The University of Michigan’s 

enrollment hit an unprecedented 
high 
of 
more 
than 
50,000 

students in Fall 2021, according 
to a release from the University 
Record.

University 
President 
Mark 

Schlissel 
spoke 
about 
the 

increased University enrollment 
at the University of Michigan 
Board of Regents meeting the 
evening of Oct. 21.

“This fall’s first year class on 

the Ann Arbor campus is our 
largest ever, and our student 
body for the campus is more 
than 50,000 for the first time in 
history,” Schlissel said. “Demand 
for a Michigan education is at 
record highs.”

This fall, the number of 

freshman 
student 
applicants 

rose by about 15,000, reaching 
a total of 79,743. 16,071 were 
offered admission, representing 
a 20% acceptance rate. In 2020, 
the acceptance rate was 26%.

7,290, or 45%, of accepted 

applicants chose to enroll at the 
University — 400 more than the 
previous year, which saw a 41% 
enrollment rate of those who 
were offered admission.

There was a 3% increase in 

total undergraduate enrollment 
this semester, going from 31,329 
enrollees last year to 32,282 
enrollees this year. The number 
of graduate and professional 
school enrollees reached 17,996 
this year, rising from a previous 
enrollment of 16,578.

Within the new class, about 

37% of students identify as 
persons of color, compared to 
34% of students last year. Latinx 
student enrollment saw a 48% 
increase from 433 last year 

to 640 this fall. Black student 
enrollment rose from 305 last 
year to 404 this fall — a rise of 
about 32%.

Student 
organizations 
on 

campus 
have 
criticized 
the 

University’s 
low 
Black 
and 

Latinx enrollment numbers — 
particularly in January when 
the University discontinued the 
Provost Award, which provided 
full 
demonstrated 
need 
for 

some 
out-of-state 
students. 

Latinx students make up 9% 
of the current freshman class, 
compared to 6% last year. While 
Black students make up 6% 
of the current freshman class 
compared to 4% last year.

Out of this term’s freshman 

class, around 50% reside in-state, 
while 45% are domestic out-of-
state and 5% international. 

Additionally, there was an 8% 

rise in transfer students from last 
year. The freshman and transfer 
classes 
combined 
include 

students 
from 
77 
Michigan 

counties, all 50 states, five U.S. 
territories and 70 countries. 

In the Record article, Adele 

Brumfield, 
vice 
provost 
for 

enrollment 
management, 

attributed this rise in enrollment 
to virtual recruitment events and 
the University’s early decision to 
have Fall 2021 classes in person. 
Brumfield also highlighted the 
importance of financial aid in 
promoting student enrollment. 

“The university is committed 

to providing generous financial 
resources, which allows more 
students to choose U-M and 
thrive once they arrive here,” 
Brumfield 
said. 
“With 
the 

admissions season for fall 2022 
in full swing, we’re looking to 
the future and recruiting the 
next talented and diverse class of 
Wolverines.”

The University of Michigan 

endowment grew 40.6% for 
fiscal 
year 
2021, 
totaling 

to $17 billion on June 20, 
2021, Geoffrey Chatas, U-M 
executive vice president and 
chief financial officer, told the 
University of Michigan Board 
of Regents at their Oct. 21 
meeting. 

Despite 
the 
significant 

growth, 
Chatas 
said 
it 
is 

important to look for context 
beyond short-term gains. 

“We’re very pleased with the 

strong performance,” Chatas 
said. “It was as recently as 
2016 that the endowment went 
down in value, and last year, 
the long-term portfolio that 
the endowment is invested in 
gained only 2.3%.”

The University’s endowment 

is the ninth largest in the 
country and third among public 
universities, according to the 
University Record. Over 12,000 
separate 
endowment 
funds 

make up the U-M endowment, 
of which funds are specifically 
designated for scholarships, 
educational 
programs, 

research and professorships. 

Ahead of the Fall 2020 

semester, the Regents voted to 
increase tuition by 1.9% for the 
2020-2021 school year, drawing 
backlash from students and 
parents who pointed to the 
endowment as a way to avoid 
the increase during COVID-
19. The decision was widely 
circulated on social media, 
with many saying they were 
shocked at the tuition increase.

At the meeting, the board 

also voted to name the new 
163,000-square-foot 
building 

set to be on North Campus the 
Leinweber Computer Science 
and Information Building in 
appreciation of the Leinweber 
Foundation 
and 
software 

entrepreneur Larry Leinweber, 
who contributed $25 million to 
support construction. 

The 
new 
center, 
costing 

around $145 million, will be 
home to both the School of 
Information and the College 
of 
Engineering’s 
computer 

science 
and 
engineering 

programs. The building aims 
to bridge the geographical gap 
between those in the School of 
Information and the Computer 
Science 
and 
Engineering 

division of the College of 
Engineering. 

Tom Baird, vice president 

for development, thanked the 
Leinweber 
Foundation 
for 

their donation.

“The 
Leinweber 
family 

members have been wonderful 
volunteers and advocates for 
the University of Michigan for 
many ,many years … (including) 
creating 
the 
Leinweber 

Software 
Scholars 
Program 

at Michigan Engineering and 
establishing 
the 
Leinweber 

Center for Theoretical Physics 
in LSA,” Baird said. 

University President Mark 

Schlissel also announced a 
series of new funding to build 
the Innovation and Technology 
Center at U-M Flint which will 
serve as a base for the recently 
added College of Innovation 
and Technology. Schlissel said 
this investment would help 
both the U-M Flint community 
and the greater Flint region.

michigandaily.com
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Wednesday, October 27, 2021

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Enrollment tops 50,000 
for first time in history

NAVYA GUPTA 
Daily Staff Reporter

CAMPUS LIFE

University of Michigan 
endowment grows 40.6%
Funds now valued at $17 billion as of June 2021

New class is more diverse than the previous one

JUSTIN O’BEIRNE & 

JULIA FORREST 
Daily Staff Reporters

Ann Arbor School Parents Intent 

on Racial Equity met virtually with 
members of the Ann Arbor Public 
Schools Board of Education Oct. 
19 to discuss the district’s equity 
plan and what parents said were its 
flaws in protecting Black and brown 
students in the district. 

AASPIRE is a group of parents, 

caregivers, community leaders and 
educators who advocate for racial 
equity within AAPS. They work 
to eliminate the achievement and 
opportunity gaps and to improve 
the educational experience for Black 
and brown students in the school 
district.

The AAPS equity plan, released 

in January 2019, contains five 
main areas of focus: perpetuating 
systems of equity and opportunity; 

promoting 
equity-centered 

leadership; systemic transformation 
of culture; equity-centered school 
and classroom practices; and family 
and community empowerment. 

Oct. 19’s meeting comes after 

numerous allegations of racism 
within AAPS surfaced earlier this 
year. Pioneer High School faces 
allegations of racial hostility after 
an AAPS student sent a letter to the 
district through the Civil Rights 
Litigation Initiative, a Michigan Law 
student-run clinic. The letter, which 
listed three demands to dismantle 
institutional racism in response to 
the racial hostility multiple students 
faced at Pioneer, prompted AAPS to 
offer multiple statements promising 
to begin an investigation to address 
these allegations.

“The stories of the indignities they 

have suffered at Pioneer because of 
their race are heart-wrenching and 
disturbing,” the CRLI letter reads. 

“We write this long letter to amplify 
their voices and to strongly urge you 
to redress the systemic racism at 
Pioneer. Black Lives Matter.”

AASPIRE criticizes the equity 

plan, calling it a performative act 
for racial equity. They said the plan 
puts the blame on Black and brown 
children for their performance at 
school, fails to specify accountability 
measures or assign responsibilities, 
does not offer a timeframe for 
completion and does not state the 
problem it is trying to solve.

Board members Bryan Johnson, 

Jessica Kelly and Krystle DuPree 
were present at the meeting. 
When asked what BOE’s role was 
in constructing the equity plan, 
Johnson said though various AAPS 
stakeholders contributed to the 
equity plan, they are responsible 
for 
setting 
guidance 
for 
the 

superintendent and steering the 
district strategy that captures the 

values of the district.

“There were members of the 

cabinet and teachers and other 
equity teams across the district that 
put in a lot of work to create an equity 
plan,” Johnson said. “They then 
send it to the Board of Education to 
talk about it and look to see if there 
are things that were missing, and to 
approve it for a public unveiling.” 

