President Smatresk will be hosting a virtual Town Hall from 3 to 4:30 p.m. Monday, May 4, in order to share campus updates and answer questions.
You can watch and submit questions during the Town Hall by clicking here Monday. The president will share information about what to expect as the university works toward bringing us back together on campus, as well as talk about what is working well right now and what faculty, staff and students need help with to keep us moving forward.
If you want to submit a question in advance of the Town Hall, please email untpresident@unt.edu.
Have you visited UNT's Diversity and Inclusion Virtual Training page yet? In addition to the curated webinars already available, UNT's Diversity and Inclusion TeleTalks are now fully open for business!
Created in partnership with UNT's Administrative Services and System's Organizational Development and Engagement (ODE), these videos of Equity and Diversity Conference and Unlikely Allies experts facilitate active learning with quizzes in the learning management system for which all employees can receive professional development credit. Instructions are included for accessing these sessions. UNT faculty may contact diversity.inclusion@unt.edu or submit a training request to discuss using these resources in your curriculum.
Diversity and Inclusion thanks Ashley Reyes (Administrative Services) and Suzanne Gravois (ODE) for their innovation, teamwork and collaborative spirit in providing these valuable resources to UNT World. Want to stay in the know about upcoming diversity and inclusion efforts and other happenings in the Division of Institutional Equity and Diversity? Follow @DiversityUNT on Twitter and subscribe to the division's newsletter Culture Connection here.
Avesta, Starbucks in the Union and Kerr Dining Hall will remain open (through the end of the semester) to UNT students and essential personnel who are on campus.
Hours vary so be sure to check www.dining.unt.edu/hours before heading over for your next drink or meal.
Going above and beyond: Stories from UNT's COVID-19 response
From Hepi Wachter, Ph.D., professor and chair in the Department of Design in the College of Visual Arts and Design:
I feel CVAD's fashion design programis going above and beyond as we wrap up the semester. Professors Trippeer, Chang, Gam and Otto had a lot to “lift” transferring the fashion design senior show. (In the past, we would have enjoyed a fashion show in the Union.)
They have all been working hard to ensure student success, and in particular, aid our seniors to navigate what will obviously be a challenging transition into the industry.
Since restrictions were enacted during spring break and all senior fashion show exhibition opportunities were moved online, the fashion program was quick to enact their own form of the innovation imperative, and as such they have been strategically preparing our seniors to enter the workforce and get their materials out into the public without “running the show.”
As of April 22, each fashion design senior has not only completed a full digital online web-based portfolio, but also set up full LinkedIn profiles that are actively being used to engage with the fashion design industry. In lieu of the mounted show, they are developing it on www.untfashiondesigngrads.com by mid-May.
After weeks of intensive training through mock interview sessions, both in one-on-one sessions and through peers as small groups, the students are now “ready” to test their materials and solicit additional industry feedback.
As of last week, every single student has completed at least one information interview (and perhaps a few more) through our industry alumni network, and associated industry contact list.
We have also done thorough training on how to maximize key job search engines which exist in open source format (such as LinkedIn networking and Google Grow's new job search platform), as well as other primary sources for industry networking (WWD, BOF, Fashion United, and StykeCareers).
Rather serendipitously, this unique moment and perhaps positive fallout of COVID-19 has allowed us to put more stress on these modes of delivery, which are often used as communication platforms, and based on current restrictions, will continue to become key survival skills. We believe they will become part of the “new-normal.”
If you know of someone who is going above and beyond, please share their information with untpresident@unt.edu so we can give them a shoutout.
Don't forget that healthalerts.unt.edu is updated frequently with new information about how we are working together through this global health crisis.