SUBJECT: End of Semester Updates from the Provost Office

Dear Colleagues,

Wishing everyone a joyful holiday season and a happy New Year! As we wrap up the semester and look ahead to a new academic year, here are the key updates and reminders for the month of December.

Upcoming Library Hours: 

• Tuesday, December 16: 9am-midnight
• Wednesday, December 17: 9am-10pm
• Thursday, December 18: 9am-6pm
• Friday, December 19: 9am-6pm
• Saturday, December 20-Thursday January 1: closed
• Friday, January 2: open remotely

The regular schedule resumes on Sunday, January 4, 2026.

Save the dates!
Please save the dates for the following Winter 2026 events. We hope to see you there!

• March 13th: 3rd Annual Graduation & Retention Summit in Kochoff Hall
• April 11th: Campus Open House

SURE 2026
Preparations for SURE 2026 have started! The faculty proposal application is open and will close on Friday, January 16th. Awardees will be notified by February 4th and can confirm with student researchers they have identified for their project. The SURE admin team can also provide faculty with a list of interested students and resumes for review. There will be an information session for tenure track and clinical faculty on January 8th. Please use this form to register. For more information about SURE and to see the list of faculty/student peer-reviewed publications go to Summer Undergraduate Research Experience (SURE) Program | University of Michigan-Dearborn.

Commencement & Graduation
UM-Dearborn Commencement will be held on Saturday, December 20th inside the Fieldhouse. The schedule is as follows:

• 10:00 a.m. ceremony: College of Arts, Sciences, & Letters and College of Business
• 2:00 p.m. ceremony: College of Education, Health, & Human Services and College of Engineering & Computer Science 

Faculty presence at our ceremonies is a meaningful way to support and celebrate our students and contributes greatly to the spirit of the occasion!

Remember the deadline for submitting final grades is Friday, December 19, 2025 (11:45pm) to ensure seamless degree completion for our graduating students!

Faculty Awards
Nominations for the six campus faculty awards are now open! Please find the time to nominate members of the UM-Dearborn faculty whom you believe are deserving of such recognition. Your nominations are essential in our efforts to solicit the strongest possible pool of candidates for consideration by the selection committee. Submissions are due January 26, 2026. 

• Collegiate Lectureship Award
• Distinguished Academic Citizenship Award
• Distinguished Research Award
• Distinguished Research Team Award
• Distinguished Teaching Awards
• Lecturer Excellence in Inclusive Teaching Award

International Travel Reminder
With the Fall semester winding down, here are a few important reminders with all of you who are planning international travel.

1. Remember to register your travel before your departure. Our travel registry is solely dedicated to supporting our community members while they travel internationally by locating and communicating with them in case of emergencies.
2. If you are traveling on U-M Related Travel, make sure to have our GeoBlue travel abroad health insurance, which provides coverage for health emergencies and evacuation support. The insurance is optional for those on personal travel.
3. Please make sure to review the guidance for re-entering the U.S. before your departure.
4. The European Union’s new Entry/Exit System (EES)—set to commence operations on October 12, 2025—is an electronic system that will register non-EU nationals each time they cross an EU external border, replacing the manual stamping of passports. The system will record a traveler’s name, passport details, facial image, fingerprints, and entry/exit dates and locations. Travelers can reduce border wait times by pre-registering their travel document data and facial image using the Frontex Travel to Europe mobile app.
5. When traveling internationally, you should follow the guidance for Traveling with Technology and also take into account the advice below. This guidance includes some rules and restrictions regarding taking U-M data and devices outside the U.S. that will help you comply with U.S. and international laws as well as university policy.                    

For any questions related to travel safety, please contact [email protected]. 

Course Materials Adoption
If you haven’t submitted your course materials information to the bookstore yet, please remember the sooner they have this information the sooner they can start to identify and purchase the materials your students will need to be successful next semester.  Course materials information can be input directly through the AIP platform. You can also access the platform through any of your Canvas courses by clicking on the B&N Adoptions and Insights Portal link in the navigation panel. If you are not using materials that need to be provided by the bookstore, please be sure to submit the "No Materials Required" option so the bookstore knows you are all set.

Also, please consider checking with the library to see if they have free access to the materials you plan to use in your class. Using library materials or open access materials when available could save your students a substantial amount of money. While you are thinking about your course materials, be sure to let the library know if they can help you by providing links to any materials which they already have available.

Apply for Community-Connected and Community-Engaged Course Attributes for Winter 2026
Community-Connected (CC) courses provide entry level opportunities for students to engage with community, business, or industry partners and provide foundational tools for further learning i.e. a guest speaker, field trip, or other one-off activity. Community-Engaged (CE) courses provide deeper opportunities for students to work with a community, business, or industry partner over the course of an assignment or the entire semester, resulting in a project rooted in mutual benefit i.e. app development for a local business, program evaluation for a nonprofit, financial auditing, etc. If you believe your course qualifies for either of these attributes, please fill out the CC/CE Attribute Application Form. The form also has more in depth definitions of each attribute.

Why apply for these course designations?

• Faculty: to recognize the amazing work you and your partners are doing, deepen networks
• Leadership/Staff: to better track community-engaged efforts for strategic planning, Carnegie classification, etc.
• Students: to make attributes visible in Banner when registering for classes and in transcripts

If your course qualifies, thank you for taking a couple minutes to fill out the application. If you have questions, please reach out to Elspeth ([email protected]) or Molly ([email protected]) in the Office of Community-Engaged Learning.

Thank you for taking the time to read this month’s update. I appreciate all you do as we close out the semester and prepare for the year ahead. Wishing you a restful holiday season and a wonderful start to the new academic year. If you need anything, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 

Respectfully, 

Ghassan Kridli
Interim Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs