Dear faculty colleagues,
Happy second week of school. Hopefully, the school year is going smoothly for each of you. This week’s missive is long and filled with opportunities, reminders and resources. Please review closely and forward to those with whom you work and mentor as you see fit.
Faculty Development Programs – Applications open Tomorrow, September 2
Applications for two new faculty development programs open tomorrow!
- The Faculty Development Leave (FDL) program provides tenured faculty with paid leave from teaching and service responsibilities. This program will allow faculty to dedicate their time to research, scholarship, and creative endeavors.
- The Faculty Development Award (FDA) program is for mid-career and senior professional-track faculty that provides up to $10,000 to support professional development opportunities and activities for each awardee.
More information about the specifics (eligibility, application content, etc.) for each of these two programs can be found on the respective FDA and FDL web pages including the general guidelines for UT Austin as well as college/school-specific guidelines.
Reminder: Provost Mentored Faculty Scholars
The Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars program is accepting applications for its second cohort. This mentoring program, piloted in 2022, augments traditional, within-department faculty mentoring at UT by facilitating mentor-mentee pairing across departments, and even across colleges. Any tenured or tenure-track faculty member may nominate themselves to be considered for selection as a mentee. This program is best suited to faculty who are late-stage Assistant Professors, or already tenured Associate or Full Professors.
Click here to learn more about the nomination, selection, and mentor-matching processes, and mentee compensation. Submit applications here by Monday, September 19, 2022. There’s also an open call for mentors for this program. Learn more about the opportunity to mentor here. Contact Liza Scarborough at liza@austin.utexas.edu with questions.
Final Reminder: 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 two 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—will be based on the ability of candidates to “make a significant contribution to their field.” See the NEH website for additional information.
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.
Improving Undergraduate STEM Education: Hispanic-Serving Institutions (HSI Program) – Office Hours
To support our colleagues in the proposal writing process, the National Science Foundation Hispanic-Serving Institution Program announced a series of office hours running through the week of September 12th. Office hours will take place on Wednesdays and Thursdays through the week of September 12th. The latest HSI Solicitation (22-611) has a deadline of Friday, September 30th. A recent webinar went over some substantial changes to the HSI Program. Please click here to find a recording of the webinar, or paste this link into your browser: https://www.nsf.gov/ehr/Videos/2022HSIWebinar.jsp.
Learn more and register for office hours.
Call for Proposals: Libraries Map and Geospatial Collections Explorer Fellowship
The University of Texas Libraries announces its call for proposals for the Map and Geospatial Collections Explorer Fellowship, an annual research incentive initiative. The fellowship is designed to encourage University of Texas at Austin students and faculty to develop scholarly and creative projects that utilize or enhance map and geospatial assets from Libraries’ collections, such as those made available through the Texas GeoData portal, the Collections portal, and the UT Libraries’ Map Collections site.
Visit the MGCE Fellowship LibGuide for information about the Fellowship, including a link to the proposal form. The Fellowship offers two $1500 awards – one for a student project and the other for a post-doc or faculty member project. Deadline for submissions is Monday, October 3, 2022 and winners will be announced on Thursday, November 16.
Texas Global Grant Opportunities
Texas Global supports faculty in pursuing global research, teaching, publishing, and event collaborations, with close to $600,000 in awards granted to date across 15 colleges and schools. Texas Global is pleased to announce that applications are now open for the following funding opportunities:
- Faculty Research Seed Grants (due Monday, October 3)
- Global Career Launch (due Monday, October 3)
- Global Virtual Exchange (due Monday, October 3)
- Faculty Travel Planning Grants (due Monday, October 3)
- Texas Global Publication Fund (due Monday, October 3)
- President’s Award for Global Learning (due Monday, June 5, 2023)
- Internationalization Event Fund (accepted on a rolling basis)
To learn more about all funding opportunities, we encourage you to attend an information session on Thursday, September 9 at 2:00 p.m. To attend, please register here.
Please share broadly and/or consider applying for these awards. For any questions, contact txglobal-grants@austin.utexas.edu.
Final Exam Scheduling
The final exam schedule for Fall 2022 will be published on September 20th. Instructors who missed the exam publication deadline, may submit their exam dates through December 12. Please contact your final exam scheduler to request a final exam. If you do not know whom to contact, please reach out to your department chair or dean’s office.
Please note the default length of final exams is 2 hours. Late requests (after September 20) to add/remove a final exam, and requests to extend to 3 hours will need prior approval from your supervisor (e.g., department chair) and should be submitted to your final exam scheduler as soon as possible to facilitate scheduling and timely student notification.
Faculty Family Medical and Sick Leave Workshop – October 12
The Faculty Affairs team is hosting a workshop on faculty family medical and sick leaves, extensions to the probationary period, modified instructional duty, leaves without pay, etc. Please join us to learn more about existing leave options, policies, and procedures.
Wednesday, October 12
2:30 – 4pm
Join Zoom Meeting
https://utexas.zoom.us/j/93838091885
Meeting ID: 938 3809 1885
Reminder: 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.
Faculty Diversity Newsletter
Here are this month’s announcements from the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Diversity, Equity and Inclusivity (VPFDEI):
- Back to School Social: September 1st at Hank’s
- Austin Recruitment Kick-Off Panel with Faculty: September 8th on Zoom
- Pre-Recruitment Toolkit
- PIPES Initiative
- Faculty Search Committee Workshops
- Actions That Promote Community Transformation (ACT) Program
You can review the details of each of these events and programs in this month’s VPFDEI newsletter.
University Housing and Dining’s Faculty Connections program
This new initiative provides intentional, informal opportunities for faculty and students in university-owned housing to connect outside the classroom by participating in programs and activities related to their hobbies, academic area of expertise, or college affiliation.
With these connections, faculty will help students explore new ideas and develop personal, professional, or academic goals and plans through positive relationships. The time commitment and frequency of interactions is based on the faculty members’ availability throughout the academic year. You can learn more about program incentives and ways to sign up here.
If you have additional questions, please contact Dr. Delcenia Collins, Manager for Living Learning Communities and Academic Initiatives at delcenia.collins@austin.utexas.edu.
Student Mental Health Quick Response Card
This week, Healthyhorns distributed a mental health quick response card with guidance on responding to a student in distress or having a mental health crisis. If you are ever unsure on how to best support your student, please consult the resources on the card. Every faculty and staff member received one in their campus mailbox. Additional resources include: Mental Health Conversations and Texas Well-being.
Call for Proposals to Speak – Second Annual Healthscape Symposium
The Office of Healthscape at Dell Medical School invites faculty, staff, fellows & graduate students at UT Austin to submit a brief proposal for the 2nd Annual Healthscape Symposium on Nov. 30 – Dec. 1. They are seeking scholars whose work advances policies, programming, research, products, or business models that improve health via drivers of health such as food, income, jobs, housing, environment, social connection, or other, to share their expertise and results on a curated panel. The two-day, symposium will be primarily virtual with a closing session in-person. To learn more and to submit a proposal, click here. For questions or to suggest an organization or individual outside of UT, email Laura.Gougeon@austin.utexas.edu.
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.
Enjoy your Labor Day weekend!
Stay well,
Tasha Beretvas