Wayne State University announced a continued increase in research awards and sponsored research agreements, totaling over $320 million in fiscal year 2021 as the research and discovery environment ecosystem pivots forward from the last 20 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. The substantial growth in the programs reflects a broad commitment to this aspect of the university’s mission as an urban-serving public research institution in Detroit and touches upon major thematic initiatives in cancer, cardiometabolic health and disease, environmental health sciences, health equity, chemical sciences, bio and systems engineering, and neurosciences.

Wayne State University students made sure their voices were heard in the 2020 presidential election, as the university had a voting rate of 73.5% — more than 7% above the national average. It was an increase of 12.5% from 2016, as 16,840 students voted in the 2020 election, compared to 13,056 in 2016. Wayne State used a number of initiatives to encourage students to get out and vote. Election Day was declared a university-wide holiday in 2020 and the first on-campus polling location, Detroit Precinct 149, opened in February of 2020 in the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights at the Wayne State Law School to make voting more convenient for Detroiters, including students living on campus. 

Wayne State’s Department of Anthropology recently partnered with the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), giving students the unique opportunity to conduct an archeological dig in the heart of Detroit. Students unearthed artifacts on a plot of land that was once the home to the historic Parke Mansion and later a women's prison. The land is now home to MOCAD’s Mike Kelley Mobile Homestead, located at Canfield and Woodward Avenue. Warriors involved in this project were Wayne State graduate students and recent alumni from the master's of anthropology program. The goal was to allow the students to gain hands-on experience with a physical dig.