Office of the Provost

Provost’s Update

September 1, 2023 Friday Update

Good morning, colleagues. Here is this week's update from Academic Affairs.

I am delighted to share this first Update of the 23-24 academic year and wanted to take the opportunity to introduce myself to you. I am thrilled to be at UWM as part of my 30-plus years in higher education. In my first three months on campus, I’ve been busily orienting myself to the campuses and the provost’s role, as well as experiencing everyone’s sincere commitment and striving to serve student success. It’s what drew me to UW-Milwaukee and excites me for the future!

You’ll notice some changes in the Update’s formatting: the new Advancing 2030 Plan Priorities section highlights accomplishments, announcements, and events that relate to the 2030 focus areas: Student Success, Curricular Innovation, Research Advancement, Inclusion and Diversity, and Workforce and Community. UWM is a very dynamic place, and it is important to draw special attention to the aspects of our work that move us forward on the 2030 Plan.

The past week has been taken up with various retreats, including retreats for Academic Affairs staff, deans, and department chairs and associate deans. A top takeaway for me was from a UWM student who participated in our Academic Affairs staff retreat. Unfortunately, she had mixed experiences at UWM. She asserted a very powerful statement to the group, “We don’t have to be here, we are choosing to be. We don’t have to be here.” That was so powerful. We need to give students reasons to choose to be here with us at UWM. How can we make each and every student feel accepted, welcomed, and worthy of our attention, time, and care? A second takeaway is reflected in the Mission Moment below.

Appreciations

I would like to acknowledge the outstanding contributions made by the three student attendees at last week’s Academic Affairs staff retreat: Jeremi Regi Lukos, Student Association Vice President for Academic Affairs; Makayla Brame, a Psychology graduate student; and Angel Xavier, a Community Engagement and Education undergraduate. The student voice needs to be at the core of our work, and I am so appreciative that we were able to benefit from their insights at the retreat. I intend to keep engaging with students on Academic Affairs initiatives throughout the year.

Mission Moments

At the Academic Affairs staff retreat, a student shared how a faculty member made her feel welcomed, accepted, and valued in her class. The faculty member was Dr. Raquel Farmer-Hinton in the School of Education. I reached out to Dr. Farmer-Hinton to let her know and asked her what she does in her courses to help students feel this way. She said, “I aim to create space for students’ humanities, and I try to create a familial climate in my courses. Importantly, I also aim to demystify our academic traditions to make their paths smoother.” Thank you, Dr. Farmer-Hinton, for embodying our mission with your class being a best place for students to learn.

Special Announcement

Over the summer, our esteemed Vice Provost Dev Venugopalan retired. As we transition into new leadership, we’ll be extending the interim roles of Suzanne Boyd and Stephen Schmid, who will continue as Special Assistants to the Provost. For academic planning, accreditation, and assessment issues, reach out to Suzanne at sboyd@uwm.edu, and for any issues involving faculty and academic staff affairs, contact Stephen at schmids@uwm.edu.

During the coming academic year, we will finalize the details and launch national searches for permanent positions to cover these duties, as well as needed dean searches, and a search for a person to serve as Vice Provost for Research and Graduate School Dean. I welcome your thoughts as we move through this process.

We will keep you updated on Academic Affairs developments and announcements through this weekly newsletter. Look for it in your inbox each Friday.

Advancing 2030 Plan Priorities

Student Success

The Office of Undergraduate Admissions is excited to welcome our newest Panthers to UWM. Our incoming new first-year and new transfer students come from 581 high schools, 261 previous colleges, 35 states, and 35 countries. 3,109 new freshmen and 1,182 new transfer students attended Orientation.
CETL Tips for Engaging Students

Welcome – Send a welcome/introduction email or short video. Not all the Canvas course materials need to be posted, but it is important to let students know what materials they need for class so they can be prepared.
Preparation – Before your class meets, visit your classroom to log into the technology equipment to make sure everything is working. If you are teaching online, test links and programs to prevent surprises.
Spark Interest/Curiosity – On the first day of class and throughout, take time to let students know why what they will be learning matters. This may involve sharing an interesting problem and working through it with students, explaining your academic path and why you care about the topic, having students generate topic concept maps, providing examples of class concept use in industry, or exploring student interests about the topic, among other practices.
Expectations – Highlight the most important syllabus policies and explain why they are important for student learning. For example, you can explain why you have a particular generative AI policy and describe what is appropriate student use so there are no surprises. Similarly, you can explain why you have an attendance policy and how attendance contributes to student learning.

Greatest Show on Campus: A Welcome to the Fall 2023 UWM Student Union
After two years of renovation, the UWM Student Union reopens to students at near-full capacity. While there are still a few areas to complete, students and the campus community are invited to celebrate the progress so far on Wednesday, September 6 from noon-6 p.m. in the Student Union Concourse, where the circus comes to town with live aerialists, balloon artists, caricaturists, and a variety of foods from across campus and samples from several participating vendors.

The Student Union is eager to see the conclusion of its renovation project later this fall semester and fully embrace the creative and interactive ways the UWM students will use the updated facilities. Stay on the lookout for the official V.I.P. ribbon-cutting ceremony that is currently in the planning stages.
The UWM Libraries are offering an Information Literacy Research Assignment Workshop on September 21 from 12-1:30 p.m.

Curricular Innovation

UWM is in the forefront of microcredential development in the UW System. Information on best practices in microcredential design, the UWM microcredential policy, and instructions on how academic programs can propose new credit-bearing microcredentials through curricular governance committees are in the Microcredential Toolkit.

Research Advancement

Kudos to the faculty who received the UWM Foundation Catalyst grants for research that has the potential to impact the regional economy through commercialization activities:

Brian Armstrong and Deyang Qu (Engineering)
Xiaohua Peng and Alexander Arnold (Chemistry)
Ionel Popa (Physics)
Yin Wang and Xiaoli Ma (Engineering) and Shangping Xu (Geosciences)

The Office of Research is pleased to announce the formation of the new Office of Research Development Services (ORDS). This office consolidates our research development, internal award programs, and limited submission management into a single unit under the leadership of Kathleen Koch. As part of this office, we have also augmented our staff with the recent hire of Reed Heintzkill. The addition of Reed, who works alongside Michell Schoenecker and Anne Kissack, will expand our ability to support PIs with proposal narrative development. ORDS encourages PIs to reach out for assistance with finding funding opportunities and developing competitive proposals.

Inclusion and Diversity

Artists Now! Guest Lecture Series: Dakota Mace – September 6, 7:30-9 p.m. (virtual event)
The IDEAS (Increase and Diversity Education Abroad for U.S. Students) grant is spotlighted in this UWM Report story on UWM’s award-winning, innovative approach to diversifying the study abroad experience.

Workforce and Community

Lunch with a Diplomat – Students can learn about government jobs and network with Susan Falatko on September 7 from noon-2 p.m. Susan Falatko is a former U.S. diplomat who served in various roles within the Department of State. She will discuss a variety of paid internships, fellowships, and job opportunities within the State Department and other branches of the government.
FUSE Bootcamp – The MKE Tech Hub Coalition celebrated the successful completion of their collegiate summer program, FUSE. Over the course of eight weeks, 57 students of all majors demonstrated their understanding of the ethics and impact of data and artificial intelligence through a hands-on industry challenge. The program included self-paced technical learning, professional development, and team challenges. Upon successful completion, students earned an AI and Data Foundations HERA Badge. In addition, students attending UW-Milwaukee and Mount Mary University received one credit for prior learning.