Initiatives

Taubman College invests its resources to advance many strategic initiatives that draw on expertise from across the college and university, and from industry and community partners. Collaboration is key to how we approach our work.

/ U-M Public Design Corps

The U-M Public Design Corps is a Taubman College program offering U-M students opportunities to engage in socially driven design. The community-centric focus and hands-on approach create a unique experience outside the bounds of the traditional studio. By challenging students to apply their academic theory and training in planning, design, and spatial intelligence to actual clients in real-time, the program creates an experiential bridge from the classroom to the professional world.

/ Pressing Matters

Pressing Matters is a research incentive funding program that supports research advancing the state of practice in Taubman College’s various disciplines and forges new interdisciplinary opportunities. Aligning with its title, Pressing Matters grants aim to spotlight projects in the college that address societal priorities and provide practical solutions. The funded research is relevant to Taubman College disciplines and the University of Michigan’s “big-picture” multidisciplinary themes.

2023 Projects 2022 Projects

Past Taubman College internal research incentive funding programs include Research through Making, Research on the City, Research through Planning, and Prototyping Tomorrow.

/ U-M Arts Initiative

The U-M Arts Initiative seeks to illuminate and expand human connections, inspire collaborative creativity, and build a more just and equitable world through the arts. The initiative makes the arts central to the university’s identity and mission by expanding access to the arts on campus and beyond, activating them in student learning, and integrating the arts into research across disciplines.

/ Michigan Engaging Community through the Classroom

Michigan Engaging Community through the Classroom (MECC) is an initiative exploring the benefits of multidisciplinary teams at U-M working on stakeholder-based community engagement efforts. During the semester-long process, students from different disciplines learn from faculty and each other as they collaborate on complex projects.

/ Michigan-Mellon Project on Egalitarianism and the Metropolis

The Michigan-Mellon Project on the Egalitarian Metropolis, funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, explores contemporary issues on urbanism and egalitarianism. The project is an interdisciplinary collaboration between faculty and students at the University of Michigan’s Taubman College and the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts.

/ Equity in Architectural Education Consortium

The Equity in Architectural Education Consortium (EAEC) leverages various resources and forms of capital to collectively reduce inequities and disparities for current students of color and other underrepresented groups in undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs of architecture. The EAEC was founded in 2018 by architecture schools, departments, and programs, including Taubman College.