Provost's Wednesday Briefing - December 04, 2019

Multicultural Graduation Celebration

The Center for Multicultural Affairs is hosting a celebration of the accomplishment and honor of graduation with the class of 2019. The diversity of our student body is one of Eastern’s greatest strengths and this event honors the unique experiences our underrepresented students encounter as they move toward the accomplishment of their degrees.  Please consider attending to celebrate our students on Friday, December 13 at 4:30 pm in Pease Auditorium. 

Locker Room Talk or Toxic Masculinity?

As part of Eastern’s State Campus Sexual Assault Prevention Grant, award-winning documentary filmmaker, lecturer, published writer,and activist Byron Hurt is coming to campus to present:  Locker Room Talk or Toxic Masculinity?

Hurt focuses on how hyper-masculinity in popular American culture normalizes male violence, how race, class, and gender oppression intersect, how homophobia and transphobia makes LGBT communities vulnerable to male violence, how positive male leadership and bystander intervention can end gender-based violence, and how to use cis male privilege to ally with women and girls to create shifts in male culture.

Please share this invitation [PDF] with your students and colleagues and consider attending on Tuesday, December 10 at 7 p.m. in the Student Center Ballroom.

Cannabis Education Coalition Panel

As you may know, recreational marijuana was legalized in our state last year. With the recreational market about to open, we have an opportunity to educate our students about the specifics of the new legislation as well as the risks, uses and side effects of cannabis use. 

The Office of Wellness and Community Responsibility, Office of Health Promotion, Housing and Residence Life and the Department of Public Safety have joined to form the Cannabis Education Coalition (CEC) to run an awareness campaign on campus during the upcoming semester.

Our health promotion campaign has three focus areas: 

1. Informed decision making (knowing the law and campus policies);
2. Harm reduction strategies (for those who choose to use) and;
3. Social norms (for those who choose to abstain).  

This campaign will kick off with a panel discussion on Thursday, December 5th from 6-8 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium. The purpose of this panel discussion is to allow students and community members to ask questions about cannabis itself and the new legislation and have those questions answered by a trusted source. The panel will be comprised of Senator Jeff Irwin, who introduced legislation to expunge low-level marijuana-related offenses from criminal records, Dr. Kevin Boehnke from the Department of Anesthesiology and the Chronic Pain and Fatigue Research Center at the University of Michigan and Community Relations Officer Tim Siecinski from EMU’s very own Department of Public Safety. These panelists' focus areas coincide with the focus areas of the overall campaign. 

Get Your Tickets for the Martin Luther King, Jr. President’s Luncheon

The 34^th annual Martin Luther King, Jr. President’s Luncheon will take place on Monday, January 20, 2020 in the Eastern Michigan University Student Center Grand Ballroom. Doors will open at 11 a.m., with lunch starting at 11:30 a.m. 

Our distinguished MLK keynote speaker for 2020 will be Terrence J. Roberts, one of the ‘Little Rock Nine’ who helped desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas in 1957. Dr. Roberts will give brief comments at the luncheon and his keynote address will follow at 2 p.m. in the Student Center Auditorium.

 Luncheon Ticket Information

Ticket prices for the 2020 MLK Luncheon are $15 for students (student ID required) and $30 for faculty, staff and community members. Individual ticket sales will run through the day of the MLK Luncheon, January 20, 2020 as tickets remain available. Tickets may be purchased in-person, by phone, or online as follows: 

In-Person

• EMU Convocation Center Ticket Office: Monday–Friday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. (Closed December 21, 2019–January 1, 2020)
• EMU Student Center Ticket Office: Monday–Friday, 5 to 9 p.m. (Closed December 13, 2019 - January 8, 2020)                

By Phone

• Call 734.487.2282, Monday–Friday, 10 a.m.–9 p.m. ($4 processing fee per order)

Online

• Go to the EMU Ticket website (Note: $3.50 per ticket fee and $1.50 processing fee per order will be charged)

For ticket availability on the day of the President's luncheon, January 20, 2020, call 734.487.2282 or go to the Student Center ticket office beginning at 10 a.m.

Meal preference (meat or veggie) must be provided at the time the tickets are purchased.

There is a maximum purchase of eight (8) tickets per order. Tables seat eight people.

Complimentary Student Tickets

Complimentary student tickets sponsored by EMU Student Government can be reserved through the Center of Race and Ethnicity, located in 356 Student Center until noon on January 17, 2020 or until tickets are gone. For information call 734.487.2377.

