Promoting Academic Excellence in STEM:  The Evolving Roles of Learning Communities Wednesday, February 15 3:00–5:00 p.m. Michigan League 911 N. University Hussey Room (Second Floor) This event features a lecture by Michael McKibben of University of California, Riverside who will discuss a model for a highly successful, large scale learning community for STEM students.  A reception and a campus-wide poster session will follow. Learning communities are broadly defined as groups drawn together by shared goals and common intellectual interests.  At the University of Michigan, they range widely in degree of formality and structure, with informal groups such as student organizations at one extreme and highly structured residential communities at another extreme.  They could be entirely student focused, faculty focused or mixed and could last for years or just a semester.  This event will focus on how this array of learning communities promote academic excellence in STEM disciplines and how we can enhance communication and support among the many types of learning communities on campus. "Designing and scaling-up a multifaceted first-year academic intervention program for students historically underrepresented in STEM fields at a large, public Tier 1 research university." Lecture by Michael McKibben, Divisional Associate Dean of Student Academic Affairs, University of California, Riverside.  Lecture begins at 3:10 p.m.Click here for more information. Please RSVP by Wednesday, February 8 if you are planning on attending the event. This event is sponsored by: Growing STEM, REBUILD and Center for Research on Learning and Teaching. Growing STEM: Pipelines, Collaborations and Pedagogies for Diversity & Inclusion at Michigan with support from the College of Engineering, LSA, National Center for Institutional Diversity, Medical School, Center for Educational Outreach, and the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.