After six and a half years at Michigan Today, this will be my last issue as editor. I’m moving on to another position at the university (with the Development office), and I’m excited about the new challenge, but the change is bittersweet. I love this magazine, and it’s been wonderful to be able to talk in depth with so many people across the university community: faculty who are performing jaw-dropping research and changing lives in the classroom; dazzlingly gifted students who really will change the world; talented colleagues who work incredibly hard for this school. And I’ve flat-out loved being able to chat and email every day with alumni. My work has confirmed what I knew when I arrived here, and what all alums know: this university is an incredible place. I’m an alum myself, and a winding career brought me in 2005 to Michigan Today—a magazine with a heritage going back to 1968. (The second issue mentions anti-war protests and the hiring of a new football coach named Glenn Schembechler.) I replaced John Woodford, a campus legend who was retiring after 20 years. While that was daunting, even more intimidating—and exciting—was the chance to prospect for stories across the entire global breadth of the U-M community. The privilege to hear these stories! The opportunity to write them! For a writer, every day here is a feast of tales to learn and tell.

My favorite stories

A few of those stories have been life-changing. For my first issue, in spring 2006, I interviewed dozens of scientists across the university to get the latest findings on climate change, thinking I’d write a story about where the scientific debate over global warming stood. I was shocked to find, even then, that among the scientists, there simply was no debate. It was stunning to hear one after another after another of some of the world’s top climatologists, paleontologists, meteorologists, botanists, biologists, space scientists, engineers and even business experts say they had no question that global warming was already upon us, and that humans caused it.

Just as powerful was the time I spent with alum Emanuel Tanay, a forensic psychologist and one of the last generation of Holocaust survivors. A Polish Jew, he survived the War on wit and luck, eventually made his way to U-M, and is now an author and expert on the psychology of mass murderers.

Another highlight was the chance to interview the great jazz pianist Geri Allen, a phenomenal teacher and a professor at the School of Music, Theatre and Dance, and one of my own favorite musicians. Seeing her work with students—and watching them thrive under her—was inspiring in its own right, but also reminded me of the teachers and mentors I had as a student.

Michigan Today’s Top Ten

The stories above were my favorite to write, but from the beginning Michigan Today has attracted outstanding reporters who are a pleasure to edit and read. Here in no particular order are the stories I’ve been most happy about publishing:

JFK at the Union by James Tobin (Jan 2008). This article, by our wonderful U-M Heritage writer, wasn’t just a great story about John F. Kennedy’s 1960 visit to Ann Arbor (where he proposed the idea that became the Peace Corps), it showed us the power of the new online format to bring readers into the conversation. Dozens of alumni shared their stories about that night, and their love for the university shone through all of them.

The Doors’ disaster at Michigan by Alan Glenn (Nov, 2010.) With an online publication, you can track which stories are most popular. When we first started doing so, we were surprised to find that articles about bad behavior tended to get a lot of readers. We’ve posted a few of those stories, but there was no worse behavior than Jim Morrison’s drunken debacle at a homecoming concert in 1967.

What I learned from Bo by John U. Bacon (May, 2009). Not long after Bacon wrote “Bo’s Lasting Lessons” with coach Schembechler, he won the Golden Apple Award, given by students to outstanding U-M teachers. In his acceptance speech, excerpted here on video, Bacon shared some of the lessons he learned from Bo—and offered up his spot-on impersonation of the man.

A different Diag? by James Tobin (Oct. 2009). The fascinating story of where U-M might have been located.

Great Lakes: “Amazing Change” by Jim Erickson (July 2009). The challenges to the Great Lakes are legion, but one of the worst is a tiny invasive mollusk called a quagga mussel, which threatens the lakes’ ecosystem and the fisheries that depend on it. This piece by U-M News Service writer Jim Erickson is a case study in outstanding science writing.

“We’ve all been taught this doesn’t happen” by Nicole Casal Moore (April 2011). This story was one of MToday’s most popular of all time, a truly mind-blowing story about the magnetic properties of light(!) and how U-M researchers discovered that 50 years of physics was wrong. As a bonus, the discovery makes possible some leaps forward in solar technology.

Last words by Richard Bailey (Apr. 2011). Richard Bailey was brilliant, opinionated and astringent. He wrote Michigan Today’s language column, Talking About Words, from 2003 until his death last spring. Prolific to the end, he was the anti-pedant, refusing to police people’s grammar but instead celebrating language as it’s found. This was his final essay, a short exploration of Famous Last Words. Typically unsentimental, it still breaks my heart.

Watching movies: A few tips by Frank Beaver (Mar. 2010). Longtime Michigan Today movie maven Frank Beaver offered up a mini-film class in this column, which offered insights into the ways films get made and how an educated viewer can get more out of watching them.

Paul is dead, said Fred by Alan Glenn (Nov. 2009). The bizarre, hilarious tale of how an impish writer for the Michigan Daily heard a vague rumor that Paul McCartney had died, invented a score of crazy “proofs” that it was true, and created an international hysteria that had kids listening to their Beatles records backwards and searching for clues in album-cover art.

Whales of the desert by Nancy Ross-Flanigan (June 2011). More great science writing, this time about the evolution of whales from dog-like land animals to ocean-going behemoths. It’s also the fascinating story of a decades-long, global detective search by U-M archaeologist Philip Gingrich, and a glimpse at the way science works in the real world.

And an extra: Photos of the month archive. One of my favorite regular features is our monthly collection of campus pictures. I couldn’t choose any single slideshow, so here’s a place you can browse the award-winning work of the U-M Photo Services photographers.

So that’s it for me. It’s been a pleasure and honor to steward Michigan Today the past six years, and I’m excited to see where the next editor takes it in the future. To those of you who have emailed or called or commented on articles, whether it’s with praise or anecdotes or criticism: thank you! You make this university great, and you’ve brought vitality, insight, and fun to Michigan Today. Go Blue!