Dear faculty colleagues,
Welcome “back” from winter break. I hope that you were able to unplug and find ways to relax and refresh. As you already know, all undergraduate hybrid classes (excluding pharmacy and nursing) will be online through the end of January. The hope is that these precautions will help the university make the safest possible transition this spring. Modality choice for graduate classes is at the discretion of each department and instructor.
I imagine the influx of emails around the upcoming semester has already started, so this communication is to help serve as a short reminder of resources and important dates.
Syllabi Requirements — Public Access to Course Information
Syllabi should have been finalized this week. Please confirm that each of them includes the mandatory disclosures required for and keep the following deadlines top of mind.
- Tuesday, Jan. 19 – Syllabi and instructor-of-record CVs due to department or dean’s office
- Tuesday, Jan. 26 – Syllabi and CVs documents must be uploaded to Access Syllabi and CVs system by departmental or dean’s office
If you need support with crafting your syllabus, the Faculty Innovation Center provides excellent examples and instruction for creating an effective syllabus here.
Guidance for Providing Academic Flexibility in Spring 2021
The Office of Enrollment Management and Student Success developed guidance on academic flexibility in terms of course and program requirements. Our academic community has broad discretion and latitude to support students’ academic achievement and progress this semester. We encourage you to work collectively and creatively to address the challenges the pandemic may present to ensure that our students can continue on-track toward timely graduation.
FERPA and Re-using Class Recordings
Please be aware of FERPA guidelines around preserving students’ right to privacy. For faculty members who wish to reuse a class video recording (e.g., a Zoom recording) in the same section of the same course in the same semester, there are no FERPA-related concerns. However, if a faculty member wishes to reuse a Zoom video recording in a different section of the course or in a different semester (e.g., reusing a fall semester video in a class this spring), students must be anonymized in the video recording unless they have granted written consent. If a faculty member wishes to post the video recording on a publicly accessible website, then again students in the recording must have granted written consent or be anonymized, but there are also additional restrictions described here.
LAITS and Instructional Technology Support
Your local departmental or college instructional support staff are your best sources of assistance for classroom or online instructional technology. If you don’t know whom to contact locally or need additional support, contact Liberal Arts Instructional Technology Services (LAITS). The provost has asked LAITS to provide backup instructional technology support for all faculty members as needed. LAITS will help you or get you in touch with someone who can.
Phone: 512-232-5400
Email: instructional-support@utexas.edu
Hours of Support: 7:00 AM – 5:00 PM, Monday-Friday
Leave a message after hours. LAITS will respond at the beginning of the next working day.
Faculty Resources
For those who might have questions about the semester in relation to instruction and research, you can find a full list of faculty-focused FAQs here. Additional links also offer information about probationary period (tenure-clock) extensions for personal and COVID-related reasons, the new personal circumstances flag for tenured and non-tenure-track faculty, and the Research Reboot program (applications due January 22nd). You can also reference this note on COVID-19 support for faculty and find more information on child and dependent care options here.
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