven Museums Building which was completed in 1928.
Notable alumni
In addition to the late U.S. president Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. ( ; born Leslie Lynch King Jr.; July 14, 1913December 26, 2006) was an American politician who served as the 38th president of the United States from 1974 to 1977. He was the only president never to have been elected ...
, the university has, produced thirty-four Pulitzer Prize winners, twenty-seven Rhodes Scholars
The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford, in the United Kingdom.
Established in 1902, it is the oldest graduate scholarship in the world. It is considered among the world' ...
, one Mitchell Scholar and nine Nobel laureates
The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make ou ...
. , the university has almost 500,000 living alumni.
More than 250 Michigan graduates have served as legislators
A legislator (also known as a deputy or lawmaker) is a person who writes and passes laws, especially someone who is a member of a legislature. Legislators are often elected by the people of the state. Legislatures may be supra-national (for e ...
as either a United States Senator (47 graduates) or as a Congressional representative (over 215 graduates), including former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt
Richard Andrew Gephardt (; born January 31, 1941) is an American attorney, lobbyist, and politician who served as a United States Representative from Missouri from 1977 to 2005. A member of the Democratic Party, he was House Majority Leader fro ...
and U.S. Representative Justin Amash
Justin Amash ( ; born April 18, 1980) is an American lawyer and politician who served as the U.S. representative for from 2011 to 2021. Originally a Republican, Amash joined the Libertarian Party in April 2020, becoming the party's first (an ...
, who represented Michigan's Third Congressional District. Mike Duggan
Michael Edward Duggan (born July 15, 1958) is an American lawyer, businessman, and politician serving as the 75th mayor of Detroit, Michigan since 2014. A member of the Democratic Party, Duggan previously served as the Wayne County Prosecuto ...
, Mayor
In many countries, a mayor is the highest-ranking official in a municipal government such as that of a city or a town. Worldwide, there is a wide variance in local laws and customs regarding the powers and responsibilities of a mayor as well ...
of Detroit
Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...
, earned his bachelor's degree and J.D. degree at Michigan, while the former Michigan Governor Rick Snyder
Richard Dale Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is an American business executive, venture capitalist, attorney, accountant, and politician who served as the 48th governor of Michigan from 2011 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, Snyder previ ...
earned his bachelor, M.B.A., and J.D. degrees from Michigan. Former Secretary of Housing and Urban Development
The United States secretary of housing and urban development (or HUD secretary) is the head of the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development, a member of the president's Cabinet, and thirteenth in the presidential line of succe ...
Ben Carson received his medical degree from the U-M medical school. Thomas E. Dewey
Thomas Edmund Dewey (March 24, 1902 – March 16, 1971) was an American lawyer, prosecutor, and politician who served as the 47th governor of New York from 1943 to 1954. He was the Republican candidate for president in 1944 and 1948: although ...
, another Michigan alumnus, was the Governor of New York from 1943 to 1954 and was the Republican Party's presidential nominee in the 1944 and 1948 presidential elections. The 13th President of Pakistan
The president of Pakistan ( ur, , translit=s̤adr-i Pākiṣṭān), officially the President of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is the ceremonial head of state of Pakistan and the commander-in-chief of the Pakistan Armed Forces.[Arif Alvi
Arif-ur-Rehman Alvi (; born 29 July 1949) is a Pakistani dentist and politician currently serving as the 13th President of Pakistan, in office since 9 September 2018. He was a member of the National Assembly of Pakistan from June 2013 to May 2 ...]
, completed his master's degree in prosthodontics in 1975.
William Rufus Day cph.3b31004.jpg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States William Rufus Day
William Rufus Day (April 17, 1849 – July 9, 1923) was an American diplomat and jurist who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1903 to 1922. Prior to his service on the Supreme Court, Day served as Uni ...
(BS)
Justice George Sutherland 5.jpg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States George Alexander Sutherland
Justice Frank Murphy.jpg, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States William Francis Murphy (JD, 1914)
JSMorton.jpg, United States Secretary of Agriculture Julius Sterling Morton
Julius Sterling Morton (April 22, 1832 – April 27, 1902) was a Nebraska newspaper editor and politician who served as President Grover Cleveland's Secretary of Agriculture. He was a prominent Bourbon Democrat, taking a conservative position on ...
(BA)
David Mills (Canada).jpg, Puisne Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada David Mills (LLB, 1867)
Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.jpg, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Maria Lourdes Sereno (LLM)
Gerald Ford (croped).jpg, 38th President of the United States
The president of the United States (POTUS) is the head of state and head of government of the United States of America. The president directs the Federal government of the United States#Executive branch, executive branch of the Federal gove ...
Gerald Rudolph Ford Jr. (BA, 1935, HLLD, 1974)
Mark Malloch Brown 080701-F-1644L-048.jpg, British politician George Mark Malloch Brown, Baron Malloch-Brown
George Mark Malloch Brown, Baron Malloch-Brown (born 16 September 1953) is a British diplomat, communications consultant, journalist and former politician serving as president of Open Society Foundations since 2021, having previously served as ...
(MA)
Official portrait of Lord Flight crop 2.jpg, British politician Howard Emerson Flight, Baron Flight (MBA)
William A. Comstock (Michigan Governor).jpg, 33rd Governor of Michigan William Alfred Comstock
Lawrence Wong 2022-08.jpg, Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore
The deputy prime minister of Singapore is the deputy head of government of the Republic of Singapore. The incumbent deputy prime ministers are Heng Swee Keat and Lawrence Wong, who took office on 1 May 2019 and 13 June 2022 respectively.
Hi ...
Lawrence Wong
Lawrence Wong Shyun Tsai ( zh, c=黄循财, p=Huáng Xúncái; born 18 December 1972) is a Singaporean politician, economist and former civil servant who has been serving as Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore since 2022 alongside Heng Swee Kea ...
(MA, 1995)
U-M's contributions to aeronautics include aircraft designer Clarence "Kelly" Johnson of Lockheed Skunk Works
Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs (ADP), formerly called Lockheed Advanced Development Projects. It is responsible for a number of aircraft designs, beginning with the P-38 Lightning in ...
fame, Lockheed president Willis Hawkins, and several astronauts including the all-U-M crews of both Gemini 4
Gemini 4 (officially Gemini IV) With Gemini IV, NASA changed to Roman numerals for Gemini mission designations. was the second crewed spaceflight in NASA's Project Gemini, occurring in June 1965. It was the tenth crewed American spaceflight (in ...
and Apollo 15
Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to land on the Moon. It was the first J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greater focus on science than ear ...
.
Numerous U-M graduates contributed greatly to the field of computer science, including Claude Shannon
Claude Elwood Shannon (April 30, 1916 – February 24, 2001) was an American mathematician, electrical engineer, and cryptographer known as a "father of information theory".
As a 21-year-old master's degree student at the Massachusetts I ...
(who made major contributions to the mathematics of information theory
Information theory is the scientific study of the quantification, storage, and communication of information. The field was originally established by the works of Harry Nyquist and Ralph Hartley, in the 1920s, and Claude Shannon in the 1940s. ...
), and Turing Award
The ACM A. M. Turing Award is an annual prize given by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) for contributions of lasting and major technical importance to computer science. It is generally recognized as the highest distinction in compu ...
winners Edgar Codd
Edgar Frank "Ted" Codd (19 August 1923 – 18 April 2003) was an English computer scientist who, while working for IBM, invented the relational model for database management, the theoretical basis for relational databases and relational datab ...
, Stephen Cook, Frances E. Allen
Frances Elizabeth Allen (August 4, 1932August 4, 2020) was an American computer scientist and pioneer in the field of optimizing compilers. Allen was the first woman to become an IBM Fellow, and in 2006 became the first woman to win the Turing ...
and Michael Stonebraker. U-M also counts among its alumni nearly two dozen billionaires, including prominent tech-company founders and co-founders such as Dr. J. Robert Beyster, who founded Science Applications International Corporation
Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), Inc. is an American technology company headquartered in Reston, Virginia that provides government services and information technology support.
History
The original SAIC was created in 19 ...
(SAIC) in 1969 and Google
Google LLC () is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company focusing on Search Engine, search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, software, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, ar ...
co-founder Larry Page
Lawrence Edward Page (born March 26, 1973) is an American business magnate, computer scientist and internet entrepreneur. He is best known for co-founding Google with Sergey Brin.
Page was the chief executive officer of Google from 1997 unti ...
.
Several prominent and/or groundbreaking women have studied at Michigan—by 1900, nearly 150 women had received advanced degrees from U-M. Sarah Dix Hamlin
Sarah Dix Hamlin (November 27, 1844August 25, 1923) was a 19th-century American educator, principal, founder and owner of the Hamlin School for girls in San Francisco.
Early life
Sarah Dix Hamlin was born in Westford, Massachusetts on Novem ...
was the first female student accepted to the University of Michigan. She graduated in 1874. Marjorie Lee Browne
Marjorie Lee Browne (July 2, 1914 – October 19, 1979) was a mathematics educator. She was one of the first African-American women to receive a PhD in mathematics.
Early life and education
Marjorie Lee Browne was a prominent mathematician and ...
received her M.S. in 1939 and her doctoral degree in 1950, becoming the third African American woman to earn a PhD in mathematics. Many, however, were forced to leave the university to continue their studies or to become faculty in their own right elsewhere, like Katharine Coman
Katharine Ellis Coman ( – ) was an American social activist and professor. She was based at the women-only Wellesley College, Massachusetts, where she created new courses in political economy, in line with her personal belief in social change. ...
—when U-M President James Angell offered her a "Dean of Women" position, she told him that ″′if the regents...wish to propose a chaperone for students, and propose to dignify that office by allowing the woman who holds it to do a little University teaching,′ she was not interested. If, however, the regents accepted women as equal partners and as faculty, and if she were one of several women given proper rank and authority, she would consider it.″ Michigan's Regents did not accept, so instead Coman became dean, founder of the Economics Department, and the first female statistics
Statistics (from German: '' Statistik'', "description of a state, a country") is the discipline that concerns the collection, organization, analysis, interpretation, and presentation of data. In applying statistics to a scientific, indust ...
professor in the US at Wellesley College
Wellesley College is a private women's liberal arts college in Wellesley, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1870 by Henry and Pauline Durant as a female seminary, it is a member of the original Seven Sisters Colleges, an unofficial ...
.
Notable writers who attended U-M include playwright Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller (October 17, 1915 – February 10, 2005) was an American playwright, essayist and screenwriter in the 20th-century American theater. Among his most popular plays are ''All My Sons'' (1947), '' Death of a Salesman'' (1 ...
, essayists Susan Orlean
Susan Orlean (born October 31, 1955) is a journalist, television writer, and bestselling author of ''The Orchid Thief'' and '' The Library Book''. She has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1992, and has contributed articles to many ...
, Jia Tolentino
Jia Angeli Carla Tolentino (born 1988) is an American writer and editor. A staff writer for ''The New Yorker,'' she previously worked as deputy editor of ''Jezebel'' and a contributing editor at '' The Hairpin''. Her writing has also appeared in ...
, Sven Birkerts
Sven Birkerts (born 21 September 1951) is an American essayist and literary critic. He is best known for his book ''The Gutenberg Elegies'' (1994), which posits a decline in reading due to the overwhelming advances of the Internet and other te ...
, journalists and editors Mike Wallace
Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspo ...
, Jonathan Chait
Jonathan Benjamin Chait () (born May 1, 1972) is an American pundit and writer for ''New York'' magazine. He was previously a senior editor at '' The New Republic'' and an assistant editor of ''The American Prospect''. He writes a periodic co ...
of ''The New Republic
''The New Republic'' is an American magazine of commentary on politics, contemporary culture, and the arts. Founded in 1914 by several leaders of the progressive movement, it attempted to find a balance between "a liberalism centered in hu ...
'', Indian author and columnist Anees Jung
Anees Jung (born 1944) is an Indian author, journalist and columnist for newspapers in India and abroad, whose most known work, ''Unveiling India'' (1987) was a chronicle of the lives of women in India, noted especially for the depiction of Musli ...
, Daniel Okrent
Daniel Okrent (born April 2, 1948) is an American writer and editor. He is best known for having served as the first public editor of ''The New York Times'' newspaper, inventing Rotisserie League Baseball, and for writing several books (such as ...
, and Sandra Steingraber
Sandra Steingraber (born 1959) is an American biologist, author, and cancer survivor. Steingraber writes and lectures on the environmental factors that contribute to reproductive health problems and environmental links to cancer.
Early life
Stei ...
, food critics Ruth Reichl
Ruth Reichl (; born 1948), is an American chef, food writer and editor. In addition to two decades as a food critic, mainly spent at the ''Los Angeles Times'' and ''The New York Times'', Reichl has also written cookbooks, memoirs and a novel, and ...
and Gael Greene, novelists Brett Ellen Block
Brett Ellen Block (born 1973 in Summit, New Jersey) is an American novelist and short story writer.
Life
Block was born and raised in Summit, New Jersey. She received her undergraduate degree in Fine Arts from the University of Michigan, where ...
, Elizabeth Kostova
Elizabeth Johnson Kostova (born December 26, 1964) is an American author best known for her debut novel ''The Historian''.
Early life
Elizabeth Johnson Kostova was born Elizabeth Johnson in New London, Connecticut, and raised in Knoxville, Tenne ...
, Marge Piercy
Marge Piercy (born March 31, 1936) is an American progressive activist and writer. Her work includes '' Woman on the Edge of Time''; '' He, She and It'', which won the 1993 Arthur C. Clarke Award; and ''Gone to Soldiers'', a New York Times Best ...
, Brad Meltzer, Betty Smith
Betty Smith (born Elisabeth Lillian Wehner; December 15, 1896 – January 17, 1972) was an American playwright and novelist, who wrote the 1943 bestseller '' A Tree Grows in Brooklyn''.
Early years
Smith was born Elisabeth Lillian Wehner on Dec ...
, and Charles Major, screenwriter Judith Guest
Judith Guest (born March 29, 1936) is an American novelist and screenwriter. She was born in Detroit, Michigan and is the great-niece of Poet Laureate Edgar Guest (1881–1959). , Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke
Theodore Huebner Roethke ( ; May 25, 1908 – August 1, 1963) was an American poet. He is regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential poets of his generation, having won the Pulitzer Prize for poetry in 1954 for his book ''The Wa ...
, National Book Award winners Keith Waldrop
Keith Waldrop (born December 11, 1932, in Emporia, Kansas) is an American poet, translator, and academic. He has authored numerous books of poetry and prose and translated the work of Claude Royet-Journoud, Anne-Marie Albiach, and Edmond Jabè ...
and Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward (born April 1, 1977) is an American novelist and a Professor of English at Tulane University, where she holds the Andrew W. Mellon Professorship in the Humanities. She won the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction for her second novel ...
, composer/author/puppeteer Forman Brown
Forman Brown (January 8, 1901 – January 10, 1996) was one of the world's leaders in puppet theatre in his day, as well as an important early gay novelist. He was a member of the Yale Puppeteers and the driving force behind Turnabout Theatre. ...
, and Alireza Jafarzadeh
Alireza Jafarzadeh is a media commentator on the Middle East and an active dissident figure to the Iranian government. He is best known for revealing the existence of clandestine nuclear facilities in Iran in 2002. At the time of the revelatio ...
(a Middle East analyst, author, and TV commentator).
