| Dear PI Colleagues, Graduate Students, and Postdocs,
I have several quick updates to share with you this Friday, but first I want to say thank you to Dr. Leonard Moore, American history professor and our VP for Diversity and Community Engagement, for talking to faculty and staff today about managing in the age of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. If you weren’t able join at noon, you can watch the recording on YouTube — and I highly recommend you do. He was candid and up front with all of us, which I appreciate, and he was also specific about the things we need to do, individually and collectively, to move UT forward.
I’ve been talking to my lab members this week and listening to their concerns and experiences, and while I can’t write to you today with a concrete plan for how this office will rectify racist practices and biases in research, I will fully acknowledge that they exist and that lip service won’t cut it. In whatever capacity I can, I will support tangible change that makes conducting research at UT a safe, welcoming, equitable, and fulfilling endeavor. Anything less is unacceptable.
Friday Updates
- On Tuesday, June 16 at 6 p.m., the College of Pharmacy is hosting a virtual forum called The Assault of 2 Pandemics, COVID & Racism: Grappling with Hurt, Rage, and Healing. I plan to attend and hope you will as well.
- UT Libraries understands that some researchers have urgent deadlines tied to tenure or end-of-degree requirements and has developed a pickup service to meet these needs, in alignment with the Research Restart plan. Beginning June 22 and for the duration of Research Phase 3, UT Libraries will offer these researchers a contactless service to request and pick up library materials that are only available in print. The Libraries will roll out communications about this service next week, and details will be available on the Libraries’ Updates page by June 19.
- Another parking reminder and update: Graduate students and postdocs can use ‘A’ parking permits to access to all UT parking garages at no additional charge this summer. If you have any difficulty renewing or purchasing an ‘A’ permit, send an email to PTS, and they’ll help you. Also, parking permit enforcement resumes this month, but the date has moved from June 19 to June 22. Please be sure you’ve renewed or purchased a parking pass by this date if you need one.
- For those on campus, University Housing and Dining is currently offering curbside pick-up at Cypress Bend, and curbside pick-up will be expanded to Littlefield Patio Café next week as well.
Sincerely,
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Alison Preston, Ph.D.
Interim Vice President for Research
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This communication is from Principal Investigators – Official.
View this email online.
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