Stephen Henderson, Detroit Free Press editorial editor, will speak on the future of Detroit in his lecture, “Detroit: Is There Life after Bankruptcy?” at 7 p.m. on Tuesday in Pray-Harrold room 216.
This lecture is the second in a three-part series, hosted by Eastern Michigan University’s political science department, focused on the problems Michigan cities face. Students will have the opportunity to ask Henderson questions after a 30 to 40-minute lecture.
Professor Arnold Fleischmann, head of the political science department, reached out to Henderson.
“Henderson has really been someone who’s commented for a long period on the problems facing Detroit,” Fleischmann said. “We’re going to ask him, instead of looking at the past, what he expects for the future. He writes about that pretty often.”
Henderson, a Detroit native, has worked at five different newspapers including the Baltimore Sun and the Chicago Tribune. He has won over a dozen awards for his work, most recently the 2014 Pulitzer Prize for his commentary on Detroit’s collapse and its future.
“I asked him to be part of this series because it was one of those deals where it would be hard to find anyone better to focus on the prospects Detroit has in the future,” Fleischmann said.
Fleischmann said the lecture gives students a big picture look at Detroit’s situation.
“He’ll take a step back and ask pretty basic questions,” Fleischmann said. “What problems do we have? What caused them? What can we possibly do about them? He’s really analytical in that regard.”
The lecture focuses on the future of Detroit, a place EMU students might find future careers.
“Detroit could be a major market for EMU grads,” Fleischmann said. “Students from EMU or from the University of Michigan shouldn't have to run to Chicago for a good job. I think the extent to which a good labor market extends from Detroit and down to the border and into Toledo and Ypsilanti and Ann Arbor is a plus for us all.”
