University Of Michigan–Ann Arbor

The University of Michigan (U-M, U of M, or Michigan) is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. The University of Michigan is one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities. In the fall of 2023, the university employed 8,189 faculty members and enrolled 52,065 students in its programs.

The university is classified among "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity". It consists of nineteen colleges and offers 250 degree programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2021, it ranked third among American universities in research expenditures according to the National Science Foundation.

The University of Michigan's athletic teams are collectively known as the Wolverines. They compete in NCAA Division I ( FBS) as a member of the Big Ten Conference. The university currently fields varsity teams across 29 NCAA-sanctioned sports. As of 2022, athletes from the university had won 188 medals at the Olympic Games.

Notable alumni from the university include 8 domestic and foreign heads of state or heads of government, 48 U.S. senators, 218 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, 42 U.S. Cabinet secretaries, and 41 U.S. governors.

History

The Catholepistemiad (1817–1821)

The University of Michigan traces its origins to August 26, 1817, when it was established in the Territory of Michigan as the Catholepistemiad or University of Michigania through a legislative act signed by acting governor and secretary William Woodbridge, chief justice Augustus B. Woodward, and judge John Griffin. In 1821, by a new enactment, the university itself was created as a "body politic and corporate," maintaining its corporate status through various modifications to its charter. The term "Catholepistemiad," a neologism derived from a blend of Greek and Latin roots, can be loosely translated as "School of Universal Knowledge". This corporation was modeled after the Imperial University of France, an entity established by Napoleon I a decade prior, and included an array of schools and libraries under a single administration, with the authority to establish additional schools across the territory. It wasn't until Michigan became a state in 1837 that the corporation focused solely on higher education.

Promptly after the Territory of Michigan's formation in 1805, prominent citizens acknowledged the need for a college. In 1806, Gabriel Richard, who presided over several schools in the Town of Detroit, first petitioned for land to found a college. Although Governor William Hull and Woodward promulgated an act in 1809 to establish public school districts, this preliminary endeavor yielded negligible results. Woodward, aspiring to categorize knowledge (which he termed "encathol epistemia"), discussed this with Thomas Jefferson in 1814. In 1817, Woodward drafted a territorial act for the ''Catholepistemiad'', or ''University of Michigania'', which included thirteen professorships, or ''didaxiim''. The act was enacted on August 26, 1817, with Richard appointed vice president and John Monteith as president. Woodward sought funding from the Zion Masonic Lodge, which contributed $250, leading to a total of $5,000 raised for the university. The cornerstone for the first schoolhouse, situated near the intersection of Bates Street and Congress Street in Detroit, was laid on September 24, 1817, and by the following year, a Lancasterian school, taught by Lemuel Shattuck, and a classical academy were operational. Additional schools were established in Monroe and Mackinaw by the end of September 1817. In 1821, a new act placed the corporation under the control of a board of trustees. Monteith, no longer president, joined the board, and Richard served on the board until his death in 1832. The trustees continued to manage the schools and classical academy, but established no new schools. By 1827, all schools had closed, and the Detroit schoolhouse was leased to private teachers.

Early years (1837–1851)

In 1837, following Michigan's admission to the Union, its constitution enabled the appointive regents to oversee university operations directly alongside professors, without the need for a president. The regents met in Ann Arbor and accepted the town's proposal for the university to relocate, based on a grant from the Treaty of Fort Meigs on Henry Rumsey's farmland. Alexander Jackson Davis devised the original campus plan in Gothic Revival style, and the regents unanimously approved his proposal; however, the plan was abandoned due to financial constraints resulting from the Panic of 1837. In 1841, Mason Hall, the first campus building, was completed, followed by the construction of South College, an identical building to the south, in 1849, leaving a gap for a future grand centerpiece.

Asa Gray was appointed the first professor following the university's move to Ann Arbor in 1837, alongside early faculty members Douglass Houghton and Andrew Ten Brook. The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen and a sophomore taught by two professors, Joseph Whiting and George Palmer Williams. In the first commencement of 1845, eleven graduates, including Judson Dwight Collins, were awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree. In subsequent years, the regents established branches across the state as preparatory schools for the university, starting with Pontiac and followed by Kalamazoo, Detroit, Niles, Tecumseh, White Pigeon, and Romeo. However, they struggled to enroll students and some merged with local colleges. Kalamazoo College was the Kalamazoo Branch of the University of Michigan from 1840 to 1850. Furthermore, the university struggled with issues due to its regents' dependence on the legislature from 1837 to 1850. Despite several attempts to gain independence, progress was slow until the late 1840s, when regents gained leverage, supported by Michigan citizens. This led to a revision of the organic act on April 8, 1851, which freed the university from legislative control, changed the regent position from appointed to elected, and established a president selected by the regents.

1851 to 1900

Henry Philip Tappan became the university's first president in 1852, with the ambition to shape the institution as a model for future universities. During his decade of service, he overhauled the curriculum, expanded the library and museum collections, established the law school, and supervised the construction of the Detroit Observatory. He secularized faculty appointments by prioritizing merit in selections, breaking away from the retrograde tradition of regents distributing positions among Protestant denominations. In 1855, Michigan became the second university in the country to issue Bachelor of Science degrees. The following year, the country's first chemical laboratory was built on campus, specifically designed for chemistry education, providing additional space for classes and laboratories. Tappan's tenure also saw the creation of the Michigan Glee Club, the oldest student organization at the university, and the publication of the first student newspaper, ''The Peninsular Phoenix and Gazetteer'', in 1857. Despite these accomplishments, Tappan's 11-year presidency was marked by considerable tension. His impartial stance on religion faced backlash during a time of heightened religious fervor. Due to changes in the Board of Regents and discontent with his administration, he was forced to resign in 1863.

In 1863, Erastus Otis Haven took office as president, having been a professor at the time and needing to prove his right for the presidency. The campus was divided by conflicting views among students, faculty, and regents regarding Tappan's restoration, the homeopathy crisis, and the Civil War. Haven's administration faced routine administrative difficulties and struggled to garner support for increased state aid, despite achieving modest gains. The university, which had received a fixed $15,000 since 1869, still required additional funding. Frustrated, Haven resigned in 1869 to become president of Northwestern, a Methodist institution, a move that sectarians viewed as a setback for secular colleges. The presidency remained vacant from 1869 to 1871, with Professor Henry Simmons Frieze serving as acting president. During this period, the university raised funds for University Hall, overhauled admissions with a diploma system, and introduced coeducation. Women were first admitted in 1870, although Alice Robinson Boise Wood was the first woman to attend classes (without matriculating) in 1866–67. In 1870, Gabriel Franklin Hargo graduated from the law school as the second African American to graduate from a law school in the United States. In 1871, Sarah Killgore became the first woman to graduate from law school and be admitted to the bar of any state in the United States. Frieze championed music education and established the University Musical Society. However, student discipline remained problematic, with frequent class rushes, instances of hazing, and rowdiness in chapel. Past efforts to curb these disorders had proven ineffective, and Frieze blamed this on decentralized faculty control.

James Burrill Angell became president in 1871 and would remain in the post for nearly four decades. His tenure would be remembered as the most successful in the university's history. Tappan's reforms in the 1850s set the university on a path to becoming an elite institution, but it was Angell who completed that transformation. Shortly after his arrival, University Hall was completed and dedicated. During his presidency, he restored campus discipline, resolved the long-standing homeopathy problem, led non-denominational church services, broadened the curriculum, raised entrance and graduation requirements, and persuaded the legislature to increase state aid. Angell's tenure saw the addition of many extracurricular activities, such as the intercollegiate football team and the marching band. Though a reformer, Angell was not authoritarian; he encouraged open debate and aimed for near-unanimous agreement before implementing changes, rather than pushing through with only a narrow majority. In 1871-72, Charles Kendall Adams first introduced the German seminar method of study, marking its first use in America. In 1875, the university founded the College of Dental Surgery, followed by the establishment of the College of Pharmacy by Albert B. Prescott in 1876. That year, the university awarded its first Doctor of Philosophy degrees: to Victor C. Vaughan in chemistry and William E. Smith in zoology. They were among the first doctoral degrees to be conferred in the nation. The university remained the only institution in the state to grant PhD degrees until the late 1940s. Ann Arbor's scholarly reputation grew during this period due to the contributions of the university's intellectual community, which included philosophers like John Dewey, Charles Horton Cooley, George Herbert Mead, and Robert Ezra Park. By the turn of the 19th century, the university was the nation's second largest after Harvard in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

With his presidency, Angell focused the university on preparing a new generation of secular leaders in public service. Angell himself was frequently called upon by the White House for diplomatic missions. In 1880, U.S. President Rutherford Hayes appointed him as Minister to China, where he successfully negotiated an immigration treaty that increased Chinese student enrollment. Later, in 1887, 1896, and 1897, Grover Cleveland appointed him to fisheries and waterways commissions. That same year, William McKinley named him Envoy Extraordinary to Turkey. By the late 19th century, the university had gained an international reputation, partly due to Angell's diplomatic efforts. During this period, over 80 subjects of the Emperor of Japan were sent to Ann Arbor to study law as part of the opening of that empire to external influence. The university was also involved in building the Philippine education, legal, and public health systems during the era of American colonization of the Philippines, thanks to the efforts of Michigan alumni, including Dean Conant Worcester and George A. Malcolm. Among the early students in the School of Medicine was Jose Celso Barbosa, who graduated as valedictorian in 1880, becoming the first Puerto Rican to earn a university degree in the United States. Ida Gray graduated from the School of Dentistry in June 1890, becoming the first African-American woman dentist in the United States. In the early 20th century, the university emerged as a preferred option for Jewish students pursuing secular education due to quotas on Jewish admissions at denominational colleges, and it has since become a haven for the Jewish-American academic community. Angell retired in 1909, and seven years later, he died in the President's House, which had been his home for forty-five years. His successor, Harry Burns Hutchins, who was once his student, would lead the university through World War I and the Great Influenza epidemic.

1900 to 1950

In 1910, Harry Burns Hutchins assumed the presidency, becoming the first alumnus to hold that position. He had spent seven years in Ithaca, New York, where he was called by Andrew Dickson White and Charles Kendall Adams to establish the Cornell Law School. Hutchins then became the dean of the law school at his alma mater, where he introduced the case method of instruction. Hutchins was acting president when Angell was absent. During his presidency, Hutchins established the Graduate School, doubled enrollment, and increased the faculty. He secured more state aid and alumni support to fund the university's capital needs, including the gothic Law Quadrangle, Martha Cook Building, Hill Auditorium, and Michigan Union, which became campus landmarks. Hutchins enhanced the university health service, but wartime distractions plagued his presidency. The influenza epidemic, which caused student deaths from poor care, deeply troubled him. Well-liked by the regents who encouraged him to remain president, nonetheless, Hutchins retired in 1920.

The 1920s at the university were marked by the brief tenures of two presidents, Marion LeRoy Burton and Clarence Cook Little. In 1920, when Burton assumed office, a conference on higher education took place at the university, resulting in the establishment of the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Under his leadership, construction boomed on campus, and enrollments increased, propelled by the prosperous economy of the Roaring Twenties. He initiated the annual honors convocation, introduced the deans' conference, and increased university income. The proposal for establishing a nonsectarian divinity school on campus came after strong advocacy from Charles Foster Kent and received unanimous backing from nearby churches.Laipson, Peter. “And the Walls Came Crumbling down: The Michigan School of Religion, 1920-1930.” Michigan Historical Review, vol. 21, no. 2, 1995, pp. 93–123. JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/20173523. Accessed 27 Sept. 2024. The school was short-lived and was quietly shelved in 1927. Burton fell ill in 1924 and died in 1925. In this emergency, President Emeritus Hutchins was called by the regents to assist, with Alfred Henry Lloyd serving as acting president until Little's arrival. Clarence Cook Little was elected president in 1925, advocating for individualized education and reforming curricula, particularly for women. Little proposed a curriculum division after two years to address knowledge gaps, leading to the University College proposal, which was ultimately abandoned after his resignation in 1929.

Following Little's resignation, Alexander Grant Ruthven, an alumnus, was elected president by unanimous vote. He would lead the university through the Great Depression and World War II. Under Ruthven's leadership, the university administration became more decentralized with the creation of the university council, various divisions, and a system of committees For years, the university was a backwater in theoretical physics. Nonetheless, this changed under department head Harrison McAllister Randall, who brought theorists Samuel Goudsmit, George Uhlenbeck, and Otto Laporte onto the faculty. Goudsmit mentored famous students at the university, including Robert Bacher and Wu Ta-You, the Father of Chinese Physics, who in turn taught Zhu Guangya and two Nobel laureates, Chen Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee. From 1928 to 1941, the Summer Symposium in Theoretical Physics featured renowned physicists like Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Paul Dirac, and Erwin Schrödinger, with at least fifteen attendees being Nobel laureates or future laureates. Wolfgang Pauli held a visiting professorship at the university in 1931. Stephen Timoshenko created the first U.S. bachelor's and doctoral programs in engineering mechanics when he was a faculty professor at the university. In 1948, shortly after World War II, the Michigan Memorial Phoenix Project was established to honor the hundreds of lives lost from the university during the war. Funded by numerous contributors, including the Ford Motor Company, the Phoenix Project operated the Ford Nuclear Reactor, which established the nation's first academic program in nuclear science and engineering.

1950 to present

In 1951, Harlan Hatcher succeeded Ruthven and served as president until 1968, overseeing the construction of North Campus, the founding of Flint Senior College, and the establishment of the Dearborn Center, both now full-fledged branch campuses. The tenures of Hatcher and his successor, Robben Wright Fleming, were marked by a sharp rise in campus activism, highlighted by the increase in political dissent linked to the Civil Rights Movement and the Vietnam War. In 1963, a controversial admission policy known as "affirmative action" was introduced. It was a radical measure originated by Hobart Taylor Jr., aimed at boosting Black student enrollment at elite universities. In 1964, a group of faculty hosted the nation's first "teach-in" against U.S. foreign policy in Southeast Asia, attended by thousands of students. Subsequent sit-ins by campus groups prompted administrative crackdowns, escalating tensions among radicals. This included a notable incident involving the Jesse James Gang, an offshoot of Students for a Democratic Society, which took an on-campus military recruiter hostage. Meanwhile, Hatcher controversially dismissed three professors for their refusal to cooperate with Joseph McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee during his tenure. Hatcher's successor, Robben Wright Fleming, an experienced labor negotiator, guided the university through a turbulent era of activism. The far-left militant organization Weather Underground was founded at the university in 1969. Unlike some other universities, Michigan did not experience violent outbreaks during this period. In 1970, two years after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a strike organized by the Black Action Movement resulted in the university agreeing to several demands for minority support. In 1971, the Spectrum Center was founded as the nation's oldest collegiate LGBT student center. Meanwhile, support among students for marijuana legalization was gaining traction on campus, as highlighted by the annual Hash Bash rally that began in 1972. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, campus unrest began to affect the university's academic standing, which had been ranked among the top five in the nation. This standing started to decline during Fleming's tenure. Campus unrest persisted during Harold Tafler Shapiro's presidency, which began in 1980, fueled by controversies surrounding the anti-missile Strategic Defense Initiative and investments in South Africa.

President James Duderstadt would succeed Shapiro and remain president until 1996. He facilitated achievements in the campus's physical growth and fundraising efforts. Duderstadt's successor, Lee Bollinger, conducted several major construction projects like the School of Social Work building and the Tisch Hall, named in honor of alumnus Preston Robert Tisch. In 2003, two lawsuits involving the university's affirmative action admissions policy reached the U.S. Supreme Court: Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger. In 2002, the university elected its first female president, Mary Sue Coleman, by unanimous vote. Throughout her presidency, Michigan's endowment saw continued growth, accompanied by a major fundraising drive known as "The Michigan Difference". The Coleman's administration faced labor disputes with the university's labor unions, notably with the Lecturers' Employees Organization and the Graduate Employees Organization. In the early 2000s, the university faced declining state funding, prompting suggestions for privatization. Despite being a state institution de jure, it adopted private funding models. A 2008 legislative panel further recommended converting it to a private institution due to its minimal ties to the state. Mark Schlissel succeeded Coleman in 2014. Before his firing in 2022, Schlissel expanded financial aid offerings, enhanced international engagement, and raised student diversity. He also led initiatives in biosciences and the arts. The university's 15th president was Santa Ono, from 2022 to 2025. Domenico Grasso, then-chancellor of the University of Michigan-Dearborn is the current interim president, since May 2025.

Students at the University of Michigan participated in the 2024 pro-Palestinian protests on university campuses. Protestors set up an encampment on the campus Diag and participated in other actions, including a die-in. The university called on police to disband these protests. Police used force against protestors and made arrests. The board of regents recruited Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel to crack down on pro-Palestinian student protestors when local prosecutors proved unwilling to do so. In September 2024, she charged several protestors with felonies over their refusal to disperse from the encampment. In April 2025, the FBI and Ann Arbor Police raided the homes of University of Michigan activists in what Nessel called a multijurisdictional investigation into vandalism. In May, the charges against seven protestors were dropped amid scrutiny over Nessel's financial and personal ties to regents and allegations of prosecutorial bias. In June, ''The Guardian'' revealed that the university had hired City Shield, a Detroit based security firm, to send undercover investigators to surveil student activists in addition to providing other security services related to protests at the school.

Historical links

The founding of the University of Michigan in the 19th century was influenced by the transatlantic Republic of Letters, an intellectual community that spanned Europe and the Americas. Key figures, such as Henry Philip Tappan, were instrumental in aligning the university with the ideals championed by the intellectual community, including liberty, reason, and scientific inquiry. Alumni and faculty from Michigan, like Andrew Dixon White, carried these ideals forward as they shaped other institutions. Notably, Cornell alumni David Starr Jordan and John Casper Branner later introduced these concepts to Stanford University in the late 19th century. Charles Kendall Adams and Thomas Chrowder Chamberlin, the two figures most responsible for transforming the University of Wisconsin into a research university, both received their education at Michigan.

Early university leaders like James Burrill Angell contributed to establishing other universities by sharing their insights. Alongside Charles William Eliot of Harvard, Andrew D. White of Cornell, and Noah Porter of Yale, Angell was heavily involved in the early period of Johns Hopkins University as an advisor to the trustees and recommended Daniel Coit Gilman as the first president of the wealthy new foundation. Clark Kerr, the first chancellor of the University of California, Berkeley, referred to Michigan as the "mother of state universities."

* University of California: had its early planning based upon the University of Michigan.
* University of Chicago: Michigan alumnus Robert Ezra Park 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 and Calvin Brainerd Cady, who were members of the Michigan faculty.
* Cornell University: Andrew Dixon White and Charles Kendall Adams, the first and second presidents of Cornell, respectively, were members of the Michigan faculty. Cornell had its Law School founded by Michigan alumni Charles Kendall Adams and Harry Burns Hutchins. Six of the fourteen past presidents of Cornell University have had connections to the University of Michigan. Edmund Ezra Day, the fifth president, was the founding dean of Michigan's business school. Frank H. T. Rhodes, the ninth president, spent three years as vice president of academic affairs at Michigan. Martha E. Pollack, the fourteenth president, served as provost at Michigan from 2013 to 2017. Additionally, Jeffrey S. Lehman received his graduate degrees from Michigan.
* Harvard University: Michigan alumnus Edwin Francis Gay was the founding dean of the Harvard Business School from 1908 to 1919, instrumental in the school's planning.
* Johns Hopkins University: had its pharmacology department established by John Jacob Abel, an alumnus of Michigan.
* Massachusetts Institute of Technology: had its Media Lab co-founded by Michigan alumnus Jerome Wiesner. Nicholas Negroponte, the co-founder and Chairman Emeritus of the Media Lab, has held a visiting professorship at the University of Michigan.
* Northwestern University: Michigan alumnus Henry Wade Rogers 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.
* Syracuse University: Alexander Winchell and Erastus O. Haven, the first and second chancellors of Syracuse University, respectively, were members of the Michigan faculty.
* University of Washington: Charles Odegaard, who served as president of the University of Washington from 1958 to 1973 and is credited with elevating its academic standing, was previously the dean of Michigan's College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.
* Wellesley College: Michigan alumna Alice Freeman Palmer, 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: had its residential college system co-organized by James Rowland Angell, a graduate of Michigan. Michigan alumnus Henry Wade Rogers introduced the "case system" and the college degree requirement into the Yale Law School.

Campus

The University of Michigan's campus in Ann Arbor is divided into four main areas: the Central Campus area, the North Campus area, the North Medical Campus area, and Ross Athletic Campus area. The campus areas include more than 500 major buildings, with a combined area of more than . The Central and Athletic Campus areas are contiguous, while the North Campus area is separated from them, primarily by the Huron River. The North Medical Campus area was developed on Plymouth Road, with several university-owned buildings for outpatient care, diagnostics, and outpatient surgery.

All four campus areas are connected by bus services, the majority of which connect the North and Central campus areas. There is a shuttle service connecting the University Hospital, which lies between North and Central campus areas, with other medical facilities throughout northeastern Ann Arbor.

There is leased space in buildings scattered throughout the city, many occupied by organizations affiliated with the University of Michigan Health System. In addition to the University of Michigan Golf Course on Ross Athletic Campus, the university operates a second golf course on Geddes Road called Radrick Farms Golf Course. The university also operates a large office building called Wolverine Tower in southern Ann Arbor. The Inglis House is an off-campus facility, 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. Another major off-campus facility is the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, which is located on the eastern outskirts of the City of Ann Arbor.

Central Campus Historic District

The original Central Campus spanned , bordered by North University Avenue, South University Avenue, East University Avenue, and State Street. The master plan was developed by Alexander Jackson Davis. The first structures built included four Greek Revival faculty residences in 1840, as well as Mason Hall (1841–1950) and South College (1849–1950), which functioned as both academic spaces and dormitories. Only one of the original faculty residences remains today; it has been renovated in the Italianate style to serve as the President's House, making it the oldest building on campus. The Chemical Laboratory, built by Albert Jordan in 1856 and operational until 1980, was notable for housing the nation's first instructional chemistry lab. After the completion of the Old Medical Building (1850–1914) and the Law Building (1863–1950), an open space known as The Diag began to take shape. Among the prominent structures on the original Central Campus was University Hall (1872–1950), designed by alumnus Edwin Shannon Jennison.

The Central Campus today, however, bears little resemblance to its 19th-century appearance, as most of its structures were constructed in the early 20th century. These structures are predominantly the works of Albert Kahn, the university's supervising architect during that period. In 1909, Regent William L. Clements became chairman of the Building and Grounds Committee, leading to Albert Kahn's growing influence in the university's architectural development. Clements, impressed by Kahn's work on his industrial projects and residence in Bay City, awarded him multiple university commissions and appointed him as the university's supervising architect. The West Engineering Hall (1910), Natural Science Building (1915), and General Library (1920) were all designed by Kahn. During a period of limited construction funding, these structures exhibited a simple design with minimal ornamentation. However, Kahn's Hill Auditorium (1913), adequately funded by Regent Arthur Hill, features extensive Sullivanesque ornamentation and excellent acoustic design, which was rare for that period.

Beginning in 1920, the university received greater funding for construction projects, thanks to president Burton's fiscal persuasiveness with the legislature, propelled by a prosperous economy. This allowed campus buildings to be constructed in a grand manner. Kahn's Italian Renaissance Clements Library (1923), Classical Greek Angell Hall (1924), and Art Deco Burton Memorial Tower (1936) all feature unusual and costly materials and are considered some of his most elegant university buildings. The last of Kahn's university commissions was the Ruthven Museums Building (1928), designed in the Renaissance style.

Other architects who contributed to the Central Campus include Spier & Rohns, who designed Tappan Hall (1894) and the West Medical Building (1904); Smith, Hinchman and Grylls, the architects of the Chemistry Building (1910) and East Engineering Building; and Perkins, Fellows and Hamilton, who designed University High School (1924). The Michigan Union (1919) and Michigan League (1929), completed by alumni Irving Kane Pond and Allen Bartlit Pond, house the university's various student organizations. Alumni Memorial Hall, funded by contributions from alumni in memory of the university's Civil War dead, was completed by Donaldson and Meier. It was designated as the University Museum of Art in 1946.

The area just south of The Diag is predominantly Gothic in character, contrasting with the classical designs prevalent in many of Kahn's university buildings. The Martha Cook Building (1915), completed by York and Sawyer, Samuel Parsons, and George A. Fuller in 1915, draws inspiration from England's Knole House and Aston Hall. It was one of the university’s early women’s residences. York and Sawyer also designed the Law Quadrangle, which features a flagstone courtyard by landscape architect Jacob Van Heiningan. The Lawyers' Club, part of the quadrangle, includes a clubhouse, dining hall, and dormitory, modeled after English clubs with an Elizabethan-style lounge and a dining hall inspired by the chapels of Eaton. The Law Library's main reading room showcases craftsmanship from the Rockefeller Church of New York. Following its completion, nearby buildings like the School of Education Building, by Malcomson and Higginbotham, and Emil Lorch's Architecture and Design Building adopted Gothic elements reflecting the style of the Law Quadrangle and Martha Cook Residence.

The Central Campus is the location of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts. Most of the graduate and professional schools, including the Law School, Ross School of Business, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, and the School of Dentistry, are on Central Campus. Two main libraries, Hatcher Graduate Library and Shapiro Undergraduate Library, as well as the university's many museums, are also on Central Campus.

North Campus

The North Campus area built independently from the city on a large plot of farmland—approximately —that the university bought in 1952. Architect Eero Saarinen devised the early master plan for the North Campus area and designed several of its buildings in the 1950s, including the Earl V. Moore School of Music Building. The North Campus Diag features a bell tower called Lurie Tower, which contains a grand carillon. The university's largest residence hall, Bursley Hall, is in the North Campus area.

The North Campus houses the College of Engineering, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, the Stamps School of Art & Design, the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, and an annex of the School of Information. The campus area is served by Duderstadt Center, which houses the Art, Architecture and Engineering Library. Duderstadt Center also contains multiple computer labs, video editing studios, electronic music studios, an audio studio, a video studio, multimedia workspaces, and a 3D virtual reality room. Other libraries located on North Campus include the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library and the Bentley Historical Library.

Ross Athletic Campus

Ross Athletic Campus is the site for the university's athletic programs, including major sports facilities such as Michigan Stadium, Crisler Center, and Yost Ice Arena. The campus area is also the site of the Buhr library storage facility, Revelli Hall, home of the Michigan Marching Band, 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 Ross Athletic Campus.

The University of Michigan Golf Course is located south of Michigan Stadium. It was designed in the late 1920s by Alister MacKenzie, the designer of Augusta National Golf Club in Augusta, Georgia, home of the Masters Tournament. The course opened to the public in 1931 and has one of "the best holes ever designed by Augusta National architect Alister MacKenzie" according to the magazine ''Sports Illustrated'' in 2006.

Organization and administration

Governance

The University of Michigan is governed by the Board of Regents, established by the Organic Act of March 18, 1837. It consists of eight members, elected at large in biennial state elections for overlapping eight-year terms. Before the Office of President was established in 1850, the University of Michigan was directly managed by the appointed regents, with a rotating group of professors responsible for carrying out day-to-day administrative duties. The Constitution of the State of Michigan of 1850 restructured the university's administration. It established the Office of the President and transitioned the Board of Regents to an elected body. The state constitution granted the Board of Regents the power to appoint a non-voting presiding president to lead their meetings, effectively elevating the board to the level of a constitutional corporation independent of the state administration and making the University of Michigan the first public institution of higher education in the country so organized. As of 2021–22, the Board of Regents is chaired by Jordan B. Acker (B.A. '06).

The Board of Regents delegates its power to the university president who serves as the chief executive officer responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of the university, that is, the main campus in Ann Arbor. The president retains authority over the branch campuses in Dearborn and Flint but is not directly involved in their day-to-day management. Instead, two separate chancellors are appointed by the president to serve as chief executive officers overseeing each branch campus. All presidents are appointed by the Board of Regents to serve five-year terms, at the board's discretion, and there are no term limits for university presidents. The board has the authority to either terminate the president's tenure or extend it for an additional term.

The University of Michigan's current interim president is Domenico Grasso, former chancellor of the University of Michigan-Dearborn selected in May 8, 2025. Grasso was appointed by the Board of Regents in May 2025, following President Santa J. Ono's resignation and departure for the University of Florida. The university's 15th president was Santa Ono, formerly the president of the University of British Columbia in Canada. After an extensive presidential search conducted by the executive search firm Isaacson, Miller, the board announced its selection of Santa Ono as the university's 15th president on July 13, 2022. Ono assumed office on October 14, 2022, succeeding the outgoing president Mark Schlissel. Ono is the first Asian American president of the university, as well as the second to have been born in Canada, since the 10th president, Harold Tafler Shapiro. Laurie McCauley has been serving as the 17th and current provost of the university since May 2022, and she was recommended by the president to serve a full term through June 30, 2027.

The President's House, located at 815 South University Avenue on the Ann Arbor campus, is the official residence and office of the University President. Constructed in 1840, the three-story Italianate President's House is the oldest surviving building on the Ann Arbor campus and a University of Michigan Central Campus Historic District contributing property.

Student government

The Central Student Government, housed in the Michigan Union, is the university's student government. As a 501(c)(3) independent organization, it represents students from all colleges and schools, manages student funds on campus, and has representatives from each academic unit. The Central Student Government is separate from the University of Michigan administration.

Over the years, the Central Student Government has led voter registration drives, revived Homecoming events, changed a football seating policy, and created a Student Advisory Council for Ann Arbor city affairs. A longstanding goal of the Central Student Government has been to create a student-designated seat on the Board of Regents. In 2000 and 2002, students Nick Waun, Scott Trudeau, Matt Petering, and Susan Fawcett ran for the Board of Regents on the statewide ballot as third-party nominees, though none were successful. A 1998 poll by the State of Michigan concluded that a majority of voters would approve adding a student regent position if put to a vote. However, amending the composition of the Board of Regents would require a constitutional amendment in Michigan.

In addition to the Central Student Government, each college and school at the University of Michigan has its own independent student governance body. Undergraduate students in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts are represented by the LS&A Student Government. Engineering Student Government 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, and law students are represented by the Law School Student Senate 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, which contains the third most constituents after Central Student Government and LS&A Student Government.

Finances

In the fiscal year 2022–23, the State of Michigan spent $333 million on the university, which represents 3.03% of its total operating revenues of $11 billion. The university is the second-largest recipient of state appropriations for higher education in Michigan for 2022-23, trailing Michigan State University ($372 million). The Office of Budget and Planning reports that Michigan Medicine's auxiliary activities are the largest funding source, contributing $6.05 billion to the Auxiliary Funds, which accounts for 55.1% of the total operating budget. Student tuition and fees contributed $1.95 billion to the General Fund, accounting for 11% of the total budget. Research grants and contracts from the U.S. federal government contributed $1.15 billion to the Expendable Restricted Funds, accounting for 10.4% of the total budget.

The university's current (FY 2022–23) operating budget has four major sources of funding:

* General Fund money, which accounts for 25.4% of the operating budget, is derived from various sources: student tuition and fees ($1.95 billion or 75.2%), state support ($333 million or 12.8%), sponsored research ($301 million or 11.6%), and other revenue ($8 million or 0.3%). It covers the costs of teaching, student services, facilities, and administrative support. The state's annual contribution to the school's operating budget was 3.03% in 2023 and does not cover intercollegiate athletics, housing, or Michigan Medicine.
* Auxiliary Funds, which account for 58.2% of the operating budget, are sourced from self-supporting units and do not receive taxpayer or tuition support. These include Michigan Medicine ($6.16 billion), intercollegiate athletics ($186 million), student housing ($160 million), and student publications.
* Expendable Restricted Funds, which account for 14.2% of the operating budget, are from providers who designate how their money is spent. Funding comes from research grants and contracts, endowment payout ($305 million), and private gifts ($157 million). It pays for scholarships and fellowships; salaries, benefits and research support for some faculty; and research, programs and academic centers.
* Designated Funds, which account for 2.2% of the operating budget, come from fees charged for and spent on experiential learning, programs, conferences, performance venues, and executive and continuing education.

Endowment

The university's financial endowment, known as the "University Endowment Fund", comprises over 12,400 individual funds. Each fund must be spent according to the donor's specifications. Approximately 28% of the total endowment is allocated to support academic programs, while 22% is designated for student scholarships and fellowships. Approximately 19% of the endowment was allocated to Michigan Medicine and can only be used to support research, patient care, or other purposes specified by donors.

, the university's endowment, valued at $17.9 billion, ranks as the tenth largest among all universities in the country. The university ranks 86th in endowment per student. The law school's endowment, totaling over $500 million, has a significantly higher per-student value compared to that of its parent university. It ranks as the eighth wealthiest law school in the nation in 2022.

Schools and colleges

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, and the Ross School of Business. At the graduate level, the Rackham School of Graduate Studies serves as the central administrative unit of graduate education at the university. There are 18 graduate schools and colleges. Professional degrees are conferred by the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, the School of Nursing, the School of Dentistry, the Law School, the Medical School, and the College of Pharmacy. Michigan Medicine, the university's health system, comprises the university's three hospitals, dozens of outpatient clinics, and many centers for medical care, research, and education.

Academics

Admissions

Undergraduate

''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. Of those students accepted to Michigan's Class of 2027, 7,050 chose to attend.

Admission is based on academic prowess, extracurricular activities, and personal qualities. The university's admission process is need-blind for domestic applicants. Admissions officials consider a student's standardized test scores, application essay and letters of recommendation to be important academic factors, with emphasis on an applicant's academic record and GPA, while ranking an applicant's high school class rank as 'not considered'. In terms of non-academic materials as of 2022, Michigan ranks character/personal qualities and whether the applicant is a first-generation university applicant as 'important' in making first-time, first-year admission decisions, while ranking extracurricular activities, talent/ability, geographical residence, state residency, volunteer work, work experience and level of applicant's interest as 'considered'. Some applicants to Music, Theatre and Dance and some applicants to the College of Engineering may be interviewed. A portfolio is required and considered for admission for Art, Architecture and the Ross School of Business. Submission of standardized test scores is recommended but not compulsory. Of the 52% of enrolled freshmen in 2023 who submitted SAT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite scores were 1350–1530. Of the 18% of the incoming freshman class who submitted ACT scores; the middle 50 percent Composite score was between 31 and 34.

Since the fall of 2021, the university has had the largest number of students in the state, surpassing Michigan State University's former enrollment leadership. Given the state's shrinking pool of college-age students, there is public concern that the university's expansion could harm smaller schools by drawing away good students. Some of the state's regional public universities and smaller private colleges have already seen significant declines in enrollment, while others face difficulties in maintaining enrollment figures without lowering admission standards.

The university experienced an unexpected surge in student enrollment for the 2023 academic year, having admitted more students than it could support. This over-yield situation has placed considerable strain on student housing affordability, heightened faculty members' workloads, and stretched resources thin. The university is now embracing a steady-state admissions management strategy aimed at maintaining a stable class size.

Graduate

The Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies, the graduate school of the University of Michigan, received a total of 19,098 applications for admission into its doctoral programs for the 2023 admission year, encompassing the Summer and Fall terms. The school extended offers of admission to 2,816 applicants, representing 14.75% of the applicant pool. Subsequently, 1,233 of the offers were accepted, resulting in a yield rate of 43.79% for the academic year. Applicants may submit multiple applications to different doctoral programs and receive multiple offers, but can only matriculate into one program at a time. Doctoral programs that are not administered by Rackham are not included in the statistics.

The selectivity of admissions to doctoral programs varies considerably among different disciplines, with certain highly competitive fields exhibiting acceptance rates in the single digits. For instance, in 2023, the field of Business Administration admitted only 5.2% of its 519 applicants. Similarly, the field of Sociology had a selectivity rate of 5.01%, selecting from a pool of 439 applicants. The field of Psychology was even more competitive, with a selectivity rate of 4.1% out of 805 applicants. Other traditionally highly competitive fields include Philosophy, Public Policy & Economics, Political Science, and Robotics.

History of admissions policies

In August 1841, the university first published its admission requirements for incoming freshmen. These criteria placed a strong emphasis on proficiency in ancient languages, particularly Latin and Greek. Prospective students faced an examination process that assessed their knowledge across various subjects, including arithmetic, algebra, English grammar, geography, Latin literature (Virgil and Cicero's Select Orations), Greek literature (Jacob's or Felton's Greek Reader), Latin grammar (Andrews and Stoddard's), and Greek grammar (Sophocles's).

A decade later, the university made a significant change to its admission policy. In 1851, it introduced a more flexible approach by waiving the ancient language requirement for students not pursuing the traditional collegiate course and allowing admission without examination in classical languages for these students. This adjustment can be viewed as a prelude to scientific education, signaling a gradual shift from the classical curriculum to a more diverse and modern academic offering.

In the early days of the university, the admission requirements varied across different departments, and most admissions were based on referrals. However, in 1863, a standardized entrance examination was introduced, establishing a single set of qualifications for admission to all academic and professional departments. The university administration at the time praised the implementation of this entrance examination, recognizing its contribution to enhancing the admission process. This entrance examination played a crucial role in the admission process throughout the 19th century until the introduction of nationwide standardized tests.

Affirmative action

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''). U.S. 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 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.

Undergraduate graduation and retention

Among all first-time freshmen students who enrolled at the university in fall 2017, 82.0% graduated within four years (by August 31, 2021); 10.2% graduated in more than four years but in five years or less (after August 31, 2021 and by August 31, 2022); 1.1% graduated in more than five years but in six years or less (after August 31, 2022 and by August 31, 2023). The percentage of undergraduate students from the fall 2022 cohort returning in fall 2023 was 98.0% for full-time freshman students.

Majors and programs

The university offers 133 undergraduate majors & degrees across the College of Engineering (18), College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (77), College of Pharmacy (1), Ford School of Public Policy (1), LSA Residential College (3), Marsal Family School of Education (3), Ross School of Business (1), School of Dentistry (1), School of Information (2), School of Kinesiology (3), School of Music, Theatre & Dance (16), School of Nursing (1), School of Public Health (2), Stamps School of Art & Design (2), and Taubman College of Architecture & Urban Planning (2). The most popular undergraduate majors, by 2021 graduates, were computer and information sciences (874), business administration and management (610), economics (542), behavioral neuroscience (319), mechanical engineering (316), experimental psychology (312).

The Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studies offers more than 180 graduate degree programs in collaboration with fourteen other schools and colleges. Nineteen graduate and professional degree programs, including the juris doctor, master of business administration, doctor of dental surgery, master of engineering, doctor of engineering, doctor of medicine, and doctor of pharmacy, are offered exclusively by the schools and colleges; Rackham does not oversee their administration. The university conferred 4,951 graduate degrees, and 709 first professional degrees in 2011–2012.

Employability

The university is listed among the leading suppliers of undergraduate and graduate alumni to Silicon Valley tech firms. In 2015, the university ranked 6th on the list of top feeder schools for Google, which employed over 500 graduates at the time. The university ranked 10th on the list of top feeder schools for Meta. Google and Meta remain the university's first and second top employers in 2024.

The university has ranked 3rd overall in investment banking analyst placements, according to data from Terrain Analytics. This ranking is based on 216 total hires of graduates from 2008 to 2023 who secured positions within the United States, including 74 placements at elite firms such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan Chase, Evercore, and Centerview Partners. The ranking adjusts to 8th place when accounting for the size of the undergraduate population. The university also ranked 3rd overall in recruiting for undergraduate management consulting jobs, with 102 graduates from 2014-2020 securing positions at the Big Three firms: McKinsey, BCG, and Bain.

In 2022, Michigan Ross ranked 11th among all business schools in the United States according to Poets & Quants, with its MBA graduates earning an average starting base salary of $165,000 and an average sign-on bonus of $30,000.

In academia, the university ranks among the five most common institutions for doctoral training, alongside UC Berkeley, Harvard, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and Stanford. Together, these universities have trained one in eight tenure-track faculty members currently serving at institutions of higher learning across the nation.

The U.S. Department of Education reports that as of June 2024, federally aided students who attended University of Michigan-Ann Arbor had a median annual income of $83,648 (based on 2020-2021 earnings adjusted to 2022 dollars) five years after graduation. This figure exceeds both the midpoint for 4-year schools of $53,617 and the U.S. real median personal income of $40,460 for the year 2021 adjusted to 2022 dollars. Federally aided bachelor's graduates from the university's largest program, computer and information science, which had over 950 students in the 2020-21 cohort, had a median annual income of $153,297 five years after graduation.

According to data from the U.S. Department of Education, law tops the list of most valuable first professional degrees offered by the university when ranked by earnings potential in 2022, with its federally aided students earning a median salary of $197,273 five years after graduation. Dentistry ($158,677), pharmacy ($142,224), and medicine ($134,187) follow behind in that order.

The fields of business administration ($140,827), economics ($108,627), mathematics ($107,395), and statistics ($105,494) are among the bachelor's degree programs with the highest earning potential offered by the university. In 2022, the university's federally aided students in these programs were earning median salaries exceeding the $100,000 threshold five years after graduation. Additionally, various engineering disciplines such as computer engineering ($123,120), aerospace, aeronautical, and astronautical engineering ($113,025), industrial engineering ($109,239), electrical, electronics and communications engineering ($109,107), mechanical engineering ($101,514), chemical engineering ($100,000) are among the top-earning majors. Computer sciences ($153,297) and information science ($125,257) also fall into this high-earning category.

Libraries and publications

The University of Michigan library system comprises nineteen individual libraries with twenty-four separate collections—roughly 13.3 million volumes as of 2012. The university was the original home of the JSTOR 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. The University of Michigan Press is also a part of the library system.

Several academic journals are published at the university:
* The Law School publishes ''Michigan Law Review'' and six other law journals: 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 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''.

Reputation and rankings

The University of Michigan is a large, four-year, residential research university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. 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 as well as professional degrees in medicine, law, and dentistry. The university has been included on Richard Moll's list of Public Ivies.

National rankings

The 2021 ''U.S. News & World Report'' Best Colleges report ranked the university 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.

World rankings

University of Michigan-Ann Arbor was ranked 26th among world universities in 2023 by the Academic Ranking of World Universities, based on the number of alumni or staff as Nobel laureates and Fields Medalists, the number of highly cited researchers, the number of papers published in Nature and Science, the number of papers indexed in the Science Citation Index Expanded and Social Sciences Citation Index, and the per capita academic performance of the institution.

The 2024 edition of the CWUR Rankings ranked the university 13th nationally and 16th globally, with an overall score of 89.1, taking into account all four areas evaluated by CWUR: education, employability, faculty, and research. The university excels in research (ranked 9th globally), measured by the total number of research papers (10% weight), the number of research papers appearing in top-tier journals (10% weight), the number of research papers appearing in highly-influential journals (10% weight), and the number of highly-cited research papers (10% weight). However, its ranking in the faculty category is relatively lower at 63rd globally. This metric evaluates the number of faculty members who have received prestigious academic distinctions (10% weight). The university's employability ranking is 42nd globally, based on the professional success of the university's alumni, measured relative to the institution's size (25% weight). In the education category, the university is ranked 35th globally. This metric assesses the academic success of the university's alumni, measured relative to the institution's size (25% weight).

In the 2025 QS World University Rankings, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor was ranked 44th in the world, its lowest position in 10 years, with an overall score of 79. The university excels in academic reputation (97.9), international research network (95.8), employment outcomes (94.5), and employer reputation (92.1), indicating a strong academic standing and industry recognition. However, it lags in areas like international faculty ratio (65.5), sustainability (62.2), citations per faculty (47.6), and international students ratio (39.2). The faculty-student ratio (80.3) is decent but could be improved.

Research

The University of Michigan is one of the twelve founding members of the Association of American Universities, a consortium of the leading research universities in North America. The university manages the fourth-largest research budget of any university in the United States, with total R&D expenditures of $1.925 billion in 2023. The federal government was the main source of funding, with grants from the National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, NASA, Department of Defense, Department of Energy, Department of Transportation, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), collectively accounting for over half of the research volume.

The first measurement of the magnetic moment and spin of free electrons and positrons was conducted by H. Richard Crane, an experimental physicist at the university.The President's National Medal of Science: Recipient Details;HORACE R. CRANE;Professor of Physics
/ref> The university operated the Ford Nuclear Reactor from 1933 to 1955, during which it conducted extensive research related to nuclear energy. It currently hosts several major research centers focusing on optics, reconfigurable manufacturing systems, and wireless integrated microsystems.

A pioneer in computing technology, the university designed and built the Michigan Terminal System, an early time-sharing computer operating system, and was involved in the development of the NSFnet national backbone, which is regarded as the foundation upon which the global Internet was built. In 2024, the university began collaborating with Los Alamos National Laboratory on high-performance computing and AI research.

The first inactivated flu vaccine was developed by Thomas Francis Jr. and Jonas Salk at Michigan.Meiklejohn, Gordon N., M.D. "Commission on Influenza." in ''Histories' of the Commissions'' Ed. Theodore E. Woodward, M.D., The Armed Forces Epidemiological Board, 1994 This was the first of many advancements at the university related to vaccination, including the development of a live attenuated influenza vaccine by Hunein Maassab. The university also introduced histotripsy, a non-invasive technique that uses focused ultrasound to treat diseased tissue, and has made significant contributions to medical technology with innovations such as the EKG and gastroscope.

In the social sciences, the Klein–Goldberger model, an enhanced macroeconomic model, was developed by Lawrence Klein and Arthur Goldberger at the university. George Katona created consumer confidence measures in the late 1940s. J. David Singer initiated the Correlates of War project in 1963 to compile scientific knowledge about war. The American National Election Studies, established with a National Science Foundation grant in 1977, has been based at the university and partnered with Stanford University since 2005. The Institute for Social Research, established in 1949, is the nation's longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences.

The university has been featured in multiple bibliometric rankings that assess its impact on academic publications through citation analysis. The University Ranking by Academic Performance for 2023–24 has positioned the university at 16th globally. Additionally, in 2024, the Performance Ranking of Scientific Papers for World Universities ranked it 13th worldwide. The university has a significant presence in the Nature Index, ranking 6th nationally and 23rd globally among research institutions, with a share of 365.97 and a count of 1199 in 2022. The university boasted 28 researchers who were recognized by Clarivate as being highly cited in 2023. In 2019, the university had 120 faculty members who were national academy members, placing it 10th among its peers in this metric.

Undergraduate students participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.

The university is a member of the international research association Universities Research Association and the state-wise University Research Corridor. Beginning in 2005, the university operated the UM-SJTU Joint Institute with Shanghai Jiao Tong University, but in 2025, it withdrew from the partnership due to national security concerns.

