Ford School News

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News

Alice Kinney named 2026 Robert R. Robinson Memorial Scholarship recipient

Aug 21, 2026

Southwest Michigan native Alice Kinney (MPP '27) was awarded the 2026 Robert R. Robinson Memorial Scholarship from the Michigan Townships Association (MTA). Named for the longtime township advocate and former MTA executive director, the annual schola...

Alice Kinney named 2026 Robert R. Robinson Memorial Scholarship recipient

News

Leiser promotes new MPPS report: Michigan local governments highly confident in election integrity

Aug 17, 2026

In a commentary for The Conversation, Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy director Stephanie Leiser promotes the latest findings of the Michigan Public Policy Survey,(MPPS) which show that "local officials across Michigan are highly confident i...

CLOSUP Updates

New MPPS Report: Michigan local governments highly confident in election integrity, wary of disinformation

Aug 12, 2026

This report presents the opinions of Michigan's township and city leaders on issues related to election administration in their jurisdictions, including confidence in overall accurate election administration and expected problems their jurisdictions ...

Publication

How can Detroit attract more national retail chains?

Aug 10, 2026

Ford School professor and director of the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy Stephanie Leiser and PhD candidate Keion Harris outline ways in which Detroit can lure national retailers to the city. In a piece for The Conversation, they note, "De...

How can Detroit attract more national retail chains?

In the Media

Leiser on rural government crisis

Aug 7, 2026 Bridge Michigan

Rural Michigan are in crisis: Too many governments that too few want to lead. Rural townships and villages face increasing trouble finding residents to run for local offices, as growing workload and increased public vitriol are making public service ...

CLOSUP Updates

Bridge Listens: The state of democracy, transparency in Michigan

Jul 28, 2026 Bridge Michigan

Michigan has been at the epicenter of heated national debates over election policies and how the democratic process works, particularly since President Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn his 2020 loss.

News

Michigan's local leaders remain confident in election security, accuracy despite claims of vulnerabilities

Jul 21, 2026

Local officials across Michigan have maintained high confidence in election security and accuracy over the past several years. A soon-to-be released survey from the University of Michigan shows city and township officials—including those who conduct ...

Michigan's local leaders remain confident in election security, accuracy despite claims of vulnerabilities

CLOSUP Updates

Opinion: Democracy is a skill we may be forgetting

Jul 15, 2026 Livingston Daily

Democracy isn't just about what's making national headlines. It's about the city council meeting, the board of education meeting and the local little league game.

CLOSUP Updates

Local officials think the Legislature is doing a bad job

Jul 10, 2026 Gongwer

The opinion of local government leaders on the state, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the Legislature is falling, according to a statewide survey conducted in spring of 2026 by the University of Michigan’s Ford School of Public Policy Center for Local, Sta...

CLOSUP Updates

U-M survey finds 60% of local officials believe Michigan is ‘on the wrong track’

Jul 9, 2026 Click on Detroit

A majority of local officials in Michigan say the state is headed in the wrong direction, according to a new survey from the University of Michigan.

News

Majority of Michigan's local leaders see state moving in wrong direction, U-M survey finds

Jul 7, 2026

A majority of local government officials in Michigan say the state is on the wrong track, according to a new University of Michigan survey that reverses a three-year trend in improving attitudes about the state's overall direction. To be sure, the fi...

Majority of Michigan's local leaders see state moving in wrong direction, U-M survey finds

CLOSUP Updates

New MPPS Policy Brief: Local officials report declining outlook for state, plummeting approval of the Legislature

Jul 7, 2026

A new policy brief presents the opinions of Michigan's local government leaders regarding the direction in which the state is headed, as well as their evaluations of the job performance of Governor Gretchen Whitmer and the Michigan Legislature.

News

Ford School students turn policy training into practical support for Michigan communities

Jun 22, 2026

When Brighton city leaders set out to help residents better understand how public dollars are raised and spent, they faced a challenge familiar to many local governments. Their detailed 100-page financial report was not written for everyday use. A te...

Ford School students turn policy training into practical support for Michigan communities

CLOSUP Updates

Report: Local governments getting better at budgets; municipal leaders looking for more new approaches

May 8, 2026 Gongwer

Michigan’s local government units have improved over the past decade at adopting formal budgeting policies and exceeding state requirements for employing data-driven, predictive budget practices for their jurisdictions, a new report from the Universi...

Publication

Michigan's local governments make progress on budgeting, but many lag on long-term planning

May 6, 2026

In a time of economic volatility, relatively few local governments in Michigan report they are doing long-term financial planning—though many say they'd like to be doing more. The findings come in the latest installment of the Michigan Public Policy ...

Michigan's local governments make progress on budgeting, but many lag on long-term planning

CLOSUP Updates

New MPPS Report: Michigan local governments making progress on best practices in budgeting

May 6, 2026

A new MPPS report presents assessments by Michigan's local government leaders of local budgeting processes, including the prevalence of multi-year budgeting, capital improvement plans (CIPs), and long-term financial planning, as well as views on the ...

News

CLOSUP marks 25 years at Lansing anniversary event

Apr 17, 2026

On April 15, 2026, the Ford School's Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) celebrated a quarter century of impact. Approximately 75 current and former CLOSUP directors, staff, students, collaborators, and state legislators gathered in La...

CLOSUP marks 25 years at anniversary event

CLOSUP Updates

Special Episode on Local Government Finance Report

Apr 14, 2026 Michigan Association of Counties podcast

Michigan counties are leaving the era of COVID-prompted aid with good balance sheets, says a University of Michigan researcher in a new Podcast 83 episode.

State & Hill

25 years of CLOSUP

Apr 11, 2026

When the Michigan Independent Citizens Redistricting Commission faced a tidal wave of public input—more than 30,000 comments—the Center for Local, State, and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) and Ford School students stepped in. Their analysis helped the commiss...

News

Government of, by and for people? Sure, but it needs more people to serve, U-M survey finds

Apr 8, 2026

Abraham Lincoln famously spoke of a government of, by and for the people. Yet it's getting harder to find people to serve in government, according to a survey of local leaders across Michigan. The findings come in the latest installment of the Michig...

Government of, by and for people? Sure, but it needs more people to serve, U-M survey finds

CLOSUP Updates

New MPPS Policy Brief: Many Michigan local governments struggle to find residents willing to run for office or serve on boards

Apr 8, 2026

A new MPPS policy brief presents the opinions of Michigan's local government leaders on resident engagement in their communities. One significant area of concern is resident representation on local elected and appointed boards.

In the Media

Leiser discusses CLOSUP at 25 and the Michigan Public Policy Survey to Washtenaw County

Apr 7, 2026 WEMU

Director of the Center for Local, State and Urban Policy (CLOSUP) Stephanie Leiser discusses the Michigan Public Policy Survey that has implications for Michigan's local government leaders from well over a thousand counties, cities, villages and town...

Stephanie Leiser: Helping local goverments in Michigan become healthier and more resilient

News

Ford School marks 45 years as a PPIA host site, welcomes 2026 Junior Summer Institute cohort

Mar 20, 2026

This summer, the Ford School welcomes 18 undergraduate students from 10 U.S. states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico for the Public Policy and International Affairs (PPIA) Junior Summer Institute (JSI). Chosen through a highly competitive n...

Ford School marks 45 years as a PPIA host site, welcomes 2026 Junior Summer Institute cohort

CLOSUP Updates

New Fiscal Health Project Report: The Fiscal Health of Michigan Local Governments 2024

Mar 16, 2026

A new report from CLOSUP's Fiscal Health Project provides an annual update on Michigan local government fiscal health.

To shore up American democracy, look to city hall

News

Concerns about elected officials’ budgeting expertise emerges from survey of Michigan community leaders

Feb 4, 2026

A majority of Michigan city and village officials say they are concerned about the lack of budgeting expertise among the elected officials in their communities as they deal with rising economic and political uncertainty and challenging state and fede...

Concerns about elected officials’ budgeting expertise emerges from survey of Michigan community leaders

CLOSUP Updates

New MPPS Policy Brief: Challenges to Michigan local government budgeting

Feb 4, 2026

A new MPPS policy brief presents the opinions of Michigan's local government leaders on a set of eight specific challenges that they might be facing in their jurisdiction's budgeting process, including technical or procedural financial management cha...

CLOSUP Updates

Michigan city leaders say local democracy is working

Jan 14, 2026 WDET 101.9 FM Detroit

At the federal level, democracy is on its heels in America. But at the local level, despite weak participation, officials say democracy is strong. The trash is getting picked up on time, and services are being properly distributed, especially in more...

CLOSUP Updates

Local democracy is strong, but rural Michigan communities are falling behind, new survey shows

Jan 6, 2026 Yahoo! News

According to our recent survey of officials in Michigan communities, local democracy is humming along and city hall is taking care of business.

In the Media

Local democracy is holding strong, but rural communities are falling behind - Leiser

Dec 20, 2025 The Conversation

According to our recent survey of officials in Michigan communities, local democracy is humming along and city hall is taking care of business. The federal government was shut down in October and November 2025, but cities and towns around the United ...

Local democracy is holding strong, but rural communities are falling behind - Leiser

Publication

Fiscal stress rising among Michigan communities, particularly in small, rural towns, U-M survey finds

Dec 17, 2025

Fewer than half of Michigan's smaller and more rural communities report good fiscal health, reflecting a trend of rising financial stress among local governments across the state and growing concerns about having enough money to keep up with increase...

Fiscal stress rising among Michigan communities, particularly in small, rural towns, U-M survey finds

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