Dear faculty colleagues,
I hope the semester is off to a wonderful start for each of you.
This newsletter starts below by sharing some featured News and Stories and then the Updates section includes some information and important reminders for faculty about the following:
- Accepting Nominations: UT Austin Sidney E. Mezes Award
- Nominations Open: Graduate School’s 2024 Awards for Excellence in Graduate Education
- University’s Outstanding Dissertation Review Committee
- Write a Winning Grant Proposal: Grant Writing Seminar
- Research Development Open House
- Research Impact Series: Broadening Participation
- Center for Teaching and Learning Updates: January 2024
- COLA Dean’s Faculty Mentoring Award: 2024 Applications Open
- New Cogitatio Publishing Agreement
- Generative AI Use in Classrooms
Please share what might be relevant with fellow colleagues. 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
UT Designates 2024 ‘The Year of AI’
With signature events, new industry and government partnerships, a first-of-its-kind online master’s degree and continued research breakthroughs, UT Austin will prioritize AI research and education in 2024.
New Texas Center Will Create Generative AI Computing Cluster Among Largest of Its Kind
UT is launching the Center for Generative AI, powered by a new GPU computing cluster, among the largest in academia.
Fifth Annual Faculty Authors Reception Highlights Faculty Publications
Faculty across UT Austin were celebrated on Wednesday, January 17, 2024 at the Faculty Authors Reception, an annual event created to honor faculty members who published books in the previous calendar year (2023).
Faculty Central is the new online hub for faculty resources — a one-stop website designed to provide quick and easy access to faculty-related information and forms.
At Faculty Central, you can find information on:
- Instructional resources
- Promotion and Tenure processes
- Funding opportunities
- And more!
As with any web-based portal, Faculty Central will grow and evolve over time, and we invite your feedback to help us continually improve the user experience and keep content up to date. As you use the site, feel free to ask questions and offer suggestions through the site’s feedback form, located in the footer.
In the recent announcement of the new Faculty Central website, we neglected to call out the important role that Faculty Council played in the development of this site by championing the idea of a centralized site to provide key information to faculty. The launch of this site demonstrates the powerful role that collaboration between Faculty Council and the provost’s office can play to improve the resources available on campus. We apologize for the omission.
Faculty Updates
Accepting Nominations: UT Austin Sidney E. Mezes Award
Each year, the Sidney E. Mezes Faculty Donation Committee recommends monetary awards to provide financial support for faculty members who may be 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 Mar. 22, 2024 and can be submitted here.
Nominations Open: Graduate School’s 2024 Awards for Excellence in Graduate Education
Nominations are open for the Graduate School’s 2024 Awards for Excellence in Graduate Education, which recognize professional and graduate student achievement at the university. The online awards system is open for both professional and student nominations. Nominations are accepted in the following categories: Outstanding Graduate Teacher, Outstanding Graduate Adviser, Outstanding Graduate Coordinator, Outstanding Dissertation, and Outstanding Academic Student Employee.
These awards represent the highest honor in graduate education at the university and provide recipients with great distinction to enhance their resumes and careers. All nominations should be submitted through the awards portal and the deadline for submission of all nomination materials is February 12, 2024.
University’s Outstanding Dissertation Review Committee
The Graduate School is seeking faculty to serve on the University’s Outstanding Dissertation review committee. There will be subcommittees in three areas: Humanities and Fine Arts; Social Sciences, Business and Education; and Mathematics, Engineering, Physical Sciences and Biological and Life Sciences. If interested, please fill out the short Qualtrics survey.
Write a Winning Grant Proposal: Grant Writing Seminar
Join an all-day grant writing seminar conducted by Grant Writers’ Seminars & Workshops, LLC. Participants will be taught to write competitive grant proposals for major federal funders. Appropriate for PIs seeking new training or a comprehensive refresher, the seminar will address strategies for organizing your proposal, writing to your audience, and tackling particular proposal sections. During the event, each participant will receive a detailed handout and a copy of The Grant Application Writer’s Workbook.
The event will be held on Friday, February 23, 2024, from 8:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. in the Texas Union Quadrangle Room.
Research Development Open House
Join us for the Research Development Open House, showcasing the Vice President for Research, Scholarship and Creative Endeavor’s newly constructed hub for research development collaboration activities. Come explore the space and envision your research endeavors taking flight in this vibrant setting. Plus, indulge in refreshments while networking with the OVPR Research Development team. This is a come-and-go event. You are invited to drop by as your schedule allows.
The event will be held on Wednesday, February 7, 2024, from 12 – 2:00 p.m. in the Flawn Academic Center suite 334.
Research Impact Series: Broadening Participation
Learn what it means to broaden participation, why it matters, and how to get started. This session will benefit PIs who are starting to develop their NSF Broader Impacts plans or who are exploring research impact in their careers.
The event will be held on Wednesday, January 24, 2024, from 2 – 3:00 p.m. via Zoom.
CTL Updates: January 2024
The CTL January newsletter includes the following highlights:
Grading for Growth Book Discussion
Are you interested in exploring different approaches to assessing student learning? There are still a few spaces available in both the online and onsite/in-person versions of our spring book discussion. RSVP as soon as possible to receive your book since sessions start Feb. 6 and Feb. 7.
Grants
In addition to Teaching Innovation Grants (due Mar. 18), the call for proposals for Fractalizing Pedagogy Fellows grants is now open. Submissions are due by Feb. 12. The latter is a CTL collaborative, community-focused program focusing on strategies that reduce teaching and learning barriers for UT’s student population.
Facilitating Strong Student Teams
This community of practice is for instructors who are designing assignments that require students to work in teams over several weeks. We will meet three times starting Feb. 14 to share ideas and strategies to discuss logistics of building teams and classroom management, student engagement, and assessing teamwork.
Texas Teach-Up
Texas Teach-Up (TxTU), formerly Eyes on Teaching and Online Teaching Days, is the signature event of the Provost’s Teaching Fellows program and brings instructors from all colleges and schools together to celebrate and reflect upon their teaching practices. This year’s event takes place over two days (Feb. 28-29) and will include a mix of both in-person and online courses. Stay tuned for more information and registration soon!
COLA Dean’s Faculty Mentoring Award: 2024 Applications Open
The College of Liberal Arts Dean’s Faculty Mentoring Award recognizes a current full-time faculty member (tenured, tenure-track, or professional-track) who has demonstrated outstanding dedication to and excellence in mentoring fellow faculty at UT Austin. This annual award honors faculty for their leadership, programming, research, and guidance in the area of mentoring that supports other tenure track, tenured, and professional track faculty members. See this website for eligibility criteria.
For any questions, please reach out to Dr. Lisa B. Thompson, Advisor to the Dean for Faculty Mentoring & Support.
COLA Dean’s Faculty Mentoring Award Information
New Cogitatio Publishing Agreement
The University of Texas Libraries announces a new publishing agreement with Cogitatio Press. Corresponding authors affiliated with The University of Texas at Austin can publish in any Cogitatio Press journal without paying an article processing charge (APC). This is just one of several publishing agreements that either eliminate or reduce the APC for UT authors. You can find more information about these publishing agreements on the Libraries’ Open Access LibGuide, or contact Colleen Lyon.
Cogitatio Publishing Agreement Information
Generative AI Use in Classrooms
The Office of Academic Technology (OAT) and the Office of Academic Affairs have refreshed best practices for faculty who wish to require the use of generative AI tools in their classrooms. If you have questions about these best practices, please contact the OAT at oat@utexas.edu
Access past issues here.