University-wide

Highlights from the 2025 State of the University

lblouin — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 17:41:50 +0000

Highlights from the 2025 State of the University lblouin Mon, 02/03/2025 - 12:41

Chancellor Domenico Grasso hosted his annual State of the University address last Thursday before a standing-room-only audience of more than 250. Grasso shared the university’s progress toward key milestones, as well as some concerns and challenges, before handing the mic over to the offices of the Provost, Institutional Advancement and Facilities Operations, as well as several ��-Dearborn students, to discuss new initiatives and their impact, along with some future plans. Key takeaways from the event are below.

More students are crossing the finish line to graduation.

Several key metrics in the GOBLUEprint for Success — the university’s strategic plan — are well on track. The four-year graduation rate has climbed from 22% in 2018 to 38% in 2024. “That's a 16% increase. That is truly incredible,” Grasso noted. “Many factors have led to this success in graduation rate: our students’ determination, our professors’ skill and mentoring, our campus resources and a community that is dedicated to seeing students across the finish line.”

The transition to a need-based financial aid model means that 94% of ��-Dearborn undergraduate FTIAC students now receive enough aid that their remaining obligations are less than $2,000 a year. And half of classes on campus now include a practice-based learning component. “This approach provides distinctive and creative opportunities for our students to prepare for the next phase of their careers,” Grasso observed. “I commend the faculty who design these courses and the department chairs and deans who support them.”

Faculty continue to excel: In the past two years, faculty and staff annual citations in publications have grown from 13,500 to over 22,000, and ��-Dearborn faculty experts appeared in 119 major local and national media outlets in 2024. Research awards continue to climb as well. While the university aimed for $9.8 million in research support in FY2024, that number actually reached nearly $12 million. Awarded and recommended funding for the first six months of FY25 now exceeds $14 million.

Grasso celebrated last year’s launch of the Office of Holistic Excellence, noting that the office was supporting several storytelling initiatives as a means of building empathy and a sense of inclusion across campus, as recently discussed in Insight into Diversity magazine. He noted that the campus community will see a new set of KPIs related to belonging and inclusion. The latest GOBLUEprint for Success KPI report was emailed to campus following the event.

Overall enrollment is encouraging, but there is still work to do.

Grasso was candid about the fact that the university’s highest hurdle — one shared by nearly every college and university in the state and many across the country — is enrollment. "There are simply fewer college age students today than a decade ago, especially here in Michigan, but there are still growing opportunities,” he said. “We currently enroll 8,100 students, and have challenged ourselves to enroll 10,000 by 2032. We have experienced modest increases in undergraduate students, which is encouraging. More students should experience everything we have to offer here at ��-Dearborn.”

Grasso shared two concerns about graduate enrollment: first, it has declined, and second, the new presidential administration could severely limit the ability of prospective international students to enter the U.S. “The encouraging news is that the Institute of International Education believes enough members of Congress appreciate what international students contribute to our communities and economy,” Grasso observed. “Our university, too, will continue to advocate for this important community.”

He added that he is meeting with executive officers across all three campuses daily to monitor changes in federal policies, and that the university is regularly posting information on federal orders, policies and regulations on the Key Issues section of the ��-Dearborn website. He urged faculty, staff and students to visit this page for the latest information pertaining specifically to the Dearborn campus.

Grasso also addressed enrollment concerns in the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters and the resulting need to collaboratively reimagine the college’s future. “Together, let’s focus on creative and lasting solutions,” he said. “I would love nothing more than for the University of Michigan-Dearborn to create novel approaches for increasing the attractiveness of the arts and humanities that could serve as models for higher education.”

Fundraising is essential to maintaining the mission.

Grasso then passed the mic to Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement Casandra Ulbrich, who shared details about the university’s recently launched five-year “Look to Michigan” fundraising campaign. After announcing the campaign goal of $60 million, she shared short videos from three donors who choose to support ��-Dearborn in diverse ways: Mark Ritz and L. Lee Gorman have made a multi-year gift of $500,000 to install solar panels on the roof of the England Engineering Lab Building; Sadaf Lodhi and Riz Hussain have directed stock to the Student Opportunity and Engagement Fund; and Altair’s corporate contribution created the Altair #OnlyForward Scholarship Fund in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Ulbrich then spoke with two #OnlyForward scholarship recipients, CECS juniors Rehab Jadalla and Jide Owo, about the impact of the award. “Receiving the scholarship, to me, it means that, instead of spending time taking on additional jobs and taking on work to try to make ends meet for each semester, I have the space to take on the opportunities that I'm passionate about and are related to my ultimate career goals,” Jadalla, who is studying software engineering, said.

CECS juniors Rehab Jadalla (right) and Jide Owo (middle) spoke to the crowd about the impact of the #OnlyForward scholarship, sponsored by Altair Engineering.

“I also grew up in Dearborn, so I'm really, really proud to be attending this university," she added. "Just the culture of how encouraging and supportive the faculty and staff here are and the other students, and also the opportunities that I've had over the past three years, I don't think I would find at any other university."

Student success initiatives are having a big impact.

Associate Provosts Maureen Linker and Joan Remski discussed several initiatives led by Experience+ and the Office of Academic Success, all of which are seeing impressive results. These include the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience, the Wolverine Mentor Collective, a new peer-to-peer tutoring program that enables students to get help with their studies 24/7 and the STEM Scholars program, which supports STEM majors from low-income backgrounds throughout their time at ��-Dearborn and boasts a 98% retention rate. Two STEM Scholars, Myriam Hazime and Zahra Alemarah, joined Remski on stage to reflect on their experiences. “I was always provided with a very strong support group that I felt like other students outside of STEM scholars didn't have,” Hazime, a CECS sophomore majoring in software engineering, told the audience.

Alemarah, a CASL junior majoring in biochemistry, echoed her sentiments: “Something that's really important, especially at ��-Dearborn as a commuter campus, is building a relationship your first year, your freshman year. Through STEM Scholars, I had so many different friends, and it was very crucial to keep me going to study when it feels impossible, to ask for help when I need it.”

Great spaces encourage students to stay.

