Newsletter April 3, 2025
cte.utah.edu

As a faculty member, I have always found April to be the most stressful month. It is the end of the semester, end of the year, and end of many students’ educational degrees. For many students, April and early May represent a massive shift in their everyday lives. They may be looking at a need to move, take summer courses, find a job, and/or navigate social and family life in new ways. All of these factors make April a good time to remember the need for compassion in higher education. Compassionate pedagogy can mean acts of kindness; it can mean an awareness of suffering, distress or disadvantage for others; it can be a commitment to address or mitigate that suffering, distress, or disadvantage; it can be the promotion of well-being; and it can be the recognition of students as whole individuals (Killingback et al., 2025).

With that last point, compassionate pedagogy involves understanding who our students are, who they want to be, and how we can help them on their way. In 2025, most of our students are digital natives whose learning was upended and reshaped by the COVID-19 pandemic. They are well-informed, digitally adept, and facing an AI-infused future amidst tremendous economic and social upheaval. How do we practice compassionate pedagogy to facilitate the success of this student generation? At the Martha Bradley Evans Center for Teaching Excellence, we’re excited to address this topic in the call for the 2025-26 Martha Bradley Evans Teaching Fellows. We will also partner with the Quest academic learning community to address this issue in Part 2 of our upcoming summer Faculty Intensive Institute (July 28-31).

As a research-intensive institution of higher education, the University of Utah employs scholars who are leaders in their fields to conduct research and teach in degree programs across multiple disciplines. To keep instructional quality at the U on the cutting edge, the Martha Bradley Evans Teaching Fellowship encourages and supports faculty engagement in projects related to factors affecting instruction within their disciplines at the national level. Each year, projects address critical issues in twenty-first century, post-pandemic higher education. For the 2025-26 academic year, fellowships will focus on “Teaching Digital Natives: Supporting the Next Generation with Understanding and Compassion.”

Gen Z learners, born between 1997 and 2012, are frequently called digital natives; technology is infused into nearly every aspect of their lives. This generation bore the brunt of the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on education, and they are coming of age amidst tremendous social upheaval. As a result, Gen Z has been also described as more well-informed about current events than previous generations. We are seeking proposals for pedagogy projects that innovate education in ways that expand upon students’ application of digital learning skills and their awareness of current events, with the hope of fostering workforce-ready technological skills and compassion in University of Utah students.

Four faculty fellows will be awarded, drawing from the 18 colleges at the University of Utah. The proposed project should be completed within one year, with the goal of implementation within the faculty member’s department/college at the end of the fellowship. Fellows will be asked to submit an annual report detailing project outcomes at the end of the year.

Eligibility: Career-line (.75 FTE or higher), tenure-track, or tenured faculty are eligible to apply.

Multiple fellowships of up to $10,000 will be awarded. Budget may include the following:

Proposals are due by May 15 via the MBE Teaching Fellows Application form, and awardees will be announced by May 31. Fellowship decisions will be made by a committee formed by the CTE.

Submission Requirements:

We are excited to open registration for our Graduate Teaching Institute! This 4-day in-person event is free to all graduate students and postdocs who are interested in learning more about pedagogy in higher education. Registration is free, but capacity is limited. 

Required courses are now being taught summer, fall, and spring semesters!

We are searching for a new Associate Director. The position is open to tenured and career-line faculty and involves a .5FTE commitment to CTE. The Associate Director works closely with the Director and CTE Team to coordinate our graduate student training opportunities, manage incoming requests, and more. If you’re interested, apply HERE. For more information, you can email the CTE director.

The University of Utah is proud to launch the Utah Day One Books Access program starting Fall 2025. University of Utah's Day 1 Books Access Program is a campus-wide initiative to provide students enrolled in undergraduate courses with increased accessibility to their required textbooks, courseware, and course packs at a single $259 low flat rate per semester.

The Learning Center is hosting Finals Preparation Workshops, and we would love if you could help us spread the news! There are three sessions scheduled, so students can choose whichever day and time work best for them. All three options will be held in Marriott Library 5220. The scheduled days and times are:

These workshops will provide students with strategies to effectively prepare for finals and connect students to free academic support resources. The events are free, and snack grab bags will be available at each session while supplies last.

The Office of Undergraduate Research (OUR) is excited to announce the Education Series for Spring 2025.  The OUR Education Series includes topics of interest for undergraduate student researchers and their faculty mentors. These events are open to all and are designed specifically with undergraduate students in mind.  Faculty are welcome to incorporate these events into their classes and/or encourage their students to participate.  

Marriott Library is excited to host a free collaborative UU-BYU Area Studies Symposium May 7-8 2025.

Area Studies topics include Asian, Latin American, Middle East, and Pacific Studies.

Please see the link below to register and find details! Thank you.

2025 Area Studies Library Symposium - International & Area Studies - The University of Utah

Faculty grants of up to $2,500 per year are available.  The University of Utah Sustainability Office offers funds to instructors who wish to integrate sustainability into their courses or renew a Sustainability Course Attribute (SUST). The funds can be used for a variety of purposes, including, but not limited to:

The streamlined application consists of three questions. There are two upcoming deadlines: