In an era when academic scheduling relies heavily on word-of-mouth reputation and the smiley face hierarchy of ratemyprofessors.com, students are fortunate to have courses taught by tried and true Ann Arbor figureheads and some of the University’s leaders and best, including the mayor of Ann Arbor, a former University president and the current University provost.

Ann Arbor Mayor John Hieftje, former University President James Duderstadt and Provost Philip Hanlon teach a range of graduate and undergraduate courses at the University, providing students with an engaging perspective on pertinent campus issues.

During the fall semester, Hieftje taught Public Policy 456 Local Government, Opportunity for Activism in the School of Public Policy and Hanlon taught Calculus I. Because of Duderstadt’s position on a special congressionally-appointed committee on the future of the University, he did not teach during the fall semester, but will teach two courses on national science policy in the School of Public Policy during winter semester.

The Mayor

Hieftje's class, Opportunity for Activism, which he designed six years ago, outlines the operation of local government by examining the efforts of activists in Ann Arbor and the current affairs of the city. According to Hieftje, who emphasizes activism as a definitive feature of campus life, about one-third of the class sessions have activists as guest lecturers.

“One of the things that I can bring to it — it’s not theory, it’s real-time activity in a real city and we get to look at things as they’re happening,” Hieftje said.

Hieftje, an Ann Arbor native with a long history of environmental activism, also provides students with a perspective on the shift in activism in Ann Arbor since the draft days of Vietnam and the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.

“I think you see (students) volunteering to work in Detroit, I think you’ll see them volunteering to do things in Ann Arbor … I think they’re still very active," Hieftje said. "It’s a different kind of activism, it’s sort of an activism that says, ‘I’m an individual and what can I do to make a change?’ ”

Opportunity for Activism focuses on the potential for students and citizens to shape local government and become involved in Ann Arbor issues.

“I really feel that there’s much more opportunity for activism in local government … you can have a much more direct effect than you’re going to find at a state level or a federal level because you can go right and talk to people who are making decisions,” Hieftje said.

While the class focuses strongly on issues pertinent to Ann Arbor, lessons regarding local government apply problems — like economic strains — that other cities face. Such lessons help prepare students for future careers in the government.

“You’ve got to be engaged in it," Hieftje said. "Be engaged with your local government, your state government, your national government. Be aware. They’re public policy students. That’s probably not going to be a problem in their lives, that’s why they’re interested in it. We talk about ways that you can petition and actually have an effect on government."

Discussed in class are issues like homelessness and affordable housing in Ann Arbor, as well as the future of sustainability in cities — topics students find attractive because of their national applicability.

“It’s helped me to get more involved in Ann Arbor,” said Rackham student Chad Cookinham, a Cleveland, Ohio native.

“It’s focused on what’s actually going on and what’s happening in the city. And I feel that because of that I’ve gotten myself way more involved in the city and what’s going on here and know way more about the place that I live than I would have had I taken just a kind of purely academic class on what local government means in theory,” Cookinham said.

While students enrolled in Opportunity for Activism can gain an appreciation for the mayor’s experience in local government, Hieftje stresses that he gets just as much from the course, particularly in observing generational differences between current students and older generations of citizens.

The Former President

James Duderstadt, a former University president and current University professor, also echoed Hieftje’s sentiments on the importance of professorial work.

Duderstadt arrived at the University 42 years ago, in the fall of 1968, as an assistant professor of nuclear engineering. He subsequently served as the University’s dean of the College of Engineering from 1981 to 1986, provost from 1986 to 1988 and president from 1988 to 1996.