Tag Archives: campus life

Heritage

The Fraternity War

James Tobin | October 13, 2021

In the fall term of 1845, just four years after classes had begun at the University of Michigan, a junior named George Becker and several friends joined together to create the University’s first fraternity, a chapter of Beta Theta Pi. Despite breaking university rules at the time, the brothers met in a cabin in the woods to pursue “the cultivation of intimate social relations.” This kind of "cultivation" drew harsh opposition from U-M faculty.

campus life

Michigan Heritage

Man’s Best Friend

Kim Clarke | April 2020

He was the first to live in the President’s House and was known for his daily strolls across the young University of Michigan campus, stopping in classrooms, visiting the chapel and always taking time for students. This was Leo, a huge, yellow-coated bullmastiff. His owner, Henry P. Tappan, was the University’s inaugural president and guided the institution starting in late 1852.

campus life

Michigan Today

Two Weeks in 1918

James Tobin | March 26, 2020

An unfamiliar strain of influenza reached Ann Arbor some time in the final days of September 1918. The early symptoms felt like a common cold plus “more marked irritation of the mucous membrane of the nose, mouth, and throat.” By October 1, 10 men and two women in their 20s and 30s, none of them University of Michigan students, had been hospitalized.

Michigan in the World

In Living Color

Robert Havey | January 2019

In 1867, a committee of students from U-M's Literary Department recommended “azure blue and maize” as U-M's colors. But what do these colors look like? The answer has historically depended on whom you ask — and when.

campus life