April 6, 2020  |  News & Events, Provost's Updates, Timely Announcements

Good morning, colleagues. Here is this week’s update from Academic Affairs.

Summer Session

UWM will continue in an online instructional approach for the summer session, with some exceptions. I am working with deans to identify a small number of courses that must be offered face-to-face. Ideally, these should be few in number and offered during the latter half of summer session (subject to COVID-19 conditions at the time). Campus leadership is finalizing recommendations on summer course fees; more information will be available later this week.

Proctoring Service

In response to requests from academic units, UWM has secured a proctoring service, Proctorio, for the remainder of spring semester and for the summer session. CETL will be offering training on the service beginning in mid-April; more information will be sent to instructors soon. Note that it will be completely at the discretion of instructors to determine whether to use Proctorio in a course.

Amended Emergency Undergraduate Grading Accommodation Policy

The emergency undergraduate grading accommodation policy has been amended to specifically address the Oral and Written Communications – A and Quantitative Literacy – A parts of the general education requirements. Students earning a grade of “Credit” in Oral and Written Communication-A (OWC-A) or Quantitative Literacy-A (QL-A) courses during the Spring of 2020 (and only during Spring of 2020) will have satisfied the OWC-A or QL-A, respectively, requirement. This policy was approved by both the University Committee and the Academic Staff Committee. See the amended policy.

Kudos

Karyn Frick (Psychology) won a $50,000 2019-2020 UW System Regent Scholar award for her work on an innovative Alzheimer research project. The award will be presented at the April Board of Regents meeting. Congratulations, Karyn, this is a real honor!

Two faculty had their projects selected for funding under the 2020-21 Ignite Grant Program for Applied Research. Junjie Niu’s (Materials Science and Engineering) project, “A New Design of Lithium Ion Battery with Improved Energy Density for Electronic Devices and Cordless Power Tools,” has been selected for $48,000 funding. Alexander Timmer’s (Architecture) project, “Mobile Design Box Retrofit: Addressing Urban Vacancy Through Entrepreneurial Infrastructure,” has been selected for $50,000 funding. The program and research are supported by WiSys and University of Wisconsin System applied research funding. Great news, Junjie and Alexander!

Giorgio Sarro (Atmospheric Science), Kyrie Sellnow, and Sarah Beamish (both Psychology) were awarded Honorable Mentions from the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship Program! Giorgio was also awarded an Honorable Mention from the National Academies’ Ford Foundation Fellowship program. Well done, Giorgio, Kyrie, and Sarah!

Heidi Wheeler (UWM DNP student) was featured in Time this month – 27 people bridging divides across America. Her DNP Project will focus on policy and diversity of the nursing workforce. Congratulations, Heidi!

Carolyn Eichner (History and Women’s and Gender Studies), Kennan Ferguson (Political Science), and Lisa Hager (CGS English and Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies) have been awarded UW-System Fellowships at the Institute for Research in the Humanities, UW-Madison, for the 2020-2021 academic year. Congratulations, Carolyn, Keenan, and Lisa!

Milwaukee Athletics

Milwaukee Director of Athletics Amanda Braun shared a message to the rest of the Panther Family regarding the world in which we now live.

message from SAAC President Alyssa Fischer to all student-athletes.

The Week

Monday

I start the week with my daily Crises Management Team (CMT) Leadership meeting, followed by my one-on-one with Mark Harris, my weekly meeting with Robin Van Harpen, and my monthly meeting with Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska. Then, I have the Chancellor’s Cabinet Deep Dive meeting, a CMT Crisis Management meeting (this is with a larger group), an AAUP meeting with the Chancellor, my weekly staff meeting, and my daily meeting with Dev Venugopalan and Laura Pedrick.

Tuesday

In the morning, I have the CMT Leadership meeting, a Tech Ed Frontiers Core Team Leads meeting, my one-on-one with Michael Doylen, my standing meeting with Dave Clark and Kay Eilers, and monthly meetings with Nancy Nelson and Tom Lipinski. In the afternoon, I have a University Committee meeting, an Academic Leadership Council meeting, and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Wednesday

Today, I once again have the CMT Leadership meeting, followed by my standing meeting with Brian Thompson, my monthly meetings with Brett Peters, Leigh Wallace, Nancy Frank, and Jonathan Hanes, a meeting with deans and shared governance, my standing meeting with Pat Borger, the UW System Provosts weekly teleconference, a meeting with Dave Clark, Kay Eilers, and Sue Weslow, and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Thursday

Once again, I start the day with a CMT Leadership meeting, followed by the APBC meeting, a Campus Budget Planning Meeting, and a June Board of Regents Planning meeting. Later, I have my monthly meeting with Val Klump and Tim Grundl, my standing meetings with Scott Gronert and Scott Emmons, a meeting about the Summer Bridge Program, the Chancellor’s Cabinet weekly check-in, and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura.

Friday

My day starts again with a CMT Leadership meeting, followed by my monthly meeting with Alan Shoho, my weekly meeting with the Chancellor, and my monthly meeting with Kaushal Chari. In the afternoon, I have a UWSA Fellowship Program meeting, my one-on-one with Dave Clark, meetings with my direct reports, and my daily meeting with Dev and Laura, which will then conclude a rather busy week.

Announcements

Disruptive Technology

The SOIS Disruptive Technology Lab is offering the third in a series of four networking sessions for all researchers on campus (faculty and students) on Thursday, April 9 at noon. This session will be virtual and focus on “Disruptive Technology: Governance and Democracy.”

Teams


UWM Libraries

Updated information about the UWM Libraries COVID-19 news and the expanded online services and resources available to students, faculty, and staff via the Libraries website.

Global Health

Did you know that UWM is a leader in global health? UWM has been educating students in global health for more than 10 years and offers a variety of global health programs. In Fall 2020, UWM’s College of Nursing is offering a new course, Global Patterns of Disease, which will highlight COVID-19 and other infectious and non-infectious diseases. Please share with interested students!

Class Tallies

Class Tallies aggregate course enrollment PDF reports have moved to a new location on the Class Tallies SharePoint site. An interactive Class Tallies dashboard is also available in the OBIEE reporting environment – instructions for obtaining OBIEE access. Questions about this change may be sent to the UITS Data Warehouse team at warehouse-support@uwm.edu.

Stay safe and take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs