University-wide

Preserving public art

stuxbury — Thu, 31 Jul 2025 22:35:21 +0000

Preserving public art stuxbury Thu, 07/31/2025 - 18:35

��-Dearborn Art Curator and Gallery Manager Laura Cotton wants the community to know what they can see at ��-Dearborn just by taking a walk. The university’s 15 outdoor art pieces have fascinating artists and histories. Artists behind these works are or were major players in the Detroit art scene, and they have displayed work at the Smithsonian Institution, the Detroit Institute of Arts and at the Olympics.

“A big part of our mission at the gallery is to educate people through art, which includes highlighting and promoting Michigan artists. What better way to do that than to have their talent displayed in such a public way?” says Cotton, noting there’s even a work by the legendary Detroit artist Charles McGee. “In addition to seeing the art, we want people on campus to know who was behind these works and what their point of view was when creating them.”

For the last six years, Cotton and Museum Registrar Autumn Muir have led student interns in an effort to research further information about each piece. “The sculptures weren’t fully cataloged and little information was known. It was a top priority for Autumn and me to shed more light on these highly visible works that we’re proud to have as part of the collection,” Cotton says. “It’s a way to focus on the sculptures while also giving students an engaging experience. Each year, we’ve provided the opportunity for a new student majoring in art history or museum studies to work as a gallery intern. These interns have dug up elusive information, talked with artists directly, organized and fact checked the information, and compiled the text for future plaques. I'm very impressed with the depth of work they have done.” After graduating, these interns — Nicole Gonzales, Brooke Palomba, Morgan Pigott and McKenna Russell — have gone on to museum studies graduate programs and positions at places like the Cranbrook Art Museum and the Automotive Hall of Fame.

Art history major and Sturgis native Julianna Collins — the latest of the interns working on the project — came to ��-Dearborn because she heard about opportunities for students to gain hands-on experience at the Stamelos Galley Center while on a campus tour. “I’m so glad that I chose ��-Dearborn and got this internship. My goal is to become a conservator and I was able to do the behind-the-scenes gallery work as a student,” she says. “I love it as much as I hoped I would.”

Passing by a circle of tall wooden pieces outside of the Mardigian Library, Collins once thought the wood and iron sculpture represented arrows in the ground. But when learning about artist Robert Piepenburg — whose works have been featured in the Smithsonian — Collins realized “The Dancers” is meant to represent human spirit and movement. The subjects’ “choreography” changes based on where the viewer stands. The 1974 art work was donated by William and Electra Stamelos, the gallery’s namesakes. “I now know what the artist was thinking when he created it,” Collins says. “I have to admit that I still see arrows, but I know now what it represents and that adds to my experience. The sculptures across campus are abstract so everyone can have their own experience with them and see something different. It’s part of their beauty and purpose.”

During her time as an intern, Collins participated in the gallery and conservation teams’ assessment of the condition of the sculptures to determine what will need to be done to shore up and preserve the pieces. She also helped develop a presentation about the sculpture collection that is being utilized by the ��-Dearborn Facilities Operations team to assist with future landscaping plans. The information will also help guide the next intern, who starts this fall and will help finalize informational plaques for the artworks and brainstorm ideas for a self-guided audio tour.

The Charles McGee sculpture "Amalgum"

“If we don’t provide further information with the sculptures, people are less likely to learn from them and appreciate what we’re so lucky to have here,” Cotton says. “About 10 years ago, an older man in a wheelchair came to the library. The person he was with very casually asked me where the Charles McGee sculpture was, and I pointed out the location. I realized later that the elderly man was Charles himself and he had been too humble to share his name. He had stopped by just to visit his sculpture. I consider his piece to be a significant highlight of our collection.” Cotton adds that McGee’s 1984 brushed aluminum sculpture — which was on display outside of the Administration Building — is currently with a conservator. McGee passed away in 2021.

The McGee sculpture “Amalgum,” referencing a word that can mean a mixture or alloy, but also a mixture of diverse things, came to campus about 20 years ago — along with the other outdoor sculptures. ��-Dearborn Curator Emeritus Joe Marks and retired Museum Director Ken Gross reached out to local artists at that time in an effort to encourage them to share and display their work on campus grounds.

Cotton, who started at ��-Dearborn in 2015, recognizes and appreciates the hard work of former gallery staff. To support their work, Cotton has made it a priority to obtain funding for the proper maintenance and preservation of the outdoor sculpture collection. “They had a wonderful vision and realized it. But now we are working on that next step — how do we preserve what we have?” she says. For the conservation work on the pieces, which is especially necessary when art is exposed to weather elements, Cotton has secured $62,000 in Kresge Foundation grants. Four sculptures have been professionally restored and three others are in the restoration process. Want to donate to support sculpture upkeep? Visit the gallery website.

The Linda Howard sculpture "Turnabout"

In addition to the necessary conservation work, some of the sculptures were sinking or leaning because they were on temporary bases for 20-plus years. “We’re working on providing them with new, safer and more aesthetic bases. Little by little, we are getting there,” Cotton says. “We know that these works are gems on campus.” One recently restored sculpture is artist Linda Howard’s “Turnabout,” which is between Chancellor’s Pond and the Tony England Engineering Lab Building. Around the same time Howard created that piece, she was working on one commissioned by the Public Arts Program for the 1980 Winter Olympics.

This gallery team’s work coincides with the multiyear Comprehensive Campus Plan, which includes moving some of the sculptures so they can be better featured in the campus landscape, notably along the Wolverine Walk and at the central entrance campus gateway. The Wolverine Walk will be the main pedestrian thoroughfare through the heart of campus. Landscape changes, starting with the university’s central entrance, could begin as early as next year.

Collins, who graduated in April and stayed on as an intern through the summer, says the university’s sculptures not only visually impressed her, they also gave her experience needed for her resume while seeking out the next step in her career. She’s glad to have taken part in a project that will be a part of the university for many years to come.

“Public art is important because it catches your attention while you go about your day. And, for a moment, it can take you out of whatever you are stressing about and get you to notice the world around you. That’s what they do for me, anyway,” Collins says. “We have some unique and beautiful works here and I’m happy that I got to interact with them in a way where I could help preserve their story.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury

Arts

University History

University-wide

Language, Culture, and the Arts

Stamelos Gallery Center

Off

Thu, 07/31/2025 - 22:30

The Stamelos Gallery Center is working to better showcase the university's sculptures so the community can learn more and enjoy.

Stamelos Gallery Center intern Julianna Collins is with the university art piece "The Dancers." Photo by Sarah Tuxbury

News

CAPS’ peer wellness program is changing with the times

lblouin — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:25:37 +0000

CAPS’ peer wellness program is changing with the times lblouin Mon, 07/21/2025 - 11:25

When Counseling and Psychological Services launched the pilot of its peer wellness program back in 2018, it was envisioned as a way to expand the menu of options available to students beyond one-on-one therapy. The thinking was that individual therapy often carries a stigma that leads many to forgo seeking support. Moreover, research consistently demonstrates that students are actually more likely to reach out to their peers for common mental health needs, like relationship issues or class-related stress. Initially, the heart of the peer wellness program consisted of student support groups that were facilitated by a student facilitator who was trained by CAPS. The program got off to a fast start — attracting about a dozen peer mentors, who ran five regular, one-hour support groups.

A little over a year into that experiment, though, the pandemic hit, curtailing in-person interactions and creating a fog of isolation that left many young people starved for social interaction and experiencing greater rates of anxiety and depression. Like so many parts of our lives, the peer wellness program never returned to its pre-COVID form, as participation in the in-person support groups waned. Still, Tracy Gallardo, who’s been working as a CAPS mental health clinician since 2023 and now oversees the peer wellness program, says the CAPS staff remained big believers in the peer-based approach — especially given the stress students were now experiencing as they readjusted to in-person life. So the staff decided to retool the program. Now, instead of leading private support groups, the student mental health and wellness peer educators would try to reach students where they already were, often in low-key public settings. Most interestingly, Gallardo says they were often doing it via activities that didn’t scream 'mental health.'

