Colleagues,
Welcome back to campus. Despite the challenges we all face right now, we hope you had a summer full of love and laughter—things we need so badly these days. We continue to be amazed by the heroic efforts of our faculty and staff to provide a robust, safe, and intellectually stimulating learning environment for our scholars.
As we welcome back nearly 30,000 students into our Volunteer community of collaborative thinkers and determined innovators, we want to remind you of resources to support you and our undergraduate scholars. We hope these resources are helpful as you prepare your syllabus and make plans to engage our scholars, both in person and through online or hybrid teaching and learning:
- Attendance Considerations due to COVID-19
Guidelines for accommodating excused absences due to COVID-19 for online, hybrid, and face-to-face courses - Online and Hybrid Attendance Best Practices
Best practices for promoting and recording attendance in online and hybrid classes while also meeting federal financial aid regulations - Recognizing a Disengaged Scholar
Guidelines for recognizing disengaged scholars and connecting them to resources - Vol Academic Connect
Platform where instructors can issue academic alerts (e.g., for disengaged scholars) for students in their courses—available through the Top Links menu in myUTK - Online Academic Success Guide
A guide provided to all undergraduate scholars to prepare them for success in online and hybrid courses - Resources for First-Year Students
New initiatives to enhance the academic and campus experience for first-year undergraduate scholars
Additional support for scholars is available through the Academic Success Center for academic concerns and through the 24/7 distressed student hotline at 865-974-HELP (4357) for concerns related to mental health and well-being.
If you have additional questions, please feel free to contact us. Thank you for all you do every day, in both big and small ways, to make UT an outstanding institution.
In the Volunteer spirit,
RJ Hinde
Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
vpaa@utk.edu
Amber Williams
Vice Provost for Student Success
vpss@utk.edu