Dear alumni and friends across Wolverine nation,
It’s an honor to be back together with all of you for the fall issue of Michigan Alum.
In my column last spring, I noted that in concert with our Vision 2034, and with the approach of a truly consequential presidential election, we have embarked upon a Year of Democracy and Global and Civic Engagement.
It’s an initiative being led by political scientist Jenna Bednar, ’90, who will also be serving as faculty director of UMich Votes and Democratic Engagement, as well as Celeste Watkins-Hayes, the dean of our Ford School of Public Policy.
For the full academic year, we’ll be hosting events all across the University related to civic engagement and the critical challenges facing our nation today. They include lectures by leaders such as professor Melissa Harris-Perry, former congressman Joe Walsh, and national leader John Kasich, as well as presentations on key issues such as countering disinformation, strengthening U.S. climate policy and building democracy, and even artistic performances such as George Gershwin’s “Of Thee I Sing.”
Civic engagement begins with civil discourse, so throughout the year, we will aspire to foster deep listening and learning, as well as respectful and spirited dialogue and debate. This is at the heart of the U-M Principles on Diversity of Thought and Freedom of Expression which our regents adopted this past January, and which reads in part, “We affirm the value of exchanging ideas; questioning assumptions; learning from those with whom we disagree and those whose voices have been marginalized; challenging views we find misguided or pernicious; and engaging with the broadest range of scholarly subjects and materials. We strive to meet conflict and controversy with understanding and reason, refuting our opponents rather than revoking invitations or refusing them a platform, and contesting their ideas instead of attacking their character.”
Through all of these efforts, and so many others at our university both directly and indirectly involved with the Year of Democracy and Global and Civic Engagement, our goal is to educate and engage outstanding citizens, public servants, and national leaders — individuals who will push boundaries, but who also respect rules; who make what civil rights leader John Lewis so memorably called “good trouble,” but who also disdain political zealotry and tribalism. F
or when people look to the University of Michigan, they look for solutions. They look to the idealism of then Sen. John F. Kennedy, who stood on the steps of the Michigan Union and laid out the vision for the Peace Corps. They look to the uncommon common sense and extraordinary decency of President Gerald Ford, ’35, HLLD’74 — our only Wolverine president … so far!
Most of all, when people look to the University of Michigan, they look to outstanding individuals like all of you, the more than 680,000 alumni throughout the state, across the nation, and around the globe: individuals who are committed to making a difference wherever they find themselves, and in so doing, they touch our nation and they change our world. So thank you again, and Go Blue!
Santa Ono is the president of the University of Michigan.
