Ann Arbor is only a short trek from Detroit, but many students rarely visit. Even fewer spend any significant amount of time there. Things have been changing in recent years though as administration, faculty, and students have put renewed emphasis on strengthening ties between U–M and its nearest urban neighbor.

The university now boasts over 40 outreach programs that provide services in areas as diverse as public health, education, the arts, business development, literacy, social work, and family advocacy. Established in 2005, U–M’s Detroit Center on Woodward Avenue helps coordinate the university’s many Detroit–based programs and projects.

One of U–M’s most recent outreach efforts is Semester in Detroit (SID). Now in its third year, the for–credit program allows undergraduates to engage fully with the city as they spend a semester living, working, and studying in Detroit.

Nick Tobier SID students, who are housed in Wayne State University dorms, attend courses at the Detroit Center on history, urban planning, nonprofit administration, community development, and arts and culture. They also intern 16 hours per week with local community organizations. Past partners have included the Detroit Public Library, Alternatives for Girls, the Southwest Detroit Business Asso ciation, the Sugar Law Center, Focus Hope, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit.

"Detroit is a city of many strengths and struggles, and there’s also a whole lot going on that is creative," says Craig Regester, the program’s associate director and a Detroit resident. "This makes spending a semester here a uniquely rich learning experience."

To learn more about SID, visit www.semesterindetroit.com.

Highlights

  • Despite rainy weather, a recordbreaking 3,200 cars brought enough electronic waste to fill over 20 semis in the Pioneer High School parking lot. The U–M Office of Campus Sustainability and Ann Arbor Public Schools sponsored the fifth annual free e–waste recycling event, held April 25.
  • U–M began making thousands of books that are no longer in copyright—including rare and one–of–a–kind titles—available to the public as reprints on demand under a new agreement with BookSurge, part of the Amazon.com group of companies.
  • The Law School’s new Detroit Center for Family Advocacy aims to reduce the number of children in public foster care by helping families better care for their children. The three–year pilot program will serve the Osborn neighborhood on Detroit’s east side, an area with one of Wayne County’s highest rates of child removal from families.
  • Twenty–five teams of U–M business and engineering students vied for over $40,000 in scholarships as part of the Tauber Institute for Global Operations’ annual Spotlight! competition, which focuses on innovative operations and manufacturing solutions to real–world challenges.
  • According to a study conducted by Anderson Economic Group, University Research Corridor partners U–M, Michigan State University, and Wayne State University make a $14.5 billion impact on Michigan’s economy and return $16 for every dollar the state invests.
  • The U.S. Children’s Bureau of Health and Human Services awarded a five–year, $5 million grant to the Law School to have it serve as the National Quality Improvement Center on the Representation of Children in the Child Welfare System.
  • In October, the Latina/o Studies Program commemorated 25 years at U–M with a three–day symposium involving leading national researchers, students, and alumni.
  • U–M Press is joining with Hathi Trust Digital Library to open electronic content for free online access. U–M Press plans to have 1,000 or more titles available for full viewing by the end of this year.
  • In October, U–M’s Center for International & Comparative Studies announced a new multidisciplinary International Studies concentration designed to help students prepare for living and working in a global economy.
  • The Stephen M. Ross School of Business is the best business school in the U.S. for integrating environmental, social, and ethical issues into its MBA program, according to the Aspen Institute’s 2009–10 report Beyond Grey Pinstripes.
  • U–M Business and Finance graduated its first Leadership Academy class in November. Created in 2009, the academy focuses on developing future senior leaders by providing mentoring, experiential learning, and developmental exercises to a select group of mid–level managers.
  • Visiting Nurses In 1909, Michigan Visiting Nurses (MVN) began as a service to treat the "needy sick" from University Hospital. Now celebrating 100 years, MVN still provides home nursing care, but also offers therapeutic nursing and therapy services supported by home health aides, nutritionists, and medical social workers.
  • Parking & Transportation Services is assessing ways to encourage and accommodate cyclists as part of a strategy to promote alternatives to bringing autos to campus. Covered bike racks, tax credits for cyclists, more bike lockers, and a campus parts and repair center will be studied.
  • According to its 2009 Environmental Report, energy use at U–M has remained nearly constant over the last six years, despite a 9 percent increase in the campus population and an 11 percent increase in building area during that period.
  • U–M is now metro Detroit’s second largest employer behind Ford Motor Co., according to the Crain’s Detroit Business 2010 Book of Lists. A year ago, Crain’s listed U–M fourth behind the Big Three automakers.
  • In January, UM–Flint began allowing the transfer of credits for American Sign Language (ASL) classes taken at Mott Community College. Many states now recognize ASL as a foreign language, thus permitting schools and universities to accept it in fulfillment of foreign language requirements for hearing as well as deaf students.
  • For the 10th year in a row, U–M has placed on the Peace Corps’ top 25 list of large universities nationwide producing Peace Corps volunteers.
  • In February, U–M launched the Global Michigan site (globalportal.umich.edu) to provide a single source of information about international opportunities across campus and offer a vehicle for U–M to engage with the global community.
  • In March 1970, U–M held an "Environmental Teach–In" that drew over 15,000 participants and served as a model for the first national Earth Day on April 22, 1970. To celebrate its 40th anniversary and promote sustainability, U–M created an Earth Day site (www.umich.edu/earthday) and held dozens of events.
  • U–M is home to the new statewide Michigan College Advising Corps, a unique approach to increasing the number of low–income, first–generation, and underrepresented students in higher education in Michigan.
  • Smoke-free Campus More than 2,000 students and 1,000 faculty and staff across the Ann Arbor campus participated in surveys and focus groups that will help U–M determine how best to move to a smoke–free campus.
  • U–M will be Teach For America’s local university partner when the organization returns to Detroit for the 2010–11 school year. One hundred Detroit corps members will enroll at U–M’s School of Education to obtain their state teaching certification.
  • U–M will pursue LEED Silver certification for major new construction projects. The new policy builds upon an earlier commitment to exceed by 30 percent an existing energy efficiency standard, giving U–M one of the most rigorous construction standards among higher education institutions in the nation.
  • U–M engineering students traveled to Nicaragua for 10 days as part of a BLUElab project to turn bio–waste into clean cooking fuel for the developing world. Engineering’s Multidisciplinary Design Program sponsored the trip.
  • Robben Wright Fleming, the president of U–M who steered the university safely through the student unrest of the late 1960s and early 1970s, died January 11 in Ann Arbor. He was 93. Fleming served as president from 1968 to 1978 and as interim president in 1988.
  • This year U–M hired 23 tenure–track junior faculty as part of a five–year, $30 million presidential initiative to increase multidisciplinary teaching and research. The program, which has approved 72 positions to date, will total 100 new positions when complete.
  • U–M announced in March that it purchased renewable energy certificates from DTE Energy to support the production of renewable energy as part of its environmental and energy strategy.