Eastern Students Dominate National Interior Design Competition

Interior design students from Eastern Michigan University won the top three places in the student rendering category in a nationwide CET Designer contest sponsored by Configura, a major Swedish software company. Megan Wilbur took first place, Farah Nassereddine placed second and Pei Huang came in third. Read more about these accomplished students here.

Eastern Theatre Presents Still Life with Iris

In the fantastic and magical land of Nocturno, memories are not relegated to one’s mind, but woven into one’s coat—‘Past Coats’. When Iris, a young girl, is taken from her parents by Great Goods, the rulers of the land, her coat is cast off. Clinging to a single button of memory, she journeys, with the help of two friends, Annabel Lee and Mozart, to reunite with her family, her home, and her own story.  Written by Steven Dietz and Directed by Patricia Moore Zimmer, this award-winning play is sure to delight audiences age seven and older.  Ticket information and a detailed performance schedule may be found here.  

Of special note, this production was designed to improve accessibility, inclusiveness and enjoyment for all patrons.  Certain performances on the schedule are designated “accessible” and “sensory friendly.”  Accessible performances are designed to offer accessibility services to enhance the experience of patrons with sensory impairments (blind and low-vision; deaf and hearing loss). Sensory friendly performances are designed to create a performing arts experience that is welcoming to all families with members with autism or with other impairments that create sensory sensitivities.

Eastern’s Jewish Studies Programs Presents Barry Joseph —“Seltzertopia: The Extraordinary Story of an Ordinary Drink”

Why are people crazed about carbonated water? Why do Jewish people and millennials claim it as a lifestyle choice? Barry Joseph’s multimedia presentation unfolds like a mystery, revealing characters, clues, and locations from across time and space.

As part of the third annual Hanukkah Celebration, Eastern’s Center for Jewish Studies welcomes the campus to attend this fun and bubbly event.  Admission is free and guests will enjoy desserts and a book singing immediately following the lecture.   We hope to see you there!

Saturday, December 7
From: 7:30 – 9:30 pm
Student Center - 310 A&B

Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents Meeting

The Eastern Michigan University Board of Regents meeting is approaching.  Please note that this meeting is scheduled over a two-day period.  We welcome you to attend the general meeting and/or committee meetings as your schedule permits.

Thursday, December 12, 2019

4 – 4:45 p.m.            Student Affairs Committee, Welch 201

Friday, December 13, 2019

10:30 – 11:15 a.m.              Educational Policies Committee, Welch 205

10:30 – 11:15 a.m.              Athletic Affairs Committee, Welch 201

11:30 – 12:15 p.m.              Finance and Investment Committee, Welch 201

1:30 p.m.                            Regular Board Meeting, Welch 201 

Request for Return of Unused VoIP Phones

Please return any unused Cisco VoIP phones to Information Technology. We request that a phone be returned to I.T. if:

• It was assigned to a position or office that has been eliminated
• It is unplugged, stored or otherwise not in use, or
• It is no longer needed. 

You can drop off phones in 118 Pray-Harrold or in 106 Halle Library. Alternatively, you can submit a Help Desk incident  (include location and preferred contact info) and we will make pick-up arrangements.

We plan to redistribute the returned phones to other units to reduce phone purchase expenses incurred by the University.

Note that classroom phones are considered safety infrastructure and must remain online. Classroom phones are used to deliver emergency alerts in locations where cellular phone service may be unavailable.

Please contact Rocky Jenkins at [email protected] or 734.487.3145 with questions or concerns.

Cashless Gated Parking Access Machine Installation Schedule

As communicated in an all-campus message on Oct. 24, ParkEMU is installing new, cashless gated access machines at the Alexander, Pease, McKenny, Bowen, and Student Center guest lots. For your convenience, the installation of these machines will be staggered, to reduce effects on the transient parking experience. We expect each lot to take one day to complete, in the following order: 

If you need to park on campus during this time and your preferred lot is not available due to the installation process, please utilize either another guest lot or one of the metered locations across campus. For more information on where the different guest lots or meters are located, please reference the campus map found on the ParkEMU website. 

If you have any questions, please feel reach out via email at [email protected], or by phone at (734) 217-4892.

Be sure to bookmark the EMU Today site to keep current with all the news and events taking place on campus!

Deadlines

• December 16 – EMU-FT Full-Time Lecturer Distinguished Teaching Award nominations due
• December 16 – Part-Time Lecturer Distinguished Teaching Awards nominations due
• January 20 – Ronald W. Collins Distinguished Faculty Award nominations due