Faculty Affairs Update – 3.3

Dear faculty colleagues,

The past few weeks have been very challenging. I hope you and your loved ones have recovered and are taking care as best you can. In light of the personal and professional disruptions introduced by the recent storms, we extended several deadlines and below share additional information that you may find useful.

Deadline Extensions

Academic Flexibility Guidance – Winter Storms & COVID-19

The recent winter storms on top of the pandemic have created immense disruption to the lives of our faculty, staff and students. To assist faculty and our students, the Office of Enrollment Management and Student Success worked with campus stakeholders to update the academic flexibility guidance and suggestions for supporting our students during the current spring semester. We urge faculty to use these guidelines and continue to work compassionately and creatively to support our students’ continued learning and academic progress. In addition, we ask that faculty share this information with their TAs and AIs.

2021 Provost’s Teaching Fellows Cohort

Congratulations to the 2021 Provost’s Teaching Fellows cohort, which contains the largest percentage of professional (non-tenure-track) faculty in the program’s history! Thanks go to the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs who expanded support for this year’s Provost’s Teaching Fellows cohort in recognition of the instructional challenges that COVID has introduced this last year.

Save the Date! UT System Academy of Distinguished Teachers Virtual Conference

On April 7-9, UT System’s Academy of Distinguished Teachers will convene a virtual conference featuring keynotes by UT System Chancellor, J.B. Milliken, and Executive Vice Chancellor, Archie Holmes, as well as interactive plenary and concurrent sessions diving deep into the three conference themes:

  • Improving the Culture of Teaching and Learning on Campus
  • Creating a Culture of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
  • Compassion, Connection, and Change

The conference is free to participants and when registration opens we will share that information.

Employee Assistance Program and Self-Care

UT’s Employee Assistance Program offers several trainings and group support and counseling series. The EAP group recently announced a few virtual events intended to help campus constituents who are grieving losses experienced due to COVID-19. Do please share these options with your colleagues in case they need this additional self-care and support.

COACHE Survey Results

In early spring 2020, the university administered a nationally benchmarked faculty job satisfaction survey in an effort to understand issues that affect your experiences at UT Austin. This was the second administration of the survey, first introduced to the campus in 2017. Key findings from our second administration were recently released and are very consistent with results from the first administration. You can learn more about them 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

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