Building a community where everyone feels represented and has a sense of belonging at UT Austin is a critical campus priority. In an effort to better support this type of meaningful transformation on campus, the Provost’s Office awarded 52 new grants to campus members in a new initiative – Actions that promote Community Transformation (ACT).
Launched this fall, ACT aims to support and enable members to transform their local communities on campus. ACT recipients receive seed grants — ranging from $3,000 to $5,000 — to support projects that promote a sense of belonging at the university.
“When you are part of a vibrant intellectual community like the one here at UT Austin, there is no doubt that extraordinary ideas exist. That was even more evident to us as we reviewed applications for the ACT. Members of our campus community have unique and creative solutions for building more inclusive environments on campus. Through ACT, we hope to provide a catalyst for these ideas, bringing them to life and providing positive change for our community” said Edmund T. Gordon, vice provost for diversity.
Areas of interest for the project include:
- Graduate education
- Undergraduate education
- Departmental climate
- Faculty hiring practices
- Staff and faculty promotion and retention practices
- Faculty development
- Mentoring practices
- Student recruitment practices
“Another exciting part of this initiative is bringing members of our community from all areas of campus together to work towards realizing a vision for our university to which we are all committed,” said Lydia Contreras, provost’s faculty leadership fellow.
The grants represent more than $225,000 to fund projects supported by units across campus, including: the Graduate School, Financial and Administrative Services, Vice President for Research, the Cockrell School of Engineering, College of Education, College of Fine Arts, College of Liberal Arts, College of Natural Sciences, Dell Medical School, LBJ School of Public Affairs, McCombs School of Business, Moody College of Communication, and School of Nursing.
This group will hold joint meetings to mutually support the development of these projects throughout the year and is already working together to exchange ideas to maximize their impact.