Dear colleagues,

With spring finally upon us, and the academic school year nearing a close, I want to highlight some positive news, even as we face challenges. Here are some feel-good headlines from across the Office of the Provost:

• Thanks to the Strategy and Policy team, the Searle Center and collaborators across Office of the Provost units, Northwestern hosted a remarkably successful site visit from Higher Learning Commission peer reviewers.
• The CatalystNU program (a partnership among the Office of Community Enrichment, Human Resources, Office of the Ombudsperson, and the Center for Leadership) has been thriving with nearly 100 staff and faculty engaged from across schools and units.
• The Office of Fellowships recently announced 20 Gilman Scholars (awarded by the U.S. State Department to undergraduate Pell Grant recipients) who will study and intern abroad, while the Global Learning Office has received a generous gift for a three-year pilot of a spring-break international travel opportunity for up to 20 first-generation and low-income first-year students.
• The Center for Civic Engagement, collaborating with Shorefront Legacy Center, the History Department, University researchers and local community members, co-hosted a daylong research symposium called “Activating Local Black History.” This collaboration has just been awarded a new grant to expand the work to include a place-based oral history and digital mapping project in the coming year.

Congratulations to all those connected with the work mentioned above and to everyone in the Office of the Provost for making great things happen! Please read on for more news, and keep us posted about positive developments in your units by emailing officeoftheprovost@northwestern.edu.

Sincerely,

Jake Julia
Vice Provost for Administration/Chief of Staff

All about the staff

Spitz shown with author and Northwestern faculty member Rebecca Makkai as he receives StoryStudio Chicago’s Emerging Writer Award.

Meet Jared Spitz

Jared Spitz joined Northwestern as a part-time research assistant for the Faculty Senate in Fall 2016, and in early 2017 was promoted to his current role as the Secretary to the Faculty Senate. He supports the Faculty Senate and Faculty Assembly, which involves everything from managing the Senate's budget, website and newsletter to serving the many and varying needs of Faculty Senate leadership and the 99 elected senators from every department of the University. "From palliative care physicians to mechanical engineers to philosophers, I’ve become friends with and learned so much from the astounding, brilliant faculty at Northwestern," he said.

Given your job, staying organized must be essential. What is your favorite tool or tip for keeping on top of everything?

The past few years we’ve utilized a “Working Files” folder for draft agendas, slides decks, messaging to the broader community, you name it. It’s been an invaluable time-saver. Working collaboratively in OneDrive is so much more efficient than back and forth emails.

What were your interests growing up — do you think they are at all connected to what you do now?

Sports dominated my life from the moment I could throw a ball. I’m currently on a men’s baseball team and am a huge St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Chiefs fan. It wasn’t until my early 20s, when I finished community college and transferred to a larger school, that I began to see and appreciate the transformative power of education. My purpose at Northwestern is to ensure faculty can produce and share such knowledge with the world.

What is something fun or interesting about you that people may not know?

I am a fiction writer. I’m finishing up a thematically linked short story collection titled Substance. It explores masculinity and the ways temptation and addiction can alter lives. Small celebratory note: I’ll graduate with my MFA from Northwestern this June.

Congratulations are in order!

Debbie Crimmins received the Distinguished Service Award on April 29 during the 2025 annual meeting of the Association of American Universities Data Exchange. She was the unanimous choice of the award committee because of her "sustained and dedicated efforts in leadership and service on behalf of the universities participating in the data exchange." 

Four Global Learning Office staff members were elected to leadership roles at International Educators of Illinois, which promotes and supports the professional development of individuals in the field of international education: Carmen Hernandez, Laura Johnson, Jacob Schoofs and Kevin Tribe.

Brag about your teammates! We feature one staff member in each newsletter. Nominate someone by emailing the Office of the Provost and telling us, in a sentence or two, how your colleague contributes to Northwestern’s mission and why everyone in the Office of the Provost should get to know them.

Staff who joined the Office of the Provost in April

University Registrar

• Ayodele Bond, Business Systems Analyst Associate

News, notes and need to know

Office of the Provost Team Building and Collaboration Workshop 

A few more slots are available for the in-person Office of the Provost Team Building and Collaboration Workshop that will take place from 2-4 p.m. on May 28. Facilitated by Todd Murphy from the Center for Leadership, this small-group workshop starts with the premise that leadership is a social process, facilitated by a leader, in which individuals work together to produce results they could never achieve alone. This session will unpack the “how” of that process. Learn more and register.

Performance Excellence timeline

Northwestern’s Performance Excellence supports individual development and helps teams, departments and the University become stronger and more effective. Here is the timeline for this academic year's process.

• Due now: Staff complete written self-review in myHR Learn
• June 18: Supervisors complete written review and assign rating in myHR Learn
• July 30: Supervisors conduct performance meetings, finalize written reviews and release reviews and ratings; staff finalize reviews 

Conflict resolution training

The Mediation, Conflict Resolution, and Restorative Practices (MCR) Initiative aims to provide the Northwestern community with constructive, empathetic and evidence-based approaches to resolving conflict and settling disputes that do not rise to the level of formal complaints or policy violations. Apply to join an MCR team to get trained to provide mediation services to the Northwestern community upon request. Applicants must be Northwestern faculty or staff. The deadline to apply is May 30. Learn more and apply.

News from The Block

• The Block Museum’s community-centered programs were recognized by the Terra Foundation as a model for inclusive, collaborative engagement.
• As part of the Woven Being exhibition, The Block expanded its collection with over 20 significant acquisitions by contemporary Indigenous artists.
• A new, ongoing partnership called "Reframe" brings together Northwestern Athletics and The Block to support the student-athlete experience through art-based dialogue and programming.

In case you missed it

• Nancy Cunniff, director of One Book One Northwestern, is retiring after 15 years and 15 books.
• Karen Smilowitz  — a member of Northwestern’s faculty for more than two decades — has been named Northwestern’s Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education.
• View more news from around the University.

Mark your calendar

Event highlights 

• Through July 13: "Woven Being: Art for Zhegagoynak/Chicagoland" at The Block Museum
• June 4: Searle Center Community Celebration, unveiling Searle's new strategic plan, honoring the first recipients of the Spirit of Searle Award and celebrating the collective achievements of the Searle community with bites and drinks. RSVP by May 30.  
• June 5: Women's Center Garden Party. Registration is encouraged, but not required.

Key dates 

• June 13-16: Graduation Weekend
• June 19: Juneteenth National Independence Day; University closed

More resources

• University Events
• Academic Calendars
• Past Newsletters

Help us build future newsletters! If your unit is working on a project that is relevant to the entire Office of the Provost, or if you have awards, honors or accomplishments to share, send an email to officeoftheprovost@northwestern.edu.