Speeches

Stockwell Hall Re-Opening Celebration

 

September 9, 2009

Thank you, Royster, and thank you all for joining us today.

We are celebrating both the past and the future today. We should begin by acknowledging a debt of gratitude to Madelon Stockwell. Her courage and determination to be the first woman to enroll at Michigan – in 1870 – marked the earliest of many steps taken to broaden the U-M student body, making our university an engaging place to learn and study.

She was a young woman from Kalamazoo who helped transform this university by demonstrating that women are fully capable of being productive, contributing college students. Since 1940, we have honored her contributions with a beautiful residence hall that bears her name and houses new generations of women leaders.

Now, with our physical renovation of Stockwell Hall and the move to make this a residence for both women and men, we are continuing our commitment to a learning environment that is rich in diversity. Because as the students here know better than any of us, you learn as much from your classmates, roommates, and neighbors down the hall, as you do from your professors.

This stunning conversion will make learning at Stockwell all the more exciting and interactive, with beautiful new spaces for students to study, talk, and share ideas and opinions.

Just as Madelon Stockwell will always be known as the first woman to enroll at Michigan, we now have a class of students – women and men– who can say: We were the first to live and learn together at Stockwell Hall.

Congratulations to all who made today possible, and to the students of Stockwell who are making their own history at Michigan.