about: the Ann Arbor campus

The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (U of M, U-M, UM, UMich, or simply Michigan) is a public research university located in the state of Michigan. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan, which also includes two regional campuses in Flint and Dearborn.

The university was founded in 1817 in Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania, about 20 years before the Michigan Territory officially became a state. The university moved to Ann Arbor in 1837 onto 40 acres (16 ha) of what is now known as Central Campus. Since its establishment in Ann Arbor, the university has physically expanded to include more than 500 major buildings with a combined area of more than 29 million square feet (664 acres or 2.69 km²), and transformed its academic program from a strictly classical curriculum to one that includes science and research. During the 20th century and early 2000s, UM was the site of much student activism and was a focal point in the controversy over affirmative action within higher education admissions.

Today, the university is a major research institution and is considered one of the original eight Public Ivies. In the most recent edition of World University Rankings, the university was ranked the 18th best university worldwide. Having graduated the largest number of living alumni at 460,000, the university is alma mater to the late U.S. President Gerald Ford and a number of heads of states around the world. UM owns the renowned University of Michigan Health System and has one of the largest research expenditures of any American university. Its athletic teams, called the Wolverines, are members of the Big Ten Conference and the Central Collegiate Hockey Association. The athletic program is known for its success in ice hockey and football, the latter of which plays in Michigan Stadium, the largest college football-only stadium in the world.

History

main: History of the University of Michigan

From 1900 to 1920 many new facilities were constructed on campus, including facilities for the dental and pharmacy programs, a chemistry building, a building for the natural sciences, Hill Auditorium, large hospital and library complexes, and two residence halls. The university fortified its reputation for research in 1920 by reorganizing the College of Engineering and forming a potent advisory committee of 100 industrialists to guide academic research initiatives. The university became a favorite alternative choice for Jewish students from New York in the 1920s and 1930s when the Ivy League schools were applying a quota to the number of Jews to be admitted. As a result, UM gained the nickname "Harvard of the West," which became commonly parodied in reverse after John F. Kennedy referred to himself as "a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University" in his speech proposing the formation of the Peace Corps while on the front steps of the Michigan Union.