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Week of January 2-6

2023

Provost’s Office: Goals and priorities for Virginia Tech’s Academic Enterprise

In partnership with Virginia Tech faculty, staff and the academic community, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost has developed and framed the following themes, goals, and initiatives to support and advance Virginia Tech’s Beyond Boundaries vision and achieve the strategic priorities outlined in The Virginia Tech Difference: Advancing Beyond Boundaries.

Core Strategic Themes (extracted from and aligned with Beyond Boundaries)

  • Virginia Tech is a university with global reach and is increasingly recognized as an institution with a worldwide perspective, a commitment to empowering graduates to solve global challenges, and a convening force and top destination for international talent. 
  • As a comprehensive university, Virginia Tech has developed and will continue to advance selected programs that are among the best in the world with adequate representation across the arts, humanities, design, sciences and engineering that synthesize talent and knowledge to achieve international reputational excellence. 
  • Virginia Tech highly values inter- and transdisciplinary learning and discovery, and leverages these opportunities to address the complexities of the world’s most intractable societal problems. 
  • Virginia Tech is committed to evidence-based, student-centered learning utilizing innovative instructional methodologies that are developed and employed across undergraduate, graduate, and professional curricula. 
  • Virginia Tech recognizes the need for and value of engaging in partnerships with other institutions, public and private industries, governments, and local communities to achieve its tripartite mission.

Crosscutting Goals

To enhance its international standing, quality of programs, and commitment to service, Virginia Tech must:

  • Continue to increase representational diversity of students, faculty and staff, and foster an environment in which all individuals can thrive. 
  • Elevate the productivity and impact of faculty scholarship. 
  • Secure more extramural funding in support of research. 
  • Implement plans for developing faculty to achieve national distinction. 
  • Expand enrollment of graduate students and appointments of postdoctoral associates and promote their career success. 
  • Embed experiential learning within the transcriptible curriculum.

These crosscutting goals map to AAU membership indicators and THE World University Rankings, which serve as relevant proxies for tracking progress accomplished in achieving our strategic university priorities and Beyond Boundaries vision.

Strategic University Initiatives/Investments

Our university commitment to the core strategic themes and achieving the crosscutting goals is advanced through focused investments in strategic university initiatives. As presented to the Virginia Tech Board of Visitors, these priority initiatives are designed to improve quality and access to a Virginia Tech education and contribute to the university’s mission as a global land grant institution.

Goals and Priorities for Virginia Tech’s Academic Enterprise are available on the provost’s website.

Faculty Affairs: Applications for Pre-Tenure Pandemic Course Relief Program for 2023-24

Faculty Affairs is accepting applications for the Pre-Tenure Pandemic Course Relief Program for academic year 2023-24. Requests for fall 2023 or spring 2024 course buyouts are due to department heads, chairs, and school directors by January 31. Completed applications are due to Faculty Affairs from colleges by February 11.

The Pre-Tenure Pandemic Course Relief Program is intended to help mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on faculty advancement. It provides a one-course buyout in one semester for pre-tenure tenure-track faculty negatively impacted by the pandemic.

The Provost’s Office will provide up to $5,000 in matching funds to the faculty member’s college or department for a one-course buyout to be used prior to their mandatory promotion and tenure year. The goal is to allow additional time for faculty to focus on their research programs as they prepare for promotion and tenure.

Who is eligible for the program? Participants must be pre-tenure tenure track faculty members who started at Virginia Tech prior to academic year 2022-23. This application cycle is limited to only those who can use it to buy out of teaching in spring and fall of 2023 or spring of 2024.

How many faculty members will be able to participate in the program? We expect to be able to fund about 50 faculty in this cycle. We anticipate additional funds will be available in future years to fund more faculty.

How will the recipients be selected? Priority will be given to those faculty who demonstrate substantial pandemic impacts on their ability to conduct research, scholarly, creative, or outreach activities in preparation for promotion and tenure (P&T).

What is the process if the department head does not approve of a faculty member’s request? We ask that all applications for funding be sent on to Faculty Affairs after review by both the department head and dean. This includes applications that are approved as well as those that are not.

For more information and a link to the application form, please visit the Pre-Tenure Pandemic Course Relief Program webpage. Questions may be emailed to Faculty Affairs.

