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History Lessons: Population Boom

We commemorate U-M’s record 2018 enrollment with a historical slideshow of population growth.
By Gregory Lucas-Myers, ’10

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Read time: < 1 minute
Images courtesy of the Bentley Historical Library and Michigan Photography.

The University released its 2018 Annual Report on Dec. 19, 2018, capping a landmark year on multiple fronts for the Maize and Blue. One achievement was a new record in student enrollment with 63,177 across the Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses. In commemoration of U-M’s continued growth, Michigan Alumnus put together this slideshow illustrating how the campus has grown over the decades to accommodate its burgeoning student population.

Note: Though U-M was founded as the Catholepistemiad in Detroit in 1817, it never hosted a collegiate course and, instead, served as as a primary school and academy. For more information, read “The First 20 Years” from the winter 2017 edition of the magazine.


Gregory Lucas-Myers, ’10, is assistant editor of Michigan Alumnus.

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