Eastern Michigan University
Summer, 2023
Academic and Student Affairs
Provost Briefing
Institutional Priority #1
Promote Student Engagement and Success
EMU Greenhouse Welcomes All
The Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Research Facility, more commonly known as the EMU Greenhouse, is the campus's best kept secret for research, education, and relaxation. Located in an unassuming building on the southern side of the Jefferson Science Complex, the Greenhouse offers a meandering trail of plants, fountains, and blooms. A seating area can be found in the back corner, surrounded by greenery.
The greenhouse is open during the fall and winter semesters until 3 p.m. and is a lovely way to spend some time during the cold and snowy months.
Read more about the Greenhouse on EMU Today.
Service EMU Located in Student center
Counter service for Records & Registration is handled by Service EMU in the Student Center. There is no longer a location at Pierce Hall.
Please direct students to Suite 268 at the Student Center Service EMU counter for questions about Records & Registration.
Engage@emu invites all to see solo acts
Solo Acts, funded initially by Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation, is an original theatre piece giving voice to those aging alone.
Its intent is to make visible the challenges, but also the joy of aging solo and to catalyze conversation among solo agers, policy makers, academics, nonprofits and faith leaders on policies, processes and practices around aging solo.
When
Where
price
Friday, August 18, 2023
9:30 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Sponberg Theatre
Judy Sturgis Hill Building
Eastern Michigan University
1030 E. Circle Dr. Ypsilanti
MI 48197
Free Event & Free Parking
Details
Following the 45 minute performance piece, we will have a facilitated community conversation with large and small groups on how our community can best support those aging alone from housing to health care. Please come, invite others and share.
Schedule
9:30 a.m. Breakfast
10-11:15 a.m. Performance and Large Group Conversation
11:30-12:20 p.m. Small Group Discussions
12:30-1 p.m. Discoveries and Lunch
EMU Students Study Abroad in Ireland
In the Intercession of 2023, 23 students from across the university and three professors, Dr. Jillian Graves, Dr. Caren Putzu (both from Social Work), and Professor Annemarie Kelly (Health Science) went to Dublin, Ireland, to learn about Social Justice in Ireland with a particular focus on Mental Health and Criminal Justice.
Students were invited to parliament by Senator Black (and one group even met the speaker of the house) to learn about the government. Representatives from Mental Health Ireland, Mental Health Reform, and the University of Limerick taught students about Ireland's mental health and prison system. We went to historic landmarks like the Kilmainham Gaol and Trinity College. Even with a full schedule, the students had plenty of free time to enjoy the city of Dublin and spend time with fellow EMU students.
This course will be offered again in Intercession 2024; please contact the Study Abroad Office or Dr. Graves and/or Dr. Putzu for more information.
Upcoming Career Fair Opprortunities
The Eastern Michigan University Advising and Career Development Center (UACDC) will be hosting two upcoming career fairs for students seeking employment and connections in their field. Students should read event details carefully to ensure they get the most from these fairs.
EMU 2023 Student Employment Fair
Where
Wednesday, August 30, 2023
1pm-4pm
RSVP
Register on Handshake
Join us for our 2023 EMU Student Part-Time Job Fair! This event is for EMU students (only) who are seeking a part-time job on campus or in the local area community. Employers will be comprised of restaurants, retailers, hotels, healthcare facilities, day care centers, local businesses, EMU campus departments and more! There is NO cost for you to attend - it's FREE. If you register on Handshake for this event, we will send you an email to remind you about the event and information on any additional updates. Candidate registration closes on August 30th at 12:30am. You still may attend the job fair after online registration closes to meet the recruiters but we can't guarantee we will have enough packets of information for "walk-in" candidates.
Candidates should bring the following:
1. Copy of your class schedule (so you and the recruiters will know when you are available to work)
2. Copy of your financial aid award letter which shows whether or not you received a type of financial aid called "College Work/Study"
3. Copies of your resume to give to the participating recruiters
4. A notebook and two pens to takes notes
Appropriate dress: This is a more casual fair than most job fairs. You can attend in casual, neat attire.
