Good afternoon, colleagues. Here is this week’s update from Academic Affairs.
At UWM, our teaching and educational activities are enhanced through integration of research, scholarly, and creative activities. With R1 level faculty and staff, our students get access to highly sophisticated laboratories, equipment, and training and learning opportunities. To ensure a sustainable research enterprise going forward, we are working on diversifying our funding sources to include local community, industry, private foundations, and new sources of federal funding. You can play a role in this enterprise to help tell your research story, no matter if you are mentoring an undergraduate student, a graduate student, publishing an article, or exhibiting in an art show. The Office of Research is here to help support you through the entire life cycle of a project from proposal development, pre-award submissions phases, all the way to post award processes.
This past year, despite all the federal funding challenges, our grant proposals submissions are up 508 submissions compared to 473 the prior year. This is a testament to your hard work, and a good reason to recognize our excellent research work not only at the campus level, but also nationally and internationally. Office of Undergraduate Research and Graduate School are working together to identify students for national scholarships and fellowships and help them submit proposals. We are working on campus-wide strategies for faculty recognition as well and hope to raise the profile of UWM Research together with these efforts, which in turn will open new opportunities for us and lift the entire campus.
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This summer, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs Dave Clark and the Summer Academic Affairs Work Group focused on critical academic policies and practices that can enhance our students' success, retention, and overall experience. I want to express my appreciation to the people who spent their time and energy to help UWM do its best to support students’ success.
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- Ann Radant, Retention Specialist, College of Health Professions and Sciences
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Barry Cameron, Associate Professor, Geosciences Department
- Sara Benesh, Professor, Political Science; Director, L&S Curriculum and Governance
- Ben Gautsch, Teaching, Learning, and Technology Consultant, Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning
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Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, Canan Bilen-Green and the Summer Workload Work Group worked to enhance the campus workload policy and developed templates to guide units. I would like to express my appreciation to the individuals who took the time to ensure we have positive employee experiences.
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- Colleen Janczewski, Associate Professor, Social Work
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Derek Counts, Distinguished Professor, Art History
- Mike Gibisser, Associate Professor, Film
- Wilkistar Otieno, Associate Professor, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering
- Lindsay McHenry, Professor, Geosciences
- John Reisel, Secretary of the University
- Tina Freiburger, Dean, College of Community Engagement and Professions
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Sarah Riforgiate, Professor, Communication
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Prof. Mike Allen (Communication) will be awarded the National Communication Association Mark L. Knapp Award in Interpersonal Communication at the annual convention in November. This award, one of the organization’s most prestigious, recognizes career contributions to the study of interpersonal communication and individuals who have made significant scholarly contributions to the study of interaction and/or relational processes. The recipient will also have contributed to the quality of interpersonal communication through active involvement in the discipline, significant mentoring of students, and/or public service focused on interpersonal communication.
Masum Bellah, Vaibhav Srivastava, Michael Nosonovsky, Benjamin Church, Pradeep Rohatgi (Mechanical and Materials Engineering) recently published, "Shape Memory Alloy-Reinforced Self-Healing Aluminum Composites with In-Situ Low Melting Point Healing Phase," in the high-impact factor Journal of Materials Chemistry A published by the prestigious Royal Society of Chemistry. UWM is a leader in the field of self-healing materials. The new paper builds upon earlier studies and elucidates molecular mechanisms underlying the self-healing effects.
Assoc. Teaching Prof. David Southward (Honors College) has a new poetry collection, “Queer Physics,” out from Kelsay Books. A book release and reading will take place at the Cactus Club in Bay View on Monday, Oct. 13 at 6:30 p.m. A book sale and signing will follow. All ages are welcome! More information.
Assoc. Prof. Sara C. VanderHaagen (Communication) published, “Community and Critique: The Rhetorical Activism of Black American Women's Memory Work.” This book analyzes Black women's memory work, a deliberate, public effort to create, preserve, revise, and circulate accounts of the past to strengthen community bonds and effect change. VanderHaagen draws on rhetorical studies, public memory studies, and Black feminist theory to examine key examples of Black women's memory work during the critical historical period between Reconstruction and the Harlem Renaissance. The book is available via open access through the University of South Carolina Press website.
Asst. Prof. Lia Medeiros (Physics), a member of the Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration, has unveiled new, detailed images of a super-massive black hole that reveal a dynamic environment with unexpected changing polarization patterns. See the images and read more.
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Advancing 2030 Plan Commitments |
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2030 Commitment to Students’ Engagement and Their Academic and Personal Journey |
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The Center for 21st Century Studies is now accepting applications for its first open call for graduate-led public humanities programming. Proposals are due November 16, 2025. Master’s and Doctoral students in any discipline at UW-Milwaukee are invited to propose an event or program to the Center for 21st Century Studies for the Spring 2026 semester. Selected submissions will be developed in collaboration with C21 staff and will be provided with a working budget of $1,000. The 2025-2026 theme, Slow Care, invites graduates to investigate critical questions surrounding slowness, attention, and practices of care for the self, community health, and mutual aid. Applications may be submitted by individual students or groups. C21 reserves the right to have final approval of all projects. See more information and application.
