University of Michigan. Vice-President for Development.

The office now designated the Vice President for Development has undergone a number of changes in title and responsibilities since its inception. While today it is a fundraising unit, the office from which this unit evolved was established as a vehicle for communicating information about the university to those outside.

As early as 1897 the regents of the University of Michigan recognized the need for a means through which official information about the university could be issued. Rather than establish a separate organization, the regents chose to graft this responsibility onto existing university units, offering a small sum of money to these units to cover additional expenses. Between 1897 and 1942 the department of rhetoric (1897-1901, 1912-1928), the Alumni Association (1901-1912), and the Bureau of Alumni Relations carried out this task. The work of the Bureau of Alumni Relations fell under the broad mandate of James B. Bruce, who in 1931 became the first university officer to bear the title Vice President in charge of University Relations. Bruce, a doctor by training, was an influential member of the Medical School faculty and held several important positions simultaneously. Bruce's general mandate was to oversee all university contacts with the non-academic world, most importantly by monitoring the intellectual content of post-graduate courses and presentations. Bruce personally seems to have had little interest in public relations.

At the time of Bruce's retirement in 1942 the regents decided that the responsibility for disseminating information from the university should be placed in a distinct unit, reporting to the university's central administration. As a result, the University News Service was founded. In 1944, when Marvin L. Niehuss assumed Bruce's title, he also assumed indirect responsibility for the two-year-old News Service. Niehuss, however, shared Bruce's lack of interest in public relations. A member of the Law School faculty, he was asked by the president to concentrate upon the relationship between the university and the state legislature.

Recognizing the need for a person with skills in public relations, the regents in 1945 agreed in principle to hire a full-time senior administrator to handle the university's relations with the public. In 1946 Arthur L. Brandon was hired to fill this position and was given the title Director of Information Services. Brandon's graduate training had been in the field of public relations and he had worked at various universities, including Vanderbilt and the University of Texas, in positions similar to this one. Brandon undertook an ambitious program to reach the various publics the university serves. He established, or re-established, several publications and offered public relations expertise to the entire campus community. He was also interested in the electronic media. Under Brandon the university began to broadcast over two wholly-owned radio stations, superseding the former practice of irregularly broadcasting programs over commercial radio stations. In 1950 Brandon began to experiment with educational television. He aggressively promoted Michigan productions and by the middle of the decade the university had more program outlets than any other educational institution.

Brandon was also an innovator in fundraising. After World War II the university initiated the Michigan Memorial-Phoenix Project. Intended as a memorial to former University of Michigan students who had died in World War II, the campaign raised money to support research on the peaceful uses of atomic energy. Unlike similar efforts in the past, however, after the immediate goals of the Michigan Memorial-Phoenix Project were achieved, the staff responsible for fundraising was not dismissed. Instead, in 1951 the staff was placed under Brandon's purview. In 1953 ongoing fundraising was given a formal organization through the Development Council. The University of Michigan was the first public institution to establish a permanent fundraising unit.

In 1951, as part of a general reorganization of the university, Brandon was given a new title, Director of University Relations, and reported directly to the president. Brandon held this title for six years, resigning it in 1957 to accept a vice presidency at New York University. Lyle M. Nelson, a professor of journalism, replaced Brandon. Nelson had served previously as an assistant to President Harlan Hatcher (1953-55) before leaving Ann Arbor to go to San Francisco State College. After his return to the University of Michigan, Nelson continued the policies of his predecessor in the areas of public relations and fundraising. The growing responsibilities of the office led to the designation of Nelson as Vice President for University Relations in 1960. The Presidents Club, a widely-imitated fundraising mechanism, was founded in 1961 during Nelson's tenure; designed to attract large private gifts to the university, the club required a contribution of $10,000 for membership.

Nelson was succeeded in 1961 by Michael Radock. Formerly a professor of journalism at Kent State University, Radock came to the University of Michigan from Ford Motor Company, where he had been a member of the corporate public relations staff and manager of education affairs. Radock continued the substantive public information programs of his predecessors and also continued their tradition of innovative fundraising approaches.

In 1964 Michael Radock oversaw the $55 Million Campaign, which broke new ground for public institutions. Traditionally institutions had sought private funds for a specific project. In the late 1950s, however, Harvard revolutionized fundraising techniques by holding the first modern capital campaign. Rather than seeking support for a single project, Harvard asked its alumni and friends to support the general good of the institution, listing as the campaign's goals a group of needed capital improvements as well as support for endowment funds. Michigan was the first public institution to adopt a similar fundraising approach. In the course of this campaign the staff of the Development Office, which until then had worked almost exclusively with the Development Council, came more directly under the jurisdiction of the vice president.

In the late 1970s Radock launched another major fundraising initiative through the authorization of a systematic and comprehensive census of alumni. The project's goal was to locate all living university alumni, making possible regular contact with them which would, it was hoped, lead to an increased percentage of alumni making annual contributions to the university.

Between 1961 and 1981, when Radock retired, he exercised his authority under a series of titles. When first hired he was designated Director of University Relations. In 1964 he was given his predecessor's title, Vice President for University Relations. In 1969 he was named Vice President for University Relations and Development.

When Jon Cosovich assumed the office in 1983 his title was Vice President for Development and University Relations. This was changed in 1985 to Vice President for Development and Communication. The shift away from communication toward fundraising was complete in 1988, when responsibility for communication with the larger community was transferred to the newly-created Office of University Relations and Cosovich's title became simply Vice President for Development.

From the guide to the Vice-President for Development (University of Michigan) records, 1948-[ongoing], (Bentley Historical Library University of Michigan)