Executive Director for Facilities Carol Glick closed out the event with a quick check-in on the Comprehensive Campus Plan, an overview of the design process, and a look at five priority projects, all in different phases: the Computer and Information Science Building (investigation phase), Mardigian Library (conceptual design), Social Sciences Building renovations for the College of Business (schematic design), Administrative Building renovations to support the move of the College of Education, Health and Human Services (design development) and the Renick University Center first floor, which is currently wrapping up construction. Glick shared a few “before and after” renderings and photos, revealing a significantly transformed space complete with a fireplace where students won’t just pass through, but will want to hang out for hours. After the event, many attendees took advantage of tours led by the facilities team and the University Unions and Events office to see the changes in real life.

Executive Director for Facilities Carol Glick gave an update on the Comprehensive Campus Plan.

Concluding the event, which took place on a nearly 40-degree day, Grasso invited attendees to stick around for the Winter Carnival. “We actually have winter this year,” he’d noted earlier in his address. “Sort of.”

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Story by Kristin Palm. Photos by Annie Barker. Watch the recording of the event here.

Administration & Governance

Institutional Advancement

Off

Mon, 02/03/2025 - 17:40

Chancellor Grasso’s annual address covered enrollment good news and challenges, major research wins, promising student success initiatives and more.

Chancellor Domenico Grasso speaks to a crowd of more than 250 at the 2025 State of the University event.

Career Services is trying new ways to connect with students

lblouin — Mon, 06 Jan 2025 13:55:58 +0000

Career Services is trying new ways to connect with students lblouin Mon, 01/06/2025 - 08:55

Laurel Draudt says it wasn’t that long ago that college career services offices were known for resume review services and not a whole lot else. At some institutions, this “model from the 1990s” is still the norm. But when Draudt started as ��-Dearborn’s Career Services director in 2022, she was excited to experiment with a broader vision for their five-person office. Borrowing from her background in higher education professional development, Draudt saw an opportunity to recast Career Services as something students used throughout their academic careers — not just in the final few months before graduation when the pressure of a job search suddenly becomes real. “We’re really trying to get students to think about what they can be doing now to be more competitive later,” Draudt says. “We want to be having conversations with first- and second-year students about the benefits of an on-campus job or doing research or studying abroad, because if we can reach them early enough, they actually have time to make changes and do these things.”

So far, that new approach is manifesting itself in a few different ways. Draudt says the office recently added two new career coaches to bolster the office’s core service of by-appointment and walk-in career counseling sessions. And what career coaches are focusing on in those sessions with students is expanding a lot. They still give their fair share of feedback on resumes and cover letters when that’s what students need help with. But coaches are just as likely to be talking with students about programs and careers that might match their interests, how to find a not-for-credit internship (and how to sound professional when you send your inquiries), figuring out how to talk effectively about past job experiences even if they’re unrelated to a career field, or how to develop a tailored job search strategy so they’re not simply applying to hundreds of jobs and hoping for the best.

Draudt says they’ve also been investing a lot of energy into expanding their lineup of in-person and virtual workshops. Looking to go beyond the staples, like sessions on effective job interviewing, they’ve added workshops on other equally practical topics, like understanding benefits packages (which involved a collaboration with ��-Dearborn’s Human Resources office), confident communication, and how to manage stress and anxiety during a job search. The latter two workshop ideas came from the office’s newest member — Career Coach Zainab Radi, a former career peer in the office who recently graduated from ��-Dearborn and took a staff position in the office in October 2023. Radi says being so fresh out of college and having just been through her own job search have turned out to be big assets when coming up with workshop ideas that students might actually find useful. For the confident communication session, she hit up one of her former instructors, COB Lecturer Christine Fischer, who covered everything from strategies for emailing to pitching your ideas to a supervisor to making presentations. The workshop on stress and anxiety grew directly out of conversations she was having with students. “I noticed that with the current job market, and even everything going on politically, students were experiencing a lot of uncertainty and there was a lot of stress and negative energy around that,” Radi says. “Some students who were struggling in their job searches were even having panic attacks. Not being trained in mental health or counseling, I wanted to find a way to provide meaningful support.” So she reached out to her contacts at Counseling and Psychological Services, who put together a workshop on how to manage anxiety during a job search. Radi says it was really eye opening for the attendees, many of whom had never experienced anxiety until this stage of their lives. “I remember they were really surprised by the idea of taking a walk or just getting outside and enjoying nature,” Radi says. “But that can really help you destress. You have to do other things than be on your computer all day applying for jobs, hitting refresh to check and see if you got an email back from an employer. That can just make things worse.”

Career Coach Zainab Radi, a '23 alum and the newest member of the Career Services team, has been responsible for several new workshop ideas.

Both Draudt and Radi say they’re excited to try out more new ideas in 2025, including some new workshops. Radi says a session on financial literacy and how to manage your income boost post-graduation is one topic she’s been thinking about. And Draudt says they’re going to be making more of an effort to collaborate with people and offices that are already regularly interfacing with students. “There’s so much competition for student attention these days, we think it’s a good idea to reach students where they are, because the reality is many of them still might not be thinking they need career services until it’s time for their job search.” Draudt says linking up with faculty, many of whom are already providing a lot of informal career advice, and tailoring more programs and events to specific communities, like international students, are two big priorities for the new year.

Of course, one of the biggest changes for 2025 is that Career Services will be getting a new home. Right now, the office is tucked over in Fairlane Center, but around Spring Break, the staff will be packing up and moving to their new digs on the first floor of the Renick University Center. Draudt is hopeful the convenient location at the heart of campus will help students see that Career Services is something they can be taking advantage of at any point in their college journeys.

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Want to keep an eye on upcoming Career Services workshops? Check out the office’s VictorsLink page. Story by Lou Blouin. Photos by Annie Barker.

Careers or Internships

Experiential Learning

Off

Mon, 01/06/2025 - 13:45

New workshops on topics like managing anxiety during a job search, understanding benefits packages and confident speaking are part of an effort to impact students long before their senior-year job searches.

The Career Services team, from left: Career Coach and Professional Development Manager Devin Johannis, Assistant Director Mai Qazzaz, Career Coach Zainab Radi, Director Laurel Draudt and Senior Professional Development Program Jennifer Macleod.

Faculty Fulbrights bring international partnerships to Dearborn Wolverines

stuxbury — Mon, 16 Dec 2024 16:55:56 +0000

Faculty Fulbrights bring international partnerships to Dearborn Wolverines stuxbury Mon, 12/16/2024 - 11:55

Three ��-Dearborn faculty from three different colleges were awarded grants to teach or conduct research in three different areas of the world — Indonesia, Egypt and Ethiopia — through the Fulbright awards program.

