Posts filed under 'University administration'
Johnson & Johnson purchases ‘U’ start-up company
By Chris Herring, written on Oct. 28, 2008
HealthMedia Inc., a University of Michigan start-up company, has been purchased by pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson, the University announced in a press release.
The company, which provides Web-based health advice by joining advanced technology with behavioral science, has about 140 employees. They all will stay in Ann Arbor despite the transaction.
Though details of the transaction were not disclosed, the release said the sale should net the University about $1.7 million of money that will later be reinvested into research initiatives at the University.
“This success is a good example of how the University of Michigan can be an engine for economic change and growth in the state,” said Stephen Forrest, the University’s vice president for research, in the release.
HealthMedia, founded in 1998, is a product of the University’s Tech Transfer Office. Prior to purchasing the company, Johnson & Johnson served as its customer.
University President Mary Sue Coleman has served on Johnson & Johnson’s board of directors since 2003.
Paper reports record enrollment at U-M Flint
By Kelly Fraser, written on Sep. 3, 2008
A preliminary head count yesterday at the University of Michigan-Flint shows a dramatic increase in the size of this year’s freshman class, The Flint Journal reported.
According to an internal e-mail sent to U-M Flint employees obtained by the Journal, 890 first-time freshmen are enrolled this year, compared to 626 students last year.
Mel Serow, a spokesman for the campus, declined to comment about the enrollment figures. The University will not release enrollment data until the official 10-day count on Sept. 10 is completed, he said. The school has planned a press conference for Sept. 11, he added.
One factor attracting new students may be the campus’ new dormitories, which opened this fall.
More commuter colleges are adding residence halls, including the University of Michigan at Flint
By Julie Rowe, written on Jun. 29, 2008
Georgia State University, once populated solely by commuter students, built dorms on campus to increase enrollment. It worked. The school built luxury residence halls, added to their athletic programs and increased student activities.
”Students say it makes it a ‘real university,”’ Georgia State President Carl Patton told the Associate Press while sitting in the campus’ airy student center. ”What they mean is, ‘You have sports, you have an honors program, you have fraternities and sororities, you have freshman housing, you have places to eat on campus and you have a theater to go to.”’
University of Michigan administrators hope the first residence hall on the Flint campus, approved last year and scheduled to open this fall, will have similar effects. Administrators want to increase enrollment in Flint from 6,500 to 8,000 students by 2010.
“This beautiful, state-of-the-art housing for students will enhance the campus, while helping U-M-Flint achieve its goal of increasing enrollment,” University President Mary Sue Coleman said in a press release.
Increasing enrollment would add revenue to the University’s purse and could have a positive effect on the poor economy of Flint, which is still suffering the loss of automotive manufacturing jobs.
As GSU transitioned to a more traditional campus, restaurants and other businesses followed. When Temple University in North Philadelphia more than doubled the number of enrolled students because of the addition of residence halls, an $80 million complex with student housing, a movie theater and a shopping center was built in what was once a “decaying neighborhood” according to the Associated Press report.
“University housing in downtown Flint will be a part of the vitality of downtown and beyond,” said Regent Olivia Maynard, who lives in Flint, in a press release.
Social Work Dean to lead University of Illinois at Chicago
By Charles Gregg-Geist, written on Jun. 19, 2008
The dean of the School of Social Work at the University, Paula Allen-Meares, will be the next chancellor of the University of Illinois’s Chicago campus, UIC announced Tuesday. As chancellor, Allen-Meares will oversee a campus of about 25,000 students, the largest in Chicago.
In announcing Allen-Meares’ selection Lawrence Eppley, chair of the University of Illinois board of regents, spoke at length about her success leading the School of Social Work at the University of Michigan.
“Over the last 15 years Paula Allen-Meares as dean led a professional school at the University of Michigan that ranked at the very top of the very best,” he said. “The school has done so because of her vigorous leadership, scholarship, ability to acquire resources necessary for excellence and an affinity for mentoring faculty and students alike.”
Eppley also stressed Allen-Meares’ connections to the University of Illinois. Until she came to Ann Arbor in 1993, Allen-Meares was the dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She received her Masters in Social Work and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and her husband and three daughters all earned degrees from the institution, as well.
In moving to UIC, Allen-Meares leaves behind a number of major research projects she leads. She is also the principal investigator for the Global Program on Youth, an initiative based at the School of Social Work that aims to make research on social work more useful for practicing social workers.
March Regents meeting
By Julie Rowe, written on Mar. 20, 2008
Earlier today, the University’s Board of Regents met to sign off on new University projects and listen to the reports of University officials and students’ requests.
During the meeting, Michigan Student Assembly president Mohammed Dar spoke briefly about efforts to work with the Student Health Insurance Committee on campus to improve health care coverage for students.
“As many of you know, the plan’s premium has increased in the last few years while enrollment has dropped,” Dar said. “One of the ways that our legislation seeks to partner up is to look at whether or not a minimum level of coverage for students would be appropriate.”
Dar also outlined upcoming MSA events, including next week’s Earth Week, sponsored by the Environmental Issues Commission, and the Disabilities Awareness Week.
Steve Grafton, president of the Alumni Association of the University of Michigan, detailed the association’s efforts to “engage alumni” and reach out to current students. Among those efforts are the “Welcome Wednesday” events held at the Alumni Center, where current students can get free coffee and bagels and get information about other AAUM programs.
“We brew fresh Starbucks and we also give away bagels, which is another testimony to the fact that if you feed them, they will come,” Grafton said.
Grafton said 938 students attended yesterday’s event — the last of the semester — and invited the regents and University administrators at the meeting to attend in the future.
During the period of the meeting reserved for public comments, Graduate Employees Organization President Helen Ho, a Communication Studies department GSI, read from a letter signed by the GEO urging the Regents to intervene in negotiations between the union and the University administration.
