Good morning, Colleagues. Here are this week’s updates from Academic Affairs.

Chancellor’s Plenary Address
The Chancellor’s Plenary Address will be held this Thursday, September 15 at 2:30 p.m. in the Zelazo Center’s Bader Concert Hall. The Chancellor invites all faculty, academic staff, university staff, students, and friends to join him. While everyone at UWM is invited to attend this presentation, it is important that supervisors and employees work together to ensure that office operational needs are met while allowing as many people as possible to attend. A live webcast of the plenary will be available to those unable to attend the presentation in person.

Enrollment Update
I want to share with you that our fall enrollment numbers are down from the previous year. This is mainly due to smaller class sizes over the last couple of years, but we also saw a drop in our new Freshmen class – even though we did increase the number of admissions. The yield is down, which resulted in a smaller cohort of students. Our enrollments from Illinois, however, are significantly higher. More details will be shared with the campus once we have the final numbers next week. 

Kudos

– Karyn Frick, Psychology, was awarded a grant from the Alzheimer’s Association to study how genetic risk factors interact with sex and estrogen treatment to regulate memory and brain function in a mouse model of Alzheimer’s disease. This award was one of only nine given by the association as part of their first-ever research grants on the effects of sex and gender in Alzheimer’s disease. Well done, Karyn!

– UWM’s Online Summer Course website received a silver award in a national higher education marketing competition sponsored by UPCEA. Congratulations to Dylan Barth (CETL), Elijah Clark (Web Services), Laura Pedrick (Academic Affairs), and their team!

– The Art History Department has now placed graduate internships at major arts institutions in the Milwaukee area, including the Museum of Wisconsin Art, the Haggerty Museum of Art at Marquette, the Kohler Foundation, the Chipstone Foundation, and as of spring 2017, the Milwaukee Art Museum (MAM) where, thanks to the generosity of the Demmer Charitable Trust, M.A. candidate Kelsey McCarey Soya will serve a yearlong paid internship under the supervision of Design and Decorative Arts Curator Monica Obniski. Kudos to Richard Leson and Jennifer Johung for their leadership in strengthening this program!

– In an absolute first for UWM, NSF has awarded three major research instrumentation grants in a single year to the following PIs: Patrick Brady, Physics, Peter Geissinger, Chemistry, and Vali Raicu, Physics. This is truly remarkable and well done Patrick, Peter, and Vali.

The Week

Monday
I meet with VC Robin Van Harpen, and I have a phone meeting on EAB’s Academic Performance Solutions platform (APS is a partnership with EAB that is intended to provide academic leadership with data and benchmarks related to enrollment, capacity, outcomes, and costs, so that academic spending can be deployed for maximum impact.  We are still in the data export phase but will have an initial report soon.).  I’m attending part of the Academic Services and Advising Leadership Council (ASALC) meeting. I meet with Mark Harris (research) and the Chancellor’s Cabinet meets.

Tuesday
I begin the day with a UWM Research Foundation board meeting (very early). I have regular meetings with Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, VC Tom Luljak, and Brian Thompson. In the afternoon, I will host UW-System Vice President Jim Henderson. He started his new position in January and is currently visiting all campuses.

Wednesday
I have regular meetings with Deans Ron Cisler, Kim Litwack, and Rodney Swain. The Search and Screen Committee for the Zilber School of Public Health Dean position has its first meeting, and I meet with the 3 health-related school/college Deans for an update on their progress towards increased collaboration.

Thursday
I’m attending part of the CIE retreat and I meet with Paula Rhyner, Marija G-J, and Trudy Turner. The Chancellor’s Plenary is in the afternoon, followed by the Faculty Senate.

Friday
I have another day of meetings that includes my weekly meeting with the Chancellor and then with HBSSW Dean Stan Stojkovic. In the afternoon I have a rather lengthy meeting on Academic Affairs’ budget planning for the year. At this meeting we will determine the initial budget targets that each academic unit needs to meet in our efforts to balance our overall budget.

Announcements

From the Vet Success On Campus Program

The Veterans Affairs Regional will be honoring Vietnam Era Veterans affiliated with UWM at the Serving Those Who Served Veterans Week Brunch. All Vietnam Era Veteran employees of UWM are encouraged to contact Gretchen Schuttey, gretchen.schuttey@va.gov, to participate.

From the Office of Research

A workshop on applying for the Research and Creative Activities Support (RACAS) awards will be held Friday, September 16 from 10-11:30 a.m. in Mitchell 361. Registration is not required. Projects supported by this internal funding program are expected to result in scholarly products that will increase the recognition of the awardees, their programs, and the institution. Examples include: publications, creative works, proposals for extramural funding, and/or named fellowships.

From the Center for 21^st Century Studies

Brian Price (University of Toronto) will be presenting, “Regret and Remake: On the 1946 Film Noir Classic, The Postman Always Rings Twice,” on Friday, September 16 at 3:30 p.m. in Curtin 118.

From the College of Health Sciences

The College of Health Sciences (CHS) Research Forum is scheduled for this Friday at 12 p.m. in Enderis Hall 127. Mark Harris, UWM Vice Provost for Research, will present, “UWM Research: Metrics, Rankings, R1, and Investment Needs.” The presentation will focus on UWM R1 status and what it means for continuing research growth, leveraging research funding, and investment needs.

From the Zilber School of Public Health

– On Public Health kicks off the fall 2016 series with a lecture by Dr. Kate Foss on the history of Milwaukee water systems on Thursday, September 15 from 5:30 to 7 p.m. at the Zilber School of Public Health.

– The Zilber School’s accreditation self-study process is well underway and the Council on Education for Public Health (CEPH) is now accepting written comments until 30 days before the site visit. Visit the Zilber School web site to learn how to submit comments.

From the Roberto Hernandez Center

The Roberto Hernandez Center Celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month at the UWM campus with a list of great events and activities for students, staff, faculty, and the community in general.

From the Department of Communication

Declare Your Major or Minor in Communication Day! Those students who wish to declare their major or minor in Communication can do so on Tuesday, September 13 in Room 222 of Johnston Hall. Advisors will be available to answer questions; light refreshments will be served.

Other

Mo Farah won the Great North Run for the third year in a row! (The Great North Run is the biggest half marathon race in the world and takes place in North East England. More than 41,000 runners took part in the race this year [from 178 countries]).

Have a good week!

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs