Senators Warren, Hune, Hopgood, Ananich, Colbeck, Robertson, Rocca and Knezek offered the following resolution:

            Senate Resolution No. 62.

            A resolution to commemorate the University of Michigan on the celebration of its bicentennial.

            Whereas, The year of 2017, marks the 200th year since its founding as a public corporation devoted to the pursuit of knowledge and the education of students.

            Whereas, It is with great respect that the members of this legislative body are proud to join with the citizens of Michigan in remembering August 26, 1817, as the historic occasion in Detroit, the governor of the Michigan Territory, Lewis Cass, and the Territory’s several judges enacted a bill to establish a University of Michigania, also called a Catholepistemiad; and

            Whereas, The University of Michigania was conceived out of the friendship between President Thomas Jefferson and the man he appointed as the first judge of the Michigan Territory, Augustus Woodward. Three Native American tribes: the Ojibwe, Odawa and Bodewadimi ceded land to the new “college in Detroit,” or the University of Michigania, for the purpose of serving the public good through education; and

            Whereas, The University of Michigan was the first university to be governed by a popularly elected Board of Regents. It has been constitutionally autonomous since 1850, serving as a model for public universities throughout the country; and

            Whereas, The University of Michigan’s first president, Henry Philip Tappan grounded the University’s teaching and research in rigorous science with a cutting-edge observatory. Tappan’s vision led to Michigan transforming the field of research with numerous pioneering moments in American higher education, including becoming the first university with a chemical laboratory (1856); the first to own and operate its own hospital (1869); the first public university with dental (1875) and pharmacy (1876) schools; the first to teach aeronautical engineering (1914); and the first with a program in human genetics (1940); and

            Whereas, In 1870, the University of Michigan was the first major state university to admit women, and has since had many notable female alumnae. These include Ida Gray, the first African-American woman in the country to earn a degree in dentistry; Alice Freeman Palmer, who was named President of Wellesley College in 1882 and quickly became the nation’s leading advocate of higher education for women; and Dr. Alice Hamilton, the first woman appointed to the faculty of Harvard Medical School. Forty years after women were first admitted, they outnumbered the mail students being inducted into the Phi Beta Kappa honor society; and

            Whereas, Contributions made by University of Michigan Alumni to medicine and public health have saved lives and enriched communities.  Alice Hamilton pioneered the study of occupational health and is credited with improving workplace safety. Surgeon William Bartlett developed the extracorporeal membrane oxygenation technology known as ECMO that continues to save thousands of lives.  Dr. Aldred Warthin was one of the first medical scientists to make a persuasive case that cancer was heritable in humans. Dr. James Neel unlocked the genetic cause of sickle-cell anemia, geneticist Francis Collins discovered the genes for cystic fibrosis and neurofibromatosis, also known as “Elephant Man’s disease”; and

            Whereas, The University of Michigan provides a world-class education to a diverse student

body of more than 63,000 on its Ann Arbor, Dearborn, and Flint campuses and has more than 572,000 living alumni, including artists, astronauts, business and government leaders, entrepreneurs and humanitarians. As well as Nobel Laureates in economics, medicine, and science; now, therefore, be it

            Resolved by the Senate, That the members of this legislative body commemorate the University of Michigan in celebrating its bicentennial in 2017; and be it further

            Resolved, That we commemorate the strong 200-year relationship between the University of Michigan and the citizens of the state of Michigan and by doing so, pledge to continue to support the University of Michigan in its many contributions to Michigan and the world.