John Madigan didn’t work for 

The Michigan Daily when he was 

at the University of Michigan. He 

studied business and didn’t have 

any plans to go into the field of 

journalism. He began a career in 

finance and investment banking 

after graduation, and one of his 

clients was The Chicago Tribune. 

After a couple years of working with 

the company, they hired him as a 

CFO in 1975. As he rose through the 

ranks of The Tribune, he eventually 

became CEO and chairman of the 

Tribune Company. 

“I came to greatly appreciate 

what the news people do and how 

hard it is to turn out a story or a 

product that’s completely accurate 

and 
interesting. 
It’s 
not 
easy,” 

Madigan told me when I spoke to 

him on the phone last week. 

Madigan says that’s a big part 

of why he and his wife, Holly, 

decided to give back to The Daily. 

In 2015, they donated the funds 

to support the renovation of The 

Daily’s newsroom and endowed a 

need-based scholarship for Daily 

staff. And now, they’ve given us 

an 
incredibly 
generous 
gift 
of 

more than $300,000 to devote to 

professional development, building 

a diverse newsroom and creating a 

sustainable revenue model for the 

paper. 

“I’m really proud to have run a 

major news organization and the 

least I can do is just give back so 

other people have an opportunity 

to develop themselves so that they 

could do the same someday,” he said. 

The gift will be known as the 

Lipinski Journalism Fund, named by 

the Madigans in honor of Michigan 

Daily alum Ann Marie Lipinski, 

former 
editor 
of 
The 
Chicago 

Tribune. As Madigan told me, he and 

Lipinski became “fast friends” after 

meeting while they both worked at 

The Tribune — they bonded over 

their shared love for the University. 

He said it was Lipinski who helped 

steward him into the world of 

journalism. 

“I needed to learn a lot,” he said. 

“One of the people that really helped 

me along the way was Ann Marie 

Lipinski. That’s part of the reason 

that Holly and I want to honor her 

with this program.” 

Lipinski, who currently works 

as the curator of the prestigious 

Neiman Foundation for Journalism, 

told me she was honored — and 

surprised — to learn the Madigans 

had decided to name the fund after 

her. Like so many of our alumni, she 

has a sentimental attachment to The 

Daily — after all, it’s where she met 

her husband and spent many of her 

college days. Beyond that, though, 

it also served as a sort of classroom 

for her. 

“I had the opportunity to cover 

Chicago politics and to work with 

two reporters — together, we won 

a Pulitzer Prize for coverage of the 

Chicago City Council,” she said. 

“But the first time I ever walked 

into a city council meeting in my 

life was in Ann Arbor. I covered the 

City Council for The Daily and I’m 

pretty sure I can draw a straight 

line from that experience to my 

experience in Chicago. There’s 

such clear and direct connection.” 

The Lipinski Journalism Fund 

will allow us to continue this 

tradition of enabling students to 

grow as journalists and people 

through 
experiences 
at 
The 

Daily. Using the Madigans’ gift, 

we will expand our professional 

development efforts by bringing 

veteran 
journalists 
(including 

Daily alumni) into the newsroom 

for short-term fellowships and 

sending staff members out to 

journalism conferences. 

The gift will also help The Daily 

create a new revenue model to 

achieve financial stability so it can 

remain a resource for students on 

campus and aspiring journalists at 

the University.

Additionally, we’ll use the gift 

to help younger students from a 

wide range of backgrounds explore 

journalism 
through 
workshops 

targeted 
toward 
high 
school 

students. 
In 
future 
years, 
The 

Daily plans to run a fully-funded 

residential 
summer 
camp 
that 

will give high schoolers first-hand 

experience with the work we do at 

the paper. 

“I remember opportunities that 

I had as a high school student that 

were hugely influential to me,” 

Lipinski said. “It was this idea that 

somebody would take you seriously 

and see you as somebody ... who 

might be able to have a career in this 

thing that you really loved.” 

The gift will also enable us to 

expand the reach of the scholarships 

we offer at The Daily, in an effort 

to make working at the paper a 

viable experience for students from 

all 
socioeconomic 
backgrounds. 

Ultimately, our goal is to bring the 

feeling of acceptance that Lipinski 

felt both before and during her 

time at The Daily to students of all 

backgrounds — especially those of 

minority identities who might not 

have ever thought of journalism as a 

field they could pursue. 

On behalf of the entire staff of 

The Daily, I want to thank John 

and Holly Madigan and Ann Marie 

Lipinski. We have ambitious goals 

at The Daily — goals that will 

undoubtedly 
require 
financial 

backing to accomplish. With the 

generosity of the Madigans, we can 

continue to improve this paper and 

the staff that run it for years to come. 

Madigan told me on the phone 

last week that if there’s anything he 

hopes to see come out of this fund, 

it’s journalists who are prepared to 

do the work that’s asked of them in 

this world. 

“Journalists are going into so 

many different things than when 

I graduated from school. But I just 

hope that they’re well prepared to 

be very successful. And I just think 

there’s a lot of room for that. I’m 

pleased to do my little thing to help 

that goal.” 

