University of Michigan President Mary Sue Coleman will deliver the "State of the University" address this afternoon at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business.

The contents of her speech remain under wraps, but Coleman is expected to address various university initiatives, including U-M's $108 million acquisition of the ex-Pfizer campus in north Ann Arbor.

The address comes at a challenging time for higher education in Michigan.

The future of the Michigan Promise scholarship is tenuous at best; 6,096 U-M students receive Promise money. Only 1,717 of those students demonstrate financial need to qualify them for additional aid.

On Friday, Gov. Jennifer Granholm expressed concerns about proposed cuts to school funding and the elimination of the Promise Grant scholarships.

In addition to discussing the challenges in higher education, Coleman likely will highlight some of the university's accomplishments, including the University Research Corridor - a coalition of Michigan's three research universities - that generated an "economic impact" in Michigan of $14.5 billion from 2007 to 2009. At a U-M regents meeting last month, the successes of the Life Sciences Institute also were touted.

AnnArbor.com reporters Juliana Keeping and Nathan Bomey will be at the "State of the University" this afternoon. Join Bomey as he live blogs from the event; click here around 3:30 p.m. for updates.

After Coleman's 3:30 p.m. speech, she's holding a question-and-answer period, followed by a reception in the auditorium's lower lobby.

Come back to AnnArbor.com after the speech Monday for comprehensive coverage.

In addition, U-M plans to provide a live webstream of the speech on the university's website.