President Mary Sue Coleman announces a 1.8 million dollar funding commitment to the African Studies Center (ASC) for the next three years. The allocation will fund a great range of activity: collaborative research joining U-M scholars with African colleagues; archive preservation projects in Africa; statistical analysis courses for African social scientists; conferences, seminars and art exhibitions at U-M; and a great number of other worthy initiatives. Most importantly, the funding allows the ASC to renew its UMAPS program, which annually brings up to 14 African scholars to U-M for six months of sabbatical research.