(Sept. 17 2019) -- In an email sent today to UTSA faculty and staff, President Taylor Eighmy provided updates on the presidential, strategic, tactical and academic initiatives underway to support the university’s strategic vision.
Campus Master Plan
The final draft of UTSA’s Campus Master Plan is being prepared, and will be shared with various stakeholder groups. In addition, a campus naming exercise to gather input from students, faculty, staff, alumni and community partners is taking place this month. Once approved by the U.T. System Board of Regents, UTSA will use the master plan as a framework to begin the next phases of campus-wide development.
UTSA closed out FY19 with a total of nine new faculty awards and recognitions from the university’s targeted list accounting for more than $2M in funding across disciplines. The award-winning faculty also received an incentive payment from UTSA for their achievements. The faculty awards program will continue into FY20 with planned fall applications for Guggenheim Fellows, Getty Scholars, Searle Scholars and Pew Biomedical Scholars, among others. The VPREDKE, in collaboration with academic deans, will host four Academy Fellows speakers during the 2019-20 academic year.
Preventing Sexual Assault and Misconduct
Informed by the institutional structure recommended by the Culture of Respect, the various task forces working under this initiative were consolidated into one comprehensive campus leadership team. Culture of Respect action plans will be completed by the end of September and will include improvement timelines, promotions and new prevention programs. The Office of Student Advocacy, Violence Prevention and Empowerment was renamed the UTSA P.E.A.C.E. Center - Prevention, Education, Advocacy, Consultation and Empowerment to better describe its wide array of programs and services. P.E.A.C.E., which is part of the Office of Inclusive Excellence, has a new location at the Recreation Wellness Center (RWC 1.802), near Counseling and Student Health Services.
Inclusive Excellence
The Office of Inclusive Excellence is working with partners across campus to refresh the annual employee compliance training to align with UTSA’s core values and to infuse high-impact learning strategies. Launching later this fall, the improved training experience is designed to enhance employees’ skills and to promote inclusivity on campus. UTSA is also partnering with ModernThink, LLC to develop and deliver UTSA’s first fully comprehensive campus climate survey. The Campus Climate Survey is a systemic way to hear from the university community about what is working well and where UTSA can improve. The survey will launch November 4, and feedback will be used to help further a welcoming and inclusive environment at UTSA.
SACSCOC 2020 – Racing to Reaccreditation
UTSA’s Compliance Certification Report was submitted to the SACSCOC Off-Site Peer Review Team ahead of schedule. The team’s feedback report is expected in late November. UTSA’s Quality Enhancement Plan, which will focus on experiential learning for the development of marketable skills, is currently being drafted and will be submitted in January.
National Security Collaboration Center and School of Data Science
UTSA, in collaboration with WT Partnership, hosted a Public-Private-Partnership Industry Day on September 10. Over 130 members of the real estate development community attended to learn more about plans for the National Security Collaboration Center (NSCC) and School of Data Science (SDS) in anticipation of a forthcoming Request for Qualifications (RFQ). In conjunction with the SDS’s goal of advancing digital literacy, UTSA has become the first four-year public university in Texas designated as an Adobe Creative Campus, joining schools like Berkeley and Penn State. UTSA provides Adobe Creative Cloud tools to all faculty, staff and students at no additional charge. UTSA students will be able to make portfolios to support career-related activities, videos and Spark posts. SDS students will additionally benefit from the suite’s capabilities for data visualization, 3-D models and more.
The VIA U-Pass program launched in August, providing free, unlimited transportation between campuses and throughout San Antonio for the UTSA community. Students and employees can commute sustainably and save money by leaving vehicles at home. Over the summer, parking lots at the Main and Downtown Campuses underwent regular maintenance, including resurfacing and painting to ensure parking facilities are easy to navigate. Resident Lot 5 is now open, offering parking near residence halls and West Campus.
Human Health
The College for Health, Community and Policy (HCaP) has received formal approval from U.T. System, and notification to The Higher Education Coordinating Board is complete. Last week Provost Espy convened the department chairs and center directors for a leadership retreat to begin planning for the new college. The college will enable opportunities for new community partnerships, academic programs and research collaborations that feature and leverage UTSA’s strengths at the intersection of health and policy.
Strategic Faculty Hiring
Fifteen faculty positions were approved for FY20 through the Clustered and Connected Hiring Program, with more to be reviewed for FY21. In total, 71 new tenured/tenure track faculty positions were approved for the FY20 faculty recruitment cycle. Academic Affairs and Inclusive Excellence have launched a search committee training collaborative to maximize effectiveness in recruiting talented, diverse candidate pools, as well as leveraging UTSA’s partnerships with Excelencia in Education and APLU’s Aspire IChange Program.
San Antonio Workforce Initiative
Task Force members have been selected for this initiative, with members representing both the UTSA and San Antonio communities. Members will participate in a kick-off meeting on September 26 to begin discussions around meeting workforce needs through continuing education, corporate engagement, increased master’s certificates and degrees and online opportunities. The Division of Academic Innovation is working with several colleges to develop new graduate certificates and degree programs. Additionally, the Extended Education department continues to increase programming through the new School of Data Science Coding Bootcamp, Agile Project Management training and new online opportunities in collaboration with the Texas Workforce Commission in San Antonio.
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The UTSA Office of Undergraduate is proud to celebrate National Undergraduate Research with an annual event sponsored by the (OUR) featuring students will showcase undergraduate student research and creative endeavors from all disciplines across campus.
Various LocationsDía en la Sombrilla, formerly Fiesta UTSA, is a festival hosted each spring as a part of Fiesta® San Antonio events. Sponsored by Roadrunner Productions, the event features music, food, confetti, games, event t-shirts, and more.
Sombrilla Plaza and Central Plaza, Main CampusFiesta Arts Fair features contemporary art from more than 100 artists from across the U.S., Fiesta favorite foods, drinks, live music by local and regional performers, and a Young Artists Garden providing opportunities for budding artists to learn, explore and express their creativity.
UTSA Southwest CampusJoin the PEACE Center and Wellbeing Services for Denim Day, a day of learning about the importance of consent and why we wear denim on the last Wednesday of the month each April during Sexual Assault Awareness Month. Stop by our Denim Day display to take a photo in front of our Denim Wall, spin the "Is It Consent?" Wheel, and get a Concha or goodie.
Student Union Window Lounge, Main CampusLearn to use Zotero®, a citation manager that can help you store and organize citations you find during your research. Zotero can generate bibliographies in various styles, insert in-text citations and allow you to share sources with collaborators.
Virtual EventThis event is to achnowlege the graduating seniors and induct the new cohart of scholars to our program.
North Paseo Building (NPB 5.140,) Main CampusCelebrate the accomplishments of College of Education and Human Development, College for Health, Community and Policy, College of Sciences and University College.
AlamodomeThe University of Texas at San Antonio is dedicated to the advancement of knowledge through research and discovery, teaching and learning, community engagement and public service. As an institution of access and excellence, UTSA embraces multicultural traditions and serves as a center for intellectual and creative resources as well as a catalyst for socioeconomic development and the commercialization of intellectual property - for Texas, the nation and the world.
To be a premier public research university, providing access to educational excellence and preparing citizen leaders for the global environment.
We encourage an environment of dialogue and discovery, where integrity, excellence, inclusiveness, respect, collaboration and innovation are fostered.
UTSA is a proud Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) as designated by the U.S. Department of Education .
The University of Texas at San Antonio, a Hispanic Serving Institution situated in a global city that has been a crossroads of peoples and cultures for centuries, values diversity and inclusion in all aspects of university life. As an institution expressly founded to advance the education of Mexican Americans and other underserved communities, our university is committed to promoting access for all. UTSA, a premier public research university, fosters academic excellence through a community of dialogue, discovery and innovation that embraces the uniqueness of each voice.
