History
The Ford School was founded in 1914 as the Institute for Public Administration. Consequently, it is the oldest public policy institution in the United States. It was part of the Progressive Era movement for clean government and well-trained professional civil servants. For the first half-century of its existence, the institute focused on training individuals who would serve in state and local government in the United States.
In the mid-1960s, academic work in the social sciences suggested that the analytic methods of the social sciences could be usefully applied to the understanding of public concerns. The institute, which was renamed the Institute for Public Policy Studies, redesigned its curriculum to include rigorous training in the social sciences, particularly quantitative analysis of economic, political, and organizational questions. The focus of faculty research and student training moved to national and international issues.
The University of Michigan established the institute as the School of Public Policy in 1995, with Lorch Hall as the host building. Since achieving this status, the school has been expanding. In 1999, the school adopted as its current namesake Michigan alumnus and former U.S. President Gerald Ford.
In the fall 2006, the Joan and Sanford Weill Hall became the new permanent home of the Ford School. The Weill family donated $8 million, $5 million for construction of a new $35 million building (dedicated on October 13, 2006), which houses classrooms, offices, and meeting space for students, faculty and staff, and $3 million to endow the position of dean of the School. The five-story structure, designed by Robert A. M. Stern, houses several research centers, a policy library, and study areas for students. At the same time, the school has begun admitting junior-level undergraduate students for two-year programs for public policy majors.
Read more about this topic: Gerald R. Ford School Of Public Policy
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“This above all makes history useful and desirable: it unfolds before our eyes a glorious record of exemplary actions.”
—Titus Livius (Livy)
“The history of this country was made largely by people who wanted to be left alone. Those who could not thrive when left to themselves never felt at ease in America.”
—Eric Hoffer (1902–1983)
“In nature, all is useful, all is beautiful. It is therefore beautiful, because it is alive, moving, reproductive; it is therefore useful, because it is symmetrical and fair. Beauty will not come at the call of a legislature, nor will it repeat in England or America its history in Greece. It will come, as always, unannounced, and spring up between the feet of brave and earnest men.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)