As noted in the sub-heading at the top of this page, I went to graduate school at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, earning a Ph.D. in social psychology in 1989. So deeply do my feelings run for the maize and blue that I operate another blog devoted entirely to reminiscences on my UM years (and updates of what people from my era are doing now).
In the 17 years I've been away from Ann Arbor, I've generally managed to come back for visits every couple of years, give or take, and on my last few trips back, I've taken pictures of the campus and town. In recent months, I've posted some of these pictures on my Michigan retrospective site. Thus, the easiest thing for me to do is just provide links to my UM pictures on the other site.
If you click here, you'll see an entry that includes photos of some assorted UM campus landmarks. And if you click here and scroll down a bit, you'll see a picture of the Graduate Library, which faces the "Diag," a central gathering spot on campus through which two major walkways cross, you guessed it, diagonally.
Unlike many college campuses around the nation that have clearly defined perimeters, where there would be no mistaking if you were on or off campus, the University of Michigan campus has few, if any, sharp demarcations. Rather, campus buildings blend in with the town's businesses and residential sections.
As some of you may know, the UM-Ann Arbor campus actually consists of three non-contiguous tracts of land, the Central Campus, North Campus (containing among other things, the Schools of Engineering, Music, and Art, and a large graduate-student housing set-up), and South Campus (containing the athletic facilities).
When I refer to blending of campus buildings with the town, I do not mean the areas between the Central, North, and South Campuses. What I'm saying is that the Central Campus, itself, mixes seamlessly with commercial and private establishments.
