Save the Date: Salute to Faculty Excellence Week Announced for 2015 

The date is set and exciting activities are planned for the 2015 Salute to Faculty Excellence week, September 28 - October 2, 2015. The Salute to Faculty Excellence Awards Dinner and Ceremony, sponsored by the UNT Foundation, Office of the President, and Office of the Provost, is scheduled for Friday, October 2, 2015 at Apogee Stadium. At this showcase event, we will honor UNT's faculty award winners, newly tenured and promoted faculty, and recently appointed Emeritus faculty (and celebrate UNT's 125th anniversary). The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce the newly appointed Distinguished Teaching and Research Professors  (more award recipient announcements coming soon). Please join us in congratulating these outstanding scholars, teachers, and university citizens.

2015 Distinguished Teaching and Research Professors
Distinguished Teaching Professorship	Phillip Foster, Associate Professor, Engineering Technology
Distinguished Teaching Professorship	Nicole Smith, Associate Professor, English
Distinguished Teaching Professorship	Jacqueline Vanhoutte, Associate Professor, English
Distinguished Research Professorship	Rajiv Mishra, Professor, Materials Science and Engineering
Distinguished Research Professorship	Jyoti Shah, Professor, Biological Sciences

 

2015 University Forum on Teaching and Learning (UFTL) Date: Friday, April 10, 2015 Time: 8:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. Location: Gateway Center Ballroom Breakfast is provided.  The half-day event is free and open to full-time faculty, staff, and TAs/TFs.  Renowned educator and theorist George Siemens, Ph.D. will deliver the keynote address Learning Analytics: Advancing the Science of Learning at 9am and will be followed by two UNT faculty-led interactive panel discussions.  For more information and to register, go to http://clear.unt.edu/uftl2015 and follow @uftl2015 on Twitter.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Retirement:  It's Never Too Early to Start Planning

The sooner you start planning for retirement, the more time you'll have to explore your retirement options. The Office for Faculty Success is pleased to offer a workshop that addresses questions for those individuals contemplating and/or planning for retirement. Representatives from the Provost Office, Human Resources, and UNT's Retiree Association (UNTRA) will present exit strategies and answer any questions that you may have about retirement transitions. The panel presentation is scheduled for April 13, 2015 from 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m. in BLB 140. Please register here.

Faculty Development Leave Workshops

If you are contemplating a Faculty Development Leave in 2016-17, please attend one of the two workshops to learn about eligibility criteria, the review process, and expected outcomes. Representatives from the review committee, faculty, and administration will share what it takes to craft a successful leave proposal and experience. The call for proposals will be distributed in late April and applications are due September 30, 2015.  Register today for one of the workshops below:

• April 27, 2015 (10:00 a.m. - 11:00 a.m., BLB 073)
• April 28, 2015 (11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., Gateway 142)

Get Your Research Funded

Learn how to write a successful grant proposal from UNT's top researchers. Topics will include insights into the peer review process, addressing 'broader impacts,' as well as insider tips for creating a competitive application. The workshop, moderated by Angela Wilson, Regents Professor of Chemistry, is scheduled for April 16, 2015, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m., BLB 260. Register here. If you have questions, please contact faculty.success@unt.edu or Angela.Wilson@unt.edu.

Exploring Career Pathways for Lecturers

The Office for Faculty Success invites all lecturers to attend a workshop to learn more about the promotion process at UNT.   The panel discussion will provide information about expectations for promotion to senior and principal lecturer and strategies for career advancement.  The workshop is scheduled for April 24, 2015, 1:00 - 2:00 p.m., Gateway 51.  Register here. 

Call for Proposals: Digital Frontiers 2015

The University of North Texas Libraries, the School of Arts and Humanities, and the Emerging Media and Communication program at the University of Texas at Dallas invite submissions for the 4th Annual Digital Frontiers Conference and THATCamp, September 17-19, 2015 at UT-D. The goals of this conference are to bring a broad community of users together to share their work across disciplinary and administrative boundaries and to explore the value and impact that digital resources have on humanities education and research.  For the full CFP, including descriptions of each proposal type and the online submission platform, please visit the website linked here.  The deadline for proposals is April 30, 2015.  Please feel free to contact digitalfrontiers@unt.edu if you have questions about the submission process or the conference.

Women's Faculty Network Spring Event

The Women's Faculty Network (WFN) supports women at all stages of their careers by providing professional development, mentoring, and networking opportunities. WFN's spring social will be held on Thursday, April 9, 2015 from 5:30 p.m. - 7:30 p.m. at Yolanda Flores Neimann's House. RSVP here.

Crowdsourcing for Better Teaching and Learning Experiences

Do you have a great idea for classroom innovation? If so, you may want to participate in the Illuminate Good Ideas initiative. Faculty, staff and students are invited to participate in an online community designed to make a positive impact on the instructional experiences available on campus by sharing their best ideas through a crowdsourcing tool. Participants can comment and vote on the ideas contributed by others. President Smatresk has provided funding to pilot this student-led initiative related to the classroom innovation fee referendum approved by students last fall. Although the fee proposal didn’t meet the deadlines to be considered by the Texas Legislature this year, the Illuminate Good Ideas campaign will allow us to prioritize the ideas that deserve attention and build momentum for funding resources to make many of these great ideas possible. Check out what others have to say and help us illuminate good ideas at http://illuminate.unt.edu!

End of Semester: Reading Day, Final Exams, and More

As per UNT Policy 15.2.16, pre-finals week refers to the seven calendar days preceding the final week of each fall and spring semester and is designated so that students can adequately prepare for their final exams. During this week (May 2 - May 8), student organizations do not meet and activities requiring student participation such as field trips, athletic events, or performances are not scheduled unless approved in advance. Please note that no classes are held on Reading Day, May 8, 2015. Final exams should be administered at the designated times according to the published schedule. Any deviation from the schedule must be approved in advance by the appropriate academic dean. Students who have as many as three final examinations scheduled on one day may appeal to their academic dean to reschedule one of these examinations on another day during the final examination period.  

Important Dates Spring 2015
April 3	Mentoring Grant Proposals Deadline
April 10	University Forum on Teaching and Learning
April 13	Preparing for Retirement Workshop
April 16	Improve Your Chances of Getting Funded Workshop (Rescheduled)
April 20	SETE Open for Spring 2015
April 24	FacultyCONNECT Pathway to Promotion for Lecturers
April 27 and April 28	Faculty Development Leave Workshops
April 30	NextGen Course Redesign Proposals Due
May 8	SETE Closes for Spring 2015
May 16	Commencement Spring 2015

Academic Leaders Corner

Building, strengthening, and sustaining UNT's administrative leadership is an important part of the work that we do in the Office for Faculty Success. Upcoming events are listed below:

• Chairs Council, April 3, 2015, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Hurley 135, (Council members only)
• Chair Academy, April 23, 2015, 1:00 p.m. - 2:00 p.m., Wooten 321. Topic: Data Mining and Strategies Planning (Chairs only)
• UNT Leadership Fellows, April 20, 2015, 12:00 p.m. - 1:30 p.m., Hurley 135, Topic: Strengths Based Leadership book discussion                     
• Chairs Council, May 8, 2015, 2:00 p.m. - 3:00 p.m., Hurley 135 (Council members only)

Please send your good ideas, comments, and/or suggestions for the next Faculty Success Newsletter to faculty.success@unt.edu.