Fight for the School
1983: On the heels of the recession in the auto industry, the state of Michigan reduced funding for public education, prompting U-M to reallocate funds in an effort to cut costs. Three schools were specifically targeted: The School of Natural Resources (SNR), the School of Art, and the School of Education. Students from the affected schools formed the Progressive Student Network to protest the proposed cuts, and in April 1983, organized a sit-in at the U-M administration building. Though the students ultimately reached an impasse with then provost Billy Frye, media coverage of their 22-hour demonstration brought the debate into the public sphere.
Alumni Glen Chown (BS ’83, MS ’86) and Sara Curran (BS ’83) were both participants at the sit-in. Both credit James E. Crowfoot, who stepped in as acting dean on an emergency basis (after Dean Bill Johnson had stepped down), for saving the school on an administrative level.
GLEN: Our schools were under the threat of the chopping block. That was how severe things were. There were concerns that they were actually going to close down the School of Natural Resources—just eliminate the whole school.
And so there we were, as students, and I was in my second year of the program with people like Sara. We had taken Bunyan Bryant’s course in energy, social change, and land ethics. We were close to Jim Crowfoot and the Environmental Advocacy Program, so we weren’t going to take this lying down. We decided to organize, and we built a coalition around challenging the administration and their assumptions…And, of course, Bunyan Bryant was coaching us. He encouraged us to understand that when you have a principle and the powers-that-be aren’t listening, but instead are making poor decisions, you have to take action.
SARA: Yes, it was both a principled argument and a procedural argument. We did a lot of legwork beforehand. We did press releases. We did research. We wrote up statements. It wasn’t like we were a rabble at the moat waving pitchforks at the castle. We did our homework, and we had very close relationships with our faculty. The faculty were using different routes to communicate their standpoint, but they were supportive of what we were doing.
We voiced questions and concerns such as: How do you educate? How do you create quality educational experiences? It’s not just about numbers and bodies in chairs. It’s about creating collaboration between students and faculty.
GLEN: Billy Frye, the provost, did come out to have some dialogue with us, even though he wouldn’t budge. But looking back, I think we were successful. They didn’t close down the school. They did make significant cuts, as I recall, about 25 percent from SNR. But in some ways, it was an opportunity for SNR to look at its weaknesses as well as its strengths. That’s the way Jim Crowfoot approached it.
That was 36 years ago. Here we are today, with President Schlissel making sustainability one of his top priorities. SNR is now the School for Environment and Sustainability (SEAS) and is being elevated not only as a fundamental part of U-M but as a leading program that will work in partnership with all the other sustainability programs on campus. In this role, and with expanded resources, I believe SEAS will meet the challenges of the Planet Blue initiative on campus, at our field stations, and in society on a global scale.
Glen Chown (BS ’83, MS ‘86) is the founding executive director of the Grand Traverse Regional Land Conservancy. Since the Conservancy’s founding in 1991, nearly 41,000 acres of land and over 121 miles of shoreline along the region’s scenic rivers, lakes, and streams have been protected. Glen is a member of the Land Trust Alliance’s Leadership Council as well as a founding board member of Michigan’s Heart of the Lakes Center for Land Conservation Policy.
Sara Curran (BS ’83) is the director of the Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology, a professor of International Studies and Sociology, and an adjunct professor in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. Curran researches migration, globalization, gender, climate change and adaptation, and development.