Office of the Provost

Provost’s Update

May 3, 2024 Friday Update

Good afternoon, colleagues. Here is the update from Academic Affairs.

As the end of the term nears, I’d like to provide an update on three Academic Affairs initiatives:

M-Cubed
UWM continues to make significant contributions to M-Cubed through connecting learning, supporting transitions, and driving completion strategies. This year, nearly 3,000 MPS high school students had the opportunity to visit MATC and UWM to experience a campus setting and learn about careers. Every year, a professional development day is designed with the collaboration of MPS, MATC, and UWM representatives for educators to learn from one another and address pedagogical practices that promote student learning. The 2024 theme was: Curriculum Alignment: Embracing Soft Skills. More than 300 faculty and staff from all three institutions participated across two different MATC campuses. The Smart Start transition program has realized an 81.8% fall-to-fall retention rate compared to 60.7% for all MPS students in the fall 2022 cohort. A total of 431 scholarships worth $107,750 have been disbursed through the program. This year’s College Connections cohort consists of three students within the education pathway, 94 students in the general pathway, and 28 students in the nursing pathway. The enrollment rate for students in the general pathway was 78% compared to a 34% general MPS enrollment rate for fall, after high school graduation for the class of 2021. M-Cubed is continuing to elevate and innovate education practices to lift up students, improve the community, and build the region’s divers workforce pipeline.

Course Evaluation Platform
In December 2023, an interdisciplinary and multifunction workgroup, with governance representation, selected UWM’s new course evaluation tool: Explorance Blue. Blue was selected from two options approved and recommended by the Universities of Wisconsin. Now, an implementation team is working on rolling out the tool for fall 2024. In addition to implementing the tool, the team is also working on:

Identifying the training and documentation campus will need (including methods for increasing response rates). Blue can make the evaluation process less manual and more useful for staff, students, and instructors, but only if we couple the rollout with support.
Developing consistent, data-driven evaluation approaches, combining higher quality data with the ability of departments to add their own custom measures.
Revisiting campus policy to ensure appropriate and fair use of course evaluation data in personnel evaluations, given its known biases and the potential for Blue to provide aggregate data.

Course Evaluation Progress Report.

Microcredentials
UWM has awarded its first microcredential to a Flexible Option student who completed the Interprofessional Leadership in Healthcare microcredential. Another undergraduate microcredential, Suicide Prevention Across the Lifespan, was approved this spring. At the graduate level, two master’s programs have created stackable microcredentials leading to the degree: Nonprofit Management (four microcredentials) and Sustainable Peacebuilding (three microcredentials). The university’s microcredentials are both transcripted and badged for students to share via social media. To learn more about microcredentials, see the Microcredential Toolkit.

Mission Moment

The Northwestern Mutual Data Science Institute (NMDSI) held its second annual symposium, Bridging Innovation & Impact, on Wednesday, April 24. All sessions were recorded and have been posted to YouTube (see links below). A recap article is also available on the NMDSI website.

FIRESIDE CHAT WITH NMDSI LEADERS
Michael Lovell, Dr. Mark Mone, Christian Mitchell, and Dr. Anju Gupta (moderator)
MORNING KEYNOTE ADDRESS
Dr. Chris Wiggins
PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE IN AI: EDUCATION TO CAREER
Sheikh Iqbal Ahamed, Dr. Tanya Joosten, Dr. Justin Kurland, and Dr. Phyllis King (moderator)
AI FOR SOCIAL IMPACT
Audra Brennan, Dr. Majeed Hayat, Dr. Mohammad Habibur Rahman, and Dr. Sabirat Rubya (moderator)
AI DRIVEN CREATIVITY
Dawn Behrens, Dr. Gerry Canavan, Dr. Nathaniel Stern, and Dr. Suzanne Boyd (moderator)
RESPONSIBLE AI: NAVIGATING BIAS, POLICY, AND GOVERNANCE
Dr. Scott Schanke, Jon Toldt, Dr. Michael Zimmer, and Dr. Amber Wichowsky (moderator)
CLOSING KEYNOTE: INTEGRATING ETHICS INTO INNOVATION
Ann (Gregg) Skeet

Appreciations

I appreciate Sarah Riforgiate (Communication; CETL Interim Director) who was honored with the 2024 Warren Mentorship Award. The award, given by the Central States Communication Association at their convention in early April, recognizes a mid-career scholar who excels in all aspects of their career (teaching, research/creativity, service, and engagement), but most importantly, is an excellent mentor to students. Congratulations, Sarah!

I also appreciate Uk Heo (Political Science) and Sooho Song (Ancient and Modern Languages, Literatures, and Cultures) who received a $213,316 research grant, along with colleagues from two other institutions, for their project, “South Korea’s Rise at the Intersection of Globalization and Deglobalization.” With this grant, they will write books and host conferences for the years 2024-2026. Well done, Uk and Sooho!