Tabling events have become one of the bread-and-butter activities of the new-look peer wellness program. Walk through the Renick University Center on a given week and you’ll likely see the peer wellness educators doing things like coloring, building Lego kits or handing out goodie bags packed with destress supplies. Azaan Jamil, a recent grad who worked as a peer wellness educator in 2024-25, says the tabling events are intended to work on a few different levels. For starters, the activities are designed to be mild destressors in themselves: Stopping to color or build something out of Legos takes you out of your routine and your head for a moment and redirects your energy to something inherently more meditative. Second, for students who choose to do the activity there on the spot, it’s a chance to socialize and meet new people. Third, Jamil says it offers up a relaxed way to get the word out about the university’s mental health services. “Somebody might come up because they see Lego kits, but then they’re probably going to ask, ‘What are you guys about?’” he says. “So that’s your entry point to say, ‘We’re part of CAPS. Take this brochure. Keep it with you if you ever need anything.’”

In addition to tabling events, Gallardo says the peer wellness team has looked for opportunities to collaborate with other student organizations, campus units and community groups. This past year, for example, they worked with the Shifa Institute, a new student-organization-turned-nonprofit that’s focused on mental health education for Muslim Americans. Peer educators were also an essential part of the Environmental Interpretive Center’s Nature Walks for Mental Health, with one of the students leading a guided meditation during each event. Gallardo says peer wellness educators also regularly visit classrooms, where they do short presentations about mental health and CAPS. “We’ve noticed that if it’s a student making the presentation about the services we offer, we get a better response,” she says. “We get a lot of students coming into CAPS now saying it’s because they heard about it from a student in one of their classes.”

Jamil, who’s now applying to medical schools and wants to study psychiatry, also sees a lot of potential in this new approach. For starters, he thinks it can address the stigma issue, which he says is still a huge challenge, particularly in Muslim and other minority communities. “Notice we’re not saying, ‘Come color with us to help your mental health.’ It’s just, ‘Come color with us,’” he says. “It’s true that younger generations are more accepting that mental health issues are a thing. So at least we’re not in a state of denial. But it’s funny: I notice a lot of people will applaud a friend who’s seeing a therapist. But personally, if we’re struggling, we tell ourselves, ‘but I don’t need that.’” Moreover, Jamil says the low-key activities that aren’t explicitly branded as ‘mental health’ help people understand that mental health and wellness aren’t just about diagnosable conditions. “Coloring, building Legos, going for a hike — that’s preventative maintenance basically anyone is going to benefit from. But we need to learn to see it that way,” he says.

Jamil did make one observation about the tabling events that he finds a little troubling. When they were handing out Legos or coloring kits, the vast majority of students treated it as a grab-and-go thing rather than sticking around to do it in-person. He chalks some of that up to the fact that students are busy. But he also suspects students’ social skills — and even the desire to be social — atrophied during the pandemic. “Obviously, we need to respect people’s individual choices,” he says. “If they want to take something home and do it by themselves, that’s still good. But I think we’re missing an opportunity to get some of the benefits that come with being around each other. Let me put it this way: I think we’ve lost the ability to small talk. So many of our interactions have become planned. We structure them so we know what to expect, so we can be comfortable. But that unexpected interaction with someone you don’t know well, that requires you to leave our bubble. I think we need more of that.” Jamil thinks that’s another reason why simple wellness-related activities can be a good fit for the moment. When we’re sitting around coloring, the conversation doesn’t have to be super intense, because the primary focus is the activity, not each other. That lowers the social pressure, allowing conversation to ebb and flow in a relaxed manner. “It may be the training wheels we need to figure out how to be with each other again,” he says.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Health and Wellness

University-wide

Counseling Services

Off

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 15:22

Counseling and Psychological Services Mental Health Clinician Tracy Gallardo and former Peer Wellness Educator Azaan Jamil talk about why activities that don’t scream 'mental health' are effective in reaching students.

Peer wellness educator Hani Al-janabi invites students to come make their own tie-dye t-shirts. Tabling events have become one of the bread-and-butter activities of the new-look peer wellness program. Photo courtesy Tracy Gallardo

News

Can we make accessibility ‘universal’?

lblouin — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 13:46:55 +0000

Can we make accessibility ‘universal’? lblouin Mon, 07/21/2025 - 09:46

The world of accessibility and disability accommodations seems to evolve continuously, as new technologies emerge, social attitudes toward disabilities shift and laws are updated. When we last wrote about disability accommodations in 2022, one of the major issues was how the university was meeting rising demand for accommodations, as the social isolation students experienced during the pandemic and the transition back to in-person life fueled an increase in accommodations requests for anxiety and depression. At that time, the approach to accommodations most often focused on the individual: A student with anxiety, for example, could meet with someone from Disability and Accessibility Services, who might recommend an accommodation like additional time to take tests. DAS would then send an email to that student’s instructors detailing the nature of the accommodations, and their professors would make the appropriate arrangements. DAS would also serve as a resource for faculty if they needed help, say, figuring out how to adjust the timed test option for an individual student in Canvas.

This is still how the process works today, and individual accommodations are still very much a thing (more on this below). But talk with those who work within this space and you’ll likely also hear about a push for “universal” accessibility, which may have the effect of reducing the need for one-off, individual accommodations. The thinking is that many of the most common accommodations for those with the disabilities — flexible deadlines, video captioning, making readings screen reader-friendly, providing options on assignments or assessments, or posting lecture slides ahead of time — actually benefit all students. Multiple studies have demonstrated, for example, that captions on video content increase understanding and retention for viewers. Digitize a reading in a screen reader-friendly format and anyone can listen to a reading while they’re commuting or cooking dinner. Providing slides before class gives students an opportunity to pre-digest material and engage at a deeper level. Getting to choose between a test and a project to demonstrate what they’ve learned grants students more autonomy and lets multiple learning styles shine. In other words, if we design the learning experience with accommodations in mind, we end up benefiting everyone — and ultimately reduce the time faculty invest in implementing accommodations for individual students.

Many instructors at ��-Dearborn have made these kinds of adjustments to their courses in the past few years, often with support from the Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources, which provides course design services, big and small. If faculty haven’t started moving in this direction already, though, it’s likely they’ll be thinking more about it very soon, at least when it comes to anything online, says ��-Dearborn’s Director of Digital Education Chris Casey. That’s because in 2024, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a new rule under Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act that requires public institutions, including colleges and universities, to ensure that all web content, mobile applications and other digital technologies are usable by people with disabilities. That means by April of next year — the compliance deadline for an institution of ��-Dearborn’s size — all websites, documents (such as PDFs), university communications (including emails) and digital tools have to meet the new federal guidelines for accessibility.

To meet this compliance deadline, U-M has created digital accessibility training for all faculty and staff, which provides practical guidance for creating and maintaining accessible digital content. For the past year, Casey’s team and other campus units, especially the Hub and the Provost’s office, have been busy helping faculty make the transition. Casey says it’s good that they’ve gotten a running start because they’ve unsurprisingly encountered some challenges. PDFs, for example, “are just a nightmare, in general,” Casey says. For years, PDFs were a popular choice for digitizing everything from journal articles to math worksheets. The problem is that screen readers, the technology blind and visually impaired people commonly use to listen to text, often lose a lot in translation. It’s not just the low-quality, 30-year-old scan of a journal article or a handwritten math worksheet that causes problems either. Take, for instance, a standard journal article that has images, charts, tables, subheadings and is formatted into two columns. Our eyes can generally make quick organizational sense of how the information is supposed to flow. But Casey says, left to its own devices, a screen reader often garbles that “reading order” that our eyes and brains find so intuitive.

Casey says his team does have some tools to help faculty with specific accessibility challenges. Some applications, like Yuja Panorama, a Canvas plugin that can peruse documents and identify accessibility issues and recommend fixes, work pretty well. But with those nightmarish PDFs, the solutions might not always be straightforward. If it’s a journal article, Casey recommends faculty check with a subject-matter librarian or the publisher to see if the source already exists in an accessible format or if the publisher has plans to have an accessible version available before the compliance deadline. If those options don’t work out, he says they do have some automated PDF remediation tools, but gives them a “50/50” effectiveness grade. If automatic remediation fails, Casey says faculty may have to try manually adding accessibility features to the PDF, though he warns that’s an adventure that can “get super in the weeds super fast.” He concedes that, when possible, sometimes the best option might be for faculty to retype a document (assuming that doesn’t violate copyright laws) or consider an alternative source that doesn’t have accessibility challenges. Other tools, like the custom generative AI alt-text generator created by ��-Flint Distance Learning Director Nick Gaspar, are working much better. Alt text is a way of describing visual elements, like images and charts, to make them accessible to people using screen readers. Casey said their team test drove the generator with everything from artwork used in an art history class to scatter plot graphs from the math department and got very good results. “With this alt-text generator, I finally feel like we have something that we can say to faculty, ‘This works,’” he says.

Not all accessibility hurdles will be cleared with a quick technological fix, however, which is why Casey’s team is trying to get in front of faculty as much as possible so he can give them a more detailed picture of what it might take to bring their online course materials into compliance. “Faculty are very busy, and some, understandably, want sort of the five-minute version of this,” he says. “But every course has its own needs. So it’s not like there’s a one-size-fits-all solution for every course,” he says. As a starting point, he recommends faculty take a two-hour Canvas course that his team has created, which provides a detailed overview of the major compliance issues and recommended fixes. His team is even offering a $200 incentive for the first 250 instructors who complete the course. In addition, every Tuesday throughout the summer, his office is hosting Zoom sessions focused on specific digital accessibility issues, like how to deal with tables, using Yuja Panorama or how color choices impact readability. Over the past four months, Casey’s team has also held in-person sessions with every department, and they plan to keep that going through the fall and winter semesters.

Of course, much of the labor of updating course materials ultimately falls to faculty, who already have a lot of demands on their time. Understandably, many faculty are feeling a little stressed about the work that’s required to bring their online course materials into compliance, says Maggie Rathouz, an associate professor of mathematics education who also volunteers as an accessibility liaison for her department through DAS. “To be honest, the mood isn’t great,” she says. “It’s not at all that we don’t want to help our students. I think basically everyone gets why this is important. It’s more that we aren’t experts in this stuff, and yet it’s going to fall to faculty to become experts and make these changes, which takes time. I mean, it would be great if this was something AI could help with even more, because then faculty could spend their time on the implementation of these changes and how to teach with these changes.”

Casey says he totally gets that, which is why his office is trying to lighten that burden by providing efficient training sessions, compensating faculty for at least some of their time, and regularly evaluating new technologies that can help with the transition. His office is also providing 250 small grants for instructors to hire a student in their discipline to assist with accessibility work. Rathouz says things like that are helpful — to a point. Personally, the $200 incentive nudged her to sign up for the Canvas course, though she says she actually hasn’t taken it yet and has been “dragging her feet” when it comes to making some accessibility updates to her courses. Similarly, she says it would be helpful to have a student do some of the work but notes that student workers will still require a fair bit of guidance from a faculty member.

Overall, Casey says he feels good about where ��-Dearborn is at as it approaches the April 2026 compliance deadline. Paradigm shifts, even little ones, take time, and a little foot dragging is only human nature, especially when faculty have a lot of other obligations. But he’s hopeful that this new culture around digital accessibility will end up being one of those things that feels like a bit of a lift up front, but then becomes second nature as faculty move forward with creating new courses and materials. It should also be noted that even as this culture of universal accessibility grows some roots in the digital space, individual accommodations will absolutely still be available to students. Knowing faculty are already feeling a little stretched by accessibility-related issues, DAS Coordinator of Case Management and Support Hillary Degner-Miller says their team recently created a new faculty guide that provides the most essential information about the individual accommodations process, including examples of situations faculty are most likely to encounter. Since 2023, DAS has also been utilizing department-level volunteer faculty liaisons, who both serve as a resource for their colleagues about accommodations and help DAS staff better understand where faculty are coming from. Moreover, Degner-Miller says that her slice of the accessibility domain, which tends to focus more on accommodations for individuals, is also experimenting with a more universal approach. The next addition to the faculty accommodations guide will be a section on universal design principles, which can help faculty create course materials that are usable by everyone, regardless of disability. In the end, everyone’s hoping what feels like a time burden at the moment will feel like a big time saver in just a few years.

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Want to learn more about digital accessibility at ��-Dearborn? Check out the university’s new Digital Accessibility website. Staff should also read the July 23 email from Chancellor Gabriella Scarlatta and Vice Chancellor for Information Management Carrie Shumaker regarding accessibility training for staff. Story by Lou Blouin

Accessibility or Affordability

Faculty and Staff

Inclusion or Diversity

Hub for Teaching and Learning Resources

Mon, 07/28/2025 - 13:45

A spring 2026 federal digital accessibility deadline is ushering in a new paradigm for disability accommodations.

A two-hour Canvas course is helping faculty study up on new federal accessibility guidelines for online content. There's currently a $200 incentive to take the course.

News

��-Dearborn named an Opportunity University

stuxbury — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 11:18:27 +0000

��-Dearborn named an Opportunity University stuxbury Mon, 07/21/2025 - 07:18

At ��-Dearborn, 50% of students are Pell-eligible. The university has the second lowest tuition among the state's 15 public universities and ranks No. 4 for student earnings after graduation.

As a result of numbers like these, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the American Council on Education recently named ��-Dearborn a top-tier “Opportunity University” through their new Student Access and Earnings Classification. ��-Dearborn is one of four public Michigan universities on this list, along with Central Michigan University, Ferris State University and ��-Flint.

The Student Access and Earnings Classification is based on data from universities across the U.S. indicating the degree of access for students from lower socioeconomic and historically underrepresented racial/ethnic backgrounds, as well as the wages of Pell-eligible students eight years after enrolling. Here's the methodology.

Annesha Hardy

Annesha Hardy, a Fall 2024 alum who majored in marketing, said she’s not surprised to hear this news — it reflects her story. Hardy, a Pell-eligible student who grew up in Detroit’s Warrendale neighborhood, landed a technical business developer role at Amazon Web Services in Seattle immediately after graduation. “Growing up, you hear the phrase ‘dream big’ — but that’s hard to do when you live in an environment that’s disadvantaged and you don’t know what’s possible for you,” Hardy said. “The people at ��-Dearborn are focused on helping you learn how to do that — and then work to reach what that means to you.”

Hardy — who noted that Amazon was impressed by the AI knowledge she gained through her College of Business curriculum — said that, from the beginning of her educational journey until her graduation, people were there to help. She had mentors from student organizations, like Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority. Hardy received career coaching and sought internships through Career Services. And, right before graduation when Hardy struggled with financial hardship, ��-Dearborn staff members connected her to a scholarship opportunity. “I was working almost full time and going to school full time, but it wasn’t enough. I was running out of resources. When I shared with Dean of Students Amy Finley that I was worried, she told me about the Edward J. Bagale Difference Makers Scholarship — it couldn’t have come at a better time,” said Hardy, who was a 2024 ��-Dearborn Difference Maker.

When it comes to the accessibility part of the Opportunity University designation, Vice Provost for Enrollment Management Melissa Stone said ��-Dearborn’s accessibility and affordability mission is affirmed through the data that the Carnegie Foundation reviewed.

To increase access, the university reworked its financial aid program in 2021 to open doors for more students. The ��-Dearborn Go Blue Guarantee Program, which offers free or reduced tuition to high achieving students from low-income situations, started in 2021. And, in 2025, GBG expanded the scholarship to students whose families make up to $125,000 a year.

“There is immense value in education. There’s the critical thinking skills you gain that will be beneficial to you throughout your life. Education opens doors for career and increased earning opportunities,” Stone said. Among people ages 22 to 27, the average median income in the U.S. is $60,000 for someone with a bachelor’s degree, compared to $36,000 for someone with a high school diploma.

“Looking at lifetime earning numbers, data shows the impact of a college degree can change the trajectory of someone’s life and the lives of people around them. And this extends to their community, region and our state,” Stone adds. And a vast majority of ��-Dearborn students stay in Michigan: 95% of students who accepted employment in 2023-24 remained in the state.

Fatmah Saleh

Alum Fatmah Saleh, a Pell-eligible student who graduated in spring 2025, grew up, went to school and continues to live in Dearborn. Prior to commencement, she accepted a full-time international accounting analyst position at Stellantis. “My degree has helped me build a life where I have a job at a company I care about while living in a community I love. And I’m able to work hybrid, so I have the opportunity to be home with my mom, too,” she said. Saleh, an accounting major, has worked full time since her high school graduation to help support her mom, who has a long-term illness. Saleh is her mom’s caregiver. Her father passed away when she was six.

While the cost of attending ��-Dearborn is among the lowest within Michigan’s public universities, ��-Dearborn grads’ annual earnings are very competitive. According to Student Access and Earnings Classification data, ��-Dearborn Pell grant recipients go on to earn a median income of $57,847, while median earnings in the region are $37,232.

When including both Pell-eligible and non-Pell-eligible students at ��-Dearborn, the average salary earned is just above $62,000, said Career Services Director Laurel Draudt. The Career Services team surveys graduating undergraduate students six months postgraduation for the annual National Association of Colleges and Employers First Destination self-reporting survey.

Both Saleh and Hardy are pleased with the jobs they landed after earning their degrees and the earnings that come with those. They credit ��-Dearborn’s career support offerings — as well as their own tenacity and drive — as instrumental in their achievements. Both had internships that they found after attending career fairs: Hardy at ADP and Amazon, Saleh at Yakuzi and Stellantis.

Draudt says internships are key because employers use them to find top talent, as was the case for Hardy and Saleh. She says ��-Dearborn makes an effort to get the message out to all students to get involved in internship fairs, mentoring programs and resume workshops starting the first year. “The sooner you get involved, the more competitive you will be,” she said. Draudt said Career Services has had 931 interactions with Pell-eligible students since they began recording student interactions in Fall 2022.

The success of the Pell-eligible students they have worked with is reflected in student testimony and the data gathered in the Opportunity University designation. But Draudt wants to do more: “We need to continue getting the word out to our students, many of whom are first in their families to go to college. It’s especially important to reach them because they may not have someone at home to let them know that these opportunities are right here,” she said. Career Services holds internship and job fairs twice a year, and offers job outlook resources that include average salary numbers, networking events, virtual interview coaching and more.

Hardy said ��-Dearborn offers a supportive community that helped build her skill set, resume and confidence. She’s now eyeing graduate school to understand the more technical side of her field.“I’m dreaming big. I wouldn’t be where I am today without my time at ��-Dearborn,” she said. “Getting into ��-Dearborn got me into the rooms — classrooms, interview rooms, board rooms — that changed my life.”

Article by Sarah Tuxbury

Accessibility or Affordability

Business Career Center

Financial Aid & Scholarships

Off

Mon, 07/21/2025 - 11:17

New Carnegie designation recognizes schools with high access and post-grad earnings.

Alum Annesha Hardy, pictured above, said she’s not surprised to hear that ��-Dearborn was named an Opportunity University for its work with Pell-eligible students — it reflects her story. Photo by Derek Juntunen

News

What does an Institutional Review Board do?

lblouin — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 17:41:36 +0000

What does an Institutional Review Board do? lblouin Mon, 06/30/2025 - 13:41

Faculty research is a time-consuming endeavor — even in the planning stages. Researchers have to invest hundreds of hours in finding good ideas, vetting them for originality, researching funding programs, writing proposals and hiring research assistants. And for any study that involves human subjects, researchers have one more to-do: Submitting their project to be reviewed by someone from one of two main Institutional Review Boards at U-M — or possibly the entire board if the work involves tricky ethical issues. Elizabeth Molina, the U-M research compliance specialist with the IRB Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences who handles all initial IRB review applications coming from faculty, postdocs and student researchers at ��-Dearborn, says IRB reviews involve carefully evaluating all aspects of a proposed research project. The goal is to make sure the methodology complies with federal and state regulations, ethical principles and U-M specific policies designed to protect the rights and welfare of human participants involved in research conducted by faculty, staff and students on U-M’s three campuses. An IRB will then give the researcher a green light or a rejection, or request changes to their project to bring it into compliance. Notably, an IRB always has a diverse mix of people, including non-scientists and community members, so that complicated issues can be evaluated from a variety of perspectives. Sometimes, if a study is reviewed by the full board, researchers and study teams are invited to the review sessions so they can work through tricky issues as a group.

In practice, Molina says her work with the IRB involves navigating a lot of nuances with consent and privacy issues. Sometimes, a review might be super quick. “The first thing we actually look for is if the work involves something that the IRB needs to review,” Molina says. “For example, if a faculty member wants to survey students in their class solely to inform their own teaching practice and not to generalize or disseminate the findings beyond their classroom, then IRB approval is not required,” Molina says. But if the faculty member envisions they might use the results down the road in a research project, then Molina would work with them to make sure they’re, say, obtaining consent in a way that complies with regulations. Depending on what a research survey is about, a review could get more or less involved. A survey asking people about what method they use to heat their homes would require a lower level of review. But if a researcher is asking people about a more sensitive subject, like their personal participation in illegal activity, then the methodology for collecting responses and how the researchers manage and present the data would have to be more carefully thought out. The goal is to ensure that nothing compromises a participant’s anonymity or inadvertently creates adverse consequences for the person.

Nuance is baked into Molina’s work. After all, it’s the nature of research to investigate novel territory, and tricky test cases are essentially how the boundaries of ethical systems get defined and refined. Moreover, while some IRB rules, like those regarding children in medical studies, are more specific, Molina says many regulations are intentionally broad and open to interpretation so they can be inclusive of a wide variety of cases. For straightforward projects, Molina can conduct a regulatory and administrative review of the application herself and communicate with the researcher or study team if she needs any additional information. If the research is “exempt,” meaning it’s research that presents minimal risk to participants and falls under specific exemption categories defined by regulations, then she can issue the approval once any issues are resolved. If a study does not meet any of the exemption categories, she refers it to another reviewer, typically an expert in the subject matter, who assesses the risk and can issue an approval. However, if the study presents more than minimal risk or there is a complicated ethical question, Molina will bring it to the IRB staff for discussion to confirm that it should go to the full board for review. The full board typically discusses three to five studies a month. Only the full board can issue a disapproval, which Molina says is rare.

There are all kinds of tricky situations, especially regarding consent. For example, Molina says if researchers want to observe people without their knowledge, or not tell a participant everything up front, the IRB would review the proposal carefully. In some cases, the IRB can approve a waiver or alteration of informed consent, but only if the study poses no more than minimal risk, doesn’t affect participants’ rights or welfare, and couldn’t be done otherwise. When possible, participants are debriefed afterward and given the option to withdraw their data once they know the full details of the study. However, Molina says there are rare cases where debriefing might actually cause more harm than good. “For example, if someone was included in a study for an embarrassing reason, or finds out they were part of a study without knowing, it could cause distress, lead to mistrust in the research process or the researchers, and discourage future participation,” she says. Moreover, if the research involves children or teenagers, the study team has to obtain consent from both the parents and the kid (referred to in the later case as “assent”). “But there may be circumstances where it would be risky to obtain parental consent,” Molina says. “Let’s say you wanted to talk with teenagers about their sexual orientation. Asking the parents if the child could participate in the research might be risky for that teenager. In situations like that, the researcher could request a waiver of parental permission, because the benefits of doing so could outweigh the risks.”

The gray areas and subtleties are essentially limitless. If a study involves observing people in a public space, that might not require consent, because people don’t have the same expectations of privacy. But if the setting were a semi-public space, like a workplace, that’s going to require a higher level of IRB review. “Or let’s say you’re recruiting participants in a public space, but you’re recruiting for an HPV study. Are participants going to feel comfortable coming to you, and are you taking steps to protect their privacy?” Molina says. Because there are so many nuances, Molina encourages researchers to reach out to talk through any questions they have before submitting their projects to the IRB for an official review. She also conducts monthly IRB “On-the-Road” sessions, where researchers can connect with her on Zoom to talk through issues, or even ask questions about the admittedly not-the-most-user-friendly eResearch software researchers use to submit their projects for review. “People often don’t know what they need to provide us, or what a particular question is asking, or the level of detail we need to provide an evaluation of risk,” she says. “Or, for approved standard studies, they might not know that if they change something on their flyer or their consent form, even something that seems small, like changing your phone number or adding a QR code, that requires an amendment. So a conversation clarifies that. That’s one reason I do the On-the-Road sessions. That way, people can meet me and see that I’m not intimidating. I’m not the police. You can tell me about your challenges and we can try to figure them out together.”

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Want to learn more about what the IRB does and its review process? Check out the IRB Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences website. Have questions for Molina about an upcoming project? Faculty and students can reach out directly at molinael@umich.edu or attend an upcoming IRB On-the-Road session.

Off

Mon, 06/30/2025 - 17:40

If a research study involves human subjects, it has to go through an Institutional Review Board evaluation. But ��-Dearborn’s IRB liaison, Elizabeth Molina, wants faculty, staff and students to see her as a partner, not the ethics police.

Elizabeth Molina, a U-M research compliance specialist with the IRB Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences, handles all initial IRB application reviews coming from faculty, postdocs and student researchers on the ��-Dearborn campus.

News

Big changes, familiar faces

lblouin — Mon, 30 Jun 2025 12:08:32 +0000

Big changes, familiar faces lblouin Mon, 06/30/2025 - 08:08

When Santa Ono announced on Sunday, May 4 that he was stepping down as president of the University of Michigan, it came as a surprise to most. Even fewer people would have predicted the cascade of leadership changes that would roll through ��-Dearborn in the coming days. By Wednesday that week, ��-Dearborn Chancellor Domenico Grasso had been tapped to serve as U-M's interim president, which prompted Grasso to schedule a conversation with ��-Dearborn Provost Gabriella Scarlatta. At that meeting, Scarlatta recalls Grasso matter-of-factly informing her that he’d “like (her) to be interim chancellor.” For a split second, Scarlatta says she wasn’t sure she felt ready. “Of course, I was shocked. But then I got taken over by incredible pride, knowing that our chancellor was going to be president,” she says. “This is only good for Dearborn. So, of course, I’m going to do it. It’s going to put us on the map.”

Scarlatta’s move to interim chancellor set off a wave of leadership changes. Shortly after her conversation with Grasso, she called College of Engineering and Computer Science Dean Ghassan Kridli, who was en route to his son-in-law’s medical school graduation at Wayne State University, to ask him to take over as interim provost. Kridli said ‘yes,’ which left a vacancy at the top of CECS. Armen Zakarian, vice provost for research and dean of graduate studies, stepped up to take that spot, after which Joan Remski, associate provost for faculty development and digital learning, was asked to fill Zakarian’s role. Stein Brunvand, associate dean and director of graduate programs for the College of Education, Health and Human Services, agreed to step into Remski’s position, with Professor of Education Susan Everett filling Brunvand’s post. Then, in another twist, Vice Chancellor for External Relations Ken Kettenbeil shared that he would be going to Ann Arbor as well, to serve as a senior advisor for Grasso’s interim term. Casandra Ulbrich, vice chancellor for institutional advancement, raised her hand to temporarily head ER, while continuing in her current role. And Director of Marketing and Digital Strategy Bailey Ayers-Korpal and Director of Communications Kristin Palm took on additional responsibilities in ER. Rima Berry-Hung, senior director of human resources, also assumed additional duties as senior advisor to the chancellor, along with her current role.

On paper, that sounds like a lot of leadership churn. But both Kridli and Scarlatta say that everything has gone very smoothly thus far — something they attribute to the fact that everyone in the ��-Dearborn leadership team is very used to working together. They both cheekily pointed out that neither one of them had to get a new boss. “I’m happy and proud that we can handle this internally, and I think it says a lot that everyone essentially said, ‘Yes, of course, for Dearborn,’” Scarlatta says. “So we’re all helping each other and cheering for each other. Plus, we’re all thinking, it’s only for a year, so we can all do it.”

Scarlatta says the current plan is that everyone will return to their previous roles once a new chancellor is named and that the transition would likely happen in spring or summer 2026. She adds that she intends to give her next 11 months or so on the job everything she’s got. In some ways, she says the chancellor’s role is taking her out of her comfort zone. In particular, she notes how “external facing and Ann Arbor facing” her new position is compared to the provost’s. She’s now the one attending weekly leadership meetings in Ann Arbor, communicating with the regents and flying across the country to meet with alumni and donors. On campus, she’s bringing her highly collaborative style to the senior leadership meetings and plans to continue her “Walk and Talk” events so anyone from the campus community can share ideas directly with her. Scarlatta says she’s frankly been a little surprised by how much the new role seems to suit her, given how much she enjoyed the more behind-the-scenes vibe as provost.

Scarlatta and Kridli also know that sitting back and simply keeping the trains running on time until the next chancellor arrives isn’t really an option. The current national political environment has created a swirl of unpredictability in higher education on a variety of fronts. Right now, Scarlatta and Kridli are particularly attentive to cuts to federal research funding and the challenges facing international students. “We worked for years to obtain R2 status, and now we’re there. So how do we sustain that as NSF funding is being slashed?” Kridli says. “It’s also an issue of faculty morale. They’re working hard but maybe they’re not able to get the results they expected. So we need to be thinking about a different paradigm and figure out how to evaluate and reward them given this new environment. They’re not going to be punished because of politics — absolutely not.” In practice, Scarlatta and Kridli say that means things like supporting faculty if they need to pivot to a different research focus, which can take time. Or helping them find other ways they can use their expertise to make an impact, say, through community partnerships. “The question we can be asking ourselves is, how do we advance the reputation and standing of ��-Dearborn?” Kridli says. “And we can do it through published research, foundations, industry and community partnerships, and staying open to other approaches. The important thing is we make an impact.”

Scarlatta says, at least at the moment, international students, who make up approximately 10% of the student population at ��-Dearborn, have reason to be a bit more optimistic. In May, the Trump administration halted scheduling new visa interviews for international students. But recently, the administration reopened the process, albeit with new requirements that students must undergo reviews of their social media accounts. Scarlatta says her team isn’t taking anything for granted. Earlier this spring, the university began reaching out to international students to provide extra support, proactively informing them of changing federal policies and visa deadlines, as well as granting automatic deferment for students who aren’t able to get their paperwork in order by the start of the fall semester. Fortunately, Kridli says a recent survey revealed that the vast majority of respondents are still moving forward with their plans to study at ��-Dearborn in 2025-26. Kridli and Scarlatta say it will also be a priority to make sure both international students and domestic students, say, from immigrant communities, who might feel uneasy in the current political environment, feel at home on campus. “We should not tolerate aggression against anybody. We are all human beings first,” Kridli says. “There is a lot that feels beyond our control. But we control who we are and how we are with each other.”

