Address to the University Community

September 20, 2004, 3:15 P.M.
Rackham Auditorium

Good afternoon.

I want to thank the Faculty Senate for sponsoring this address, and I thank you for joining me here today. All of us have a stake in the future of our University.

I have been at Michigan for twenty-four months—sometimes, it seems like twenty-four weeks, and sometimes, it feels like I have been here twenty-four years. During this time, we have been squarely in the national spotlight on significant, even landmark issues.

In typical Michigan fashion, we addressed our challenges and celebrated our victories in full view of the public.

We debated our positions and options, reached decisions, and created policies that have inspired institutions across the nation and world.

It is meaningful that I am speaking to you today in this superb auditorium, a room that exemplifies the essence of the University of Michigan. The monumental buildings on our campus express the high aspirations Michigan has always sought.

Like so many of our campus spaces, Rackham embodies an exceptional architectural design. Just look at the ceiling decoration—the pattern of curves above you combines geometry and art, and the ceiling above this podium is a profusion of color and design.

And, the aspirational design of this building is not at all unique on our campus! Think of the magnificent curved height of Hill Auditorium, the neo-Gothic ceilings of the Law School, the bold emblems on the ceiling of Angell Hall, and so many more.

I regard our exquisite ceilings as having two functions: they represent the creative vision of our founders, and they draw our attention upward, always.

They remind us of our ongoing challenge: how will we continue our great tradition of looking upward, with ambition?

The University and its priorities

With the help and advice of many in our community, I have established plans and initiatives that will allow us to strengthen the distinction of the University of Michigan. I continue to marvel at the excellence for which everyone here strives—and generally achieves!— on a daily basis.

The sheer size, success, and scope of the University prompted a bold theme for our capital Campaign: “The Michigan Difference,” which was launched so well in May.

For me, this theme captures the profound heritage and future promise of our University.

This concept of “The Michigan Difference” has meaning on many levels—it refers to the difference we have made to our alumni, and that they have made for the world. It points to the intellectual discovery and scientific breakthroughs that our faculty and students pursue every day.

We already have an array of extraordinary departments, schools, and colleges, many ranked among the top in the nation.

But—as I have been considering “The Michigan Difference,” and looking at our academic traditions, I realize that our most important comparison and standard for improvement needs to be with ourselves. The University of Michigan in 2004 is better than it was in 1999. And every year, we must take steps to ensure that the years 2010 or 2050 will see the best incarnation of the University in its entire history.

Last April, I articulated four key institutional commitments to our Board of Regents. I want to affirm those here, in the context of the ways they uphold and enhance the “Michigan Difference.” I told our Regents that our University:

• will re-affirm its efforts to sustain academic excellence;
• will foster intellectual engagement within our community and engagement with the world around us;
• will build collaborative learning communities; and
• will dedicate its efforts to creating greater access to Michigan’s academic quality.

Because we are a public institution, we must honor multiple and substantial responsibilities: first and foremost, we explore the life of the mind. But we also have an abiding commitment to the world in which we live. That means we will reach out and offer our expertise and resources to address issues that affect all of society. It also means that we will continue to offer new generations of students the world of opportunities that a university education can create.

The University of Michigan will continue to define the great public university.

For me, possibly the most important definition of “The Michigan Difference” is the understanding that this University is a unique American treasure—both a great university and the very best of public universities. In fact, it is that special intersection of academic excellence and public commitment that provides the University of Michigan with its greatest difference.

A university, more than most institutions, is an enterprise of constantly renewing resources. In fact, a rapidly changing community is an essential part of our identity and mission.

Even as we congratulate our 8,000 graduates each year, we are beginning our search for the next 8,000 gifted students for our undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs. This is an enormous responsibility, and one upon which our future reputation depends. Three weeks ago, I was delighted to welcome the best-qualified and largest freshman class in the history of the University.

Our faculty community also experiences renewal each autumn, when we welcome newcomers to our campus, including promising young faculty and established scholars.

Our new senior faculty members as well as our new assistant professors bring us fresh worlds of creativity and expertise.

For example, Professor Steven Ratner of our Law School comes to us with a scholarly record that includes path-breaking work on international law and the phenomenon of failed nation-states. Assistant Professor Elizabeth Gershoff of the School of Social Work has devoted her attention to children and poverty, helping us identify and address the root causes and resulting problems of impoverished families. Associate Professor Nadine Sarter has joined our College of Engineering, adding her expertise in cognitive ergonomics to our strengths in the area of physical ergonomics.

We had excellent reasons for selecting each of our remarkable new faculty members. But it is also fascinating to hear the reasons they chose to come here.

Three points appeared over and over: our outstanding academic reputation, our tradition of interdisciplinarity, and our commitment to diversity of all kinds.

I applaud their choice of Michigan, because they have discerned three of the core values of our institution. In our academic departments, we encourage the work of the solitary scholar as well as the teams that work across traditional boundaries—we provide a setting that welcomes all approaches to scholarship and creativity.

Our mission of discovery extends across the entire University: our outstanding scientists and engineers, and our schools and colleges in the public fields of policy and health, the environment, humanities, arts, and architecture—which have an impact at all three of our campuses. I will be working with Chancellors Mestas and Little of our Flint and Dearborn campuses to find ways to advance elements of their particular missions.

And as we all know, the instructional, research, and clinical missions of our university depend on a superb staff. Everywhere I go, I am impressed by the commitment and high quality of our staff, whether they are driving our buses, keeping our networks operating, attending to the needs of our students, or performing experiments in our laboratories.

I was delighted last year when Laurita Thomas agreed to take on the demanding position of Associate Vice President and Chief Human Resource Officer. She has brought significant experience and wisdom to the complex web of our institution, along with her commitment to the development of our staff.

So, I am enthusiastic about the people who are leading us into the future. But in the midst of ensuring our continued quality, we have had to deal with an unprecedented budget scenario.

The state took an unusually long time to set its contribution to our budget for the coming year.

Indeed, we already started to write our budget request for next year, even as we waited for the final budget for the current year.

The uncertainty has affected our ability to judge at what level to set tuition, and how to proceed in a number of specific areas. It puts us at risk for being more cautious than a great institution should be.

It also limits us. We have absorbed over $43 million dollars of cuts to our base budget over the past two years.

I tell you these facts not to disturb you, but to reassure you about the primary commitment of our University: our academic excellence.

We have had to make some difficult choices about cuts, but we were determined to make sure that the quality of our educational opportunities continues to grow stronger—along with the faculty, staff and facilities that assure our quality.

In maintaining this commitment, I have a remarkable partner in our provost, Paul Courant. He brings exceptional value to his position in a very trying period—he is a distinguished economist, and he is skilled at keeping us all focused on our academic mission as we make budgetary decisions. He keeps us attuned to the long-term health of the University and cautions us against short-term savings that might do long-term damage. No cuts are ever easy, but he has provided the wisdom of his professional expertise and his long association with this University. We all owe him our profound gratitude.

Our Regents have also been significantly involved in our budgetary discussions and decisions, and I want to recognize their commitment to building the academic quality of the University of Michigan. Our chancellors, vice presidents, and deans brought sound decision-making to the budgeting process, allowing them to pursue their core missions, even with reduced resources.

Finally, I thank the faculty and staff for making sure that we are aware of, and attend to, that which is most important and exciting in the face of budgetary stringency.

Some of our new faculty members emphasized that my previous statements about academic quality were an important component in their decision to come here, so I want to reiterate that point.

My first priority is this: to protect and advance the academic quality of the University of Michigan.

We are the guardians of a precious resource, for which every one of us shares responsibility.

Today, I want to discuss the many ways we are bringing our commitments and priorities to life, and the ways we will move forward.

The Campaign for “The Michigan Difference”

As I mentioned earlier, we launched a multi-year fundraising campaign, titled “The Michigan Difference” in May, and it has begun to transform our University.

Many leaders of philanthropic, business, and non-profit organizations have agreed to volunteer their time and energy to help us meet our ambitious goal of $2.5 billion dollars. We have already raised over half that amount, but it will take a lot of work to attract the next billion we need to meet our goal.

The Campaign for The Michigan Difference will be one most important legacies of my presidency. I pledge my attention, energy, and effort to this Campaign, so our University can advance its ambitious goals.

These funds are essential for professorships and scholarships, improved and new facilities, and significant programmatic enhancements across our schools and colleges.

Contributions from our donors provide the margin of excellence that is so critical to Michigan’s prominence and its ability to create one of the best educational environments in the world. Given the national decline of state support over many years, philanthropy will become an increasingly important component in building future strength at public universities.

One of the best parts of my job is describing the energy and initiative of our University, and helping potential donors become participants in its future.

It is so rewarding to see the genuine delight on the faces of our donors when they discover the joy of becoming closely involved in the aspirations of our deans and faculty members, and when they realize that they can make an enormous difference for generations of students to come.

Because we know how important this campaign will be to the future of Michigan, my husband Ken and I decided to make a key leadership gift, identifying areas where we wanted to make our own “difference” with our donations.

The endowed funds created through the Campaign will support the four guiding principles I described at the start of my address: academic excellence, active engagement, collaborative learning communities, and greater access to Michigan’s academic quality. I have a wonderful example to share with you, one that illustrates how philanthropy is helping us realize all of those guiding principles in a single project.

Just two weeks ago, we celebrated the groundbreaking of our new facility for the Depression Center, made possible by several very generous gifts, particularly, ten million dollars from Ed and Mary Meader.

This Center embodies the collaborative potential of our faculty—it draws upon the expertise of eight of our schools and colleges: Medicine, Social Work, Nursing, Pharmacy, Dentistry, Kinesiology, Public Health, and Literature, Science, and the Arts (LS&A).

A multi-disciplinary approach is essential to the study of depression, especially if we hope to understand and treat the complexities of this disease. So now, thanks to philanthropic support, our faculty and their students can pursue their distinctive team approach at the new facility for the Depression Center.

We have had other generous and visionary gifts, such as scholarship support from Susan and Rich Rogel, who provided $22 million dollars for scholarships—currently there are 220 Rogel Scholars on our campus! Rich Rogel, a co-chair of our Campaign, had to work fulltime when he was a student. Now, he is bringing the benefit of his education back to Michigan to allow current students to devote more time to their studies.

The University community is fortunate to have had extraordinary donors throughout its history: Horace and Mary Rackham, whose legacy we are enjoying at this very minute; William H. Cook, whose gift enabled us to create the impressive Law Quadrangle; Stuart and Maxine Frankel, whose generosity will allow us to add a wing to our Museum of Art.

Our donors are allowing us to create other new showcases for our artistic and cultural treasures: the Kelsey exhibit wing, the Walgreen Center and Arthur Miller Theatre, and the State Street gallery that displays student art.

Two weeks ago, I had the privilege of introducing another exceptional donor and announcing the news of his transformational gift.

Our Business School, now named the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, received a $100 million dollar gift from Mr. Ross, the largest gift in the history of the University of Michigan, and one of the largest in all of higher education.

In addition to helping create “The Michigan Difference,” it was also inspiring to hear Mr. Ross talk about the many ways his education at Michigan transformed his own life. He told us that knowing he had studied alongside some of the best students in the world, and had taken classes from our outstanding faculty, stretched his horizons and gave him the confidence to establish his extraordinary career as a developer of major real estate projects in Manhattan and around the world.

Part of this gift will support a new facility for the Business School. At the public announcement, Mr. Ross said: “buildings are built from the inside out,” and he told us that the most important aspect of facility design is what happens inside the learning environment.

I completely agree. Our new and renovated buildings are so much more than bricks and steel—they are crucial tools essential for world-class scholarship.

Long-term strategic planning for facilities

I have worked with the Regents and campus planners to develop a long-term plan for the renewal and expansion of our buildings. Any university that wants to exceed its past success must not neglect its physical plant.

I have focused our efforts on the need for continuous and thoughtful investment in facilities, new and old. Ideally, capital planning should be a pipeline into which no air bubble is introduced—the flow of projects must be continuous.

Most importantly, our facilities speak to our aspirations and future goals.

When I arrived on campus, I oversaw the completion of large-scale renovations and new buildings—Hill Auditorium, the Gerstacker Building that houses Biomedical Engineering, the new facilities for the Life Sciences on Palmer Drive, and the historic renovation of this Rackham Building.

But also in the past two years, we have thoughtfully planned and designed a significant new wave of facilities that are already beginning to rise, or for which we will soon break ground.

They include:

• the Cardiovascular Center,
• a building for the School of Public Health,
• the new Depression Center,
• the new Weill Hall for the Ford School,
• the Ambulatory Surgery Center,
• the Walgreen Center and Arthur Miller Theatre,
• the new wing for the Museum of Art,
• the Academic Center in South Campus,
• the Kelsey exhibit wing,
• the Perry Building addition for ISR,
• and three buildings in Engineering.

These projects are changing the face of our campus.

Even as we assessed the specific academic needs and costs for each of these projects, we have considered their role in the larger context of campus planning. I addressed the Regents on the issue of long-term capital planning a year ago, and emphasized that we always need to understand how each new building can be integrated into the overall campus environment.

Careful master planning enables us to focus on our academic priorities, to lead in technological innovation, and to explore new links among our schools and colleges.

We are also preparing to launch other essential new projects in the coming years.

I am dedicated to working with Dr. Robert Kelch, our Executive Vice President for Medical Affairs, and the deans and faculty of the Health System to develop plans for a new Children’s and Women’s Hospital—a critically needed state-of-the-art facility that will be equal to the world-class care our medical staff provides, and the miracles they make possible.

Later this week, Vice President for Student Affairs Royster Harper and I will lead a discussion with our Board of Regents about our plans to revitalize residential life at the University, another crucial priority for me.

Residential life is a vital part of the student experience.

The quality of the residential experience can make all the difference in the academic experience of our students.

We want to develop small interactive communities within our residence halls, where students can combine their intellectual and residential activities.

This year, I will introduce the most sweeping renovation to Michigan’s residence life system in the history of the University.

Within the next few months we will bring specific recommendations forward to the Board of Regents for a new residence hall— our first in THIRTY years—along with extensive renovations to our existing facilities, including upgrades to our dining halls and technology infrastructure.

Our plans will take years to complete, but will benefit students for generations to come.

We will tackle other opportunities regarding our infrastructure. I will address the deterioration of the Frieze Building, and move forward on new facilities in areas such as Biology.

The Life Sciences at Michigan

Biology is, of course, one of the cornerstones of our efforts to build the life sciences at Michigan.

Across this country, states and universities are focusing on life sciences as a key research area and economic driver for the future.

The State of Michigan and the University of Michigan staked out an early claim as leaders in the life sciences with the creation of the Life Sciences Corridor and our Life Sciences Institute. We were viewed as a powerhouse when the new millennium started.

Ironically, one of the biggest hurdles has appeared within our own state, which has reduced the funding of the Life Sciences Corridor, and has expanded the mandate of the original Corridor to include automotive technologies and homeland security.

These are both critical areas of research, but their addition, along with the reduction in funding, have significantly lowered the opportunities for the state’s original Life Sciences Corridor.

We must take immediate, determined steps to reaffirm our commitment to the life sciences, because the competitive environment is fierce.

Along with others, I have been outspoken about the need to restore public funding for research projects in the life sciences in the State of Michigan.

Fortunately, the Governor understands this priority, and she partially restored its funding in recent state budget negotiations.

Within our own campus, I want to find more substantive ways to link our many outstanding research programs.

In just one year, the Life Sciences Institute (LSI) has already brought together twelve innovative scientists from inside and outside the University, with appointments in departments including LS&A, Medicine, and Pharmacy.

They were drawn to the Life Sciences Institute because of the opportunities for innovative collaboration, in new facilities that were specifically designed to encourage cross-disciplinary work.

One of the great traditions of Michigan has been its ability to create collaborative endeavors such as our world-renowned Institute of Social Research, which, for fifty years, has been a model for path-breaking work that cuts across traditional boundaries.

I have great hope that our Life Sciences Institute will provide an equal opportunity for prominence, collaboration, and resources for the research of all our scientists.

But life sciences at Michigan is more than the Life Sciences Institute.

We have exceptional and internationally competitive scientific programs, housed in schools and colleges throughout our campus.

At night, I often walk across the campus. Sometimes I pause on the new bridge that links the health sciences to the central campus. From that vantage point, I can see a string of light connecting thousands of researchers.

Beyond the brightly lit glass walls of the Life Sciences Institute, I can see the miles of glowing hallways of the Health Sciences, Nursing, the new Biomedical Science Research Building, and, in the distance, the gleam of Bioengineering and the Center for Ultrafast Optical Science, housing the laser beams that connect back to the Kellogg Eye Center. Turning back to the central campus, I look at the glow from the Chemistry, Biology, Pharmacy, and Dentistry buildings—extending our bright chain of discovery in the life sciences.

Here at Michigan, we have a sparkling path of progress, from the theoretical to the practical, in plain view on our emerging life sciences campus.

Along that path, we want to construct a new Biology building that will add to our reputation in the life sciences. This is part of our long-range capital plan, replacing facilities that are obsolete.

The next stage in our vision for the life sciences must be a collective step; together, we have to design the network that will better connect the science units on campus. The Institute will be a cornerstone of our work—as well as a valuable shared resource for collaboration. But we have to improve the linkages among ALL our programs in the sciences.

I want us to focus tremendous effort on our outstanding research programs in areas such as nanotechnology, tissue engineering, and serious medical conditions such as diabetes and obesity. I believe we can also build on our existing strength in the neurosciences.

I want to seek ways to make interaction even more accessible and seamless.

I am looking at models of scientific collaboration across the campus.

I know collaboration tends to flow from faculty member to faculty member, and not across colleges—I want to make this faculty interaction even more feasible, and to identify ways that we might encourage colleges to work toward this goal more institutionally.

Even as we have made progress on our ambitious plans for our University, I have also been involved in external projects and commissions that have made me aware of the ways that we can use our minds and our resources to deal with some vexing problems facing our society.

My work as co-chair of the Committee on Uninsurance at the Institute of Medicine opened my eyes to the deep challenges facing the 45 million uninsured citizens of our country, and caused me to look to our University for ideas to address this crisis.

My appointment to the Governor’s Commission on Higher Education and Economic Growth has provided me with new perspective on the complex problems our state is facing, as it grapples with increasing numbers of students and the need to educate them in ever more sophisticated ways.

These experiences led me to work with our executive officers, deans, and faculty to identify several initiatives that the University of Michigan is uniquely positioned to address.

Presidential Initiatives

I described these four initiatives to our Regents in April. I will outline them here, and will announce the appointment of chairs for the task forces that will move these efforts forward.

First: One of the hallmarks of our University is its interdisciplinary scholarship. I want to make sure that we bring this strength into the classroom. With the help of Provost Courant, I am supporting the development of multi-disciplinary paired courses and other team-teaching initiatives across colleges as well as departments. The Provost’s office is establishing funds to support the design and the implementation of courses that will engage our students in the fresh ideas emerging from the intersection of scholarly fields. I am appointing Professor Philip Hanlon as chair of this initiative; he is a member of the Department of Mathematics, and is also Associate Provost for Academic and Budgetary Affairs.

Second: We will explore the creation of a center to study ethical issues in the public domain. The almost cataclysmic decline in ethical behavior in sectors of public and corporate enterprise affects us all. I am asking a cross-disciplinary team of faculty members to draw upon our scholarly expertise on this issue. Our campus has scholars in Law, Business, Public Policy, Philosophy, and many other relevant fields, and I look forward to their ideas for symposia, courses, and curricula on ethical conduct. This initiative will be co-chaired by Professor John Chamberlin, who is a faculty member in the Department of Political Science, as well as in the Ford School of Public Policy, along with Vice President Marvin Krislov, General Counsel for the University, and an Adjunct Professor in the Law School.

Third: I want to create a University of Michigan prototype for new approaches to the national focus on health and health care cost containment, an urgent issue. We enjoy the singular position of having a hospital, health care providers, insurance company, and health policy experts under our collective roof. We are uniquely qualified to propose new models for pre-emptive healthy lifestyles and better access to clinical care. I am appointing two co-chairs for this effort: Professor Kenneth Warner, of the Department of Health Management and Policy in the School of Public Health, along with Vice President Lisa Tedesco, Secretary of the University and Professor of Dentistry.

Fourth: I want our University to invest time, effort, and funding in expanding and improving the residential experience of our students. We can find a host of new ways to provide a better environment for learning and living in our residence halls. Our staff and our deans have expressed great enthusiasm for the possibilities we foresee in linking residential and academic experiences. Our plans for a large new residence hall will be augmented by significant renovations to our existing halls. In addition to providing much-needed new space for students, we will create a showcase for the innovative ideas that will emerge. I am asking two members of our community to lead this initiative: Professor Robert Megginson, from the Department of Mathematics, and Associate Dean for Undergraduate and Graduate Education in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts, along with our Director of Housing, Carole Henry.

Our ongoing commitment to diversity, access, and financial aid

Finally, I want to close by speaking about an underlying and long-standing ethic in our community: our commitment to diversity. It was one of the critical elements that attracted me to this position.

We successfully defended the right to use race as one factor in admissions decisions, and we will continue to do so in the measured way described by the Supreme Court. We are working to advance diversity throughout our entire community.

Now that we have the Court’s guidance we are moving forward, but we must continue to engage the issues at the heart of those cases.

If anything, we carry more responsibility today than ever before, because those cases established the University of Michigan as the most visible defender of the educational value of diversity in higher education.

It is essential that we maintain the confidence of our university and the public on this front.