When asked about the timeline 

for 
implementing 
the 
equity 

plan, Johnson said the pandemic 
has slowed the process. They 
are currently revising the plan, 
according to Johnson. 

“In terms of the rollout, when 

the community could be engaged, 
that was actually going to be in 
March of 2020, with the 2020-2021 
school year as the goal to roll that 
out,” Johnson said. “Just as we were 
doing that, that’s when we had a new 
reality, which was COVID-19.”

Some Ann Arbor Public Schools parents, 
educators criticize district’s equity plan
AASPIRE says proposal is performative, not specific enough on timeframe

CAROLINE WANG 

Daily Staff Reporter

SOPHIA AFENDOULIS/Daily

Some Ann Arbor Public Schools community members say equity plan does not adequately address racial inequity within the district. 

See EQUITY PLAN, Page 2

See ENROLLMENT, page 3

More than 100 University of 

Michigan 
students 
protested 

for climate justice on the after-
noon of Oct. 22 as part of a class 
walkout organized by Fridays for 
Future, a global youth movement 
committed to striking for stron-
ger climate policies.

During 
the 
protest, 
stu-

dent activists presented a list 
of demands to the University, 
including that they declare a cli-
mate emergency and fully divest 
from fossil fuels. At the Board of 
Regents meeting last March, the 
University committed to divest-
ing from companies with the 
largest greenhouse gas contri-
butions and to achieving a net-
zero endowment by 2050. This 
vote came after years of activism 
from student groups on campus 

who called on the University to 
take immediate action to reach 
carbon neutrality and divest-
ment. 

Students 
at 
the 
protest 

marched across campus, looping 
around North University Ave-
nue, State Street and South Uni-
versity Avenue. As they walked 
near the Law Quad, many stu-
dent 
protesters 
stopped 
by 

Schlissel’s house, showing sup-
port for the survivors of sexual 
abuse from late University ath-
letic doctor Robert Anderson. 

For more than a week, for-

mer University football player 
Jonathan Vaughn, a survivor 
of Anderson, has staged a sit-in 
outside of Schlissel’s house to 
demand that the University cre-
ate stronger protections for sur-
vivors of sexual abuse and meet 
with Anderson’s victims.[

During their march, students 

repeated “No more coal, no more 
oil, keep that carbon in the soil,” 

“Hey hey, ho ho, climate change 
has got to go” and “Exxon Mobil, 
BP, Shell: take your filth and go 
to hell.” 

LSA sophomore Lexi Crilley, 

who serves on the Students for 
Clean Energy‘s policy team, read 
the demands at the protest. 

“We’re tired of the Univer-

sity’s goals to make more goals,” 
Crilley said. “The endless empty 
promises of the institution. So 
until these demands are met, we 
will continue striking. We’ll keep 
protesting.” 

LSA senior Elena Swirczek 

spoke to the crowd about the 
role of hope in combating cli-
mate change. She said it can be 
difficult to feel optimistic in the 
face of worsening news about 
the climate, such as the report 
published this year by the Unit-
ed Nations’ Intergovernmental 
Panel on Climate Change that 
found that human-created cli-
mate change will raise the globe’s 

temperature by 1.5 to 2.0 dur-
ing the 21st century “unless deep 
reductions in CO2 and other 
greenhouse gas emissions occur 
in the coming decades.” 

Swirczek said despite these 

grim predictions, a “doom and 
gloom” attitude can lead to inac-
tion. 

“Hope is an action that can be 

constant, even when the feeling 
is not,” Swirczek said. “Because 
if we don’t take any action, we’ve 
already lost.” 

Swirczek urged the protes-

tors not to feel like they have 
to be perfect activists to bring 
about progress. Instead, she said, 
they should focus on working 
together to demand system-wide 
changes. 

“Find the people building 

power and join them,” Swirczek 
said. 

UMich students stage walkout 

for climate policies, justice

More than 100 march across campus, demand more University action

ELI FRIEDMAN & 

NIRALI PATEL

Daily Staff Reporters

JEREMY WEINE/Daily

After gathering in front of the steps of the Hatcher Graduate Library, students and other climate strikers march around the Diag’s perimeter cheering and chanting Friday Oct. 22.

See ENDOWMENT, page 3

Read more at MichiganDaily.com

