Virginia Tech® home

Week of July 8-12

2024

Provost’s Office: Celebrate internship programs, partners during Virginia Intern Day

Virginia Tech is joining with SCHEV, Virginia colleges and universities, and partner companies and organizations across the commonwealth to celebrate Virginia Intern Day (VID) on Thursday, July 25. Virginia Intern Day is an opportunity to recognize employers who provide robust internship programs that benefit our future leaders and highlight interns’ pivotal contributions to our ever-changing workforce.

VID will take place in concert with National Intern Day as a way to energize stakeholders about the powerful impact that work-based learning has on students. It is also an opportunity to celebrate students as well as the departments, faculty, and staff who are instrumental in delivering a variety of experiential learning opportunities.

Through Virginia Tech’s commitment to provide students with ways to learn through place-based opportunities, we celebrate our programs and initiatives that help to advance the university’s strategic plans to engage students in internships and similar career-related experiences. These include, but are not limited to:  

Along with these university-wide programs, each college offers information and a variety of opportunities and resources to support students seeking internships and engagement with partner companies and organizations.

For more information on Virginia Intern Day, please visit the VID website.

Inclusion and Diversity: Teaching faculty wanted for 2024-25 Inclusive Pedagogy Pathway

The Office for Inclusion and Diversity (OID) is seeking teaching faculty of all ranks to participate in the 2024-25 Inclusive Pedagogy Pathway. The first session for the cohort will take place on August 20 during the InclusiveVT Summit.

The Inclusive Pedagogy Pathway introduces participants to the core principles of inclusive pedagogy and engages them in completing a teaching rubric with specific metrics for measuring the inclusiveness of their teaching. Participants use the rubric to assess their current efforts during the fall semester and develop and implement a plan of action to be implemented during the spring 2025 semester.

Required work for the cohort participants occurs through online, self-paced courses available through Virginia Tech’s Professional Development Network. Participants also have three in-person meetings that coincide with the InclusiveVT Summit (August 20), the Advancing Diversity Gathering (January 8, 2025), and the Summer Institute (mid-May 2025).

Those interested in participating in the 2024-25 Inclusive Pedagogy Pathway should apply online by August 15.

For more information, read this campus notice or email Michele Deramo, associate vice provost for diversity education and engagement in OID.

CETL: Faculty, instructors invited to attend virtual Welcome Back Symposium 2024

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) invites faculty and instructors to attend the virtual Welcome Back Symposium 2024: Teaching Strategies for Increased Student Engagement, on August 23 from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The symbosium is free to attend, but registration is required.

The event is designed for teaching faculty and instructors at Virginia Tech and provides them with an opportunity to gain information, inspiration, and ideas for strategies that they can implement in their teaching to increase student engagement. Symposium activities will be focused on helping faculty to effectively motivate and engage students to increase academic success.

Participants will hear from Virginia Tech colleagues about their teaching strategies for fostering student engagement and from keynote speaker Derek Bruff, former director of Vanderbilt University’s Center for Teaching and current visiting associate director for the University of Mississippi’s Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.

For more information including symposium instructors and keynote speaker bio, read this campus notice, visit the event registration webpage, or email CETL.

Division of IT: New Wi-Fi service available for campus guests, device connectivity

The Division of Information Technology (IT) is simplifying access to the university’s Wi-Fi service for visitors and for connecting secondary internet-capable devices used by students and employees. The new service, called VT Open WiFi, is replacing the legacy VirginiaTech SSID (service set identifier). Beginning July 8, VT Open WiFi will be available to all Virginia Tech locations.

By removing the need for user credentials, VT Open WiFi will simplify visitor access to the internet from mobile devices. It will also be available for Virginia Tech faculty, staff, and students to connect SmartTVs, gaming systems, streaming media devices, smart speakers, and other ‘Internet of Things’ devices without needing to register these devices ahead of time.

VT Open WiFi will have certain restrictions, so employees and students are encouraged to continue to use eduroam for their academic, research, and administrative needs.

The legacy guest Wi-Fi service (VirginiaTech) will be decommissioned on July 19, so please make arrangements to connect any devices that currently use VirginiaTech to VT Open WiFi between July 8 and July 19.

For more information, read this campus notice, visit 4Help IT Support online, or contact the Division of IT at 540-231-4357.

ICYMI: Virginia Tech Experts profile can boost scholarly presence, attract collaborators

Virginia Tech Experts is a searchable online profile system managed through University Libraries that provides a public-facing view of researchers, scholars, and educators at Virginia Tech, along with their publications, research interests, teaching, and additional scholarly activities.

Faculty can now easily set up an Experts public profile so their research and expertise can easily be found by Virginia Tech colleagues and potential collaborators around the world. Activate your profile by using the Elements database system with a few simple steps and boost your online scholarly presence.

Virginia Tech Experts supports identifying potential collaborators and discovery of research, scholarship, creative works, and areas of specialization and expertise across disciplines. Currently profiles are only available for Virginia Tech faculty and graduate students.

For more information including overview slides, workshops, and a video guide, visit the Virginia Tech Experts webpage.

Additional Resources and Updates

Please submit a Google form or email Provost Communications for comments or recommendations to improve the Weekly Communications Update or to share faculty, staff, and academic program personnel information.

Visit the provost’s website frequently for new and updated university information. All members of the campus community should also read their VT News daily email for further important updates, notices, and resources.