The tax incentives that have made Michigan a movie-making hotbed are also transforming U-M. Film crews are shooting on campus, bolstering the local economy and giving U-M students a reason — and an opportunity — to remain, work and learn in Michigan.

President Barack Obama will deliver the spring 2010 commencement address at the University of Michigan, President Mary Sue Coleman announced today. The ceremony will be held on May 1 in Michigan Stadium. Obama will receive an Honorary Doctor of Laws Degree, and he will be the fourth sitting president to visit U-M in Ann Arbor, following George H.W. Bush, Gerald R. Ford and Lyndon B. Johnson; former president Bill Clinton spoke at the 2007 commencement.

The great photographer Alfred Eisenstaedt came to Ann Arbor in 1950 for Life magazine. His goal: to capture the flawless precision and wild exuberance of the Michigan Marching Band. He succeeded.

Philip Hanlon, the Donald J. Lewis Professor of Mathematics and vice provost for academic and budgetary affairs at the University of Michigan, has been selected as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs by U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. He succeeds Provost Teresa Sullivan, who is stepping down to become the president of the University of Virginia.

Robben Wright Fleming, the imperturbable U-M president who steered the school safely through the student unrest of the late 1960s and early 1970s, died Jan. 11 at age 93. His devotion to the ideals of academic freedom and civil debate amid social and political tumult led the regents to name the university’s central administration building in honor of Fleming and his wife, Sally, who died in 2005.

The University of Michigan is now metro Detroit’s second largest employer behind Ford Motor Co., according to the Crain’s Detroit Business 2010 Book of Lists. A year ago, Crain’s listed U-M fourth behind the Big Three automakers.

iPhones are being used as musical instruments in a new course at the University of Michigan. The students design, build and play instruments on their smartphones.

Plus: Watch video of the Mobile Phone Ensemble performing.

Forty years ago, a prankish article in the Michigan Daily helped create a modern myth: Beatle Paul McCartney was dead.

In April, President Mary Sue Coleman announced that the University of Michigan’s three campuses will go smoke-free in 2011. Now comes the tough part.