University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university in Ann Arbor, Michigan, United States. Founded in 1817, it is the oldest institution of higher education in the state. It is also one of the earliest American research universities and is a founding member of the Association of American Universities.
The university has the largest student population in Michigan, enrolling more than 53,000 students, including more than 35,000 undergraduates and 18,000 postgraduates. It is classified as an "R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity" by the Carnegie Classification. It consists of 19 schools and colleges, offering more than 280 degree programs. The university is accredited by the Higher Learning Commission. In 2021, it ranked third among American universities in research expenditures according to the National Science Foundation.
The campus spans. It encompasses Michigan Stadium, which is the largest stadium in the United States, as well as the Western Hemisphere, and ranks third globally. The University of Michigan's athletic teams, including 13 men's teams and 14 women's teams competing in intercollegiate sports, are collectively known as the Wolverines. They compete in NCAA Division I as a member of the Big Ten Conference. Between 1900 and 2022, athletes from the university earned a total of 185 medals at the Olympic Games, including 86 gold.
History
Origins
The proposal for establishing an institution of higher education in Michigan dates back to 1703, during the colonial period of New France. Just two years after founding Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit on the strait between Lakes Saint Clair and Erie in 1701, the French explorer and later colonial governor of Louisiana, Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, wrote to King Louis XIV's minister, Louis Phélypeaux de Pontchartrain, from the settlement under the date of August 31, 1703. He urged the establishment of a seminary in the newly formed parish of Sainte-Anne-de-Détroit for the education of both Indigenous and French children in piety and the French language. However, surviving registres make no mention of a seminary ever being established from the proposal. Jesuit superiors in Quebec probably opposed the idea of creating a seminary in the Pays d'en Haut, due to disputes with Cadillac and fears of rivalry with their own institutions. Parish records from 1755 identified, nevertheless, a "director of Christian schools", suggesting the influence of the gentle St. John Baptist de La Salle. Mentions are made of a seminary of unknown founding at the fort that trained young men for the ministry, but it was destroyed in the Great Fire of 1805. Additionally, there was a French subscription school that stood near the fort in 1775, and an old account book preserved from 1780 contains tuition charges dated as early as 1760.The colony was surrendered to the British monarchy in 1762 following the French and Indian War. The local French Canadians maintained the Christian schools, which became bilingual; however, the British, who viewed the colony merely as a trading post, did practically nothing for education, leading to stagnation during their rule from 1763 to 1796.
When the colony came under American control following the enforcement of the 1783 Treaty of Paris in 1796, the territorial judges were supposed to be called in to formally define the rights and legal status of the Christian schools under the new constitution. Thereafter, the interpretation of the American right to education in Michigan, grounded in Section 1, Article XI of the Northwest Ordinance, was laid out. In 1806, parish-minister Gabriel Richard, who presided over the Christian schools and helped plan a new layout for Detroit after the fire in 1805, petitioned for land to found an "institution for higher learning" and suggested that a lottery might be used to support the academies he headed. Subsequently, in 1817, during the postwar period following the War of 1812, the Territorial government, at the instigation of Fr. Richard and Judge Augustus B. Woodward and with the support of President Thomas Jefferson, passed "an Act to establish the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania" within the Territory of Michigan. Enacted on August 26, 1817, the Act effectively consolidated the schools into one institution. Rev. John Monteith, a Presbyterian minister, was named as its first president and Fr. Richard as vice president. Its didactors had authority not only over the university itself but also over education in the territory in general. The legislative act was signed into law by Acting Governor and Secretary William Woodbridge, Chief Judge Augustus B. Woodward, and Judge John Griffin.
The Catholepistemiad, 1817–1821
The term "Catholepistemiad," a neologism derived from a blend of Greek and Latin roots, can be loosely translated as "School of Universal Knowledge". The university was modeled after an institution established in France a decade earlier, known as the Université imperial, under Emperor Napoleon. It included an array of schools and libraries under a single administration, with the authority to establish additional schools across the territory. It was not until the legislative council passed the territory's first public school law on April 12, 1827, which made basic education a municipal duty, that the corporation focused solely on higher education.The university may have initially been funded through private donations and federal land grants. Shortly after its founding in 1817, it received a $250 subscription from the Freemason Zion Lodge of Detroit. Of the total amount subscribed to establish the university, two-thirds came from the Zion Lodge and its members. The first endowment may have been a land grant from the U.S. federal government on May 20, 1826, as part of "an Act concerning a seminary of learning in the territory of Michigan," based on the Treaty at the Foot of the Rapids and the Treaty at Detroit.
