Visit U-M’s campus, and you’re bound to notice names on buildings and signs labeling this or that center or institute. U-M also has hundreds of named professorships. But what does it take to get that distinction?
U-M currently has a three-part structure for naming rights, and it doesn’t always require a major donation, explains Conor Neville, director of campaign operations for the Office of University Development.
“Many namings are strictly honorary,” he says. For instance, in 2021 the Life Sciences Institute on Washtenaw Ave. was named for president emerita Mary Sue Coleman, giving it the subtitle of Mary Sue Coleman Hall. Coleman did not donate any money to the project.
In January, U-M’s Inclusive History Project announced a fifteen-person task force to recommend revised policies and procedures for honorific naming to make the process more transparent and inclusive.
The second category is gifts specifically made to construct new buildings; and the third pays for departments or schools that might be housed within other facilities.
There’s no set price for having something named, except when it comes to professorships, which Neville says start at $2.5 million. Named professorships are endowments, which earn interest. From those funds, the professor and any assistants are paid, along with travel or research activities not covered by grants. Forty-two professors at the medical school were appointed to named professorships in 2024, bringing its total to 481, the most of any college or department at U-M.
In other cases, says Neville, the naming situation becomes a conversation. “What does the [university] unit need? What is the donor interested in, or not?”
Namings are often announced as part of Michigan’s umbrella fundraising campaigns. The most recent, announced in October 2024, is Look to Michigan, which aims to raise $7 billion by 2034. As of late 2025, the campaign’s cumulative total exceeded $6 billion.