Dear Alumni and Friends,

The University of Michigan has always had a special relationship with the city of Detroit. It is where the university was originally founded in 1817 as the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigania. It is where we have built and fostered partnerships in the two centuries since then, sharing a rich history of continued engagement that includes dozens of partnerships with community organizations, community-academic research, courses, K-12 programming, student projects and organizations, and alumni working in key public, nonprofit and private company roles to better the city.

And it is where we will break ground later this year on perhaps our most ambitious project to date – the U-M Center for Innovation.

The UMCI will be a world-class research, education and entrepreneurship center designed to advance innovation and talent-focused community development to propel city, regional and statewide job creation and inclusive economic growth. 

None of it would be possible without the support and partnership of so many, including Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the state legislature, longtime U-M top donor Stephen Ross, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan and Chris Ilitch, CEO of Ilitch Holdings, Inc.

The initiative is another example of U-M’s multifaceted engagement in the city. Others include the U-M Detroit Center on Woodward Avenue, which opened in 2005 in Midtown; a “cradle to career” P-20 collaboration with the Detroit Public Schools Community District on the School at Marygrove; and hundreds of other projects U-M works on with community partners around the city.

It’s a project that is years in the making, and I couldn’t be more thrilled about our new beginning when our shovels soon hit the dirt on the UMCI.

Sincerely,