In her annual fall address, U-M president Mary Sue Coleman unveiled the Third Century Initiative, a bold plan to use $50 million in existing funds during the next five years to develop innovative, multidisciplinary teaching and scholarship approaches to such topics as climate change, poverty and malnutrition, energy storage, affordable health care and social justice challenges. It will encompass teaching, research and service efforts.

In 1977, Whitley Hill arrived as a freshman at U-M and met her roommate: a talented, eccentric dynamo named Madonna. Hill’s new book remembers the girl who would become an icon.

Over the last 40 years, the Spectrum Center has offered help and a community to gay students.

The U-M Biological Station is celebrating 100 years of bird watching and study in the forests Up North. Historical photos help to tell the story.

The U-M College of Engineering asked students how they have changed since their arrival on campus. The answers are surprising, poignant and inspiring, and they might just get you thinking about your own time in Ann Arbor.

Why the University of Michigan doesn’t have a mascot.

Brilliant ideas and ruthless competition at 600 words per minute: Behind the scenes of the Michigan debate team’s dramatic push for a national championship.

Michigan’s new governor will speak to Michigan’s class of 2011 at Michigan Stadium on April 30. Several prominent figures will receive honorary degrees, including Stephen Ross, William Clay Ford, Jr., and Spike Lee.

U-M’s solar car team unveiled its latest vehicle, the Quantum, this month. After six (count ’em) consecutive national titles, the team this year is pushing to win the World Solar Challenge in Australia in October.