Detroit native Jalen Rose, founder of the Jalen Rose Leadership Academy, sports analyst, and former U-M and NBA player, will be the main speaker at the May 2 U-M commencement ceremony in Ann Arbor. He will receive a Doctor of Humane Letters.

Leigh House, a doctoral candidate in Taubman College’s architecture program, received a Life-Changing Education Grant to research the impact of super-philanthropy on the built environment, as public funding for civic institutions has decreased over the years and been replaced by private donors.

Martin Murray’s research draws on Brightmoor, Delray, Mapleridge, Poletown, and Riverbend — neighborhoods challenged by vacancy, abandonment, foreclosures, and diminished municipal services. Murray says a “kind of triage” is occurring, with some areas willfully neglected so others can be prioritized.

On a sunbaked summer afternoon in Detroit, the difference between cool shade and hot asphalt pavement is more serious than you might think. 

Carina Gronlund knows this better than most. As an environmental epidemiologist at the University of Michigan School of Public Health and Institute for Social Research’s Survey Research Center, she’s spent years unraveling how the weather, air quality and housing shape the daily lives—and risks—of people across Michigan.

The Detroit Opera House is partnering with University of Michigan faculty and students to give sustainability a serious role on stage and back stage. Led by Sarah M. Oliver, associate professor of theatre and drama in the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, the project is fueled by a grant from the Graham Sustainability Institute.

Working through a series of prompts, several whiteboards, and, yes, many sticky notes, we set parameters for a one-year graduate program that equips students with the systems and business models to improve housing, water, mobility, and other urban systems. The master’s degree will be among the first educational offerings at the new University of Michigan Center for Innovation, which will open in Detroit in fall 2027.

Detroit had approximately 18 Black-owned or Black-operated hospitals during the 1940s and ’1950s. Their decline followed structural and policy shifts. Hospital desegregation after World War II opened previously white-only hospitals to Black physicians and patients.

Taubman College’s John Marshall was awarded a $500,000 grant by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation to transform a decommissioned electrical substation in Detroit. Marshall, professor of architecture, is also a professor of art and design at the Stamps School of Art and Design.

“Detroit’s resurgence must be shared broadly, with meaningful opportunities for all Detroiters to participate in and benefit from the city’s growth. Strengthening neighborhood stability, improving quality of life and expanding equitable access to opportunity remain central priorities for the Hudson-Webber Foundation.”

~ Donald Rencher