Dear Faculty,

Year-end excitement is in the air! This is a time when we have the privilege of recognizing and celebrating the accomplishments of our students and faculty.

As Chief Academic Officer, and a very proud Provost, I welcome you to join me in congratulating 84 of our faculty colleagues who were recently reappointed, promoted, and granted tenure for bodies of work reflecting excellence in teaching, research, scholarship, creativity, and service.

Representing all academic units and the Libraries, 15% identify as BIPOC, including 42% of those promoted to Associate Professor with tenure and 27% of those promoted to Professor with tenure. As Jim Vigoreaux, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs, and I discussed the dossiers of our faculty colleagues, we were impressed with the high level of scholarship and the deep commitment to teaching excellence and service described, and the simply amazing level of faculty productivity that occurred in the last two years, despite COVID.

Our colleagues' dossiers confirm the quality of the faculty we have had the good fortune to hire and the commitment I am seeing to ensuring their success through mentoring and the creation of scholarly opportunities. I extend my thanks to the mentors and departmental colleagues who have provided the guidance and support that has enabled this success.

I also want to recognize the family members who have made sacrifices to ensure that their loved ones could achieve their goals. And to the faculty who were reappointed, promoted, and granted tenure—thank you for your contributions to UVM. You should be proud of achieving this important academic milestone and I look forward to your continued success.

As always, I hope you will find the important information below useful.

Teaching and Learning

  • As we approach final exams, we ask that you adhere to the final exam policy, and especially that you do not schedule any final exams outside of the official exam time assigned by the Registrar’s Office. Doing so creates exam conflicts for students and additional challenges for other faculty.

  • The Learning Communities are seeking faculty to facilitate New Student Orientation small-group book discussions on the morning of Friday, August 26. For more information, email John Sama.

Research

  • Vice President Dombrowski is hosting a research forum with Vice President for Finance Richard Cate to discuss current hiring challenges, their impacts on our research enterprise, and steps the University is taking to address them. There will be opportunities for questions and discussion from the audience. You can attend in-person or virtually.

    RESEARCH FORUM (Rescheduled)
    Waterman 427
    Wednesday, May 4, 2022
    4:30–6:00 p.m.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/universityofvermont/live

Professional Development and Recognition

  • Space is still available in the May 17–19 Writing in the Disciplines Institute for Course and Assignment Design, a 3-day intensive workshop designed to help you develop or refine a writing intensive course and/or design a course to meet the Catamount Core outcomes for WIL1 (FWIL) or WIL2. The deadline to request a spot is May 6.

  • It is not too early to start summer planning. Register for the NCFDD webinar Every Summer Needs a Plan on May 12. Your free NCFDD membership provides access to this and many other programs. Activate your membership by following these instructions.

  • The deadline to apply for the Kroepsch-Maurice Faculty Fellows Program has been extended to May 6, 2022.

  • Session recordings of this year’s successful Inclusive Excellence Symposium focusing on the intersection of DEI and sustainability are now available on the DEI YouTube channel.

  • Nominations for the AY22–23 Kroepsch Maurice Excellence in Teaching Awards are now open. Please submit your nomination by May 27 using this online form.

Reminders and Recent Communications

  • As professional travel resumes, please remember that a travel authorization must be submitted in PeopleAdmin and approved in advance of any overnight out-of-state domestic or international travel. Requests for travel after May 13, 2022 that are submitted before May 13, 2022 must still abide by the requirements in the addendum to the existing UVM Travel policy (pdf).

I want to extend my warmest congratulations to the AY22–23 University Scholars: Emily Bernard, Professor in the Department of English and Jan Fook, Professor in the Department of Social Work received this honor in the Social Sciences, Humanities and Creative Arts; Anne Dixon, Professor in the Department of Medicine and Beverley Wemple, Professor in the Department of Geography received this honor in the Basic and Applied Sciences.

These remarkable scholars share a breadth of knowledge and scholarship that spans African American and 20th-century American Literature to water resources and spatial modeling to critical reflection in social work to pulmonary medicine and critical care. Please look for their featured presentations in the coming academic year. 

Warmly,
Patty