Look to Michigan: The ‘defining public university of the future’
U-M’s blueprint for the next decade — Vision 2034 — leverages the community’s excellence at scale to confront the future’s most significant challenges, from AI and precision medicine to campus well-being and carbon neutrality.
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College athlete unions: Would they be effective?
In a first for college sports, the National Labor Relations Board recently ruled that men’s basketball players at Dartmouth College are school employees and ordered a union vote. Sports economist Richard Paulsen, assistant professor of sport management at U-M’s School of Kinesiology, discusses how unions might look for college athletes.
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Snakes do it faster, better: How a group of scaly, legless lizards hit the evolutionary jackpot
A large new genetic and dietary study of snakes, from an international team led by University of Michigan biologists, suggests these legless wonders are ‘evolutionary winners.’ Massive shifts in traits associated with feeding, locomotion, and sensory processing have allowed them to be ‘evolutionarily flexible,’ researchers say.
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Want to teach? U-M program helps solve shortage
The Michigan Alternate Route to Certification, offered in U-M’s Marsal Family School of Education, was designed for anyone with a bachelor’s degree interested in becoming a teacher in Michigan. Participants work as certified teachers (with salary and benefits) for three years while enrolled in and supported by the program to earn their standard teaching certificates.
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Michigan Minds podcast: For lasting fitness, prioritize moving your body — not the numbers on the scale
Though it’s only February, many of the millions of people who resolved to lose weight in 2024 have already fled the dreaded bathroom scale. Focusing primarily (on) the numbers is not an effective way to track our progress, says clinical exercise physiologist Laura Richardson. Start thinking about how you feel, not how much you weigh.
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George Gershwin’s first musical rediscovered after nearly a century
Performances by students at U-M’s School of Music, Theatre & Dance mark the first recordings with full orchestration of music from “La, La, Lucille,” George Gershwin’s first complete score, written when he was just 21 years old. The production opened on Broadway in May 1919, toured the Northeast in 1920 and California in 1922, and then was lost to history.
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Governor Cass and the Indians
All good origin stories contain at least a kernel of myth at the center of the plot. If there’s any such myth in the University’s origins, it’s not about heroes or grandiose works. It’s an idea embedded in the Northwest Ordinance of 1787 — that these Great Lakes states should provide public education to the region’s children.
Columns
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President's Message
From this day forward: ‘Vision 2034’
U-M's focus for the decade will target key areas with the greatest potential for impact. -
Climate Blue
Scenes from a warming climate
Ricky Rood reveals creative ways to gain control over the disruptions caused by climate change by planning for multiple scenarios. -
Editor's Blog
Looking forward to the past
Keep your eyes on the prize. Hindsight is just around the corner. We hope. -
Health Yourself
It’s time to rethink food labels
Rising prices are not the only challenge consumers face in today's grocery aisle.
‘Gateway for innovation’
The University of Michigan Center for Innovation (UMCI) in Detroit is expected to open in spring 2027. The building broke ground in December and preliminary site work has been ongoing. “The UMCI is a catalyst for positive change and, as such, presents itself along Grand River Avenue as a ‘gateway for innovation,’” said Hana Kassem, FAIA, Design Principal, Kohn Pedersen Fox (KPF). The first two floors will house public programs, a cafe, and shared office space for the U-M Detroit Center, Admissions Office, School of Environment and Sustainability Clinic, and others. Levels three through six are planned for multidisciplinary graduate research. Watch: UMCI design approved, construction ramps up. (All images by Kohn Pedersen Fox.)
