Detroit is very attractive to Michigan's biggest universities: Here's why

David Jesse | Detroit Free Press

Show Caption Hide Caption University of Michigan president discusses Detroit Center for Innovation Mark Schlissel, president of the University of Michigan, talks about new $300 million UofM Research and Education Center in Detroit.

Stand just outside Central Michigan University's office in downtown Detroit at lunchtime and watch the crowds swirl by, headed with purpose to get a sandwich, a coffee or just to hang out in the sun at Campus Martius. The mid-Michigan school is hoping to capitalize on the location, adding additional staff to the office.

It's a scene the University of Michigan hopes repeats itself in a few years when a $300- million-plus innovation center opens in downtown Detroit. Researchers, professors and graduate students will get an opportunity to live and work downtown.

And while these two universities grab recent headlines for announcements about expansions in Detroit, don't forget a QLINE ride up Woodward takes you past U-M's existing Detroit office and Michigan State University's Detroit office. Add in advertising for other schools, plus locations around metro Detroit and it's clear every Michigan university is positioning itself to get in on Detroit — even if there's a major research university in Midtown, Wayne State University, that itself is growing.

Why? Lots of potential students, a desire to be a part of a buzzy comeback scene and a chance to impact economic growth.

Innovation center

Take a couple of billionaires, throw in one of the world's best public research universities, shake them around a bit and roll them out on a 14-acre site on the edge of downtown Detroit and you've got a new innovation center that could have 1,000 graduate students interacting with researchers, professors and others.

And while it's the latest demonstration of U-M's interest in Detroit, it's not the only project, U-M President Mark Schlissel pointed out when the project was announced.

"The university touches Detroit in many different ways at many levels," he said. "This (innovation center) is only one of over 300 projects the university is engaged in in the city. A partnership with the city schools community district and Marygrove. We're doing work inside the mayor's office on economic mobility. We have programs to use our faculty scholars in business and law to help local entrepreneurs. We've got literally thousands of students doing engaged learning and volunteer projects in the city.

"This is where we were born. This is where we live."

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It didn't receive the media coverage that U-M's move did, but around the same time U-M was announcing its big push into Detroit, Central Michigan was also announcing it was jumping even further into Detroit.

The school hired a new executive director of Detroit outreach and said it was moving a half-dozen staffers into its downtown Detroit offices.

"The Detroit outreach position will help us to connect and engage with more metro Detroit students and alumni than ever before," Central Michigan President Bob Davies said in announcing the move. The school has more than 46,000 alumni living in the metro Detroit region of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties. That's one-third of all CMU alumni in Michigan. About 30% of current Central Michigan on-campus students also hail from southeast Michigan.

Central Michigan had concrete goals for why it was making the move.

It wants to:

Provide opportunities for current CMU students to engage with K-12 students in metro Detroit. Central Michigan authorizes several charter schools in Detroit.

Station CMU's director of business development in Detroit, along with full-time admissions and alumni personnel.

Foster relationships with businesses that have high CMU alumni employee numbers, such as Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, Quicken Loans, Ford, DTE Energy and Meridian Health.

Partner with community organizations to increase civic contributions and volunteer opportunities.

Other Michigan universities already have programs based in metro Detroit, from recruiting stations to branches offering classes, mostly graduate level, for working adults.

Boosting city talent

The interest of the state's universities in Detroit is a "high voltage injection" into the city, said Daniel Hurley, the chief executive officer of the Michigan Association of State Universities. It brings talent and training opportunities into the city for employers, both those that are there now and those who might be thinking about coming.

"I don't want to keep falling back on Amazon," Hurley said, noting one of the reasons Detroit was passed over for major investment by the online giant was because of a perceived lack of talent.

The universities see themselves as being able to help provide that talent and having a strong presence in Detroit helps them provide that support.

But Detroit is full of opportunities for the universities themselves.

First, there's the numbers. About 30% of the state's population lives in metro Detroit. For universities struggling with a shrinking pool of students overall in Michigan, that's attractive. It can also help diversify home campuses by giving the schools closer ties to heavily minority areas.

Study after study has shown migration patterns picking up, with more and more people heading to population centers. That's caused issues in education deserts, which exist in much of rural Michigan, where there's no easy access to college, Hurley said, referencing a recent Free Press series on the topic.

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It's also attractive to universities to be linked to Detroit, which, at least in the downtown and Midtown areas, are generating all sorts of buzz nationally about what's going on.

As for competition, Hurley doesn't see that as a problem.

"What's the saying, 'A rising tide lifts all boats?' " he said. "Would you rather be one auto dealer on a low-traffic street or one of six auto dealers on a high traffic street?"

Contact David Jesse: 313-222-8815 or djesse@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter: @reporterdavidj