Message from the Vice Provost for Faculty Success

Greetings Mean Green Colleagues,

Welcome back to a wonderful spring semester. The campus is once again bustling with students, staff, and faculty. As we celebrate Dr. King’s enduring legacy, the opening of Frisco Landing, and our growing enrollment, there is much to be proud of this term.

In addition to supporting the mental health and wellness of our students and staff, UNT provides a number of mental health resources for faculty. I highlight several of these in this newsletter, and I encourage you to take advantage of them and share them with colleagues as needed. Most importantly, please know that you are not alone. One of the resources is the UNT CARE Team, who I meet with weekly to discuss how we can best support students, faculty, and staff who need mental health support or are in crisis.

Your Faculty Success team has an exciting semester planned on our calendar, including promotion and tenure workshops, inclusive teaching and faculty development leave (FDL) sessions, Anti-Bias and Cultural Awareness (ABCA) guest speakers, and more. Be sure to grab some coffee and small bites in our Faculty Lounge (Union 249) while you meet with colleagues, do some writing, or share lunch. It is the place for YOU!

Finally, a warm greeting to the 20 new faculty we welcomed last week in New Faculty Orientation. Combined with our fall NFO cohort, we have over 150 new faculty on campus this year. When you notice them wearing their green Faculty Soar shirts, be sure to welcome them to campus and share your Mean Green story.

From our nest to yours, we wish you a wonderful start to another great term.

Talons up!

Holly M. Hutchins, Ph.D. (she/her)

Vice Provost, Faculty Success

White Accountability Group

All UNT faculty and staff are invited to join the White Accountability Group as they work through the Racial Healing Handbook. A free copy of the book can be downloaded through UNT Libraries. WAG meets the second Thursday of every month from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. via Zoom.

The UNT White Accountability Group is an Employee Resource Group (ERG) that aims to create a more intentionally inclusive and equitable environment and promote allyship, accompliceship, and anti-racism among white employees for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) at UNT. 

Instructional Responsibilities for Student Athletes

Faculty recently received a reminder of the instructional responsibilities for student athletes. The memo outlines relevant NCAA and UNT policies such as student attendance, academic integrity, faculty contact, and observer access in Canvas. Please take a moment to review the memo and reach out to the advisory team should you have questions.

The unequal distribution of teaching and service work is one of the most important inequities in academia. In this keynote talk for all faculty, Dr. O’Meara will share what she learned as P.I. of the NSF ADVANCE-funded Faculty Workload and Rewards Project, including how workload inequities emerge and the evidence-based policies and practices departments have used to identify inequalities, assess faculty and university needs, and re-design faculty workloads with equity in mind.

February conferences shine a light on UNT

College of Engineering brings 2023 Texas CSTA Chapters Conference to Discovery Park

Thanks to the tireless efforts of Barrett Bryant and David Keathly of Computer Science and Engineering, UNT will host the 2023 Computer Science Teachers Association Texas Chapters Conference Feb. 11 at Discovery Park. This year's conference, "Keep Building Equitable and Inclusive CS Teachers and Learners in Texas," will explore ways to improve diversity in computer science populations.

Department of Management to host Mid-South Management Research Consortium Feb. 24-25

For the first time in history, the MMRC will be held at a Texas school — and that school is UNT! We can't think of a better way to showcase our campus, Union, BLB, and UNT CoLab — and, of course, Denton. 

The College of Business will host a Welcome Reception on Friday evening at the UNT CoLab followed by a full Saturday of research sessions, presentations, round tables, workshops, a keynote presentation, and a special event and dinner. Visit the website to learn more and register.

Wonbong Choi named Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors

The 2022 NAI Fellows Selection Committee and Board of Directors elected Dr. Choi in recognition of his “highly prolific spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development, and welfare of society.” He will be honored at the Fellows Induction Ceremony in June during the NAI 12th Annual Meeting in Washington, D.C.

Marijke Breuning elected incoming president of the International Studies Association 

She will be president elect from 2023-24 and take office in 2024. We are immensely proud of Breuning, who will be leading one of the largest international studies associations — and one of the largest associations of scholars of international relations — in the world.

