A History of Ann Arbor

Jonathan Marwil's light history of Tree Town contains this titillating excerpt:

In the autumn of 1928 the university announced plans to build a dormitory for women. This was not to be another Martha Cook or Helen Newberry--unique facilities constructed for specific purposes--but the first of many in a reversal of the long-standing (Tappan) policy of having students be responsible for their lodging. The news was met with anger and alarm, for it endangered the investments of hundreds landlords, the livelihoods of hundreds of domestics, the value of property (and thus tax returns) around the campus, and the trade of merchants along Main Street...

Faculty dismissals and student misbehavior had irked citizens, even outraged their notions of propriety, but the dormitory plan, said Bertha Muehling, a prominent businesswoman, jeopardized "the business interests of Ann Arbor."

I have noted before that college presidents testified before Congress in the 1940s that they needed help building dormitories because cities' private markets were unable to handle the swell of new collegians. They could only justifiably ask because the private market, which had the responsibility to house students, was not up to the task.