Student life

Student body

As of October 2023, the university had an enrollment of 52,065 students: 33,730 undergraduate students and 18,335 graduate students The largest college at the university was the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts with 21,973 students (42.2% of the total student body), followed by the College of Engineering (11,113; 21.3%) and Ross School of Business (4,433; 8.1%). All other colleges each hosted less than 5% of the total student population.

Students come from all 50 U.S. states and nearly 100 countries. As of 2022, 52% of undergraduate students were Michigan residents, while 43% came from other states. The remainder of the undergraduate student body was composed of international students. Of the total student body, 43,253 (83.1%) were U.S. citizens or permanent residents and 8,812 (16.9%) were international students as of November 2023.

As of October 2023, 53% of undergraduate students self-identified as White, 17% as Asian, 7% as Hispanic, 4% as Black, 5% as belonging to two or more races, and 5% as having an unknown racial composition. The remaining 8% of undergraduates were international students.

According to a 2017 report by the New York Times, the median family income of a student at Michigan was $154,000. 66% of students came from families within the top 20% in terms of income. As of 2022, approximately 23% of in-state undergraduate students and 14% of out-of-state students received a Pell Grant.

Residential life

The University of Michigan's campus housing system can accommodate approximately 10,000 students. 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, with the largest concentrations in the Central and South Campus areas.

Groups and activities

By 2012, the university had 1,438 student organizations. The student body is politically engaged, though, with 96% stating they intended to vote in the 2020 election. It is largely progressive, with 43% identifying as very liberal, 33% as somewhat liberal, and 13% moderate. 11% identified as conservative or very conservative. With a history of student activism, some of the most visible groups include those dedicated to causes such as civil rights and labor rights, such as local chapters of Students for a Democratic Society and United Students Against Sweatshops. Conservative groups also organize, such as the Young Americans for Freedom.

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 four times and the Wolverine Soft student-run game studio, which has released more than 15 video games on itch.io and Steam. 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, Habitat for Humanity, and Ann Arbor Reaching Out. Intramural sports are popular, and there are recreation facilities for each of the three campuses.

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, composed of more than 350 students from almost all of U-M's schools, is the university's marching band. 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 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, 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 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, 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.

The University of Michigan also has over 380 cultural and ethnic student organizations on campus. These range the Arab Student Association to Persian Student Association to African Students Association to even the Egyptian Student Association.

Fraternities and sororities

Fraternities and sororities 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, and Panhellenic Association—represent most Greek organizations. Each council has a different recruitment process.

National honor societies such as Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Kappa Phi, and Tau Beta Pi 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 Scholars and are invited to attend the annual Honors Convocation, an event which recognizes undergraduate students with distinguished academic achievements.

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, but many disputed that characterization, as its member list has been published some years in ''The Michigan Daily'' and the ''Michiganensian'', 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.

Media and publications

The student newspaper is ''The Michigan Daily'', which was founded in 1890 and is editorially and financially independent from the university. ''The Daily'' publishes daily online content and a weekly print edition. The yearbook is the ''Michiganensian'', founded in 1896. Other student publications at the university include the conservative '' Michigan Review'' and the ''Gargoyle Humor Magazine''.

WCBN-FM (88.3 FM) is the student-run college radio 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

Violent crime is rare on campus, though there have been a few notorious cases, including Theodore Kaczynski's attempted murder of professor James V. McConnell and research assistant Nicklaus Suino in 1985. In 2022, David DePape, the man convicted of attacking Paul Pelosi, who is the husband of former U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, targeted Gayle Rubin, an associate professor of anthropology and women’s studies at the university. DePape testified during his trial that he hoped to use Nancy and Paul Pelosi in an effort to get to Gayle Rubin.

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's White House Task Force to Protect Students from Sexual Assault 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 abused at least 950 university students, many of whom were athletes, from 1966 to 2003. Several football players from that time say football coach Bo Schembechler 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 Anderson. Following the exposure of a similar history of abuse at Ohio State University, 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's athletics history dates back to the late 19th century, with the baseball team founded in 1866, the football team established in 1879, and the men's tennis team originating in 1893. The university currently boasts 29 varsity intercollegiate sports, including 14 men's teams and 15 women's teams. Since January 2016, Warde Manuel has served as the 12th athletics director.

The university's intercollegiate sports teams, known as the "Wolverines," participate in the Big Ten Conference in most sports, with the exception of the women's water polo team, which competes in the Collegiate Water Polo Association. The teams compete at the NCAA Division I level in all sports, including Division I FBS in football. The teams share the nickname "Wolverines" with several other collegiate athletic teams in the country, such as the Utah Valley Wolverines, the Grove City Wolverines, and the Morris Brown Wolverines.

In 1896, the university became a founding member of the Intercollegiate Conference of Faculty Representatives, which later evolved into the Western Conference (1896–1899) and eventually became known as the Big Ten Conference (since 1950). However, by April 1907, just a decade later, the university was voted out of the conference for refusing to adhere to league rules. Following a nine-year absence, the university rejoined the conference in 1917.

In 1926, Harvard made an agreement to play football against Michigan, dropping Princeton from its schedule due to past rough matches. Princeton perceived this move as a threat to the ' Big Three' relationship, fearing it would lose its status as a rival to Harvard and be relegated to a secondary class. By the 1930s, the 'Big Three' was restored and expanded into the Ivy League in 1939.

In 2023, during the NCAA's investigation into sign-stealing allegations against the football team's staff members, the university's board of regents considered the possibility of leaving the Big Ten conference due to dissatisfaction with the conference's handling of the investigation.

Venues

The Ray Fisher Stadium, constructed in 1923, serves as the home venue for the baseball team. The Alumni Field at Carol Hutchins Stadium, formerly known as the Varsity Diamond, is the home field for the university's softball team. The Yost Ice Arena, opened in 1923, is the home arena for the men's ice hockey team. The Crisler Center, opened in 1967 and previously known as the University Events Building and Crisler Arena, serves as the home venue for the men's and women's basketball teams as well as the women's gymnastics team. The Phyllis Ocker Field, constructed in 1995 and built partially on the site of Regents Field, is the home venue for the university's field hockey teams.

Michigan Stadium, opened in 1927, serves as the home venue for the football team. With an official capacity of 107,601, the stadium is the third-largest sports stadium in the world. The extra seat in the stadium's capacity is said to be "reserved" for former head coach Fritz Crisler. Prior to the construction of Michigan Stadium in 1927, the football team played their home games at Regents Field. In 1902, Dexter M. Ferry donated land adjacent to Regents Field, and the entire complex was renamed Ferry Field. Ferry Field served as the home stadium for the football team until the opening of Michigan Stadium. Today, Ferry Field serves as a tailgating space for Michigan Stadium during football games.

Fight songs and chants

The Michigan fight song, "The Victors", was written by student Louis Elbel in 1898. The song was declared by John Philip Sousa to be "the greatest college fight song ever written." The song refers to the teams as being "the Champions of the West". At the time, the Big Ten Conference was known as the Western Conference.

Although mainly used at sporting events, the Michigan fight song is often heard at other events as well. U.S. President Gerald Ford had it played by the United States Marine Band 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 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". 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 (marching band), 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 (fight song), Varsity", was written in 1911 because the line "champions of the West" was no longer appropriate.

Accomplishments

The Michigan Wolverines football, Michigan football program ranks first in NCAA history in total wins (1,004 through the end of the 2023 season) and tied for 1st among FBS schools in winning percentage (.734). The team won the first Rose Bowl Game, Rose Bowl game in 1902 Rose Bowl, 1902. the university had 40 consecutive winning seasons from 1968 to 2007, including consecutive bowl game appearances from 1975 to 2007. The Wolverines have won a record 45 Big Ten championships. The program claims 12 College football national championships in NCAA Division I FBS, national championships, most recently winning the 2024 College Football Playoff National Championship, 2024 National Championship Game, and has produced three Heisman Trophy winners: Tom Harmon, Desmond Howard, and Charles Woodson.

The men's ice hockey team, which plays at Yost Ice Arena, has won nine NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship, national championships.

The Michigan Wolverines men's basketball, men's basketball team, which plays at the Crisler Center, has appeared in five NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, Final Fours and won the 1989 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament, national championship in 1989. The program also voluntarily vacated victories from its 1992–1993 and 1995–1999 seasons in which University of Michigan basketball scandal, 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.

More than 250 Michigan athletes or coaches have participated in Olympic Games, Olympic events, and as of 2021 its students and alumni have won List of American universities with Olympic medals, 155 Olympic medals. Through the 2012 Summer Olympics, 275 Michigan students and coaches had participated in the Olympics, winning medals in each Summer Olympic Games except 1896, and winning gold medals in all but four Olympiads. the university's students/student-coaches (e.g., notably, Michael Phelps) have won a total of Michigan Wolverines#Olympians, 185 Olympic medals: 85 golds, 48 silvers, and 52 bronzes.

In 10 of the past 14 years concluding in 2009, the university has finished in the top five of the NACDA Director's Cup, a ranking compiled by the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics to tabulate the success of universities in competitive sports. The university has finished in the top 10 of the Directors' Cup standings in 21 of the award's 29 seasons between Michigan Wolverines#NCAA Division I Directors' Cup, 1993–2021 and has placed in the top six in nine of the last 10 seasons.

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, Detroit Observatory, Sindecuse Museum of Dentistry, and the LSA Museum of Anthropological Archaeology.

