To establish a University social and recreational center; to provide a meeting place for Faculty, alumni, former students and resident students of the University; and to help in fitting Michigan men for the performance of their duties as good citizens. It is the Union as a _body of students_, using the building as a means to promote the best things in college life, to bring about a closer co-ordination of all university activities, and a more sympathetic co-operation between the undergraduates, Faculty, and alumni, that must justify the money and energy spent in this great departure in American college life,--for there is nothing in any American university today that approaches the Union in size or the scale upon which its activities are planned. [Illustration: THE MICHIGAN UNION] The need of such a building had long been felt by the students before the first discussion on the part of the members of the senior society, Michigamua, led to a call which brought representatives of all the leading organizations in the University together in the spring of 1904. The idea proved popular at once, though it was again the organization, 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.