Dear Faculty,

Welcome back to campus as we open the 2022–2023 academic year with a vibrant class of first-time first-year students eager to learn and connect with faculty. We know how important the first weeks of the semester are to our newest students. Please pay special attention to them—your enthusiasm, interest, and support will set the tone for the positive year to come. Even small gestures from you can make a big difference to our first-year students. Thank you for making them feel that they are important members of a caring community.

We are also welcoming more than 130 new faculty to UVM this fall. Please reach out to them, learn about their passions, ask about their research, and offer a helping hand as they navigate new teaching assignments and a new academic community. We want their first-year experience to provide them with a sense of belonging, and to affirm their decision to join our academically stimulating environment and to build their careers with us. 

This year, our academic leadership team will focus on furthering our Academic Success Goals, establishing division/college/school DEI strategic plans, increasing our capacity for academic integration, enhancing our international focus, providing more and better opportunities for our students to engage in innovation and entrepreneurship activities, and exploring further interdisciplinary opportunities for our academic programs. Your deans and I welcome your collaboration in these exciting efforts that will both position our university for further success and enhance the educational experience we offer our students.

Even as we look forward to a new academic year, I want to take a moment to celebrate last year’s research funding totals. Our world-class faculty attracted $250.1 million for research in FY22, an 8.3% increase from the $231 million total the previous fiscal year. For the first time, this year UVM ranks among the top 100 public research universities in the country. You have my gratitude, admiration, and congratulations on this remarkable achievement. (And I enjoy seeing your individual awards added to the research timeline on the OVPR webpage!)

As we learn to live with COVID in our “next normal” I’m grateful that we have tools to keep us safe, including required vaccinations, availability of testing, and the option for continued masking. A new virus has arisen, and although not as communicable as COVID, monkeypox has a longer infectious and healing period. We are carefully monitoring the Vermont Department of Health and CDC guidance for both viruses. Further, to keep the campus up to speed on our safety and health protocols, a Teams Live event will be held this Friday, August 26 at noon. I encourage all of you who can to join us 

Knowing that COVID continues and other viruses, including the flu, will be upon us over the course of the semester, it is likely we will need to be flexible in supporting the student experience. I ask for your continued creativity, adaptability, and support of our students who are ill and are unable to be in the classroom.

I hope the information below is useful to you as you continue to plan a productive and meaningful year with students and colleagues.

Teaching and Learning

  • The Fall 2022 Syllabus Template is now available on the Center for Teaching and Learning website. The updated template includes helpful guidance on how to communicate course expectations, policies, and information. This fall, language regarding classroom conduct and information on updating lived name and pronouns in UVM systems has been added.
  • Course teams for fall courses were generated on August 15. Summer course teams will be available through the end of August and will be archived in September. More details, including information on activating course teams or hiding teams you will not be using, can be found in this Course Teams update from August 16.

Faculty Professional Development

  • The Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and the Writing in the Disciplines (WID) Program have planned a variety of Teams and in-person workshops to welcome instructors back to campus. Join them to reflect on your syllabus before the semester starts, learn more about various pedagogical technologies, or consider how to shape the classroom climate from the first day forward. For more details on offerings, and to register, check out the CTL events calendar and the WID events calendar.
  • Each year the university is required to publish a faculty list in the UVM catalogue that includes faculty members’ terminal academic degree information. New faculty members should enter their degree information in PeopleSoft by September 30 using these instructions (pdf).

Reminders and Recent Communications 

As you plan your goals for this academic year, I hope you will join me in developing a health and wellness goal for yourself and ask your colleagues to do the same. Establishing a community culture of health and wellness is important as we focus on creating a sense of belonging and engagement for our entire Catamount family.

I hope you took some time to enjoy our amazing Vermont summer and that you share my enthusiasm for the year ahead.

Have a great first week of school!

Warmly,

Patty