Dear UHD Faculty,

We recently learned from UH System (UHS) that our student information system will be down most of the day on Sunday, December 3rd. This system-wide maintenance is scheduled for, and must take place on Sunday, December 3rd, due to the recent federal changes regarding financial aid and in order to ensure that the necessary financial aid information for the system is properly imported after the system maintenance.

UHS expects the system to be unavailable from 6:00am to 7:00pm, on Sunday, December 3rd, but please note that times may vary depending on how the maintenance update progresses. We fully expect the system to be back up and operational on Monday, December 4th.

As you know, grade entry for the fall 2023 8-week second courses (10/9/23 – 12/2/23) is set to open on Saturday, December 2nd, 2023, and close at noon on Tuesday, December 5th, 2023. Due to the scheduled maintenance, grade entry will not be available Sunday, December 3rd from 6:00am to 7:00pm. At this time there is no plan to extend grade entry for 8-week second courses.

Should you have any questions or concerns regarding grade entry, please be sure to reach out to the University of Houston-Downtown Registrar’s Office at Registrar@uhd.edu

Thank you,

Deborah E. Bordelon

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Good morning,

As many of you know, UHD has been engaged with the National Institute for Student Success (NISS) for the past 18 months. The NISS conducted an analysis of our institutional student success practices and delivered a “Diagnostic Analysis & Playbook” in Summer 2022. Since then, many of you have actively participated in the work recommended by the NISS, including increased activity in the Early Alert process and development and use of multiple cost-saving mechanisms for students like low or no-cost textbooks through programs like GTAP.

The NISS has observed the positive outcomes to date and invited UHD to apply for a NISS Acceleration Grant to further fund student success work over the next two years.

To that end, the NISS is conducting a site visit of UHD on Wednesday, November 15 and we invite you to attend the Opening Address & Project Overview from 9-9:30am in the Milam/Travis Rooms. If you are unable to attend in person, we also have a Zoom link available:

Topic: ZOOM- NISS: President Opening Address- Introduction & Project Overview

Zoom link

Meeting ID: 845 8341 7361

Passcode: uhdgator

I want to thank you for your continued commitment to the success of our students. Faculty are the heart of all that we do to provide a holistic academic ecosystem in which students are retained, thrive, and graduate.

Sincerely,

Deborah E. Bordelon

Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost

Dear UHD Faculty:

We would like to update you on the search for the Associate Vice President for Programming and Curriculum position. We have decided to extend the search and open the search up to UHS employees. This decision was made based on the lack of applications submitted for the position. By extending the search as well as opening it up more broadly to UHS employees, it is our hope that we receive a robust response for this extremely important position. The position of AVP for Programming and Curriculum is critical to the mission and vision of the university as well as meeting the goals of the strategic plan. The person selected for this position will provide collaborative leadership in the development and maintenance of academic programs and curriculum. The AVP for Programming and Curriculum will work closely with the other Academic Affairs leaders, faculty, leadership in other divisions, and external partners. I believe that this position provides an opportunity for leadership for faculty who are interested in pursuing an engaging and rewarding administrative role. I encourage you to read the job description and reach out to me, or the search committee chair, Dr. Judith Quander, with any questions you have about the position.

I would also like to thank the search committee members:

I would like to extend my sincere thanks to this committee for agreeing to continue on the committee as we extend the search. We will have the position reposted on Thursday, November 2, and it will remain open through Monday, November 13. The position will still have a start date of Jan. 1.

Dear Faculty,

Please join us for two exciting events on Tuesday, November 14 demonstrating the innovation of our faculty in the classroom and in scholarship and creative activity. We are so proud of the amazing work that our faculty are doing and urge you to come and learn more about your colleagues and their important work!

We were so pleased with the success of our May 2023 Graduate Hooding Ceremony, and are looking forward to holding a December ceremony, this time, in the new Wellness and Success Center. We are excited to be able to host this event on campus, and we hope you will make plans to attend.

The first communication to students was emailed yesterday. We sent the invitation to all graduate students who are enrolled in master's programs (not certificates) who applied to graduate in August 2023 or December 2023. We realize that students may contact you with questions, so we want you to have as much information as possible to answer those questions. Please contact Emily Leffler (lefflere@uhd.edu) if you have additional questions.

We have a webpage for the hooding ceremony. Students can navigate to this page from the university’s fall 2023 commencement page. In yesterday's email communication, we asked students to RSVP for the ceremony. In the RSVP form (found on the hooding ceremony webpage), students have an opportunity to request a specific faculty member to participate in their hooding. You may have students approach you asking if you will “hood” them, and we hope you will say yes! As the ceremony approaches, we will communicate these requests to you, so you know the students who have asked.

Please help promote the ceremony to graduate students. We want to be sure students understand that this event does not replace commencement, but is a complementary event in a more intimate atmosphere.

We will provide more information as the event approaches. Thank you for helping us spread the word!

Dear Facuty,

As we move quickly toward our full Canvas launch (with training deadline of October 16), please take advantage of support activities being offered by some of your colleagues who participated in the Spring 2023 pilot of Canvas—a flyer is attached. You may also have heard from other pilot colleagues directly. Please avail yourself of as many of these options as your schedule permits!

We would also like to announce that our great colleagues in the CTLE have put together a new section of their website for UHD Canvas Best Practices, where they are highlighting some amazing in-house Canvas resources:

• a new CTLE Canvas Template (available for download in the Canvas Commons) that you are encouraged to access and use as you build your own courses in Canvas
• select course components (sample courses) from UHD faculty that are also accessible in the Canvas Commons
• videos on various aspects of teaching with Canvas as created by your faculty colleagues

For assistance with using or accessing the materials at the UHD Canvas Best Practices site, visit with a CTLE Instructional Designer!

We also remind you that accessibility remains a top priority for our course materials—all materials in any published Canvas course are counted in average Ally scores (even if they are still unpublished to the students). For help with accessibility, please take a look at some of our online Ally resources and reach out to CTLE, TTLC, or Office of Disability Services staff with questions.

Best,

Michelle Moosally
AVP, Programming and Curriculum

Greetings UHD Faculty,

If you’re looking for an excellent learning opportunity that will take your online teaching to the next level, the CTLE’s funding program for Online Teaching Certification (through the Online Learning Consortium) is just for you. We have funding for a limited number of applicants to this competitive program. Over the course of several weeks, you will learn about and improve upon various aspects of online design and delivery. Courses are facilitated by master online teachers who are subject matter experts in their own fields as well. In addition to covering the cost of enrollment, we will also award you $500 upon completion / submission of your completion certificate(s) at our submission form. This is an internationally recognized credential in online teaching and represents a major commitment to quality teaching on your part.

The initiative is open to ALL faculty (yes, adjuncts, too!). There are 2-3 date options for both levels of the certificate program, the first of which begins in the spring term. Please apply by noon, Friday, October 27. Decisions will be announced shortly afterward. Feel free to reach out to a colleague who has already completed this program. If you have additional questions, I am also available at detiveauxg@uhd.edu.

Apply and learn more here: CTLE OLC Certification Grant Application

I look forward to your application!

Georges Detiveaux
Associate Director, UHD CTLE
detiveauxg@uhd.edu

Office of Research and Sponsored Programs Staffing and Organization Update

The Office of Research and Sponsored Programs (ORSP) supports UHD faculty and staff in their pursuit of external funding to support scholarship, teaching, and creative activities. ORSP provides pre-award support and programming for faculty and staff; post-award accounting; and general oversight of compliance for grants and contracts from funding agencies. A fully functioning ORSP requires staff with expertise in research administration, experience with providing programming for faculty, knowledge of funding agencies and their requirements, as well as regulations governing external funding. ORSP is the heart of UHD’s pursuit of external funding and plays a central role in our strategic plan. As we continue to push to expand UHD’s grant portfolio, two new positions have been created to better address both pre- and post-award activities. The Office of the Provost is pleased to announce that we will have two directors – Director of Pre-Award and the Director of Post-Award. These two positions will serve as the leadership for ORSP and will report to the Senior VP of Academic Affairs and Provost.

Shannon R. Teasley-McNichols, Director of Post-Award

Shannon has over 20 years of experience in Project and Grant Management Administration working for city governments, corporations, educational institutions, and nonprofits. Shannon most recently served as ORSP, Interim Executive Director and the Assistant Director of Research Compliance and Grant Administration at the University of Houston-Downtown. Shannon serves on boards, panels, and supports nonprofits focused on children and the arts. Shannon provides her knowledge and expertise, serving as an officer in the National Grant Management Association – Houston Chapter.

Denise Burgan, Director of Pre-Award

The University of Houston-Downtown Office of Research and Sponsored Programs welcomes Denise Burgan as the Director of Pre-Award Services. She brings over 23 years of experience serving in an array of positions within the realm of research and research-related programs at the undergraduate, graduate, and faculty levels. She served as the Director for the University of Houston-Downtown Department of Urban Education Title V Grant Program Enhancement Grant, Pathways to Teaching Careers, which was responsible for increasing the number of certified teachers in Houston and its surrounding areas. Before her transfer to the Houston area, she served as the Research Programs Coordinator for the Office of Research and Scholarship in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of South Florida, she worked with the University faculty and graduate students to locate funding and fellowships as well as proposal development. She also served as the Academic Coordinator for the Florida Georgia Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation, a National Science Foundation funded program designed to increase the number of underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students receiving degrees in STEM majors at Florida A&M University. She received her M.S. in Education Foundation and Policy Studies with a concentration in Adult Education and Human Resources Development from Florida State University and a B.S. in Psychology from Florida A&M University. She is a member of the National Council of University Research Administrators, Society for Research Administrators, College Research Administrators Network, Pi Lambda Theta-International Honor Society and Professional Association in Education, and the National Association of Female Executives.

September 22, 2023

Dear Facuty,

As instructors of first year English, Math, and Seminar courses, we want to give you a preview of the Early Alert Progress Report process for Fall 2023.

Thank you for participating in this collective effort to facilitate the success of our first-year students as we support them in their initial steps toward their graduation from UHD.

The purpose of Early Alert is a progress check and an opportunity for you to identify students who are at risk in your course. After you submit the reports, there is an entire team of dedicated UHD Staff whose top priority is contacting your students. The Early Alert process combines student support from faculty, Advising Centers, and Student Success and Student Life. During that contact, staff urge students to access all the academic and personal supports UHD has to offer. Through this coordinated effort, we encourage our students to take the steps necessary for academic success. Moreover, when each case is closed, you will receive a message with the outcome of the case as well as any specific notes for each of your reported students.

The process opens Monday, September 25 through October 20. We ask you to submit reports as soon as possible. You will receive an email (from Mik Yegiyan) with instructions and the link to the campaign via the EAB Navigate platform—the process is easy with a single-entry point for all relevant students from your courses.

Please watch for the email from Mik Yegiyan and don’t hesitate to send questions to him yegiyanm@uhd.edu about the process.

Thank you,

Office of the Provost

September 20, 2023

Dear Facuty,

The Office of the Provost is sponsoring our first Fall Faculty Research Symposium this November. This symposium is an opportunity for our faculty to display and talk about their research, publications, or creative activity. It is also an opportunity for the UHD community to learn about the interesting and important scholarship that our faculty are doing in their disciplines.

The symposium is open to all UHD faculty. Presentations may include:

• Preliminary results from ongoing research
• Journal publications
• Books or book chapters
• Artwork
• Digital media
• Externally funded grants

Presenters may choose to present their work as part of a poster presentation or a round table discussion.

We are looking for any faculty who would like to be presenters. If you are interested in presenting, please fill out the proposal form here.

The symposium is scheduled for Tuesday, November 14, 2023, from 2:30 p.m. – to 4:30 p.m. in the Commerce Building, room C100. You do not have to present during the entire two-hour period. The due date for proposal submissions is Monday, October 30. Any questions should be directed to Judith Quander , Associate Vice-President for Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development.

Sincerely,

Office of the Provost

September 13, 2023

Dear Campus Community:

I am very excited to share with you that we received notification from the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), the accrediting body for degree-granting institutions of higher education in the southern states, regarding our Fifth-Year Interim Report. The SACSCOC Board of Trustees approved the report at their June 15, 2023 meeting with zero recommendation.

Full accreditation by SACSCOC takes place once every 10 years, and UHD was last reaffirmed by SACSCOC in 2016. SACSCOC does require a fifth-year interim report as part of the accreditation process, which provides the groundwork for the decennial report. We addressed several of the standards for that last report, and as we move forward for our full review, we will be working with our campus community on a variety of commitments led by Dr. Divya Bhati, Associate Vice President, Institutional Effectiveness, Strategic Planning and Assessment.

Assessment and continuous improvement are a vital part of our Strategic Plan: A New Paradigm. In fact, they are the foundation of the strategic plan with student success as our ultimate goal. At the heart of our efforts for continuous improvement is innovation as we pioneer new approaches to academic programming, scholarship, and teaching.

The Interim Report was a collaborative, multi-year effort coordinated across the University. I am grateful to everyone in the Office of Institutional Effectiveness and the cooperating units for their commitment and dedication to the project. Over the next three years, we will continue our work together to prepare for the 2026 reaffirmation of our accreditation by SACSCOC.

Sincerely,

Deborah E. Bordelon, PhD.
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

September 08, 2023

Dear Faculty,

Faculty Development Awards are small project awards that fund activities and programming that develop faculty knowledge, skills, and agency in teaching, service, scholarship, leadership, and other areas that intersect with the professoriate. Faculty Development does not include the execution of a particular research, scholarly, or creative project; funding for the research/scholarly/creative enterprise is provided by the PS 06.A.08 Organized Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) Program. This email serves as the official call for proposals for the 2023-2024 Academic Year.

• Please refer toPS 10.A.24 University Faculty Development Award Program for specifics on allowable expenses for FDA.
• Please note that any full-time faculty member or librarian may apply.
• Requests for up to $10,500 per proposal can be made.
• Funding will be available beginning in the Spring 2024 semester.
• This year, we will use an online proposal submission system for FDA proposals. Please read the instructions below very carefully:

By Monday, October 9, 2023, you should send a copy of your proposal to your Department FDA Committee. The online proposal system is not for this portion of the process. You should submit your initial proposal to your department committee via whatever mechanism is outlined in your departmental FDA policy. You should contact your department chair regarding this departmental process.

By Monday, October 16, 2023, the Department FDA Committee will provide written feedback to the proposal submitter. The procedure for this feedback is handled in the department and can be provided through whatever mechanism the department committee feels is appropriate.

ONLINE PROPOSAL SYSTEM BEGINS HERE

By Monday, November 6, 2023, the applicant uploads their final proposal to the FDA Online Proposal System.

Once the proposal has been formally submitted, a workflow process will begin, and the proposal will be sent to the FDA Department Committee chair, Department Chair, and Dean for their recommendation and comments; and, finally to the University FDA Committee. All of this will happen through the online proposal system such that the applicant does not need to separately email the proposal to any of the above-mentioned people.There will be a confirmation of submission provided by the system once the proposal has been submitted.

Key Points

• The department process for feedback has not changed. It is handled in the department via whatever process the department uses.
• The online system is only for the final proposal once the applicant has received feedback from the department and has either integrated it or communicated to the department why they did not implement it as described in the policy.
• Only final proposals submitted through the online system will be considered for funding.
• Do not submit draft proposals to the system, only the final proposal.
• This system is a Microsoft Form platform, so you do not have the option to save your work and then come back later. The proposal must be submitted in one sitting. You are also not able to edit it once it has been submitted. If you submit something by accident, reach out to me and I will have it deleted from the system.

2023-2024 University FDA Committee members are as follows:

Member Name	Committee Role	Representation
Zhimin Yu	Member	Faculty Member, MDCOB
Shuaifu Lin	Member	Faculty Member, MDCOB
Jessie Casteel	Member	Lecturer, CHSS
Susan Beane	Member	Lecturer, CST
Peter Li (Chair)	Chair, Member	Faculty Member, CHSS
Stephanie Coleman	Member	Faculty Member, CHSS
Lisa Braysen or Designee	Member	Staff Member, Library
Ethan Marshall	Member	Faculty Member, CPS
John Kelly	Member	Faculty Member, CPS
Robin Jose	Member	Faculty Member, CST
Mukesh Kumar	Member	Faculty Member, CST
Priya Jayasankar	Member	Lecturer, MDCOB
Karina Rodriguez	Member	Lecturer, CPS

ORCA Updates:

Please let me know if you experience any issues with or have questions about the online proposal system for ORCA.

Budget $4,096 for a course release for your ORCA proposal.

The University ORCA committee members are as follows:

Member Name	Committee Role	Representation
Shohreh Hashemi	Member	Faculty Member, Marilyn Davies College of Business, FNIS
Julio Canedo	Member	Faculty Member, Marilyn Davies College of Business, MGTI
Lee Usnick	Member	Faculty Member, Marilyn Davies College of Business, GMSC
Lanyi Zhang	Member	Faculty Member, Marilyn Davies College of Business, ACCI
Song Ge	Member	Faculty Member, College of Sciences & Technology, NS
Jeong-Mi Yoon	Member	Faculty Member, College of Sciences & Technology, MS
Emre Yilmaz	Member	Faculty Member, College of Sciences & Technology, CSET
John Rountree	Member	Faculty Member, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, A&C
Joanna Kaftan (Chair)	Chair, Member	Faculty Member, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, SOS
Joseph Sample	Member	Faculty Member, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, ENG
Aaron Gillette	Member	Faculty Member, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, HHL
Clete Snell	Member	Faculty Member, College of Public Service, CJSW
Elizabeth Stackhouse	Member	Faculty Member, College of Public Service, UE
Judith Quander	Convener	Associate Vice President, Faculty Affairs & Faculty Development

Thank you,

Judith Quander

Associate VP, Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development

September 07, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

The full Canvas transition is almost upon us, starting with our December minimester. This message provides a few reminders and updates about deadlines and resources—please review carefully and you can find this again along with other information on our LMS communications page.

This fall, 42% of our faculty are already teaching in Canvas! We look forward to continuing to learn from their experiences. For faculty who are not in the fall soft launch, TTLC staff will reach out to you to offer help. Please take them up on it!

Training:

All faculty must complete the required Growing with Canvas at UHD training by October 16. If you have many courses in Canvas, this GWC may have “fallen off” the priority view list. You can go into these instructions from the TTLC newsletter for how to find it.

Canvas experts will be on campus on September 28 and 29 with trainings on a variety of topics. Stay tuned for details of those trainings and check out the TTLC training schedule for other opportunities to learn about Canvas.

Migration and BB Access:

• Summer 2023 will be migrated in mid-September 2023
• Fall 2023 will be migrated in February/March 2024
• BB access update based on faculty feedback

• NEW: Faculty will be able to access their full former BB courses until June 1, 2024; however, this is essentially for viewing only—no edits made after December 2023 will be migrated.

• No student data will migrate at any time—if you need student work, grades, discussions, etc., you will need to collect it from BB prior to June 1, 2024.

• The university will retain BB information and student data for emergency use only through December 2024 (e.g., grade appeals from 2023).

• Students will have access to BB only through December 2023; after that, it will be by special request only.

LMS Best Practice Requirements (per Faculty Senate Endorsement):

All faculty in all modalities will be expected to post the following in their LMS shells starting with December mini:

• Syllabus on or before the first day of class (PS 3.A.29)
• Major grades in the gradebook often enough that students can follow their own progress and understand how a final grade was calculated
• Requirements for all major assignments (e.g., worth 10% or more)
• Default landing page for the first week to include welcome message, course name/section, faculty name/contact, meeting location, first steps for course

Automated Canvas Publishing of Shells for All Modalities (Faculty Senate Endorsement):

• Each semester, all course shells regardless of modality will be published in the early hours of the day that classes start (e.g., if the first day of the semester is a Monday, they would open after midnight on Sunday night).

• All faculty can publish their shells for students to access any time in the two weeks prior to the start of classes and are encouraged to engage best practices by communicating with students early and often.

Accessibility:

Our move to Canvas also highlights the importance of making all materials in our published courses accessible. All items in a published course shell will impact your course Ally score—it doesn’t matter if they are visible to students. Therefore, please build your new Canvas courses with accessibility in mind using resources on our Ally website as well as those provided through the Office of Disability Services.

Best,

Michelle Moosally

Associate VP, Programming and Curriculum

August 19, 2023

Dear Faculty,

The process of roster certification helps us identify students who have not attended ANY of their currently enrolled courses. We want to protect students from accruing unnecessary debt and support accurate records of class participation throughout the semester. Roster certification applies to the Fall 2023 regular academic session only.