Kelsey Museum of Archeology 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 of Dibsi Faraj in northern Syria. 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 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 people

Benefactors

The university was assisted in its formation in the 1810s by a Grand Lodge of Michigan, Masonic lodge (Zion Lodge No. 1 F&AM), which provided much-needed financial support for its establishment. Of the total amount subscribed to start the university, two-thirds came from the Masonic lodge and its members. Since then, private donors have become an important source of funding for the university. Among the individuals who have made significant donations commemorated at the university are William Wilson Cook, Dexter M. Ferry, Dexter Mason Ferry, the Ford family, the Nichols Arboretum, Nichols family, the University of Michigan School of Education, Marsal Family, the Preston Robert Tisch, Tisch Family, William E. Upjohn, William Erastus Upjohn, John Stoughton Newberry, Clara Harrison Stranahan, William K. Brehm, William Morse Davidson, A. Alfred Taubman, Penny W. Stamps School of Art and Design, Penny W. Stamps, and Ronald Weiser. The Samuel Zell, Zell Family Foundation, led by Sam and Helen Zell, has donated a total of $152 million to the university over the years. Stephen M. Ross made a $200 million donation to the business school and athletic campus in 2013. Ross made a separate $100 million contribution to the university in 2004. Charles Munger pledged $110 million in 2013 for a graduate residence and fellowships. In 2024, the Hong Kong-based Li Ka Shing Foundation endowed a professorship at the university to support research in biomedical engineering.

Faculty

The university employs 8,189 faculty members, of whom 3,195 are tenured or on a tenure track. Among them, there are 37 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 62 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 30 members of the National Academy of Engineering, 89 Sloan Research Fellowship, Sloan Research Fellows, 17 Guggenheim Fellows, 99 members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and 17 members of the American Philosophical Society. The university's current and former faculty includes thirteen List of University of Michigan faculty and staff#Nobel Laureates, Nobel laureates, eight Pulitzer Prize winners, three David M. Holland Medal winners, and one John Bates Clark Medal recipient.

Current faculty include physicists Mark Newman, Duncan G. Steel, Steven Cundiff, Stephen Forrest, and Gordon Kane; mathematicians Hyman Bass, Sergey Fomin, William Fulton (mathematician), William Fulton, Robert Griess, and Melvin Hochster; chemist Melanie Sanford; Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Heather Ann Thompson; National Medal of Science recipients Huda Akil and Robert Axelrod (political scientist), Robert Axelrod; biostatistician Gonçalo Abecasis; philosophers Elizabeth S. Anderson, Allan Gibbard, and Peter Railton; and social psychologist Richard E. Nisbett. The faculty also includes feminist legal theorist Catharine MacKinnon, ''Strict Scrutiny'' co-host Leah Litman, engineer James P. Bagian, and A. Galip Ulsoy, co-inventor of the Reconfigurable Manufacturing System.

Philosophers who were members of the faculty include pragmatists John Dewey, Charles Horton Cooley, and George H. Mead, along with analytic philosophers William Frankena and Cooper Harold Langford. The faculty included notable writers such as Nobel Prize-winning essayist Joseph Brodsky, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet W. H. Auden, and Robert Frost, the only poet to receive four Pulitzer Prizes for Poetry.

Notable faculty in physics have included Donald A. Glaser, the inventor of the bubble chamber; Samuel Goudsmit and George Uhlenbeck, discoverers of electron spin; Juris Upatnieks and Emmett Leith, inventors of 3D holography; Gérard Mourou, inventor of chirped pulse amplification; and H. Richard Crane, who was called "one of the most distinguished experimental physicists of the 20th century". Wolfgang Pauli, a pioneer of quantum physics, served as a visiting professor at the university in 1931 and again in 1941. Physicists Martin Lewis Perl and Lawrence W. Jones served as co-advisors to Nobel laureate Samuel C. C. Ting at the university. Perl himself was also awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1995 for his discovery of the tau lepton. Other distinguished physicists who have served on the faculty include Martinus Veltman, Carl Wieman, and Charles H. Townes. Notable mathematicians Raoul Bott, Richard Brauer, Samuel Eilenberg (co-founder of category theory), Frederick Gehring, Herman Goldstine, and Anatol Rapoport have all served on the faculty.

In medicine, notable individuals who have served on the faculty include the former director of the National Institutes of Health Francis Collins, the developer of the polio vaccine Jonas Salk, Nobel Prize–winning physiologist Charles B. Huggins, co-discoverer of Oncovirus, tumour-inducing viruses Peyton Rous, geneticist James V. Neel, neuroanatomist Elizabeth C. Crosby, and co-discoverer of restriction enzymes Hamilton O. Smith.

Past faculty have also included "the founding father of 21st-century sociology" Charles Tilly, social psychologist Robert Zajonc, chemical engineer Donald L. Katz, Supreme Court justice Henry Billings Brown, Pulitzer Prize-winning composer Leslie Bassett, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer David C. Turnley, Nobel Prize-winning economist Lawrence R. Klein, and John Bates Clark Medal recipient Kenneth E. Boulding.

File:Joseph_Brodsky_1988.jpg, Joseph Brodsky
File:John_Dewey_cph.3a51565.jpg, John Dewey
File:Charles Townes.jpg, Charles H. Townes
File:Elizabeth_Caroline_Crosby_(1888-1983)_Ausschnitt.jpg, Elizabeth C. Crosby
File:Francis_Collins_official_photo.jpg, Francis Collins
File:Frederick Gehring.jpg, Frederick Gehring

Alumni

Michigan alumni include nine List of University of Michigan alumni#Nobel laureates, Nobel laureates, two Abel Prize winners (Isadore M. Singer and Karen Uhlenbeck), two Fields Medalists (June Huh and Stephen Smale), 31 List of University of Michigan alumni#MacArthur Foundation award winners, MacArthur Fellows, and 35 List of University of Michigan alumni#Pulitzer Prize winners, Pulitzer Prize winners. By alumni count, Michigan ranks fifth among all universities whose alumni have won Pulitzers.

Mathematics and sciences

Claude Shannon, who laid the foundations of the Information Age, ranks among the most distinguished mathematicians from the university. Two Fields Medal, Fields medalists Stephen Smale and June Huh, both completed their Ph.D.s in Mathematics at Michigan. Isadore Singer, the Abel Prize-winning mathematician who helped prove the Atiyah–Singer index theorem, studied physics at the university during World War II. Karen Uhlenbeck, the first woman to win the Abel Prize, received her bachelor's degree from the university in 1964. George Dantzig, who developed linear programming, studied at Michigan under George Yuri Rainich, G.Y. Rainich, R.L. Wilder, and Theophil Henry Hildebrandt, T.H. Hildebrandt. Other mathematicians from the university include Kenneth Ira Appel, who, along with Wolfgang Haken, solved the famous Four Color Theorem; Leonard Jimmie Savage, who was known for his contributions to Bayesian statistics and decision theory; and Carl R. de Boor, a renowned mathematician in numerical analysis.

In physics, Nobel laureate Samuel C. C. Ting, who discovered the J/ψ particle, studied under Martin Lewis Perl, another Nobel-winning physicist who discovered the tau lepton, at the university. Chemist Jerome Karle, who revealed molecular structures, completed his Ph.D. in Physics at Michigan in 1943. His wife, Isabella Karle, an alumna, developed techniques to extract plutonium chloride from plutonium oxide mixtures. Other alumni include nuclear physicist Robert Bacher, a leader of the Manhattan Project; Richard Smalley, who discovered fullerenes; Moses Gomberg, a pioneer in radical chemistry, who later became a professor at the university and taught Frank Spedding, who led the development of the Ames process in the Manhattan Project.

Alumni in biology and medicine include Marshall Warren Nirenberg, famous for breaking the genetic code, who received his Ph.D. in biochemistry from the university in 1957; Stanley Cohen (biochemist), Stanley Cohen, who discovered growth factors; and John Jacob Abel, regarded as the father of pharmacology, who studied under the university's physiologist Henry Sewall in 1883. Other alumni include Raymond Pearl, a founder of biogerontology, and David Botstein, a leader of the Human Genome Project.

Other notable alumni in science include Edgar F. Codd, who developed the relational model, relational model of data and completed his Ph.D. at Michigan, and computer scientist Michael Stonebraker, who also made contributions to database systems, database research. Both Codd and Stonebraker are Turing Award winners.

Law and government

The university boasts several holders or candidates of the United States presidency, including Gerald Ford, the 38th president and the Republican Party's nominee for president in 1976 United States presidential election, 1976; Thomas E. Dewey, who was the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party's nominee for president in both 1944 United States presidential election, 1944 and 1948 United States presidential election, 1948; Arthur LeSueur, a Socialist Party of America, Socialist candidate for president in 1916 United States presidential election, 1916; Gilbert Hitchcock, a Democratic Party (United States), Democratic candidate in 1928 United States presidential election, 1928; Arthur Vandenberg, a Republican presidential hopeful in 1948; Ben Carson, a Republican candidate in Ben Carson 2016 presidential campaign, 2016; and Larry Elder, a Republican candidate in Larry Elder 2024 presidential campaign, 2024. John Worth Kern and Burton K. Wheeler both ran for the Vice President of the United States, vice presidency, with Kern representing the Democratic Party alongside William Jennings Bryan in 1908 United States presidential election, 1908, and Wheeler as a Progressive Party (United States, 1924–1934), Progressive Party's nominee with Robert La Follette Sr. in 1924 United States presidential election, 1924.

Among the 23 former governors of Michigan who hold formal college degrees, 10 are graduates of the university. (Woodbridge N. Ferris only attended for a year) As of 2021, the university has matriculated 63 U.S. governors or lieutenant governors, including former Governor of Michigan Rick Snyder, first female lieutenant governor of Missouri Harriett Woods, and former Governor of California Culbert Olson. More than 250 Michigan graduates have served as List of University of Michigan legislator alumni, legislators as either a United States Senator (48 graduates) or as a United States Representatives, Congressional representative (over 215 graduates), including former House Majority Leader Dick Gephardt, U.S. Representative Justin Amash. Former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, former Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot, and Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan are also Michigan graduates.

