Today we begin the start of fall classes in a year like no other and in a way we would not have imagined even six months ago.

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Welcome Back!

Dear Colleagues,

Today we begin the start of fall classes in a year like no other and in a way we would not have imagined even six months ago. With the exception of graduation, the first day of classes is my favorite event of the academic year, and one that I look forward to with excited anticipation. With only about 5% of our classes being conducted in person this semester, in many respects today may not feel like the typical first day of classes.

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed a lot about how UTSA and other university campuses will look and feel this fall. For all that is different though, much remains the same, too. This year, we are welcoming a large, accomplished, diverse class of new first-year students who have chosen to pursue their bold goals at UTSA. We’re also welcoming 71 new full-time faculty members, who joined us to be a part of the university’s strategic vision for the future and, perhaps more importantly, have become a part of the esteemed UTSA faculty, whose accomplishments and innovations in teaching, research and community engagement benefit our students and communities every day.

Indeed, as we embark on an unprecedented start of classes with unwavering commitment, I believe we have ample cause for celebration:

  • As a university, we completed a successful on-site review by UTSA’s Reaffirmation of Accreditation Committee earlier this month, the biggest step on the way to being re-accredited through 2030. More recently, two UTSA programs — the Access College and Excel Program and the Master of Arts in School Psychology — were recognized by Excelencia in Education, selected from among more than one hundred programs nominated, for being at the forefront of implementing strategies advancing equity for Latino students.
  • Despite a disrupted and challenging spring semester, the Class of 2020 persisted: UTSA awarded 3,471 degrees for spring 2020, a 4% increase over the previous spring. Another highlight was a 14% increase in bachelor’s degrees awarded to Hispanic students, which goes hand in hand with the recent news that we are leaders in closing the equity gap in Texas and rank third in the state for graduating Hispanic students.
  • On the faculty front, two more of your talented colleagues — Nazgol Bagheri and Jodi Peterson — were recognized by UT System with Regents’ Outstanding Teaching Awards. And another 30+ of your colleagues are celebrating earning tenure and/or promotion for 2020! Stay tuned later this week for the formal announcement. The division of Faculty Success, with the addition of Norma Guerra to advance diversity and inclusion, already has begun work to enhance the faculty experience and new faculty onboarding at UTSA, collaboratively with your colleges and departments, as well as Inclusive Excellence.

As we begin the fall semester, like in any year, we will be prioritizing a few initiatives to advance further towards our institutional goals. The next tactical teams established under our Public Health Task Force will be developing ideas and recommendations to advance our role as a higher education leader in a post-pandemic society. In Academic Affairs, we are focused on cross-cutting institutional, college- and division-specific efforts to promote Equity Advocacy, specifically in formalizing a framework to connect the recommendations of the 21st Century Learning Environments task force and the Respectful Discourse Initiative with the efforts of those tactical teams devoted to academic programs, core curriculum and degree pathways. Collectively, this work will further define the Roadrunner student experience with an intentional grounding in diversity, inclusion and equity advocacy. 

Recall that last spring we launched our Wellbeing Initiative, a holistic, multipronged effort to foster a culture of physical, emotional and social well-being at UTSA for the benefit of our students, staff and faculty. Recognizing the daily pressures our students face and the impact that well-being has on student retention, graduation, sense of purpose, faculty and staff productivity and more, the overarching goal of the initiative is to connect existing programs to coordinate a more comprehensive and holistic network of services. In the context of the pandemic, this effort is even more critical in the current context.

To be sure, there still is uncertainty ahead of us. I’m sure that, like me, you are closely following the news of other universities who have changed their fall plans because of the evolving situation. While no one can say for certain what lies ahead for our Fall 2020, I remain confident in the thorough and conscientious planning conducted by the task force and tactical teams of faculty, staff and students from across campus. Our plans have the well-being of our Roadrunner community at the center, and are specifically designed to adjust to potential disruptions in a systematic manner.

As we begin this new semester and as we look ahead to Spring 2021, I can tell you that we will continue to proceed with the same values in mind, to make sure that our students are fully able to pursue their studies and advance toward their degrees and futures.

With this in mind, we are again incorporating Quality Matters standards into our online courses for our students and have invested in building our internal resources to support faculty in their learning and utilization of Quality Matters. The division of Academic Innovation will have a Quality Matters-certified trainer as part of their Digital Learning team beginning in September, which will allow for more UTSA-specific applications of Quality Matters standards and rubrics, in addition to greater ongoing work with faculty.

Faculty are working closely with their colleges and Academic Innovation to create and deliver high quality and engaging course content. To ensure consistency and quality in online learning, we encourage the Online Course Design Checklist based on Quality Matters standards as a pathway for the ongoing development of online courses. For these reasons, faculty will receive $500 for the development of each course new to online modality this fall, prioritizing quality standards and student-faculty connection. In spring, there will be an additional $500 faculty incentive for each course development new to online modality that utilizes the Quality Matters standards in collaboration with the Office of Digital Learning staff. These strategies will help enhance the quality and accessibility of course design and continuous improvement in online education and student learning. In addition, faculty who are interested in greater participation in Quality Matters and would like to participate in one of the Quality Matters training programs may apply for support from the division of Academic Innovation through Digital Learning. Full details will be forthcoming — keep an eye out for the August 31 Faculty News!

As always, I invite you to share your thoughts by emailing provost@utsa.edu.

Thank you for everything you do for our students. If this were a typical academic term, I might close by wishing you a great semester. Instead — because if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that we, the Roadrunner community, are in this together — let me say this: I hope we all have a great semester.

With warm regards,

Kimberly Andrews Espy, Ph.D.
Peter T. Flawn Distinguished Professor
Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs



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