Changing conditions and needs of a community demand corresponding changes in the institutions, which serve the community. In that rather obvious statement lies the explanation for two recent and fundamental changes at the University of Michigan.
One of these changes is the expansion and re-naming of the present School of Forestry and Conservation as the School of Natural Resources, effective with the beginning of the next fall semester. The second change is the reconstitution of the existing Institute of Social Work, to become the School of Social Work, with headquarters on the Ann Arbor campus, on July 1, 1951.
Michigan is today a state of great industrial output, but its prosperity was founded upon its natural resources and much of it is still drawn from forests, minerals, agricultural lands, and in land waters. It was quite appropriate that the University of Michigan should have given instruction in forestry early in its history. Classes in this subject were offered through the department of political science as early as 1881, and a separate department of forestry was organized in 1903. Today Michigan is pioneering a new in the field of conservation education through its establishment of the world's first School of Natural Resources. The new school will not limit itself to any one aspect of its subject but will endeavor to offer teaching and research programs in the wise use of all natural resources. Emphasis in this program will accord with the modern view that conservation means not simply saving for its own sake but rather the wise use of natural resources for the greatest possible benefit to mankind.
The School of Social Work when it is organized a year hence will constitute the fifteenth of the University's schools and colleges. A curriculum in social work has been offered for some years in Detroit, and some course work as well as close work with social agencies in that city will be continued. University officers believe, however, that transfer of the school to Ann Arbor will strengthen it through making available to it the educational resources of such other campus units as the Medical School, School of Public Health, School of Education, and others. Major attention will be given in the new program to the field of public welfare and its administration — a field obviously growing in importance for the past twenty years.
The community of persons and institutions served by the University is an exceedingly large one. As new needs and demands develop in that community and as old ones disappear, the University must alter its offerings and programs. Although handicapped at times by lack of funds or equipment, the University of Michigan is constantly striving to adapt itself to the needs of its constituency. The reorganization of existing programs to form the School of Natural Resources and the School of Social Work are outstanding examples of a dynamic university.
The Michigan Alumnus
June 10, 1950, page 452
