U-M helps to reshape Mich. economy
BY KATHERINE YUNG • FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER • July 14, 2008
As job losses, foreclosures and other woes continue to batter Michigan, an unlikely savior has emerged from the halls of academia.
For the first time, the University of Michigan, one of the nation's top research institutions, is rolling out the welcome mat for local businesses, eager to help them utilize the school's enormous resources. These include such things as faculty consulting, laboratory equipment, research projects and professional development classes.
Not wanting to stay in its ivory tower while the rest of the state sinks, U-M sees itself playing a key role as Michigan moves from a manufacturing-oriented economy toward a knowledge-based one.
"U-M is probably the best positioned in the state of Michigan to make rapid changes to that position," said Stephen Forrest, the university's vice president for research.
The school consistently ranks among the top public universities for research dollars, garnering a record $823 million in fiscal 2007.
From ivory tower to entrepreneur
U-M's desire to help local businesses represents a huge cultural shift at the university. For decades, many perceived the school as oblivious to the ups and downs of the state's economy, with its academic success seeming to insulate it from concerns about Michigan's future. But that's changing under President Mary Sue Coleman.
"The university was pretty arrogant," said Daryl Weinert, executive director of U-M's new Business Engagement Center. "Now, with Michigan's economy in crisis, we have to be part of the solution."
So far, the Business Engagement Center is the most visible sign of this commitment. Located at the southeast end of U-M's central campus in Ann Arbor, the second-floor office on University Avenue opened in late April in space previously occupied by the School of Public Health.
It provides businesses of all kinds a place to contact or visit for anything having to do with the university.
It helps companies with things such as finding faculty members with certain kinds of expertise, setting up joint research projects and hiring new graduates. Its eight-member staff also arranges campus visits.
"It's a one-stop portal for industry to find their way into this massive, many-hydra-headed institution," Forrest said.
In March, the center organized a daylong entrepreneurial-opportunities event that featured, among other things, a small-company career fair and faculty roundtables on medical devices, alternative energy and other topics. It proved so successful that plans are already under way to repeat it next year.
The center said it expects to be most useful to small and medium-size companies because many Fortune 500 corporations already regularly recruit U-M students for jobs, Weinert said.
"It's going to help Michigan companies be more successful," he added.
Other top schools in the state also are paying more attention to local companies. Michigan State University's Product Center for Agriculture and Natural Resources helps existing businesses and entrepreneurs expand or create new ventures. The university also is actively involved in assisting start-up companies and creating customized executive-development programs for Michigan firms.
At Wayne State University, administrators and faculty members have been working to develop the TechOne business incubator at the northern edge of the school's downtown Detroit campus.
Only three other universities in the country operate a Business Engagement Center or something similar, Weinert's research found. They are the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the University of Wisconsin and the University of Minnesota.
Research through innovation
In the past, companies wanting to form relationships with U-M had to navigate an overwhelming number of departments and graduate schools to find the right person. If they weren't able to reach someone helpful, they often gave up in frustration.
"It was extremely difficult," recalled Dwight Carlson, a veteran entrepreneur and chairman and chief executive of Coherix Corp., an Ann Arbor-based supplier of measurement and inspection products for the automotive and semiconductor industries.
He remembers some U-M faculty members telling him they worked on federal government research, not projects for private industry.
But that kind of attitude is quickly disappearing.
Coherix is now funding two research proposals it received from U-M faculty members, thanks to an innovation program the university is testing. The effort began last year when Coherix identified five research topics important to the small company and asked the school's professors to submit project ideas.
Carlson, who founded Plymouth-based Perceptron Inc., a supplier of measurement and inspection systems that went public in 1993, said he believes there should be hundreds of small companies around U-M because of its research prowess. But the state's reliance on the auto industry never made establishing this kind of entrepreneurial hotbed a priority.
A win-win situation
The school's efforts already are starting to pay off for the state. Last year, Grupo Aernnova of Spain chose to locate its new U.S. aerospace engineering center in Ann Arbor rather than Atlanta or Austin, Texas, primarily because of the university.
So far, it has hired 22 engineers. Half of them are recent college graduates, with the majority from U-M.
It plans to add more engineers, and two top Aernnova executives now sit on U-M engineering advisory committees.
The relationship got its start when a consultant hired by Aernnova called U-M and spoke to Weinert. The university introduced the company to Ann Arbor SPARK, a local economic development organization. U-M President Coleman also sent a letter to Aernnova's chief executive in Spain.
"They really made this extra effort," said Juan Carlos Ortiz, president of Aernnova's U.S. operations.
Contact KATHERINE YUNG at 313-222-8763 or kyung@freepress
(Uh, I believe this is the DELUSIONAL ONE!)
Detroit school board reps eye Legislature
Some in Detroit say they can do more in Lansing
BY CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY • FREE PRESS EDUCATION WRITER • July 14, 2008
Detroit school board members who are running for the Legislature said they have had enough of the turmoil and politics in their current positions and think they can have more impact in Lansing.
Board members Annie Carter, Terry Catchings and Jimmy Womack are looking toward higher office as the district is facing $522 million in budget cuts, a nationally embarrassing graduation rate and a possible spike in competition from more charter schools soon.
Perhaps their biggest fight on the campaign trail will be battling the perception that the board is part of the problem with DPS. Carter faces 11 opponents in District 11, Catchings faces eight in District 5, and Womack faces 16 in District 7.
Catchings, who ran unsuccessfully for the House in 2006, entered the race four months after being sworn in for the school board. Catchings did not return calls for comment.
Carter, a former assistant attendance agent for DPS, was re-elected in November after a 2-year term. Carter said she feels discouraged by the infighting on the school board, tensions with the superintendent and cronyism. Her attempts to pass policies on issues -- such as a uniform attendance policy, requiring teachers to post their credentials in classes and a teacher dress code -- have been "pushed aside," she said.
"If we had six votes on this board," a simple majority, "who are fighting for the children, I would not feel the need to go," she said. Carter said her platform includes making changes to regulations on utilities, insurance redlining and roadside memorials.
Womack said the district could be facing reconfiguration once DPS enrollment falls under 100,000, unless state law is changed to prevent more charter schools in the city.
"The district is falling apart," he said. "Where will it find relief? The state."
Womack, a minister and licensed physician, is running on a platform based on improving education, health care reform and protecting voters against high taxes and foreclosures.
Womack said regardless of what happens in the state race, he will not run for school board in 2009.
The biggest campaign challenge, he said, will be convincing voters that the problems of DPS are not the fault of any one board member.
"Decisions are made by six people on the board, not one," he said
Chris White, a DPS parent and political consultant, said voters will wonder why they should send DPS board members to Lansing.
"When you look at all of DPS' challenges with closed schools, the deficit ... and they're asking voters to allow them to take on the issues in the state? Voters will question their motives.
"If they were really concerned about resolving the problems that exist they would have to stick it out until these problems are resolved."
Craig Ruff, a political analyst with Lansing-based Public Sector Consultants, estimated that about 10% of state House members have held school board positions. Often, school board members run for county commissioner or city council before making a run at Lansing, he said.
But Detroit is an exception.
"In Detroit, it's a highly visible position," he said. "That gives you a leg up if you've had some election experience and the public has information about you," Ruff said.
Contact CHASTITY PRATT DAWSEY at 313-223-4537 or cpratt@freepress.com.
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