Gary D. Krenz
Special Counsel to the President
Lecturer in Philosophy
University of Michigan
As Special Counsel to the President of the University of Michigan, I serve as an advisor to President Mary Sue Coleman and provide administrative support for planning, issue management, policy development, and presidential projects and initiatives.
I joined the President’s Office in 1996 and have served under four presidents or interim presidents. The presidential initiatives I have been involved with include the Life Sciences Initiative, the President’s Information Revolution Commission, the Ethics in Public Life Initiative, the Michigan Healthy Community Initiative, the China Initiative, and the Africa Initiative I currently chair the President’s Africa Advisory Committee; I serve on the President’s Advisory Committee on Public Art, the Michigan Healthy Community Advisory Committee, the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Library Advisory Committee, the Smoke Free University Task Force, and the Bentley Historical Library Executive Committee.
My philosophical interests include metaphysics and ethics in pragmatism, process philosophy and the Continental European traditions of philosophy, as well as the philosophy of higher education. I received my B.A. degree in philosophy, with honors, from Northwestern University in 1980 and my Ph.D. in philosophy from the State University of New York at Stony Brook in 1987.
In my administrative work, I am often involved in issues of University policy that have moral or social implications. These experiences, combined with my own philosophical interest in moral philosophy, philosophy of education, and the dilemmas of the modern university, prompted me to create the course that I have taught for several years as a first-year seminar, The University of Michigan: A Moral Institution? In Fall 2011, this course is being offered as PHIL 162. Click below for the description and syllabus.
I have also recently taught a new course, Love and Justice.
Gary D. Krenz
Office of the President
2080 Fleming Administration Building
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1340
E-mail: gdkrenz@umich.edu
Phone: +1.734.936.7724
Fax: +1.734.936.3529