Make me love Michigan

res_ipsa
Tue, 27 Mar 2012 15:48:23 +0000

The phrase is “Harvard of the West”. It came about in 1920s or 1930s when Michigan became a favored choice for bright Jewish students from New York when the Ivy League schools had quotas restricting the number of Jews to be admitted. Back then Michigan was thought of as West as it still is by many who live along the shores of the Hudson River. In his Peace Corps speech on the steps of the Michigan Union in 1960, John F. Kennedy referred to himself as “a graduate of the Michigan of the East, Harvard University” as a parody of the phrase to excite the crowd who waited hours to see him. The reverse phrase has been popular ever since.