The University of Michigan is preparing to welcome back students for a fall semester unlike any other, creating never-before-seen challenges and opportunities for Ann Arbor’s 19 schools and colleges as well as at Dearborn and Flint.

Here are some of the ways U-M faculty and staff can pursue their goals and seek support outside of the cubicle, and hear from professionals about how health and well-being can be an integral part of the workplace.

Colleen Conway, a professor of music education, recently began her 2020-21 term as chair of the nine-member Senate Advisory Committee on University Affairs, as well as the 74-member Senate Assembly and the Faculty Senate.

John Allen Witter of Ann Arbor, professor emeritus of entomology, died unexpectedly at home on Aug. 4. He was 76.

Peter Larkin Duren, professor emeritus of mathematics at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, died July 10 in Superior Township, Michigan, after a long and courageous struggle with Parkinson’s disease.

Short news items from around the University of Michigan.

UM-Dearborn professor Joe Lunn has spent 45 years studying the African experience during World War I, which helped him connect a celebrity with their ancestor’s story on the PBS show “Finding Your Roots.”

On Sept. 5, 1979, the Law School’s underground library was a work in progress. Read about some of the other things that happened in U-M history during the week of Aug. 31-Sept. 7.

The 2020 New Faculty Orientation featured top U-M administrators addressing an audience of more than 200 via Zoom about how to navigate a rich and complex work environment.

For developing technology to help to democratize the justice system while decreasing the spread of COVID-19, U-M law professor J.J. Prescott has earned this year’s Distinguished University Innovator Award.