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Week of April 24-28

2023

Message from Faculty Affairs: Thank you for participating in the COACHE survey

On behalf of Provost Clarke, deans, and department heads, the Office of Faculty Affairs would like to sincerely thank faculty throughout the university for your participation in the COACHE faculty job satisfaction survey.

Virginia Tech achieved an overall 57 percent response rate and while we didn’t quite make our desired target of 60 percent, this is far better than we have done in previous years. Five colleges exceeded the 60 percent goal with the College of Architecture, Arts, and Design leading the pack with an incredible 73.7 percent response rate.

Since 2007, the COACHE survey has allowed Virginia Tech to measure faculty perceptions of university climate and quality and benchmark results against those of our peers nationwide. Faculty Affairs uses the survey results to identify areas of concern and make positive changes.

Winners of the incentive prizes will be contacted directly by COACHE in the coming weeks. Because of their confidentiality requirements, we will not know who won unless the individuals choose to self-disclose.

For more information on individual college and unit response rates, please visit the COACHE survey website. Once again, thank you to all Virginia Tech faculty, colleges, and units for your contributions to this important process. We couldn’t have done it without you!

Division of IT: Changes planned for Google email, calendar, and online storage

Over the next 14 months, Virginia Tech will move all users from Google to Microsoft for email and calendars and will establish a new operating model for the administration of Google Drive storage.

This transition is in response to a change in Google’s licensing model for higher education institutions. Users do not need to take immediate action, but it is important that members of the university community understand how these changes will affect them and know the steps needed to prepare.

At a high level, the changes most directly impacting faculty and academic staff are as follows:

  • All users: Virginia Tech email and calendars are consolidating on the Microsoft Exchange Online platform. For Gmail users, the university will provide migration services for email and calendar accounts on a staggered basis beginning this fall and continuing through June 2024. In addition: 
    • VT Google Groups services will continue with no changes. 
    • VT Google Photos (app) will be phased out by July 1, 2024.
  • Current employees and students: Individual Google My Drive folders will be limited to 5GB. Departments will have the ability to increase employee storage allocations. Apps such as Docs, Sheets, Slides, Forms, and Sites will remain available. 
  • Departments and units: University departments will be provided with an extra 40 GB of Google storage per employee and may allocate this storage as needed between employee drives and shared drives. In addition, departments will have the option to purchase additional Google storage on an ongoing basis. Beginning May 10: 
    • Creation of new Google shared drives by employees will require departmental approval and will be disallowed for students, alumni, and retirees. 
    • Requests for new Google Auxiliary Email (GAE) accounts, which are often used by departments to share access to resources, will be fulfilled by creating Microsoft PACE accounts. PACE accounts serve a similar function. Existing GAE accounts will be converted to PACE accounts on a department-by-department basis beginning in the fall.

Successful completion of these changes will require active participation from the entire university community. Account migrations will begin in the fall, but the first changes — affecting the creation of new Google shared drives and GAE accounts — will begin on May 10. All changes and migrations must be completed before July 1, 2024.

For more information on this transition, please read this VTx announcementor visit the Division of IT’s Google Changes website.

CPD: Create student internship, experiential learning opportunities with Campus internEXP

Career and Professional Development (CPD) is committed to providing quality experiential learning opportunities to Virginia Tech students through its internship and cooperative education programs.

If you’re a department or faculty member who currently hires interns, would like to turn a student wage position into an internship, or would like to hire an intern but don’t know how to get started, CPD invites you to register for an information session to learn more about Campus internEXP (Campus Intern Experience), Virginia Tech’s newest program for undergraduate students designed to support efforts to provide bridge experiential learning opportunities on our campus.

Through Campus internEXP, CPD hopes to connect students with the variety of job functions and amazing professionals that work here on campus to provide quality internship experiences.

Those departments and faculty interested in hosting a student intern should register for a required Campus internEXP information sessions to learn more about how to apply to be an internship host/site, how the program works, upcoming dates and deadlines, and how to write a detailed job description.

The supervisor application deadline for Fall 2023 is Friday, May 26.

If you have specific questions, are unable to attend an information session, or would prefer to meet one-on-one, please email Julia Ward, assistant director for Professional Development and Experiential Programs.

University Operations: Blacksburg campus offices to open at 11:00 a.m. on May 12

Virginia Tech's spring University Commencement ceremony is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. on Friday, May 12, in Lane Stadium. The influx of graduates and their families arriving creates traffic congestion on the southern end of campus and along major arterial roadways.

To minimize congestion, Amy Sebring, executive vice president and chief operating officer, has approved an 11:00 a.m. opening for all university offices in Blacksburg on May 12. Employees who are not involved with commencement exercises are urged not to travel to campus before the 11:00 a.m. opening. Certain offices must be open for commencement or for operational reasons. Thus, supervisors should use judgment and staff appropriately.

Employees who work fully remote or hybrid schedules or whose offices are located outside Blacksburg are expected to work their normal schedule at their alternate or regular work site.

For more information on the delayed opening for Blacksburg offices on May 12, please read this campus notice. Details on spring commencement can be found on the Commencement 2023 website.

ICYMI: Virginia Tech community invited to Creativity and Innovation Day 2023

The Institute of Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) invites the campus and local communities to Creativity and Innovation Day 2023, Monday, May 1 at the Moss Arts Center. Faculty, staff, students and community guests are encouraged to come and experience a full day of inspiring interactions and fun at the intersections of science, engineering, arts, and design.

For more than a decade, ICAT has hosted the annual celebration and dynamic public showcase of creativity and innovation by Virginia Tech students and faculty. This year’s theme is “Beyond” where ICAT will focus on the kinds of work people do beyond a transdisciplinary education, how disciplines and identity are intertwined, and how that can help and transform.

Creativity and Innovation Day 2023 will include a panel discussion, a variety of incredible exhibits, and more. Exhibits will be staffed from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. as ICAT brings together individuals across disciplines and the public to learn and engage with each other. This celebration will allow guests to explore how students and faculty use their expertise to solve complex problems and allow you to learn more about their recent work.

Creativity and Innovation Day 2023:

  • 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. – Exhibits open at Moss Arts Center 
  • 3:00 to 4:30 p.m. – Panel discussion and awards presentation at Creativity and Innovation District (CID) building 
  • 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. – Reception at CID 
  • 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. – Rhizome community student projects at CID

For more information including bios for the panel discussion participants, please visit the Creativity and Innovation Day 2023 website.

Additional Resources and Updates

If you have comments or recommendations for how we can improve the Weekly Communications Update or suggestions for specific information and topics that should be shared with faculty, staff, and academic program personnel, please provide them through this Google form or email Provost Communications.

Please visit VT Ready and the Provost’s website frequently for new and updated university information. All members of the campus community should also read their VTx Daily email for further important updates, notices, and resources.