Even if the politics were more hospitable, Scarlatta and Kridli say they would still have their hands full this year. The colleges are in the midst of a major initiative to expand online programs. The regents recently approved an expansion of the Go Blue Guarantee, which, along with other aid programs, would mean that 94% of ��-Dearborn undergraduate FTIAC students will receive enough aid that their remaining obligations, commonly met through loans or work-study, are less than $2,000 a year. And Kridli says every college needs to make preparations for the ever-expanding influence of artificial intelligence, which is rapidly reshaping the job market, particularly for entry-level positions sought by college graduates.

Given all this, Scarlatta and Kridli both think the ��-Dearborn community is fortunate to have a team of people at the helm who are caring and capable, know each other well, enjoy working together and remain committed to Grasso’s philosophy of “mission first, people always.” And, like many on campus, they are celebrating having the first ��-Dearborn chancellor in the president's office.

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Story by Lou Blouin

Administration & Governance

Off

Mon, 06/30/2025 - 12:06

Interim Chancellor Gabriella Scarlatta and Interim Provost Ghassan Kridli talk about the whirlwind of leadership changes at ��-Dearborn this spring and why the transition has been mostly smooth sailing.

In May, Gabriella Scarlatta (left) was named interim chancellor and Ghassan Kridli was named interim provost at ��-Dearborn.

News

Onsite composting is coming to ��-Dearborn

lblouin — Mon, 23 Jun 2025 15:28:42 +0000

Onsite composting is coming to ��-Dearborn lblouin Mon, 06/23/2025 - 11:28

��-Dearborn has been dipping its toe in the water with regard to composting for a few years now, with the addition of Zero Waste university events that collect food waste and send it to an offsite composting facility, a few office food waste collections and a composting system at the Community Organic Garden. And Assistant Sustainability Programs Manager Graces Maves says that a few years back, a student group even partnered with Picasso Restaurant Group, which operates the food service at the Renick University Center, to compost food waste coming out of its kitchen. Some logistical issues and the COVID pandemic cut that experiment short. But earlier this year, Maves and intern Bridget Lawson decided to revive the idea. Picasso was all about it. It turned out the kitchen’s executive chef, Dak Zorn, is an enthusiastic home composter and gardener, and he quickly added food scrap collection bins for the kitchen staff. At the end of the day, the bins are dumped into large outdoor containers, which are picked up weekly and the material is composted offsite.

Lawson, who was managing the day-to-day details of the project until her internship ended this spring, says the composting pilot has gone smoothly thus far. During a typical week, it diverts about 200 gallons of compostable food waste from the landfill, where it would otherwise generate methane, a climate-warming gas that’s about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Zorn says it’s also helped him reduce food waste upstream. “It gave me some insight into everyone's knife skills, because I could go through all of the cooks’ buckets to make sure we were using as much of the product as we should be,” Zorn says. “So it's a win-win. We're using more of the product, which helps keep costs down, and then on top of that, we're composting.”

Maves says she’s eagerly awaiting the next phase of this project. With help from a Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes and Energy grant, which Lawson spearheaded, they’ll soon be able to do the composting right here on campus — creating useful compost for the Community Organic Garden and a new hands-on venue for students to learn about waste reduction and soil science. Maves is still working out some of the details for the new composting site, but she says it will likely blend two composting techniques backyard composters are most familiar with — the tumbler and the multi-bin system. Every composting system needs a good balance of nitrogen and carbon. So as a first step, Maves says they’ll utilize a commercial-scale tumbler to create a uniform mix of nitrogen-rich food scraps from Picasso’s operations and carbon-rich leaves and wood chips from campus and the City of Dearborn’s Public Works department. Once the ingredients are well mixed, it’ll move on to the “aerated static pile” portion of the system. Maves says this is pretty similar to your typical three-pile backyard bin system, with a few tweaks. The material spends some time breaking down in the first pile, where fresh materials and high oxygen levels create optimal conditions for microbes. It then moves on to the second pile, where it decomposes further, before moving to a third pile, where microbial activity slows way down and the material becomes usable compost. Throughout this process, which typically takes three to five months, the microbes that break down the organic material require a healthy supply of oxygen. In a backyard system, a pile gets oxygenated through regular turning. In an aerated static pile system, oxygen is pumped into the pile via perforated pipes, which reduces the need for turning and helps the material break down more quickly. Maves says she is also working with the designer to make sure the piles can be moved by machinery or by hand — should volunteers want to get their hands dirty and learn about the process.

Maves anticipates that one of the biggest challenges of the new system may be getting enough of the right materials. As a fairly small restaurant operation, Picasso may not generate that much food waste. So she’s been thinking about ways to get more — like a potential partnership with the Dearborn farmers market, where residents could bring in their food scraps to be composted at the university. Maves is also exploring the possibility of collecting food waste from the Student Food Pantry now that the pantry has the capacity for more fresh food. “This would really showcase a closed-loop system, as the food waste from the pantry and yard waste from campus would create nutrient-rich soil for application in a student-led garden plot, where food is grown for the pantry,” Maves says. The carbon-rich material seems to be more abundant. Tree trimming and landscaping operations on campus generate quite a lot of wood chips, some of which are used on campus as mulch. But Maves’ contacts at the City of Dearborn say they have more wood mulch than they can handle if she ever needs more.

One of the goals of the new composting program is to reduce the amount of food waste sent to the landfill, which will cut some of the university’s Scope 3 emissions. She anticipates the larger impact may be educational. A biology professor has already reached out about using the site to teach his students about soil science. And she hopes it can also be integrated into kids’ programming at the Environmental Interpretive Center. “We could easily keep shipping our waste out to this offsite composting facility. But it wouldn’t have these hands-on learning benefits,” Maves says. “I mean, that’s the purpose of the institution: It’s to provide educational experiences and learning opportunities for our students and the community, and we think this is a great chance to do that.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

Experiential Learning

Nature or Environment

Sustainability

University-wide

Facilities Operations

Off

Mon, 06/23/2025 - 15:22

A pilot with Picasso Restaurant Group is paving the way for a new campus composting site, which will reduce the university’s climate-warming emissions and help students learn about soil science.

Executive Chef Dak Zorn has been helping collect food scraps from Picasso's restaurant in the Renick University Center. Right now, the material is composted offsite. But it will soon be composted on campus. Photo by Annie Barker

News

The Administration Building and Social Sciences Building are getting makeovers

lblouin — Wed, 23 Apr 2025 12:24:20 +0000

The Administration Building and Social Sciences Building are getting makeovers lblouin Wed, 04/23/2025 - 08:24

Moving the College of Business and College of Education, Health and Human Services, both now housed in the Fairlane Center, to the main campus is one of the key parts of ��-Dearborn’s current Comprehensive Campus Plan. If all goes according to schedule, the faculty and administrative staff from CEHHS will make a move to what’s now the Administration Building in time for the Fall 2026 semester. (The building will also likely get a new name!) By late the following year, COB plans to take up residence in a renovated Social Sciences Building, much of which has been vacant ever since the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters brought its social science faculty to the CASL building a couple years ago, though some classes are still taught there.