Thank you, Mr. Madigan. We’re 

pleased, too. 

- Maya Goldman, Editor in Chief 

of The Michigan Daily

DESIGNING FOR IMPACT

2 — Tuesday, March 19, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

ARJUN THAKKAR
For the Daily

Design by ROSEANNE CHAO

From the Editor: Gift from the Madigan family will 
help create sustainable, diverse future for the paper

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The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967) is published Monday through Friday during the 
fall and winter terms by students at the University OF Michigan. One copy is available 
free of charge to all readers. Additional copies may be picked up at the Daily’s office for 
$2. Subscriptions for September-April are $250 and year long subscriptions are $275. 
University affiliates are subject to a reduced subscription rate. On-campus subscriptions 
for fall term are $35. Subscriptions must be prepaid. 

FINNTAN STORER
Managing Editor 
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LUCKY DAY
puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

SARAH KUNKEL/Daily
Synthia Koenig, Product Manager Principal at Amazon, and Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, professor of management and organizations, discuss how a business degree can be 
used to make a social impact at the Designing for Impact Talk in Ross Monday.

HANNAH MACKAY
For the Daily

Senate Assembly elects new SACUA reps, hears from Philbert

Provost discusses value of a University of Michigan education, three out of 10 nominees earn Advisory Committee spots

On Monday, the University of 
Michigan Senate Assembly met 
in the Michigan League, where 
Provost Martin Philbert discussed 
the fiscal context of general higher 
education as well as budget demands 
and changes and investments to 
expect at the University. Elections 
for the Senate Advisory Committee 
on University Affairs were held 
after nominees gave short remarks 
to the group.
Senate Assembly Chair Neil 
Marsh called the meeting to order 
and welcomed Philbert who began 
his presentation by acknowledging 
recent attitude shifts regarding 
educational 
spending 
and 
the 
scrutiny of institutions of higher 
education.

“We in Ann Arbor and other 
campuses around the country are 
constantly accused of being the 
last bastion of liberal thought and 
of actively propelling diversity of 
thought,” Philbert said. “There’s a 
pervasive perception both inside 
our walls as well as outside that 
spending is wasteful, extravagant 
and not transparent.”
Philbert 
countered 
these 
arguments by defending the value 
a bachelor’s degree holds in our 
society, along with research and 
the pursuit and accumulation of 
knowledge.
“Research certainly advances 
knowledge; the whole point of 
scholarship in many regards is to 
uncover new understanding, new 
insight or new knowledge itself, 
and hopefully if not immediately, at 

some point they will become useful 
to society,” Philbert said. “Certainly, 
the University has been, and for the 
foreseeable future will be, one of the 
major conservatories of history and 
culture.”
Philbert continued, articulating 
how 
the 
University 
receives 
funding from a range of sources, 
both private and public, and a 
careful equilibrium of finances 
must be maintained in a changing 
fiscal landscape. He also outlined 
budget goals and priorities, which 
included 
furthering 
academic 
excellence through a commitment 
to 
community 
engagement, 
access and affordability for a U-M 
education to all and enforcing fiscal 
discipline.
“Compared to many of our peers, 
the University receives a modest 

amount of state support per student, 
meaning that we must rely on other 
sources to deliver excellence and to 
provide the wealth of opportunities 
that we do,” Philbert said. “What 
are the goals of our budget here 
at the University of Michigan? 
Always, first and foremost is 
increasing academic excellence — 
enhanced access and affordability is 
something that Mark Schlissel has 
spoken about over and over again, 
and then it has always been there 
in our mission, but Mark has begun 
to talk more forcefully and more 
openly about societal engagement 
and societal impact.”
Philbert 
elaborated 
on 
the 
University’s investment in these 
goals, referencing the Biosciences 
Initiative, 
infrastructure 
development with the Michigan 

Research Cores, the potential of 
augmented-, virtual- and mixed-
reality technology and research on 
poverty solutions. He also reiterated 
the success of programs such as 
Wolverine Pathways, the HAIL 
scholarship and Go Blue Guarantee, 
which provide access to higher 
education for low-income students.
“This is not ivory-tower research 
— faculty and students are deeply 
connected 
with 
communities 
working with local and state 
governments, public schools, health 
care providers and organizations,” 
Philbert said. “With augmented, 
virtual and mixed reality in the 
changing 
landscape 
of 
higher 
education, we’re investing in new 
ways to shape instruction and the 
undergraduate experience for the 
future.”

Philbert remarked specifically 
on 
the 
University’s 
continued 
investment in programs that make 
a U-M education more accessible to 
in-state and low-income students.
“Based on the success of HAIL, 
we’ve transitioned to the Go Blue 
Guarantee, which is free in-state 
tuition for all with a family income 
of less than $65,000,” Philbert said.
Philbert concluded by looking 
ahead to future challenges, like 
a dip in high school graduates in 
Michigan, and acknowledging the 
University’s successes thus far.
“Clearly, we have a national and 
international brand that has been 
able to attract the brightest and 
best,” Philbert said.

