September 17, 2018  |  News & Events, Provost's Updates

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

Chancellor’s Plenary this Thursday

Chancellor Mone will present his fall plenary address to the UWM community this Thursday (September 20) at 2:30 p.m. in the Bader Concert Hall of the Helene Zelazo Center. You are all invited, and if you cannot be there in person, you can always follow it online.

Kudos

For the fourth year in a row, UWM has been named one of the best universities in the country for LGBTQ+ students. The Campus Pride Index evaluates the LGBTQ+ friendliness of campuses in the US and UWM made their top-30 list. Wonderful news!

John Roberts, Sociology, is PI on a National Science Foundation grant recently awarded for research on “Methodological Challenges and Archaeological Interpretations in Network Analysis of Artifact Assemblage Data.” UWM ($91,132) is the lead institution in this collaborative project with Arizona State University. Congratulations, John!

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.

Recruitment

The Division of Student Affairs invites applications for the Dean of Students position. The Dean of Students provides leadership, direction, and oversight for the Dean of Students Office, which includes student support and advocacy, student development, student rights and responsibilities, student conduct, ombuds functions, and emergency preparedness and response.

Milwaukee Athletics

Please join Milwaukee Athletics on Saturday, September 29 at 5 p.m. at the UWM Student Union for a special gathering to honor long time Track & Field/Cross Country Head Coach Pete Corfeld and head Athletic Trainer John Ochsenwald, MS, ATC.

The Week

Monday

I’m attending the Academic Staff Council meeting, the Chancellor’s Executive Cabinet meets, I meet with Mark Harris, and I have my weekly staff meeting and a sponsors meeting for the Chancellor’s Committee on Hispanic Serving Initiatives.

Tuesday

I have the Deans’ Morning meeting, meetings with Val Klump and Tim Grundl, Joan Prince, and directors in Academic Affairs. I will attend part of the University Committee meeting, I have a Student Success and Research meeting with the College of Engineering and Applied Science, and I plan to stop by the Multicultural Network monthly meeting.

Wednesday

In the morning, I have a standing meeting with Peter Sands, a Partners for Health meeting, and later, my weekly meeting with the Chancellor.

Thursday

I begin the day with an APBC meeting, followed by standing meetings with Student Association leaders, Scott Emmons, and Marija Gajdardziska-Josifovska. Then I’ll attend the Chancellor’s Plenary (see above) and the Faculty Senate meeting.

Friday

This will be primarily an administrative work day, with a break for a deans’ lunch and a Student Success and Research meeting with the College of Health Sciences.

Announcements

Foxconn Day

Foxconn Day at UWM takes place today, September 17 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Wisconsin Room of the UWM Student Union. Foxconn, which launched its first international engineering co-op program in Wisconsin at UWM, is hiring for many positions across disciplines and seeks entry-, mid-, and senior-level talent. This event is open to the public.

Latinx Heritage Month

Latinx Heritage Month at UWM is coordinated by a team of campus stakeholders offering a variety of programs that recognize and celebrate the history, culture, and contributions of people of Latinx, Afro-Latinx, Chicanx, Latin American, Caribbean, Spanish, and Indigenous descent in the United States. A full calendar of events kicks off this Thursday with a Frida Kahlo & Diego Rivera Photography Exhibit.

The 2018 Hispanic Heritage Month award will be presented to César Pabón Perez on Friday, October 5 at the Hefter Conference Center.

From the Graduate School

The UWM Graduate School will honor its new fellows with a celebration on September 26 at 4:30 p.m. in the Golda Meir Library 4th floor conference center.

From the Panther Shop

Shop with us all semester long. Each month, the Panther Shop will have many in store promotions and sales.

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.

Book-Banning Discussion
Joyce M. Latham will be leading a community discussion around the banning of books in the US at the Mead Public Library in Sheboygan, WI on Tuesday, September 25 at 6:30 p.m. The discussion will center around three books that highlight the common reasons people ban and challenge books across different age groups and viewpoints: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, and the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling.

From Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies

On October 4 at 1:30 pm in Physics 137, the Department of Journalism, Advertising, and Media Studies presents HIGHER EDUCATION, FREE SPEECH, AND CAMPUS CODES, a talk by Alexander Tsesis, Raymond & Mary Simon Chair in Constitution Law and Professor of Law at the Loyola University School of Law in Chicago. Co-sponsors include the Department of Political Science and the Center for the Study of Institutions and Innovation at UW-Stout.

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!

Adventures in Research

Join us for our first UWM Facebook Live event on Thursday, September 27 at 12:30 p.m. when we kick off our “Adventures in Research” series, giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what’s going on in UWM’s laboratories. This inaugural event takes you to the Prototyping Center at UWM’s Innovation Campus in Wauwatosa. We’ll talk with director Kyle Jansson who will show you how they take an idea and create a physical product. It’s a maker must-see!

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

Paris and Brussels – free of cars and a new world marathon record!

Take care,

Johannes

Johannes Britz
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs