As part of our Three Things series, Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition host Christina Shockley speaks with Evan Chambers about what the people of Michigan can do to help the state. Chambers is a professor of Composition at the University of Michigan.

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His first idea is for everyone to “to find where our drinking water comes from and visit it.” He recommends that we “go find the headwaters we live by, or go visit the stream near our house, and walk, wade in the water, go kayaking. Just go walk beside it, I think we’ll come, we’re bound to fall in love.” Evan describes the way water is always a part of our lives and a part of us. “…We can come to see that the river is actually everywhere. It’s in the streets, in the gutters and the sewers. It’s literally flowing through our veins. We’ll learn actually that we’re utterly dependent on it for our lives.”

But it might not be enough to just visit the water. Chambers sees a need to change it for the better. “So, every single person in the state can immediately improve the health of our waters by limiting our use of home toxics, or not fertilizing our lawns. If you live in an apartment complex, just talk to the management about not applying that fertilizer or that insecticide and we can make an immediate difference in the quality of our own health and the health of our environment.”

Chambers is a composer who believes in “keeping art local” in the same way people are coming to think about food. He says, “It should be grown as close to our homes as possible. That it should be made by people we know, and that it should taste like our soil somehow. Art’s that made near our communities is part of our communities.” Chambers points out that Michigan has a lot of regional arts organizations and an unusually high number of orchestras around the state.

He sees these as Michigan strengths that we need to protect. “We have to find a way to sustain them, and that means participating somehow. Instead of renting a video, go see a live concert. Or join a civic band, or your local civic theater company…we can all make art ourselves.”

Lastly, for his third suggestion Chambers wants us to think differently about what it means to live in a vibrant state. He sees a need to “come up with a new metaphor to understand our relationships to each other. Maybe we could replace competition with collaboration or cooperation…We competed ourselves into this recession and we might need to something else to get out.”

Chambers thinks that the arts are an excellent way to redefine human relationships to each other, and in a way that will benefit the entire state. He describes the arts as a model for using cooperation to create meaning in local communities. “We might look around and not see enemies and competitors, but instead see neighbors and collaborators, and friends – and not winners and losers. So, we could come to see our participation in the life of the state as a creative and collective endeavor instead.”

All this year, Michigan Radio’s Morning Edition host Christina Shockley has been speaking with people from across the state about the three things they think we can all do to help the state.  For this edition of the series, Christina sat down with Mary Sue Coleman, President of the University of Michigan.

As President of the University of Michigan, Mary Sue Coleman focuses heavily on education for her three ideas to help Michigan. Her first idea, however, is to reignite the entrepreneurial culture in Michigan. “We were very entrepreneurial at the beginning of the twentieth century,” says Coleman, adding, “Great names like Henry Ford and William Kellogg, the Gerbers. You just name it, there’s so many things that we did.”

But Coleman says the state became complacent about the need to start new businesses, and she sees colleges and universities as a means of reinvigorating the entrepreneurial spirit in Michigan. “Universities across the state are trying to help students live out their entrepreneurial ideas and help them become successful,” says Coleman.

As to how individuals can help improve the entrepreneurial culture in Michigan, Coleman urges people to change their view of entrepreneurial success. “I believe that we need to have the expectation that failure is not always a bad thing,” explains Coleman, suggesting that the seeds of entrepreneurial success may be sown through initial failure.

For her second idea aimed at helping the state of Michigan, Mary Sue Coleman calls for families to raise their expectations when it comes to the education of their children. “In this century, education is the key to a good life and to a good job,” says Coleman.

President Coleman references established links between education and economic strength to reinforce her point. “There’s an almost one-to-one correlation between the education of the population and economic prosperity… Those states that have the highest-educated population are the most economically vibrant. And we know that educational attainment will lead to opportunities. It will make us an attractive place for companies to start,” Coleman explains.

For her third suggestion for the state, President Coleman focuses on the public school system. Coleman says, “I’m quite troubled by the notion that geography, or race, or economic circumstance determines the future life of young people in Michigan.”

Specifically, Coleman calls attention to issues such as curriculum, the achievement gap, teacher preparation, and teacher pay. Coleman says, “Our young people should have good public schools whether they live in the Upper Peninsula, in a rural area, in inner-city Detroit, or in Ann Arbor.”