[VPAAEtal] Provost Update - 2/2/2026

[Academic Affairs]

[cid:image001.png at 01DC946A.69210C50]
Hello Lion Family,
I hope this message finds you well and having stayed warm and safe this past week. There is something deeply affirming about being back together-engaged in teaching, scholarship, service, and daily interactions with students who remind us why this work matters. I continue to be grateful for the care, expertise, and commitment you bring to East Texas A&M University, and I am proud to work alongside you.
Below are a number of updates from the Division of Academic Affairs:

Faculty Success Center (FSC). This semester the FSC will continue to offer a full slate of events that celebrate great teaching and meaningful dialogue. In recognition of the challenging times we face in higher education today, the FSC hosted four Navigating Higher Education Conversations in the fall for faculty. In partnership with Katelyn Severance, Chief Compliance Officer, this series was designed to create space for thoughtful reflection on teaching within a dynamic legislative and policy environment. I am pleased that the Navigating conversations will continue this semester, and I encourage you to join the FSC for the next session on February 11 at 1 p.m. in BA 343.

Thank a Lion, the FSC's inaugural initiative, continues to grow as a powerful expression of student appreciation for the faculty and staff who shape their educational journeys. This fall, 87 Thank a Lion notes were submitted by 83 undergraduate and graduate students, representing every academic college at ETAMU. A total of 76 faculty and staff received messages of gratitude, spanning units across the university-including advising, academic affairs, and student affairs. Thank a Lion will continue in the spring semester, and we look forward to highlighting more of the exceptional work our faculty and staff do to transform students' lives at ETAMU.
I encourage you to stay connected through email and the Faculty and Staff E-Mail Announcements for future opportunities to engage with the FSC. Special thanks to Dr. Vanessa Quinn (Honors College) for her continued efforts to strengthen this vital resource for faculty at East Texas A&M.

New Governance Process Piloted for Annual Faculty Evaluation Policy Revisions. I am excited to share that with the full support from the Deans Council, the Provost's Office is piloting a new governance process intended to engage and inform faculty about revisions to important procedures and policies. The subject of this pilot is the Annual Faculty Evaluation (AFE) Policy, which has been under review since early fall 2025 as part of the scheduled review cycle.  At that time, I appointed a faculty taskforce to begin the review process and make recommendations.  On January 30, 2026, faculty and administrators attended a virtual Q & A session to review proposed changes, including a significant transition to align the AFE cycle with the academic calendar year (June-May). Key changes include establishing standardized evaluation timelines, clarifying procedures, and creating a structured transition period from January 2026 through May 2027. The current 2025 AFE cycle will continue unchanged, with the new cycle beginning June 1, 2027. Faculty who were unable to attend the virtual session can email erin.webstergarrett at etamu.edu<mailto:erin.webstergarrett at etamu.edu> to request a recording. A feedback survey is currently open and will remain open for 10 days following the virtual session (02/13/2026).  The results will inform the final recommendations that come to me for action. I hope you will take part in this important process, and let me know what you think.  My thanks to all involved, including and most especially our Taskforce members, as we take this across the finish line, and to Dr. Erin Webster Garrett for helping guide this new governance approach.

Summer Pay Model. I am truly grateful to the Summer Pay Model Working Group that began their work early last year. As a reminder, I charged this group with designing a fiscally responsible business model for distributing summer revenue. Their focus was threefold:
1. Ensure course offerings meet student needs and demand
2. Cover salary obligations, including fringe and administrative costs
3. Return a profit to support broader institutional needs

In their analysis, the group evaluated seven different funding models, ultimately excluding three as fiscally unsustainable and removing them from consideration. The four remaining models were thoroughly examined using actual performance data from Summer of 2024. I appreciate their thorough approach to reviewing current practices at ETAMU, along with the testing of various models. I was not surprised to learn that no clear institutional standard emerged; their findings suggested that colleges appeared to have followed varying practices for salary caps, teaching load adjustments, and department head compensation.

