University of Michigan
Bicentennial Planning Committee
2011–12

Report  |  Committee members  |  Charge to planning committee  |  Unit liaisons

One of the oldest public universities in the United States, Michigan can claim central responsibility in shaping the uniquely American model of the modern university: an institution that combines research, education and practical service and that is broadly accessible while also oriented toward educating leaders. The University grew out of the remarkably progressive visions of individuals such as Augustus Woodward, Gabriel Richard, Stephen Mason, John Peirce, and Henry Tappan; they saw the challenges of their day and responded with an institution that transcended those challenges. It is an institution of many firsts — and of some stumbling along the way; it has been a sculptor of academic disciplines and a generator of practices widespread in higher education; it represents a pinnacle in the aspiration and implementation of public higher education. After two hundred years, we will have much to celebrate and much to look forward to.

Today the University and higher education generally face numerous challenges, as we also know: What form should education take in our age? What contributions can we make to critical social and global issues, such as sustaining our planet, expanding the liberating power of education, forging international communities? How can we harness, mediate and extend the potential of new technologies? What roles can and should the university play in today’s society? What does it mean to be a university of the world? The Bicentennial should allow us to leverage the past in looking to the future.

Committee Members

Erin Archambault, Student, Undergraduate, Stephen M. Ross School of Business Administration

Hank Baier, Associate Vice President for Facilities and Operations

Sara B. Blair, Professor of English Language and Literature, College of Literature, Science and the Arts; Associate Dean of Academic Programs and Initiatives, Rackham Graduate School

Francis X. Blouin, Jr., Director, Bentley Historical Library; Professor, School of Information; Professor of History, College of Literature, Science and the Arts

James P. Holloway, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor and Professor of Nuclear Engineering and Radiological Sciences, and Associate Dean for Undergraduate Education, College of Engineering

Gary D. Krenz (Co-Chair), Special Counsel to the President, Office of the President, and Lecturer in Philosophy, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Howard Markel, M.D., Ph.D. (Co-Chair), George E. Wantz Distinguished Professor of the History of Medicine; Professor of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases, Professor of Psychiatry, and Director of the Center for the History of Medicine,  Medical School;  Professor of History, College of Literature, Science and the Arts; and Professor of Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health

Amy Navvab, Student, Undergraduate, College of Literature, Science and the Arts

Scott E. Page,  Leonid Hurwicz Collegiate Professor of Political Science, Complex Systems, and Economics; Professor of Political Science, Professor of Economics, Director of the Center for the Study of Complex Systems, College of Literature, Science and the Arts; and Research Professor, Center for Political Studies, Institute for Social Research

Peter A. Schweitzer, LSA '61; Chairman, retired, J. Walter Thompson Company; Chair of the Board of Directors of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan

Daniel A. Washington, Associate Dean for Faculty and Multi-Cultural Affairs, and Professor of Music (Voice), School of Music, Theatre and Dance

Cynthia H. Wilbanks, Vice President for Government Relations and Special Advisor to the President

Grace Li-Hsing Wu, Administrator, Michigan Metabolomics and Obesity Center, Medical School