M E M O RAT I V E M I L L E N N I U M E D I
ENT ERING T HE YEAR 2000
T I O N
Monday
December 13, 1999
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makes education
ilable to masses
illennium, students from
learned the great books.
irts at the University of
University pro-
national football
reates, the polio
: into space and
tury, there was no
great institution of
Seale;" said Princeton
kJ Shapiro, who served
gan president from 1980-
ss problem yet provided a
it was truly extraordinary.
,o or three insti-
it created that ,.
der in higher education during
ie University must preserve that
ithe times, they said.
ttLee Bollinger said the
ed remarkably in its duty to
0 public.
magical experience for students
I into the most dedicated and:
in the world," Bollinger said. "It
>wledge and understanding in
ectual and artistic life."
sity of academic and athletic
nuished the University as a
AssaidWalter Harrison, vice
et Relations from 1989-98.
atest attribute. in my opinion,
s breadth:' said Harrison, now
the University of Hartford in
e second half of the century is
education by the rise of great
The University of Michigan is
tht."
aKwith talented faculty and
the University an excep-
i ersity physicist Homer
a University President.
996-97...
it possible,.through our accessi-
lity, for dreams of good jobs in
o be realized for students from
ground and races," Neal said.
h has played a large part in shap-
s character, and perhaps no one
Nith this than Robben Fleming,
yersity president from 1968-79.
v4-ar, civ il rights and women's
S<during his time as the
re ve. Despite passionate
us avoided tragedies
ened at Kent State
ly" said Duderstadt, a professor of science and
Engineering at the University. "I should note that
this effort was stimulated by and involved students
to a very large degree. It is regarded as one of the
most important efforts by a university in the
1990s.
Today, the two lawsuits challenging the
University's affirmative action admissions policies
could determine the future of diversity on college
campuses nationwide, Bollinger said.
"I think people don't fully realize the degree of
threat all selective universities are facing at the end
of the century with respect to diversity," Bollinger
said. "Right now, the level of concern does not
match the level of the actual threat. I think in time,
people will become aware of it."
Former University Secretary Dick Kennedy,
who served in various capacities at the University
between 1956 and 1994, said one of the
University's primary goals has been to become
more accessible to more people.
Historians "are going to see an insti-
tution reaching out to improve itself,'
Kennedy said. "It wanted to be color
blind, gender blind and available to all
people," while at the same time "main-
taining and improving its standards."
With its reputation as a forum for
open debate, the University also faces the chal-
lenge of allowing every member of the communi-
ty to express any point of view.
"Above all (the University) must allow all voic-
es to be heard," said Deane Baker, who served as a
University regent from 1972-96. "My sense, that
in during the last decade or so political forces
within and without the University have attempted,
with considerable success, to silence those who do
not represent the majority view in the teaching and
research disciplines or other University activities."
The lofty challenge of defending affirmative
action is one of the many challenges the
University will face in the next millennium.
As funds for higher education become increas-
ingly scarce, the University will work to build its
endowment and increase the quality of all depart-
ments and schools.
Philip Power, who finished an 11-year stint at
University regent earlier this year, spoke about this
obstacle. Quoting the University's first president
James B. Angell, Power said the University
demonstrate to the citizens of Michigan the signif-
icance of its greatest contribution - providing "an
uncommon education for the common man'
The University needs to learn "how to say com-
pellingly to the people of Michigan that that's what
it's about and that's why it deserves support,"
Power said.
The Life Sciences Initiative and the recent re-
namings of the schools of Public Policy and
Architecture and Urban Planning, Bollinger said,
are examples of such recent initiatives.
"There's no reason to think that any part of the
University should not be at the top of its field,"
Bollinger said.
The Internet plays an increasingly important
role in higher education, but Harrison said it will
not affect the University's core mission of quality
education.
"The more things change, the more they remain
the same," Harrison said. "What makes Michigan
a really distinctive university is it's terrific appeal
as a resident's university."
In coming years, the University "has to do the
things it does. It has to be more different. It has to
become more compassionate," Kennedy said. "It
can't lose people in the process. It has to be atten-
tive to all of its students. It loses sight because it is
so big."
University administrators stressed that the
University will continue to grow, if it elects to be
creative and focus on its students.
"Michigan can be a leader, just as it was in
the 20th Century, but it will have to be both
visionary and willing to take risks," Duderstadt
said.
e that we lived
speech and the
with any major
Movements of the '70s
fight to preserve affir-
k as much protest and
ersity is on the same
nrm res dent James Duderstadt,
who initiated the Michigan
Mandate i,4 as president. The pro-
grm .y presence on cam-
pus, including students faculty and staff.
"The Michigan Mandate has had a great impact,
both on U of M and higher education more broad-
ly. I take it to mean growing up in the
final two decades of this century. This
tape is the tangible result of growing up
in a time where there has always been a
Blockbuster on every corner, where the
specter of AIDS has always been
around, where a war is fought in the
media instead of the ground.
g his tape is instant replay of the
Sallenger exploding, the vamping of'
Madonna, ET and his Reese's Pieces.
This tape is every Cabbage Patch Kid
fad and every supermarket checkout
tabloid, every day spent waiting to be
16, then 18, then 21, every minute
spent waiting for the bell to ring so that
SAM HOLLENSHEAD/Oaily
The Burton Memorial Tower strikes midnight. In a few short weeks, its hands will pass the time into the
next millennium.
A century of news preserved in the Daily
By Heather Kamins
Editor in Chief
From Castro's Cuba to the battle fields in
Vietnam; a classroom in Little Rock, Ark. to the
Black Action Movement; curfews in the dorms to
Title IX; protesting Hatcher to partying with
Bollinger.
be the campus watchdog, challenging the
University's administration, defending students'
rights and documenting the events that have shaped
our nation.
On April 12, 1955, the Daily was the first news-
paper in the country to report that scientists had dis-
covered an effective polio vaccine. The discovery
first reporters to be incarcerated by the Cuban gov-
ernment in its attempt to prevent the media from
entering Santiago.
The Daily was the only college paper to receive
press credentials to the trial of the Chicago Seven,
who were charged with crossing state lines to incite
a riot at the 1968 Democratic Convention. This
prison. This interview ran in the Daily that May.
In 1985, students for the first time were able to
pick up a free newspaper in drop boxes across cain
pus five days a week. Previously the Daily pub-
lished Monday through Saturday and was delivered
to student subscribers for 10 cents a day.
During the '90s, the Daily has aggressively fought