33rd Annual Meet the Accounting Firms Fair
When
Friday, September 15, 2023
1pm-4pm
Where
McKenny Hall Ballroom
Eastern Michigan University
878 W Cross St, Ypsilanti, MI 48197
RSVP
Register on Handshake
Join us for the Meet the Firms Fair on September 15, 2023, taking place from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Ballroom of McKenny Hall. This event is exclusively dedicated to employers seeking candidates for Accounting and Finance-related internships and permanent positions. It is open and free for all EMU students and alumni to attend.
Check-in/Registration begins at 12:00 p.m.
Upon registration at the event, you will be provided with a name tag. We highly recommend visiting the Ready Room after registration, where our dedicated staff and volunteers will assist you in preparing your elevator pitch to employers and ensuring your confidence before entering the fair. Take advantage of their advice and wisdom by investing some time in this valuable opportunity.
Institutional Priority #2
High Performing Academic Programs & Quality Research
Tahereh (Neda) Hayeri
Tahereh Hayeri Receives ACA's 2023 Coatings Tech Best Paper Award
Eastern Michigan University Ph.D. candidate Tahereh (Neda) Hayeri has been awarded the American Coatings Association (ACA) 2023 CoatingsTech Best Paper Award.
Hayeri's paper, titled "Thermally, UV, and Moisture Curable Novel Family of Versatile Oligomers" is coauthored by Dr. Vijay M. Mannari, professor of polymers and coatings at EMU's School of Engineering Technology. Additionally, her research is directed by Mannari at EMU's Coating Research Institute.
Fermentation Science Students win Second Place in National COmpetion
EMU's Fermentation Science program earned several accolades at the 2023 U.S. Open College Beer Championship, including three medals for beers designed and brewed as a part of their studies as well as second place nationwide. EMU students involved in the beers submitted to the competition were Destiny Aldinger, Aaron Bokas, Keith Camac, Alex Crombie, Mason Fretz, Taylor Heckaman, Kimgech Kean, and David Wolf.
The U.S. Open College Beer Championship is for colleges and universities that teach brewing courses. The U.S. Open College is the only competition for beers exclusively from college and university brewing and fermentation programs.
Read more on the CAS Newsletter.
Professor Victor O. Okafor presents paper at sixteenth global studies conference
Eastern Michigan University Professor Victor Oguejiofor Okafor presented his paper, "Africology: A Model of Global Studies" at the Sixteenth Global Studies Conference held at Oxford Brookes University, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Professor Okafor, who serves as Head of the Department of Africology and American Studies, provided the following abstract to his paper:
As a contribution to ongoing dialogues about emergent transformative disciplines, this paper seeks to highlight the global scope of the discipline of Africology and African American Studies (otherwise known as Black Studies, African American Studies, Africana Studies, amongst other labels), contrary to an etic outsider's perspective that tends to view and portray it as conceptually narrow.
Victor O. Okafor
The Special Focus of this year's Global Studies Conference was "Agency in an Era of Displacement and Social Change":
The transformative impulse of the 21st century is focused on agency, an agency where people have a voice and are not treated as objects. This agency manifests itself across multiple dimensions of human rights, body sovereignty, de-colonialism, peace building, and transformation of existing global orders and power structures. This conference will explore how we, as educators, practitioners, and humans, can guide this metamorphosis to build a better, stronger, and more just society, and creating opportunities for real lasting change.
Institutional Priority #3
Service and Engagement
College in Prison Program to Offer Bachelor's Degree at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility
Meghan Lechner
Meghan Lechner has been hired as Director of the College in Prison Program to oversee the launch and logistics of a new Bachelor's degree to be offered at Women's Huron Valley Correctional Facility (WHV) in Fall 2023.
The initial offering will be a BA of General Studies, but faculty plan to roll out a uniquely crafted degree. This degree will be crafted in a collaboration between the faculty from English; Sociology, Anthropology & Criminology; Communication, Media & Theatre Arts; History & Philosophy; Geography & Geology; Women's & Gender Studies; Leadership; and Social Work.
Read more on the CAS Newsletter.
Faculty Development Center
Location: 300 Halle Library
Date/Time: Thursday, August 24 / 8:30am-1pm
This year’s New Beginnings Teaching Conference will reflect the Faculty Development Center’s “Try One Thing” initiative. Hosted again by the Faculty Development Center and the Office of Campus & Community Writing, this conference will put us in the frame of mind to start teaching the following week. We invite all members of the EMU community to join us and be inspired by new ideas - especially small ones - that can enhance teaching and learning across our campus. We’ll have an innovative keynote address, interactive concurrent sessions, and a Gallery of Ideas. Join us to engage with colleagues, learn new things, and get the fall 2023 semester off to a great start.
Location: 109 Halle or Zoom
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 9 / 2-3:15pm
This session will bring together campus leaders in inclusive education to share practical guidance on how you can create a positive classroom environment, helping students to feel as if they belong in your class, and that their success matters to you. What can you do - on a syllabus, on the first day, in the first few weeks - to create this sense among your students? How do you use the beginning of the semester to set the right tone?
Our panelists will share their own advice and experiences, but we will also allow plenty of time for questions, and for attendees to share their own thoughts and practices that might help others.
Location: 109B Halle Library & Zoom
Date/Time: Thursday, August 10 / 10-11:30am
Join Ann Blakeslee and Beth Sabo from the Writing Across the Curriculum program and the University Writing Center and Jeffrey Bernstein from the Faculty Development Center for a discussion of ChatGPT. We will offer instructors resources to take with them into the start of the year, including syllabus statements, classroom policies, and assignments.
Location: 109 Halle & Zoom
Date/Time: Wednesday, August 16 / 1-2:15pm
Join Jeffrey Bernstein (Professor of Political Science and Director of the Faculty Development Center), Ann Blakeslee (Professor of English and Director of Campus & Community Writing), and Hannah Bollin (Doctoral Fellow for Educational Studies) for a syllabus workshop to kick off the fall 2023 semester. During this event, we will offer participants new ideas and language for your syllabi, both to ensure the requirements are met and to inspire, encourage, and better support our students.
Location: 109B Halle & Zoom
Date/Time: Thursday, August 17 / 2-3:15pm
Our students are facing significant stressors, exacerbated by COVID, and all too often find themselves struggling. This affects their ability to learn the course content we share with them, and to make the most of their time in college. Faculty are not trained therapists, and we should not act as if we are. But there are things we can do, and should do, to support our students in their time of need. Please join the FDC and CAPS staff to talk about these issues, and about what faculty can do to support students. We'll discuss data, investigate scenarios, and share ways we can address this challenging, but vitally important, part of our job.
Director of EMU TRiO 3S Selected to Participate in NASPA Institute for Aspiring Vice Presidents for Student Affairs
Anthony Webster, Director of EMU TRiO 3S (Student Support Services) was selected to participate in the highly competitive NASPA Institute for Aspiring Vice Presidents for Student Affairs for 2024.
According to the NASPA website, "The NASPA Institute for New Vice Presidents for Student Affairs is a foundational faculty-led, learning and networking experience that prepares new VPSAs to be strategic decision-makers, highly-effective managers, and transformational leaders. Participants must be the highest-ranking student affairs officer on their campus."
In addition, Webster will be serving as the NASPA State-Coordinator East Regional Board for the 2023-25 term.
Anthony Webster, Director
TRiO Student Support Services
Institutional Priority #4
Institutional Effectiveness
Eastern Michigan University Named "Intelligent Pick" by Intelligent.com
Intelligent.com has released its rankings for 2023 and has confirmed that EMU has the best bachelor’s degree program in Human Resource Management in the nation. This comes on the heels of HR.com’s LEAD Awards having proclaimed ours the best degree programs at both undergraduate and graduate levels with an emphasis on HR.
Additional rankings include:
#3 Best HR Master's Program
EMU's MSHROD program was ranked number 3 for best HR master's programs in the nation and dubbed "Best in Organizational Development" at both undergrad and graduate.
#3 Top MBA Program
Also ranked number 3 in Entrepreneurship Programs was EMU's MBA, which was also specifically named "Best for Global Focus."
#11 MS Tax Consulting Program
Dubbed "Best in the Midwest", EMU's MS in Tax Consulting came in number 11 in the country.
Professor Christine Hume
English Professor Christine Hume's Latest Book Examines Violence Against Women
Professor of Creative Writing Christine Hume has published her fifth book: Everything I Ever Wanted to Know (The Ohio State University Press, 2023). In a series of literary essays confronting the fraught subjects of sex offenders and women's bodies, Hume offers close readings of the movie Halloween, the Victorian era Frozen Charlotte doll, the so-called no candy laws, and more.
According to the CAS Newsletter: "Hume says this book began in 2017 when she discovered that, at the time, one in 56 citizens of Ypsilanti were registered sex offenders. The first section indexes her crisis in reconciling how to live with this information and her baseline understanding that the registry is just another way to criminalize people without racial and economic privilege, just another piece of the empty theater of safety in our country. The second section focuses on broadly contextualizing another statistic: one in four women in our country experience sexual violence. Instead of expecting the facts we've known for decades to make a difference, Everything I Never Wanted to Know addresses these issues in narrative, speculative, and autobiographical terms."
Read the full story and others on the College of Arts & Sciences Newsletter.
Dr. Doris Fields
The Provost Office Welcomes Back Dr. Doris Fields
Message from Rhonda Longworth, provost and executive vice president for academic and student affairs:
Students, faculty and staff:
I am pleased to announce that Dr. Doris Fields will return to the Provost's Office as Interim Associate Vice President for Academic Programming and Initiatives effective July 15. A search process for the permanent position will commence in August. Dr. Fields has agreed to continue in the role of interim chief diversity officer until the completion of that search process, which is well underway. Shortly, the EMU community will be invited to participate in open forums beginning next week for finalist candidates for the Chief Diversity Officer position. During this time, Dr. Fields will continue to serve as assistant vice president for academic affairs.
Dr. Fields has served the University with great distinction in her interim role as chief diversity officer, and we are so grateful to her for stepping in and building this critical office for our campus. She is excited to return to the Provost's Office and support our curricular and programming initiatives. I am equally pleased to have her back.
In Memoriam
Doreen Mendelssohn
Senior Secretary, Political Science
Our hearts remain heavy in political science as we mourn our dear friend, Doreen Mendelssohn, who passed away on July 16, 2023 after a long illness. The heart and soul of the political science department since 1999, Doreen provided administrative support to seven department heads and many faculty members with whom she worked over the years. Doreen ran the department with competence, calm, and good cheer. She was especially beloved by the graduate assistants and student workers with whom she worked, who have responded to her passing by calling her "an amazing mentor with a heart of gold," "a true beacon amongst all the chaos, “a second mom and mentor," and a "welcoming and supportive cheerleader" who was always there for her students, even after they graduated and left the university. We will never forget the ladybug decorations everywhere in her office, the joy she took in her interactions with our students (including jokingly trying to get them to pay for course overrides), and her signature expression, "Gotta love it!" as she coped with all the job threw at her.
Doreen was a kind and generous friend, a dedicated mentor to so many students, and was much beloved by all of us. We hold her in our hearts and will always remember the impact she had on so many. May her memory be for a blessing.
A memorial service honoring her memory has been scheduled for 3 pm August 19th at the Eagle’s Club in Redford, Michigan. Also, if you would like to contribute a memorial fund that will honor her memory and work at EMU you may contribute to the Doreen Mendelssohn Award through the University Foundation.
Prepared by: Andi Pontiff & Karen Peacock
734.487.3200
Office of the Provost
Academic and Student Affairs