September 10, 2018  |  News & Events, Provost's Updates

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

Kudos

UWM is back in the Shanghai Rankings of the top 500 research universities in the world! We last appeared in 2011.

The Center for Latin American and Caribbean Studies (CLACS) and the Center for International Education (CIE) have been awarded prestigious Title VI National Resource Center (NRC) and Foreign Language and Area Studies Fellowship (FLAS) grants for 2018-2022 by the U.S. Department of Education. The UW-Consortium for Latin American Studies, CLACS with UW-Madison’s LACIS, received approximately $2 million over four years; CIE’s grant totals $1.8 million. The grants will support student fellowships, teacher training, public engagement, and research. Further information: CIE’s undergraduate student FLAS scholarshipsCLACS Title VI and FLAS award. Congratulations!

Nathan Bredeson (MM 2016) was recently featured in the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s (CBC) “30 Hot Classical Musicians Under 30” list. CBC compiles the list every year to recognize talented young musicians across Canada. Well done, Nathan!

Special Word of Welcome

Colleagues, please join me in a special word of welcome to new faculty members and teaching academic staff who have joined our campus this year.

Recruitment

The Graduate School is initiating a search for an Associate Dean. The application deadline is October 1 with a start date of January 3, 2019. Please see the position announcement and consider applying.

Milwaukee Athletics

Congratulations to the Milwaukee women’s soccer team! They improved to 4-0 on the season with a thrilling 2-1 victory over DePaul September 2, which extended the team’s unbeaten streak to an amazing 24 games (20-0-4) dating back to last season to tie the Horizon League record originally set by Notre Dame in 1994! The action continues throughout the Fall Semester.

Update on Campus Strategic Directions: Student Success (Outstanding Learning Environment) and Research Excellence

The Chancellor has defined five strategic directions for UW-Milwaukee including Student Success, Research Excellence, Community Engagement, Visibility, Image and Brand, and Culture and Climate.  (See https://uwm.edu/chancellor/strategic-directions/). CEMAT (Chancellor’s Enrollment Management Action Team) has been charged specifically with advancing the student success initiatives and has focused the last year on creating a blueprint that defines current investments and actions married to outcome metrics and goals, some of which are connected to outcomes-based funding measures as defined by the legislature. We have phrased this as the Outstanding Learning Environment. Details regarding both the undergraduate and graduate outstanding learning environments can be found at https://uwm.edu/academicaffairs/academic_priorities/student-success/. Under the direction of Mark Harris, Vice Provost for Research, an extensive university research plan has been developed, details of which can be found at https://uwm.edu/chancellor/strategic-directions/research/.

As I have mentioned in some of my previous Monday updates, a team (Mark Harris, Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska, Katie Miota, Gesele Durham, and me) has been conducting introductory meetings focused on these two strategic directions with schools and colleges over the last several weeks. Remaining meetings will be concluded by the end of September. At these meetings, we review the university’s research plan as well as the outstanding learning environment actions and goals at both the graduate and undergraduate levels. The charge to the schools and colleges is to develop and document their own efforts, detailing actions and investments, strategies and outcome, with 3-, 6-, and 10-year goals that dovetail and support university efforts. These reports are due in my office on January 31, 2019. Upon completion of this phase, we will engage in a comprehensive review and assess how school/college plans fit into the larger picture and adjust as necessary.

The Week

Monday

I start the day with my weekly meeting with Robin Van Harpen, followed by a meeting with my staff. The Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet meets and Chancellor Mone and I will meet with Medical College of Wisconsin leadership in the afternoon.

Tuesday

I have the Deans’ Morning meeting, one-on-one meetings with Tom Lipinski, Ron Perez, Nancy Nelson, Pat Borger, and Bob Greenstreet. I also have a Student Success and Research meeting with the Graduate School and plan to attend the Academic Staff Senate meeting.

Wednesday

In the morning, I have my standing meeting with Brett Peters and meetings with my staff. In the afternoon, I have my monthly meeting with KantiPrasad, my weekly meeting with the Chancellor, and I’ll make opening remarks at the WWHEL reception.

