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YOUR (d s)ORIENTATION
You might have thought you had the full campus tour, but you'd never hear
about these blemishes in the University's history from a tour guide.
A PIONEER IN EUGENICS
University Hospital
One of the University's darkest secrets is reserved for one of science's
darkest movements: the eugenics movement. Stemming from Darwinist
ideals of becoming better with evolution, the eugenics movement of the
mid-20th century made it its mission to keep the sick, disabled, mentally
ill or anyone else deemed inferior at the time (mostly minorities and
criminals) from reproducing.
The University was a major champion of the cause. The University
Hospital performed a large portion of the roughly 3,800 sterilizations
estimated to have been performed in Michigan. Victor Vaughan, a for-
mer Medical School dean and namesake of the School of Public Health's
building, was one of the main advocates of Michigan's forced steriliza-
tion law. And former University President Clarence Cook Little, another
outspoken eugenics supporter, led the American Eugenics Society after
resigning from the University presidency in 1929.
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ILLUSTRATIONS: LAURA GARAVOGLIA
FUELING THE WAR MACHINE
West Hall
Once home to the College of Engineering, West Hall was also the focal point of the Uni-
versity's much-maligned foray into military research.
A major recipient of Defense Department funding during World War II, the University pro-
vided a lot of the intellectual heft behind the nation's expanding war machine. Like the war,
that was a celebrated partnership.
By the 1960s, the University had moved its war research from West Hall to a facility in
Ypsilanti, but the classified military research continued. In 1969, for example, almost 43
percent of the University's research spending went to defense projects. Almost as significant,
the University was a hotbed for the expanding the military-related industry's recruiting
efforts.
Dow Chemical - a long-time, high-profile donor to the University and manufacturer of
napalm - recruited most of its best talent from the University.
The relationships with both the Defense Department (which was run during much of the
war by Ann Arborite Robert McNamara) and private industry left the University with blood
on its hands during the unpopular Vietnam War. It also led to a recommendation by the Uni-
versity's Research Policies Committee to ban classified research on campus and disavow any
projects that would lead to human destruction.
THE UNION TOWER OCCUPATION
Michigan Union
A controversial honor society with a racist past, an activist group
willingto go to extremes to make a point and a campus heated with
racial tensions due to the affirmative action debate - the showdown
on the seventh floor of the Michigan Union in 2000 had all the mak-
ings of a prolonged drama.
And that's exactly what it was. For 37 days, the Students of Color
Coalition occupied the seventh floor of the Union to protest the
sometimes-secret senior honor society Michigamua, once known
for rituals mocking Native Americans. To embarrass the group and
portray it as still culturally insensitive, the SCC gave guided tours of
the room, which was painted likea Native American wigwam, and
showed off a collection of Native American artifacts found in the
room. The honor society countered that it didn't even know about
the artifacts, which it said were stored in an attic and never used.
Despite pleas for a resolution from then-University President LeeT
Bollinger and several other University officials, the conflict contin-
ued until Michigamua abandoned its rights to the space and released
the artifacts.
Six years later, Michigamua abandoned its infamous name,
renaming itself Order of Angell a year later in an effort to move past
a controversial history that included the 2000 occupation.'
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THE DEAN OF WOMEN'S REIGN
Student Activities Building
Keeping tabs on their female students was a major function of colleges in the
mid-20th century. The University of Michigan was no exception. It stood out,
though, by holding on to the practice a little longer and with a much greater inten-
sity than most.
As late as the 1960s, after manyschools had abolished dress codes, curfews and
dating restrictions for female students, the University's then-Dean of Women
Deborah Bacon continued to justify them under the principle of in loco parentis
- a theory that universities take on the moral responsibilities of a parent for their
students. And the restrictions on female students continued. With a network of
residence hall spies, Bacon kept records on female students' behavior so she could
inform parents about such things as interracial dating and even pass on infqrma-
tion to authorities like the FBI.
In 1961 the Dean of Women came tumbling down. Citing her disconnect from
the changingctimes, Bacon stepped down and her position dissolved behind her.
But as quoted by the Daily in 1959, she left female students with a lasting lesson:
"If a woman is so stupid she is unaware of marriage as one of the goals of a female
student, she is probably notsmart enough tobe admitted to our freshman class."
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