Two NMU professors have teamed up to create a course exploring the connection between the arts and sciences. Taimur Cleary is an associate professor of drawing and painting, and Jill Leonard is a professor of biology. On the surface, those two disciplines may seem wholly unrelated, but Leonard and Cleary have discovered a strong overlap between their respective fields.

Their work together began almost by accident. Leonard was contacted by The Grand Rapids Art Museum, who had commissioned artist Alexis Rockman to create some art based on the Great Lakes. Rockman was traveling to speak with knowledgeable scientists and learn more about the lakes.

“The origins of this class are, I don’t know, four or five years in the making from Jill asking me if I knew who Alexis Rockman was, and I did,” Cleary said. “He’s a really cool, very famous painter.”

Cleary and Leonard collaborated to host an event at which Rockman spoke to NMU students. The professors also contributed to A Dive Into the Great Lakes Cycle, a series of modules and interactive text that explores Rockman’s work from both scientific and artistic perspectives. This prompted the professors to discuss the overlap between arts and sciences, which sparked the idea for the class they are developing now. The course is an asynchronous, online general education class. The class will not only highlight the connections between art and science but also encourage students to apply what they learn about art and science to other fields.

“It’s really designed for any student,” Leonard said. “So you can be a science student, you can be an art student or you can be any other major on campus.” On the most basic level art and science are united by two concepts: Creativity and problem-solving. Leonard used herself and Cleary as an example.

“Whether he’s trying to paint something and figure out the best way to approach it and express what he wants, or I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with the ecology of my fish, in both cases we have to be creative and come up with new ideas and be open to new approaches,” Leonard said.

For Cleary, research is an important part of art, both in teaching and in his own work. “If you’re a professional and you care about what you do, you have a research practice,” Cleary said.

Leonard is quick to point out what may seem like a subversion of expectations.“If you didn’t notice, the artist just told you to do research and the scientist told you to be creative,” Leonard said.

Of course, the two professors see this as yet another example of how their respective disciplines intertwine. The course is the first of its kind to be offered at NMU. The title will be “INTT 222: Art Meets Science.” The asynchronous online format of the course works well for both professors.

“We did an online teaching fellowship over the summer to support making it an online class, so we got some good support there,” Cleary said. “The class doesn’t exist yet with students in it, but it’s coming into existence as an Educat shell.”

Once the course is underway in the summer, the professors are eager to see how students react and interact with the class. The class will place an emphasis on discussion, which is especially important given the course’s online format. Unlike classes that were forced to move online due to the pandemic, INTT 222 has the benefit of being built as an online course from the very beginning.

“It’s different than what we’re doing online now,” Leonard said. “It’s a designed online course, always intended to be that way.”

Without the pressure of suddenly adapting to the Internet, the course material can make use of the less time sensitive nature of online learning. “It’s the kind of thing where students can move at a little bit of a different pace and interact with each other in very different ways,” Leonard said.

In fact, the greatest challenge Leonard and Cleary faced when creating their class was finding the time to do it. Both professors have busy schedules. Teaching the course online is the most convenient option for both of them.

That said, Leonard and Cleary aren’t opposed to teaching the class in person. “Every once in a while I allow myself to daydream and believe that we’re teaching it in person because it would be even cooler to be able to teach it in person at some point,” Cleary said.

If and when that day will arrive remains to be seen. For now, Leonard and Cleary are looking forward to teaching the class together for the first time in the summer semester. There is some anticipation as they navigate uncharted waters. “The way students will interact, that’s the joy of it,” Cleary said. “That’s the experiment and the variable that I can never fully understand and just research and prepare for.” Leonard agrees. She is excited to see how students react to the course and interact with one another. “This is an experiment for me,” Leonard said. “I just want to see what happens with it and I hope it will be well received.”

More information about INTT 222: Art Meets Science can be found on Leonard’s website.

Dr. Linda Lawton has been a professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science since 2011, but her love of math goes back to her childhood. She grew up in the Texas Panhandle. Her family often took trips around the country when her father traveled for work. Lawton’s spot behind the driver’s seat meant she had a good view of the speedometer.

“I was fascinated by the numbers and I was fascinated by the mile markers,” Lawton said. “I had a watch with a second hand and I would do all sorts of mental calculations about how fast we were going, how many seconds it took between mile markers.”

Lawton fostered her love of numbers throughout her years in school. Now, her ability to perform quick calculations in her head is a great resource for her as a professor. It is a skill that impresses students, and can also help break the ice with a new class.

Conversation is another great way for students and faculty to connect, as Lawton discovered during her time teaching at the University of Illinois. She recalls a class in which her students knew each other and enjoyed learning together. The atmosphere in the classroom was fun for everyone, herself included. Lawton carried an appreciation for a relaxed teaching environment with her to NMU.

“I can get material across in class if I’m allowed to be informal, if I’m allowed to joke around,” Lawton said. “That works for me.”

In addition to math skills, Lawton wants students to leave her classroom having gained two other qualities. The first of these is a sense of humor. Lawton’s laugh is contagious.

“I’d rather laugh than cry, so I’ll try to find something funny,” Lawton said. “Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. I usually just tell them, ‘Hey, you know, laugh. You’re a captive audience, sorry,’” she laughed.

She also wants her students to develop what she calls a non-hatred for math. Sometimes students come into her class with one question on their minds: Why am I here? In response, Lawton incorporates math problems that will be useful to her students in the future.

When she was a graduate student at the University of Illinois, Lawton taught quantitative literacy classes. She understands the importance of finding practical and enjoyable ways to apply mathematical concepts to her students’ lives.

“If math isn’t your thing or it’s not going to be in your field, let’s find some things where it’s going to be useful for you, or let’s find something very interesting,” Lawton said.

For Lawton, this is one of the most rewarding parts of teaching.

“I like talking to students,” she said. “I like seeing those light bulbs come on and working with them.”

Throughout her years teaching math classes, she has found ways to encourage those lightbulb moments.

“It’s very common in a math class for a student to come up with a paper and say, ‘What did I do wrong here,’ and point,” Lawton said. “Which then becomes a dance between trying to get them to understand what should have been done versus what they did. And if you can get them to phrase the question rather than point, then often they will answer it for themselves.”

Helping students help themselves has a couple of benefits. First, if students can explain their mistakes, those mistakes are more easily understood and less likely to occur in the future. Second, having students articulate their problems aloud is beneficial for Lawton, who is blind.

She describes her blindness as having pixels missing from her field of vision. Her condition, which is unnamed, developed in adulthood and has presented some challenges in the classroom.

“I can’t wander around and peek over shoulders and go, ‘Oh, wait, you dropped a three,’” Lawton said.

With limited visual input, communication becomes much more important.

“I have to make sure my class is kind of trained to talk to me,” Lawton said. “I tend to be rather interactive anyway. I usually walk in the first day with my white cane.”

Lawton seeks to be approachable for students and colleagues alike. To that end, she utilizes her sense of humor.

“It makes them more comfortable with me,” Lawton said. “And that’s also why you’ll see me in tie dye a lot, and I’ll make the joke that it’s just so I can see myself walking down the hallway.”

She enjoys teaching at NMU and living in the Upper Peninsula. However, she did not always plan to live here. While she was teaching in Illinois, she began working in the actuarial field. She was teaching classes to help students enter that field, so she figured she would benefit from firsthand experience. Lawton worked as an actuary for 4 ½ years before deciding that she wanted to teach again. As she searched for teaching positions, she discovered the UP. When she learned about the job opportunity at NMU, she mentioned it to her husband, who became very excited.

“I showed it to him and he just started jumping up and down,” Lawton said. “He said, ‘Do you know where that is?’”

Her husband was familiar with the area, having hiked across Pictured Rocks as a teenager. He was happy to go back to the UP, and she was happy to go back to teaching.

“I like my students up here,” she said. “I think they’re great.”

Lawton has established a strong rapport with many of her students. Ryan Meister is a senior and an economics major. He has had several classes with Lawton. Especially during the pandemic, Meister appreciates Lawton’s enthusiasm for teaching both in the classroom and during office hours.

“I can tell that Professor Lawton sincerely cares not only about her students’ success, but about communicating abstract concepts in a lucid manner,” Meister said.

Lawton is currently teaching several classes, including calculus 1 and 3 and statistics 1.

According to NMU’s Office for Institutional Research and Analysis, enrollment at NMU for W21 is down 495 or 7.3% compared to last year at this time. This drop clearly indicates the impact of Covid-19 on enrollment. The decline is 301 or 4.5 percent when compared to enrollment for December of 2019.

However, admissions data for F21 indicates the potential for a more positive long-term scenario. Applications and freshman admits are up from last year and freshman orientation is up significantly from previous years. “I think it’s a good sign that the percentage of admits registered for orientation this year is higher,” says Gerri Daniels, Director of Admissions at NMU. According to Daniels, 32 percent of freshman admits typically enroll at NMU, so her current estimate on freshman enrollment for F21 is 1,475. If this holds, freshman enrollment would be up around eight percent from F20 but down about three percent from the average freshman enrollment between F16 and F19. Daniels added that about three percent of freshman admits are not current high school seniors. This indicates some of these students may have decided to take a “gap year” between high school and college due to Covid-19.

On November 15, Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced an executive order requiring Michigan high schools and colleges to switch to online learning by November 18. The announcement comes two days after the NMU administration agreed to the NMU-AAUP’s request to allow faculty to decide how to best deliver course content for the remainder of the semester. This agreement still allows faculty to move courses online prior to the Governor’s November 18 deadline without getting approval from department heads or accommodation from Human Resources.

As with the NMU-AAUP’s request, the governor’s action was based on data showing rapidly rising COVID infection rates across the state of Michigan and the entire mid-west.

Additional information can be obtained through the following links: news release and mask requirements.

Members of the NMU-Executive Committee held a workshop on September 24th to help those who are going up for promotion and/or tenure a chance to tighten down their application. The workshop also provided new faculty with guidance on how to prepare for this process. A video of the workshop can be viewed here.

After months of negotiations, leaders of the NMU Chapter of the American Association of University Professors agreed to a one-year contract on June 25th. If approved by the membership, the contract will freeze salaries and give university administration an option to impose one furlough day each month. It also calls for deep cuts to overload pay and compensation for teaching summer courses. According to NMU-AAUP President Dwight Brady, the cuts amount to over 1.5 million dollars. “Our compensation consistently ranks near or at the bottom among public universities in the state of Michigan. We began negotiations back in January hoping to change that with a new five-year contract. Of course, the COVID-19 crisis came along and created an extraordinarily difficult climate for negotiations,” said Brady.

The administration had originally asked faculty to take a potential 9.6 percent reduction in pay along with a 20 percent cut to retirement contributions and additional cuts to compensation for faculty earning promotions. “The NMU faculty believe in shared sacrifice to get through this challenging year, but we were not going to allow long-term cuts that would have lasting impacts through someone’s entire career,” said Brady.

Since the COVID-19 crisis hit the U.S. in February, NMU-AAUP Vice-President Wendy Farkas says faculty members made substantial financial contributions to local health campaigns, foodbanks, NMU career closet, student financial relief funds and much more. “Our faculty believe strongly in helping NMU, the Marquette community, the U.P. and beyond. In service to the University, members have volunteered countless hours of time toward course adjustments and emergency planning committees for fall 2020 preparation,” said Farkas. She added that these efforts have placed NMU as the only U.P. school in Michigan’s top “Tier 1,” according to an Educate to Career (ETC) ranking adapted for the COVID-19 climate. In service beyond the University, Farkas says faculty members collaborated to develop and produce acrylic hoods that cover patients to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. They also donated to the Makerspace Fund to help produce shields at local high schools and sent funds to a cooperative of 16 schools making shields in Lower Michigan.

A ratification meeting is set for June 30, at 11:00 am., and union president Dwight Brady will encourage the membership to vote yes. “This contract isn’t pretty, but we can live with it. It meets our primary objective of shared sacrifice in short-term concessions, while minimizing long-term harm to our members.” The NMU-AAUP looks forward to continued solidarity with all NMU unions and labor unions across the U.P. as they look to next year’s contract talks.

Despite a slow start, enrollment figures are rapidly improving for NMU. According to NMU’s Director of Institutional Research and Analysis Jason Nicholas, we are only 2.5% behind compared to last year at this time, and we are just 1.2% below 2019 figures with regard to student credit hours. The chart below also shows enrollment higher in 2020 compared to 2017 and 2018 at this point.

With shows cancelled this semester, members of theatre faculty at NMU along with their spouses are putting their skills to good use. A stage show at NMU requires more than acting and music, it requires costuming, and costuming requires the ability to sew. Likewise, flattening the curve requires social-distancing and the wearing of masks. Creating masks requires the ability to sew them. Enter professor Shelley Russell, adjunct-instructor and seamstress Ann Juidici, Em Rossi and Keli Truckey.

Professor Russell said that they had been making some masks for friends and family members when Director of Theatre, Bill Digneit reached out to the staff about organizing their efforts to sew masks for health care workers. According to Russell, that’s when the sewing machines really got humming. “We have gotten a lot of fabric donations from community members, and this seemed like a great way to put some of it to use. Since we’re on hold to make costumes and scenery for shows, we figured the fabric and our sewing machines could be put to use in a way that would make us all feel a little more connected to those who are on the front lines, and it’s a cool way to stay productive at home,” said Russell.

Ann Juidici is a highly skilled seamstress who also manages the costume shop at NMU as an adjunct instructor. “It’s been about a month now, and that’s all I’ve been doing. I was concerned about what I would do with all my time, but I’ve been busy with these masks.” Even though Juidici and her theatre colleagues are making the masks independently at their respective homes, she feels a connection with them and the thousands of other people across the country who are making masks. “It just shows how people are using their talents and abilities. This is a movement that’s across the United States. It’s absolutely wonderful. And I know there’s a lot of people making them for the hospitals and nursing homes whoever needs them,” said Juidici.

Em Rossi is new to the community, but she has years of experience as a theatre costume designer and seamstress. Her husband, Lex van Blommestein joined the NMU theatre faculty this past year as an assistant professor. “I had joined a Facebook group, the Relief Crafters of America, which was, and still is, connecting mask makers with healthcare providers across the country. Because I was planning to sew for them, I had read a lot of their information regarding preferred materials and strap styles. So, when Bill asked if we could make some masks, I was able to pass on patterns and information from that group,” said Rossi. She also added that having the season canceled has freed up her husband Lex to watch their children. He also cuts fabric for her while she sews the masks.

While Professor Paul Truckey normally takes center stage in theatre productions, his wife Keli is one of the key cast members in this mask making effort. “As we carefully move forward into a ‘novel normal,’ where the wearing of masks within the community may be a thing of necessity for some time…it has brought me some satisfaction during the many hours of isolation to make something that may help the greater good.  To make something needed, and freely give it has been very rewarding,” said Truckey.

So far, this seamstress team has made nearly 500 masks, and they plan to continue making more.