The U.S. Fulbright Scholar exchange program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of State Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs, awarded grants to ��-Dearborn faculty. Composition and Rhetoric Teaching Professor Kristian Stewart received an award for the 2023-24 cycle. Business Economics and Finance Lecturer Mercedes Miranda and Computer and Information Science Associate Professor Birhanu Eshete earned grants for the 2024-25 cycle.

“A Fulbright Award is a way we can bring other parts of the world back to our students,” says Stewart, who did her most recent Fulbright in Indonesia over the summer. “We have diversity on our campus. There are times when I have students with five different first languages in my classroom. But we can still get isolated in our own groups, in our own enclaves. So it’s important to connect our students with people in different areas of the world that they may be unfamiliar with. And it’s important for them to learn how to tell — and listen — to the stories of others. Fulbright awards open doors to connect our students to people in different areas of the world.”

Reporter spoke with Stewart and Miranda about their recent awards. Eshete, who is currently in Ethiopia, will be highlighted in a future story.

Mercedes Miranda, Egypt

Miranda says an exchange opportunity changed her life when she was a college undergraduate. As a part of a pilot program at her university in her home country of Ecuador, Miranda — an economics student — was chosen to join a cohort that would study at the University of New Orleans in the United States.

“That opened a world of opportunities for me to create new networks to climb the career ladder and to experience a different culture,” says Miranda, who notes that, as cultural immersion, she watched “Saturday Night Live” until she was able to pick up the references and laugh at the jokes. “Many of our students at ��-Dearborn may be of Arabic descent, but they are born here and do not have the financial means to travel outside of the U.S. I see this Fulbright as a way to help me better understand life in a MENA (Middle Eastern and North African) country, while also creating ways to help my ��-Dearborn students connect with people across the world.”

Starting in February, Miranda will be teaching four-month business economics courses in Egypt, contributing her expertise to global academic exchanges and fostering international collaboration. Miranda has previously done non-Fulbright teaching in China for MBA students and in Italy for undergraduates.

Miranda’s Fulbright university will be in Cairo, but the name of the institution will not be shared with her until 10 days prior to the beginning of the Fulbright due to their protocol. She will teach both undergraduate and graduate courses that have an interdisciplinary, hands-on approach and merge concepts from finance, business economics and international business.

“I am going to teach through using business case studies through the Egyptian economic perspective, while also having the students reach out to Egyptian businesses to create a collaborative project that will help the businesses and give students the applicable knowledge they need,” she says. “I do something similar at ��-Dearborn, except from an American perspective and we work with Dearborn- and Detroit-based small businesses.”

Miranda enjoys seeing other areas of the world, but this will be the first time she’s traveled to Egypt. She chose to apply to the country specifically because it was the largest country in the MENA region with an institution where she could apply her international business economics expertise and 20% of the population are in the age range of 15 to 24.

“Many of our students are fluent in Arabic and I wanted an Arabic-speaking country that had a younger demographic. I see my Fulbright as the first step to a partnership of some type. Maybe it’s a project or a class. Maybe it’s having ��-Dearborn students go there or for Egyptian students to study here,” says Miranda, who notes COB Dean Frédéric Brunel will visit Egypt while she is there to meet faculty and university officials. “No matter what it will look like, I do know that this is only the beginning of something very wonderful.”

Kristian Stewart, Indonesia

When Stewart returned from Greece in fall 2023, after her first Fulbright Scholar Award, Stewart looked for additional international collaboration opportunities through Fulbright. She found a Fulbright Specialist opportunity to create a Center for Academic Writing at the Universitas Negeri Medan in Medan, Indonesia, in the summer 2024.

In addition to developing a Centre for Academic Writing on the Medan campus, running workshops and giving talks, Stewart provides one-on-one instruction and critiques for faculty academic papers. “After the six weeks, I left them the curriculum that I developed as a foundation for their Centre for Academic Writing,” she says. “To continue our relationship, I'm still working with their faculty. On Tuesday mornings our time, I'm theirs for the morning. They can put questions or their scholarly work in WhatsApp or a Google drive and I can edit and give feedback.”

Before Stewart left Indonesia, she and university employees discussed how they would like to come to ��-Dearborn and co-teach with her or how they can bring ��-Dearborn students there.

“The Fulbright Specialist award might be for a relatively short period of time, but the effects of the work being done through the program will be long lasting for me, their faculty and our students,” Stewart says.

Working with the University of Peloponnese in Greece during her first Fulbright Award, Stewart tailored her ��-Dearborn digital storytelling course to fit the needs of the Greek school’s curriculum, available technologies and student population. One such example project comes from Stewart’s ��-Dearborn course, “Being Human Today.” Stewart’s Dearborn Wolverines collaborate with students from universities around the world to create short videos that present life through individual lenses. “You combat stereotypes by having experiences outside of your own. You find solutions to world issues by learning from other people and seeing how they solve problems. Exposure is key,” says Stewart, who has previously taught in multiple countries, including South Africa, China, Germany and Italy.

A highlight of her first Fulbright Award was an invitation to provide a plenary address at Jefferson House, the residence of the United States Ambassador to Greece, where she was proud to provide remarks and represent ��-Dearborn to an international audience that included United States Ambassador to Greece, George J. Tsunis.

Stewart says as a result of her Fulbrights, her goals are to foster additional international connections and projects to benefit ��-Dearborn students. And it’s working.

��-Dearborn and the University of the Peloponnese recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding. Students and faculty from the two schools plan to work together for the next five years on writing-related research endeavors, including students virtually working together and sharing stories.

Stewart has additionally established a Collaborative Online International Learning partnership with biotechnology students in South Africa, and they just finished an eight-week project. Together, in WhatsApp groups, students investigated one of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals students then co-authored StoryMaps reflective of their research. Stewart also plans to connect Dearborn students to the Indonesian students, stemming from her work in Medan, in the near future.

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

Faculty and Staff

University-wide

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

College of Business

Accounting and Finance

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Computer and Information Science

Off

Mon, 12/16/2024 - 16:55

Three faculty members from three ��-Dearborn colleges — COB, CECS and CASL — earned awards to work in Egypt, Ethiopia and Indonesia.

��-Dearborn faculty members, from left, Mercedes Miranda, Kristian Stewart and Birhanu Eshete

Everything you need to know about ��-Dearborn’s comprehensive campaign

lblouin — Wed, 11 Dec 2024 13:24:31 +0000

Everything you need to know about ��-Dearborn’s comprehensive campaign lblouin Wed, 12/11/2024 - 08:24

You’re probably starting to hear more about the University of Michigan’s Look to Michigan fundraising campaign, which is a coordinated effort across all three campuses and kicked off its public phase in late October. But this latest comprehensive campaign has actually been going on for about three years, says ��-Dearborn Vice Chancellor for Institutional Advancement Casandra Ulbrich. That’s typical of big fundraising pushes, which try to raise about a third to a half of their total fundraising goal from big donors in a “quiet” or “private” phase before courting a larger base of small-dollar donors in a “public” phase. Ulbrich says campaigns are organized this way for a couple of reasons. First, a private phase is a great test of whether your message is going to resonate with people. “The majority of your giving is coming from a small percentage of people. And you’re not going to be successful unless they’re on board with your vision,” she says. Second, demonstrating that your cause already has momentum can help make public-phase donors feel more confident about supporting your cause.

This campaign differs from ��-Dearborn’s last big push — fundraising for the Engineering Lab Building — in that it’s what development staff call a comprehensive rather than a capital campaign. Ulbrich says university capital campaigns typically raise money for something very specific, often a building. Comprehensive campaigns target donors who feel passionately about a wide range of causes, and priorities typically include specific programs and scholarships, though it might also include buildings. In some ways, this makes it much easier to fundraise. “With a comprehensive campaign, we have priorities that give us guideposts, but if a donor comes to us with something they’re passionate about that falls out of the official case for support, we can likely find something within the university that they can support. So we’re not pigeonholed for what we’re raising money for," Ulbrich says.

For the Look to Michigan campaign, ��-Dearborn’s general guideposts are fourfold: student experience and success, faculty and staff excellence, holistic excellence and economic sustainability. And within that structure, Ulbrich says a few priorities seem to be especially resonating with donors. First, people are really getting behind the university’s prioritizing of need-based financial aid. The free-tuition Go Blue Guarantee is the flagship program in that area, but under the university’s new financial aid scheme, families who don’t meet the GBG’s income requirements are still often eligible for some need-based aid. Second, Ulbrich says donors are excited about the university’s practice-based learning initiative. “As soon as you talk to them about the theoretical versus the hands-on, that makes total sense to them,” she says. “And here at ��-Dearborn, that includes things like internships, study abroad, experiential learning — so there are a wide array of things donors can support.” Ulbrich says they even played up the practice-based learning theme with a soft launch gift that was mailed to recent donors and prospects. The custom Block M Lego set with a Dearborn base came unassembled so supporters could get a little taste of the hands-on ethos at ��-Dearborn.

Compared to past fundraising efforts, Ulbrich says the current campaign is leaning more heavily on the support of standout alumni like Anthony Williams (left), pictured here at the Look to Michigan campaign launch event in October with College of Business Dean Frédéric Brunel. The '03 COB alum and CEO of Corktown Health is making a difference in Detroit and beyond as he works to provide comprehensive and affirming health care to the LGTBQ+ community. Williams was also recently appointed by Governor Whitmer to the state's first LGBTQ+ Commission. Photo by Carolyn Noble

So who exactly is our donor base this time around? Ulbrich says this campaign is a little different in that we’re relying most heavily on alumni support. “This has changed a lot at Dearborn over the years,” she says. “Our fundraising used to be more heavily skewed toward corporations and foundations. But a lot of corporations have cut back on giving, and foundation money has become much more competitive. Now, the majority of our fundraising comes from individuals, the vast majority of whom are alumni of the institution. Larger gifts also tend to be alums.” She says most large donations come in the form of planned gifts, where donors pledge to give a certain amount of their wealth after their deaths. “This is an attractive option for a lot of people because it allows them to support something they believe in and be recognized for it without having to reorient their finances while they're alive,” she says. Ublrich also expects this fundraising campaign could have a different shape than the typical donor pyramid: The rule of thumb is that 80% of your fundraising comes from 20% of donors. But with a little more grassroots support from smaller donors, Ulbrich says the donor pyramid “might start to look a little more like a rectangle.” So far, Ulbrich says we’ve raised about $26 million, which puts us “ahead of where we’ve been in past campaigns.”

With the public phase in full swing, the development team will continue to seek out big-dollar donations, but a lot of energy will now turn to social media, newsletters and direct mail efforts that court small-dollar donors in the wider ��-Dearborn-connected community, especially alumni. Another big thing to look forward to: On May 1, the university is hosting a gala at the newly renovated Michigan Central Station. “We decided on a soft launch for the public phase for a couple reasons. We didn’t want to compete with the 50 events happening in Ann Arbor. But we also wanted to have an event at a location that was significant historically for us, and with our connection to Ford, we had our heart set on Central Station. With the renovation, they simply weren’t ready for us,” Ulbrich says. Details for that event are still forthcoming, but Ulbrich says they’re planning to have a discounted faculty-staff ticket price.

In fact, though alums make up the lion’s share of the donor base, Ulbrich doesn’t want faculty and staff to overlook their role in supporting the campaign. One of her talking points with bigger donors is that a large number of people who work at ��-Dearborn also choose to give. “Faculty and staff giving is hugely symbolic, because it’s a show of faith in the institution,” she says. “I give to the Go Blue Guarantee. And so I can say that to a donor and explain why it's important to me to give. To show a donor that the people who know the institution best are willing to support it with their own dollars — that can be very persuasive.”

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Ready to make a gift? Find a cause you're passionate about and donate now. Story by Lou Blouin

Accessibility or Affordability

Experiential Learning

University-wide

Alumni Engagement

Institutional Advancement

Off

Wed, 12/11/2024 - 13:24

It’s beginning to look a lot like . . . fundraising season. We answer your top questions about the university’s Look to Michigan campaign, which recently entered its public phase.

So far, ��-Dearborn has raised about $26 million during its Look to Michigan fundraising campaign.

University fellowship aims to create 'dream team of sustainability'

stuxbury — Wed, 23 Oct 2024 16:07:05 +0000

University fellowship aims to create 'dream team of sustainability' stuxbury Wed, 10/23/2024 - 12:07

College of Business senior Anisa Elezi says an internship where she evaluated eco-friendly procedures opened her eyes to the importance of sustainable practices. And now, through a new fellowship at ��-Dearborn, she’ll be able to explore that interest further in a way that will benefit the campus community and beyond.

Elezi is one of four students named as an Environmental Interpretive Center Collegiate Sustainability Fellow. The program, which is a collaboration between the EIC and the Office of the Provost, selected one student from each ��-Dearborn college to improve sustainability practices on campus, both through individual projects and interdisciplinary collaboration.

In addition to Elezi, students are College of Education, Health and Human Services EdD student Diana Mtairek, College of Engineering and Computer Science master’s student Kirill Nartov and College of Arts, Sciences and Letters senior Leah Williams.

Elezi, who’s majoring in digital marketing and public relations, says she wrote about sustainable practices and identified areas for improvement when it comes to eco-friendly procedures while at chemical firm BASF, where she’s currently a marketing and communications intern. With this new interest, Elezi thought about her time at ��-Dearborn — the other place where she spent the majority of her waking hours.

"I realized that I was getting more into sustainability," Elezi says. "I found it very interesting to see the different eco-friendly things that could be done that may not be incorporated into what we do at ��-Dearborn — yet." That’s when she learned about the EIC fellowship and its goal to develop a central hub for the sustainability efforts across campus.

Professor of Geology Jacob Napieralski, who became the EIC director in 2023, says he’s learned about all of the work toward sustainability that happens across campus — like the Planet Blue Ambassador program, waste reduction initiatives, carbon neutrality efforts, faculty sustainability-focused committee boards and more.

Napieralski wanted a way to amplify these initiatives. “Great things are happening, but it’s not organized in a specific community-facing location,” says Napieralski, who collaborates closely with ��-Dearborn’s Sustainability Coordinator, Grace Maves. “We want to work on sustainability initiatives in a way that it becomes part of our DNA at ��-Dearborn.”

With the EIC hosting many community-focused events that showcase the importance of nature and environment independent of the four colleges, Napieralski saw the EIC as the perfect place for a central hub. His aim is to bring together diverse strands of sustainability work and generate new ideas by cross-pollinating the expertise of students from each of ��-Dearborn's colleges.

The students meet at the EIC on Wednesdays to discuss sustainability ideas and initiatives.

"We looked for students who were very interested in learning, understood that they're going to start with a blank slate and brought a lot of tools to the team," Napieralski says. He noted that applicants demonstrated creativity and originality that the application and interview process, with students submitting proposals relating to the use of artificial intelligence for sustainability projects and the synthesis of automotive engineering with computer coding, for instance. “There were moments when interviewing these students that we said to ourselves, ‘We never thought about that,’" Napieralski observes.

In addition to collaborating with the other fellows, Elezi says she’ll focus on marketing the Environmental Interpretive Center and promoting its ongoing events. She says she is also implementing improvements to the EIC website and newsletter to improve traffic and clickthrough rates in an effort to get people engaged in the community- and student-facing environmental programs.

"I think the EIC is an unknown gem of this campus. Just being there a couple of times a week for the past month has made me want to bring more friends here," Elezi says.

Provost Gabriella Scarlatta says Napieralski approached her to discuss the centralized hub and student fellowship idea — and that ��-Dearborn’s leadership team supported the efforts and funded the student positions.

"This will allow the EIC to boost its footprints on and off campus, improving effectiveness of sustainability-related efforts at the EIC and across campus, and diversifying the participants that engage in environmental sustainability and equity while supporting and strengthening interdisciplinary collaborations," Scarlatta says.

Napieralski, who works on environmental justice projects like flooding issues in low-income Detroit communities, says the fellowship and hub will also make the work taking place on campus more accessible to the community. The EIC brings thousands of community members to campus per year through nature walks, K-12 field trips and more.

“We want to be the go-to pipeline for information and resources. We want to know the priorities at the department- and college-levels and then roll them out at the university-level,” he says. “I see the four colleges as legs and the EIC as the body. Together, we can turn and face the community to show what we are doing and how we can be partners.”

He says the student fellows’ involvement through ideas, advocacy and their college-affiliate work is an essential part of making this happen.

“The four we selected really did stand out in their ability, especially in their past history, their ability to work together collectively and their ideas," Napieralski adds. "Now, we will go from there and build things together."

Story by Sarah Tuxbury and Shaun Manning; Photos by Annie Barker

Nature or Environment

Sustainability

University-wide

College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

College of Business

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Off

Wed, 10/23/2024 - 16:02

New campuswide initiative brings together sustainability efforts from all four ��-Dearborn colleges.

EIC Sustainability Fellows are, from left, Anisa Elezi, Kirill Nartov, Diana Mtairek and Leah Williams.

Takeaways from the Oct. 15 Conversation with the Chancellor

lblouin — Mon, 21 Oct 2024 12:59:47 +0000

Takeaways from the Oct. 15 Conversation with the Chancellor lblouin Mon, 10/21/2024 - 08:59

The past few years have been a historically tough time for higher education, but last week’s Conversation with the Chancellor event was full of good news for ��-Dearborn. Enrollment is up. This year’s budget features a small surplus. The university’s capital campaign is off to a solid start. And the university is taking important steps on new initiatives, like broadening its DEI efforts. If you weren’t able to attend the event, we’ve recapped some of the big takeaways below. Or you can watch the full Conversation with the Chancellor.

There’s a lot of good news on enrollment and the university budget

In the past few years, demographic challenges and the pandemic have made it a historically challenging time for higher education, with enrollments declining at hundreds of institutions across the country. ��-Dearborn actually fared better than most universities over the past few years. In 2023, the university even welcomed its largest first-year class. But in 2024, it’s unequivocally good news on enrollment. This year’s incoming class of full-time, first-year students is up 4.7%. Transfer and graduate student enrollment is also up. And for Grasso, the brightest of the bright spots are the 9% increase in the four-year graduation rate over the past three years and the 2% increase in the six-year graduation rate compared to 2023. “Our students are taking more courses, which means that they’re going to graduate faster, which means everything is going in the right direction,” Grasso said.

