Dear faculty colleagues,
I hope everyone enjoyed their Labor Day weekend. This newsletter starts by sharing information and important reminders for faculty and ends by sharing faculty-related Stories and News. The Updates section includes the following:
- Faculty Development Award for Professional-Track Faculty
- Faculty Development Leave Program for Tenured Faculty
- Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars
- Use Canvas for Student Email to Ensure Delivery
- New Undergraduate Academic Q-drop Request System and Deadline Changes
- Teaching During Times of Crisis: Two-Part Workshop
- National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Regional Workshop
- CTL Updates: September 2024
Please share relevant information with fellow colleagues and those you mentor. If you have any faculty-related questions, concerns, and solutions please 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
Faculty Updates
Faculty Development Award for Professional-Track Faculty
The Faculty Development Award Program (FDA) is for professional-track faculty members and provides up to $10,000 to support the recipient’s professional development opportunities and activities. The FDA application system is open until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 1.
Learn More about Faculty Development Award
Faculty Development Leave Program
The Faculty Development Leave Program (FDL) provides tenured faculty members with paid leave from teaching and service responsibilities and allows them to focus on developing their research, scholarship, and creative endeavors. (At other universities, this type of leave is commonly called a sabbatical.) The FDL application system is open until 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 1.
Learn More About Faculty Development Leave
Provost Mentored Faculty Scholars
This program offers a one-year, scholarship-focused 1:1 mentoring for tenured and tenure-track faculty, at any rank and from any discipline. Provost’s Mentored Faculty Scholars augments traditional, within-department faculty mentoring by facilitating mentor-mentee pairing across departments, or even across colleges. Applications are due September 9 for both mentees (tenure-track and tenured faculty at any rank) and mentors (tenured faculty only). Visit the Faculty Development website for more information and resources.
Required Use of Canvas
As a reminder, maintaining a minimum Canvas presence across all courses is a new policy that is critical for supporting student learning. The policy, announced last Fall, takes effect at the start of the Fall 2024 semester.A minimum Canvas presence is defined as:
- Attaching an official course syllabus in Canvas (on the official Canvas Syllabus page, with the word “syllabus” in the file name) OR by using the Simple Syllabus tool by the first day that a class meets.
- Publishing your Canvas course(s) by the first day your class(es) meet.
Learn More about the Canvas Adoption Policy
New Undergraduate Academic Q-drop Request System and Deadline Changes
Beginning Fall 2024 the academic Q-drop, pass/fail, and withdrawal deadline will now be nine class days prior to the last class day of the semester (fall and spring only). For Fall 2024 the deadline will be November 20 and for Spring 2025 the deadline will be April 16. The Academic Calendar, Course Schedule, and General Information Catalog (GIC) will be updated to reflect these changes.
This fall, undergraduate students will now be able to submit academic Q-drop requests online via a new academic Q-drop request system. Here are some of the new features:
- Advisors and students will receive email notifications during the Q-drop request process. Faculty will receive an email notification once a student’s academic Q-drop has been approved.
- Undergraduate academic advisors will be able to review and approve academic Q-drop requests (including OTE) in the new system, as well as run reports and download spreadsheets for tracking.
The new system will go live on Tuesday, September 12.
Teaching During Times of Crisis: Two-Part Workshop
This series is hosted by the Center for Teaching and Learning, the Employee Assistance Program, the Counseling and Mental Health Center, and Office of the Dean of Students.
Part 1 (September 19, 1–3 p.m.): This virtual session will include discussion on how to identify and regulate stress responses and how to navigate unexpected circumstances on campus. Participants will learn strategies for designing and facilitating courses with instructor and student wellbeing in mind. Finally, Office of the Dean of Students will review available resources to instructors.
Part 2 (October 10, 1–3 p.m.): During this in-person follow-up, participants will apply techniques to current and future course design. There will be discussion, proactive preventative planning, and community-building over light refreshments.
National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Regional Workshop
The UT Austin–NEH Regional Workshop will bring together humanities scholars and practitioners from central Texas to learn about new opportunities in humanities-centered research and funding. Through presentations, panel discussions, and 1:1 consultations with agency program officers, attendees will explore community-engaged scholarship and gain knowledge and skills to develop successful NEH proposals. This multi-day event is from September 26-27 in the William C. Powers Student Activity Center.
CTL Updates: September 2024
Please see below for several updates from the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL). Explore more opportunities in the September newsletter and 2024–25 programming flyer:
New AI & Teaching Resource
We are excited to announce a new, navigable “Generative AI in Teaching and Learning” web resource. This resource assists all instructors to develop an understanding of the potential benefits, complexity, and dilemmas associated with the use of generative AI tools in higher education. How can we use this understanding to craft new and refined approaches to teaching? Dive in and join us on this learning journey.
Accessible Pedagogy Conversations
Join us each Wednesday this fall from 12–1 p.m. on Zoom for Accessible Pedagogy Conversations. This informal, peer-directed space is open to all instructors who hope to share questions, strategies, and recommendations regarding accommodations and inclusion in learning environments. Hosted by CTL, the Disability Cultural Center (DCC), and Disability & Access (D&A).
-
- (9/11): Sharing Notes/Slides/Class recordings
- (9/18): Testing
Featured News & Stories
Peer mentorship: The walk and the talk to career success
For the second year, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost welcomed a cohort of faculty into the Aspiring Leadership Academy to proactively prepare them for leadership positions.
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.
Access past issues here.