Blogs

Dear faculty and academic staff,

Dear UNT faculty and staff members,

I am very pleased to welcome seasoned administrators into new roles, both interim and temporary.

Ms. Cathy Hartman, formerly Associate Dean of the UNT Libraries, will serve as Interim Dean of the UNT Libraries beginning July 5. Dr. Linda Holloway, Chair of the Department of Rehabilitation and Health Services, will serve as Interim Dean of the College of Health and Public Service beginning Sept. 1. Ms. Hartman and Dr. Holloway will serve in interim capacities until new deans are appointed.

Dear faculty and academic department staff,

Today, as our spring semester comes to a close, I would like to take a moment to reflect on this academic year and to thank each of you for all of your support.

This time of year is always my favorite. While many of us have an achy hand from grading or are rushing to squeeze in a last-minute meeting with a student, it also is a time of celebration. I am delighted to watch our graduates taking pictures in front of the Hurley building and other iconic places across campus.

Dear faculty and staff,

As the midterm of the semester approaches, I want to reiterate President Smatresk’s message that student success is our top priority here at the University of North Texas. Students bring us their dreams and our role is to give students the tools and resources they need to succeed at UNT and beyond. Each of you plays a critical role in helping our students succeed.

The end of spring 2018 marked the end of the first full year of implementation for Career Connect, the SACSCOC Quality Enhancement Plan for the University of North Texas’s for the 2016-2026 school years.

Based on the experiential learning framework of John Dewey (1916), Kolb (1984) and Kuh (2010), Connect works collaboratively with UNT faculty, staff, and other partners to enhance, assess, and showcase UNT students' marketable skills by engaging them in high-impact practices, experiential learning, reflection, and ePortfolio activities in and outside of the classroom.

Connecting learning with the real world through reflections in ePortfolio

By Jordan Rogers & Rania Elmalky

The ePortfolio is a digital tool that fosters connections between the classroom and real-world experiences for students. Embedded within the technology are guided reflection questions to engage students in further developing the valuable metacognitive tool of reflection. [RJ1] 

Faculty Development Grants Awarded

By Rania Elmalky

Career Connect administered a four-week online summer program to the 22 UNT faculty recipients of the 2018 Connect Learning Grant and Course Development Program. 

For many of us, the summertime is an opportunity to catch our breath and have some fun. This summer, I had the chance to visit with students, faculty, and partner universities in Kyoto, Japan.

Dear faculty and academic staff,

President Smatresk approved UNT’s FY19 budget allocations after thorough deliberations. I am pleased to announce that we are able to strategically invest $50 million in academic affairs to further our university’s goals as a result of this year’s budget process. In the coming weeks, your deans will be sharing with you the investments being made in your colleges.

Although the struggle was different in their day, our parents had it easy in the job hunt. I bet at least one adult has told you that age-old saying: “hit the pavement and ask for a job”. They will tell tales of walking from store to store, paper resume in hand, talking to manager after manager until something came up.