Faculty Affairs Update – Aug. 10

Dear faculty colleagues,

I know that many of us are already busy preparing for the beginning of the fall term, but I do hope you’ve had an opportunity to enjoy some downtime with friends and family—hopefully in locations with much cooler weather. Classes will start on Monday, August 21 and we are very excited to welcome all of you back to campus. Be forewarned, there is a lot of content included in the first email for the upcoming academic year. Please review the information below for a few updates and important reminders and exciting opportunities for faculty. Last, please be sure to share the relevant information with your peers and mentees.

  • Faculty Development Leave and Faculty Development Award
  • HB 2504 Requirements
  • Syllabus Content Webpage and Template Available
  • 2023 New Faculty Symposium and New Academic Leaders Workshop
  • Faculty Development Opportunities
  • Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars 
  • Center for Teaching and Learning 2023-2034 Updates
  • International Travel Process Reminders
  • Upcoming Security Changes to Duo Multi-Factor Authentication
  • Restart Your Applications When Prompted for Security Patching

Faculty Development Leave and Faculty Development Award

The Faculty Affairs team will be hosting information sessions about the University’s Faculty Development Leave and Faculty Development Award programs. Sessions will be held at the following dates and times:

UT FDL information session for Tenured Faculty

9:00-10:00am, Friday, September 1

https://utexas.zoom.us/j/95225728743

 

UT FDA information session for Professional-Track Faculty

11:00am-12:00pm, Friday, September 1

https://utexas.zoom.us/j/99747263657

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 term:

  • 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 21, 2023.
  • Public Access to Course Information
    Documents should be uploaded to Access Syllabi and CVs system by departmental or dean’s office by: August 28, 2023.

Full details about HB2504 requirements can be found here.

Syllabus Content Webpage and Template Available

Your Syllabus at UT Austin, is a central repository for required and suggested verbiage to include in syllabi. The webpage lists required content, highly recommended content, and wording or resources for other content that you might want to include. We also created an optional template that you can customize that also includes required wording for all of the common disclosures.

2023 New Faculty Symposium and New Academic Leaders Workshop

As a reminder, registration is open for the New Faculty Symposium led by the Provost’s Teaching Fellows and the Center for Teaching and Learning. Newly hired faculty are encouraged to attend this event on August 15-16, 2023, as part of their welcome to Longhorn community. Register here.

All new deans, associate deans, and department chairs are invited to join the 2023 New Academic Leaders Workshop on August 17, 2023. Please register here to attend.

Faculty Development Opportunities

  • NCFDD Workshop

Please join us for an all-day workshop, “Building a Publishing Pipeline: Concrete Strategies for Increasing Your Writing Productivity,” facilitated by the NCFDD. Participants will learn techniques to make daily progress and move multiple writing projects toward publication.

This workshop will take place in-person from 9 a.m. until 4 p.m. on Tuesday, September 5th. While faculty of any rank and discipline may register, the workshop is most suitable for tenure-track assistant professors and tenured associate professors.

Please register early as space is limited to 100 registrants. Registration will close at 8am on Wednesday, August 23.

  • 2023-24 Faculty Writing Communities (Tenured, Tenured-Track, Professional Track)

The Faculty Development team in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost (EVPP) is launching a new “Faculty Writing Communities” program this fall. Interested faculty can apply to participate in the pilot program through the online application portal no later than 8:00 a.m. on Monday, August 21, 2023. The Fall 2023 Writing Communities will begin the week of September 11.

  • Professional Track Faculty Peer Networking Circles

Due to the overwhelmingly positive response to the pilot of the Professional Track Faculty Peer Networking Circle, we are expanding the program in 2023-2024 to offer five, new circles, designed for and facilitated by professional track faculty.

The Professional Track Faculty Peer Networking Circle program allows individuals to connect and share experiences with peers from across the University. Each “circle” will promote discussion of best practices centered on a particular theme. Facilitated by a professional track faculty colleague, each circle will meet typically twice monthly for in-person discussions. Interested professional track faculty are invited to submit applications to participate by Monday, August 21st.

  • Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars 

The Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars program is accepting applications for its third 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 Tuesday, September 19, 2023.

There’s also an open call for mentors for this program. Learn more about the opportunity to mentor here. Tenured faculty who wish to be considered as prospective mentors for this program may submit their interest by completing this form. Please indicate your interest no later than Tuesday, September 19, 2023.  

Center for Teaching and Learning 2023-2034 Updates

The Center for Teaching and Learning recently sent a kickoff newsletter that covers programming for the upcoming academic year. If you are not yet a subscriber, sign up to receive these updates. The newsletter included an overview of events, workshops, book clubs and learning communities covering a variety of teaching and learning topics for all instructors, including graduate students. In addition, there are multiple grant opportunities available starting this month.

Specific highlights include:

  • Info Session: ACUE Microcredential in Promoting Active Learning (Aug. 11)
  • Teaching Preparation Series for graduate students (Starts Aug. 24)
  • Fractilizing Pedagogy Fellows grant program (Proposals due Sept. 1)
  • Dynamic Lecturing book discussion (Starts Sept. 12)

It will be an exciting year in the Center as they celebrate their 50th anniversary as well as the 10th anniversary of the Provost’s Teaching Fellows program.

International Travel Process Reminders

UT Austin employees are required to follow the international travel process for all university-related travel (e.g., research, teaching, conferences, meetings, lectures), regardless of destination. Registration with the UT Austin International Travel Registry (ITR) is a requirement of UT System’s International Travel Policy (UTS 190) and enrolls travelers with On Call International.

If you are traveling to an area designated as a Restricted Region (High Risk), you must request approval from the International Oversight Committee at least five weeks prior to departure.

Visit the Texas Global Risk and Safety webpage or attend a drop-in Q&A session on Zoom for additional support concerning international travel.

Upcoming Security Changes to Duo Multi-Factor Authentication

Starting September 26, the University will implement changes to Duo Multi-Factor Authentication, which will affect all UT employees. Due to an increase in Duo fatigue attacks leading to compromised user data, Duo mobile push approval and SMS passcodes will no longer be available for use when signing into official University accounts, such as Outlook 365 and Workday. Mobile push notifications will be replaced by Verified Duo Push, which will require users to enter a verification code while approving a Duo Push authentication request. This transition will contribute to increased cybersecurity for all UT faculty, staff, and students.  For more information on managing Multi-Factor Authentication for your devices, visit the IT@UT landing page for Duo.

Restart Your Applications When Prompted for Security Patching

With critical vulnerabilities occurring at an ever-increasing rate, the Information Security Office (ISO) and Information Technology Services (ITS), will begin deploying weekly security patches. These patches will require you to restart certain applications like Firefox, Chrome, and Adobe Reader as examples. You will receive a pop-up notification when a security patch is needed. You can defer the patches for 24 hours, for up to four days, before the application will automatically restart to install the application.

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

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