Multimedia Features | The University Record

February 15, 2021

Virtual care

When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, many people were concerned about their access to health care. Up until March 2020, Medicare did not allow patients to connect using their smartphones from home. But as the pandemic began to unfold and shelter-in-place measures were instituted across the country, Medicare has removed barriers, which has allowed Michigan Medicine to respond to the rapidly growing interest in telehealth visits. This video shows how it has streamlined operations and is training more providers.

Africa Week

The university will bring together leaders in higher education, industry and government for a weeklong series of discussions on the key issues and opportunities that aim to help shape Africa in the coming decades. U-M Africa Week is a five-day virtual conference that will run Feb. 15-19. Among the sessions will be a reunion of U-M African Presidential Scholars Program alumni including Priscilla Kolibea Mante, a UMAPS alumna and now a senior lecturer at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in Ghana. (Photo courtesy of Priscilla Kolibea Mante)

Art Connects Kids

Students in Melanie Manos’ Detroit Connections: In the Classroom course in the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design faced the question of how to connect kids with creative activities and art education while so many K-12 students were studying remotely. They created Art Connects Kids, a website brimming with original art projects for families to do together at home. The image above was created using the “Painting Minimalist Landscapes” project prompt on Art Connects Kids.

Finding Your Purpose

The COVID-19 pandemic has seen MOOC platforms and educational institutions report increased interest, but U-M’s Vic Strecher was not quite expecting 100,000 enrollments in eight months for “Finding Purpose and Meaning in Life: Living for What Matters Most.” In this video, Strecher, professor of public health, explains how finding one’s purpose in life is more important now than ever.

Read a Q&A with Vic Strecher

February 9, 2021

Museum scientists

Although strong evidence suggests the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19 originated in bats, how and when it crossed from wildlife into humans is unknown. In a study recently published in the journal mBio, an international team of 15 biologists, including U-M’s Cody Thompson, say this lack of clarity has exposed a glaring weakness in the current approach to pandemic surveillance and response worldwide. In this video, Thompson and study co-lead author Kendra Phelps of EcoHealth Alliance discuss the importance of collecting and archiving specimens believed to harbor a virus, bacteria or parasite.

Read more about the importance of preserving animal specimens

February 8, 2021

Answering COVID questions

The bi-weekly Michigan Medicine town hall on Feb. 5 dealt with topics related to COVID-19 policies, procedures and vaccination. During a presentation at the beginning of this video, as well as a question-and-answer session in the second half, health system officials covered a variety of issues involving vaccine distribution.

COVID-19 operations updates at Michigan Medicine

February 5, 2021

Vaccine hesitancy

Decades of mistreatment and underrepresentation of people of color by the medical and scientific communities have resulted in a deep lack of trust, including when it comes to the COVID-19 vaccine. Michigan Medicine is committed to ensuring no communities miss out on the full benefit of vaccination. This video shares a variety of voices encouraging everyone to remember that every shot counts.

Read more about the effort to overcome vaccine hesitancy

February 4, 2021

Expansion at UM-Flint

A 33-year-old building at UM-Flint is transformed thanks to a significant expansion that is adding 61,000 square feet of academic space to the campus. The campus and community recently celebrated the expansion of the Murchie Science Building with a virtual grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony, during which viewers took a video tour of the spaces that feature innovative labs, classrooms, and faculty and student areas, and heard from various campus and community leaders.

Read more about the Murchie Science Building expansion

February 3, 2021

A scarf for Claude

Following a recent snowfall, a benefactor provided a scarf for this sculpture of Claude Shannon, a U-M alumnus known as the “Father of Information Theory.” This scene, outside the Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences Building on North Campus, was one of many snowy visions seen around campus. (Photo by Daryl Marshke, Michigan Photography)

View a gallery of winter images

February 2, 2021

Framing Identity

These photos are part of “Framing Identity: Representations of Empowerment and Resilience in the Black Experience,” a new online exhibition at the William L. Clements Library. Samantha Hill, the 2019-21 Joyce Bonk Fellow at the Clements Library and graduate student at the School of Information, said, “My goal for this project was to focus on the creative accomplishments of African Americans to demonstrate how photography could illustrate positive aspects of the Black experience.”