University Of Michigan-Flint

In an 1837 letter to family back east, Ann Arbor resident Sarah C. Miles Case wrote, “A branch of the Michigan University at Ann Arbor is to be established in Flint at some future day.” That day was Sept. 23, 1956, nearly 120 years after Sarah penned the first recorded mention of a University of Michigan-Flint campus. On that autumn morning, 167 students began their first day at Flint Senior College (located where Mott Community College is today) with Dean David French as the first leader of the campus. Owing to the vision, generosity, and leadership of community and state leaders such as Charles Stewart Mott, Governor George Romney and other leaders in Flint and Ann Arbor, the school continued to evolve and adapt in accordance with the needs of the community it was established to serve. In 1970, the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools accredited what was then called Flint College. In 1971, the U-M Board of Regents officially changed the institution’s name to the University of Michigan-Flint. That same year, University of Michigan President Robben Fleming appointed William E. Moran as the first Chancellor of the University of Michigan-Flint. In the late 1970s, the university began moving to a property in the heart of downtown Flint, building a riverfront campus with a small collection of buildings including the Classroom Office Building, (affectionately known as CROB to UM-Flint Alumni), the Harding Mott University Center, and the Recreation Center. As student enrollment grew, the Murchie Science Building opened in 1988, and in 2021 a new wing for expanded STEM courses opened. A gift from benefactor Frances Willson Thompson led to the building of the striking Thompson Library in 1994. In 2001, UM-Flint expanded north for the first time with the opening of the William S. White Building which houses health classrooms and labs. Today, the modern and inviting campus spans over 70 acres along the Flint River.