Michigan Bicentennial Celebration: Spring Festival 2017
Events, symposia, and activities galore – in celebration of a rich past; in pursuit of a meaningful future
Michigan Engineering News
Written by Randy Milgrom
The University of Michigan is celebrating its 200th year with four weekend-long festivals. The first of these celebrations — Spring Festival — will be taking place this April 6-8.
Among the festivities taking place on the Ann Arbor campus will be a Community of Cultures Festival showcasing student organizations; Stumbling Blocks, a public art installation about challenges from the University’s past; a public forum about the future of research universities with the current and four former University of Michigan presidents; public tours of historic campus buildings; and a performance and multi-media celebration at Hill Auditorium entitled, “True Blue! A Tribute to Michigan.”
This elaborate celebration is a far cry from how Michigan Engineering commemorated its 100th birthday in the mid-1950s (based on the first engineering course offered in 1854) — which was largely with this “First Hundred Years” video:
https://bentley.mivideo.it.umich.edu/media/t/1_5x9qtc8g
And compare that with Michigan Engineering’s promotional video for this year’s University of Michigan Bicentennial celebration:
2017 also marks the 100th anniversary of the University’s involvement in the education and training of more than a thousand WWI soldiers in automotive engine repair, scientific facilities management, and other instruction of officers for the Ordnance Department of the U.S. Army. A Bicentennial symposium earlier in the year was dedicated to a discussion of U-M’s role during and after the war.
A sampling of photographs taken during this crucial period during our nation’s First World War:
