2C Wednesday January 5, 2011 // The Statement

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The
Former
President

Come to our mass meetings.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 13
MONDAY, JANUARY 17
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 19
All at 7:30 p.m. at 420 Maynard Street


- E h i--- -- ------1 -

James Duderstadt, a former
University president and current
University professor, also echoed
Hanlon's sentiments on the impor-
tance of professorial work.
Duderstadt arrived at the Univer-
sity 42 years ago, in the fall of 1968,
as an assistant professor of nucle-
ar engineering. He subsequently
served as the University's dean of
the College of Engineering from 1981
to 1986, provost from 1986 to 1988
and president from 1988 to 1996.
Duderstadt is currently a Uni-
versity professor with an appoint-
ed position in all the University's
schools and colleges, but he teaches
mainly in the School of Public Pol-
icy.
"When I was a dean or provost or
a president, most of my agenda and
calendar involved doing things that
everybody else thought were really

important - like trying to make the
University better, handling our rela-
tionships with Lansing and Wash-
ington, raising money of course,"
Duderstadt said. "When I'm a fac-
ulty member, I primarily work on
things that I think are important."
The history of the University and
shifts in the campus climate, partic-
ularly generational changes in stu-
dent activism is the most important,
Duderstadt said.
Though Duderstadt believes the
student body is talented academi-
cally, he misses the activist energy
that was present during his tenure.
Ann Arbor was the birthplace of the
Peace Corps, Students for a Demo-
cratic Society and the Black Action
Movement, during which students
protested the University's lack of
diversity.
"The Black Action Movement,
the teach-ins - although they hap-
pened shortly before I arrived here
- and students at Michigan were
very much playing a role as not only
the conscience of the University, but
in many ways the conscience of the
nation. You know, their fight against
the war in Vietnam, their fight
against racial injustices - and that
continued during my presidency."

Today, Duderstadt still keeps pho-
tographs from his presidential ten-
ure of students taking over his office
and "bearing their student rights"
by digging graves in the front lawn
of the President's House on South
University Avenue. Duderstadt
deems activism like that of the past
as a healthy part of campus life that
helped shape his curriculum.
In addition to the campus activ-
ism seen in his students, Duderstadt
emphasized the University's rich
history of academic excellence and
worldwide influence that has kept
him in Ann Arbor and helped him
decide to accept his first position as
assistant professor.
"I have become absolutely con-
vinced that this University from its
very founding has not only been one
of the most influential, but perhaps
the most influential university in
America," Duderstadt said. "It was
the first true university when it was
founded back in the early part of
the 19th century, and throughout its
history Michigan has always been a
pathfinder, an institution that tried
to do new things. Sometimes they
succeeded, sometimes they failed,
but when they succeeded, they
changed the world."

" More flexibility: with online and
lunch hour classes.
" More for your money: with one
of the lowest tuitions in the
greater Chicago area.
" More access:with 8 convenient
locations.

' I think it's incredibly valuable for academic leaders at the
University to really stay grounded in the core missions of
teaching and reSearCh at the Unive rSity - Provost Philip Hanlon

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The Mayor
Hieftje's class, Opportunity for
Activism, which he designed six years
ago, outlines the operation of local
government by examining the efforts
of activists in Ann Arbor and the cur-
rent affairs of the city. According to
Hieftje, who emphasizes activism as
a definitive feature of campus life,
about one-third of the class sessions
have activists as guest lecturers.
"One of the things that I can bring
to it - it's not theory, it's real-time
activity in a real city and we get to
look at things as they're happening,"
Hieftje said.
Hieftje, an Ann Arbor native with
a long history of environmental activ-
ism, also provides students with
perspective on the shift in activism
in Ann Arbor since the draft days of
Vietnam and the Civil Rights Move-
ment of the 1960s.
"I think you see (students) volun-
teering to work in Detroit, I think
you'll see them volunteering to do
things in Ann Arbor ... I think they're
still very active," Hieftje said. "It's

a different kind of activism, it's sort
of an activism that says, 'I'm an indi-
vidual and what can I do to make a
change?"'
Opportunity for Activism focuses
on the potential for students and citi-
zens to shape local government and
become involved in Ann Arbor issues.
"I really feel that there's much
more opportunity for activism in local
government ... you can have a much
more direct effect than you're going
to find at a state level or a federal level
because you can go right and talk to
people who are making decisions,"
Hieftje said.
While the class focuses strongly on
issues pertinent to Ann Arbor, lessons
regarding local government apply
problems - like economic strains
- that other cities face. Such les-
sons help prepare students for future
careers in the government.
"You've got to be engaged in it,"
Hieftje said. "Be engaged with your
local government, your state govern-
ment, your national government. Be
aware. They're public policy students.
That's probably notgoingto be a prob-
lem in their lives, that's why they're
interested in it. We talk about ways

that you can petition and actually
have an effect on government."
Discussed in class are issues like
homelessness and affordable housing
in Ann Arbor, as well as the future of
sustainability in cities - topics stu-
dents find attractive because of their
national applicability.
"It's helped me to get more involved
in Ann Arbor," said Rackham student
Chad Cookinham, a Cleveland, Ohio
native.
"It's focused on what's actually
going on and what's happening in the
city. And I feel that because of that
I've gotten myself way more involved
in the city and what's going on here
and know way more about the place
that I live than I would have had I
taken just a kind of purely academic
class on whatlocal government means
in theory," Cookinham said.
While students enrolled in Oppor-
tunity for Activism can gain an appre-
ciation for the mayor's experience in
local government, Hieftje stresses
that he gets just as much from the
course, particularly in observing gen-
erational differences between current
students and older generations of citi-
zens.