University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
| Motto | "Artes, Scientia, Veritas" |
|---|
| Established |
1817 |
|---|
| School type |
Public University |
|---|
| President |
Mary Sue Coleman |
|---|
| Location |
Ann Arbor, MI, USA |
|---|
| Enrollment |
25,000 undergraduate,
12,000 graduate |
|---|
| Faculty |
1,378 |
| Endowment |
US$3.4 billion |
| Campus |
Suburban, 3,070 acres |
| Sports teams |
Wolverines |
| Website |
www.umich.edu |
</div>
</div>
History
The University of Michigan was established in 1817 by the Michigan Territorial legislature as one of the United States' first public universities on 1,920 acres (8 km²) of land ceded by the Chippewa, Ottawa, and Potawatomi people "…for a college at Detroit." The school moved from Detroit to Ann Arbor in 1837, only 13 years after the latter city had been founded.
Academics
The University of Michigan boasts of one of the largest health care complexes in the world, one of the best university library systems in the country, and the some of the best computer access for students and faculty of any campus in the world. Michigan's teaching and research staff is highly distinguished, including an astronaut, distinguished world authorities, Pulitzer Prize winners, internationally acclaimed performing artists and composers, Supreme Court Justices, and best-selling novelists, artists, and filmmakers. Michigan has more than 100 named endowed chairs. Most of its academic departments, graduate, and professional schools (including its law, medical, and business schools) are highly ranked. Furthermore, the university is the largest pre-law and pre-medicine university in the country and has the largest yearly research expenditure of any public university in the United States.
Founded in 1853, the College of Engineering extensively supports numerous engineering and science related degree programs. The Aerospace Engineering program at the University of Michigan was the nation's first in 1914 and maintains strong relationships with Lockheed Martin and Boeing.
The University of Michigan Health System includes C.S. Mott Children's Hospital, University Hospital, and Women's Hospital, as well as nearly 150 clinics and MCare, an HMO. The university opened the first university-owned hospital in the United States in 1869. The EKG, gastroscope, and Jonas Salk's polio vaccine were invented at the university.
The students at the University of Michigan come from all 50 states and over 100 foreign countries. Almost 50 percent of undergraduates come from the top five percent of their graduating high school class and most are in the top tenth of their class.
In 2003 two lawsuits involving the school's affirmative action admissions policy reached the U.S. Supreme Court (Grutter v. Bollinger and Gratz v. Bollinger). President George W. Bush took the unusual step of publicly opposing the policy before the court issued a ruling, though the eventual ruling was mixed. 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.
Campus
The campus of the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor is composed of three main areas: North Campus, Central Campus and South Campus. North Campus contains most of the engineering facilities as well as the school of music and the school of art and architecture. The College of Literature, Science and the Arts occupies Central Campus, while South Campus supports mainly athletic programs. Central and North campuses differ notably in architecture; while the buildings in the former appear rather classical or gothic, the North Campus has a much more modern architectural look. Each campus' (except South) unique bell tower indicates this clearly.
Athletics
Michigan's sports teams are called the Wolverines. They participate in the
NCAA's Division I-A and in the
Big Ten Conference; its
hockey program competes in the
Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The Michigan
football team won the first
Rose Bowl game in 1902, and has won an NCAA-record 833 games through the 2003 season. Michigan's famous football coaches of the modern era include
Fritz Crisler and
Bo Schembechler. Michigan Stadium is the largest football-only stadium in the world, with an official capacity of 107,501 and with attendance commonly exceeding 110,000.
Michigan has a huge rivalry with Ohio State, considered one of the biggest college rivalries in sports, especially in football. It also has a rivalry with Michigan State, and the schools compete for the Paul Bunyan Trophy on a regular basis. The Wolverines also have a long-standing rivalry with Minnesota; the two schools battle for the Little Brown Jug, a small jug with the respective schools' "M" on either side and the scores of previous games down the middle. The Little Brown Jug is the oldest trophy in Division 1-A football, first appearing in 1903.
The school fight song is "The Victors," and was declared by John Philip Sousa as "the greatest college fight song ever written." The School song is "The Yellow and Blue." A common rally cry at Michigan football games is "Go Blue."
Student Government
The University's large student population (comparable to that of a small city) is conducive to an extensive student government infrastructure. The two main divisions of the University of Michigan, the College of Literature, Science and the Arts (LSA) and the College of Engineering (CoE) are administrated separately.
The LSA Student Judiciary is the judicial branch of the student government of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts at the University of Michigan. The judiciary has original jurisdiction over cases arising out of or concerning regulations, legislation, or other actions enacted by the student government, cases concerning the constitution and bylaws of the government, and election-related cases.
The judiciary is composed of seven student members. A 1996 amendment to the student government's constitution stipulates that they must serve as members of the college Academic Judiciary. A Chief Judge is elected internally.
The University of Michigan Engineering Council (UMEC) manages student government affairs for the College of Engineering.
Alumni
Famous alumni of the University of Michigan include:
- Selma Blair, actress.
- Ann Coulter, conservative author and attorney, graduated from Michigan Law School in 1988.
- George Crumb, composer, completed his doctorate in music there in 1959
- Gerald R. Ford, 38th U.S. president, studied economics and political science. He played center on two national-championship American football teams and was the team's most valuable player in 1934. He received his B. A. degree in 1935.
- Richard A. "Dick" Gephardt, United States House Minority Leader, graduate of UM Law School.
- David Allen Grier, actor.
- Thomas Dewey, politician and presidential candidate.
- James Earl Jones, actor.
- Clarence Johnson, founder of the Lockheed Martin Skunk Works.
- Bill Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems.
- Ted Kaczynski (the Unabomber), earned a Ph.D. in mathematics at the University of Michigan in 1967.
- Lawrence Kasdan studied creative writing and won four Hopwood Awards
- Jack Kevorkian received a medical degree with a specialty in pathology in 1952
- Thomas and John Knoll, Co-Creators of Adobe Photoshop.
- Christine Lahti, actress.
- Lucy Liu, actress.
- Madonna, singer and actress.
- Strother Martin, actor, member of the diving team.
- William Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic.
- Arthur Miller, playwright, author of Death of a Salesman, The Crucible.
- Thomas Monaghan , founder of Domino's Pizza.
- Michael Moore, filmmaker: Fahrenheit 9/11, Bowling for Columbine, Roger & Me.
- Larry Page, co-founder of Google.
- Iggy Pop, rock star.
- Gilda Radner, actress / comedian.
- Claude E. Shannon, "father of information theory".
- Samuel C. C. Ting, physicist, awarded Nobel Prize in 1976 for discovering the J/psi particle. Earned a Ph.D in physics in 1962.
- Charles Walgreen, founder of Walgreen drugstores.
- Mike Wallace, TV Journalist, long-time host of 60 Minutes.
External links
