Old School
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October 2, 2017
The legacy of a flagpole
The flagpole on the Diag can trace its roots back to one of the most historic celebrations of the 19th century. In 1898, at a cost of $375, U-M purchased the flagpole of the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition and installed it on the Diag in July of that year.
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September 25, 2017
From car bans to driverless vehicles
While U-M is a major research site for auto innovation, cars were not always welcome on the university’s campus. In 1925, President Clarence Cook Little instituted a partial, then total ban on student automobiles.
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September 18, 2017
Women on the field
In 1971, during an era when women on campus were advocating for inclusion in areas traditionally reserved for men, U-M eliminated its policy that allowed only men to join the Michigan Marching Band.
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September 11, 2017
Trial by registration
Although registering for classes now can be accomplished with the click of a button, that wasn’t always the case at U-M.
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September 5, 2017
A heroine etched in stone
In 1862, the University of Michigan received its first significant work of original art — the marble sculpture of Nydia, the blind flower girl of Pompeii.
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July 5, 2017
Bold experiment
Women were admitted to U-M starting in 1870, the first for a large state university.
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June 19, 2017
President Harold T. Shapiro’s birthday
Harold T. Shapiro, U-M’s 10th president, was born on June 8, 1935, in Montreal. During his presidency, which ran from 1980-87, the “theme of quality over quantity, of ‘smaller but better’ became the guiding principle” in a period of budget reductions.
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June 5, 2017
A summer with Shakespeare
Now an undeniable Ann Arbor summer tradition, Shakespeare in the Arb began in 2001, when Katherine Mendeloff, lecturer IV in Residential College, LSA, was asked to direct an outdoor production as part of a three-year Ford Motor Co. grant for arts in the Nichols Arboretum.
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May 22, 2017
The iconic Burton Memorial Tower
The first suggestion for a campanile — a usually freestanding bell tower — arose in an editorial in the Michigan Alumnus in May 1919. According to The University Record archives, the editorial writer suggested “a new clock tower ‘set high in the center of campus, to be at once a landmark and a thing of beauty.’”
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May 1, 2017
The beloved professors of U-M
Joseph Whiting and George Palmer Williams taught the first entering class of the University of Michigan.
