Executive Committee member Terrence McDonald, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor in the History Department, participated in the first offering of “Alum 101: The Classes You Never Got to Take,” sponsored by the UM Alumni Association in the summer of 2025. In his lecture on “Pathways to Greatness: How the University of Michigan Became a ‘World Class’ University,” he emphasized the university’s early commitment to diversity.

 

It was in 1870 that the Regents of the then all-white-male University recognized the “right of every citizen of Michigan to the enjoyment of the privileges of the University,” and declared that the only criteria for admission would be “the requisite

literary and moral qualifications.” This regental resolution removed the issues of gender, race, and religion from the admissions decision. This long-standing policy and

process undergirded the University’s refusal to impose a “Jewish Quota” on undergraduates in the 1920s when many major universities were doing so.

 

His next book, Nearly Neighbors: Jane Addams, Johnny Powers, and the Progressive Political

Imagination, will be published by the University of Chicago Press in the Spring of 2026.