Jan. 13, 2025
Dear MSU Faculty and Academic Staff,
Welcome to Spring Semester 2025! I hope you enjoyed a restful winter break. Looking back at this past fall semester, there is much to be proud of – and there is much to look forward to in the semester ahead.
With President Guskiewicz at the helm, it is a time of increased stability and increased momentum here at MSU. Many offices, units, and individuals within the Office of the Provost continue to play central roles in providing support for a number of presidential initiatives to advance our university’s position as a talent magnet and activator for Michigan and beyond. These include:
• The Joseph R. and Sarah L. Williams Scholarship
• The Native American Tuition Advantage Program
• Transfer Student Success
• The Lansing Cohort Program
• The First-Gen Center
• Development of a Modern General Education Curriculum
• Development of the MSU Ethics Institute
• Growth of the 1855 Professorships
• Preventing Pass the Harasser
• Enroll for the Future
• Collaborative support for the Global Impact Initiative
• Collaborative support for the Health Sciences Council
These initiatives embody MSU’s active commitment to advance the academic mission of the university, with a focus on supporting academic excellence and student success. Most of these efforts are also collaborative in nature, a hallmark attribute of our Spartan community, and one that plays a key role in advancing our shared success. I look forward to the many positive outcomes and progress we will realize as each presidential initiative moves forward, and I am thankful for the many contributions across the breadth and depth of the Office of the Provost that support these efforts.
You, our faculty and academic staff, also play key roles in advancing MSU’s academic mission, individually and collaboratively. I am grateful for your contributions across the university. Your commitments to teaching, research, and outreach and engagement are key drivers of our ongoing success and future aspirations.
REMINDERS AND UPDATES:
As the new year and new semester begin, I would like to share a few reminders and updates to support a successful semester for all.
Academic Calendar and Religious Observance Policy
The Office of the Registrar’s Academic Calendar webpage highlights important dates for staff, faculty, and students enrolled in Full Session courses. Academic calendars for our professional schools – the College of Law, the College of Human Medicine, the College of Osteopathic Medicine, and the College of Veterinary Medicine – may be found linked in the right-hand navigation of the webpage.
As with every semester, please be mindful of the university’s Religious Observance Policy and encourage your students to proactively engage with you on making appropriate accommodations if requested.
Commemorating Feb. 13
A commemoration planning committee of students, faculty, and staff, led by the Office for Resource and Support Coordination, began meeting in the fall with the goal of providing appropriate space and time for members of the campus community to honor those we lost, those injured, and all impacted by the violence that occurred two years ago on Feb. 13. Plans are underway for a day of service and several supportive gathering areas. The committee is working through details, and plans will be broadly communicated early this year on the Spartans Together website and via an email to the entire campus community.
As a reminder, most classes will not be held, nor will exams or assignments be due, on Feb. 13, 2025. The university will remain open and all regular business functions will continue to support students, faculty, staff, and our community. Classes will meet again Feb. 14, but assignments and exams will not be due on Feb. 14 either.
First Annual MSU Ethics Week: Feb. 17-21, 2025
MSU’s inaugural Ethics Week strives to actively involve students, staff, and faculty in meaningful ethics conversations, encouraging campus-wide engagement with contemporary moral challenges. Each day of Ethics Week will be dedicated to exploring different aspects of ethics, focusing on issues that resonate with our current societal context, such as freedom of speech, artificial intelligence, and other pertinent themes. Additional details and registration information will be shared on the Ethics Week website as they become available.
As President Guskiewicz has noted, we are prioritizing the development of the MSU Ethics Institute early this year. The institute will evaluate and address institutional ethics and practices beyond the classroom through research, study, pedagogy, and the advancement of community-engaged activities.
I encourage everyone to visit the Ethics Week website to learn more as Ethics Week draws closer, and to hold time during Feb. 17-21 to engage in the week’s activities.
Spartan One-Stop
Spartan One-Stop is a centralized hub designed to provide seamless support for three primary student service areas at MSU: student accounts, financial aid, and the registrar. It aims to answer 85% of students’ enrollment or billing account questions, and to offer convenient methods to answer questions confidently and quickly. Phone calls and emails for the three student service areas noted above have been managed by Spartan One-Stop since Fall 2024. A renovated physical space will open in the Hannah Administration Building for in-person support in Spring 2025. Additional information and updates are available on the Spartan One-Stop website.
Many thanks to all engaged in this venture to better support our students in these critical service areas. The less time and energy students spend navigating these service areas, the more time and energy they will have available to devote to their studies.
ADVANCING ACADEMIC EXCELLENCE AND STUDENT SUCCESS
The collaborative spirit driving our current initiatives forward is also what advances student success and academic excellence across the university. It provides stability, and it generates momentum. That same collaborative spirit, rooted in the university’s values and mission, has grounded and guided us in ways that have attracted – and generated – talent and innovation over the years.
It is rewarding to see how we continue to renew our commitments to advance academic excellence and student success in ways that respond to the current challenges of the day – and that educate the next generation of students to meet those challenges – be they close to home or around the world. At each turn, it has been the people of the university who have made this progress possible. Indeed, our progress as a leading global public research university has always been generated by the depth and breadth of our Spartan community – our faculty and academic staff, our staff, and our students.
Thank you for all you do to support student success and academic excellence here at MSU. Your contributions are valued and vital to our stability, to our momentum, and to our shared progress.
Looking forward to the year ahead,
Thomas D. Jeitschko, Ph.D.
Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs