Academic Affairs News - January 2024

From Provost Schwab

Greetings – it is great to see students, faculty, and staff back on campus. I hope your semester is off to a good start and that you are “weathering” the weather okay. With the cold, snow, wind, ice, rain, and fog, it has been an interesting start to the year.

Although the state of the world continues to be incredibly disturbing in many ways, I think it is important that we do not lose hope. We need to help each other, ourselves, and especially our students, to seek to understand and to respect differences, and to embrace the complexity and the beauty that exists but is easy to gloss over. 

We all experience many stressors, internal and external, that move us toward change. Change is difficult and it is uncomfortable, but when you get through it, you are a different (and hopefully better) person. I had an amazing leadership coach several years ago who shared a phrase that stuck with me: Change Changes Us. In the classroom, when faculty challenge and push students out of their comfort zone, to the edge where learning takes place, they do so to help students learn and grow. In the same way, we all need to do that, to push beyond our comfort zone, into the zone where learning and change can happen. But it is not easy. It takes work. 

As a university, we face many stresses and challenges ahead, and it is essential that we work together and make the changes necessary to succeed as an institution. Despite the challenges, I remain incredibly hopeful for the future. We have amazing faculty, staff, and students and are transforming lives every day. We are incredibly fortunate to work in higher education, and I’ll share a personal story that was a recent reminder of that.

My oldest son participated in his undergraduate commencement ceremonies back in December. Of course, I’ve attended and been part of many, many college graduation ceremonies. But this was my first as a dad, and I was surprised at how impactful and joyful the experience was. Even though I’ve been in higher ed for a bit, feeling the significance of what that accomplishment meant for my son and his future, for our family, and for all those other families in attendance, reminded me of what a difference we can make in people’s lives. Even though it was at a different institution, it was a great reminder of the work we get to do at UIS and why we do it. 

Thank you for all you do for UIS.

Provost’s January/February open office hours

• Faculty & Staff: Wednesday, January 31, 3-5 p.m., Check in at UHB 2004
• Students: Thursday, February 8, 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m., Drop by Student Union 235

Opportunities to make a difference

• Student Arts and Research Symposium (STARS): Here are some ways to encourage your students to participate in the STARS event on April 11 and 12:
  • Encourage students to submit an abstract
  • Have a competition in your class for the best student team project presentation, they can “advance” to STARS
  • Require students to attend one or more presentations, including both those from the class discipline and those from outside the discipline, and turn in reports on them.
  • Offer extra credit for students who attend STARS presentations and write reports.
  • Take a class “field trip” to a STARS event.
  • Encourage students to volunteer as Room Assistants.
  • Online classes can “attend” via the online sessions.

Read more about STARS

• Faculty Experts: Enhance your visibility and showcase your expertise through being featured on the new Faculty Experts page. Here's how you can participate:
  • Guide: Update Your Information
  • Flag Your Expertise: Update your areas of expertise in the directory to be featured on the new Faculty’s Experts page currently in development. 
  • AI Experts page: Help us create a page to feature AI experts by updating your profile and adding AI as your expertise.
  • Highlight Your Work: New fields in the directory now include your publications and editorials – a great way to promote yourself and your program. 

Your involvement is vital for this initiative's success. Please take a moment to update your profile. Let's highlight the incredible talent we have on campus!

• Exploring Graduate Education event (formerly known as Grad Week): We appreciate all those faculty and staff who are participating in these sessions the week of January 29-February 2 for UIS undergraduate and other prospective students who would like to learn more about the graduate programs we offer and about the graduate school experience. Contact Cecilia Cornell with questions.

Useful resources

• Segregation of Duties (reminder) - This new OBFS policy 9.1.2 mitigates the risks of non-segregation of duties by prohibiting certain role combinations for enterprise-wide systems. Access to enterprise-wide applications by an employee with a prohibited role combination is only allowed after obtaining advance approval for an exception request. Read more about the Segregation of Duties policy and access the exception request form.

News worth celebrating 

• Social Innovation Seed Grant Project Award: The Illinois Innovation Network (IIN) awarded $30,000 to UIS faculty Devin Hunter (History) and Lesa Johnson (Sociology/Anthropology), and several Illinois colleagues. The funded project, “Journeys to Justice: Commemorating and Memorializing the History and Legacy of Anti-Black Terror in Illinois,” will launch a statewide coalition to promote and support the research and remembrance of anti-Black riots, massacres and lynchings in Illinois. IIN funds will support a trip to Equal Justice Initiative sites in Montgomery, Alabama, and a follow-up symposium in Springfield this fall.
• UIS Floyd Public Policy Research Scholarship: Rebecca Dieken, a Doctor of Public Administration student, was awarded the UIS Floyd Public Policy Research Scholarship. This scholarship aims to create an opportunity for dialogue between UIS and members of Illinois communities that could lead to better policy decisions. The title of Ms. Dieken’s project is “Risky Relations: The Impact of Community on Traffic-related Drug Consumption Among Serious and Fatal Crash Outcomes. Her research advisor is Dr. Richard Funderburg.

Important dates

• Monday, January 29 to Friday, February 2 - Exploring Graduate School
• Wednesday, January 31, 3-5 p.m. – Provost’s Open Office Hours for Faculty/Staff, check in at UHB 2004
• Monday, February 12, 5 p.m. – Deans submit new academic program Strategic Investment Fund (SIF) II proposals; other SIF II innovative idea proposals due to the Provost. SIF I resubmissions due.  

Newsletter contact: Monica Kroft