Current Students

Titans, check your email for an invitation to participate in the 2026 Healthy Minds Survey. This important survey will help the University better understand student and faculty well-being and guide positive changes across campus.

We want to learn more about what helps you thrive at UDM — and the challenges you may face along the way.

Bonus: By participating, you’ll be entered for a chance to win great prizes, including gift cards and awesome UDM swag!

The survey is confidential and will remain open until Monday, March 2.

Please contact deanofstudents@udmercy.edu with any questions.

Detroit Mercy’s Student Life Office will hold its first Winter Arcade on Thursday, Feb. 26, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. in the Fountain Lounge of the Student Union.

The event will feature a wide variety of games, including ski ball, crane machines, doubleshot basketball, Guitar Hero and numerous classic arcade favorites.

All students are welcome to stop by and enjoy some free food, including a nacho bar, cotton candy, soft pretzels and more.

For those looking for healthy, flavorful meals that won’t break the budget, Detroit Mercy alumna Melba Dearing, executive chef and co-owner of SAVOY Detroit, will hold a special live cooking demonstration on Wednesday, Feb. 25, at 4:30 p.m., in Room 124 of the Health Professions Facility.

In partnership with the Titan Equity Nourish Network (TENN), Chef Melba will share practical, budget-friendly cooking tips designed especially for college students. Participants will learn how to transform simple, affordable ingredients into a delicious one-pot meal while picking up real-world kitchen skills they can use every day.

This is a free demonstration, and all are welcome.

Chef Melba’s work bridges food, business and community impact. From leading Detroit’s celebrated SAVOY Detroit to supporting student-led food access initiatives through TENN, her approach to cooking is rooted in creativity, intention and equity. This demonstration shows how nutritious meals can be accessible and flavorful.

Detroit Mercy’s Black Student Union (BSU) and Titan Equity Nourish Network (TENN) will host an evening of music and community at Jazz Night on Wednesday, Feb. 25, from 5:30-7:30 p.m., in the Fountain Lounge of the Student Union.

Enjoy great food, fun games and a live jazz band in celebration of Black History Month. All are invited to this event.

Please email Chelsea Manning at mannincp@udmercy.edu with any questions.

Thomas Nail, distinguished scholar and professor of Philosophy at the University of Denver, will be the guest speaker at a pair of Philosophy Department events on Wednesday, March 18, and Thursday, March 19.

• March 18, at 4 p.m., The Figure of the Migrant, in Room 317 of the Briggs Building: The talk introduces the main ideas of Nail’s books, The Figure of the Migrant and Theory of the Border, rethinking the nature of political philosophy and history from the perspective of migration. Nail has expanded his analysis to incorporate the advent of climate change and migration in deep Earth history. The conversation will step back and look at the longest and widest frame for which to illuminate the current events of unprecedented global migration and climate change.
• March 19, at 10 a.m., The Birth of Order from Chaos: Perspectives from Comparative World Mythology, in Loranger Architecture Building Exhibition Space: The conversation explores the meaning of the word ‘chaos,’ from an immanent worldview where the oldest native language cosmogonic texts say the cosmos was born from chaos. During this lecture, Nail will present a summary of his research from his latest two unpublished books, The Birth of Chaos and The Birth of Order. His presentation will outline the common features of the world’s oldest recorded cosmogonies and argue that they offer a compelling movement-oriented alternative to post Axial-Age worldviews.

In addition to the works mentioned above, Nail is the author of numerous books, including Theory of the Earth, Marx in Motion, The Philosophy of Movement, Lucretius I, II, III, and Being and Motion. His research focuses on the philosophy of movement.

The March 18 event is co-sponsored by Carney Latin American Solidarity Archive (CLASA).

All are welcome to attend to these free events. Please contact Gail Presbey at presbegm@udmercy.edu with any questions or for more information.

All Titans are invited to Little Caesars Arena on Wednesday, March 25, for Detroit Mercy Night, where the Detroit Pistons will host the Atlanta Hawks. The game starts at 7 p.m.

Tickets start at just $35. All-you-can-eat seats in the North End Club are also available.

When purchased through the link below, tickets also include a co-branded Pistons and UDM sweater.

All students are invited to attend a half-day mission retreat on Friday, April 10, from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., focusing on the theme “Paths and Purpose: Discernment in Challenging Times.” This retreat will take place in the Lansing-Reilly Hall on the McNichols Campus and is designed to help students navigate important life and career decisions through reflection and guided spiritual conversation.

This FREE event for students has been organized by the Charles T. Fisher III Chair in Business Ethics & College of Business Administration. Lunch will be provided at 12:30 p.m. following the retreat.

To reserve your spot at the retreat, email Nisha Miah at miahiv@udmercy.edu. Deadline to RSVP is March 30. Please include your name, college and any food allergies.

Detroit Mercy’s School of Architecture & Community Development (SACD) 2026 Dichotomy Lecture Series will host Shreya Vadrevu, who was featured in Dichotomy 28:RED, for a lecture titled “Who is the decolonial urban designer?”

The lecture will take place on Monday March 2, from 4:30-5:30 p.m. in the Warren Loranger Architecture Building Exhibition Space. All are welcome to attend this free event.

This presentation explores the complexities of post-colonial perspectives within urban design. Focusing on mixed methods of photography, counter-mapping and participatory documentation of public markets, the presentation asks an important question: What is the evolution of a decolonial urban designer?

Vadrevu is an urbanist and architectural designer, who holds a Master of Urban Design from the University of Michigan and a Bachelor of Architecture from PES University, Bengaluru. She currently works as an architectural designer in the K-12 education space and continues to work with Dystopia, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about speciesism.

Dichotomy, a student-published journal of SACD, strives to be the critical link to the discourse on design, architecture, urbanism and community development.

National Reading Month brings a community book drive and series of events to Batch Brewing Co. throughout March in support of Rx for Reading Detroit.

Since 2014, Detroit Mercy’s Rx for Reading Detroit has distributed more than 275,000 books to low-income children and families in metro Detroit. That’s more than two books for every young child in the city of Detroit!

Batch Brewing Co. will accept donations of new or gently used books all month long. Those who donate will be entered into drawings to win an Rx for Reading Swag Bag or a Little Free Library for a Detroit-based school or organization.

March 5 — Teacher and Staff Appreciation Night
4-6:30 p.m.: Teacher and Staff Appreciation Hour
School employees can enjoy specials with a valid school ID.

March 12 — Teacher and Staff Appreciation Night
4-6:30 p.m.: Teacher and Staff Appreciation Hour
School employees can enjoy specials with a valid school ID.

March 19 — Family Read-Along Event
4-6:30 p.m.: Teacher and Staff Appreciation Hour: School employees can enjoy specials with a valid school ID.
6:30-7:30 p.m.: Story Reading Time with Rx for Reading

March 26 — Reading Month Celebration Finale
4-6:30 p.m.: Teacher and Staff Appreciation Hour: School employees can enjoy specials with a valid school ID.
6:30-7 p.m.: Reading with Brynne Barnes, local award-winning author and NAACP Image Award Nominee for Outstanding Literary Work for Children
7-7:30 p.m.: Little Free Library and Swag Bag drawings and donation totals announced

It is also easy to give a gift to Rx for Reading Detroit through the Detroit Mercy Giving Page.

Take a moment to celebrate literacy and help raise the next generation of readers this month by ensuring every child has access to books.

A major gift from the late mother of an alumna will have a dramatic effect on the University’s Theatre Department.

“This gift means a great deal to the program,” said Andrew Papa, chair of the Theatre Department and an associate professor of Theatre. “While we hope this will lead to increased visibility of our program, the department is especially excited about the increased opportunity it will provide for our prospective students.”

Every year, the Theatre Department engages with hundreds of students at recruiting events and in workshops and at high school nights for Detroit Mercy Theatre Company productions, Papa says, but one of the biggest inhibitors for students to attend Detroit Mercy is the cost.

“This gift will allow us to support more students for many years to come, and we are immensely grateful,” Papa said.

It comes at a propitious time as Detroit Mercy Theatre Company is celebrating its first season in the University’s new Black Box Theatre, bringing live theatre back to the McNichols Campus.

The gift from the estate of Christine Leonard revives and endows a long-dormant scholarship for theatre students created in 1995 and named for her daughter, Geraldine Regal. The scholarship was set up shortly after Geraldine ’94 died when the car she was in was hit by a driver who had been drinking. She was 23.

Geraldine’s father, David Regal, was the founder of University of Detroit’s Theatre Company and was on the faculty at the University for 44 years. When she was young, he put her in small parts in The Theatre Company productions, but “as soon as she got old enough to know what she wanted to do, it was no dice.” Geraldine graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Psychology.

“She knew everybody in The Theatre Company very well and was always volunteering to help, but she didn’t want to be on stage,” he said.

Christine Regal became Christine Leonard in 1993 when she married acclaimed crime novelist Elmore Leonard ’50. She was known for her cooking and her deep and varied knowledge of politics, travel, flowers, music, theatre, movies and art. She died in 2022 after a short illness.

Regal described his former wife Leonard as a “superfan” of Detroit Mercy’s theatre program. “She really dug The Theatre Company, and I think she’s shown that by the donation.”

The scholarship, which could begin disbursements as early as this fall, will be awarded to full-time students majoring or minoring in Theatre, with good academic standing with a preference for students who demonstrate financial need.

“This gift is truly transformational, and will make a difference long into the future,” Papa said.