Lane Hall opened on March 2, 1917 and was named in honor of Victor Hugo Lane
(C.E. 1874, L.L.B. 1878), University of Michigan Fletcher Professor of Law, and
judge at the First Judicial Circuit of Michigan. The Student Christian
Association, which was created at the University of Michigan in 1859, was the
builder and first owner of Lane Hall. The University acquired both Lane Hall and
Newberry Hall as gifts in 1936, when the SCA could no longer maintain the
properties. Broadening the scope of activities to reflect the diversity of
religious associations on campus, the University created the Student Religious
Association (SRA), which included inter-faith study meetings, meditation groups,
and the Ann Arbor Society of Friends. For twenty years, Lane Hall was a central
meeting place for activist students and faculty. What was then called "The
Lane Hall Program" included opportunities for political debate, discussion
groups about democracy and current social issues, a series of outreach programs
both in the United States and abroad, as well as lectures and dances.
In 1956, as part of larger changes in the University, the SRA was folded into the new Office of Religious Affairs (ORA). The Director was moved from Lane Hall to the new Student Activities Building, and the Lane Hall program was slowly phased out. By the early 1960s, the ORA was no longer using Lane Hall at all and space was made available to various student service programs, such as the Counseling Division and Reading Improvement Services. The School of Music also made use of Lane Hall, turning the stage and offices into rehearsal areas while waiting for the completion of its new building, which opened in 1964. At this time, Cold War politics had heightened national awareness of the need for research on foreign countries and cultures. In 1958, the federal government increased funding for area centers with passage of the National Defense Education Act, of which Title VI promoted area and language studies. Lane Hall soon became the hub of international studies. For over thirty years, the Title VI Area Studies Centers - Japanese Studies, Chinese Studies, Middle East and North African Studies, Russian and East European Studies, South and Southeast Asian Studies - turned "Lane Hall" into a nationally recognized keyword for Area Studies.
In the spring of 1997, the University offered Lane Hall as the best campus building available for the Institute for Research on Women and Gender and the Women's Studies Program ( both of which were located in West Hall). The University agreed that an addition would be needed to meet the space needs of these new tenants, and after much discussion, planning, and drawing, renovations and construction began in February 1999. By June 2000, administrative staff from the Institute and Women's Studies, faculty and student researchers, program directors, as well as women's studies faculty from departments across campus started settling into the new quarters. The renovated and expanded Lane Hall - with faculty and graduate student offices, classrooms, information/technology labs, interview rooms, meetings rooms, research bays, a library, and exhibition space for University and local artists - reflects what we feel is an unprecedented and exciting commitment by the University to scholarship and teaching on women and gender.
Allison Lichter
Kristin McGuire