n,
and not the somewhat remote prospect of a building, that won support.
From the first the Union aimed to be an expression of student life as a
whole and almost immediately, side by side with an active campaign for a
building, it undertook to correlate and to unify the interests of the
students in the different departments, classes, and organizations. The
alumni, too, were knit into a body which aimed consistently to recognize
the claim of the University to the regard and loyal support of every
Michigan man. The Student Council was established at the inspiration of
the Union soon after its organization. Some years later a similar
movement inspired by the Union resulted in the establishment of the
University Health Service through a series of recommendations made by a
committee of Union members to the Board of Regents. Mass meetings and
smokers were held and a great annual dinner was initiated the first
year, at which the ideals of the University and the aims of the Union
were discussed. Funds were raised for the portrait of President Angell
by William M. Chase. Musical shows and carnivals were held, not merely
to raise money for the Union, but to bring the student body together in
one absorbing interest. In December, 1906, Judge Cooley's old home on
State Street was purchased, to be used temporarily as the Union Club
House and eventually to be replaced by the present building. The house
was altered extensively,--two dining-rooms were installed, together with
other features of a club, and for nine years it served the University
well, though its facilities became increasingly inadequate as the mass
of students grew.

Not for one minute, however, was the need for a greater building
forgotten, and through mass meetings, alumni dinners, and University
publications, the alumni were educated as to the aims and ideals of the
organization and the vital need of a building which should adequately
serve as the center of the life of the thousands of men in the
University. All this was not accomplished without opposition, which
centered largely in the rival claims of the committee charged with the
raising of funds for Alumni Memorial Hall. Fortunately this
misunderstanding faded away when the Memorial Building was completed in
1909 and the purpose of the Union became better understood.

This long effort among the alumni eventually began to have its effect
and for several years before the actual campaign for funds for the Union
was