Institute for Social Research (ISR)

The Institute for Social Research (ISR), originally established in 1949 at the University of Michigan as the Survey Research Center under the direction of Rensis Likert, is the nation's longest standing interdisciplinary research laboratory in the social sciences. Support from the sociology and psychology departments was an important factor in the decision to establish the ISR at the University of Michigan. The center was kept administratively separate from other schools and colleges, and its executive committee was made up of members from a variety of relevant disciplines; this separation was designed to promote its interdisciplinary nature. By the early 1950s the staff had grown from 12 to nearly 200. Tenure privileges were not granted to the senior staff members by the University of Michigan Regents ...