News regarding Public Allies (May 29, 2020)

Dear Colleagues,

I am writing to share important and difficult news. UM-Dearborn will not renew its role as the operating partner of the Public Allies Metro Detroit program. Operations will end after the seventh cohort of Allies completes its year of service and learning in August 2020. The financial strain caused by the pandemic has forced us to make tough, but crucial, decisions. We have had to reevaluate the best ways that the university can face economic realities while supporting initiatives that directly benefit our students.

This decision was not made lightly. We thought carefully about this program and how it relates to our core mission and core competencies and in the final analysis, decided that it was not optimally aligned with our primary mission—student success.

Over the past seven years, the Public Allies program has been a major component of our Office of Metropolitan Impact, whose goal has been and will continue to be to develop the volume, value and impact of mutually beneficial community partnerships between the university and metropolitan Detroit. 

Although we are discontinuing ties with this particular program, UM-Dearborn will continue to engage robustly with our community and work to advance a just, equitable and sustainable future in southeast Michigan. 

I thank all of the employees of the Public Allies program for their dedicated work over the past years. 

Sincerely, 

Domenico Grasso
Chancellor