The University of Michigan's third First Generation Symposium will share the Michigan League with voters on Election Day, Tuesday, Nov. 3. The building also serves as a polling location, and organizers are warning attendees to build in extra travel time.
The event, reported by MLive, is a free professional development day running 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. It is open to all U-M faculty, staff and administrators. Registration is capped at 150 people, with a waitlist after that, and closes Friday, Oct. 23.
The university's First Generation page advises that "the area may be busier than usual" and asks participants to "plan ahead for potential delays." Ann Arbor Public Schools will also be closed Nov. 3 for Election Day, according to the same page.
The symposium brings together university employees to discuss strategies for supporting students whose parents or guardians do not hold four-year college degrees. Nearly half of U-M’s first-generation students come from households earning $75,000 or less a year, according to the university’s First Generation homepage.
Terra Molengraff, program director of First-Generation Initiatives at U-M, said in a University Record story republished by Access & Opportunity that she hopes to see attendees from individual departments, including advisers and librarians.
"We are very intentional about not wanting the participants to just sit and listen. We want to empower the participants to take up this work," Molengraff said in the Record.
This year's theme is "Shaped in Practice: Powered by Partnership." Rashné Jehangir, a professor of higher education and founder of the First-Gen Institute at the University of Minnesota, will deliver the keynote address from 10:30 to 11:30 a.m. A program director panel follows from noon to 1 p.m., with concurrent sessions from 1:10 to 1:55 p.m.
The symposium is returning to Ann Arbor for the first time since 2018. COVID-19 and other factors delayed the third gathering, MLive reported. The inaugural symposium in 2016 led to the creation of the First-Generation Gateway within the Office of Academic and Multicultural Initiatives (OAMI), a program manager position and the First Generation website.
OAMI and Access & Opportunity are hosting the event. The College of Literature, Science, and the Arts (LSA), which enrolls about 62% of U-M's first-generation students, has expanded its support. LSA is launching a First Fellows program that will give participating first-generation LSA sophomores each $4,000 for summer learning opportunities such as research, internships or study abroad.
