As a thank you for all the hardwork this semester, the Illini Union Bookstore has a special holiday sale until December 17. Everyday there is a special promo for you to enjoy. Also, get dressed in the blue and orange for the Fighting Illini football bowl game with official bowl game merchandise.

The Illini Union, Illini Union Bookstore, and vendors in the Union will have altered hours during Winter Break. The Illini Union will close at 5pm on December 22. ALL operations will be CLOSED from December 23-January 2, with the Union re-opening on January 3. Find our complete hours on our website.

Can you get a general audience excited about your research in only 3 minutes? The Graduate College invites graduate students from all disciplines to hone their presentation skills and celebrate their work by participating in the 8th annual edition of Research Live! Learn more about how to enter the preliminary round and check out our brand new lineup of awards on our website.

Looking for some tunes to keep you company as you finish the semster? We asked you for your favorite study tracks, and you delivered! Our Finals Study Playlist is updated for 2022, and now comes in two flavors: one with lyrics, and one without—for those days when nothing can get between you and your focus. Check them out: Finals Study Playlist: Instrumental | Finals Study Playlist: Lyrics

The Activities and Recreation Center (ARC) and Campus Bike Center will be closed Saturday, December 17 - Sunday, January 15 for winter break. Campus Recreation Center East (CRCE) will be open during that time period, including weekends. For more information and exact facility hours, visit the Campus Recreation website.

Stop by at International Education/Asian American Cultural Center to grab some international snacks and drinks during finals week!

Stop by at the Library Orange Room to grab some international snacks and drinks and finish the semester strong! Funded by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion's Broadening Inclusion Grant.

Considering a career in the public sphere that connects to the humanities? Enjoy humanities work that engages a broad audience? Learn more about the Mellon Pre-Doctoral Fellowship in Public Humanities (applications due 1/20/23), which is open to PhD and MFA students enrolled in humanities or arts terminal degree programs, including the humanities-inflected social sciences, from the Urbana-Champaign campus.

As you put the finishing touches on your thesis deposit, it’s a great idea to think of some of the things you need to do if you are preparing to leave the University of Illinois, like set email forwarding, create a plan to manage your Box files, and don’t forget to return your library books! Check out our Post-Deposit Considerations page to learn more. Don’t forget to check with your department to see if there are any final tasks you should complete (such as returning keys, exit interviews, etc.). 

 Are you a humanities PhD student at Illinois that wants to use their strengths to make an impact, learn new skills, and explore new career paths? Learn more about the Humanities Without Walls Summer Bridge program! Students selected to participate in the program will spend 8 weeks in the summer contributing to a community organization in the Champaign-Urbana area. Register to attend an upcoming information session on 1/31.

Graduate College Career Development is open during Winter Break and ready to meet with you! Our career advisers specialize in the needs of grad students and postdocs, and they can help you revise application documents, prepare for interviews, get ready to negotiate, explore new career paths, develop a job search strategy, and more. Appointments are available in person or on Zoom. 

Accomplish your writing goals by joining the Writers Workshop for sustained writing in the company of your colleagues from across the disciplines! Our writing group aims to provide community and accountability. Each session begins with a short conversation about goals and ends with a wrap-up of accomplishments. Our Fall semester writing groups are held Mondays and Fridays from 9 a.m. - noon CT. Join us in-person in the Siebel Center for Design or online. Please visit our calendar to register in advance.

Join the Writers Workshop to learn tips for maintaining a writing routine, cultivating effective habits, and forming a successful writing group. Dissertation and thesis writers from any discipline - and at any stage in the writing process - are welcome! This event will be held through Zoom. Please register by 11:59pm CT on December 13, and we will send an email with the Zoom meeting invitation on the morning of the event.

The Doctoral Research Support Program (DRSP) invites students to submit workshop and symposium proposals for spring 2023. These workshops and symposia can be in person, virtual, or hybrid. We welcome proposals from all disciplines. These workshops should help foster dissertation research, peer-to-peer mentoring, academic training, and research collaboration at Illinois and beyond. Successful applicants will plan and host the workshop or symposium, with support from DRSP staff and UIUC faculty, and earn an Academic Conference Planning Certificate upon completion. 

Would you or your research group benefit from data and computational workshops offered through The Carpentries? If so, we are offering this survey to get an idea of what workshops the community would be interested in. Examples include: Introduction to the Command Line, Version Control with Git, Programming with MATLAB.

Please encourage your undergraduate students to present their research projects at the 2023 Undergraduate Research Symposium (URS), set for April 27, 2023, at the Illini Union. The URS is a day-long event where students can showcase their in-progress and completed research projects through poster, oral, and creative presentations. More info & apply at: https://go.illinois.edu/URS - deadline to apply is March 10, 2023.

All campus libraries will be closed December 23, 2022, through January 2, 2023, during the winter break. Library digital resources will remain available during this closure and may be accessed through the Library's website. Please arrange your study or research schedule accordingly.

Join the Graduate Society of Women Engineers for the annual Women Empowered in STEM Conference. STEM leaders in academia, industry, and national labs alike will share their insights on pursuing diverse career paths beginning with a graduate degree. This conference has sessions that promote the discussion of topics unique to the graduate student experience. Come fuel your inspiration to excel, find motivation to complete your graduate degree, and explore your passion for making an impact. Register today to secure your spot! Please check the conference website for more information.

The New Frontiers Initiative, in cooperation with the Blue Waters project at UIUC, is hosting a webinar on Dec. 13 at 10 a.m. with presenters Gustavo Caetano-Anollés (Crop Sciences) on “Tracing Genome Evolution for COVID-19 Predictive Intelligence” and Huck Beng Chew (Aerospace Engineering) on “Predictive Lifetime Estimates of Space Propulsion Systems.” Register here!