After a year of gathering input from the campus community, the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor has released a report detailing the school’s vision for the next 10 years.
Vision 2034 — detailed in an initial 43-page report — calls on the university to use its interdisciplinarity programs to educate students and the public, advance society, and create “groundbreaking discoveries” making an “impact on the greatest challenges facing humanity.”
“Together, we have created a new vision that will open horizons and opportunities while drawing on our ethos, our tremendous strengths, and our exceptional capabilities as a university,” says Santa J. Ono, president of U-M.
The vision incorporates planning efforts across the institution — including UM-Dearborn, UM-Flint, and Michigan Medicine — as well as other campuswide initiatives such as Culture Journey, DEI 2.0, and Campus Plan 2050.
U-M will focus its efforts to make a significant impact in four key areas:
- Life-changing education.
- Human health and well-being.
- Democracy, civic, and global engagement.
- Climate action, sustainability, and environmental justice.
To support its vision, U-M will make strategic investments in seven commitment areas:
- Purpose-driven education and student experience.
- Research, scholarship, discovery, and artificial intelligence.
- Community health support, prevention, and performance.
- Arts and creative expression.
- Diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Faculty and staff engagement and experience.
- Innovation, partnerships, and economic development.
U-M will celebrate each of the four impact areas with a yearlong series of events. The 2024-25 academic year will be dedicated to democracy and civic engagement.
“Our vision is not a strategic plan, but rather a guide for where we will focus our efforts over the next 10 years,” says Ono. “It is a first in our history and builds on our 200-year legacy of leadership and impact.”
In January 2023, the school began engaging the U-M community. The process was led by the university’s three executive vice presidents — Laurie McCauley, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs; Geoffrey Chatas, executive vice president and chief financial officer; and Marschall Runge, executive vice president for medical affairs, CEO at Michigan Medicine and dean of the Medical School.
More than 25,000 students, faculty, staff, alumni, donors, and local community members participated in the planning effort. Their input informed the impact and commitment areas, including the set of guiding statements outlining aspirational goals for the university for each area.
The report points to current initiatives across U-M as examples of the types of efforts that could be created or receive additional support.
Within the impact area of education, programs like Wolverine Pathways, which offers free college preparation to seventh through 12th grade students in Detroit, Southfield, Ypsilanti, and Grand Rapids; and free online courses through the Center for Academic Innovation, which extends the reach of U-M courses to more than 11 million global learners; are helping to increase access to a U-M education.
For human health and well-being, the vision report noted the work of the Well-Being Collective, a central hub for a systemwide approach to supporting student, faculty, and staff well-being across campus and a national model for a health-promoting campus.
For democracy, civic, and global engagement, the report singles out civic engagement efforts by UMich Votes, a nonpartisan campus coalition whose mission is to improve the accessibility of voting; and Turn Up Turnout, a student organization with a presence on all three U-M campuses that educates and encourages voting behaviors among students.
For climate action, sustainability, and environmental justice, the report points to the Planet Blue Ambassador program that, with more than 9,000 students, faculty, and staff, helps to advance sustainability through actions on and off campus and supports the university’s commitment to become carbon neutral by 2040.
In addition, several projects underway will create facilities to support the vision in the near term. They include:
- The Hadley Family Recreation and Well-Being Center will offer “world-class” facilities for exercise, connection, and wellness when it opens in fall 2025.
- The Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion, a new hospital that will house a state-of-the-art neurosciences center, advanced imaging, and high-level, specialty care services for cardiovascular and thoracic patients. It will open in fall 2025.
- The Central Campus residential complex will add 2,300 undergraduate beds and a 900-seat dining hall when it opens in fall 2026.
- The U-M Center for Innovation in Detroit, a research, education, and entrepreneurship center designed to advance innovation, talent-focused community development and stimulate economic development in Detroit will open in spring 2027.
In unveiling the report, Ono called upon the community to embrace the vision and the work ahead.
“We’ve established our vision. Let’s make it a reality,” says Ono. “So, let’s look to Michigan, and let’s dare to achieve our dreams.”
To see a copy of the report, visit here.