“Our negotiating position is fair and reasonable, and it is in the spirit of shared interests that we express to you our hope that the Board of Regents, the University administration, and GEO can reach a satisfactory resolution of these negotiations in order to avert the mutually undesirable possibility of a work stoppage,” Ho read.
Courant events
By Andrew Grossman, written on Nov. 5, 2007
Earring-wearing, motorcycle-riding former University Provost and current University Librarian Paul Courant has launched his own blog. He starts it off with a strong (but long-winded) defense of the University of Michigan-Google agreement that provides for the digitization of the University libraries’ collections. It’s a serious policy argument, but it might be best summed up by this parenthetical:
“It seems to me that being in bed with Google is way better than sleeping alone.”
But there are some universities who are getting in bed with each other instead of Google.
Final figures show drop in minority enrollment
By Gabe Nelson, written on Nov. 1, 2007
The University released its final enrollment numbers this year, and the statistics show a significant drop in underrepresented minority enrollment in this year’s freshman class.
According to the statistics, the proportion of black students in this year’s freshman class dropped by 8.8 percent, the proportion of Hispanic students dropped by 12.6 percent and the proportion of Native American students dropped by 13.5 percent. Notably, the proportion of black students is down 26.1 percent from the freshman class that entered two years ago.
In real numbers, black students make up about 5.6 percent, Hispanic students make up about 4.5 percent and Native American students make up about 0.8 percent of this year’s class.
In a statement released today, Undergraduate Admissions Director Ted Spencer implied that the University expects to see minority enrollment numbers drop again next year.
“The full impact of Proposal 2 is not reflected in the current year’s enrollment numbers because it took effect mid-way through the admissions cycle,” Spencer said. “We’ll have a more accurate indication of its potential impact in fall 2008.”
Facing a record 27,474 applications, the University admitted slightly more than half of applicants this year. About 43.3 percent of accepted students enrolled at the University.
While the University’s yield — the number of accepted students that enroll — has remained steady over the last three years, the percentage of students admitted is up from about 47.5 percent last year, which was itself a drop from 57 percent two years ago.
This year’s freshman class has 5,992 students compared with 5,399 last year. It’s a near return to the size of the classes that entered two and three years ago, which both included more than 6,000 students.
Coleman responds to stadium accessibility letter
By Andy Kroll, written on Oct. 31, 2007
In an interview yesterday, University President Mary Sue Coleman said she was “very surprised” by the letter the University received this week from the Department of Education threatening to withhold funding if Michigan Stadium is not made more accessible to disabled fans. Coleman said the University had been negotiating the issue with the Department of Education and the Office of Civil Rights for months beforehand.
“I don’t think the letter reflects at all the things we’ve done,” Coleman said. “We think people need to see both sides of the story and we think our story is very strong.”
Coleman said she was “not particularly worried” that the University would lose funding, although she wouldn’t say whether she expected the University to make concessions. She said she believes that many of the issues raised by the Department of Education have already been resolved.
Coleman said the expansion project scheduled to start after this football season will provide the University with the opportunity to make improvements could not otherwise be made. She cited the addition of 13 elevators, more handicap accessible restrooms, more accessible concession stands and wider aisles as elements that would satisfy the demands included in the letter.
“These are things that are going to make it better for everybody – including people in wheelchairs,” Coleman said.
Coleman said the University decided not to add additional wheelchair-accessible seating to the stadium bowl over the last decade because it would have impacted other fans. For example, each added wheelchair-accessible seat would displace about 13 regular seats. Coleman wouldn’t say whether the cost of the renovation or the danger of losing the stadium’s status as the largest in the country was a factor in the decision not to add more disabled seating.
Regents roundup: October 2007
By Gabe Nelson, written on Oct. 23, 2007
The University Board of Regents will hold its monthly meeting at the University of Michigan-Flint this Thursday. The regents will consider the University’s financial report, which shows a 25 percent increase to the University’s endowment. For more information, read this story in today’s Daily. Also, be on the lookout for an in-depth story in Friday’s paper explaining what the endowment does and why colleges are under pressure to change the way they use them.
Here are other items included in this month’s regents agenda:
The regents will be asked to approve five-year extensions for Terrence McDonald, the dean of the College of Literature, Science and the Arts, Peter Polverini, the dean of the School of Dentistry, and Jerry May, the University’s vice president for development.
Many people believe University President Mary Sue Coleman’s salary is too high. Coleman, though, has given much of that back to the University in the way of donations. For instance, after the regents voted to raise Coleman’s tuition by 3 percent to meet inflation, Coleman vowed to return the money as a donation to graduate programs. Coleman added to that by donating $120,000 to the University last month, according to the report on voluntary support included in this month’s regents agenda. Since the beginning of the 2006 academic year, Coleman has donated a total of about $160,000 to the University, according to regents proceedings.
The Regents are scheduled to consider schematic designs for a $15.7-million addition to the Thompson Street Parking Structure. The project will add 385 parking spaces, as well as office space for Parking and Transportation Services and the Office of Budget and Planning. For more details on the project, see this story published in the Daily in February.
With diversity in mind, ‘U’ reveals outreach program
By Emily Barton, written on Oct. 5, 2007
The University announced plans yesterday to establish an educational outreach program that will connect with K-12 school districts in Detroit and Southfield, Mich.
The announcement was made at a summit of University officials held in the Michigan League, the Ann Arbor News reported. The program will involve students as well as faculty and staff in its efforts to promote partnerships and encourage potential University students.
The program was first conceived as a part of the Diversity Blueprints task force, formed after Proposal 2 passed last November banning all affirmative action programs. The task force released a report in March recommending ways the University can maintain diversity on campus despite the ban.