We define diversity broadly at Michigan—socio-economic status, thought and ideology, sexual orientation, and geographic and cultural backgrounds—even as we safeguard the trust of racial and ethnic minorities.

A little over a year ago, we unveiled the new undergraduate application process which requires an individualized, holistic review of each applicant and relies more heavily on student essays, along with taking full account of academic credentials.

I am enormously proud of the efforts of our staff and faculty, who made our new process work so well.

I was delighted to learn that our entering class of freshmen is the most outstanding class ever admitted to the University of Michigan.

They come to us with exceptional high school grades and test scores, and bring an impressive range of life experiences, talents, and achievements in music, journalism, social activism—and about 600 of our freshmen have already started their own businesses!

We have, however, identified an area that warrants attention, one that is paradoxical in light of our Supreme Court success: despite our large entering class, we had a lower number of applications overall, and we are particularly concerned about the decrease in applications from underrepresented minority students.

Our admissions staff is extensively investigating the reason for that drop, in order to identify steps we can take to make sure we extend a clear welcome to students from all backgrounds.

This year, we are expanding our outreach to schools, are working even more closely with guidance counselors, and are making constructive adjustments to last year’s admissions forms.

This month, to enhance our outreach to underrepresented Latino students, we will launch a comprehensive, Web-based Spanish language portal to the University. While students will be required to complete the regular application form in English, this new site will provide vital information to the families and advisers of Latino applicants—many of whom welcome Spanish-language resources.

From admissions to academics, housing, financial aid, and student life, the front door of our University will open more widely to Latinos.

We are also looking at institutional efforts to foster diversity at all levels, including the recruitment of faculty. The Provost and I agree that the most important work we do is to hire outstanding faculty members. Among other initiatives, the Provost’s Office supports deans when they seek to hire faculty who are uniquely qualified or who contribute to the advancement of our diverse community.

This year, I was delighted to meet so many new faculty members who are bringing diversity and vibrancy to our University, in addition to their outstanding scholarly and creative portfolios.

On a related front, Senior Vice Provost Lester Monts is my trusted counsel on issues of diversity. Along with convening the Diversity Summit last February, he has secured funding from the Ford Foundation to study the feasibility of creating a national center for institutional diversity at the University of Michigan.

He plans to conclude that study with a major conference in the Spring of 2005 on institutional diversity, bringing many leading scholars to our campus to discuss the national impact of this issue.

In the past year, I have often stated that Supreme Court decisions are never the end point of any issue. The hard work always begins after a decision is handed down, and we are entering a phase of very challenging work indeed.

How will we ensure access to qualified students from backgrounds that might not normally lead them to a great university such as this? How can we support those students, financially and academically, once they have enrolled?

Hand-in-hand with the question of diversity is the issue of financial aid for students of all backgrounds. Over the past thirty years, students and parents have assumed an increasing percentage of the cost of their education, as state contributions have declined nationally.

Earlier, I described how our capital Campaign will help create new scholarships, but the need continues to outpace our ability to support qualified students.

For example, this year, one-sixth of our entering class came from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds.

We have a proud commitment to meeting the demonstrated financial need of all resident undergraduate students, but the Provost and I want to finds ways to make an even more profound commitment to the most needy students.

We cannot afford to lose even one talented student if the only barrier is financial aid.

And underlying all of this, we must address what is perhaps the most important challenge of all: What can the University of Michigan do in order to ensure that our country will reach a day when the policies of affirmative action are no longer needed in college admissions?

This is an expectation set forth by Justice Sandra Day O’Connor in her majority decision, and we are now only 23 years away from the putative end date she proposed. We must undertake an enormous amount of work to create a society in which children from all backgrounds have equal access to opportunity, and a level playing field in university admissions.

I know the University of Michigan has the potential to create the programs and the possibilities that will move us more rapidly to that day. We can never afford to relax our efforts.

Conclusion

So, we are moving ahead on many fronts, all of which connect to our core principles of academic excellence, active engagement, collaboration, and access.

These values will allow us to advance the concept of “The Michigan Difference,” and to provide that difference to our students, our university community, and the entire globe. The more I learn about the traditions and the accomplishments of each member of our community, the more proud I am to stand here as your President.

In the lobby, you will find yet one more reason to gaze upward at the aspirations of this magnificent University—another remarkable ceiling.

Remember to look upward as you carry out the great work of our institution. Thank you for coming today, and thank you for making your difference to our rich academic heritage.