How is the University of Michigan handling the financial meltdown and recession? President Mary Sue Coleman describes the institution’s condition and strategic thinking.

Did you hear the one about the academic researchers who got together with cartoonists and Daily Show writers to try to figure out how humor works? It sounds like a quick way to strangle comedy, but U-M is at the forefront of the not-quite-a-trend toward humor studies.

Plus: Got something funny to say? Tell your (clean!) jokes on our letters page.

The U-M Museum of Art opens its gorgeous new wing on March 28, and you can tour it in the slideshow above. Here we remember the sculpture that started it all. Acquired in 1861, and still one of UMMA’s most beloved artworks, ‘Nydia’ was the product of a hometown boy who made it big in the art world.

Professor seeks to unify themes from different perspectives, which he hopes will “generate new ways of thinking about things.”

It’s the anniversary of U-M’s Musical Theatre program, and many of its famous alums are returning to campus to celebrate.

Your life was probably changed forever by the dorm you were assigned to. But in U-M’s early years, there were no dorms.

Google co-founder and U-M alum Larry Page (’95) will deliver the spring 2009 commencement address.

When students come to the university, they face a new world that can shake up their whole way of life. Some fear that even their religious faith will be under siege. But surveys – and students themselves, like Lizzy Lovinger (right) – say that keeping the faith is both a challenge and a blessing.