Dear faculty colleagues,
It is astounding that it is almost eight months to the day since we transitioned to this online experience. Thank you for navigating your way through the first two full months of the semester. And I hope that the remaining fall semester will fly by at the pace that you need. Do please continue to show flexibility, kindness and compassion to your students and colleagues because the stress and anxiety continues unabated.
As usual, the information we share below is to serve as a reminder about upcoming events and resources available to you.
Reminder: Tenured Associate Professors Promotion Discussion – Weds. 11/18, 12-1pm
The Faculty Affairs team invites tenured associate professors to join a discussion about promotion.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95892953573
Meeting ID: 958 9295 3573
Add to Calendar
Health & Wellness and Living Solo & Parenting Groups
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is offering a series of support groups on a range of topics including parenting, health & wellness, living solo, eldercare support, and more. For a full list of EAP presentations, groups and series, visit the EAP training page.
Online Instruction Workshops from OnRamps
Faculty are invited to register for and attend a series of optional workshops designed to prepare and support online instruction course design and implementation for the upcoming Spring semester, 2021. Hosted again by OnRamps, these faculty development workshops and OnRamps office hours will feature both synchronous and asynchronous activities to support multiple facets of online instruction. Faculty will be grouped with colleagues in similar course structures (ie. lecture, seminar, lab, etc.). Certain sessions will also be reserved for Assistant Instructors and Teaching Assistants. Please use this link below to find out more information and to register.
Texas Global Funding Opportunities
Texas Global is offering faculty three wonderful funding opportunities supporting global research, virtual exchange and a career launch program all of which advance internationalization at UT Austin. Please consider applying! More details here.
First-Generation Celebration Week
The First-Generation Commitment Working Group has worked with many of our colleges, schools, and units to provide an entire week (this week!) of virtual and in-person programming to celebrate and support our First-Gen Longhorns; the full schedule of remaining events is available at firstgeneration.utexas.edu. Please join us in celebrating our community of more than 10,000 First-Gen Longhorns and their contributions to our campus!
First-year Student Survey Results
Your hard work is not going unnoticed by students. Brent Iverson, Dean of the College of Undergraduate Studies (UGS), recently shared the results of a survey that UGS administers every year in the First-Year Interest Groups and Signature Courses. One particularly dramatic result jumps out from the word cloud derived from free-response questions in the survey.
In response to the question, “What do you like most about college life as a UT student so far?” the group of first-year students mostly replied: people, class, freedom and professor. Right now, faculty are front and center in the connection to students, and the faculty are being viewed favorably. Thank you for all that each of you is doing to connect and engage with your students!
Zoom Fatigue
The FIC team has pulled together resources and strategies for alleviating Zoom fatigue. Please see and share their self-care presentation slides
If you have any faculty-related questions, concerns, and solutions please feel free to contact the Faculty Affairs team. We’re here to support you in any way we can.
Stay well,
Tasha Beretvas