From January through April, the Understanding Race Project will explore the concept of race and its impacts through an extensive range of free public exhibits, performances, lectures, symposia and more than 130 courses in several disciplines. The historical, cultural, psychological and legal interpretations of race will be examined from both national and global perspectives. For more information go to www.understandingraceproject.org. Photo by Milagros González.
The theme "50 Years Later: (R)Evolution of the Dream" will guide the 27th annual Martin Luther King Jr. Symposium this month, led by keynote speaker Morris Dees, co-founder and chief trial counsel of the Southern Poverty Law Center. The symposium theme celebrates the 50th anniversary of King's "I Have a Dream" speech.
Mark D. West, currently the associate dean for academic affairs at the Law School and a highly regarded scholar whose research focuses on the Japanese legal system, will be the 17th dean of the Law School beginning Sept. 1, pending approval by the Board of Regents.
Cost-saving ideas, solutions for productivity and novel approaches to how university work is performed often come from staff members, and the new President’s Staff Innovation Award program will encourage and reward those efforts.
The Sweetland Center for Writing’s Dissertation Writing Institute, now in its 10th year, is helping to boost doctoral program completion rates of graduate students. Compared with national rates of 50-60 percent, Institute students complete at a rate of 88 percent.
CTools welcomed 2013 with a makeover. The campus online service was upgraded to version 2.9 and introduced a new look and feel for the CTools home page Dec. 29.
After a three-year assessment and design process, the university is moving forward with implementing a Shared Services Center, which is expected to open in mid-2014, for select Finance and Human Resources administrative functions.
With the creation of the U-M Division of Public Safety and Security, the department names within the division have been revised effective immediately, Interim Executive Director Joe Piersante announced.
Natalie Condon, videographer for the Development, Marketing and Communications office at LSA, on her job: “Every project is different, and with each we get to meet a lot of cool people doing amazing things on campus.”
“The Music Lesson” by Caspar Netscher, U-M Museum of Art new acquisition, first floor connector near the museum’s historic wing.
Fawwaz Ulaby, known nationally and internationally for his accomplishments in applied electromagnetics, is the Henry Russel Lecturer for 2014.
