MICHIGAN, UNIVERSITY OF, Ann Arbor, Mich., is one of the largest educational institutions of the U.S.A. and is one of the oldest State universities. Its schools and colleges and their dates are : Literature, Science, and the Arts, 1841; Medi cine, 185o; Law, 1859; Dental Surgery, 1875; Pharmacy, 1876 (first taught in 1868) ; Engineering (originally part of the Lit erary College), 1895; Architecture, 1913 (first courses 1875-77, 1906– ) ; Education (once part of the Literary College), 1921; Business Administration, 1924 (courses first given in Literary College) ; Forestry and Conservation, 1927 (first courses 1881-84, 1903– ) ; and Music, 1929 (independently organized 1879).
The Graduate School, originally part of the Literary College, was established as a separate division in 1912. The first summer courses, given in 1894, have been expanded into a flourishing sum mer session, with 4,528 students enrolled in 1936. In 1935-36 the faculty numbered 775, with 9,445 students enrolled (16,04o, in cluding the summer session and the Extension Division). Michi gan was a pioneer among large institutions in establishing co education of the sexes in 187o, and women now constitute nearly one-third of the student body. Up to January 1, 1937, the Uni versity conferred 75,910 degrees, and the living alumni on July I, 1936 numbered 85,746.
The university's libraries total 955,623 volumes, including such collections as the William L. Clements Library of American History, one of the most important collections of colonial and revolutionary history in existence; the Legal Research Library; the Transportation Library ; and one of the largest collections of Greek, Latin, Coptic and Arabic papyri in the world.
The university's resources are inventoried at nearly $61,000,000. Of this, $10,728,400 is in various endowments, and over $45,000, 000 represents lands and equipment. This includes sixty-five larger buildings, of which the University Hospital with its auxil iary buildings is equipped to furnish bed accommodations for over 1,200 patients. Included also as part of the university's program for the physical education of its students are the Waterman Gym nasium for men, the Barbour Gymnasium for women, and, on Ferry Field a 75-acre playground which includes the Yost Field House permitting a year-round program in intercollegiate sports, the Intramural Sports Building, and a stadium accommodating 87,000 spectators. There is also a separate field house and athletic field for women. Recent important developments include a gift by the late William W. Cook, of a group of collegiate Gothic buildings and an endowment for legal instruction and research ; the gift of a building and an endowment of $6,5oo,000 for the Graduate School and graduate research, from a fund created by the will of the late Horace H. Rackham ; the development of divisions for engineering and medical research ; the establishment of scholarships for oriental women, through the gift of the late Levi L. Barbour, amounting to $626,000; the inauguration of a program for the erection of dormitories ; and the creation of a prize endowment, by the late Avery Hopwood, of nearly $325,000 for excellence in creative writing.
The university is governed by a board of eight regents, two elected biennially by popular suffrage, who form a co-ordinate rather than a subordinate division of the State governmental system. Internal government rests with the president and a specially chosen faculty body of about fifty members, the Univer sity Council. The university's public support is fixed as a per centage of the equalized property values of the State. Operating income for 1936-37 amounted to ; of this amount $38,00o represents the income from the sale of the lands origi nally set apart by the Federal Government for the purposes of higher education under the Ordinance of 1787.
The first incorporation of a University within what is now Michigan took place in 1817 when the governor and judges of the Territory established a "Catholepistemiad, or University, of Michigania," with a remarkable Greek system of nomenclature for its courses and faculties. This institution, however, and its suc cessor, the first University of Michigan, established in Detroit four years later, never offered courses of a collegiate character. When Michigan became a State in 1837 the new constitution (1835) provided for a university and the first steps toward organi zation were taken immediately. The first meeting of the regents was held on June 5, 1837. Branches, designed to provide the necessary students, were set up but were soon discontinued be cause of their expense and the whole effort of the regents centred in the university which opened its doors in 1841. Through its first years it developed as a traditional arts college, but with the establishment of the Medical School in 185o and the Law School in 1859, it became a university in fact. Following a period of administration by the faculty, Henry Philip Tappan (18o5-81) was chosen president, and it was under his far-sighted administration (1852-63) that the present policies of the uni versity were defined. The admission of Michigan high school graduates upon school inspection by the university in 1870 and the establishment of a professorship of education in 187o, the first in any American university, were pioneering steps which brought the university into closer relationship to the State educa tional system. Further divisions were created and graduate studies and instruction in science were encouraged during the long ad ministration of James Burrill Angell (1871-1909), a period in which the friendly relationship between the university and the State was strengthened. Under Harry Burns Hutchins (1910-2o) and Marion LeRoy Burton (1920-25) the physical plant was more than doubled and additional schools and colleges came into ,being. Under President Alexander Grant Ruthven (1929— ) the university has fulfilled the promise of its early years.