Campus of the future

Imagining the future is a Michigan tradition. In 1817 near the banks of the Detroit River an audacious vision for the Catholepistemiad was created in the university's infancy. Today we continue to look back to our history for inspiration.

The Inclusive History Project's research-oriented 1817 Project: Land, Culture, Memory, and Repair critically examines the early history of the university and institutional narratives surrounding a "gift" of land received from Anishinaabe communities in exchange for promises to educate their children. This complex history will be explored in Living with Treaties: The 1817 Project, the University of Michigan, and the Western Expansion of the United States Conference, April 9-11, 2026.

Resources for understanding U-M's history are also available from the Bentley Historical Library, the Department of History's Michigan in the World public history program, the Inclusive History Project as well as in the CRLT Player's unique performance and discussion opportunity How Do We Begin: A Historical Reckoning with Anti-Black Racism at U-M.

Related Links:

• Bentley Historical Library
• Michigan in the World
• Inclusive History Project
• CRLT Players - How Do We Begin

Campus Plan 2050, designed to respond to the ever-changing needs of a growing academic community for the next 25 years, is one way to think about the physical and constructed environment of the university and spaces for education and innovation.

But the Ann Arbor campus is not the only place where a Michigan education happens. There are also campuses in Flint, Dearborn, and Detroit. Our students take classes and do research at the BioStation, Camp Davis, the Matthaei Botanical Gardens, on the Great Lakes, and beyond. This section of COTF allows us to think together about how and why place and space matter across diverse residential and non-residential environments.

Related Links:

• Campus Plan 2050
• UM-Flint
• UM-Dearborn
• BioStation
• School at Marygrove
• Detroit River Story Lab

Whatever our campus of the future looks like, it needs to be sustainable. Turning the university into a place for testing bold ideas and new projects, students learn by designing, planning, and implementing solutions to significant issues such as food access, waste, and energy use.

By blending classroom knowledge with real-world practice, students prepare to tackle today's and tomorrow's toughest climate and sustainability challenges. We're proud to partner across schools, colleges, and units to highlight approaches that turn our campuses into living labs for experimentation and reflection.

Related Links:

• Course Search | Graham Sustainability Institute
  • Featured LCE Course: ENVIRON 391 Sustainability & the Campus | Graham Sustainability Institute
• Campus-As-Lab Sustainability Projects
• Michigan Community Climate Action Fellowship
• Student Life Sustainability 2024-2025 Annual Report
• Michigan Sustainability Community
  

High-impact practices (HIPs) have a special role in contemporary education. Practices such as internships, study abroad, community-based projects, research, writing-intensive courses, and capstone experiences have been proven to boost student engagement, deepen learning, and increase retention.

They require students to invest significant time and effort in complex, authentic tasks that involve active, collaborative, and hands-on learning. Key features include high expectations, meaningful reflection, frequent feedback, and real-world application.

For the past thirty years undergraduate schools and colleges have invested heavily in HIPs. They have become prominent fixtures in student success efforts that seek to close equity and opportunity gaps and ensure equal access to high-quality learning experiences for all students. Where might institutions such as Michigan, whose Student Success Initiative was launched last year, go in the future? Join us for conversations that reflect on the past and chart a course for the future.

Related Links:

• Final Report of Initiative Planning Group on Student Academic Success

As the Rackham Graduate School prepares for its 150th anniversary (2026-2027), they’ll be launching a series of events, activities and public forums on the future of graduate education on our campuses, starting with Rackham’s Student AI Working Groups. In partnership with other campus efforts, Rackham Graduate School launched the Rackham Student AI Working Groups program on November 3. Over the course of the winter 2026 term, Rackham students will explore and contribute to the dynamic and quickly evolving use of AI in graduate education through collaborative learning in interdisciplinary working groups. Rackham Student AI working groups will present their research findings at a research symposium scheduled for Monday, May 4, 2026.

Is the future already here? What are the impacts of Generative AI and other advanced technologies on the teaching and learning mission of the university and how should we begin to plan for what the future might bring?

The Center for Academic Innovation is designing that future in the present through Michigan Online, curricular innovations, tools for student success and equity, and educational research and analytics. We'll be partnering with CAI and other units on campus to explore different visions of how we're crafting the future of learning through advanced technology.

Related Links:

• Center for Academic Innovation
• Michigan Online

Key Date:

Being an Okanagan Charter Campus charges us to envision a future in which U-M embeds health into all aspects of campus culture and communities beyond. ArtsRx is helping to propel a broad social prescribing effort at U-M. Social prescribing is a tool that helps health and social care providers connect people with community-based activities like art, movement, time in nature, or volunteering. It’s about improving well-being through creative, meaningful experiences that make a real difference in people’s lives.

ArtsRx is a campus partnership powered by the Arts Initiative with University Health & Counseling, Wolverine Wellness, Student Life, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, Stamps School of Art & Design, UMMA, UMS, CHHASSEM, MHealthy, Ginsberg, and M|Recreation. Together, they're building on decades of research on how arts experiences can improve mental health and well-being. Where might they go in the future?

Related Links:

• Okanagan Charter Campus
• Well-Being Collective
• Arts Initiative
• ArtsRx
• Nature Rx