Charting the Course of the University of Michigan over Half of a Century James and Anne Duderstadt © 2016 The Millennium Project, The University of Michigan All rights reserved. The Millennium Project The University of Michigan 2001 Duderstadt Center 2281 Bonisteel Boulevard Ann Arbor, MI 48109-2094 http://milproj.dc.umich.edu i Preface When the University of Michigan celebrates its also within the context of the extraordinary changes Bicentennial year in 2017-2018, the Duderstadts will also characterizing our state, the nation, and the world. be completing our 50th year at the University, surpassing Hence it occurred to us that it might be interesting all other Michigan presidents in the number of years of to share this unusual perspective of what has changed service to the University (including Presidents Angell and what has stayed the same, the ups and downs, and and Ruthven). Furthermore, 35 of these years have been what our University has gained and what it has lost spent as members of the Michigan faculty community, over these many years. In fact, by charting the course of including two decades after the presidency, yet another the University over the past half-century, perhaps we first for former presidents. might be able to suggest some of the most important Over our half-century as members of the University characteristics, principles, and values that could guide community, we have had the opportunity to serve the Michigan as it enters its third century in 2017. University of Michigan in almost every faculty role. We Of course, over such an extended period, most began our service when Jim was recruited as a young characteristics of the University tend to fluctuate rather faculty member in the Department of Nuclear Science than exhibit a secular trend (except for the downward and Engineering while Anne joined and later assumed path of state support). For example, when we first leadership of the Faculty Women’s Club (while earning arrived in Ann Arbor in the 1960s, the campus was alive her graduate degree). Next we were recruited into a with student activism and protest concerning important sequence of University leadership roles that were very social issues such as civil rights, the Vietnam War, and much two-person jobs: Dean and “Deanette”, Provost the draft. President Fleming’s wise leadership and the and “Provostess”, and President and First Lady of shifting priorities of society calmed the campus during the University. After returning to the faculty and the 1970s, but activism flared up once again in the 1980s the University family in the late 1990s, we have both and 1990s on both old issues (the lack of University continued to work in a variety of roles for the University, progress in achieving racial diversity) and new (the creating new academic programs, launching dozens of creation of a campus police department). The late projects to capture and illustrate its remarkable history 1990s and early 21st century were again a time of calm, through the use of rapidly evolving technologies, and but both student and faculty activism have flared up working hard to advance the interests of the University once again during the 2010s over the administration’s through both roles and projects at the national and awkward efforts to impose a corporate style of international level. Furthermore we have had the centralized management onto a highly decentralized experience of being Michigan parents when both of our academic institution. The cyclic nature of many of these daughters earned their graduate degrees (a PhD and issues is important to recognize, since what is up today MD) at the University. is likely to be down tomorrow, and vice versa. Hence we have had a front row seat in both observing There is also considerable variation in how one and experiencing many of the events and changes that would measure the changing nature of various have occurred during this half-century of the University university activities. Some of these can be easily of Michigan and the Ann Arbor community, and quantified, at least if one can pry the data out of the ii bureaucratic complexity of a $7 billion/year enterprise. or a data-driven analysis of the University at different For example, it is straightforward to demonstrate the points in its history (a la the Michigan Almanac). University’s rise and fall in racial diversity over this A second caveat: This is an attempt to utilize the period. African American student enrollments rose perspective gained through highly personal experiences from 4% during the 1960s up to over 9% in the 1990s to chart the course of the University of Michigan over due to the Michigan Mandate effort, only to collapse its past half-century. Although we have concluded each back to the 4% range over the past 15 years due both chapter with several suggestions–some obvious, some to state policy (a constitutional ban on affirmative on the radical fringe–about paths one might explore action) and the lack of a strategic commitment to social for Michigan’s future, the University’s third century diversity and inclusion. will be shaped and led by new generations of faculty, However it requires a more subjective assessment to students, staff, and leaders. determine how many other characteristics have fared. Finally, we have sprinkled throughout occasional For example, the Michigan saga as a pathfinder was observations and stories of a more humorous nature, in high gear during the 1960s, challenging the flaws accompanied from time to time with a few “zingers”, of our society through student organizations such as both to reawaken the reader and to avoid any the Students for a Democratic Society and academic interpretation that this book is intended as an accurate activities such as Teach-ins. However the 1970s were a history of the past half-century of the University of relatively placid time, without great impact on broader Michigan. Instead it is simply the perspective of two society. Michigan resumed its leadership role in the loyal members of the University community who have 1980s and 1990s, changing the world yet again through regarded serving the University of Michigan as our its role in building and managing the Internet and highest calling to public service. then developing the paradigm of massive digitization of scholarly materials. However this was followed by James and Anne Duderstadt yet another inactive decade as the University focused Ann Arbor, Michigan on internal issues such as enrollment growth, cost- 2016 containment, and private fund-raising, while shifting both attention and priorities from resource-strained academic activities to the opportunities presented by prosperous auxiliary activities (e.g., hospitals, housing, and football). To identify and analyze such trends requires not only a breadth of experience across the University, but also immersion in its activities over a considerable period of time. Since both happen to characterize our many years at Michigan, we have set out to provide just such a perspective as the University approaches its 200th birthday in 2017. There are several important caveats we need to stress at the outset of this book. First our effort to chart the course of the University of Michigan over the past five decades is a highly personal one, based on experiences we have had, how we understood them, and, in limited instances, how we attempted to deal with what we found. Put another way, this is certainly not intended as either a comprehensive history of the University (a la Peckham’s The Making of the University of Michigan), iii Table of Contents Resources Ch 8 Financials Preface Financing the University: A Brief Tutorial Forward and Contents Decade by Decade Today’s Financial Challenges Introduction The Bottom Line Ch 1 The University of Michigan, Circa 1960s Ch 9 Buildings The University of Michigan 1950s Decade by Decade The University of Michigan Campus, 1960s Investments in Capital Facilities Academic Activities The Road Ahead The Protest Generation Ch 10 Technology The Faculty Family Decade by Decade The City of Ann Arbor Today’s Concerns Charting a Course to the Future The Road Ahead Some Timelines of Past 50 Years Ch 2 Growth Organization, Leadership, and Governance Growth of the University Ch 11 Organization Michigan Today: “The Biggest in the Land” Decade by Decade Limits to Growth? Loosely-Coupled Adaptive Ecosystems The Road Ahead The Road Ahead Appendix: Tables on University Size Appendix: UM Operating Principles Ch 3 Leaders and Best Ch 12 Leadership A Tradition of Leadership The Zoology of University Leadership Decade by Decade UM Leadership: Decade by Decade Lessons Learned Concerns Raised and Lessons Learned The Road Ahead The Road Ahead Appendix: UM Does Big Things! Appendix: Executive Compensation Ch 4 Academic Programs Ch 13 Governance The University of Michigan, Inc. A Primer on University Governance Decade by Decade UM Governance: Decade by Decade Challenges to Academic Priorities Lessons Learned The Road Ahead The Road Ahead People Ch 5 Students Missions Decade by Decade Ch 14 Education The Road Ahead Decade by Decade Ch 6 Faculty The Road Ahead Decade by Decade Ch 15 Research Today’s Faculty Challenges Decade by Decade The Road Ahead National Studies Appendix: Faculty Compensation Appendix: JJD Science Policy Activities Ch 7 Staff Ch 16 Service Decade by Decade UM’s Service Mission Today’s Concerns The Academic Medical Center The Road Ahead Economic Development Lessons Learned iv The Road Ahead Ch 22 The Road Ahead Ch 17 Athletics Growth Decade by Decade