The University has hosted more than students and faculty members through the years.
It has been the pit stop for presidential hopefuls and the pulpit for former presidents, including current incumbent Bill Clinton in a 1992 visit.
One of the most famous visits occurred early one Friday morning in 1960, and the presidential candidate who visited campus that morning never finished his tenure as the nation's president.
In his remarks on the steps of the Michigan Union, John F. Kennedy challenged students to help solve America's problems and stressed that military force in the Vietnam War could be decreased, according to the Oct. 14, 1960, issue of The Michigan Daily.
"It is possible for us in the next decade, by good judgment, responsibility and great foresight, to avoid military action," Kennedy said, according to the article.
In front of a cheering crowd of about 10,000 University students, Senator Kennedy of Massachusetts spoke briefly at 1:40 a.m. Friday, Oct. 14, 1960. Despite the crowd's noisy requests to talk more, Kennedy quickly excused himself from the Union and said he was tired.
"I came here to sleep," said Kennedy to the audience, according to the Daily article.
When University alum Gerald R. Ford became president in the wake of the Watergate scandal, the University's ties to the White House became closer.
Ford visited the campus many times, and a campus library was even named in his honor.
During the 1974 elction, presidential candidate Sen. George McGovern of South Dakota made a pit stop in Ann Arbor to bolster his party's Democratic ticket.
But the crowd of 1,500 University students were not as supportive as the audience that greeted Kennedy. They hissed and booed McGovern for not taking a stand on several issues, including the aftermath of the Wounded Knee Indian reservation incident.
"How am I to interpret those hisses?" McGovern said in a Oct. 12, 1974, Daily article.
Of course, due to the campaign season, the University and the Detroit area have seen presidential candidates as well as other hopefuls visit. Elizabeth Dole and Hillary Rodham Clinton have been in Michigan a good deal in the past months, since the state is considered a key win. Last year Hillary Clinton appeared at Borders Books and Music to sign copies of her book "It Takes a Village."
Flanked by Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton, then-Gov. Bill Clinton of Arkansas spoke four years ago at the steps of Rackham Graduate School late one October night.
A crowd of 12,000 supporters greeted Clinton and his family at 11:15 p.m. on Oct. 20, 1992.
"People are so enthusiastic," said University College Democrats Vice-Chair Carrie Friedman, according to an Oct. 20, 1992, Daily article. "It's the whole Ann Arbor community seeing the next president of the United States, speaking at our university ... This is the most exciting thing that could happen."
Clinton invoked nostalgia and asked voters to accept the new challenges of the times.
"Thirty-two years and five days ago this evening, John F. Kennedy proposed a change for my generation," Clinton said, according to the article. "This election is about whether you have the courage to change, and to face the challenge at the end of the cold war."