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

On October 4, more than 220 representatives from every school and college participated in the Student Success in the Classroom Summit with the objective of developing actionable strategies to enhance student success and learning outcomes.

Colleges met on or before October 4 to review their student success data, including retention, graduation rates, and course performance. Units formed teams to attend the summit and collaborate on identifying key barriers and opportunities, and creating action plans for incorporating high-impact, inclusive teaching practices into their courses and curricula.

The summit focused on integrating three instructor driven high-impact practices and inclusive excellence strategies within the classroom: high-level performance expectations, transparency in purpose, and inclusion of student voice and feedback.

To date, the majority of units, about 35 academic departments, have submitted action plans, with additional departments finalizing their plans. Reported action plans include fostering faculty collaboration through sharing teaching strategies and peer review of course materials, promoting participation in CETL workshops, utilizing mid-semester evaluations, and leveraging data such as DFW rates, student feedback, and climate surveys to guide teaching improvements and enhance student success.

A discussion on how to apply these strategies to online courses also took place at the Online Program Council last week.

A follow-up event taking place on November 15 from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. will offer teams the opportunity to share their progress and refine their strategies, while the Teaching and Learning Symposium scheduled for January 9, open to all UWM instructors, will provide a platform to further advance our collective efforts toward enhancing student success.

I would like to express my deep appreciation to new colleagues Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Canan Bilen-Green and CETL Director Natasha Jankowski, who led this outstanding event. I also appreciate the Academic Affairs and CETL teams for their support, as well as the faculty, staff, and administrators who participated. I look forward to continued progress in advancing student success at UWM.

I appreciate Sarah Riforgiate (Communication) and Amy Mangrich (Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning) for accepting the Social Learning Innovator Institution of the Year Award on behalf of UWM from the Hypothesis company on October 17. This award resulted from research indicating that Open Education Resources (OER) and Hypothesis (a social annotation), when paired, increase student engagement. The OER initiative is a partnership between UWM Libraries and CETL.

I also share my appreciation for Xiao Qin (Civil Engineering and IPIT Director) for his leadership of the Institute for Physical Infrastructure and Transportation (IPIT). Along with the Wisconsin Department of Transportation, IPIT co-hosted the annual Southeast Wisconsin Transportation Symposium on October 4, which drew record attendance. Researchers, students, and transportation professionals gathered on campus to share research and innovative practices. Dr. Qin pointed out the weighty influence of this symposium, noting, “Attendees are those who collectively guide the investment strategies for WisDOT’s $4 billion annual budget.”

Much appreciation for the Department of Urban Planning in the School of Architecture and Urban Planning (SARUP) for establishing the Center for Equity Practice and Planning Justice to combat segregation. The Center’s mission is to promote the deconstruction and mitigation of segregation, which is the racialized making of place that reproduces poor community outcomes consistently at scale across a plethora of community wellbeing metrics. The inaugural launch and press event will take place on Friday, October 25 from 10 a.m.-noon in the SARUP Commons. Mayor Cavalier Johnson and County Executive David Crowley will be there along with a host of strategic partners. Congresswoman Gwen Moore is also anticipated. Kudos as well to Kirk Harris (Urban Planning) who led the establishment of the Center and serves as its founding director.

My appreciation goes out to Joel Spiess, Maria Solis, and Cindy Reindl (Office of Scholarships) who represented UWM at the National Scholarship Providers Association Annual Conference in Salt Lake City, UT October 15-18. The team presented three workshops and two mini sessions regarding UWM’s model of centralized scholarship coordination and the improved outcomes our institution has achieved in recent years.

The ARC Excellence Award, presented on Friday, October 4, recognizes instructors, nominated by their students, who demonstrate exemplary service to ARC students and staff. These instructors go above and beyond what is required to make courses accessible, maintain professionalism while interacting with ARC staff, exercise sensitivity to a diverse student population, integrate or apply universal design principles into instruction or service delivery, and more. Kudos to this year’s awardees:

Senior Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administrative Affairs Robin Van Harpen and I will hold our second town hall meeting to discuss the university’s financial planning, the budget model changes, and UWM’s path forward to 2030 on Wednesday, October 23 from 3-4 in the Union Fireside Lounge. This session will be held in person. The third session, held from 9:30-10:30 a.m. on Monday, October 28, will be virtual. 

With appreciation,

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

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