The Michigan Daily/New Student Edition - Thursday, September 7, 1989 - Page 2
Let's do the time warp: a look
at the history of the University
by Stes Riley
Daily Special Writer
It's the first week of school. The sun is shining bright and
nary a cloud is in the sky as you stroll through the Diag, wonder-
ing "was it always this good? " Chances are it wasn't.
When the University first came to Ann Arbor, the area where
the Diag is now was covered with swamps. It would have been
4 "pretty difficult to sit near the "M" on a beautiful day, while skip-
ping your class.
Since the University was founded in 1817 almost everything
except its purpose- to educate - has. changed. In 1837, its first
year in Ann Arbor, the University had two professors and seven
students. Four faculty homes and one classroom/dorm building
composed the campus.
Today there are 5,435 people on the instructional staff and
35,845 students. 203 major buildings make up the campus. In ad-
dition, two campuses have been added, further expanding the
University's educating capabilities.
The Flint campus opened in 1956 as a continuing education
center for junior college graduates. Henry Ford and his wife con-
tributed $6.5 million to the Dearborn campus which opened in
1959.
Other signs of growth are evident within the University itself.
For example, there were only three colleges in 1871, literature,
science and law. Today there are 17 schools and colleges on the
Ann Arbor campus plus the three at Flint and five at Dearborn.
What about the money? That too has grown. In 1837 students
- paid "dues" of $7.50. When President James Burrill Angell took
office in 1871 professors earned $2,000. Total budget for the
University reached a whopping $104,000! With these figures,
Michigan was the biggest university in the United States.
Nowadays students' tuition is one thousand times the amount
it was in the last century at $2,876 for in-state students and
$9,888 for out of state students. Professors earn around $50,000.
Regents have $1.47 billion in their budget to work with.
So you're thinking, with all of that money why don't they
open some more classes? CRISP would be a lot easier then. Well,
back in 1837 there were only three classes for the students. To
date there are 3200 classes in LSA alone. Up until 1975 registra-
tion was done by hand. Students crammed into one building and
rushed to tables set up offering different classes.
One of the University's first expansions involved acquiring
300 acres of land north of the Huron river for the space now
known as North campus. Since the main campus was surrounded
by houses and business blocks, land prices were too high for the
present budget.
North of the Huron, land was barren and therefore cheap. The
University needed more land and this was a great opportunity. In
1950 the land was purchased.
The first building was a storage stack for books to relieve the
already over crowded University library. The Mortimer E. Cooley
Laboratory was the first functional building on North campus.
Once The campus was established, the regents moved the College
of Engineering there.
Students are what the University is all about. Although some
people say the 14% minorities on campus is not enough, up until
1868 there weren't any at all. At.this time two Black students
were accepted by the University president Erastus Haven. Even
though this occurred shortly after the Civil War, the students
didn't meet much opposition. However, two years later, another
student did.
In 1870, Madelon Stockwell became the first woman enrolled
in the University. Now there is a residence hall named in her
honor. But life at the University wasn't always great for
Stockwell. When she attended classes, male students either ig-
nored her or called her names.
Classes now are filled almost equally with men and women.
There are 15,898 women and 19,947 men. With that kind of ratio,
it's a wonder why almost no one has a date on Saturday night.
Though the ratio of men to women has greatly increased over
the years, one thing has remained constant since 1895, the seal
representing the University. Originally, the seal was adopted in
See History, Page 15
t .. . -. . . ._. o..
AA Y
S-
r. c-. .
~ -4
t 3 E T..-- /
Yf
s- -
CT
-74~
4- 4~*"" J
A comparison of these maps shows how much the University has grown in the last 50
years. The above map is from 1938, and the one below is from 1989.
0
0
0
i
I ,
j fHospdtal Educa o n Y f..*F..'_}..}..{ :..{ +4 {.,+... i..:.. {.. .4 }
! 1IJ Center . -'i
Lawrence I ~Vrcro *i*. ,utpatantTowste ,1 e Ac o ....... ...tC ....... Ae..fr....
I I U A [..7} rv ySm so04
ld_ j r unirert '
Lane Halla
frIPweHeatChen Ittiut
Bu, Cote ( aryCrenj a
_ 1 *, Aet
C£e I I............ ........
L~'f1f~~__Hitk Mason ier 1My .. 0
Lane ral!H allJvoo
Admn H~en Helntadl
..... 6>:...../ Campu
Coo eh Pool I
', &mBwt,,Y at erer "Wl.adi...Z.2 2 /
ft a
U I n r a.a
The campus as it appeared in the late 1800s. Of special note is the fence used to separate the University's cows
and the city's cows. Cows were admitted free to the University until the great milk strike in 1931.
MAKE YOUR WISEST
CAREER MOVE
BEFORE YOU
GRADUATE
Choose a bank
that will graduate
with you
i
I, r
NBD. We're right here on The Uni-
versity of Michigan's campus with
convenient locations that make
access to cash and to other banking
services a "between class" natural!
Convenient locations, round-the-
clock ATMs, competitive interest
rates, and student loans are only
the beginning of what NBD Ann
Arbor can offer you. For over 95
years, we've provided a full array
of well-planned banking services to
thousands of Michigan's most
buy a Miehiganensian yearbook:
1. You go to Michigan State cause you got
rejected from Michigan.
2. You can't reed. (Ahh...spelling error.
You caught that one! No wonder you got
into this university.)
3. You want to add the $29 to your tuition
bill because you really feel you ought to pay
more to go to school here.
4. You don't know that Michigan won the
Rose Bowl and the NCAA Championshi
this ear. (And if you didn't tsk, tsk,...Now
5. You don't know how to get one?
That's Easy!
0
prominent career-climers ... be-
fore and after graduation. All
things considered, it doesn't take a
degree to figure out where to bank
r
I
FRFF GTFT!
. ..M
I ~ichi ~alensi al
NSE
i
_"