student center in the U.S, pre-dating Penn's. Due to concerns over the university's financial situation there have been suggestions for the complete separation of the university and state through privatization. Even though the university is a public institution de jure, it has embraced funding models of a private university that emphasize tuition funding and raising funds from private donors. Considering that "the University of Michigan already has only minimal fiscal ties to the state," the legislature convened a panel in 2008 that recommended converting the University of Michigan from a public to a private institution. Historical links The University of Michigan was the first attempt in the New World to build a modern university in the European sense. The institution was the clearest and strongest presentation that had yet been made of what, in this country, at once came to be called the "Prussian ideas." It was a radically different approach to higher education; a complete civil system of education, in contradistinction to the ecclesiastical system made out of the colonial colleges. Michigan alumni and faculty members carried this newer concept of the university with them as they founded other institutions. Most notably, Andrew Dixon White and Charles Kendall Adams at Cornell University. Cornell alumni David Starr Jordan and John Casper Branner passed the concept to Stanford University in the Late 19th Century. Michigan also has many historical links to other American universities through its graduates. University of California: had its early planning based upon the University of Michigan. University of Chicago: Michigan alumnus Robert Ezra Park played a leading role in the development of the Chicago School of sociology. The University of Chicago Laboratory School was founded in 1896 by John Dewey and Calvin Brainerd Cady, who were members of the Michigan faculty. Cornell University: had its Law School founded by Michigan alumni Charles Kendall Adams and Harry Burns Hutchins. Harvard University: Michigan alumnus Edwin Francis Gay was the founding dean of the Harvard Business School from 1908 to 1919, instrumental in the school's planning. Johns Hopkins University: had its pharmacology department established by John Jacob Abel, an alumnus of Michigan. Massachusetts Institute of Technology: had its Media Lab, the world's leading research laboratory, founded by Michigan alumnus Jerome Wiesner. Northwestern University: Michigan alumnus Henry Wade Rogers was instrumental in transforming Northwestern from a small cluster of colleges into a major, nationally recognized university. His wife, Emma Winner Rogers,