This encouraging enrollment picture is translating into a healthier university budget. Grasso noted that universities can, and often do, grow enrollment while still losing money because of generous subsidies to student tuition. But at ��-Dearborn, we’ve also increased our net tuition revenue. In fact, for the first time in several years, the university has a small budget surplus.

The capital campaign is off to a solid start

Speaking of money, the university is in the midst of its latest capital campaign, which has been dubbed “Look to Michigan” to highlight the state's potential to solve big-picture societal problems and the vital role higher education plays in that. ��-Dearborn has yet to publicly announce its fundraising goal for the campaign, but Grasso shared that we’ve already raised about $25 million. The public launch of the campaign is Oct. 25 and the university will be hosting a major fundraising event at the newly renovated Michigan Central Station in May 2025.

What ‘institutional neutrality’ means for ��-Dearborn

Grasso also discussed a proposed institutional neutrality bylaw, which the U-M Board of Regents was reviewing at the time of the Oct. 15 Conversation event and ultimately approved at their Oct. 17 meeting. The new policy means the U-M president, members of the president’s leadership team (which includes the Dearborn and Flint chancellors), deans, directors, department chairs and others authorized to speak for the university or an academic unit will not, on behalf of the institution, make public statements on social or political issues that are not directly connected to internal university functions. Grasso noted that his office already has a similar set of principles that inform his public statements, though it has not applied to deans and other university leaders. You can read more about the new institutional neutrality bylaw in this article from The Record. Relatedly, ��-Dearborn recently updated its expressive activities policy, which governs its approaches to things like protests, demonstrations and free speech on campus.

The future of DEI at ��-Dearborn

One of Grasso’s big priorities for 2024-25 is getting the Office of Holistic Excellence off to a good start. Created in early 2024, the office is spearheading diversity, equity and inclusion-related efforts at the university, but Grasso noted its vision is much broader than the traditional scope of DEI. While the university will continue efforts to improve student, staff and faculty demographic diversity on campus, he also wants to focus on measurable initiatives that enable students from diverse backgrounds to develop their full potential and make the university a richer place. “There is a narrative that seems to be on campus that we’re walking away from DEI. Nothing could be further from the truth. We’re doubling down on the essence and foundations of DEI,” Grasso said. “[We want to] understand what individuals are bringing not just by their demographic characteristics, but by their life experiences, their perspectives. This is why this is a more holistic approach.” You can read more about Grasso’s views on DEI in our recent article, “Can we still find a path to civil discourse?”

Other highlights

The Renick University Center’s first floor renovation remains on track to be completed by early next year.
Grasso announced that the Facilities team is putting together a plan for installing natural plantings around the campus parking lots so the front door to the university isn’t a “sea of cars.” You can read more about ideas to improve the front entrance of campus on the comprehensive campus plan.
Could the university’s budget surplus translate into a mid-academic-year bonus? Grasso teased such a possibility (to spontaneous applause). He promised additional details later this year.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Administration & Governance

Enrollment

Inclusion or Diversity

University-wide

Chancellor

Off

Mon, 10/21/2024 - 12:59

Couldn’t make last week’s town hall with Chancellor Domenico Grasso? We have a recap of some of Grasso’s takes on enrollment, the budget, the current capital campaign, institutional neutrality and ��-Dearborn's new Office of Holistic Excellence.

Vice Chancellor for External Relations Ken Kettenbeil (left) talks with Chancellor Domenico Grasso in Kochoff Hall on Oct. 15, 2024.

Fall ’24 shows robust enrollment performance for ��-Dearborn

stuxbury — Tue, 24 Sep 2024 19:55:33 +0000

Fall ’24 shows robust enrollment performance for ��-Dearborn stuxbury Tue, 09/24/2024 - 15:55

While many regional public universities have experienced significant financial hardships and enrollment challenges, ��-Dearborn is seeing encouraging enrollment performance.

This year’s incoming class of full-time, first-year students is up 4.7%. Among all incoming students, there is a 7% increase in students of color, Pell-eligible students are up 7% and graduate students are up 27%.

Total enrollment this fall is 8,104, with 6,187 undergraduates and 1,917 graduate students.

The academic profile of ��-Dearborn’s first-year students is third-highest among the state’s public universities, with a 3.7 average grade-point average. The university’s four-year graduation rate has increased 9% over the past three years, and the six-year graduation rate increased 2% over last year.

“These increases are the result of hard work by the enrollment management team and many others across campus,” said ��-Dearborn Chancellor Domenico Grasso. “Many strategies have been put into place — such as the One-Stop Service model, block tuition, the conversion of three-credit classes to four credits and our revised financial aid model — that have a direct impact on recruitment and retention. I am most proud of our substantial increases in graduation rates, a true testament to student success.”

��-Dearborn is attracting more traditional full-time students, who are graduating more quickly than prior cohorts.

All of this good news is the result of a lot of behind-the-scenes effort, said Melissa Stone, vice provost for enrollment management. “Our enrollment strategy is working. In addition to new initiatives we put in place over the past few years, we have worked as a campus to create an environment where we are all working together as a community to make sure our students are connected to the information and resources they need to be successful.

“Our faculty and staff are dedicated to our students. When our students succeed, so do we.”

To address a slight enrollment drop in previous years, the university developed a Strategic Enrollment Management Plan, identifying student-focused enrollment obstacles and state-level challenges and outlined solutions.

A streamlined transfer admissions process is designed to address the university’s previous transfer-student enrollment decline. It ranges from forming a dedicated team to work with transfer students to holding more on-site visits with community college partners. Efforts have resulted in a 2% transfer-student increase this year.

To counteract the state’s shrinking high school population, ��-Dearborn expanded its dual-enrollment opportunities to help potential new students become more familiar with campus. And to attract domestic graduate students, the university resumed in-person open houses after a COVID-19 disruption, waived admission fees and appointed a new dean of graduate studies, Armen Zakarian.

The university also has invested more in need-based financial aid. For the fall 2024 first-year class, 44% of students pay no tuition, thanks to financial aid packaging that includes ��-Dearborn’s Go Blue Guarantee and the state’s Michigan Achievement Scholarship.

Stone said the SEM Plan initiatives are yielding results. For example, the first-time undergraduate student numbers remain healthy. “The last two academic years have seen the largest first-year classes,” she said.

Stone said students are attracted to ��-Dearborn because of its location, affordability and supportive, welcoming atmosphere. But what gets them to enroll and stay is making sure they have what they need to be successful.

“The SEM Plan helps us align time and resources by developing a shared vision of the most impactful initiatives to support the success of current and future students to meet our enrollment goals,” she said. “We know there is always work to be done, but I’m proud of our campus efforts and where we are with enrollment this year.”

See additional student profile and trends.

Story by Sarah Tuxbury

Admissions

Student Success

University-wide

New Student Engagement

Undergraduate Admissions

Off

Tue, 09/24/2024 - 19:55

New full-time student enrollment is up. The four-year graduation rate increased 9% over three years.

First-year students visited campus during Wolverine Welcome Day on Aug. 29. Photo by Annie Barker

Regents roundup for September 2024

lblouin — Mon, 23 Sep 2024 13:39:48 +0000

Regents roundup for September 2024 lblouin Mon, 09/23/2024 - 09:39

Chancellor Domenico Grasso provided the following university updates:

Enrollment is trending up. The Fall 2024 first-year class is the second largest in history, average incoming class GPA is the third highest among the public universities, graduation rates continue to increase, and the students of color population is up.
��-Dearborn is in the news. The first half of 2024 saw 29 national placements, 46 local. Recently, Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Hafiz Malik had an op-ed in The Hill and Professor or Sociology Pam Aronson contributed to an article in The Atlantic.
��-Dearborn received the Innovator Award from the Michigan Veteran Affairs Agency for hosting a Veteran Service Officer on our campus.

The following regular appointments were approved:

Promotions, joint appointments, transfers or discipline changes to regular instructional staff

Laura Birou, Ph.D., from Lecturer III in Management Studies, COB to Lecturer I in Information and Operations Management, COB, Sept. 1 – Dec. 31, 2024.
Michael B. McCarthy, from Collegiate Lecturer and Lecturer III in Management Studies, COB to Collegiate Lecturer and Lecturer IV in Information and Operations Management, COB, Sept. 1, 2024 – April 30, 2027.

New appointments of instructional staff represented by the Lecturers’ Employee Organization

Syeda Ghani, M.S., Lecturer I in Mechanical Engineering, CECS, Aug. 26 – Dec. 31, 2024.
Kate E. Masley, Ph.D., Lecturer I in Anthropology, Department of Behavioral Sciences, CASL, July 1 – Aug. 31, 2024.
Gregory E. Pflum, M.B.A., Lecturer I in Information and Operations Management, COB, Sept. 1 – Dec. 31, 2024.
Tala Taleb, M.A., Lecturer I in Accounting and Finance, COB, Sept. 1 – Dec. 31, 2024.

The Academic Calendar for 2026-2027 was also approved.

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View the Board of Regents’ meeting agenda.

Faculty and Staff

University-wide

Off

Mon, 09/23/2024 - 13:39

Get the details from the September U-M Board of Regents meeting, including news about faculty promotions and new lecturers.

Facilities teams made progress on some big picture upgrades this summer

lblouin — Mon, 26 Aug 2024 12:55:19 +0000

Facilities teams made progress on some big picture upgrades this summer lblouin Mon, 08/26/2024 - 08:55

Summer is typically a time when facilities teams are sprinting around campus, trying to complete a laundry list of projects and upgrades before the start of the busy fall semester. But Executive Director for Facilities Carol Glick says this summer had a little different rhythm. “We’ve actually been working on a few big projects rather than a lot of smaller ones. And these are projects that really represent a sort of culture change that’s happening at the university, so that makes it a lot more exciting,” Glick says.

The biggest of those projects is the ongoing first floor renovation of the Renick University Center, which, along with the Mardigian Library and the outdoor space between the two buildings, is being reimagined as a central hub for campus in the new comprehensive campus plan. This summer, crews tackled some of the unglamorous heavy lifting for the project, including ripping up floors, installing new underground plumbing and pouring new concrete. Glick says walls have also been demoed and new walls are going up to create the improved floor plan, which includes several changes to office footprints, a large meeting room for hosting orientation groups and a new public lounge area with a fireplace. Though the scene right now is a construction zone, Interior Designer Sally Hamilton is already working on some of the finishing touches for that space, including ordering furniture and fabrics. Hamilton says the challenge of the moment is “picking out the right maize” to match some of the interior finishes, which lean heavily on the university’s signature colors.

The first floor of the Renick University Center is a total construction zone right now. But Executive Director for Facilities Carol Glick says the project is currently on track to be completed by the end of February 2025.

Glick says they haven’t run into major hurdles — a pleasant surprise in any renovation — and the project remains on track for a late-February reopening of the first floor. One area that’s already complete is the Bookstore, which now has a smaller footprint and a new manager, Lulu Owens-Berry, who started this summer. New features include a concierge textbook area, where students can ask about materials needed for their courses, and lots of new ��-Dearborn-themed merchandise.

The Bookstore is stocked with lots of new ��-Dearborn merchandise this fall.

Lulu Owens-Berry is the Bookstore's new manager.

This summer, facilities teams also started some early design work for the College of Education, Health and Human Services’ and College of Business’ moves to the main campus in 2026 and 2027, respectively. COB’s new home will be the Social Sciences Building, while CEHHS will be housed in a portion of the Administration Building — two older campus structures that will get some renovations prior to the move. SmithGroup, the university’s architectural partner on the Comprehensive Campus Plan, is currently working on the redesign for the SSB, while Neumann/Smith Architecture, the university’s partner for the RUC renovation, is working on the AB.

Other summer upgrades to check out: Chancellor’s Pond got some new plumbing and a new skimmer, and the concrete basin color is being updated from blue to beige to give it a more natural appearance. The Bikeable Campus initiative also scored some progress, with new signage, sharrows and bike racks, plus resources on the university website to help bike commuters plan their routes. Facilities teams installed new electric absorption chillers in the Mardigian Library, which will help reduce the building’s carbon footprint. And with the final bulbs and fixtures going in CASL classrooms this summer, facilities teams completed a multi-year LED lighting retrofit across the entire campus — a project that’s expected to save the university more than $140,000 annually in energy costs.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Campus Life

University-wide

Facilities Operations

Facilities Planning

Off

Mon, 08/26/2024 - 12:48

The renovation of the Renick University Center’s first floor is on track, while the plan to consolidate operations on the main campus took some early steps.