- Campus Sustainability Week will be held from October 13 – October 17, with events happening daily. There will be a climate action workshop, a hydroponics harvest, volunteer opportunities, a surplus pop-up shop, and more. Visit the Office of Sustainability website to learn more.
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Noticing sleepy students in your class? Lack of quality sleep is often an issue for students, and it can negatively affect their health and well-being. Common signs of not getting good sleep include fatigue, daytime sleepiness and difficulty concentrating. Student Health and Wellness (SHAW) offers sleep programming to help students adopt routine sleep hygiene practices for a better night’s sleep. SHAW also provides medical consultation and cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia. Direct your sleepy students to the SHAW sleep support website.
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If you are considering an advanced degree and trying to find the right Graduate School fit for you, attend the Graduate School Virtual Information Session to meet with faculty and staff from our more than 150 master’s, and doctoral, and graduate certificates – both online and on-campus. You’ll be able to obtain an overview of our programs, ask questions about the admissions process, and discover financial aid benefits that are available. Oct. 16, 5:30 to 7 p.m. See more information and register.
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2030 Commitment to Positive Employee Experience |
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All UWM faculty, staff, and students are invited to attend the inaugural, “Renewing Our Civic Culture,” lecture and dinner on Friday, October 17, 4–7:30 p.m., in the UWM Student Union Ballroom. This event will feature a guest lecture by Dr. Jed Atkins, dean of UNC’s School of Civic Life and Leadership, followed by a meal with facilitated dialogue at each table. The dinner offers attendees an opportunity to experience civil dialogue in real time while further engaging with the speaker’s ideas. Use this online form to register.
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Join Colleen Ference-Burke (Public Records Custodian), Jennifer Herzog (Senior University Legal Counsel), and Derek Webb (Records Officer) for a presentation on the basics of fulfilling legal and policy requirements for open government as they apply to records and meetings on Wednesday, October 15 from 3:00-4:00 p.m. in the Archives Department of the Golda Meir Library, room W315 and via Teams. Register online. The speakers will address, what qualifies as a record; when and how do you have to post public announcements for your meeting; what happens when a member of the public files a request for your records and how long do you have to keep your records?
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Copilot Chat is part of the Microsoft suite offered at UWM. This AI tool offers stronger data protection than other free AI tools. This means that prompts and responses fall under Microsoft’s enterprise data protection, which runs regular safety checks and encrypts your data. This is the only version of Copilot Chat where you can safely utilize University data. Learn more.
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2030 Commitment to Research, Innovation, and Community Impact |
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The Office of Dual Enrollment is hosting the third annual "Rhetoric & ____" Conference on Oct. 3. This event is for area students who are taking UWM's English 101 at their high schools for college credit. This year's conference theme is, "Practicing Rhetoric in New Contexts." The keynote, "Why Rhetoric Matters," will be given by Shevaun Watson, Associate Professor of English and Director of the First-Year Writing program. Students will have the opportunity to select from six engaging workshops on rhetoric and current topics, while spending some time on campus. This year, students and Dual Enrollment teachers are coming from Bradley Tech, Golda Meir, Milwaukee Academy of Science, Milwaukee High School of the Arts, and Riverside.
- Honors College freshman, Payton Vollendorf, studying graphic design and art, was featured on WSAW-TV for a mural she painted at her Stevens Point high school library. The mural took more than 170 hours to complete. See the full video story.
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The School of Architecture & Urban Planning has announced the 2025–26 recipients of the Urban Edge Award supported by the Wisconsin Preservation Fund. Curated by Assistant Professor Sam Schuermann (Architecture), this year’s cohort includes nationally recognized architects and theorists who will gather in Milwaukee for a fall symposium and contribute to a spring publication on housing and the American city. Titled "On Housing: the single-family lot and the American city," the symposium runs October 22–24, 2025, and will include keynote lectures, panel discussions, student workshops, and an exhibition. See more.
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As part of its ongoing commitment to community outreach and cultural exchange, the UWM Chinese Program connected with Brookfield East High School on September 24. During the visit, UWM students delivered a presentation titled, “Tasty, Techy, and Green: Exploring China with UWM Students.” Senior Teaching Faculty Lu Yin opened the session with an introduction to UWM and the Chinese Program. UWM students then shared highlights from their summer study experience in China, touching on topics such as electric vehicles, robotics, AI, transportation, digital infrastructure, cuisine, and cross-cultural communication.
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With appreciation,
Andrew P. Daire, PhD
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs
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| University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
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