Dear faculty colleagues,
Welcome back to the start of fall orientations and the beginning of the semester! I sincerely hope you found time to relax this summer. Classes begin in one week on Monday, August 22. In true back-to-school fashion, there have been several important messages sent to faculty in the past two weeks, like this reminder about academic calendar changes and a Fall 2022 health information update.
Below are additional reminders and updates for faculty. Please review closely and share with colleagues and those you mentor as you see fit.
Accepting Applications: National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend
Applications are now open for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) faculty summer stipend program that provides $6,000 towards 2 months of summer salary. UT supplements the NEH award to bring the total stipend level up to cover two full summer months of salary.
Each institution may nominate a maximum of two faculty members, with at least one being a tenure-track assistant professor. The competition begins with an internal review to select the two UT nominations to send forward to NEH for consideration. The university’s selection of nominees–and the national selection as well–will be based on the ability of candidates to “make a significant contribution to their field.” See the NEH website for additional information. And at 1pm CDT, Wednesday, August 17, 2022, NEH staff will host a live webinar focused on NEH Summer Stipend application writing strategies. You can join the webinar here.
The internal application matches the full application and consists of:
- brief project description (three pages, single-spaced)
- bibliography (one page, single-spaced)
- CV (two pages, single-spaced)
- Plan of work (one page, single-spaced)
UT applicants must submit internal materials via our online Awards System by 5pm CDT, Friday, September 9, 2022.
The university’s two nominees will then submit their applications directly to NEH by their deadline: Wednesday, September 21, 2022.
New Faculty Resource – Overleaf
The Graduate School is providing free access to the online collaborative authoring tool Overleaf Professional for faculty members and graduate students. Overleaf Professional makes it easier to use LaTeX, the standard for the publication of scientific documents in scholarly journals. Overleaf is designed to make the process of writing, editing and producing scientific papers faster for authors by providing an online LaTeX/Rich Text editor for their projects.
Visit the Graduate School website to learn more about Overleaf Professional or sign in to Overleaf to register and view more information, including demonstrations, lessons and additional resources.
Flexible Accommodations for Students
Disability and Access (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) is experiencing processing delays for students’ disability accommodation requests. This means that students with verified disabilities might not have been able yet to schedule an intake appointment that leads to formal approval of their necessary accommodations. We strongly encourage faculty to continue adopting flexible accommodations for students who are still unable to secure intake appointments with D&A.
EAP Support Groups for Faculty
The Employee Assistance Program (EAP) is offering three virtual 6-week discussion/support groups for faculty to connect with other faculty across campus who are in a similar faculty role. The groups will share experiences, encouragement, and helpful strategies for navigating the unique aspects of being in a faculty role during these times. Each group will collectively identify topics of discussion.
- Tenured Faculty: Mondays, 1-2 pm to start September 26
- Tenure Track Faculty: Mondays, 10-11 am to start September 19
- Professional Track Faculty: Thursdays, 12:30-1:30 pm to start September 8
Registration and commitment to attend all six meetings are required. Email eap@austin.utexas.edu to register and find out more. And to learn more about EAP services for faculty, such as individual counseling and current EAP programs, check out EAP’s website.
HB 2504 Requirements
Pursuant to regulations in the General Information Catalog and the Texas Administrative Code the following guidelines must be observed by instructional faculty each semester:
- Requirement — Provide Syllabus to Students By First Meeting Day
Please note that course syllabi and instructor-of-record CVs are due in departmental or dean’s office no later than August 22, 2022. - Public Access to Course Information
Documents should be uploaded to Access Syllabi and CVs system by departmental or dean’s office by: August 29, 2022.
Full details about HB 2504 requirements
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