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

In his plenary, Chancellor Mone shared a graphic with three concentric circles representing our mission: 

Collectively, our work should foster student learning, advance research, and engage with our community. 

We work to meet our mission every day, guided by the strategic goals of the 2030 Plan, and in the context of challenges identified in the Deloitte Report on UWM: diminished support for higher education among external stakeholders, declining enrollment over the past decade (although our current fall enrollments look stable, particularly for undergraduates), and increasing competition. 

The Deloitte Report also identifies several areas of opportunity for UWM that are actionable within Academic Affairs and that relate to the refreshed 2030 Action Plan:

The opportunities identified above emerged from an analysis of UWM’s institutional strengths, and they will be a focus for Academic Affairs this year and beyond:

As we work together on priority opportunities, I look forward not only to the results, but also to the process of shaping UWM’s future as a community engaged R1 institution with an access mission. 

I appreciate Qingsu Chen (Biomedical Engineering) who was awarded a USDA grant to develop a process to monitor and treat pathogens in polluted wastewater. As the Principal Investigator, he will develop and test technology that assures the quality of reclaimed water and agricultural wastewater so that more can be used in irrigation.

Much appreciation to Aimee Orndorf (Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies), Ben Trager (Community Engagement and Experiential Learning), and Christine Wolf (Global and International Studies), who will be presenting at the 2024 Center for Research on College-Workforce Transitions Fall Conference at UW-Madison. Their presentation, “Designing a Global Careers Event: Leveraging Collaboration to Foster Student Career Readiness,” will describe the impact of intra-campus collaborations for a campus-wide multifaceted event that included skill building stations, a mini study abroad fair, a facilitated panel, and networking. See the promotional video.

I appreciate Mechanical Engineering student Asma Khasawneh who was awarded the Ruth Whitlock CWEEL Scholarship by the Council of Women & Environmental Leadership, a division of the Association of Energy Engineers. The award recognizes the top female U.S. student pursuing an energy career.

On August 26, the College of Engineering and Applied Science welcomed 24 new students who are participating in an academic exchange program between UWM engineering and Chung Yuan Christian University (CYCU) in Taiwan. The cohort brings the number of CYCU students in the college to 49. They include both graduate and undergraduate students. Watch the welcome event video.

I am pleased to announce the Student Success in the Classroom Summit on Friday, October 4 from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. in the Union Wisconsin Room. The objective of the summit is to discuss data and develop actionable strategies aimed at enhancing student success and learning outcomes. The event will include presentations on research and strategies for improving course outcomes through faculty engagement, tactical strategies for enhancing student success, and working time for developing department-specific plans. There will also be group discussions and collaborative planning sessions.

Colleges will hold meetings on or before October 4 to review their student success data, including retention, graduation rates, and course performance. Student data is available for viewing in the Student Success Data Toolkit, a curated resource developed by the Office of Assessment and Institutional Research and shared with colleges last year. Units are invited to form teams to attend the summit and collaborate on identifying key barriers and opportunities, developing initiatives to improve student success, and creating action plans for incorporating high impact, inclusive teaching practices into their courses and curricula.

A follow-up event in November will offer teams the opportunity to share their progress and refine their strategies, while the Teaching and Learning Symposium in January, open to all UWM instructors, will provide a platform to further advance our collective efforts toward enhancing student success.

“I especially appreciated the very concrete steps offered for talking with and supporting students who are experiencing challenges. Even though I went into the workshop with a pretty good sense of how to reach out to and support students who need that, I still found these concrete suggestions very helpful.”

Support U is a comprehensive support program at UWM that helps students in need or students facing challenges. Please have your students reach out if they need anything—the Support U website is where they’ll find a range of support resources in one place, and how to contact the Dean of Students Office. Support U also provides consultations and workshops for UWM employees on how they can support students. Workshops will be held throughout the fall semester.

With appreciation,

Andrew P. Daire, PhD
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs

University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
2310 E. Hartford Ave.
Milwaukee, WI 53211