DATE:

Noon-3 p.m. Sept. 16, 18, and 19.

EVENT: University of Michigan Detroit Center open house.

The University of Michigan was founded in the City of Detroit in 1817. And today, nearly 200 years later, the U-M Detroit Center embodies the University’s abiding commitment to the City, providing a visible and accessible gateway to University resources by offering instruction, conducting research, and providing services.

The U-M Detroit Center is home to the University’s Detroit Admissions Office, faculty and program offices, classrooms and meeting space. The Detroit Center hosts art exhibits, guest lectures, and collaborative work on behalf of the City and the citizens of Detroit.

All these resources and more will be on display at the Detroit Center open house, where staff will give tours and share refreshments, and additional University staff and faculty will be on hand to talk about the work they do and the linkages that are made there.

“The open house is a great place for people to connect,” said Roger Doster, director of the Detroit Center. “In addition to prospective students and their families, some of our community guests will stop by to meet a faculty member from a particular department of the University. Or a non-profit agency will take the opportunity to seek out student-intern placements, or to establish a collaboration, such as a jointly written grant proposal for project funding.”

In the U-M Detroit Admissions Office at the Detroit Center, middle school and high school students and their parents and families can sit down with an admissions counselor to work on goal setting and college planning or see a financial aid expert about ways to meet college expenses. More than 600 such visits occurred in 2007-2008, an increase of 60 percent over the previous year. Prospective students also can participate in planned events, such as SAT- and ACT-preparatory workshops, and recruitment events for help with the college planning process.

“The outreach of this office is focused on the Detroit area and other urban communities within the state,” said Tyrone Winfrey, director of the Detroit Admissions Office. “We reach out proactively to prospective students to increase visibility and accessibility for the University among Detroit area students, parents and their families. We seek to expose urban students from across the state and nation to U-M, and to showcase the attributes of Michigan, the distinguished university that is only forty-five minutes from Detroit.”

Detroit provides a rich urban context and location for education and scholarship. Today, in dozens of Detroit locations, U-M students and faculty members join City residents and leaders in mutual attempts to improve the quality of the City and the life of its residents. At any given time, over half of the University’s 19 schools and colleges are involved in as many as 100 projects with community-based organizations, government offices, schools, and service agencies.

LOCATION: U-M Detroit Center, 3663 Woodward Ave (Orchestra Hall ground floor)

Detroit CenterDetroit Admissions Office