Dear faculty colleagues,
I’m writing to share a few updates related to health and safety measures for campus along with other faculty-related matters.
Flexible Teaching Modality Arrangements for Spring 2022
If you have already received a flexible teaching modality arrangement through the university ADA Coordinators because of your own personal medical condition/disability for this fall 2021 semester, then please discuss with your department chair and/or dean’s office whether it is possible to extend that teaching modality arrangement for the spring 2022 semester.
Individual faculty members should submit their requests for new accommodations for their own medical conditions through the ADA accommodation process.
If you have already received a flexible teaching modality arrangement because you are living with an immunocompromised household member with one of the following medical conditions for this fall 2021 semester, the Faculty Affairs team has already shared with you the necessary steps to extend that arrangement for the spring 2022 semester. The medical conditions include:
- Solid organ transplants or stem cell transplants;
- Currently in cycle for chemotherapy or cancers associated with immune deficiency (leukemias and lymphomas);
- Chronic inflammatory diseases treated with systemic corticosteroid therapy > 20mg prednisone daily, immunomodulator medications, and/or biologic agents;
- Primary immune deficiency disorders;
- Immune deficiencies due to HIV infection;
- Sickle cell disease; or
- Surgical asplenia
If you are seeking a flexible teaching modality arrangement for the spring 2022 semester because you are now living with an immunocompromised household member with one of the above medical conditions, then you should use this link to start the request process.
Call for Applications — 2021 Provost’s Early Career Cohort Fellowship Awards
The Provost’s Office is accepting applications for the 2021 Provost’s Early Career Cohort Fellowship Awards. The focus of this program is to support departments in exploring new hiring models that: (1) identify candidates with early promise and talent from atypical backgrounds and (2) invest in their career development and professional growth. The goal of this initiative is to increase the number of faculty who will further UT Austin’s critical goals of diversity, equity, and inclusiveness by attracting and hiring candidates with outstanding scholarly records, as well as knowledge and experience in the issues and practices of diversity, equity, and/or inclusion.
If your department is interested in applying for participation in this program, you can apply and find more information here.
Promotion (& Tenure) Information Sessions – Dell Med
The Faculty Affairs team and members of the President’s committee will host a Dell Med-specific Promotion and Tenure information session to offer the opportunity to share advice and to answer faculty questions focused on promotion and tenure.
Wednesday, November 17, 12pm – 1pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/99478909263
Meeting ID: 994 7890 9263
Introducing the Vice Provost for Faculty Development
The Faculty Affairs team is thrilled to welcome Dr. Alison Preston in a new role centered around faculty development. As the inaugural Vice Provost for Faculty Development, Dr. Preston will create and administer faculty development initiatives, programs and resources in addition to leveraging current programming. She will serve as the initiative lead for the faculty talent development component of the university’s new strategic planning process including a particular focus on curating resources supporting faculty mentoring and leadership development. Dr. Preston began some of this collaboration work in her role as Interim Vice President for Research connecting with the Faculty Affairs team in brainstorming ideas for faculty development. In her new position, Dr. Preston will extend these ideas and collaborations to access input from faculty groups whose missions touch on faculty development, including the office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity, the Equity Councils, the Faculty Innovation Center, and the Associate Deans for Faculty Affairs in the colleges and schools, among others.
Charlotte Canning appointed Special Consultant to the Vice President for Student Affairs on Faculty Relations
Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students Soncia Reagins-Lilly is pleased to announce Charlotte Canning’s appointment as Special Consultant to the Vice President for Student Affairs on Faculty Relations for the 2021-22 through 2023-24 Academic Years. She will help define the role of faculty in the student conduct process, and enhance potential faculty opportunities in the larger Division of Student Affairs. She will also develop methodologies for increasing faculty collaboration and engagement addressing academic integrity concerns. To support the varied needs and experiences of faculty across the university, she will recruit faculty input and participation. Faculty are encouraged to engage with these opportunities as they become available.
Change to COVID-19 Notification Process
As a reminder, the notification process has changed when someone in a class has a positive COVID-19 test result. Previously, students and instructors in the positive case’s class received a notification regardless of whether they are considered close contacts. The university found, however, that the guidance many people receive through these notifications is the same as the advice given to all community members regardless of exposure — test weekly, wear a mask indoors, get vaccinated, socially distance whenever possible. Given the redundancy, they have modified the process so that only close contacts are notified.
Zoom Retention Policy Reminder
Starting September 30, all meetings or webinar recordings saved to Zoom Cloud storage will be retained in the Zoom Cloud for 365 days, after which the recordings will be deleted from the Zoom Cloud.
Any recordings already on the Zoom Cloud for 365 days or more when the policy takes effect on September 30th will also be deleted. Once the recordings are deleted, users have 24 hours to retrieve recordings and return the video files to the Zoom cloud. Links to deleted recordings will no longer be valid. This message from ITS has more information about the change.
Accepting Nominations – Teaching Awards
Faculty Teaching Awards
I want to gratefully acknowledge the important contributions of the inaugural Faculty Teaching Awards Selection Committee who worked very hard to review existing nomination and application processes, crafted recommendations for process improvement, and implemented changes effective this Fall semester. The call for nominations for various faculty teaching awards is already posted and can be found here. Please use these opportunities to recognize the teaching excellence and contributions of your professional-track, tenured and tenure-track faculty. You can share any questions with Faculty Awards staff using this email address.
Please continue to check our Faculty FAQs page and the Protect Texas Together website for the latest information and guidance. Please reach out with any faculty-related questions to the Faculty Affairs team.
Stay well,
Tasha Beretvas