President Santa J. Ono opened the March 20 Board of Regents meeting by reaffirming the university’s commitment to student success and harkening back to the words and legacies of leaders who have stressed the importance of science, research and education to the prosperity of the nation.
Ono promised the University of Michigan will continue to “sustain and strengthen” its highest traditions and aspirations as a university, including:
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- Freedom of thought and inquiry.
- Research and development.
- Upholding democracy.
- Opening new horizons and opportunities.
“As we achieve all of this, and so much more, it is vital that we continue to build upon our foundations of student opportunity, achievement and excellence,” Ono said.
He pledged to expand services, such as career counseling and mental health resources, stressed his commitment to removing barriers for prospective students and announced an effort to enhance the Blavin Scholars Program, which supports students in foster and kinship care. He further pointed to the recent expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee, which in December was extended to offer free tuition to in-state students from families with annual incomes of up to $125,000 and assets up to $125,000.
“Through these measures, we are reaffirming our focus on student access and opportunity by ensuring our resources are pointed toward the people and programs which directly impact the success of our community.” Ono said.
Traditions and aspirations – such as freedom of thought and inquiry – are “fundamental to our ethos and purpose as a great public university,” he said. “This is not my opinion alone, but the consensus of great leaders and bipartisan policy makers over America’s centuries.”
Ono cited Abraham Lincoln as the only U.S. president to earn a patent and quoted Ronald Reagan’s 1988 radio address to the nation when Reagan said, “The remarkable thing is that although basic research does not begin with a particular practical goal, when you look at the results over the years, it ends up being one of the most practical things government does.”
Ono also highlighted Vannevar Bush’s words to Franklin D. Roosevelt in his seminal report, “Science: The Endless Frontier” where Bush declared “Without scientific progress no amount of achievement in other directions can insure our health, prosperity, and security as a nation in the modern world.”
As evidence of the university’s profound efforts and impact, Ono pointed to several new initiatives, including a partnership with OpenAI to advance applications that benefit society, an alliance to promote hydrogen fuel for internal combustion engines, a project to accelerate healthcare focused-AI solutions, and the College of Pharmacy’s work – recently recognized by a prestigious award – to address unmet community needs.
“This is our tradition as a nation, an institution, and a university. This is the strengthening of our competitiveness and the growth of our prosperity as a nation,” he said. “And this is our commitment — to do everything in our power to lift our society and ensure that every Wolverine will rise, achieve and fulfill their dreams.”