The cornerstone of the first schoolhouse, located on Bates Street by the "Stone Church" of Ste. Anne Parish in Detroit, was laid on September 24, 1817. By the following year, a Lancasterian school, taught by Lemuel Shattuck, and a classical academy, taught by Hugh M. Dickey, were operational. Additional schools were established in Monroe and Mackinaw by the end of September 1817.
In 1821, by a new enactment, the university itself was created as a "body politic and corporate", maintaining its corporate status through various modifications to its charter. The new act placed the corporation under the control of a board of trustees. Rev. Monteith joined the board shortly but left the university for New York a year later, despite being offered the chairmanship. The trustees continued to manage the schools and classical academy, but established no new schools. By 1827, the first public school law mandated that local governments organize their own school districts within each township. Thereafter, the university leased the Detroit schoolhouse to private teachers, and the first school in Detroit under this law opened about the first June by an order of the trustees. However, the school soon closed following the passing of its teacher. The following year, the Bridge School in Raisinville Township was established under local governance.
Early years in Ann Arbor, 1837–1851
Following Michigan's admission to the Union in 1837, an organic act was passed on March 18, 1837, to reorganize the university under a twelve-member board of regents. The regents met in Ann Arbor and accepted the town's proposal for the university to relocate to Judge Henry Rumsey's farmland.The approved campus plans for the university were drawn up by the architect Alexander Davis. Davis designed an elaborate Gothic main building with a large lawn in front, wide avenues, and botanical gardens, all arranged to evoke the French château aesthetic. He also provided possible sites for future buildings; however, the plans were never executed. Instead, four houses for professors were authorized. Historians attribute the abandonment of the original plan to the financial constraints the university faced as a result of the Panic of 1837. Construction began in 1839, and in 1841, Mason Hall, the first campus building, was completed, followed by the construction of South College, a nearly identical building to the south, in 1849, leaving a gap for a future grand centerpiece.
File:Colored elevation of Mason Hall.jpg|thumb|A colored elevation of Mason Hall, the first instructional building on the Ann Arbor campus. Its design inspired North Hall in Madison, Wisconsin
The first classes in Ann Arbor were held in 1841, with six freshmen and one sophomore taught by two professors, Joseph Whiting and George Palmer Williams. Asa Gray was the first professor appointed following the university's move to Ann Arbor in 1837. He and the regents were both involved in stocking the university library. In 1846, Louis Fasquelle, a native of France, was appointed as the first professor of modern languages, primarily teaching French and writing textbooks. French became the first modern language taught at the university. During the first commencement in 1845, eleven graduates, including Judson Collins, were awarded Bachelor of Arts degrees.
In subsequent years, the regents established branches throughout the state to function as preparatory schools for the university. They began with a branch in Pontiac, soon expanding to Kalamazoo, Detroit, Niles, Tecumseh, White Pigeon, and Romeo. However, these branches struggled to enroll students, leading some to merge with local colleges. Notably, Kalamazoo College operated as the Kalamazoo Branch of the University of Michigan from 1840 to 1850.
The administration during the early years of the university was complicated and designed to keep it tightly under state authority. The university's business was often intertwined with state affairs. The position of chancellor of the university, created by the organic act in 1837, was never filled, and the positions on the board of regents, appointed by the governor, were often held by state officials. The lieutenant governor, the justices of the Michigan Supreme Court, and the chancellor of the state all served as ex officio members of the board, with the governor himself chairing the board. The regents' powers were shared with a rotating roster of professors, who were responsible for some vague aspects of the university's administrative duties; however, all important decisions had to be made by the governor and his party. There were several attempts to gain independence from the state legislature, but progress was slow until the late 1840s, when the regents gained leverage, supported by Michigan citizens. This shift culminated in a revision of the organic act on April 8, 1851, which freed the university from legislative control, transitioned the regent positions from appointed to elected, and established a president selected by the regents.