Faculty Affairs Update – Oct. 13

Dear faculty colleagues,

I hope you’re enjoying the relatively cooler temperatures. Below are a few faculty-related updates and reminders that I wanted to share with you.


Accepting Nominations – Disabled Faculty Equity Council

The newly formed Disabled Faculty Equity Council will advise the provost and support the development of programs and policies to improve the campus-wide climate and institutional reputation for equity relating to disability, access, accommodations, and ableism. In recognition that ableism intersects with racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, and xenophobia, this council will include broad representation. The co-chairs are soliciting nominations for faculty to serve as members of the inaugural Disabled Faculty Equity Council.

Please submit your nominations by Sunday, Oct. 31. You can nominate yourself or someone else. If you have any questions, please contact co-chairs Alison Kafer or Stephanie Cawthon.

Disabled Employment Awareness Month

There are at least a couple of campus talks in honor of disabled employment awareness month that we want to highlight. These talks include one by Alison Kafer entitled “Practicing Disability Studies” from noon-1pm on Monday, October 25th (save the date link) and another by Cal Montgomery entitled “No Such Thing as a Stupid Student: How Thinking Through Cognitive Accessibility Can Set Students Up to Succeed” (description can be found here).

Indigenous Peoples’ Week

This week is Indigenous Peoples’ Week and there are three remaining events curated by UT’s Native American Indigenous Studies (NAIS) program. Tonight (6:30pm, Wednesday, October 13th) there will be an in-person screening of the movie “Smoke Signals” . Tomorrow (6pm, Thursday, October 14th) they are offering a virtual discussion panel with Indigenous scholars. And at 5pm on Friday, October 15th, NAIS is holding an in-person Language Exchange event.

Seminar for Retirement – November 5 at 1pm

Faculty and supervisors are invited to join us for a seminar on faculty retirement. Learn more about the basics of retiring from UT Austin and hear from a panel of retired faculty on what they wish they had known in making their decisions to retire.

November 5, 2021

1:00-3:00pm

https://utexas.zoom.us/j/94039984551

Accepting Applications – Academic Leadership Positions

​​Our office is accepting applications and nominations for two leadership positions in the Provost’s Office. Given the wealth of leadership talent on campus, we are conducting internal campus searches for each position. The committee will begin reviewing applications November 1st. If you’d like to apply or nominate someone, you can do so using the relevant link below:

Graduate Admission Offer Letters Update

In fall 2019, the Graduate Education Task Force (GETF) developed two recommendations related to graduate admission offer letters. These include:

  1. All graduate students should receive an accurate estimate of the stipend levels, tuition benefits, and additional fees (including health insurance, summer coverage, tuition if applicable, and international student fees) they will receive in their formal offer letters from their graduate programs before they enter the university.
  2. Offer letters should outline the funding plan for each year of the student’s package with clarity about fees and other expenses so that students understand their financial situation before and during their time at UT Austin. All graduate students should receive clear information about academic and non-academic employment they are eligible for during their degree programs and what the levels of compensation will be before these jobs.

In response to these recommendations, the Admissions and Enrollment Committee of the Graduate Assembly developed guidelines and an offer letter template to promote and support their consistent implementation across graduate programs, colleges and schools. Please ensure that the guidelines are followed and the offer letter template used.

Please reach out with any faculty-related questions to the Faculty Affairs team. For COVID-related questions, please continue to check our Faculty FAQs page and the Protect Texas Together website for the latest information and guidance.

Stay well,

Tasha Beretvas

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