Facilities teams will be kicking off one of the first big steps in that process in just a few weeks when they relocate administrative staff from the AB to temporary offices in the SSB in order to make way for construction teams. Director of Facilities Planning and Construction Emily Hamilton, who’s overseeing both projects, characterizes this as a more “modest” renovation than the recent overhaul of the Renick University Center’s first floor. But like that project, one of the guiding principles is to do a lot more within the same amount of space. Business Affairs will consolidate Financial Services and Student Accounts into the existing suite. All other administrative departments within the AB — the Chancellor’s Office, Provost’s Office, Office of Research, External Relations, Institutional Advancement and Alumni Engagement, and Human Resources — will be consolidated into the east wing of the building, making the west wing available for CEHHS. Hamilton says to accomplish that, the design teams are taking advantage of hybrid and remote work schedules, a dramatic decrease in the need for paper file storage, and shared reception areas, which have left many units needing less physical space. This new administrative wing of the building is also gaining a kitchen, a flexible meeting room space, a few flex offices and a copy room, all of which can be used by any of the administrative units.

Most of the renovation budget is being funneled into the CEHHS wing of the building, where the plan calls for new faculty offices, a dean’s suite, a college-level advising office, two classrooms, open student collaboration and lounge spaces, and several multipurpose spaces that faculty and staff can use for meetings or lunch breaks. Hamilton says that if the budget allows, the team is also planning to update the underutilized open space in the middle of the building. Cosmetically, the interior is getting new paint, carpet, ceilings and some modern sliding office doors like those in the renovated RUC, which save a lot of space compared to conventional in-swing doors.

A rendering of an open collaboration area in the renovated Administration Building. Credit: Neumann/Smith Architecture

The renovation of the SSB is currently in the early design phase, but Hamilton says they’re already discussing some exciting renovation ideas. On the exterior, the east side of the building will be getting a new, more welcoming entry. And inside, the team will be rethinking the two auditoriums. In conjunction with the Registrar's Office, the facilities team recently completed a space utilization study and found that there is diminishing need for this once-quintessential style of college classroom. (She says COB doesn’t use this classroom style at all anymore.) In a portion of these spaces, the plan calls for removing every other row of fixed theater seating so the new wider terraces can host fixed tables and moveable chairs, suitable for case study use. The design team is also investigating making a portion of these rooms ground level to house the college’s labs, including its flagship Bloomberg Lab. Similar to the lab’s current location in the Fairlane Center, you can expect lots of glass, so passersby can look in on the action. The SSB’s main hallway will also be widened to carve out more informal hangout and collaboration spaces for students, as well as space for events.

With both the AB and SSB, Hamilton says the facilities team has collaborated closely with the colleges to create designs that best serve their needs. Work on the AB is currently out for bid and will begin this summer. Because the SSB is being used to temporarily house the administrative units, work won’t start on that project until the AB renovation is complete.

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Want to learn more about ��-Dearborn’s plans to reshape its physical campus? Check out our recent story on the Comprehensive Campus Plan. Story by Lou Blouin

Faculty and Staff

University-wide

College of Business

College of Education, Health, and Human Services

Facilities Planning

Off

Wed, 04/23/2025 - 12:16

It’s been two decades since all four of ��-Dearborn’s colleges were on the main campus. One of the first big steps in the plan to bring COB and CEHHS back is kicking off in June.

The Administration Building is set to become the new home of the College of Education, Health and Human Services. The renovation includes several new informal hangout and collaboration spaces for students. Rendering by Neumann/Smith Architecture

News

Spring 2025 Commencement: A guide to the big day

lblouin — Wed, 02 Apr 2025 11:58:30 +0000

Spring 2025 Commencement: A guide to the big day lblouin Wed, 04/02/2025 - 07:58

More than 1,000 graduates will earn degrees at next month’s commencement ceremony on April 26. As in past years, the full day of spring graduation festivities will be split into three ceremonies. Undergraduates from the College of Arts, Sciences and Letters and College of Business kick things off at 9 a.m., followed by undergrads from the College of Education, Health and Human Services and College of Engineering and Computer Science at 1 p.m. The final ceremony for doctoral and graduate students from all four colleges is at 5 p.m.

Here are a few more good-to-knows for the big day.

Speakers

James Scapa, a graduate of Columbia University and an ’83 U-M MBA grad, will be the featured speaker at both undergraduate ceremonies. Scapa is founder, chair and CEO of Altair, a global leader in computational intelligence software and technology. He founded the company in 1985 with two partners when he was just 25 years old. Altair now employs more than 3,000 scientists, engineers and creative thinkers across 28 countries and serves more than 16,000 customers across a broad range of industries, including automotive, aerospace, government and defense, finance, energy, technology, life sciences, architecture and construction. Under Scapa’s leadership, Altair also sponsored the #OnlyForward Scholarship, which awarded $25,000 scholarships to ��-Dearborn students pursuing a four-year degree in computer science or engineering.

Tim Yerdon, an executive leader with SAE Industry Technologies Consortia, will be the featured speaker at the 5 p.m. ceremony for graduate students. Yerdon is an experienced mobility leader with a track record of driving breakthrough technology change through collaboration and innovative thinking. He holds a key role within SAE International, a global association of more than 128,000 engineers and related technical experts in the automotive, aerospace and commercial vehicle industries. Prior to SAE, Tim ran the consulting firm Plymouth Technology Advisors, after serving in executive positions with Ford Motor Co. and Visteon Corp. At Ford, he served on the company's dedicated team for electric vehicles, which developed the Mustang Mach-E SUV, F-150 Lightning truck and E-Transit van. He also chairs ��-Dearborn’s CECS Industry Advisory Board.

Asil Khanafer, who is graduating with a Bachelor of Science in behavioral and biological sciences, with a minor in applied arts, is the student speaker at the two undergraduate ceremonies. During her time at ��-Dearborn, Khanafer was president of both the Pre-Professional Health Society and the Lebanese Diaspora Relief Organization, as well as vice president of the National Arab American Medical Association student chapter. In addition, she conducted research on bonobo cognition as a research assistant in Associate Professor of Psychology Francine Dollins’ lab. She also served as a chemistry and psychology supplemental instruction leader and vice chair of the Student Organization Allocation Council. Khanafer plans to pursue a career in veterinary medicine and will continue her studies at Michigan State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine in the fall.

Mohsen Chaaban, who is graduating from ��-Dearborn with a Master of Science in cybersecurity and information assurance, will address his fellow graduate students at the 5 p.m. ceremony. Chaaban earned his bachelor’s at ��-Dearborn in 2023 and currently works as a software controls engineer at General Motors. Throughout his time at the university, he actively engaged in student organizations and mentorship programs. During his undergraduate years, he was a member of Student Organization Account Services, where he helped student organizations with financial services and event planning. He has also been active in community service efforts in Dearborn and Dearborn Heights, taking part in initiatives such as toy drives, as well as Easter and Ramadan essential drives.

Commencement stats

This spring, the university is awarding a total of 1,067 degrees to 1,049 graduates. Among undergraduates, the youngest is just 17 years old and the oldest is 68. The average undergraduate GPA is 3.4. Spring graduates represent 26 Michigan counties and 13 states.

Tickets

Each student receives four tickets to their ceremony for guests. Graduating students participating in the ceremony do not need a ticket for themselves. Students can currently pick up tickets at the One Stop, located on the first floor of the Renick University Center, Monday-Wednesday and Friday, 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and Thursday, 8 a.m.-7 p.m. Students must show their Mcard or government-issued ID (driver's license or passport) and a receipt that they purchased their cap and gown to pick up tickets. All guests at the commencement ceremonies must have a ticket, except for children under 2 who will be sitting on the lap of a guest. Tickets can also be placed at Will Call and picked up the day of the ceremony.

Students should email umd-commencement@umich.edu with the number of tickets they would like held (up to four). All tickets must be claimed (either picked up or Will Call request) by Friday, April 11. Those who don’t need all their tickets can pick up their tickets and give them to friends or classmates who need additional tickets. Students can also return tickets they will not need to the One Stop so other students can claim them. Students are not permitted to sell tickets. More information about extra tickets will be shared on Monday, April 14.

Volunteering

If you are a staff member and would like to volunteer at the ceremonies, please email Campus Event Planner Mandy Earl. Tasks include distributing Will Call tickets, checking in graduates, helping direct the crowd and other activities.

How to watch

If you won't be attending commencement in person, you can still watch online on the university’s YouTube page.

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Still have more questions about Spring 2025 Commencement? Check out the university’s commencement page. Story by Lou Blouin

Commencement

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, 04/02/2025 - 11:58

Meet the commencement speakers and get ceremony details for the April 26 festivities.

This spring, the university is awarding a total of 1,067 degrees to 1,049 graduates. Photo by Michigan Photography

News

How postdocs help faculty take research to another level

lblouin — Mon, 31 Mar 2025 16:34:51 +0000

How postdocs help faculty take research to another level lblouin Mon, 03/31/2025 - 12:34

When students complete a doctoral degree, they’re at the top of one of the highest mountains in higher education. But just like undergraduates facing post-graduation anxiety, postdoctoral life can represent a fraught time for recent PhD graduates. For those interested in long-term careers in academia, they’re likely embarking on job searches for highly competitive faculty positions. And if someone wants to work in the private sector, employers in at least some industries seem to balk at hiring highly trained applicants with little industry experience — simply because they generally command higher salaries than those with less-advanced degrees.

Director of Research Development Vessela Vassileva-Clarke
Photo by Julianne Lindsey

But there is another option for recent PhD grads: working as a postdoctoral researcher. As the name suggests, this is a research position at a university, typically lasting one to three years, that someone takes after they finish their PhD. ��-Dearborn Director of Research Development Vessela Vassileva-Clarke says this may be an attractive route for a number of reasons. For example, if a person isn’t quite sure whether they want to go into academia or industry, a postdoc position can simply buy someone a little time to figure it out, while they continue to stay active and build a research portfolio. And for those who are definitely interested in faculty positions, doing a postdoc can help someone burnish their CV if, say, they weren't able to publish as much as they’d liked during their PhD program. In addition, depending on the arrangement between the researcher and their faculty advisor, Vassileva-Clarke says a postdoc position might give someone a chance to log some teaching experience — or even pursue an externally funded grant for a research project that they co-lead with a faculty member. Moreover, a postdoc gives recent PhD grads experiences in other core parts of academic life that they may not have gotten in their doctoral programs, like proposal writing.

��-Dearborn currently has about a dozen postdoctoral researchers working on campus, the vast majority of whom are working with faculty in the College of Engineering and Computer Science. Rongheng Li, who finished his PhD at ��-Dearborn under Mechanical Engineering Professor Ben Q. Li in 2019, says the opportunity to do a postdoc actually grew organically out of his doctoral research experience. His research focused on some of the advanced mathematical challenges associated with the use of nanoparticles in photovoltaic systems, which is seen as a promising way of improving output from solar panels. But then one day, toward the end of his PhD program, Li found himself chatting with Associate Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Xuan (Joe) Zhou. The two of them discovered that a lot of the same mathematical methods Li was using in the area of photovoltaics might have interesting applications for battery research, which is Zhou’s specialty. Now, as a postdoc, Li is working on several of Zhou’s funded projects, including one exploring how well used EV batteries perform when used in a grid-tied storage system.

“A lot of my prior work has been very theoretical, so working with Dr. Zhou is giving me a chance to learn in a more experimental setting,” Li says. “I’m learning new instrumentation, and I got to visit the clean room in Ann Arbor, where they are working on a variety of projects. So I think it’s going to be quite valuable for me to get this hands-on experience, including with batteries, which is a technology that’s so important for the future.” Another big payoff for Li: He’s getting to work closely with the research team’s industry partners, which is helping him see how private sector projects are managed and how their teams work. After his postdoc, he thinks he’ll likely be applying for faculty jobs in the United States. But he’s not opposed to a position in the private sector, and he thinks the practical experience he’s logging during his postdoc will make him a more competitive candidate.

Rongheng Li completed his PhD at ��-Dearborn in 2019 and now works as a postdoctoral researcher. Photo by Annie Barker

Gajendra Singh Chawda followed a different path to ��-Dearborn for his postdoc. Chawda finished his PhD in electrical engineering at the Indian Institute of Technology in early 2022 and took a postdoctoral research position there after graduation. But he really wanted to get experience at an American university, and when he saw a posting for a postdoctoral research position working with Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Wencong Su, he felt like it would be a great fit. Chawda’s work focuses on the complexities of integrating renewable energy into the electric grid and renewable energy access for economically disadvantaged communities — which happen to be two of Su’s research interests. Currently, Chawda is working on some foundational research on high-frequency AC microgrids — a technology that many researchers and industry experts see as vital for modernizing the electric grid so it can accommodate more renewable energy and battery storage. Chawda says one of the other big perks of the position is that he gets to work as a lecturer — the first time he’s had the opportunity to teach students outside of a lab setting.

Moreover, it’s also been an exciting time for his family. His wife and daughter accompanied him for this adventure in the United States, and Chawda says his daughter loves her school in Dearborn Heights. “She’s always so excited to come home and show me what she’s done at school,” he says. “The American education system is a lot different. In India, I would say it’s more focused on books and, here, students seem to do a lot of activities. For example, she came home the other day and was so proud to show me the house that she built.” Like Li, Chawda says he’s hoping to find a faculty position at an American university after his postdoc and thinks having that experience on his CV will boost his chances of success.

Aside from the professional benefits to postdoctoral researchers, Vassileva-Clarke says there are huge benefits for their faculty supervisors. “The impact is tremendous. Postdoctoral researchers are just so helpful to faculty members because they are already trained and highly skilled, so they can help a faculty member with so many things that are so time consuming, like proposal writing, hands-on research in the lab, or research training and mentoring of students,” Vassileva-Clarke says. “PhD students are super helpful too, but you still have to train them, advise them, and then some of them find out research is not their calling. So a postdoc really extends the bandwidth of the faculty member.”

Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry Christos Constantinides
Photo by Annie Barker

Assistant Professor of Organic Chemistry Christos Constantinides can vouch for that. As an early-career faculty member working towards tenure, he was excited to recently land a large grant from the U.S. Department of Energy supporting research that could improve nuclear magnetic resonance-based technologies like MRI. But with a demanding course load teaching organic chemistry to undergraduates, he frankly needs help with the very labor-intensive, advanced chemistry that the DOE-funded project demands. A postdoc was really his only option, since some of the work is too advanced for the undergraduate students he’ll also be hiring for the project, and his department doesn’t have a PhD program he can use to recruit doctoral students.

When he posted the position, Constantinides was surprised to get 65 applicants. He finds that pretty encouraging given that ��-Dearborn just recently earned an R2 designation and he’s still in the process of making his name in the field. But as someone who did a three-year postdoc himself, which he says is a prerequisite to getting a tenure-track position in his discipline, Constantinides gets the logic. “You can go work for a big name at a big university, and if everything goes well, you’ll get your publications and, most importantly, get a letter of recommendation from your mentor. You’re basically going to get a job at that point. But if you don’t get the letter, it can be the kiss of death,” Constantinides says. “That big name — you’re going to see that person maybe one or two hours a week. And, frankly, they don’t need the publications. Me, though? I need the papers. So if you come work with me, you’re going to get more support, more mentorship and hopefully more publications. It’s kind of a gamble either way, but for some people, this postdoc opportunity is going to feel like a good bet.”

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Story by Lou Blouin

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Postdoctoral researchers on campus are another sign of ��-Dearborn’s growing research culture. But what exactly do postdocs do, and why can they be a game changer for university research?

Postdoctoral researcher Gajendra Singh Chawda is currently researching high-frequency AC microgrids with Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering Wencong Su. Photo by Annie Barker

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