My appreciation goes out to Dean Tina Freiburger (College of Community Engagement and Professions) who was selected as one the Milwaukee Business Journal’s 2024 Women of Influence. The list includes prominent business and community leaders from southeastern Wisconsin who are making the Milwaukee area a better place to live and work. Congratulations, Tina!

I appreciate Maria Novotny (English) whose anthology, “Infertilities, A Curation,” has been named a finalist for the Midwest Book Awards in the category of Health. Published by Wayne State UP, the anthology highlights the varied perspectives of individuals who have lived with infertility. Well done, Maria!

Important Updates: Leadership Recruitments

College of the Arts and Architecture Dean
Jawshing (Arthur) Liou was on campus last week and Jacob (Jake) Pinholster finished his campus visit today. Our final candidate, Ozayr Saloojee, will be on campus May 13-15. Candidate information and feedback forms are available on the Secretary of the University’s dean search page.

Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
Finalists for the position of Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs will be on campus next week. Details about the position, the candidates, campus visit schedules, and Q&A open forums are available on the VPFA search website. Access to finalist CVs will require logging in with UWM credentials. The finalists for the Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs position are:

Canan Bilen-Green
Open Forum: Monday, May 6, 11:15 a.m.-12 p.m., Lubar Hall S185
Stephen Schmid
Open Forum: Tuesday, May 7, 10:45-11:30 a.m., Lubar Hall S195
Suzanne Boyd
Open Forum: Wednesday, May 8, 11-11:45 a.m., Lubar Hall S185

Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
Looking ahead, the finalists for the position of Vice Provost for Academic Affairs will be on campus the weeks of May 13 and May 20. More information will be available next week.

Special Announcement

The updated Instructor Policies and Resources page and syllabus template are now available

Advancing 2030 Plan Priorities

Student Success

Faculty governance approved a change to the deadline for adding courses. Under the previous policy, students were able to enroll in full-term courses through the tenth day of a semester. Student success data indicates that students who added classes after the first five days were unlikely to be successful. Therefore, the policy, which goes into effect this fall, has been edited to allow students to add courses only until the fifth day of the term. Instructors may still give students permission to add their courses; this policy change only impacts the ability of students to add courses on their own.
Hear updates and learn about UWM’s new student onboarding process on Wednesday, May 8 from 2-3:15 p.m. via Teams. Presenters will review the new student onboarding process, preview the student experience at Orientation, provide an overview of Panther Transition Training, highlight Fall Welcome information, and answer questions.

Curricular Innovation

The Center for Student Experience and Talent (SET) is hosting a Presentation of Learning from 3-5 p.m. in the Student Union on Thursday, May 9—UWM’s Experiential Learning Day. The event highlights learning and work in a variety of classes/programs, including service-learning courses, internships, and fieldwork. Attendees will have the opportunity to engage through poster presentations and panel discussions. Light refreshments will be provided. RSVP.

Research Advancement

The 2024 Partners for Health Research Symposium will be held in the Union Ballroom on Friday, May 10 from 11 a.m.-4:15 p.m. The symposium showcases graduate and undergraduate student work representing a range of programs across UWM’s health-related colleges, the College of Health Professions and Sciences and the Joseph J. Zilber College of Public Health and is a great opportunity for students to disseminate their health-related work to peers, professors, and the wider Milwaukee community, often for the first time.
UWM’s Innovator’s Expo will be held on Friday, May 10 from 11:30 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center. The Innovator’s Expo is an annual celebration of innovation and entrepreneurship that showcases a collection of UWM community prototypes, ideas, startups, student organizations, partners, classes, and innovations in an exhibit format. This is an opportunity for participants to highlight their hard work and the progress that has been made throughout the past year. Information and registration.
The UWM Libraries invite proposals for the 2025 Morris Fromkin Memorial Research Grant and Lecture. The grant encourages and assists UWM scholars in all fields of study to conduct research on individuals, groups, movements, and ideas that have influenced the quest for social justice and human rights in the United States. For 2025, proposals on environmental justice, immigration, gender equality, LGBTQ+ rights, or indigeneity are especially welcome. Applications must be submitted by January 10, 2025. More information.

Workforce and Community

Friday, May 31 is the deadline to submit all non-catalog IT purchase requests for computer hardware and software to be entered with funding for this fiscal year (FY24). To make an IT purchase request, please use the Purchase Request Form. For more information, visit the IT Procurement website.
The UWM Alumni Association is seeking recommendations for the 2025 Alumni Awards. Awards recognize alumni throughout their careers from young alumni to seasoned professionals. Please take a moment to fill out the UWM Alumni Awards Internal Recommendation Form to nominate amazing alumni who should be on the Alumni Association’s radar. The recommendation form is an “early step” only available to UWM faculty/staff providing guidance and support in the nomination process. All nomination packets will be due Friday, August 30.