Task Force Report on Detroit Engagement

In 2017, the University of Michigan appointed a task force to recommend guidelines and structures for ongoing and future engagements by the U-M community in Detroit. The recommendations should enable and support valuable and long-term partnerships between the city of Detroit, its residents, and the students, faculty, and staff of the university.

The report outlines three core recommendations in framing U-M engagements in Detroit:

  1. promoting a core set of principles to guide U-M partnerships with Detroit;
  2. providing key infrastructure to help coordinate and support the myriad Detroit engagement activities that exist within U-M; and
  3. proposing a central location within Detroit that will maximize U-M’s physical presence in Detroit.

In addition, the task force recognized the significant challenge of transportation between Detroit and the U-M campuses, and made the additional recommendation of providing robust transportation options.

The members of the task force were:

Robert Sellers, task force chair, vice provost and chief diversity officer

Susan Alcock, former special counsel to the president, now provost and executive vice chancellor for academic affairs, UM-Dearborn

Stein Brunvand, associate dean and professor of education, UM-Dearborn 

Rosario Ceballo, associate dean for social sciences and professor of women’s studies and psychology

Milton Curry, former associate dean of Taubman College of Architecure and Urban Planning, now at the University of Southern California

Angela Dillard, professor of Afroamerican and African studies and former associate dean for undergraduate education, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts

Harley Etienne, associate professor of urban planning, Taubman College 

Elisabeth Gerber, professor and former associate dean, Ford School of Public Policy 

James Holloway, former vice provost for global engagement and interdisciplinary academic affairs, now at the University of New Mexico 

Barbara Israel, professor, School of Public Health 

Erica Marsh, associate professor, Medical School 

Henry Meares, assistant dean, School of Education 

Brian Noble, professor, College of Engineering 

Stephanie Rowley, former associate vice president for research, now at Columbia University

Trina Shanks, professor, School of Social Work

The full report is available below:

2017 Detroit Task Force Report