Michigan graduates have held a range of cabinet-level positions, including United States Secretary of State (William Rufus Day); United States Secretary of the Treasury (George M. Humphrey); United States Attorney General (Harry Micajah Daugherty); United States Secretary of the Interior (Kenneth Lee Salazar); United States Secretary of Agriculture (Clinton Anderson, Julius Sterling Morton, Arthur M. Hyde, and Dan Glickman); United States Secretary of Commerce (Roy D. Chapin and Robert P. Lamont); United States Secretary of Health and Human Services (Tom Price (American politician), Tom Price); and Director of the United States Office of Management and Budget (Rob Portman). Multiple alumni served in the judicial branch of the U.S. government, including William Rufus Day, Frank Murphy, and George Sutherland, all of whom served as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, Supreme Court justices. As of 2019, the university has placed onto various State Supreme Courts over 125 graduates, 40 of whom served as Chief Justice.

Foreign alumni include the Prime Minister of Singapore (Lawrence Wong); the current ruler of the Emirate of Ras Al Khaimah (Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi); the 51st Prime Minister of Italy (Lamberto Dini); the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda 1994–2004 (Lester Bird); the 47th President of Costa Rica (Luis Guillermo Solís); the Prime Minister of Peru 1993–1994 (Alfonso Bustamante); the Prime Minister of Jordan 2012–2016 (Abdullah Ensour); the 13th President of Pakistan (Arif Alvi); Chief Secretary of Hong Kong 2007–2011 (Henry Tang Ying-yen); Deputy Prime Minister of South Korea 2017–2018 (Kim Dong-yeon); Deputy Prime Minister of Bulgaria in the government of Boyko Borisov (Simeon Djankov); Deputy Prime Minister of Madagascar 1997–1998 (Herizo Razafimahaleo). British Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), Members of Parliament Terry Davis (politician), Terry Davis and Howard Flight are also Michigan graduates. As of 2022, Michigan has matriculated 64 Ambassadors who served as Ambassador in more than 72 countries.

Engineering and technology

Many alumni have made significant contributions to the fields of engineering and technology, including Clarence "Kelly" Johnson and Joseph Francis Shea, a key figure in the Apollo program, earned his Ph.D. in 1955. The university produced numerous developers and original authors of widely recognized software programs, such as Thomas Knoll (original author of Adobe Photoshop); Mike Engelhardt (original author of LTspice); Niels Provos (creator of Bcrypt); and Sid Meier (creator of video games series Civilization (series), Civilization).

Business and finance

Michigan alumni have founded or cofounded many prominent companies, such as Alphabet Inc. (Larry Page), Johnson & Johnson (Edward Mead Johnson), Abbott Laboratories (Wallace Calvin Abbott), Stryker Corporation (Homer Stryker), Emerson Electric Company (John Wesley Emerson), Loews Corporation (Preston Robert Tisch), Devon Energy (J. Larry Nichols), Merrill Lynch (Charles Edward Merrill), Leidos as SAIC (John Robert Beyster, J. Robert Beyster), Rocket Mortgage (Gary Gilbert), Domino's (Tom Monaghan), H&R Block (Henry W. Bloch), Related Companies (Stephen M. Ross), Admiral Group (Henry Engelhardt), Akamai Technologies (Randall Kaplan), Five Guys, Five Guys Enterprises (Jerry Murrell
), Dart Container Corporation (William A. Dart), and Groupon (Eric Lefkofsky and Brad Keywell)

The university counts several patriarchs of influential business dynasties, including George Getty of the renowned Getty family. The university also boasts a number of graduates from affluent families, including heirs and heiresses to major fortunes, such as Josiah K. Lilly Jr. (heir to Eli Lilly and Company); Charles Rudolph Walgreen Jr. (heir to Walgreens Boots Alliance, Walgreens); John Gideon Searle (heir to G.D. Searle, LLC, G. D. Searle); Doug Meijer and Hank Meijer (heirs to Meijer); Christopher Ilitch (heir to Ilitch Holdings, Inc.); and Kenneth Dart, Kenneth B. Dart (heir to Dart Container Corporation). Raoul Wallenberg, a member of the prominent Wallenberg family, one of the List of wealthiest families, wealthiest families in the world, studied at the university in 1931.

As of May 2024, about 2.8% of all Fortune 1000 executives with MBAs are alumni from Michigan Ross, ranking it as the 6th highest among all business schools in the United States. Alumni have led several companies, including Berkshire Hathaway (Charlie Munger), Ford Motor Company, Ford (James Hackett (businessman), James Hackett), General Motors (Roger Smith (executive), Roger Smith, Frederick Henderson, and Richard C. Gerstenberg), State Farm Insurance (Jon Farney), Citigroup (John C. Dugan), Tencent (Martin Lau), The Boeing Company (Edgar Gott), Wells Fargo (Timothy J. Sloan), Allstate, Allstate Corp. (Thomas J. Wilson), American Airlines Group, American Airlines (Robert Isom), PNC Financial Services (William S. Demchak), General Mills (Stephen Sanger), Turkish Airlines (Temel Kotil), International Paper (John V. Faraci), KB Financial Group (Euh Yoon-dae), Chrysler Group LLC (C. Robert Kidder), BorgWarner Inc. (Timothy M. Manganello), Bunzl (Michael Roney), Celanese (David N. Weidman), JetBlue (Dave Barger), Restaurant Brands International (J. Patrick Doyle), and Bain Capital (Edward Conard).

Literature

Notable writers who attended the university include playwright Arthur Miller, essayists Susan Orlean, Jia Tolentino, Sven Birkerts, journalists and editors Mike Wallace, Jonathan Chait of ''The New Republic'', Indian author and columnist Anees Jung, Daniel Okrent, and Sandra Steingraber, food critics Ruth Reichl and Gael Greene, novelists Brett Ellen Block, Elizabeth Kostova, Marge Piercy, Brad Meltzer, Betty Smith, and Charles Major (writer), Charles Major, screenwriter Judith Guest, Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Theodore Roethke, National Book Award winners Keith Waldrop and Jesmyn Ward, composer/author/puppeteer Forman Brown, Alireza Jafarzadeh (a Middle East analyst, author, and TV commentator), and memoirist and self-help book author Jerry and Mary Newport, Jerry Newport.

Music and theatre

Musical graduates include operatic soprano Jessye Norman, singer Joe Dassin, multiple members of the bands Tally Hall and Vulfpeck, jazz guitarist Randy Napoleon, and Mannheim Steamroller founder Chip Davis. Well-known composers who are alumni include Frank Ticheli, Andrew Lippa, and the Oscar and Tony Award-winning duo Pasek and Paul, Benj Pasek and Justin Paul. Pop superstar Madonna (entertainer), Madonna and rock legend Iggy Pop attended but did not graduate.

In Cinema of the United States, Hollywood, famous alumni include actors Michael Dunn (actor), Michael Dunn, Darren Criss, James Earl Jones, and David Alan Grier; actresses Lucy Liu, Gilda Radner, and Selma Blair as well as television director Mark Cendrowski and filmmaker Lawrence Kasdan. Many Broadway and musical theatre actors, including Gavin Creel, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, his sister Celia Keenan-Bolger, and Taylor Louderman attended U-M for musical theatre. Emmy Award winner Sanjay Gupta attended both college and medical school at the university. Conservative pundit Ann Coulter is another U-M law school graduate (J.D. 1988).

Sports

U-M athletes have starred in Major League Baseball, the National Football League and National Basketball Association as well as in 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, awarded to the player considered the best in the nation: Tom Harmon (1940), Desmond Howard (1991), and Charles Woodson (1997). Professional golfer John Schroeder (golfer), John Schroeder and Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps also attended the University of Michigan; the latter studied 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. Israeli Olympic swimmer Gal Cohen Groumi has also competed for the Wolverines. The Canada women's national soccer team, Canada national team's Shelina Zadorsky played soccer at the University of Michigan.

National Hockey League players Marty Turco, Luke Hughes (ice hockey), Luke Hughes, Quinn Hughes, 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. MLB Hall of Famers George Sisler and Barry Larkin also played baseball at the university. Several team owners have 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).

Activists and humanitarians

Activists associated with the university include Weather Underground radical activist Bill Ayers, activist Tom Hayden, architect Charles Willard Moore, Charles Moore, Swedes, Swedish hero of the Holocaust Raoul Wallenberg, Civil War General Benjamin D. Pritchard, assisted-suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, and domestic eco-terrorist Ted Kaczynski (The Unabomber).

Exploration

Several astronauts attended Michigan including the all-U-M crews of both Gemini 4 and Apollo 15. The university claims the only alumni association with a chapter on the Moon, established in 1971 when the crew of Apollo 15 placed a charter plaque for a new U-M Alumni Association on the lunar surface.

Notes

References

Sources

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Further reading

* Dodge, Samuel (Nov. 14, 2022).
10 remnants of the University of Michigan’s ‘lost campus’
. MLive.com. Archived from th


* Peckham, Howard H., Margaret L. Steneck, and Nicholas H. Steneck. ''The Making of the University of Michigan, 1817–1992''. 175th anniversary ed., University of Michigan Press, 1994.
* Tobin, James. ''Sing to the Colors: A Writer Explores Two Centuries at the University of Michigan''. Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Press, 2021. . .

External links

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University of Michigan Athletics website

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