sted by U-M. Another major contribution took place in 1987 when a proposal submitted by the Merit Network together with its partners IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan won a national competition to upgrade and expand the National Science Foundation Network(NSFNET) backbone from 56,000 to 1.5 million, and later to 45 million bits per second.[109] In 2006, U-M joined with Michigan State University and Wayne State University to create the University Research Corridor. T

onfigurable manufacturing systems, wireless integrated microsystems, and social sciences. The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute and the Life Sciences Institute are located at the university. The Institute for Social Research (ISR), the nation's longest-standing laboratory for interdisciplinary research in the social sciences,[104] is home to the Survey Research Center, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Center for Political Studies, Population Studies Center, and Inter-Consortium for Political and Social Research. Undergraduate students are able to participate in various research projects through the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP) as well as the UROP/Creative-Programs.[105]
The U-M library system comprises nineteen individual libraries with twenty-four separate collections—roughly 13.3 million volumes.[106] U-M was the original home of the JSTOR database, which contains about 750,000 digitized pages from the entire pre-1990 backfile of ten journals of history and economics, and has initiated a book digitization program in collaboration with Google.[107] The University of Michigan Press is also a part of the U-M library system.
In the late 1960s U-M, together with Michigan State University and Wayne State University, founded the Merit Network, one of the first university computer networks.[108] The Merit Network was then and remains today administratively hosted by U-M. Another major contribution took place in 1987 when a proposal submitted by the Merit Network together with its partners IBM, MCI, and the State of Michigan won a national competition to upgrade and expand the National Science Foundation Network(NSFNET) backbone from 56,000 to 1.5 million, and later to 45 million bits per second.[109] In 2006, U-M joined with Michigan State University and Wayne State University to create the University Research Corridor. This effort was undertaken to highlight the capabilities of the state's three leading research institutions and drive the transformation of Michigan's economy.[110] The three universities are electronically interconnected via the Michigan LambdaRail (MiLR, pronounced 'MY-lar'), a high-speed data network providing 10 Gbit/s connections between the three university campuses and other national and international network connection points in Chicago.[111]
The University of Michigan is a participant in the Committee on Institutional Cooperation (CIC), an academic consortium of the universities in the Big Ten Conference plus former conference member the University of Chicago. The initiative also allows students at participating institutions to take distance courses at other participating institutions and forms a partnership of research.[112] Students at participating schools are also allowed "in-house" viewing privileges at other participating schools' libraries.[113][114]
Student life[edit]

Residential life[edit]
Main article: University of Michigan Housing
Red brick facade with white stone fronts and angled roof

North Quad Residence Hall
The University of Michigan's campus housing system can