News & Updates

Among the $1.71 billion donated to programs, UM received its largest donation in the history of its health system. The $150 million commitment from longtime donors Richard and Susan Rogel was intended to boost innovative cancer research.

It also helped establish the Wolverine Pathways program, which offers a full four-year scholarship to UM to students from Ypsilanti, Southfield and Detroit who actively participate in 90 percent or more of program activities and maintain a 90 percent or better school attendance rate.

UM’s Wolverine Pathways program saw its first class of 88 students graduate during the summer. Of the 88 scholars, 80 – 91 percent – are attending a four-year college or university.

The Go Blue Guarantee is one of three full-tuition initiatives UM is pursuing to increase the school’s diversity. Also arriving in the fall are the first students enrolled in UM’s Wolverine Pathways, a program launched by UM in 2015. It offers current sixth- and ninth-grade students the opportunity to join the program as they begin the seventh and 10th grade in Ypsilanti and Southfield.

Robert Sellers, vice provost for equity and inclusion and chief diversity officer, has announced the appointment of Carla O’Connor as director of Wolverine Pathways. She will replace the program’s founding director, Robert Jagers, on June 1.

It’s a short 15-minute drive from his office in downtown Ann Arbor to Ypsilanti High School, University of Michigan President Mark Schlissel told a room full of promising prospective college students recently.

As part of the plan UM has broken ground on a new $10 million multicultural center at the heart of campus and approved funding for the Wolverine Pathways program, which helps increase under-represented students as it creates a pipeline to the university for students from the Ypsilanti and Southfield communities. The program expanded to Detroit in fall 2017.