Overall, I believe there is enough information contained in the current work product to ultimately determine a path forward; we must implement best practices through a university-wide summer pay model. I will keep in mind the Working Group's clear identification of needs that support this unified movement forward:

  *   A clear institutional policy on salary caps and eligibility
  *   A consistent method for determining instructional and administrative costs
  *   Transparent tracking of revenue and expense data across all units
However, I also agree with their recommendation that further exploration and discussion are required. Given the importance and complexity of this decision, as well as the timing of the year (i.e., plans for Summer 2026 must begin now), I have decided that faculty pay for Summer 2026 should be calculated based on the college specific approach, similar to what was followed for Summer 2025. However, informed by this report and ongoing discussions at Deans Council over the past several years, Department Head (DH) summer pay will be determined on an individual basis, with a dean working with each of his/her DHs to define summer expectations and compensation. Because departments differ greatly in summer operations, workloads for DHs naturally vary; aligning summer compensation with actual responsibilities supports both equity and flexibility. Thus, for Summer 2026, each dean has been working individually with the DH to assess summer responsibilities and determine appropriate compensation, with consideration given to areas such as course offerings, student enrollment/SCHs, faculty participation, and other department-specific factors.
I recognize that these decisions involve competing priorities and operational constraints. While additional work remains, the approach outlined above allows us to move forward responsibly for Summer 2026 while continuing institutional conversations toward a more standardized and transparent model.

Summer Course Schedule. Please begin to critically review and revise your summer schedules to ensure that institutional priorities are being met. Your thoughtful approach allows our university to respond proactively to students' needs, identifying merging challenges or opportunities, optimizing our resources, and maintaining a strong faculty voice. This helps align individual commitments with evolving academic, operational, and budgetary needs; promotes transparency and accountability in workload distribution; and helps to focus on needed leadership work over the summer months. More information to come-but please work with your department head to build the summer course offerings that best meet students' needs.

Dr. Ryan Erck, Assistant Vice Provost for Student Success. If you have not yet had an opportunity to meet Dr. Ryan Erck, I encourage you to stop by the Student Success Center and introduce yourself. Ryan joined us this past summer and has been working closely with advisors, financial support staff, life coaches, and career preparedness professionals to enhance the student experience. He is collaborative, forward-thinking, and deeply committed to our mission and our students. Under his leadership, trust is strengthening, momentum is building, and the institution is positioning itself for an ambitious next chapter-one that ensures we are supporting students exceptionally well, and truly meeting the call as a student-ready university.

Undergraduate Minors. As many of you are aware, Texas Senate Bill 37 (2025) requires review-and possible closure-of low-enrollment minors and certificates, making it important that we act proactively. I am grateful to Dr. Ricky Dobbs for his leadership in advancing this work; he will be forming a work group to ensure faculty voices are heard. Please make sure to participate as we move forward. Feel free to reach out directly to Ricky with any questions. More information to come.
General Education Review Committee. Texas Senate Bill 37 (2025) also requires the A&M System Board of Regents (BOR) to review each university's general education requirements at least once every five years and to certify the first such review no later than January 1, 2027. This review must cover both the core curriculum and any other curriculum or competency that all undergraduates are required to complete before earning a degree. The statute requires that these requirements be foundational and fundamental to postsecondary education, prepare students for civic and professional life, equip them for participation in the workforce and the betterment of society, and ensure breadth of knowledge in compliance with applicable accreditation standards. The BOR must also consider the potential cost to students, including tuition, fees, and time to degree.

To carry out this charge, the BOR is authorizing university presidents to establish a General Education Review Committee, consisting of full-time faculty, administrators, community leaders, and industry representatives. Dr. Rudin and I are currently in the process of identifying committee members. From February through May 2026, the committee will review all courses currently included in the institution's approved core curriculum and any other mandatory undergraduate requirements to ensure compliance. By the way, SB 37 also requires a separate THECB review of the statewide core curriculum, which is underway and may lead to future statutory changes.

System Syllabi Review. The System's ongoing course review process is distinct from the efforts identified above, although coordination may be beneficial. At this time, limited additional information is available regarding the planned System review of our syllabi. All Fall 2025 syllabi were submitted to the System in December, and I anticipate receiving a list of courses to be reviewed sometime in the upcoming several months. I am working on putting together a review committee for this process, so please reach out to me directly if you are interested in serving as a reviewer or have someone that you would like to nominate.

By the way, this week I will be traveling to College Station for the System's quarterly BOR meeting. Topics for chief academic officers include SB 37 general education requirements, system-level risk mitigation reviews, university-initiated reviews, and THECB Core Curriculum review. I will share updates as soon as I am able.

Transformative Learning: A Unifying Framework for Student Success. As I mentioned in the December update, I am pleased to share that our leadership team has enthusiastically endorsed a new Transformative Learning framework that brings together academically anchored student success initiatives under one cohesive umbrella. The framework integrates the Honors College, the Undergraduate Research Opportunity Connection (UROC) initiative, our Foundations for Your Future QEP, and the new Faculty Success Center into an ecosystem designed to ensure every ETAMU student has access to career-relevant, high-impact experiences.

Transformative Learning represents our commitment to being a student-ready university by design-one that transforms lives through relevant, experiential, and reflective learning that develops adaptive thinkers, ethical leaders, and engaged citizens prepared to navigate complexity and change. The proposal presented by Dr. Erin Webster Garrett is not only grounded in decades of research demonstrating the impact of experiential learning on retention, persistence, completion, and career outcomes for all students.  It is also the result of a preliminary environmental scan that indicates these experiences are already an underappreciated but defining quality of what makes the ETAMU educational experience unique.

The proposal received strong support from both the Executive Team and Deans Council.  Celebrating the ongoing work and finding ways to support faculty and make it easier for students to engage are just a few of the goals Dr. Webster Garrett presented. Our work ahead includes coordinating high-impact programs, establishing clear pathways for student engagement, and implementing Suitable as our technology solution for connecting students with transformative opportunities. My thanks to Dr. Webster Garrett, the Honors Council, the Undergraduate Research Faculty Advisory Committee, and members of the QEP Committee for engaging with these ideas and providing their feedback. This is an exciting step forward in our strategic commitment to delivering a signature learning experience that addresses the value proposition our students and their families deserve.

Faculty Advisory Council. Another shout-out to our faculty leadership and the Faculty Advisory Council. The President and I met with the new council several weeks ago and engaged in a productive, thoughtful discussion centered on issues that matter deeply to our faculty and to this university. What emerged was a shared sense of possibility: how we might build a group that works together with purpose, serving as genuine thought partners-faculty and administrators-listening closely, challenging constructively, and shaping solutions collaboratively on behalf of our university and our students. We have a real opportunity to create something meaningful, grounded in trust, mutual respect, and a collective commitment to strengthening the academic mission and future of the institution. My gratitude to those willing to serve on this new council.

Dallas Update. A quick update about an exciting initiative at Dallas. The Executive in Residence (EIR) initiative, led by Dr. Sri Beldona, represents a strategic commitment to deepening the university's connection to industry, practice, and the evolving needs of the workforce. Through this program, accomplished senior executives from a wide range of industries volunteer their time to engage directly with our students and faculty-serving as mentors, guest speakers, and strategic advisors. Their involvement enriches the academic experience by bringing real-world perspective and helping students better understand how theory translates into practice. There's no doubt that the EIR initiative strengthens the university's role as a hub for talent development, innovation, and regional impact. By intentionally integrating industry leaders into our academic ecosystem, we are expanding experiential learning opportunities, fostering applied research and curriculum relevance, and building durable partnerships that benefit students, faculty, and employers alike. This initiative reflects our commitment to preparing graduates who are career-ready, adaptable, and equipped to lead in a complex, rapidly changing economy. Please reach out directly to Sri with any questions or to become more involved with this initiative.


Fall 2026 Dates. As the President shared at the Spring Assembly, in the upcoming Fall 2026 semester there will be a fall break. Please note that this may impact when department and college meetings are usually scheduled. Here is the updated fall schedule:

August 18: President Fall Assembly and Lion Walk
August 20: First Day of Class
September 12: Family Day
October 3: Homecoming
October 8-9: Fall Break

I want to close by saying how strongly I support our faculty and staff. I recognize the complexity of the moment we are in and the demands placed on you as educators, scholars, and mentors. Please know that your hard work, care, professionalism, and contributions to this institution matter deeply to me. I value your voices, your ideas, and your partnership as we continue to shape the future of East Texas A&M University together.
Thank you for all that you do for our students and for one another. My door is always open, and I welcome the opportunity to meet with you, listen, and learn from your perspectives.
With appreciation and respect,

tvh

[cid:image002.png at 01DC946B.91E2BE80]


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.tamuc.edu/pipermail/vpaaetal/attachments/20260202/6bef99aa/attachment-0001.htm>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 37450 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.tamuc.edu/pipermail/vpaaetal/attachments/20260202/6bef99aa/attachment-0002.png>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image002.png
Type: image/png
Size: 4396 bytes
Desc: image002.png
URL: <http://mailman.tamuc.edu/pipermail/vpaaetal/attachments/20260202/6bef99aa/attachment-0003.png>