Dear faculty colleagues,
I hope that you’re staying warm and well on these wintery days. We have a series of announcements to share this week. Please review and share with your colleagues if any of the opportunities seem appropriate for them.
Accepting Nominations – Transformational Online Instruction Contributions Awards
We are accepting nominations for the COVID Transformational Online Instruction Contributions (TONIC) Awards. These were created to recognize professional (non-tenure-track) instructional faculty and staff who have demonstrated extraordinary creativity in their rapid innovation and transformation of hybrid and online instruction. The deadline for nominations is 5 pm CST on Monday, March 1, 2021. You can learn more and submit nominations here.
Accepting Nominations – OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship
The Board of The OpEd Project Public Voices Fellowship at UT invites nominations for the seventh cohort of the Public Voices Fellows. The Public Voices Fellowship is part of a national initiative launched by The OpEd Project in partnership with leading universities and foundations to accelerate the ideas and public impact of underrepresented thought leaders.
There’s an information session on Tuesday, February 16th at 1-2 pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95122119995
Meeting ID: 951 2211 9995
The deadline for nominations is Monday, March 1, 2021 at 5 pm CST. You can learn more about the program here.
Meet-Up for Faculty with Disabilities
The university wants to ensure that plans going forward for “the new normal” reflect the needs of the entire faculty — including faculty with the full range of disabilities and experiences. Join us for an informal conversation about disability, ableism, and accessibility at UT Austin. Add your voice to the dialog about COVID-19, remote work, and ways we can advocate for a systems approach to access. We welcome all who have an interest in being a part of this dialog. There are two sessions available and each will cover the same topics.
- FRIDAY, MARCH 5th 1:30-3:00 P.M. (Register for the March 5 session here.)
- THURSDAY, MARCH 11th 12:00-1:30 P.M. (Register for the March 11 session here.)
Meetings will have both captions and an ASL interpreter. You can reach out to Grayson Hunt (graysonhunt@austin.utexas.edu) directly with questions.
Accepting Nominations – Friar Awards
The Friar Society is now accepting nominations for the 2021 Friar Centennial Teaching Fellowship (FCTF). This fellowship awards $25,000 annually to a tenured/tenure-track faculty member who has attained distinction in undergraduate teaching and who has made a significant contribution to the university beyond their calling. Nominations may come from students, faculty, staff, and administrators. The deadline for nominations is 6pm on Monday, March 8, 2021 and the nomination form is included here.
Upcoming Mentoring Events for Faculty Members & Grad Students
In an effort to further quality mentoring at the university, faculty members and offices from across campus have contributed to the Graduate Student Mentoring Committee, an initiative to identify mentoring best practices and develop resources for faculty members and graduate programs. This spring, the committee will publish “Mentoring Graduate Students: A Faculty Guide” and there are two upcoming events being hosted that seek to raise awareness of mentoring resources and best practices. You can find out more about the events and register here.
Internet Outages in West Campus
There have been reports over the last few weeks about sporadic broadband outages in West Campus. If students have approached you about inconsistent internet access in these areas, we wanted to validate that these outages have been happening. Under the circumstances, we strongly encourage instructors to consider offering flexibility and support for students who have been impacted.
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