Dear faculty colleagues,
As we approach spring break, I hope you are enjoying this beautiful weather and have plans to relax with family and friends.
This newsletter starts below by sharing faculty-related Stories and News. The Updates section includes some information and important reminders for faculty about the following:
- Faculty Responsibilities During the April 8 Solar Eclipse
- Call for Nominations: Distinguished Leadership Service Academy
- 2024 Change Starts with Us Survey
- Accepting Nominations: UT Austin Sidney E. Mezes Award
- Applications Open: President’s Award for Global Learning
- Texas Global Grant Opportunities
- The Plan II Honors Program Proposals
- Open Education Week 2024: UT Libraries Virtual Panel
- UT Launching SERU Survey to Undergraduates
- Civil Discord
- Course Evaluation Survey: Faculty Report Dashboard
- Office of Academic Technology Updates
- CTL Updates: March 2024
Please share what might be relevant with fellow colleagues and those you mentor. 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
Featured News & Stories
Broad-Based Research Initiatives Help Exceed $1 Billion in Annual Research Expenditures
For the first time, annual research expenditures at the University have exceeded $1 billion, an indication that research activity is higher than ever on the Forty Acres.
8 Educators Named Recipients of President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Awards
This award recognizes the University’s educational innovators who demonstrate exceptional undergraduate and graduate teaching and engage with curriculum reform and educational innovation.
Hook ’Em Activation at SXSW Will Feature 5 Panels, Live Music and Additional Programming
UT Austin is participating in South by Southwest (SXSW) with five panels spanning tech, health, science, sports, and lifestyle with nightly musical guests on March 8–9 at the Hook ’Em House at Antone’s in Austin.
Faculty Central is the new online hub for faculty resources. As you use the site, please ask questions and offer suggestions through the site’s feedback form, located in the footer.
Faculty Updates
Faculty Responsibilities During the April 8 Solar Eclipse
The University will be hosting a campus-wide experience to take advantage of the April 8 solar eclipse, and it is important that all students, faculty, and staff are able to participate. UT will be observing a community-wide opportunity for viewing from 1-2 p.m. on Monday, April 8. Provost Wood in her message to the community detailed the responsibilities for all faculty to ensure campus-wide consistency for students.
Call for Nominations: Distinguished Leadership Service Academy
The Provost’s Distinguished Leadership Service Academy (DLSA) provides a formal organization of distinguished senior professional-track and tenured faculty members with extraordinary contributions and accomplishments across their professional portfolios and particularly in terms of their excellence in leadership, mentoring, and service to their college or school, the university, the state, and the nation.
A description of the nomination and application process for the third cohort is now available at this website. To nominate a colleague, use the nomination portal which will remain open until noon CST, Friday March 8 (with no need to nominate yourself). Final candidate applications should be submitted no later than 9 a.m. CST on Monday, March 18. More information can be found in the link below.
2024 Change Starts With Us Survey
The 2024 Change Starts With Us survey for faculty and staff is now open through March 8. Do not miss out on the opportunity to express your views on a variety of topics related to the work environment and your experiences in your role. The University and colleges, schools and units will use the data from the survey to inform action plans that will be put into place this next academic year.
Please complete the survey by March 8 by following the link below. Google Chrome is preferred. The survey will take approximately 15 minutes to complete and requires you to enter your UT EID. Visit the HR website for answers to common questions and troubleshoot common issues.
Accepting Nominations: UT Austin Sidney E. Mezes Award
Each year, the Sidney E. Mezes Faculty Donation Committee recommends monetary awards to support faculty members in need of assistance due to unexpected circumstances, such as an illness, accident, or other calamity. To find out more about the award, apply for yourself, or nominate a colleague experiencing hardship, please visit the faculty awards website or email facultyaffairs@utexas.edu. Nominations are due by March 22 and can be submitted here.
Applications Open: Presidents Award for Global Learning
Apply for the President’s Award for Global Learning! It offers faculty unparalleled opportunities to create teams of undergraduate students and collaborate with international partners to address the world’s most pressing challenges. Faculty teams receive $5,000 to support student projects and class activities as well as $10,000 to support a graduate assistant. Individual faculty members each receive a $14,000 honorarium. Faculty, graduate assistants, and students also receive fully-funded travel as part of the award. We encourage you to attend a faculty information session and join the Canvas page to facilitate connections.
Email presidentsaward@austin.utexas.edu with any questions. The deadline to apply is May 1.
Texas Global Grant Opportunities
Texas Global supports faculty pursuing global research, teaching, publishing, and event collaborations. Since 2020, more than $850,000 has been awarded for activities across 17 colleges.
Texas Global invites you to apply for the following funding opportunities by April 7:
- Faculty Research Seed Grants: Up to $10,000 to conduct research that addresses global challenges with a peer collaborator at an institution abroad
- Global Virtual Exchange: Up to $5,000 to co-develop and co-teach courses or course modules with a faculty collaborator at an international institution
- Faculty Travel Planning Grants: Up to $2,500 in travel funds to explore possibilities, develop connections and prepare to seek subsequent Texas Global funding opportunities
- Texas Global Publication Fund: Up to $10,000 to support the development and dissemination of linguistically diverse knowledge to a global audience
Additionally, the Internationalization Event Fund accepts applications on a rolling basis and awards up to $10,000 to provide support for the development of high-impact global engagement events involving multiple colleges and schools. Please contact txglobal-grants@austin.utexas.edu with any questions.
