Dear faculty colleagues,
We understand that COVID-19 has presented all of us with unprecedented challenges at UT Austin and in all of higher education. We are thankful to each of you for your patience, understanding and flexibility as we work together to find solutions and continue our academic mission.
There have been several communications sent from different units across campus about COVID-19 and its impact on our Spring 2020 semester. This email is intended to consolidate access to a set of links containing important communications with respect to information you need to return to our academic work (even if remotely) and as we all prepare for students to resume classes on Monday, March 30.
Faculty FAQs
We have gathered answers to a host of different questions that we have been hearing from faculty across campus (including questions about faculty health and well-being, faculty working remotely, faculty travel, faculty evaluation, faculty support for students including both academic and non-academic questions). This new webpage with information for all things related to faculty can be found here:
Instructional Continuity & Technology FAQs
This page offers resources and tools to aid with adapting your curriculum for online teaching:
Research FAQs
This page contains answers to your questions about research and research policy in the context of the COVID-19 outbreak, including the recent (3/23/2020) restriction on research activities.
Student Emergency Fund
The Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students sent a message to students that included a lot of information about resources available to students including a Student Emergency Fund Application for students with limited access to WiFi or computer.. Please make sure that your students are aware of all the resources mentioned in the VP’s message.
Student Academic Support
Here are student academic FAQs from Texas One Stop.
UT Libraries Physical Locations Closed – Online Available
Effective Friday, March 20 all Libraries locations are closed until further notice. Librarians are reaching out to campus stakeholders to ascertain needs for online instruction and research support after Spring Break. The Libraries can assist in developing online alternatives to physical materials required for courses during the rest of the semester, including purchases or licensing when the cost and terms are reasonable. Where required materials are available only in a physical format and are critical to instruction for the remainder of the semester, librarians will work with faculty members to evaluate options. For up-to-date information on Libraries operations and services continuity, visit the Libraries’ Updates page.
We strongly encourage you to stay alert to communications from your department chairs, directors and deans who will keep you informed on next steps for this week. The university will also continue to provide updates on the university’s coronavirus website as new information is frequently being published.
Please reach out with any questions or concerns using facultyaffairs@utexas.edu.
Stay well! Sincerely,
Tasha Beretvas