Answer: University of Michigan

The University of Michigan has the largest number of living alums of any University in the world–there are roughly 500,000 of them wandering the globe. With those kind of numbers, it was really only a matter of time until the two things necessary to establish a Moon-based chapter of the University of Michigan Alumni Association occurred: three U of M alums had to be in one place at one time and, in this case, they needed to be on the Moon.

The stars aligned for just such an occurrence during the Apollo 15 Moon mission. All three men aboard the mission–James Irwin, David Scott, and Alfred Worden–were U of M alums. While Worden manned the orbiter, Irwin and Scott placed a small plaque on the surface of the Moon commemorating the founding of the founding of the chapter. The plaque reads: “The Alumni Association of The University of Michigan. Charter Number One. This is to certify that The University of Michigan Club of The Moon is a duly constituted unit of the Alumni Association and entitled to all the rights and privileges under the Association’s Constitution.”

Despite the persistent rumor among University of Michigan students and alum alike, there are no University of Michigan flags on the Moon–although several flew aboard the mission and were later distributed to the University as well as engineers at NASA who were U of M alums.