Michigan, University of

Michigan, University of, main campus at Ann Arbor; state supported; coeducational; chartered 1817 at Detroit as the Catholepistemiad, or Univ., of Michigania, rechartered 1821 (as Univ. of Mich.) and 1837 (when it was relocated at Ann Arbor). The university system also maintains full campuses at Flint (1956) and Dearborn (1959), as well as centers throughout the state. Michigan has an outstanding school in astronomy and maintains two observatories at Ann Arbor and others at Portage Lake, Lake Angelus, and Bloemfontein, South Africa. At Ann Arbor are the Phoenix Memorial Laboratory, which carries on instruction and research in the peaceful uses of atomic energy, the Center for Great Lakes and Aquatic Science, and the Aeronautical Engineering Laboratory. Laboratories for manufacturing engineering and manufacturing systems are at Dearborn. Michigan has a noted law school; an extensive system of hospitals, clinics, and medical institutes; and several museums. The university library houses many notable collections including the Hubbard Collection on Imaginary Voyages, an outstanding papyrus collection, the Worcester collection on the Philippines, a collection on American colonial and Revolutionary history, and the Stellfeld music collection.

Bibliography

See W. B. Shaw, ed., The University of Michigan (4 vol., 1942–58); H. H. Peckham, The Making of the University of Michigan, 1817–1967 (1967).

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Michigan, University of 

a leading educational and scientific center in the USA. Founded in 1817 as the University of Michigania but without the status of an institution of higher education. It was established in 1837 in the city of Ann Arbor as an institution of higher education.

In 1973 the University of Michigan included the colleges of architecture and design (now architecture and urban planning), engineering, pharmacy, literature, science, and the arts, as well as the schools of business administration, dentistry, education, law, library science, medicine, music, natural resources, public health, social work, and graduate studies. The university also has a computing center, a nuclear reactor, a wind tunnel, and laboratories of radiation, electron physics, ship hydrodynamics, and statistics.

Operating in conjunction with the University of Michigan are a number of research institutes and centers, including institutes for social research, labor and industrial relations, environmental and industrial health, and the study of mental retardation. Centers include those of Japanese, Chinese, Near Eastern and North African, and Russian studies; human genetics; research on learning and teaching; and population planning and population study. There are museums of anthropology, paleontology, and zoology. There is also a herbarium, botanical gardens, a biological station, and an observatory. The university’s library has more than 4 million volumes.

During the 1972–73 academic year the University of Michigan had an enrollment of approximately 40,000 students; 4,700 were employed on the instructional staff, including more than 1,300 professors.