Thursday

Robin Van Harpen and I will present Budget Model Implementation to the APBC and I have a standing meeting with Peter Sands. I’ll make remarks at the School of Education’s Fall All-School meeting and then have standing meetings with Dave Clark, ASC Chair Kristin Roosevelt, and UC Chair Kristian O’Connor.

Friday

In the morning, I have a Northwest Mutual Data Science Institute meeting with Mark Harris, Charles Mosley, and Purush Papatla and a Budget Planning meeting. In the afternoon, I have a meeting with Joely Urdan and a Student Success and Research meeting with Zilber School of Public Health.

Announcements

Multicultural Welcome

The second Annual Multicultural Fall Welcome Open House takes place Wednesday, September 12 from 10 a.m. – 2 p.m. in the first floor of Bolton Hall. Join us to learn more about the resources available at UWM. Enjoy free international food, raffle, prizes, fun, and networking!

WWHEL Welcome

The UWM chapter of Wisconsin Women in Higher Education Leadership (WWHEL) is hosting a welcome reception for all new women faculty and staff on September 12 from 3:30 – 5 p.m. in the Libraries’ 4th Floor Conference Center. All faculty and staff are welcome. Please RSVP to zhmiller@uwm.edu.

Neighborhood Cleanup

Starting in Spaights Plaza, teams of students, staff, and community members will head out into the neighborhood near campus to pick up garbage on Friday, September 14 from noon – 4 p.m. Please register your group. Email questions to housing@uwm.edu or call 414-229-6999. The cleanup will be canceled in the event of rain or inclement weather.

Center for 21st Century Studies (C21)

C21 will host its annual Fellows Presentation and Open House on Friday, September 14 at 3:30 p.m. in Curtin 118. Last year’s Fellows will give brief informal talks on their research. The C21 Annual Open House reception will follow at 5 pm in Curtin 939; refreshments will be served. Free and open to all.

Mindfulness Meditation

Mindfulness Meditation Groups for faculty, staff, and students will meet from 12:15 – 12:45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays beginning September 18. No registration is needed. Contact Paul Dupont (pdupont@uwm.edu) for more information.

UWM Panther Response Team (PRT)

Do you want to serve during times of emergency and disaster? Come and learn about the UWM Panther Response Team (PRT) on September 18 and 19 in Union Room 240. Please RSVP. More information at community.uwm.edu. Students, faculty, and staff are encouraged to attend!

Male Allies and Advocates Workshops

As part of UWM’s effort to build a more inclusive climate for female faculty members, the university is offering Male Allies and Advocates Workshops on September 27 and 28 in the fourth-floor conference center of the Golda Meir Library. All male faculty members are invited to the interactive workshops, which will look at ways to improve the recruitment, retention, and advancement of women, especially in the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) areas. Male faculty members can sign up for one of the workshops online. The interactive workshops will be based on a National Science Foundation-funded model developed at North Dakota State University designed to improve gender equity through the direct and proactive engagement of male faculty members.

Classroom Safety Training

Instructor-focused classroom and campus safety training will help ensure that we are prepared to respond to situations that could cause students to feel unsafe. The focus is on disruptive students, students in crisis, and what to do in case of a violent incident. Please register.

UWM Biosafety Program

See the UWM Biosafety Program’s newsletter for important information about the Biosafety Program at UWM, including training opportunities, the IBC protocol submission process, protocol approval requirements for PIs, and IBC protocol submission deadlines.

Unified Communications/Skype for Business

UWM’s upcoming Unified Communications/Skype for Business project will convert campus telecommunications services to Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) using Skype for Business as the platform. Register for an upcoming focus group session to provide feedback on the Unified Communications/Skype for Business project.

Shared Financial System (SFS) Shutdown

UWM’s system-wide shared financial system, SFS, will undergo an upgrade from PeopleSoft version 9.1 to version 9.2 and will be shut down from Friday, October 5 until Wednesday, October 10.

Other

The Packers and the Brewers did it!  Alastair Cook got a century just this morning, playing his last Test match for England. For those of you who are grandparents, know grandparents or have grandparents – yesterday was National Grandparents Day.

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs