Grant application reminder
December 31 is the application deadline for next year’s Professional Development Grants for Retirees (PDGR). All University of Minnesota retirees from the Twin Cities, Duluth, Morris, Rochester, and Crookston campuses who are eligible for University retirement benefits and who will be fully retired by the time of their award may apply for grants.
Awards will not usually exceed $3,000 unless a student mentee is part of the proposal, in which case an award of $4,000 or more will be considered. The Application Instructions (linked below) provide information about project requirements and how to apply. Approved proposals will be announced in February 2022. Awards will start on April 1, 2022, and extend to June 30 of the following year.
UMRA recently initiated an ambitious campaign with the goal of building a substantial reserve fund for our PDGR program. One can make a contribution online or support this fund with a future gift. For more information about an estate gift, please contact Lynn Praska at the University of Minnesota Foundation, [email protected] or 612-624-4158.
“Impact of PDGR program is deep and wide,” a summary of some of the things accomplished with previous awards, can be found on the UMRA website. Anyone with questions or suggestions should email John Bantle, MD.
—John Bantle, MD, UMRA Grants Committee chair
News
The Regents’ Special Committee on Academic Health is seeking feedback from the University community on a draft of the Health Sciences Strategic Plan drawn up by the deans of the University’s six health sciences schools and colleges.
October 1 marks the start of the 2025 competition for financial support from UMRA’s Professional Development Grants for Retirees program. Retirees from all five campuses within the U of M System are eligible to apply whether or not they are members of UMRA.
Fifteen UMRA members recruited by the University Retirees Volunteer Center served as leaders of the small-group discussions held at a voting rights symposium co-hosted by the College of Liberal Arts and the Minnesota Humanities Center on September 13. The goal was to generate ideas for protecting voting rights, combating apathy and misinformation, and maximizing voting in all elections.
Since retiring from the College of Biological Sciences faculty, UMRA member Kathryn Hanna has pursued her longtime interest in the arts and antiques and is currently the co-president of the Fan Association of North America, a nonprofit organization of hand fan collectors.
The UMRA membership year runs from July 1 to June 30, and now there is a new and easy way to see whether you have already renewed for the coming year. Look to the right of your name in the address field on page 12 of the September 2024 print newsletter you received, and you will see a four-digit year. If it says “2025,” it means you have renewed.
So, you have set up a new email account; set up your recovery emails and phone numbers for this new account (!!); moved your emails, contacts, and documents from Google Drive to the new account; notified all your friends and business associates. Now what??
Did you check all of your online accounts? Any that use the old UMN account will need changes -- you may need to change the login, or the contact info, or both -- to the new email address. This article lists other details to consider.
For those of us who have not yet taken the leap to abandon our umn.edu email and Google Workspace accounts before the December 7 deadline, there are three basic things we need to do to get going.