Lunch & Learn: Instructor Presence for Student Success in Online Courses

Feb. 3 | Noon-1 p.m. | SSB 102

Register now

In this in-person luncheon workshop, faculty will engage with colleagues around strategies to build instructor presence in online classes to support student success. Lunch will be provided and seats are limited. Does not count toward ABCA credit.

Faculty Book Group – First Meeting

Feb. 21 | 2-3 p.m.

Register now

Join DSI CLEAR and faculty colleagues to discuss Creating Inclusive Learning Opportunities in Higher Education: A Universal Design Toolkit by Sheryl Burgstahler.

The book applies the Universal Design in Higher Education framework to physical spaces, technology, teaching and learning activities, and teaching and learning services. Seats are limited. Faculty may earn ABCA credit for participating in two or more book club meetings. 

Togetherall is a safe and anonymous online community where UNT students, faculty, and staff can connect with others for advice and support 24/7. Moderated by trained professionals, Togetherall also offers self-paced courses and other helpful wellbeing resources that can provide support outside of normal campus hours. You can register with your UNT email address or watch a video to learn more. 

Please help spread the word with your students and colleagues. If you would like more information or a presentation to your department on Togetherall, email Marilyn.Parrish@unt.edu.

The British Library's largest and most comprehensive collection of early English news media is now available: Gale's 17th and 18th Century Burney Newspapers Collection. This resource is especially valuable for tracking the development of various types of informational formats that eventually became the newspaper.

Publisher Adam Matthew's Colonial America is an archival collection of digitized materials from the National Archives, UK, covering 1606 to 1822. The archive includes original correspondence between the British government and the governments of the American colonies, documenting the early-modern Atlantic world and colonial North America.

Key Business Ratios (KBR) provides industry benchmarks compiled from Dun & Bradstreet's database of public and private companies, featuring 14 key business ratios (users choose a one-year or three-year set of ratios) for public and private companies in 800 lines of business. 

UNT Fulbright Faculty Week – NEW DATES

Feb. 27–Mar. 3

Fulbright Faculty Week celebrates UNT faculty who have received a Fulbright award and provides workshops and information sessions on Fulbright programs and awards. Details will be available soon on the International Affairs website.

Faculty Senate elections begin in February

The Faculty Senate will soon begin elections for open Senate positions and vacancies in the elected standing committees (Faculty Development Leave Committee, University Faculty Grievance Committee, and Graduate Council). Be on the lookout for the calls for nominations in early to mid-February! 

Nomination deadlines for student awards

The Senate currently directs two student awards processes: the Outstanding Teaching Fellows/Teaching Assistants Awards and the University Writing Awards. Nomination forms, instructions, and eligibility requirements can be found on the Faculty Senate website. The deadline to submit nomination packets for the TF/TA awards is 5 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10, and the deadline for the writing awards is 5 p.m. Monday, Feb. 20. 

The UNT Police Department has been participating with other local agencies in an awareness campaign about the fentanyl/opioid overdose epidemic sweeping the country.

It’s important to remember that narcotics traffickers and local sellers are not generally selling packages of “fentanyl,” but instead are hiding that substance within other products, often in the form of counterfeit prescription medications. Due to the incredibly small amounts required to achieve the intended effects, the use of fentanyl in illegal substances as a “cutting” agent or substitute ingredient increases traffickers’ profits…all the while, simple production mistakes in dosage unit quantities put the user in greater danger of serious injury or death. For example, an end user may purchase Percocet, a common narcotic pain reliever, on the black market, but instead unknowingly receive a bad batch of fake, fentanyl-laced Percocet. This can lead to unforeseen and sometimes irreversible consequences. 

All of ou UNT police officers carry Narcan on their person to help mitigate an opioid overdose until formal medical attention can be given. Please continue to help spread awareness if you are in a position to do so and stress the severe dangers of the illicit drug market to our community. If UNT Police can be of service, contact Community Relations Officer Cpl. David Causey at David.Causey@unt.edu or 940-369-7691.