ANN ARBOR—Five university presidents?each with University of Michigan administrative experience?will discuss the challenges of higher education in the 21st century on Jan. 12 to mark the 50th anniversary of U-M’s Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education.

The event will bring together current and former presidents of U-M, the University of Illinois, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Syracuse University. Each served as administrators at U-M.

The speakers for the day-long event include U-M President Mary Sue Coleman, former U-M President James Duderstadt, University of Illinois President B. Joseph White (a former U-M interim president and business school dean), former MIT President Charles Vest (a former U-M provost and engineering dean) and Syracuse University President Nancy Cantor (also a former U-M provost).

As long as national rankings have been conducted, the U-M center has either ranked first or tied for first as the strongest research center on higher education and the best program for the study of higher and postsecondary education. The center prepares leaders as university executive officers, heads of governmental and policy agencies and scholars. Several collegiate presidents, directors of governmental and policy agencies and heads of other higher education centers have gone through the program.

Alumni of the program include Detroit native John DiBiaggio, who began his career as a dentist. After receiving his master’s degree in higher education from the U-M program, he went on to serve in a number of administrative posts and ultimately served as president of the University of Connecticut from 1979 to 1985, Michigan State University from 1985 to 1992 and Tufts University from 1992 to 2001. Richard Wilson, a 1978 doctoral graduate, is president of Illinois Wesleyan University.

Paul Lingenfelter, executive director of the State Higher Education Executive Officers (SHEEO), former SHEEO Executive Director James Mingle and David Warren, president of the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, are also graduates of the U-M program, which is regularly ranked No. 1 in the nation by U.S. News and World Report.

“We’ve done well because we got an early start, and have had a strong group of faculty, developed a curriculum that has served as a model for other doctorial programs, attracted strong students and had the good fortune to be located in a university with strong social and managerial sciences and in a school that has been supportive of the development of this field while it was evolving,” said Marvin Peterson, who attended the program as a doctoral student of higher education and organizational behavior in 1966, went on to become its director from 1976 to 1996 and remains a member of the center’s faculty.

The inaugural event will be held 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Jan. 12 in the Rackham Amphitheatre of U-M’s Rackham Graduate School Building. It kicks off a series of events, including a March 22-24 national conference, “Understanding and Strengthening the Contribution of Higher Education to a Changing Society,” and a May 31-June 2 celebration gathering of program alumni.

After the post-World War II G.I. Bill sent a record number of students to college, the need for more professional executives who could lead larger, more complex universities became clear. The Carnegie Foundation in 1957 provided support for the U-M program, which recruited Algo Henderson, an experienced higher education president and national policy leader who led the program until his 1966 retirement.

Through the years, the center’s mission expanded from post-doctoral to doctoral education and extensive research into areas that have included expanding diversity, international and global issues, transforming institutions, K-16 initiatives, improving undergraduate education and serving as a forum of higher education for the public good. The center has also engaged in a variety of efforts to promote management development and institutional and national change efforts both nationally and abroad. Today’s director, Deborah Faye Carter, like Peterson, is also a graduate of the program.

The Jan. 12 event is free and open to the university community and to members of the media. A buffet luncheon and reception are included. There is no charge but registration is requested.

View a complete schedule of the eventU-M School of Education50th Anniversary of The Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education