University of Michigan - Michiganensian Yearbook (Ann Arbor, MI)

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LATE-GAME TOUCH- DOWN . . . Freshman fans cheer U-M ' s first touchdown of the year, which narrowed Notre Dame ' s lead to 17-7. OUT IN THE OPEN . . . It ' s hard to have a closed part) ' when your house is on State Street, right between the Michigan Union and South Quad. PROLOGUE

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An 1 8 year-old freshman boards a plane from his home state and leaves it forever to go to a school which has prestige and prominence. In other words, it has everything that freshman would like to have someday. That school is a big number. As he flies toward Detroit at about 35,000 feet, the doubts suddenly set in. Why should this school have anything for me, and if it does, will I ever find it? It ' s too late for an answer because the plane landed, and an airport limo is buzzing toward Ann Arbor. There ' s the State Street exit, there ' s the beginning of a campus, and suddenly, the ride is over. He ' s at the Union. hen we went through orientation 1 980, they warned us not to go into the Union at night, recalled Michigan Union graphics shop coordinator Noreen Ball. It simply wasn ' t considered safe. The Michigan Union of the 1970s and early 1980s was a very different place than it is now. The noisy, busy atmosphere of the MUG was unheard of; instead, many places in the base- ment were simply vacant. The building was WHEELING IT ... The cheerleaders show spirit during the Notre Dame game (above right). A student swings away on Palmer Field (right). WE ' VE GOT THE BEAT . . . The Michigan Marching Band drumline keeps busy during the season opener with Notre Dame on September 12. PROLOGUE CONTINUED

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A More Perfect Union IRISH SHANTY . . . This con- struction was a short-lived, semi-serious statement about the IRA that gave local skateboarders some fun last spring on the Diag. SNOWED IN ... The Chemis- try Building looks suspiciously peaceful after a snowfall, but don ' t be fooled by the picture. showing its years, too, having been completed in| 1920 at a cost of about $1.15 million. Often, people off the street hung out in the I Union, making it at least uncomfortable if not unsafe for students. But that was before Frank! Cianciola came to Michigan. Cianciola is an enthusiastic, whiskered man I who is always willing to talk about his favorite subject-the Union. His past record working with the University of Akron and Kent State University unions impressed U-M enough that he was approached in 1 979 with a regental com- mitment to spend $4.6 million toward the Un- 1 ion ' s renovation and the mandate of a student referendum. What we wound up doing for that amount of money was considerably different than the original package, Cianciola explained. We didn ' t have a program in place for the build- ing now, nor did we have a master plan for renovation. One of the things particularly important in the turn-around was to communicate that the Union is not just a building-it ' s a program, the director continued. There are a lot of oppor- tunities for students to get involved with organ- izations here. But the real goal of the whole thing is to make students comfortable, to give them a place so they can identify with the Union and with the University as a whole. By the spring of 1981, Cianciola and a group BcnncH I ! MEETING PLACE ... The Diag as seen from the Graduate Library steps is a sight familiar to all U-M undergraduates; it is a central view of Central Campus. 4 PROLOGUE