SUBJECT: Winter 2023 - Welcome Back

Dear Colleagues;

Happy new year, and welcome back! I hope you had a relaxing and restful break. Here we are again beginning a new semester. The Provost’s Office has a few updates that we want to share with you. The registrar search is ongoing, and the committee has identified several strong candidates for the position. Our searches for the dean of the College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters and the dean of the College of Business are also well on their way. Again, my gratitude goes to the members of the search committees for their commitment to bringing the best candidates to our campus! Our Go BluePrint for Success strategic plan and its Key Performance Indicators will be shared with the campus community shortly. I strongly encourage you to get familiar with these two important documents as they will guide the university’s efforts for the next ten years.

Vice Provost of Enrollment Management Melissa Stone and her team have been working on finalizing the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) plan that will guide our campus efforts to attract and retain students over the coming years. A draft will be shared with the campus community for feedback this month. Here too, I strongly encourage you to get involved and lend your expertise to support and execute critical enrollment initiatives.

Reminders:

• Faculty Award Nominations:  Final submission date is Friday, January 27, 2023.
• Religious Holidays:  As with each academic semester, there are many religious holidays (for example, Ramadan begins in early April) that will require us to remain flexible and accommodate student needs. Please remember the university has a policy in place to protect religious devotions and obligations.
• 2023 Digital Education Day:  The Office of Digital Education, the Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources, and our colleagues at Henry Ford College and University of Michigan-Flint are proud to present the seventh annual Digital Education Days Conference.  The 2023 conference will be a 3-day series of short virtual events spread over a couple weeks in February. Please keep a look out for additional information about the event.
• Learning Assessment Events:  Invitations and more event details to come but please keep an eye out for a Program Assessment workshop – learn more about the new program assessment report template that is due in May; DDC Assessment Sessions – review and discuss with faculty colleagues assessment data collected last year in Humanities and Arts along with Capstone courses; and Assessment Week – explore inspirational and practical resources related to student learning assessment on our campus. Please reach out to Jess LaGrange or Emily Luxon with any questions or comments.
• Provost Communications Webpage
• Important Winter Semester Dates:
  +   Martin Luther King Day, Monday, January 16th - No Classes
  +   Drop/Add Deadline, Thursday, January 19th
  +   Spring Recess, Saturday, February 25th - Sunday, March 5th
  +   Honors Scholars Convocation, Thursday, March 30th
  +   Chancellor's & Dean's Medallions, Thursday, April 27th
  +   Examinations, Thursday, April 20th - Friday, April 21st
       and Monday, April 24th - Wednesday, April 26th
  +   Commencement, Sunday, April 30th

A recording of the December 1st Provost's Roundtable Panel on Mental Health is now available.  The panel comprised many of our campus experts and the presentation entitled "Supporting Each Other Through Mental Health Challenges" can be found here.

Again, happy new year!  I wish you all a healthy and productive semester!

Gabriella

Gabriella Scarlatta
Provost & Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs