Applications sought for Anti-Racism Collaborative fellowship and grant programs
The National Center for Institutional Diversity’s Anti-Racism Collaborative is accepting applications for its 2025 Anti-Racism Research & Community Impact Faculty Fellowship and Anti-Racism Graduate Research Grants. The fellowships will provide instrumental support to early-career faculty to advance their anti-racism scholarship in ways that can lead to successful tenure or promotion and support their efforts to use their expertise to fight systemic racism through policy advocacy, practice, teaching or community partnerships. Applications are due March 21. More information and an application form are available. The Graduate Research Grants may provide up to $5,000 to support a student’s own project extending from their faculty adviser’s research or for a student’s independent scholarship supervised by a faculty mentor. Applications are due March 14 and information session is scheduled for Feb. 6. More information and an application form are available.
Big Heart Blood Battle promotes blood donations through Big Ten competition
The annual Big Heart Blood Battle competition against Michigan State University, Penn State University, and the University of Wisconsin has begun and will run until Feb. 28. The Blood Battle is an annual effort to reduce the national blood shortage and beat fellow Big Ten schools in a contest to see who can make the most donations. Schedule an appointment by visiting bloodbattle.org and enter “goblue” as the sponsor code. Drive locations and dates can be found at the site by clicking the “Schedule” link. Potential donors are asked to review eligibility requirements and complete a Rapid Pass the day of your appointment to save time. In 2023, the FDA updated their eligibility guidelines on blood donation (replacing a prior policy that banned donors based on their sexual orientation) with an individualized risk assessment for all donors. Donors should eat iron-rich foods and drink plenty of water before donating so they are healthy on the day of the donation. Donors will receive a free Big Heart shirt and Washtenaw Dairy coupon, while supplies last, and will be eligible for other prizes.
Email from leadership says U-M will monitor new federal actions
In a Jan. 22 email to faculty, staff and students, executive vice presidents Laurie McCauley, Geoff Chatas and Marschall S. Runge said U-M has established a process to carefully review and understand the implications of new executive and legislative actions at the federal level. The process seeks to “analyze new policies and establish a thoughtful approach for engagement with the new administration.” The leaders acknowledged that emerging executive orders and legislative changes may bring uncertainty, and said the university is “committed to forging a path forward that includes working with policymakers, listening to our community and keeping our values in the foreground.” Acknowledging there “will be a range of opinions and questions from our community,” they reiterated U-M supports and encourages civil discourse, constructive debate and diverse viewpoints. Read the full message.
Difficult Dialogues initiative offering workshops and coaching
The Difficult Dialogues Meet the Moment Initiative has announced its winter workshops to support the U-M community in dialoguing about contentious issues. Upcoming opportunities include:
- Jan. 27 — “Dialogue Basics for Graduate Students”
- Jan. 30 — “Bodily Responses to Conflict and Techniques to Soothe the Nervous System”
- Feb. 6 — “Five Dialogue Basics for Everyone”
- Feb. 13 — “Bringing Dialogic Skills to the Work Team”
More workshops run through April 9. For a full list, to learn more and register for workshops, go to myumi.ch/difficult-dialogues. All sessions are open for U-M faculty, staff or students only, except for “Dialogue Basics for Graduate Students,” which is limited for graduate and professional students, and “How Do We Do Dialogue Work in a Time of Resistance?” on Feb. 20, which is open to the public.
Project led by U-M seeks to get the most out of cosmic maps
Research led by U-M could help put cosmology on the inside track to reaching the full potential of telescopes and other instruments studying some of the universe’s largest looming questions. The project showcased how a new computational method gleans more information than its predecessors from maps showing how galaxies are clustered and threaded throughout the universe. Scientists are currently using tools like DESI, the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, to generate these maps and dig deeper into the nature of dark energy, dark matter and other cosmic mysteries. Even as DESI makes headlines now, scientists know they will need more advanced tools to find the answers they seek. Some are developing the next generation of instruments like DESI. Minh Nguyen, who helped lead the work as a Leinweber Research Fellow in LSA’s Department of Physics, and his colleagues, however, are focusing on optimizing our understanding of the data we’re getting now — and in the future. Read more about this work.
— Compiled by James Iseler, The University Record
