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Week of January 16-20

2023

Faculty Affairs: COACHE survey on faculty job satisfaction to open week of February 6

Beginning the week of February 6, faculty will have an opportunity to participate in a job satisfaction survey from Virginia Tech and Harvard’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE). This is an opportunity for faculty of all ranks to share opinions about their experience at Virginia Tech, from compensation and work-life policies to leadership and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Your views are critically important as the university strives to attract and retain outstanding scholars and educators and increase the satisfaction of all faculty. Past COACHE survey data has prompted institutional changes such as enhancements to the shared governance system, the creation of pre-tenure course releases, new faculty mentoring programs, and development of work-life policies.

Participation will entail completing a 25-minute, web-based survey via a unique link emailed from COACHE, coachefaculty@opinioncast.com. COACHE will provide our campus with their summary analysis, as well as the confidential unit-record database, stripped of names and e-mail addresses.

Please check your inboxes (and spam folders) beginning February 6 for your email invitation from COACHE. If you have questions, please email Rachel Gabriele, assistant provost for Faculty Initiatives and Policies, or call 540-231-4508. You can also visit the Virginia Tech COACHE website.

Global Education Office: Mandatory training for faculty leading study abroad programs

Virginia Tech Policy 1070: Global Travel Policy requires that employees leading credit-bearing or co-curricular student groups abroad complete training with the Global Education Office (GEO) prior to departure. GEO, housed in Outreach and International Affairs, offers several training opportunities throughout the academic year to support faculty members, administrators and staff in their efforts to lead study abroad programs.

Faculty and staff will need training every two years in order to lead students abroad. To meet this requirement, faculty leaders will first attend the New Program Leader Training and then every two years after attend Program Leader Community Update.

New Program Leader Training (March 28, 8:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m.) is designed to provide the tools and resources needed by those leading and supporting programs abroad. The course focuses on health, safety, and risk management, including best practices for leading students abroad and complying with university policies and procedures. The session will be capped with a catered lunch during an open Q&A session.

Program Leader Community Update (previously Returning Faculty-Leader Training) is for those who have previously attended the New Program Leader Training. This is a concentrated session that updates faculty training compliance. GEO is offering several sessions this semester:

  • Wednesday, March 29 – 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. (Virtual) 
  • Wednesday, March 29 – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. (GEO Conference Room, 526 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg) 
  • Thursday, March 30 – 8:30 to 10:00 a.m. (GEO Conference Room, 526 Prices Fork Road, Blacksburg) 
  • Thursday, March 30 – 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. (Virtual)

Employees must register online for their preferred training session by March 14 for spring sessions.

For more information, please read this campus notice or visit the Global Education Office website.

University Libraries: Three new open source agreements for Virginia Tech authors

University Libraries at Virginia Tech has announced three new transformative agreements to bring read and publish access to journals from Cambridge University Press, the International Water Association, and the Institute of Physics. These agreements are available through Virginia Tech’s membership in VIVA, the academic library consortium of Virginia.

As a result of these agreements, corresponding authors at Virginia Tech are now able to publish open access articles in nearly 500 more journals at no cost to the authors. Additionally, the Virginia Tech community has expanded access to be able to read content from these publishers.

  • Cambridge University Press (CUP)
    Length of agreement: Three years (1/1/2023 – 12/31/2025)
    Read Access: All of CUP’s over 400 journals
    Open Access Publishing: Corresponding authors can publish journal articles open access at no cost in almost all of the CUP journals (about a dozen are not allowing open access at this time).
    Additional CUP information for authors
    VIVA CUP announcement
  • International Water Association (IWA)
    Length of agreement: Three years (1/1/2023 – 12/31/2025)
    Read Access: All IWA’s journals
    Open Access Publishing: Corresponding authors can publish journal articles open access at no cost in their subscribe to open and gold open access journals.
    Additional IWA information for authors
    IWA announcement
  • Institute of Physics (IOP)
    Length of agreement: Two years (1/1/2023 – 12/31/2024)
    Read Access: Expand reading access to include Electrochemical Society journals.
    Open Access Publishing: Corresponding authors can publish open access articles within almost all of IOP’s journals at no additional cost. This includes 58 hybrid journals as well as 18 fully open access journals. The American Astronomical Society (AAS) journals are open access and available for all to read, but their OA publishing fees cannot be included in IOP transformative agreements at this time.
    Additional IOP information for authors
    VIVA IOP announcement

For more information on all available open access discounts, visit the VT Open Access Subvention Fund: Discounts website.

Women’s Center of Virginia Tech: Call for program proposals for Women’s Month 2023

The Women's Center at Virginia Tech is now accepting program proposals for Women's Month 2023.

Women’s Month recognizes, affirms, and showcases the achievements, concerns, and diversity of women. A feminist perspective – one that encourages and advances women of all races, political affiliations, national origins, religions, ages, abilities, sexual orientations, gender identities and income levels – underlies all Women’s Center programming.

Events and observations occur annually in March in conjunction with National Women’s History Month. The theme for Women's Month 2023 at Virginia Tech will be "A Chorus of Voices," complementing the national theme, "Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories."

Women’s Month has historically represented Virginia Tech’s broad commitment to celebrating diverse and inclusive communities. To honor this ongoing commitment, the Women’s Month 2023 calendar will include programs and events aligned with the Virginia Tech Principles of Community.

The Women’s Center at Virginia Tech invites members of the campus community to submit a program proposal for inclusion in the Women’s Month calendar. The calendar will be distributed widely throughout the university, surrounding communities and online.

The deadline for program submissions is Friday, February 3.

For questions or additional information, please email Anna LoMascolo, co-director of programming for the Women’s Center at Virginia Tech. Further details are also available on the Women’s Month 2023 website.

ICYMI: Message on importance of inventory, strengthening of IT security controls

As part of Virginia Tech’s IT Transformation Program, we are in the process of strengthening IT security controls. A key first step is to conduct an inventory of university-owned IT systems and software.

Many units have started this inventory already, but we need to accelerate the effort, so I am asking all academic units to complete this inventory, using a risk assessment tool, no later than March 3, 2023.

This work is being supported by the university’s IT Security Office and you or your IT personnel are encouraged to seek assistance by emailing itso@vt.edu. We will share an update on our progress at the next Virginia Tech Board of Visitors meeting.

In addition, please be reminded that all university-owned computers must be secured in accordance with University Minimum Security Standards and administrator privileges must comply with the University Computer Administrator Access Standard. As a best practice, computing assets that are no longer used or required should be decommissioned and transferred to Virginia Tech Surplus Property.

Should any questions arise concerning IT security compliance, cybersecurity risk assessment, administrator privileges, or decommissioning of non-essential IT assets, please contact college/department IT administrators and/or the IT Security Office. I realize that this work is both complicated and burdensome, but it is necessary to secure our ongoing ability to achieve our university mission.

Thank you for your support in accomplishing this important task.

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.