University Libraries: OSTP guidance for making taxpayer-funded research freely available

University Libraries at Virginia Tech, along with Virginia’s other public academic research libraries, welcomes guidance recently released by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) that will make taxpayer-funded research immediately available at no cost to the public.

The August 25, 2022 OSTP memo, "Ensuring Free, Immediate, and Equitable Access to Federally Funded Research", requires all federal agencies to create policies to facilitate public access and eliminate any waiting period for access to articles and data resulting from federally-funded research.

The policy changes will take effect no later than December 31, 2025.

In particular, Virginia’s public academic research libraries welcome each of the following key aspects of the new federal policy:

  • It covers all federal agencies and departments, an expansion from the 20 agencies covered under the 2013 policy. 
  • It calls for data underlying all published research conclusions to be made immediately available. 
  • It extends the previous policy’s original scope beyond research articles to include peer-reviewed book chapters, editorials, and conference proceedings. 
  • It calls for research publications to be machine-readable so they are more useful to researchers and the public through text and data mining, computational analysis, and other technologies, as well as through assistive technology. 
  • It calls for the use of persistent identifiers that make it easier to find and connect research outputs, increasing the discoverability and impact of research.

As vocal advocates for increasing public access to research, public research university libraries believe these policy steps are key to advancing knowledge for the benefit of society. University Libraries is well positioned to fully support Virginia Tech researchers and scholars as federal agency open publishing policies are developed and implemented over the next few years.

Further information on the OSTP guidance and future updates on the policy changes will be posted to the University Libraries website and shared through VTx campus notices as soon as they are available.

CETL: Resources available for faculty preparing for spring 2023 instruction

For faculty and instructors who are developing their plans and materials for spring 2023 course instruction, Section 9.6.1 (Syllabus and Performance Expectation) of the Faculty Handbook offers guidance for providing students with course syllabi that effectively communicates information about course content, class schedules and attendance, grading scales, and overall expectations of the instructor.

Course syllabi requirements, per the Virginia Tech Faculty Handbook, include the following:

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) has developed a number of useful resources for further helping faculty prepare or update course documents in order to provide students with the necessary information and resources to successfully complete the course. These resources include:

In addition to course content and expectations, some instructors may choose to share their teaching philosophies, student resources available across the university, suggested readings, or policies that relate to their specific disciplines or course needs.

For more information and resources on developing/updating course syllabi, please access the Faculty Handbook or visit the CETL website.

ICYMI: New mental health, backup care services available for Virginia Tech employees

As part of its ongoing efforts to improve the work-life balance of employees, Virginia Tech, through Hokie Wellness, is pleased to offer new mental health services as well as backup care options for children and adults.

TimelyCare mental health and wellness resources

TimelyCare is a virtual health service available to full-time faculty and staff and non-student wage employees, at no cost. Employees may access TimelyCare services regardless of their location in the United States.

TimelyCare offers employees three services:

  • TalkNow, which connects you with a mental health professional to address issues promptly. It provides immediate care during a crisis when you need someone to talk to right away. If you are outside of the United States, TalkNow is available with a U.S.-based phone number or virtual private network. 
  • Twelve (12) scheduled counseling appointments per academic year with counselors licensed in the state where you are located. 
  • Health coaching, which provides information and guided sessions on well-being topics such as dealing with conflict, time management, exercise, sleep, nutrition, and mindfulness.

Employees can connect to TimelyCare by computer, tablet, or smartphone using their Virginia Tech email address. Both phone and video sessions are available. Hokie Wellness encourages employees to register with TimelyCare before needing the service. They also encourage employees to download the app so services can be accessed whenever and wherever needed.

Care.com backup care services for children and adults

For the next year, Virginia Tech is piloting backup child and adult care services with Care.com – a quality, vetted, subsidized solution that can provide help when regular, ongoing care is unavailable. The service has flexible backup care options for children, adults, and seniors.

Full-time faculty and staff across all Virginia Tech campuses and offices will be able to use up to 10 days of backup care for any combination of child or adult care. Employees can also source and vet their own caregiver through Care.com, arrange and pay for care directly, and then be reimbursed through Care.com. Requests can be submitted online, via the app, or by phone.

Employees can access Care.com services at 866-814-1638 or on their computer, tablet, or smartphone using their Virginia Tech email address. Employees are encouraged to register with Care.com before needing the service, and to download the app to access services when needed.

For more information on these and other resources, please read this campus notice or email Hokie Wellness.

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.