Hill Auditorium
825 North University Avenue, Ann Arbor, MI 48109
The Ford School is proud to celebrate the achievements of the graduating classes of 2025!Graduation eventsUniversity of Michigan Spring CommencementSaturday, May 3, 2025 Ford School Commencement CeremonySunday, May 4, 20254:00 PMHill AuditoriumInformation for graduating studentsEligibilityIn accordance with Rackham rules, students who graduate during the academic year (i.e., the previous December, in April/May, or the following August) will be eligible to participate in the Ford School's Commencement ceremony and walk across the stage. This includes Ford School students receiving BA, MPP, MPA, or PhD degrees. Barring a request for an exception, these are the only students who will be eligible to participate in the ceremony. Please contact Jordan Long, [email protected], if you would like to request an exception.Academic attireAcademic attire is required for the Commencement ceremony. All students are responsible for purchasing a gown, cap, and tassel. Masters and PhD students are also responsible for purchasing an academic hood. The color of the hood for public policy is teal. These items are available at the following stores: Barnes and Noble @ University of Michigan, Barnes and Noble @ North Campus, The M Den, and Michiganensian Yearbook beginning mid-March.The Ford School has some academic attire for loan on a first-come, first-served basis, which will be available starting in April. You will be required to sign each item out with the understanding that you'll return the borrowed items after Commencement. The gowns, hats, and hoods will be available for pick-up from the Office of Student & Academic Services during business hours. Prohibited itemsPlease note that we will use the Michigan Stadium list of prohibited items, which includes purses, umbrellas, containers, video cameras, and more. Guests will be refused entry if they are in possession of any of the items listed, or will have to leave items unguarded on the steps of Hill Auditorium. Please be sure to read the list carefully and leave any prohibited items in your car or at home.Information for Ford School Commencement guestsAccommodationsAccommodations in and around Ann Arbor for commencement weekend require reservations well in advance. For a list of hotels, motels, and bed and breakfasts in the Ann Arbor vicinity, please visit: https://www.annarbor.org/hotels/ParkingParking is at a premium around campus and especially during commencement weekend. Please allow ample time to find parking. All U-M parking lots and structures will be open to the public on Sunday, May 4, 2025. The closest lot is on Thayer, and other nearby lots are shown on this map: https://ltp.umich.edu/wp-content/uploads/central_south.pdf Important U-M contact informationUniversity Commencement: (734) 647-7900Campus Information Center: (734) 764-4636 Ford School contact informationFord School events: [email protected] Long, Academic Advisor: [email protected]
Food for Thought is a monthly lunchtime opportunity for Ford School students, faculty, and staff to come together and discuss the breaking news or most compelling policy issues of the day.
Food for Thought is a monthly lunchtime opportunity for Ford School students, faculty, and staff to come together and discuss the breaking news or most compelling policy issues of the day.
Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
Annenberg Auditorium (1120)
This session will examine innovative policies that promote direct cash transfers and tax credits to low-income families, new mothers, and other sectors of society.
Former United Nations Under-Secretary General and the Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), will join us to discuss the intricate relationship between health equity and economic resilience in Africa. Dr. Songwe's insights will highlight Africa's role in global power dynamics and strategies for asserting its agency amid evolving economic landscapes.
This month's Food for Thought will be held on Wednesday, February 14, 2024. Associate dean Jeff Morenoff will host a panel with staff from the Prison Creative Arts Project to discuss Unpacking Justice, Policy, and Artistic Advocacy.Please join us to share your thoughts and learn more! Pizza will be provided on a first-come first-served basis.
Save the date for the February installment of the Ford School's "Food for Thought" series. More information on the topic and speakers will be shared soon.Food for thought attendance is limited to Ford School students, faculty, and staff. Pizza will be provided on a first-come first-serve basis.About "Food for Thought"Roughly once a month, we will convene community conversations to devour pizza and discuss burning issues in policy and politics. These off-the-record conversations will aim to foster frank and open dialogue among Ford students, faculty, and staff. Each session will feature one or more Ford professors or scholars with relevant expertise, but these will not be lectures. They will be guided conversations in which we share both comments and questions, listen and learn from one another, and seek to co-produce knowledge on policy issues in the United States and around the world. Please come to learn more and to share your ideas.
Joan and Sanford Weill Hall
Annenberg Auditorium (1120)
The Honorable Lori Lightfoot, 56th mayor of Chicago, reflects on her background and preparation for public service, the challenges she faced as mayor, and lessons about leading in crises, in conversation with Ford School Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes.
Join the Center for Racial Justice in welcoming Dr. Enobong (Anna) Branch, senior vice president for equity at Rutgers University, to discuss her latest publication, Work in Black & White: Striving for the American Dream.
Join the Center for Racial Justice in welcoming Airea D. Matthews, acclaimed poet, educator, and Ford School alumna, to discuss her latest work Bread and Circus, a memoir-in-verse that combines poetry, prose, and imagery to explore the realities of economic necessity, marginal poverty, and commodification, through a personal lens.
Join your fellow Ford Students for CommuniTea! A student-led series of informal, bi-weekly gatherings held in Weill Hall, focusing on key topics of interest to our community
Policy Talks @ the Ford School,
STPP Lecture Series
Join for a conversation with former New York City mayor, Bill de Blasio. In conversation with STPP Director Professor Shobita Parthasarathy, the discussion will explore how urban tech is shaping social policy in “smart cities” like New York and beyond. How can we ensure that emerging technology serves the public interest, and what role can local, state, national, and even international policy play?
Princeton University School of Public and International Affairs (SPIA)
1333 New Hampshire Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
Ford School alumni - join us in DC for a book talk and reception with the authors of the book The Injustice of Place. Leading scholars on poverty, the three authors will share key insights from the book, followed by a networking reception and book signing.
Join us for CommuniTea! A student-led series of informal, bi-weekly gatherings held in Weill Hall, focusing on key topics of interest to our community.
The Ford School is a proud sponsor the U-M School of Social Work's Social Justice Changemaker Lecture, "Incarceration and its aftermath: How art can create pathways to reintegration and healing," featuring Nicole Fleetwood and Reuben Miller.
Join for a conversation with the co-authors of The Injustice of Place alongside Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan COO Nicole Sherard-Freeman. Released in August 2023, The Injustice of Place sheds light on America’s most disadvantaged communities, tracing the legacies of our nation’s places of deepest need—including inequalities shaping people’s health, livelihoods, and upward social mobility for families.
Join the Center for Racial Justice in welcoming Dr. Kris Marsh, author and Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland, to discuss her latest book The Love Jones Cohort: Single and Living Alone in the Black Middle Class.
Join us for an exciting event featuring U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina M. Raimondo to reflect on economic growth, innovation, and American competitiveness.
Professor of economics at U.C. Berkeley and former Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy Brad DeLong will be joined by Ford School economicsts Josh Hausman, Betsey Stevenson, and Justin Wolfers for a conversation on recent U.S. macro policy from inflation to the labor market.
We're excited to introduce CommuniTea, a student-led series of informal, bi-weekly gatherings held in Weill Hall, focusing on key topics of interest to our community.
Students, faculty, and staff: Join Dean Celeste Watkins-Hayes and the entire Ford School community in celebrating the beginning of the year and welcoming both old and new faces to Weill Hall.
On October 31, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments in two cases about the consideration of race in college admissions, and on June 29, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Students for Fair Admissions, thereby striking down the Supreme Court's 1978 Regents of the University of California v. Bakke ruling. Join for this virtual event to hear from Mara Ostfeld - political scientist and Research Director of the Center for Racial Justice - and Judge Laurel Beatty Blunt - 10th District Court of Appeals Judge for the State of Ohio and Ford School Towsley Policymaker in Residence - on the legal, social, and political implications of the ruling.
Join the Ford School community for an event dedicated to uplifting LGBTQ+ voices, celebrating LGBTQ+ culture, and supporting LGBTQ+ rights. We will feature delicious food and dessert by LGBTQ-owned businesses.
Join for an important discussion on the complicated issue of race and policing in the United States, featuring New York Times Contributor Jessica Jaglois, and Director of Arts and Culture for the City of Detroit, Rochelle Riley.
The Ford School community is invited to join us for a Juneteenth celebration. This lunchtime community event will be a vibrant celebration of freedom, resilience, and African American culture, and will feature delicious food and dessert by Black-owned businesses.
The Ford School is a proud sponsor of the University of Michigan's 3rd annual Juneteenth celebration, June 15-16. This year's theme is "Systems check: Exploring structural solutions to systemic racism."
The Ford School is a proud sponsor of the University of Michigan's 3rd annual Juneteenth celebration, June 15-16. This year's theme is Systems Check: Exploring Structural Solutions to Systemic Racism.