In Hollywood
Hollywood usually refers to:
* Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California
* Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States
Hollywood may also refer to:
Places United States
* Hollywood District (disambiguation)
* Hollywoo ...
, famous alumni include actors Michael Dunn, Darren Criss
Darren Everett Criss (born February 5, 1987) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter. He rose to fame starring on the television series '' Glee'' (2010–2015) and received Emmy and Golden Globe acting awards for his leading role as spree ...
, James Earl Jones
James Earl Jones (born January 17, 1931) is an American actor. He has been described as "one of America's most distinguished and versatile" actors for his performances in film, television, and theater, and "one of the greatest actors in America ...
, David Alan Grier
David Alan Grier (born June 30, 1956) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his work as Bernard on ''Damon (TV series), Damon'' (1998), as David Bellows on ''Life with Bonnie'' (2002–2004), as Joe Carmichael on ''The Carmic ...
, actresses Lucy Liu
Lucy Alexis Liu is an American actress. Her accolades include winning a Critics' Choice Television Award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards and a Seoul International Drama Award, in addition to nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award.
Liu has sta ...
, Gilda Radner
Gilda Susan Radner (June 28, 1946 – May 20, 1989) was an American actress and comedian, and one of the seven original cast members of the "Not Ready For Prime Time Players" on the NBC sketch comedy show ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). In h ...
, and Selma Blair
Selma Blair Beitner (born June 23, 1972) is an American actress. She played a number of roles in films and on television before obtaining recognition for her leading role in the film '' Brown's Requiem'' (1998). Her breakthrough came when she s ...
, television director Mark Cendrowski, and filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan
Lawrence Edward Kasdan (born January 14, 1949) is an American filmmaker. He is the co-writer of the '' Star Wars'' films '' The Empire Strikes Back'' (1980), '' Return of the Jedi'' (1983), '' The Force Awakens'' (2015), and '' Solo: A Star Wars ...
. Many Broadway and musical theatre actors, including Gavin Creel
Gavin James Creel (born April 18, 1976) is an American actor, singer, and songwriter best known for his work in musical theater. Creel made his Broadway debut in 2002 in the leading role of Jimmy in ''Thoroughly Modern Millie'' before starring a ...
, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, his sister Celia Keenan-Bolger
Celia Keenan-Bolger (born January 26, 1978) is an American actress and singer. She is known for portraying Scout Finch in the play ''To Kill a Mockingbird'' (2018), which earned her a Tony Award. She has also won three Drama Desk Awards and an ...
, and Taylor Louderman
Taylor Elizabeth Louderman (born December 21, 1990) is an American actress, singer, and dancer. She is best known for originating the role of Regina George in the Broadway musical ''Mean Girls'', for which she was nominated for the Tony Award for ...
attended U-M for musical theatre. The musical theatre group StarKid Productions had their start at the university, and staged multiple productions there.
Musical graduates include operatic soprano Jessye Norman, singer Joe Dassin
Joseph Ira Dassin (; 5 November 1938 – 20 August 1980) was an American–French singer-songwriter and actor. He was the son of film director Jules Dassin.
Early life
Dassin was born in New York City to American film director Jules Dassin (19 ...
, jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon
Randy Napoleon (born 30 May 1978) is an American jazz guitarist, composer, and arranger who tours nationally and internationally. He has also toured with the Freddy Cole Quartet, Benny Green (pianist), the Clayton-Hamilton Jazz Orchestra led by ...
, and Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller is an American neoclassical new-age music ensemble founded and directed by percussionist/composer Chip Davis in 1974. The group is known primarily for its '' Fresh Aire'' series of albums, which blend classical music with ...
founder Chip Davis. Well-known composers who are alumni include Frank Ticheli
Frank Ticheli (born January 21, 1958) is an American composer of orchestral, choral, chamber, and concert band works. He lives in Los Angeles, California, where he is a Professor of Composition at the University of Southern California. He was ...
, Andrew Lippa
Andrew Lippa (born December 22, 1964) is an American composer, lyricist, book writer, performer, and producer. He is a resident artist at the Ars Nova Theater in New York City.
