An Operating Manual for the University of Michigan James and Anne Duderstadt © 2018 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 The University of Michigan clearly qualifies for on a firm belief that great things happen because of the inclusion in the small group of institutions that have ability, creativity, and commitment of great students, shaped American higher education. Michigan has faculty, and staff at the grassroots level. Put another long defined the model of the large, comprehensive, way, Michigan long ago discarded a top-down culture, public research university, with a serious commitment in which leaders tossed ideas out to be embraced and to scholarship and service. It has been distinguished implemented by the community. Instead, great ideas by unusual breadth, a rich diversity of academic and achievements at Michigan bubble up from the disciplines and professional schools, social and cultural academic programs at the department and school or activities, and intellectual pluralism. This unrelenting college level. commitment to academic excellence, broad student This ability to take risks, to experiment and access, and public service continues today. In virtually innovate, to explore various new directions in teaching, all national and international surveys, the university’s research, and service, defines Michigan’s unique role in programs rank among the very best, with most of its American higher education. In fact, beyond academic schools, colleges, and departments ranking in quality leadership, from time to time the University actually among the top ten nationally and with several regarded does something that changes the world! For example, as the leading programs in the nation. The late Clark it was the first university to own and operate its own Kerr, the president of the University of California, once hospital, thereby combining the medical research referred to the University of Michigan as “the mother of conducted by its faculty with the clinical care offered state universities,” noting it was the first to prove that a by its hospitals. It introduced the new discipline of high-quality education could be delivered at a publicly aeronautical engineering within a decade after the funded institution of higher learning. (Kerr, 1963) Wright Brothers’ flight and nuclear engineering only Beyond academic excellence and unusually broad a few years after the Manhattan project. In the 1950s educational opportunities, one more element of the Michigan conducted the clinical trials to verify the Michigan character seems particularly appropriate success of the Salk Vaccine. Through its Institute for during these times of challenge and change in higher Social Research, it became a leader in the quantitative education. Its extraordinary scale and unusual degree social sciences. Astronauts trained at the University of decentralization of authority have enabled it to take led NASA missions to the moon in the 1960s. And in risks that would be unacceptable to most institutions. the 1980s, Michigan joined with IBM and MCI to build Michigan’s vast size, intellectual breadth, and highly and manage the Internet, a role it continued to play into decentralized management culture allows it to the 1990s, and later to build one of the world’s largest experiment and innovate on a scale far beyond that digital libraries, the HathiTrust. tolerated by most institutions, as evidenced by its long From an organizational perspective, the University history of leadership in higher education. It can easily has long functioned as a “loosely coupled, adaptive recover from any failures it encounters on its journeys ecosystem”, with an ever growing complexity as along high-risk paths. It has evolved over many its various components respond to changes in its decades into a highly decentralized ecosystem, based environment. Today the University is structured and ii evolving as a loosely coupled and adaptive ecosystem array of perspectives. From the academic perspective, responding to external changes in its environment. the rise through the ranks as a faculty member in Much like a tropical rain forest, its strength comes Engineering was rather traditional. It was probably from its roots, its students, faculty, and staff. The the strong involvement in faculty governance as a administration and governance comprising the more young faculty member that led to the descent through visible leaves and branches in the canopy of the rain the various levels of Dante’s inferno of academic forest sometimes break and fall off, but the forest administration: dean, provost, and finally president of continues to grown from its roots, developing defensive the University, only to be reincarnated once again as a mechanisms that ward off attackers. faculty member–albeit mostly unseen and unheard on Successful leaders of the University, whether in the Michigan campus as a has-been president. roles as presidents, executive officers, deans, chairs, The other member of the Duderstadt team rose and directors or participants in faculty or student even more rapidly to leadership roles in the University governance, or management at the various levels community: first as chair of the Faculty Women’s of staff, must accept the reality that the University is Club Newcomers group, then later as president of the structured as a federation. Its leadership at various Faculty Women’s Club organization and as a member levels sets some general ground rules and regulations, of other campus and community groups; as “deanette”, acts as an arbiter, raises money for the enterprise, and “provostess”, and “first lady” of the University. In tries—with limited success—to keep activities roughly these various roles she not only gave high priority to coordinated. In fact leading the University of Michigan building and supporting the many communities of the is less similar to that of a corporate manager and more university, managing hundreds of events, supervising akin to that of a conductor of an orchestra comprised the renovation of major facilities such as the President’s of highly skilled and highly valuable knowledge House,, the Inglis Highlands Estate, and entertainment professionals. areas of Michigan Stadium, while hosting thousands of Hence it is not surprising that the University has faculty, students, alumni, and guests of the University. long sought for its various leadership roles those She also played a leading role in enhancing and who understand and embrace the institution’s unique sustaining the University’s efforts to capture and culture of decentralization and risk-taking. This sustain its history, first by persuding us to invest requires the appropriate blend of leaders developed $500,000 a year in the Bentley Library to encourage from within who understand this unique institutional them to become the University’s historical respository, culture and tradition and those recruited from outside stimulating support of the major course on University who bring new ideas and energy. Of course there is history taught by Nick and Peg Steneck, creating the always a risk when this balance is distorted, either History and Tradition Committee and the position of by failing to develop sufficient number of internal University Historian (first held by Robert Warner), leaders to sustain Michigan’s unique culture or by and lauching her own efforts that continue today in becoming too dependent on newcomers to the campus authoring books, collecting historical information, and who attempt to impose upon UM their experiences at creating iterative websites to document the remarkable other institutions. Fortunately, those who neglect the history of the University of Michigan. University’s history and culture also expose themselves When the University of Michigan celebrated its to considerable risk, since like many highly developed Bicentennial year in 2017, the Duderstadts were ecosystems, the University has developed a strong about to begin our 50th year at the University–in fact, capacity to repel invasive species. surpassing the tenure of all other Michigan presidents For almost five decades, the Duderstadts have and other leadership roles in our years of service to the enjoyed being members of the Michigan family, serving University. We began our service as a young faculty in a variety of roles, including a partnership in the couple, but within a decade this role evolved into a assignment of dean, provost, and president and seeing series of academic and community leadership roles the University and its surrounding community from an (dean, provost, president, etc.). After two decades of iii University leadership roles, both of us returned again to Hence it occurred to us that one of our last our earlier roles as faculty and leaders in the University contributions to the University might be to develop an and Ann Arbor community. “operating manual” for leadership within the University This latter decision was unusual in higher education. of Michigan, both to help outsiders understand this Most university presidents are itinerant–they move unique institution and to provide guidance to insiders from university to university, as they progress through moving to new roles and assignments. In a sense this the academic and administrative ranks, and usually document is intended as a treatise on how to get things leave the