The Renick University Center is currently undergoing a major renovation of its first floor, including upgrades to the university Bookstore, which are now complete. The full renovation is expected to be finished early next year.

The new comprehensive campus plan is really taking shape

lblouin — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 11:54:50 +0000

The new comprehensive campus plan is really taking shape lblouin Mon, 06/24/2024 - 07:54

In summer 2023, the university announced it was creating a new comprehensive campus plan to help guide the near- and mid-term development of campus grounds and infrastructure in ways that complement its strategic plan. Participants who attended a recent presentation about the CCP saw the effort now has some real meat on the bones. The CCP is filled with dozens of projects that will reshape how we work, learn and power the university, ranging from solar and geothermal systems to a plan to bring all four colleges to the main campus by 2027. In case you weren’t able to attend the presentation, we’ve recapped some of the highlights below. You can also view the slide presentation from Executive Director for Facilities Operations Carol Glick.

Doing more in less space

A campus plan is most fundamentally, of course, about how we use space, and as part of the prep work for the CCP, SmithGroup, the university’s architectural partner on the project, conducted a deep analysis of current space utilization to identify opportunities for using campus spaces more effectively. One of the primary near-term goals of this analysis was to determine whether we had enough space to relocate the College of Business and the College of Education, Health and Human Services from the Fairlane Center to the main campus. SmithGroup found that there is plenty of room to accommodate the move, which will see CEHHS complete its relocation to the Administration Building by 2026 and COB to the Social Sciences Building by 2027. Moreover, there is enough space to accommodate enrollment up to 10,000 students (current enrollment is just over 8,000), as well as increased research activities. Optimizing scheduling for our instructional spaces is a big part of how we’ll be able to do more within a consolidated campus footprint. SmithGroup identified that, on average, classroom spaces are being used only about 60% of their available hours, with lab usage rates ranking a bit higher. Large format classrooms, in particular, are sitting empty much of the time, which is not a surprise given that 96% of ��-Dearborn classes are capped at 60 students or less. Classroom spaces are also, on average, only filled to 55% capacity with a target of 70%. The great news is this underutilization likely gives the university a path to avoid any capital-intensive new construction for some time, while providing ample opportunities to reduce our energy consumption and create a denser, more lively atmosphere on campus. Though staff occupy a smaller footprint, the post-COVID work environment, in which many units are using hybrid and remote work schedules, offers another opportunity to do more within our current physical footprint as buildings are renovated.

A new vision for outdoor (and some indoor) spaces

Some of the most exciting features of the CCP involve renovations of outdoor and indoor spaces, with campus grounds set to get the flashiest overhauls. The main entrance of campus is being reimagined to allow a more aesthetic, wide-open view into a new central quad between the Mardigian Library and Renick University Center. The vision for the quad calls for natural plantings, outdoor seating and an overhead canopy, giving it life as an everyday social space as well as a versatile outdoor event space. The long sidewalk running from HPEC to the CASL Building could also see some upgrades, with new plantings, seating areas and outdoor classrooms along its perimeter. Even the parking lots are being rethought, with new rain gardens that make these spaces both more aesthetically pleasing and transform them into valuable flood management tools. Indoors, the multi-year Renick University Center/Mardigian Library renovation is the flagship project, which will consolidate core student and academic services in the central part of campus. The initial phase — a renovation of the RUC’s first floor — is currently underway with work scheduled to be completed in early 2025. Projects will be completed as funds become available.

The revamped main entrance. (Image courtesy Smith Group)

New spaces, like outdoor classrooms, will border the main campus walkway. (Image courtesy Smith Group)

The CCP calls for rooftop, ground-mounted and parking lot solar arrays. (Image courtesy Smith Group)

Decarbonization takes center stage

We’ve been bringing you stories for a few years about ��-Dearborn’s efforts to minimize its carbon footprint through energy efficiency projects, like the ongoing LED lighting retrofit. But if you’ve been waiting for news of some larger-scale projects that go beyond the lower-hanging fruit, you’ll be pretty jazzed about some of the ideas in the CCP. The plan includes large installations of carport, rooftop and/or ground-mounted solar that could reduce the university’s current climate-warming emissions by 30%. On the heating and cooling side, the parking lots could host wells for new ground-source heat pumps — a highly efficient technology that provides both heating and cooling in a single system. To reach our goal of net-zero carbon emissions, Glick estimates the university can achieve a 40% reduction through improvements to existing buildings, another 20% from the new geothermal system, 30% from solar and the remaining 10% from purchasing renewable-based electricity.

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Want more details from the comprehensive campus plan? Check out Glick’s full CCP presentation. Story by Lou Blouin

Off

Mon, 06/24/2024 - 10:52

Moving everyone to the main campus, a major overhaul of outdoor spaces and on-site renewable energy are some of the notable features in ��-Dearborn’s comprehensive campus plan.

The 10-year comprehensive campus plan calls for a new central quad between the Renick University Center and Mardigian Library. Image courtesy Smith Group

University-wide

Highlights from the 2025 State of the University

More students are crossing the finish line to graduation.

Overall enrollment is encouraging, but there is still work to do.

Fundraising is essential to maintaining the mission.

Student success initiatives are having a big impact.

Great spaces encourage students to stay.

Career Services is trying new ways to connect with students

Faculty Fulbrights bring international partnerships to Dearborn Wolverines

Mercedes Miranda, Egypt

Kristian Stewart, Indonesia

Everything you need to know about ������-Dearborn’s comprehensive campaign

University fellowship aims to create 'dream team of sustainability'

Takeaways from the Oct. 15 Conversation with the Chancellor

There’s a lot of good news on enrollment and the university budget

The capital campaign is off to a solid start

What ‘institutional neutrality’ means for ������-Dearborn

The future of DEI at ������-Dearborn

Other highlights

Fall ’24 shows robust enrollment performance for ������-Dearborn

Regents roundup for September 2024

Chancellor Domenico Grasso provided the following university updates:

The following regular appointments were approved:

Facilities teams made progress on some big picture upgrades this summer

The new comprehensive campus plan is really taking shape

Doing more in less space

A new vision for outdoor (and some indoor) spaces

Decarbonization takes center stage

Everything you need to know about ��-Dearborn’s comprehensive campaign

What ‘institutional neutrality’ means for ��-Dearborn

The future of DEI at ��-Dearborn

Fall ’24 shows robust enrollment performance for ��-Dearborn