Greetings Mean Green Colleagues,

We are wrapping up another exciting semester. One of the highlights of this time of year is celebrating student graduations! You may find your name on the Great Grads website, which showcases some of our graduating students. Students often give a special shout-out to the faculty who impact their lives while at UNT.

Your Faculty Success team has accomplished a lot this term! We will add to our 130+ new faculty cohort by welcoming the newest UNT faculty in January. Coming in spring are more workshops and engagements that support Faculty Success’ 3Cs: promoting community, supporting your capabilities and highlighting your career. These include promotion and tenure, speed mentoring, Crucial Conversations, a “Beyond Tenure and Promotion: What Is Next?” workshop and a Talons & Tidbits monthly gathering in the Faculty Lounge. Faculty Success is also very close to announcing our 2024 Salute to Faculty Excellence award recipients (award letters coming in January!), and we're green with pride to confirm our newest slate of UNT emeritus faculty.

If you’ve not yet explored the free resources available through the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), I urge you to activate your account using UNT's institutional membership. The platform offers accountability resources such as the 14-Day Writing Challenge, the Monday Motivator and the Core Curriculum (just to name a few!). One of my favorites is “Every Semester Needs a Plan,” which is all about setting up a strategic plan to focus on your writing goals, managing work life and balancing your teaching and service responsibilities —perhaps a good winter break exercise to start the spring term on a good talon!

In early February, we will launch our 2024 Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) Faculty Job Satisfaction Survey. The COACHE survey assesses UNT faculty job satisfaction across 25 benchmarks related to tenure and promotion, work life, departmental climate, leadership support, mentoring and research support. You will hear more about this important initiative from the Faculty Success team and your COACHE Steering Committee in our next newsletter.

Cornelius Q. Anderson, Assistant Professor of Practice in the College of Education, is using his years of experience in teaching and administration to transform UNT’s Pathways for Future Teachers program. Read about his journey to UNT and how he’s creating pipelines to success for the educators and leaders of tomorrow.

Heading out of town over the break? You might want to confirm that your hotel actually exists. Dr. Kim Williams, Chair of the Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, spoke with NBC DFW about simple steps you can take to avoid an unpleasant travel surprise this holiday season.

We want to hear from you!

Faculty Success supports our faculty in developing their professional community, enriching their capabilities and advancing their careers.

If you have questions for our team or suggestions for the newsletter, email us at faculty.success@unt.edu. You can also find us on X: @UNTFacSuccess.