University of Michigan History

History

The American University was founded in 1817 in Detroit , making it the oldest university west of the Appalachians . In 1837, she moved to Ann Arbor. A plot of 16 hectares had been reserved in the hope to welcome a new capitol of State, but when Lansing was finally chosen as the capital of the State of Michigan, Ann Arbor of the municipality offered it to the university . The original 16 acres became part of the current central campus.

The first classes in Ann Arbor began in 1841 with seven students and two teachers. By 1866, the enrollment reached 1,205 students, many of whom are veterans of the Civil War . Women were admitted for the first time in 1870, making Michigan the third University to open up to women in the United States, and the first major university to make that choice.
The University of Michigan continued to significantly expand and diversify during the twentieth century , adding to its fields of study the dentistry , the architecture , the technology , the government , and medicine . The number of students reached 30,000 in the 1960s. To accommodate the growing demand for student in the decades following the Second World War , new campuses were opened in Dearborn and Flint.
On October 14, 1960, U.S. presidential candidate John F. Kennedy proposed the concept of what became the Peace Corps on the steps of the Union of Michigan. The President Lyndon B. Johnson described his Great Society program at the University of Michigan.
The Ann Arbor campus remains one of the most prestigious (and selective) of the United States and it is among the best public schools in the country. Together, the three campuses of the University of Michigan is also one of the most challenging public universities to manage, due to the decline in funding from the State of Michigan.
In 1997, the school was involved in a controversy when it was sued by two students whites who were not admitted. Students have complained that the policy of positive discrimination in the school, which gave preferential treatment to minorities (of black , Latino , and Native Americans ) was unconstitutional. In 2003, the case was presented to the Supreme Court of the United States .
The latter concluded that the principle of affirmative action did not violate the Constitution , but the specific process used by the university was unconstitutional. As a result, the university had to modify but not eliminate affirmative action programs. The controversy is not over, however. In 2006, voters in Michigan have rejected the use of affirmative action in a referendum, a large majority of 58%. The university has since been forced to terminate the program