Virginia Tech® home

Week of August 4-8

2025

CETL: Resources and support for faculty preparing for fall course instruction 

For faculty and instructors who are preparing for the fall semester, Section 9.6.1 (Syllabus and Performance Expectation) of the Faculty Handbook offers guidance for providing students with course syllabi that effectively communicates information about course content, class schedules, attendance, grading scales, and overall expectations.

The Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) has developed a number of useful resources for helping faculty prepare or update course documents in order to provide students with the necessary information and resources to successfully complete the course. These resources include: 

For more information and resources on developing/updating course syllabi, see the Faculty Handbook or visit the CETL website.

OUR, FLSI: Faculty invited to serve as mentors in first-year undergraduate research program 

Faculty from all disciplines are invited to apply to serve as mentors for the First-Year Fralin Undergraduate Research Fellowship (First-Year FURF) Program, and work with students during the spring 2026 semester.

Funded by the Fralin Life Sciences Institute and housed in the Office of Undergraduate Research, the program will provide first-year students, who are new to research, with authentic research experiences in their chosen discipline, under the direct mentorship of a faculty member. 

Interested faculty may propose a new project or one that is part of their ongoing research, which should be at an entry level and be appropriate for students with no prior research experience or skills and have a scope allowing project completion in 80 hours (approximately 5 hours per week). 

Selected students will receive a fellowship of $1,000 and their assigned faculty mentor will receive $500 to directly support the student’s research activities.

For more information, read this campus notice, visit the First-Year FURF website, or email the Office of Undergraduate Research. 

Hokie Wellness: Care.com premium access available to full-time faculty, staff 

As the start of the new school year approaches, Hokie Wellness reminds Virginia Tech full-time faculty and staff across all locations that they have unlimited, premium access to the Care.com network for help in finding services such as child care, adult care, self-care, pet care, housekeeping, and tutoring. 

With Care.com premium access, faculty and staff can book short- and long-term care with a wide range of provider types including those with experience assisting children and adults with special needs. All caregivers within Care.com’s network have completed a background check.

Faculty and staff can search for caregivers, post jobs, purchase additional screening, and pay caregivers in real-time through the platform. Those interested in registering for Care.com services may do so online using their Virginia Tech email address.

For more information including FAQs, services, and enrollment info, read this campus notice or visit the Care.com portal for Virginia Tech employees. 

IT: New email archiving policy to be applied to employee Exchange Online mailboxes 

On August 14, the Division of IT will apply a four-year archive policy to employee Exchange Online email service, and will move any email, notes, tasks, calendar items, and custom folders more than four years old to a cloud-based archive folder. Archived items will still be accessible in the folder list in either the Outlook Desktop or Web app and will not affect your Exchange Online storage quota. 

Faculty and staff do not need to do anything to prepare for this change. However, moving forward, it will be important for employees to manage both OneDrive and Exchange Online mailbox storage. 

  • If OneDrive storage exceeds your quota – your drive will go read-only. You will be unable to create new or edit existing files until storage total is reduced.
  • If your Exchange Online storage exceeds your quota – you will be unable to send or receive email until your storage total is reduced. 
  • If your auto-archive exceeds its quota of 1.5 terabytes, an unlikely scenario – you will no longer be able to archive, and your regular mailbox will fill up.

For more information including how to check data storage and additional resources, read this campus notice or contact 4Help IT Support online. 

ICYMI: Virginia Tech Experts profile can elevate faculty scholarship, attract collaborators 

Virginia Tech Experts is a searchable online profile system managed through University Libraries that provides a public-facing view of researchers, scholars, and educators at Virginia Tech, along with their publications, research interests, teaching, and additional scholarly activities.

Activate your profile by using the Elements database system with a few simple steps and boost your online scholarly presence. 

Virginia Tech Experts supports identifying potential collaborators and discovery of research, scholarship, creative works, and areas of specialization and expertise across disciplines. 

For more information including overview slides, workshops, and a video guide, visit the Virginia Tech Experts website.

Additional Resources and Updates

Newsletter Spotlight: Academic Advising Initiatives Monthly

Please submit a Google form or email Provost Communications for comments or recommendations to improve the Weekly Communications Update or to share faculty, staff, and academic program personnel information.

Visit the provost’s website frequently for new and updated university information. All members of the campus community should also read their VT News daily email for further important updates, notices, and resources.