Multimedia Features | The University Record

March 10, 2021

Stepping up, taking chances, encouraging women

In honor of Women’s History Month, President Emerita Mary Sue Coleman, who led U-M from 2002–14, talks about what it was like to be the “first female” in a variety of leadership roles, defining moments in her career, and her advice for young women. In this video for the Michigan Minds podcast series, Coleman talks about lessons and challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Read more and listen to the full interview with Mary Sue Coleman

March 9, 2021

Africa Week follow-up

U-M’s Africa Week recently brought together leaders in higher education, industry, and government to address opportunities and challenges that will shape Africa in the coming decades. This video is one of several available from the discussions that connected experts from Africa, the U-M community, and U-M’s alumni network.

Pandemic and parents

Shawna Lee, associate professor of social work, is the lead author of a new U-M study that finds that parent depression and stress early in the pandemic negatively contributed to young children’s home education and anxiety. The stress could still be present today for some parents as their children transition back to school while COVID-19 remains a danger. In this video, Lee said she and her colleagues believe continued support for children and parents will be needed.

Read more about the effects of parents’ depression on children

March 3, 2021

‘For Your Eyes Only’

At first glance, artist Yasmine Nasser Diaz’s installation in the U-M Institute for the Humanities Gallery looks like a typical teenager’s bedroom. Look a little closer, and a more complex story emerges. On view through April 16, “For Your Eyes Only,” designed to be viewed through the gallery window at 202 S. Thayer St., is a continuation of Diaz’s bedroom installation series.

Read more about ‘For Your Eyes Only’

March 2, 2021

Explaining COVID variants

Throughout the pandemic, the public has been bombarded with terms like vaccine schedule, variants, mRNA, and more. In this video, Jason Pogue, clinical professor of pharmacy, explains what COVID variants are and how effective current vaccines may be against them.

Read a Q&A about common vaccine terms and definitions

March 1, 2021

Giving Blueday 2021

Giving Blueday is an opportunity for the U-M community to come together in celebration and support of what’s great about U-M. The university’s 24-hour celebration of giving will take place March 10. This video shows how people give to the university programs and causes they care most about.

Health Disparities & Social Inequities

For nearly a year, the COVID-19 pandemic has ravaged the nation. Black communities have found themselves disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, highlighting the health disparities and social inequities that exist in our society. In this video of a Feb. 24 panel discussion, faculty members from Michigan Medicine and the School of Nursing and students from the Medical School and the School of Public Health discussed why these disparities exist, how they contribute to mistrust of medical systems, and what can be done to address them and impact change.

Read more about faculty insights on these issues

February 23, 2021

‘Dead zone’ research

Researchers lower a robotic laboratory to the bottom of Lake Erie’s central basin in July 2019 for a U-M study that showed nearly as much phosphorus was released from muddy lake-bottom sediments into the surrounding waters as that entering the lake’s central basin each year from rivers and tributaries, increasing the severity of Lake Erie’s central-basin dead zone. (Photo by Hanna Anderson)

‘Tensegrity’ on display

Indexer II is a stainless steel sculpture on North Campus at the south end of the reflecting pool near the Mortimer E. Cooley Building. A gift of the engineering class of 1950, the sculpture by Kenneth Snelson represents “tensegrity,” a combination of tension and integrity. The Record periodically highlights pieces of public art at U-M. Learn more about this piece, or browse an online collection of public artworks.

‘Solving for equity’

A new pilot course at the College of Engineering is aiming to make education more equitable. The course exposes students to advanced robotics concepts without prior education barriers in curriculum. This video shows how the course aims to invite in rather than “weed out.” It teaches linear algebra — critical for coding but typically not taught until after four semesters of calculus — in an applied setting, and brings in students from historically Black colleges to learn remotely alongside U-M students.

Read more about flipping the script on engineering education