Early life
Lippa was born in Leeds, England, to English parent ...
, and the Oscar and Tony Award-winning duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Pop superstar Madonna
Madonna Louise Ciccone (; ; born August 16, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter and actress. Widely dubbed the " Queen of Pop", Madonna has been noted for her continual reinvention and versatility in music production, songwriting, a ...
and rock legend Iggy Pop
James Newell Osterberg Jr. (born April 21, 1947), known professionally as Iggy Pop, is an American singer, musician, songwriter and actor. Called the " Godfather of Punk", he was the vocalist and lyricist of proto-punk band The Stooges, who w ...
, attended but did not graduate.
Other U-M graduates include former Dean of Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School (Harvard Law or HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest continuously operating law school in the United States.
Each c ...
Martha Minow, Dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania
The Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania ( ; also known as Wharton Business School, the Wharton School, Penn Wharton, and Wharton) is the business school of the University of Pennsylvania, a private Ivy League research university in ...
Erika H. James
Erika H. James is an American academic and businesswoman. She is the dean of the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. She is both the first woman and the first Black person to lead the business school. James is known for her crisis le ...
, current Dean of Yale Law School
Yale Law School (Yale Law or YLS) is the law school of Yale University, a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. It was established in 1824 and has been ranked as the best law school in the United States by '' U.S. News & World ...
, Heather Gerken
Heather Kristin Gerken (born ) is an American legal scholar who serves as the Dean and Sol & Lillian Goldman Professor of Law at Yale Law School, where she teaches election law and runs the San Francisco Affirmative Litigation Project.
Biography ...
, assisted-suicide advocate Dr. Jack Kevorkian, Weather Underground radical activist Bill Ayers
William Charles Ayers (; born December 26, 1944) rose to prominence during the 1960s as a domestic terrorist.
During the 1960s, Ayers was a leader of the Weather Underground militant group, described by the FBI as a terrorist group.
In ...
, activist Tom Hayden
Thomas Emmet Hayden (December 11, 1939October 23, 2016) was an American social and political activist, author, and politician. Hayden was best known for his role as an anti-war, civil rights, and intellectual activist in the 1960s, authoring t ...
, architect Charles Moore, the Swedish Holocaust hero Raoul Wallenberg
Raoul Gustaf Wallenberg (4 August 1912 – disappeared 17 January 1945)He is presumed to have died in 1947, although the circumstances of his death are not clear and this date has been disputed. Some reports claim he was alive years later. 31 J ...
, and Civil War General Benjamin D. Pritchard
Benjamin Dudley Pritchard (January 29, 1835 – November 26, 1907) was a United States Army officer, most known for leading the Union cavalry regiment which captured the fugitive Jefferson Davis, President of the Confederate States of Ame ...
. Neurosurgeon and CNN chief medical correspondent Sanjay Gupta
Sanjay Gupta (born October 23, 1969) is an American neurosurgeon, medical reporter, and writer. He serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, associate professor of neurosurgery at t ...
attended both college and medical school at the university. Clarence Darrow attended law school at U-M at a time when many lawyers did not receive any formal education. Frank Murphy, who was mayor of Detroit, governor of Michigan, United States Attorney General, attorney general of the United States, and Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court justice was also a graduate of the Law School. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is another U-M law school graduate (J.D. 1988).
Vaughn R. Walker, a United States district court, federal district judge in California who overturned the controversial California Proposition 8 (2008), California Proposition 8 in 2010 and ruled it unconstitutional, received his undergraduate degree from U-M in 1966.
Kenneth Marin, who became a professor of economics after he graduated from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, was appointed by President Lyndon B. Johnson as a member of the White House Consumer Advisory Council where he served on Wage and Price Control in the mid-1960s. He went to Tanzania in the late sixties and worked as an economic advisor to the government of President Julius Nyerere until the early 1970s.
U-M athletes have starred in Major League Baseball, the National Football League and National Basketball Association as well as other professional sports. Notable among recent players is Tom Brady of the New England Patriots and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Three players have won college football's Heisman Trophy
The Heisman Memorial Trophy (usually known colloquially as the Heisman Trophy or The Heisman) is awarded annually to the most outstanding player in college football. Winners epitomize great ability combined with diligence, perseverance, and har ...
, awarded to the player considered the best in the nation: Tom Harmon
Thomas Dudley Harmon (September 28, 1919 – March 15, 1990), known as Tom Harmon, as well as by the nickname "Old 98", was an American football player, military pilot, actor, and sports broadcaster.
Harmon grew up in Gary, Indiana, and playe ...
(1940), Desmond Howard
Desmond Kevin Howard (born May 15, 1970) is an American former football wide receiver who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 11 seasons. He played college football at Michigan, where he won the Heisman Trophy as a senior. Howard w ...
(1991) and Charles Woodson
Charles Cameron Woodson (born October 7, 1976) is a former American football defensive back who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 18 seasons with the Oakland Raiders and Green Bay Packers. He played college football at Michiga ...
(1997). Professional golfer John Schroeder (golfer), John Schroeder and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps also attended the University of Michigan, with the latter studying Sports Marketing and Management. Phelps also swam competitively for Michigan Wolverines swimming and diving#Club Wolverine, Club Wolverine, a swimming club associated with the university. National Hockey League players Marty Turco, Chris Summers (ice hockey), Chris Summers, Max Pacioretty, Carl Hagelin, Dylan Larkin, Zach Hyman, Brendan Morrison, Jack Johnson (ice hockey), Jack Johnson, and Michael Cammalleri all played for U-M's ice hockey team. Baseball Hall of Famers George Sisler and Barry Larkin also played baseball at the university. Several team owners have also been alumni, including multiple-team owner Bill Davidson (businessman), Bill Davidson (NBA Detroit Pistons, NHL Tampa Bay Lightning, WNBA Detroit Shock, among others) and NFL owners Stephen M. Ross (Miami Dolphins), Preston Robert Tisch (New York Giants), and Ralph Wilson (Buffalo Bills).
The university claims the only alumni association with a chapter on the Moon, established in 1971 when the crew of Apollo 15
Apollo 15 (July 26August 7, 1971) was the ninth crewed mission in the United States' Apollo program and the fourth to land on the Moon. It was the first J mission, with a longer stay on the Moon and a greater focus on science than ear ...
(two of whom had engineering degrees from U-M; the third had attended for a year before transferring) placed a charter plaque for a new U-M Alumni Association on the lunar surface. The plaque states: "The Alumni Association of The University of Michigan. Charter Number 1. This is to certify that The University of Michigan Club of The Moon is a duly constituted unit of the Alumni Association and entitled to all the rights and privileges under the Association's Constitution." Several small U-M flags were also brought on the mission; a persistent campus legend claims at least one flag was left on the Moon.
Honorary alumni
File:1st Earl of Halifax 1947.jpg, Edward Wood, 1st Earl of Halifax, Edward Wood (HLLD, 1944), 1st Earl of Halifax
File:Haile Selassie 1963.jpg, Haile Selassie I (HDCL, 1954), Emperor of Ethiopia
File:Soekarno 1959.jpg, Sukarno (HDCL, 1956), 1st President of Indonesia
File:Koningin Juliana heeft op paleis Soestdijk B.M. Leito beëdigd als gouverneur van, Bestanddeelnr 923-6352 (crop).jpg, Queen Juliana (HDCL, 1965), Queen of the Netherlands
File:Nelson Mandela.jpg, Nelson Mandela (HLLD, 1987), 1st President of South Africa
File:Elie Wiesel 2012 Shankbone.JPG, Elie Wiesel (HDHL, 1992), Recipient of Nobel Peace Prize in 1986
Notes
References
Sources
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External links
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University of Michigan Athletics website
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Michigan, University Of Michigan
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