Starting with the first day of class this week, we ask you to monitor attendance through September 2. We will drop students who are reported as non-attending in all their courses. Students who attend at least one of their courses will not be dropped from any non-attending courses, but we will use your information to follow up with those students to better support their success.

All faculty are expected to participate in this effort.

Definition of “attendance”:

Faculty are the authority for determining what constitutes attendance, and for audit purposes, faculty must provide the final decision on a process which leads to students being removed from classes. We offer the following suggestions on what might be used to identify “attendance.” We do want the focus to be only about students who never show up or signal no intent to be enrolled rather than their regularity of attendance.

• Physical attendance in a face-to-face, hybrid, or HyFlex course.
• Virtual attendance in a synchronous online or HyFlex course.
• BB/Canvas login data--but please ensure that the login activity occurred on or after the first day of class.
• Participation in an early BB/Canvas activity for an asynchronous online course (please have this on your syllabus).
• Documented contact from a student indicating that they intend to participate in the course even if they have not shown up.

Date	Event
August 21 – September 2	Take attendance and update your roster. Email registered students who have not attended your class. As a reminder, the last day for a student to add a class is August 28 and the last day for a student to drop a class is September 6.
Saturday, September 2	Census rosters open for certification. Login to Faculty Center to submit the roster for all regular session courses.
Thursday, September 7 Wednesday, September 6 (updated Aug 30)	Census rosters close at 11:59 AM 11:59 PM (updated Aug 30)
Friday, September 8 Thursday, September 7 (updated Aug 30)	Registrar’s Office will drop students reported as non-attending in all their courses notify Financial Aid and Student Business Services remove access to Blackboard and Canvas email students of all above actions For students who are reported as attending some but not all courses, they will remain enrolled in ALL courses. These students will be contacted by the college advising centers.
September 87-12 (updated Aug 30)	Students can appeal a drop to the Registrar’s Office with supporting documentation. We are working to improve the clarity of information and expectations of this process and will send additional communications before September 2. Approved reinstatements will be processed as they are received.
Thursday, September 14	Last day for faculty to respond to Registrar’s Office on appeals.
Friday, September 15	All approved appeals for reinstatement will be processed by the end of day completing the roster certification process.

Students will receive multiple communications in the first two weeks about attendance and roster verification. These messages will include information about students being dropped for non-attendance, loss of Bb/Canvas access, financial aid implications, and the appeals process.

If you believe you dropped someone in error, please contact Registrar@uhd.edu with student name, ID, and course name/section.

If you have any questions, contact the registrar’s team at registrar@uhd.edu.

Warm regards,

Deborah E. Bordelon, Ph.D.

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

August 18, 2023

Dear Faculty,

This email is about the Organized Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) grant submissions. This year, we will be operationalizing our online portal for proposal submissions. Please read the directions very carefully and note that the online portal is only for your final proposal.

By Monday, September 11, you should send a copy of your proposal to your Department ORCA Committee. The online proposal system is not for this portion of the process. You should submit your initial proposal to your department committee via whatever mechanism is outlined in your departmental ORCA policy. You should contact your department chair regarding this departmental process.

By Monday, September 18, the Department ORCA Committee provides written feedback to the proposal submitter. The procedure for this feedback is handled in the department and can be provided through whatever mechanism the department committee feels is appropriate.

ONLINE PROPOSAL SYSTEM BEGINS HERE

By Monday, September 25, the applicant uploads their final proposal to the ORCA Online Proposal System: Submit Final Proposal

Once the proposal has been formally submitted, a workflow process will begin and the proposal will be sent to the ORCA Department Committee chair, Department Chair, and Dean for their recommendation and comments; and, finally to the University ORCA Committee. All of this will happen through the online proposal system such that the applicant does not need to separately email the proposal to any of the before-mentioned people. There will be a confirmation of submission provided by the system once the proposal has been submitted.

Key Points –

• The department process for feedback does not change. It is handled in the department via whatever process the department uses.
• The online system is only for the final proposal once the applicant has received feedback from the department and has either integrated it or communicated to the department why they did not implement it as described in the policy.
• Only final proposals submitted through the online system will be considered for funding.
• Do not submit draft proposals to the system, only the final proposal.
• This system is a Microsoft Form platform, so you do not have the option to save your work and then come back later. The proposal must be submitted in one sitting. You are also not able to edit it once it has been submitted. If you submit something by accident, reach out to me and I will have it deleted from the system.

Finally, we are in the process of updating the ORCA policy. The Faculty Affairs Policy Committee will be working on that this year. However, the existing policy is still in effect. The only exception is that the forms included in the exhibits in the policy have been integrated into the online proposal system. If you need to attach something to the online proposal, there will be a link in the proposal to the required form with instructions on how to attach it to your online proposal.

If you have any questions or experience any issues with the system, please reach out to me.

Thank you,

Judith Quander, PhD.
Associate Vice-President, Faculty Affairs and Faculty Development

August 10, 2023

Freshman Convocation

Saturday, August 19, 2023
10:00am – 1:00pm

10:00am
Convocation Ceremony (UHD Auditorium)

11:00am
Lunch and Table Talk (A300)

12:30pm
Self-Directed Campus Tours

As we prepare to welcome students to campus for the fall semester, we invite you to participate in a revitalized Freshman Convocation. This special event is designed to officially welcome the Class of 2027 to campus. As a Convocation volunteer, you can help greet students as they arrive to campus, engage in dialogue over lunch, or help students find their classes as they self-navigate around campus.

Our faculty and staff are the heart and soul of UHD, and we invite you to be a part of Convocation and the many Welcome Week activities during the first week of classes. Together, we will mark the beginning of their UHD life with ceremony, enthusiasm, and Gator pride!

If you are interested in helping and able to attend Freshman Convocation, please RSVP.

Thank you!

August 8, 2023

Dear Faculty,

It is my pleasure to welcome both our new and veteran faculty members to campus this August in anticipation of an exciting academic year! We have more than 100 RSVPs for our Faculty Retreat on Wednesday, August 16, and I am looking forward to welcoming our new faculty at the New Faculty Orientation on August 10–11.

First and foremost, I am grateful for everything that the faculty has accomplished over the last year—from the incredible amount of hard work that went into the past 12 months to the faculty’s remarkable leadership.

The sheer number of promotions demonstrates the productivity and excellence of our faculty. We were finally able to enact our senior lecturer promotion process to recognize the work and accomplishments of 32 incredible colleagues who earned this promotion. Ten assistant professors earned tenure and were promoted to associate professors, and nine associate professors were promoted to full professors. In addition, the Fulbright Program recognized UHD as a “Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program Top Producing Institution” for the 2022-2023 academic year because of our record number of Fulbright scholars: Ms. Natacha Poggio and Drs. Edmund Cueva, Shahnaz Savani, and Rahul Verma. I am proud of what all these faculty members have achieved.

This is an exciting time to be at the University of Houston-Downtown (UHD). We will celebrate our 50th anniversary in 2024, and we have many new full-time and part-time faculty members expanding our ranks. We have a robust, first-time-in-college freshman class that will begin their higher education journey with us on August 21. UHD is also experiencing increased enrollment for transfer students and new graduate students.

These numbers are a testament to our phenomenal faculty, our high-quality academic programs, and the student experience that we offer here at UHD. As we move into this new school year, I want to emphasize how important it is for you to be on campus as much as possible—for classes, but also in support of student activities and for meetings with your peers. In-person faculty interaction with students is central to our vision and mission. During Welcome Week, there are many activities planned for students, and I encourage you to participate. “Pizza for Professors” is coming back to UHD on August 24. Look for an email with information about how you can sign up to attend this fun event.

Your on-campus presence adds to the overall vibrancy of the campus, providing face-to-face time with students and opportunities to enrich our faculty community. Ideas for research, curriculum, and teaching often arise from casual conversations with fellow faculty members in the hallways, in offices, and while getting coffee. The collective work that we engage in as part of committees, departments, and colleges benefit from in-person collaboration. Ultimately, having faculty on campus will make our university community stronger, bolster our students, and build morale.

Along with the Faculty Senate, we all value a strong commitment to shared governance and recognize it is an integral part of our campus life. The Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) also believes the faculty presence on campus is important. We believe that we can make a stronger impact on the academic community by our involvement across the campus. The mission and vision of UHD necessitate the meaningful contribution and participation of the entire campus community. Shared governance works best when the spirit of collegiality is maintained for the benefit of the decision-making process. We firmly believe that such collegiality will be stronger with an on-campus presence.

One of my primary goals, and that of the entire Office of the Provost, is to support faculty success in teaching, service, and scholarship. To that end, over the last year we:

• Began implementation of Canvas, our new learning management system, in the spring 2023 with a soft launch this fall and full implementation planned for spring 2024.
• Worked with our Academic Master Plan Committee to envision a plan for new programs and look beyond the campus to our community partners and industry leaders to help strengthen student success. The work of this committee will continue through fall as we share and seek feedback on the vision for academic program growth.
• Held our first Organized Research and Creative Activities (ORCA) Symposium where recipients of the internal grants presented their scholarship and creative work to each other.

This year, we will continue our conversations on Texas Senate Bills 17 and 18 at both the campus and system levels. I look forward to championing faculty excellence and success as we continue to share innovative teaching strategies to engage students in the classroom and across campus. We also plan to host a Faculty Research Symposium this fall to further spotlight your creative activities and research. Finally, we will continue to work together toward the goals and objectives of the 2022-2027 Strategic Plan: A New Paradigm. Again, I appreciate the faculty’s leadership in embracing the plan and doing the hard work to make those goals a reality.

Your efforts in the classroom, in scholarship, and in service are so important to the success of this institution. Please feel free to drop by and visit with me during my office hours from 1-3 p.m. on the second Wednesday of the month and from 10 a.m. to noon on the third Tuesday.

In closing, I am looking forward to seeing you at our upcoming faculty events, including the Faculty Retreat on Wednesday, August 16; our Freshman Convocation on Saturday, August 19; and in the hallways and classrooms of UHD as we build momentum for an exceptional 2023-24 academic year.

Sincerely,

Deborah E. Bordelon, Ph.D.

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

June 15, 2023

Dear Colleagues,

As we enter the summer term and begin to see the Fall semester on the horizon, we’d like to draw your attention to some changes in the academic calendar. In consultation with colleagues in the Registrar’s office, FSEC, and the Academic Calendar Committee, we have been building our calendars to be able to start posting them three years in advance. This process has required us to identify some key principles of schedule-building that will work across the multiple years of holiday patterns, contact hour requirements, and state requirements as well as UHS scheduling patterns. Below we highlight a few key points:

1. Variable Hours in Meeting Patterns:

As a general note, in any given term it is very normal to have more contact hours for one meeting pattern than another—e.g., a TR class may have more meeting days than a MW. We base decisions on achieving minimum contact hours for all patterns but that may result in “extra” time for some of them.

2. Reading Days:

• The biggest change is that we are moving from two reading days to one. While we understand this is a cultural change, the change will keep us in line with other institutions as well as allow us to better meet other scheduling priorities:
• We have fewer programs that require large blocks of time for common, in-person exams and there are no other required curricular activities allowed on a reading day.
• One reading day is a common practice at most institutions (and in fact some do not seem to have any identified reading day).
• This connects to our goal to have Commencement on a weekend day that does not conflict with the winter break timelines.
• It will allow more time at the end of the term to process grades and provide information for students through advising processes about what to take in the next term.

3. Grading Days after Finals end:

In the past, we have allowed 2.5 business days after the end of the finals period for faculty to submit grades; this has resulted in variability between 3 and 5 days depending on when the finals period ended. To standardize the times as well as to meet goals for commencement and grade processing, we are moving to a 2.5 calendar day timeline for grades to be submitted.

4. Future Resources:

We are working on web resources regarding finals in summer terms and common meeting patterns in all sessions. For example, in 5week1 and 5week2, the finals are all on a Saturday. We understand that most of our summer classes are now online and many faculty may be offering online exams with windows for completion that may be across a larger timeframe, which is fine. However, we will work to articulate strategies for resolving any possible time or room conflicts for that single day of finals.

Please stay tuned for more information on our scheduling resources!

Best regards,

Deborah E. Bordelon, Ph.D.

Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs

May 18, 2023

Dear Faculty,

Please plan to attend the Fall Faculty Retreat on Wednesday, August 16, 2023. You will receive an email with more details during the summer.

Enjoy your break!

Office of the Provost