M-Pathways Update
January 2026

The upgrade of the M-Pathways HRMS PeopleTools, that we communicated about on January 21, has been delayed. The new roll-out date is scheduled to be offline beginning Saturday, February 7, at 8 a.m. The system will be back online Sunday, February 8, at 7 a.m. The outage will include M-Pathways Human Resource Management System (HRMS), Employee Self Service, and applying for positions using the University of Michigan Careers website.

Instead, M-Pathways HRMS will be unavailable this weekend for critical patching beginning Saturday, January 24, at 9 p.m. The system will be back online Sunday, January 25, 7 a.m.

Data Privacy Day is observed internationally on January 28 (Data Protection Day in the EU). To celebrate, Privacy@Michigan invites you to a series of events from January through March that raise awareness and spark thought-provoking conversation on pressing privacy issues and topics.

Speaker Events

• Jan. 28, 3 pm - Elodie Vialle, journalist and human rights activist “Privacy for Populations at Risk: Supporting Journalists Facing Attacks in the Digital Age” (webinar)
• Feb. 3, 4 pm - Lauren Girouard, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Harvard University and the University of Michigan “Exploring Digital Privacy from a Child’s Perspective” (Michigan League, Michigan Room)
• Feb. 24, 1:30 pm - Chris Gilliard, privacy researcher, and Tawana Petty, artist and organizer (Michigan League, Koessler Room, 3rd floor)
• Mar. 17, 4 pm - Albert Fox Cahn, Founder and Executive Director of the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project (S.T.O.P.) (Michigan League, Vandenberg Room, 2nd floor)
• Mar. 26, 4 pm - Cindy Cohn, Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation (Michigan League, Kuenzel Room, 1st floor)

Add the events to your calendar by visiting the Privacy@Michigan events pages on the Safe Computing website.

Promote to Students

The Unveil art contest challenges students to reflect, create art, and spark important conversations focusing on privacy, surveillance, autonomy, individual rights, and civil liberties. Submissions are open through February 15.

More Privacy on Safe Computing

• Take a stroll through these curated timelines: History of Privacy and the History of Surveillance.
• Are you a privacy Guardian, Free Spirit, Skeptic, Pragmatist, or Wildcard? The U-M Privacy Portrait Assessment gives you a set of questions to answer and, based on your score, reveals your privacy portrait and personalized privacy advice. Your results are private, of course!
• Submit your Six Words About Privacy and see what others are saying.
• Visit ViziBLUE to learn what personal information the university collects and how that information is being used.
• Check out the privacy protection resources on the Safe Computing website, share them broadly, and become a privacy champion in 2026.
• Browse past Privacy@Michigan Events for recordings and information on speakers and topics over the years.