The Plan II Honors Program Proposals
Plan II is conducting its an annual call for new course proposals from faculty interested in teaching for Plan II. If accepted, courses will be offered during the 2025 – 2026 academic year or a future year. The program is seeking faculty from all disciplines and all colleges to teach exceptionally bright and motivated students with a wide variety of interests. The proposal submission deadline is Monday, March 18. More information about the program can be found on the Plan II website.
Submit your course proposal for Plan II
Open Education Week 2024: UT Libraries Virtual Panel
The UT Libraries will host a virtual panel to celebrate Open Education Week 2024 on Friday, March 8, at 1 p.m. The discussion will feature campus faculty discussing the application of open education concepts to teaching and learning on campus. The panel will discuss their experiences finding, adopting, and even creating open educational resources (OER) and other no-cost course materials. Additionally, a student will offer insight into how open pedagogy can transform learning experiences using a current OER project as an example. This event is free and open to university faculty, graduate students, and staff.
UT Launching SERU Survey to Undergraduates
Starting February 26, undergraduate students will be invited via email to voice their opinions using the 2024 Student Experience in the Research University (SERU) Survey. The Survey is confidential and offers students the chance to share their opinion on critical issues. Insights gained from past surveys have helped shape student mental health support, campus security, and measures against food scarcity, as well as refine the University’s approach to calculating the Cost of Attendance (COA). Please encourage students to participate (students completing the survey are entered into a drawing for 1 of 10 Big Tickets from Texas Athletics). The survey closes April 30.
More Information on the SERU Survey
Civil Discord
On March 21-22, College of Liberal Arts, the Civitas Institute, and the University of Austin are hosting Civil Discord. This two-day event is a unique collaboration between three academic entities in Austin that share a commitment to free speech, civil discourse, and the urgent necessity of connecting across scholarly, political, partisan, and ideological lines. There will be a series of moderated arguments on issues of great public significance, featuring some our nation’s best scholars and writers. For a full list of speakers and additional information, please visit the event page.
Now Available! Course Evaluation Survey: Faculty Report Dashboard
Faculty Affairs, the Office of Academic Technology, and Data to Insights (D2I) are excited to announce the release of the Course Evaluation Faculty Report as part of UT’s growing Trusted Information Infrastructure. This dashboard combines survey data from both the legacy Course Instructor Survey (CIS) system and the new Course Evaluation System (CES) and is intended to assist deans and department chairs with reviewing faculty course evaluation information each semester.
To assist in orienting users to this new tool – D2I has developed a short 6-minute training video that can be accessed here by logging in with your UT EID. Questions regarding the dashboard should be directed to D2I at insights@utexas.edu. All other questions related to the legacy CIS system data or the new CES system data and reporting should be directed to course-evals@utexas.edu.
Discover the Course Evaluation Report in Insights
Office of Academic Technology Updates
Please see below for updates from the Office of Academic Technology (OAT):
Limitations of Using Generative AI for Learning
New student-facing guidance for engaging in AI-forward and AI-responsible learning is now available. The guidance outlines important limitations of using generative AI for learning, and how to address those limitations.
Grammarly for Education Generative AI Pilot
OAT invites faculty teaching this spring term to participate in a collaborative learning technology evaluation of Grammarly for Education’s Generative AI tool. Learn more about the pilot through the project description or sign up now!
Learn More About OAT
CTL Updates: March 2024
Please see below for several updates from the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) from their March newsletter:
Assessment of Teaching and Learning Fellows
CTL invites applications for the Assessment of Learning and Teaching Fellowship. The fellowship is designed for doctoral students with an interest in learning design and assessment, the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), and/or pedagogical development. Fellows will receive training and collaborate with a faculty partner to design and assess a course redesign project. The position is for five hours/week over the summer and fall at a rate of $25/hr. Please direct questions to Michal Calo, applications are due March 8.
Teaching Innovation Grants
Innovations mean very different things depending on the course and the instructor, and we encourage you to pursue something new. These grants provide instructors time over the summer to develop something new in a course to be taught either Fall 2024 or Spring 2025. Grantees will be awarded $3,000. Innovations that can be utilized by other instructors are especially welcomed.
Proposals for this grant are due on March 18.
Celebrating Neurodiversity in the Classroom
Join us on March 19 from 12-1 p.m. to discuss ways we can better center and celebrate neurodiversity and neurodivergent thinking in our classrooms. At this Longhorn TIES and CTL co-sponsored event, we will share lunch, tips, and next steps we can implement to make our classrooms more welcoming for all students. Panelists include Andrew Dell’Antonio, Ph.D. (Distinguished Teaching Professor, Musicology and Ethnomusicology); Katie Tackett, Ph.D. (Associate Professor of Practice, Special Education); Nick Winges-Yanez, Ph.D. (Assistant Professor of Instruction, Texas Center for Disability Studies).
Graduate Teaching ShowcaseWe are honored to work with the Graduate School and UT Libraries to host the eighth annual Graduate Teaching Showcase to highlight the instructional contributions of graduate students at UT Austin. Join us on March 29 from 9-11 a.m. in the PCL Learning Lab to mingle with fellow graduate students, esteemed faculty, and dedicated staff as we delve into the realm of exceptional teaching at UT Austin.
Collaborative Learning Community Grants
We are honored to work with the Graduate School and UT Libraries to host the eighth annual Graduate Teaching Showcase to highlight the instructional contributions of graduate students at UT Austin. Join us on March 29 from 9-11 a.m. in the PCL Learning Lab to mingle with fellow graduate students, esteemed faculty, and dedicated staff as we delve into the realm of exceptional teaching at UT Austin.
Access past issues here.