Dear faculty colleagues,
I hope that you are doing well as we embark on this final week of spring semester classes. Below are a few final updates, reminders and event notification for this semester. Please share the relevant information with colleagues and those you mentor.
COVID Transformational Online Instruction Contributions (TONIC) Awards – Winners Announced
The Provost’s Office and Deans recently announced the 44 recipients of the TONIC Awards. These awards were created to recognize professional (non-tenure-track) instructional faculty and staff who demonstrated extraordinary creativity in their rapid innovation and transformation of hybrid and online instruction. You can find the full list of recipients here. Congratulations and thanks to each of you!
Promotion (& Tenure) Information Sessions – Summer, 2021
The Faculty Affairs team will be hosting promotion (and tenure) information sessions over the summer. These sessions include a representative from the President’s Promotion (& Tenure) committee and offer the opportunity to share advice and answer questions focused on the relevant promotion(s).
Thursday, June 3, 12-1pm
Tenured Associate Professors Information Session with Interim Provost Dan Jaffe
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93424478454
Wednesday, June 23, 11am-12pm
Tenure-track Faculty Information Session with Dean and SVP Mark Smith
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/98056197550
Thursday, July 1, 2-3pm
Professional/NTT Faculty Information Session with Dean Brent Iverson and Dr. Amanda Hager
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/96002574560
Promotion & Tenure Guidelines – 2021-22 Review
Promotion and Tenure Guidelines for faculty candidates under review in this upcoming academic year (2021-22) have been posted. These General Guidelines describe the faculty promotion process, preparation of materials, and management of candidate files for promotion. Please closely review the details that are applicable to you and your mentees at the following link: https://provost.utexas.edu/the-office/faculty-affairs/promotion-tenure/2021-22-promotion-tenure/.
In addition, the Faculty Affairs team is offering an information session focused on the creation of promotion dossiers for faculty candidates up for promotion (and tenure) review this coming fall, 2021
Wednesday, June 30, 10-11am
Assembling Your Promotion Dossier
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/97779818016
Course Instructor Surveys Participation
Electronic Course instructor Surveys (CIS) will again be offered to students to capture their feedback about their learning and their instructors’ teaching. It’s critical for faculty to gather constructive and detailed feedback from students although it can be challenging to obtain good response rates when using online CIS. The Faculty Innovation Center (FIC) and the CIS Office have provided the following tips to help increase response rates and enhance the quality of the feedback:
- Set aside time during class itself, preferably at the beginning of a class session, to administer the survey.
- Boost students’ likelihood of responding by providing a few reminders leading up to the day the survey will be administered.
- Give students specific examples of the importance of this feedback to you as the instructor and to the learning of future cohorts of students taking your class. Explain how you have used student feedback to improve your class and student learning.
- Enhance the quality of student responses by sharing examples of constructive feedback.
- Faculty can make the CIS link (https://utdirect.utexas.edu/ctl/ecis/index.WBX) easily accessible to students by posting it on their course’s Canvas webpage and can monitor student response rates during the active survey period using the MyCIS link (See My CIS Guide to learn how to track response rates). If response rates look low, faculty should send gentle reminders to students encouraging their participation.
The electronic surveys are between now and when they close on May 10th.
“Stop the Clock” (Probationary Period Extensions) for Tenure-Track Faculty
As a reminder, tenure-track faculty may request an extension to their probationary period for either general personal circumstances or those directly related to COVID. The deadline to apply for an extension is May 31st of the academic year before you are scheduled for review (i.e. if you are scheduled for review in the 2021-22 academic year, your deadline is May 31, 2021). Complete details are available on this FAQ page.
Personal Circumstances Flag for Professional-/Non-tenure-track and Tenured Faculty
New as of this last year, professional-/non-tenure-track and tenured faculty are eligible to request a Personal Circumstances Flag that can be noted in their personnel record. This offers the opportunity to designate a year within the scope of a multi-year review as having been impacted by personal circumstances. A faculty member may request up to two Personal Circumstances Flags while in rank. A faculty member should request a Personal Circumstances Flag as soon as it is apparent that personal circumstances have impacted the faculty member’s work and must be requested within one calendar year of the event(s). To request a flag or learn more, please visit the Personal Circumstances Flag website.
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