Academics and experts from across the nation gathered at Brooklyn College for "Weathering The Storm: The Caribbean, Puerto Rico and the Diasporic Communities," a daylong conference on the efforts of and responses to this year's hurricane season. "Our campus is home to more than 17,600 students, from more than 100 nations, and a great many of them hail from the regions hardest hit," said Brooklyn College President Michelle J. Anderson. "Today's conference is an opportunity to convene, to deliberate on best practices in response to the consequences of disasters." Brooklyn College

Last fall, Saint Michael's College administrators decided it was time to update the school's curriculum in order to address issues that "pop-up" in our world today and create a space for educated discussion between students and their instructors about these issues. Those are the words of Karen Talentino, the College's vice president of academic affairs, who explained her thinking in having Saint Michael's join just a handful of colleges nationwide to offer such courses. Other top institutions taking this new approach to teaching include Bennington College in Vermont, Stanford University and Claremont College in California. CISION PR Newswire

The University of Windsor wants students to use the library for more than borrowing books and studying quietly in a corner. There are plans to turn a section of the library into something called a Collaboratory, which will provide "UWindsor's most inquisitive minds with state-of-the-art dynamic space to share their findings and develop collaborative relationships with partners both on campus and globally," according to a media release. "What we're trying to do is not only let them get together in groups, but give them all the tools they need to also do their work," explained librarian Karen Pillon. CBC News

Registration is open for the 2018 ITGA City & University Relations Conference, hosted by The Ohio State University and City of Columbus, May 29-June 1. To learn what your colleagues are saying about the benefits of attending the conference, click here. To register and learn more about the conference, click here. Call for proposals are open until Feb. 1. Space is limited for Certificate workshops Level I and II. Register today and join us in COLUMB US.

Community members celebrated the public service careers of retiring local officials and community members at Cornell University's annual Town-Gown Awards Saturday morning. The event also marked one of the first events attended by all three newly-inaugurated presidents of Tompkin's County's three colleges: Ithaca College, Cornell University, and Tompkins Cortland Community College. Each president gave opening remarks at the start of the event. Cornell University Associate Vice President for Community Relations Gary Stewart said the goal of the event is to put "a positive spotlight on the great work that so many people do in Tompkins County." Ithaca Journal

Today is the last day of Western University's Kind Mail campaign, and the university received over 1,000 messages so far. The three-day Kind Mail campaign involves Western alumni sending letters of support and encouragement to first-year students living in their old residence rooms. This is its second year of the campaign, and it runs from Nov. 29 to Dec. 1. "Our campaign last year went four days, and we reached just over 1350 postcards," said Meghan Cocurullo, the project leader. Western's alumni department set up a website that allows users to complete a digital postcard, then Western staff handwrite notes and distributed them to residences, right in time for exam season. The Gazette