Curious about the role of generative AI in the future of research and your career? The Graduate College is hosting an AI Conversations Series with Illinois experts, and we need your help! Join us on Wednesday, October 30, on Zoom for a conversation with Michael Curtin (Innovation Coordinator, Campus Research IT) and Eric Michael Kurt (Media Commons Coordinator, University Library; Interim Manager, Scholarly Commons). Submit your AI-related questions and join us for an engaging session where your ideas lead the way. 

The final version of the Summer 2024 List of Teachers Ranked as Excellent by Their Students is now available at go.illinois.edu/lotrae.

Your emails can reflect your connection to the university with an Illinois-branded email signature. Check out all the templates on the brand website along with detailed instructions on how to upload each signature, including PC and Mac users. 

Are you graduating this December? Join us for the Graduate College Doctoral Hooding Ceremony on Saturday, December 14. The focus of the ceremony will be the formal hooding of doctoral graduates by their faculty advisers. Participants must have successfully deposited their dissertations by 5:00 pm on December 6 to be eligible. More details and the link to register can be found on our event website. 

October 4 is the last day to drop a Part of Term A course without a grade of "W" recorded and the last day to submit a credit/no-credit request for a Part of Term A course. Requests should be submitted via the Graduate College Student Portal. Have questions about registration deadlines or submitting a Late Registration Change or Credit/No Credit request? Click here for an advising appointment!

RECHARGE is IE's newest program, offering students a chance to rest and connect during the busy week. We have hot tea, international snacks, and a place to charge your devices. Bring a friend or meet someone new! We look forward to seeing you! 

Collaborating with Project Heal, the Counseling Center is hosting a walk around the Arboretum to represent our commitment to supporting students toward disordered eating recovery. Join us for educational resources, awareness, community, and fun! Games and prizes available. Registration is FREE. Check-in begins at 11am.

Join us as we kick-off Exercise is Medicine on Campus Month, a campus-wide program that promotes accessible physical activity as a vital sign of health. We will have t-shirts, frisbees, jump ropes and other giveaway items to hand out, along with educational resources to help you include movement as part of your daily activities and improve your overall well-being. View the calendar of events here.

This series is open to Illinois graduate students, regardless of NIH affiliation. Join an in-person discussion group on alternating weeks, starting Mon, Sept 30. The goal of this series is to provide you with the resilience tools needed to study and work in high-knowledge environments. The material will help you develop well-being, assertiveness, and feedback skills with the goal of improved relationships in research groups and beyond. For information, please visit the NIH webpage; click here to register. For the U of I specific discussion group, please email Andrea Bridges.

Get a great headshot to make the best impression. The Professional Portrait Lab in the Illini Union Room 335 offers free student headshots during the academic year, starting August 28. Hours for fall semester are Mondays from 1-2:30 p.m.; Wednesdays from 3:15-4:30 p.m., and Thursdays from 10:30 a.m.-Noon. 

Congratulations on your acceptance to graduate school! You’ve earned your place here, and we’re excited for the journey ahead. Graduate school can sometimes feel overwhelming, with so many opportunities available—attending classes, conducting research, teaching and mentoring undergraduates, presenting at conferences, and taking internships. But how do we manage it all?
GradSWE, in collaboration with the Graduate College, invites you to our first lunch seminar: "Crafting Your Journey Through Grad School and Beyond" Reserve your spot and mark your calendar! Lunch is provided

The Graduate College is accepting applications for the Career Exploration Fellowship, which connects doctoral students with campus units for meaningful, mentored work experience. In Spring 2025, each Career Exploration Fellow will receive a paid hourly position at a host unit and a $5,000 Career Exploration Fellowship. This program aims to enable doctoral students to gain experience and build skills that align with a wide range of career aspirations. Applications are due October 15. Learn more at https://grad.illinois.edu/career-exploration-fellowship.

For those in long-term relationships, the faculty job search presents additional layers of complexity and anxiety: balancing career and personal priorities, navigating competing career needs, addressing partner hires in negotiation, and more. While there are often no perfect solutions to these complex issues, there are crucial steps you can take to clarify your needs and understand your options, setting all those involved in your relationship up for success. You can join in person (Graduate College, 507 E. Green St., Champaign) or on Zoom (https://go.grad.illinois.edu/eventspace).

Strengthen your intercultural competence through the Stumbling Blocks to Intercultural Communication training, which helps identify and overcome common barriers in cross-cultural interactions. This session explores six key causes of intercultural communication breakdowns and provides actionable strategies to avoid them. More details and registration can be found here: https://go.illinois.edu/SB24

Are you a graduate teaching assistant? Join ISSS on October 8, 3:30-4:30pm for our Communicating Across Language Difference workshop designed to help you navigate various intercultural communication skills. Participants will learn how adapting to different communication approaches can lead to more effective interactions. Details and registration can be found here: https://go.illinois.edu/CALD24

In this workshop, participants will learn about the role and the non-role of the reviewer in the peer review process in contrast to the roles of authors and editors. Participants will be invited to peer review some examples of reviewer’s reports.

This webinar introduces the basic tools and resources for government statistics and data. Attendees will learn about the major federal government and intergovernmental organizations' statistics and data as well as strategies to search for government statistics.

Looking for a new way to conduct your research? Tired of getting zero results in your database searches? This workshop will break down how to identify resources, and search for articles, books, and other scholarly works. We’ll cover chasing citations, creating optimal keyword searches, using built-in database functions to improve your searches, and other strategies to make you a more efficient researcher.

The HathiTrust Digital Library is the world’s largest, holding nearly 17.5 million digitized volumes from research libraries around the world. The HathiTrust Research Center, co-located here at Illinois and at Indiana University, is the research gateway to that enormous, near-universal library. This talk will briefly introduce the Center's text and data mining tools, which allow researchers to computationally analyze the millions of volumes of text held in the HathiTrust Digital Library.

Join us for an informal discussion on sources in REEES. Faculty panelists and reference librarians from the Slavic Reference Service will share perspectives and strategies on how to identify and work with relevant sources. Register here: https://forms.gle/PfRCZR9ZqGPZWnwt8

Join the Writers Workshop to learn about genre expectations for personal statements and strategies for drafting and tailoring your statement. We will review a range of disciplines. We will hold both an online (10/2) and in-person (10/8) session. Register the day before to receive a reminder and the Zoom details for the online session.

Join us weekly to work on your projects! Our hybrid writing group provides grad students with dedicated time to make progress on any writing project in a supportive atmosphere. Each meeting consists of a short goal-setting conversation, quiet writing time, and a concluding reflection and wrap-up. You only need to register once with your U of I email to receive weekly email reminders all semester! 

Sign up for Family Workout Night at the Outdoor Fitness Court! As a part of Exercise is Medicine Month, parents can engage in two group fitness classes, while their children enjoy collaborative games, healthy snack-making, and a modified group fitness class. Children ages 6-12 are welcome to join for only $12 per household! Register via Active Illini with your NetID and password.

Thinking about using AI for your qualitative project? In this workshop we’ll discuss how researchers use AI in the data analysis process for coding and analysis and look at AI integration into QDA software like MAXQDA and Atlas.ti. We’ll also review a framework for assessing whether AI use is appropriate for your methodology and the ethical concerns that come with the use of AI products. Two sessions on Oct 2 from 11-11:50am and 7-7:50pm

Infographics can be an effective way to convey small bits of information very quickly, while drawing viewers in due to their visual appeal. In this workshop students will learn about best practices for creating infographics and be introduced to several free online tools that allow users to create their own infographics, including Infogram and Visme. The session will end with a practice activity where participants are encouraged to use the webtool of their choice.

This day is meant to encourage reflection, recognition, and celebration of the ongoing contributions of Indigenous peoples. Additionally, it is a day to gain some understanding of the diversity of Indigenous peoples. Learn more and review the Indigenous Peoplesʼ Day Schedule of Events at the link above.

Join us for the iCU (Now I See What You Mean) Intercultural Dialogue Series, where stories and flavors come together to celebrate Latinx/Hispanic heritage. This unique series offers a platform for international and domestic students and the campus community to connect through learning about their personal cultural journeys. We'll journey through the rich culinary traditions of the Andean region, starting with Colombia and Ecuador (Sept 25) traveling through, Peru (Oct 2), and making our way to Bolivia, Chile, and Argentina (Oct 9). Dinner is provided, and everyone is welcome to attend.

Join us for an afternoon of music and insight in collaboration with the CU Folk & Roots Festival! Experience a captivating performance/lecture by Eddie Barbash + KASA & Friends, browse a curated display of folk and roots materials from the Music & Performing Arts Library's collections, and enjoy light refreshments. 

Compete in games of soccer against teams representing different countries! The 27th Indoor World Cup hosted by ISSS and Campus Rec will take place on Saturday, November 16. International and domestic students and scholars, as well as dependents are eligible participate. Advance registration required, $50/team. Details and registration can be found here: https://go.illinois.edu/WorldCup2024

October is National Cookbook Month and Funk ACES Library has partnered with McKinley Health Center’s Nutrition Peers to bring you smart snacks and encourage you to eat “all colors of the rainbow”. Bring your i-Card to check-out a cookbook, grab a snack, or both! Visit our calendar to learn more about this and other events.

Aaron Ammons was elected Champaign County Clerk in 2018. Prior to that he was an Urbana Alderman and co-founder of Champaign Urbana Citizens for Peace & Justice. Aaron worked at Illinois for 17 years and served as President of SEIU 73 Chapter 119. He served as a Trustee for the State University Retirement System and is married to State Rep. Carol Ammons (103rd District). In 2021, the voters decided by referendum to merge the Recorder’s office into the Clerk’s office, making Clerk Ammons the first Clerk and Recorder in Champaign County. 

Japan House's annual Fall Open House resumes on Saturday, October 5 featuring Professor Emeritus Kimiko Gunji. Traditional Japanese tea ceremonies will be offered at 11am, 12pm, 1pm, and 2pm. At 3pm, Gunji will be giving a free presentation about wagashi and seasonality with a live demonstration to show how to make these traditional sweets. Garden tours offered at 12pm and 1pm. Registration required for all activities.

Join us for a panel discussion on higher education in Ukraine, featuring our BridgeUSA Ukrainian Academic Fellows: Volodymyr Bazylevych (Chernihiv Polytechnic, focusing on information security); Nataliia Faryna (Ivan Franko National University, specializing in Ukrainian linguistics and education); and Olha Telna (Kharkiv Academy, a disability rights activist dedicated to inclusive education).

Join us for a compelling reading and discussion with Ukrainian-American poet, translator, and activist Olga Livshin. Recently published in the New York Times and Ploughshares, Livshin also co-organized the large online reading of Ukrainian poets "Voices for Ukraine" during the early days of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Play along during Cybersecurity Awareness Month and up your cybersecurity game. There’s a new game or experience each week. Try Passwordle. Join a digital or in-person Cybersecurity Escape Room. Spin the "wheel of phish" at our Phish Market. Finally, play against others in the Big Ten in a Cybersecurity Game Show. Full details are at cybersecurity.illinois.edu.

Graduate students in the humanities, arts and related fields: you are cordially invited to join us for a casual, relaxed happy hour gathering on the first floor of Levis Faculty Center! Come and meet fellow students while enjoying light food, drinks, and convivial conversation. 

Revolutionize Your Research with Google Vertex and generative AI Exclusive Seminar for Illinois Researchers. Google will be on campus demonstrating how Google Cloud's Generative AI is transforming the research landscape. Learn how you can accelerate time to science, enhance collaboration and secure research grant funding with Google Cloud Vertex AI and generative AI tools. Date: October 16. Time: 9 - 11:30 a.m. or 1 - 2:30 p.m. Location: National Center for Supercomputing Applications. 1205 W Clark Street, Urbana, IL 61801. RSVP: Morning Session RSVP: Afternoon Session

Jacob Fritchie is a graduate student in the Department of Nuclear, Plasma, and Radiological Engineering at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, with a focus on radiation detection and nuclear safeguards. In this presentation he will discuss his recent experiences as an intern at Sandia National Laboratories, where he worked on projects related to nuclear verification and safeguards.

The University of Illinois Counseling Center provides mental health counseling and well-being education for students. 

McKinley Health Center serves on-campus students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. 

If you or a student you know may need support with their basic needs or financial stressors, please reach out.