As CSE and UMSI have developed and grown, the two entities have occupied a number of spaces on U-M’s campuses. 

CSE, now in the Beyster Building, needs expansion space 

In 1957, the graduate program in computing launched at Michigan in the College of Literature, Science, and the Arts. The first undergraduate courses in computing were taught in 1963.

In 1965, the Department of Computer and Communication Sciences was formed in LSA and housed in Angell Hall on Central Campus. 

In 1984, CCS merged with Electrical Engineering to form the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science Department in the College of Engineering. This entailed a move into the then-new EECS Building on North Campus. This space was outgrown before the end of the decade and significant portions of CSE portion of EECS, including hardware and artificial intelligence research labs, were housed in the nearby Advanced Technologies Lab building.

In 2006, CSE was unified as an autonomous division and moved into the newly-opened CSE Building (renamed the Bob and Betty Beyster Building in 2012). The building is now at capacity, relying on work-sharing arrangements to house all faculty and staff.

UMSI’s operations will be unified under one roof

The School of Information has had many homes since it began as the University of Michigan Department of Library Science in 1926. Among them: the General Library, now known as the Harlan Hatcher Graduate Library (starting in 1926), Winchell House of West Quad (1970s), and West Hall (beginning in 1988).

The School of Information was chartered by the Board of Regents in 1996.

In 2001, the school was divided on the North and Central campuses. The old computing center on North Campus was offered, and it was renovated to accommodate some School of Information activities. For a period, “SI North” housed a number of staff and much of the school’s research infrastructure.

In 2010, the school moved into the new North Quadrangle building at 105 S. Main St., but UMSI’s needs had outgrown the building even before it was completed. 

Over time, the school has leased five commercial spaces above restaurants and retail shops downtown to accommodate the Office of Career Development, Engaged Learning Office, Office of Academic and Student Affairs, Marketing and Communications, Finance, Computing, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, and other operations.

The Leinweber Computer Science and Information Building will not only locate UMSI together adjacent to the university’s Computer Science community. It will also put all of UMSI’s operations under one roof for the first time in more than a decade.