Dear faculty colleagues,
In this update, we share a few announcements and reminders. Please share the relevant ones with your colleagues and those you mentor.
Supporting Well-being
The Counseling and Mental Health Center offers several strategies, tools and resources to help faculty better support the well-being of our students. Please check out these resources to find any that might benefit you and your students.
And our Employee Assistance Program also offers trainings, resources and various kinds of support groups that might prove useful to help faculty take care of themselves and each other. Do continue to check in on each other (faculty, staff and students), and reach out and recommend these resources when they might prove helpful.
New Faculty Ombuds
The Faculty Ombuds provide faculty with a neutral peer who can share advice and information about university-focused concerns and questions. It is with great excitement that we welcome Lynn Katz as a new Faculty Ombuds, effective May 1, 2022. Lynn will replace Caroline Bartel who is completing her term. Please join me in thanking Caroline for her service to our faculty and the campus more broadly.
Dr. Lynn Katz holds the Hussein M. Alharthy Centennial Chair in Civil Engineering and the Bettie Margaret Smith Professorship in Engineering in the Department of Civil, Architectural, and Environmental Engineering. She is also the director of the Cockrell School’s Center for Water and the Environment. Her teaching interests include aquatic chemistry, surface and interfacial phenomena, physicochemical treatment processes for water and wastewater and biological wastewater treatment.
Final Dates: Faculty Workshop Committee
For faculty serving on faculty search committees who have not yet completed the faculty search committee workshop: The Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity is facilitating two remaining dates for the Faculty Search Committee Workshop Part 2 on Friday, April 22, and Monday, May 9. Both sessions are from 1-2:30pm. You can register for Part 2 here. For more information the workshops and to register, visit: https://provost.utexas.edu/the-office/faculty-affairs/faculty-search-committee-workshop/
A few reminders:
- Completion of Part 1 is required in order to register for Part 2. You must pass and exit from the quiz in order to register for Part 2;
- It is recommended that, to the extent possible, search committee members serving on the same committee attend the same Part 2 workshop session.
- If you have any questions, please contact Dr. Grayson Hunt.
Longhorn Textbook Access (LTA) program
Deadline for Summer I 2022—May 1
A reminder that May 1 is the summer session I 2022 deadline for adopting digital versions of commercial textbooks and other course materials that are required for your course, via the Longhorn Textbook Access (LTA) program. LTA guarantees students the lowest price on new digital course materials while allowing them to easily opt-out if they obtain access to the materials from another source (used, borrowed, etc.). It also gives them automatic, free, no-commitment access for the first twelve class days so that you can assume this access in your teaching, even if they ultimately obtain their materials elsewhere.
The choice to participate in LTA, or not, is entirely yours. More information about LTA can be found at the provost’s Longhorn Textbook Access page, including a new, simple infographic with directions for LTA adoption. The infographic also includes information for those wishing to adopt or explore Open Educational Resources (OER), course materials that are free or very low cost for students.
Campus Contextualization Seminar Series
Please join us for the final Campus Contextualization Seminar Series lecture of the year!
The Campus Contextualization Seminar Series explores histories of race, gender, and power at UT Austin. Speakers present research and new frameworks for analysis concerning how U.S. universities address historic exclusion and inequalities and serve as key sites for engendering equity, inclusion and social change.
Examining University History with the Dr. Ruth J. Simmons, President, Prairie View A&M University
Event Information: Monday, May 2, 11:00 am – 12:30 pm CST
Free and open to the public, livestreamed and in-person
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
Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
The University of Texas at Austin | Office of the Executive Vice President & Provost | provost.utexas.edu