Follow this page for all the messaging sent to members of the Longhorn community from UGS Dean Brent Iverson.
You made it through the first week!
April 3
Dear UGS,
Wow, this is weird! I do not know any other way to describe what is going on. I wanted to send you a short message to officially congratulate you for finishing the first week of UT online in spring 2020!
I know you have a variety of questions and concerns. We all do. In an effort to hear from you, we will be having an Undergraduate Studies Virtual Town Hall on Tuesday, April 7, 5-6 p.m. I will be hosting along with your UGS Council. Please log in and share what’s on your mind as you adjust to online learning. Visit the UGS Council Hornslink page to attend the Virtual Town Hall.
Again, congratulations on making it through the first week of the new normal! Please stay safe and healthy.
Brent L. Iverson, Ph.D.
We Have Your Back
March 27
Dear all,
As spring break is winding down and you are preparing for classes to start online next week, I want to give you one important message: In UGS, we have your back. No matter what you encounter, we are here to work through it with you. This evening, the president announced that you will be able to take your spring 2020 classes pass/fail. I am sure you have a lot of questions about that new policy as well as many other things in this “new normal” we are all experiencing together. Contact your advisor or anyone else in UGS with your questions or concerns. We are here to help. Each UGS department has been working hard so that all of our advising, tutoring, and many other services are fully available online. We are ready. You can contact your UGS council members directly. They want to help you and I am talking to them every week. You can also contact me directly at iversonb@austin.utexas.edu.
We are here for you, and together we got this.
Brent Iverson
A Message from Dean Iverson
March 22
“They did not know that they were about to enter…the Twilight Zone.” That was a famous line voiced by narrator Rod Serling in the introduction to each episode of a sci-fi TV show from my childhood. Well, now the entire world can relate to that line! At the risk of rubbing it in, I also know this is supposed to be your Spring Break. Instead, you are most likely hunkered down like the rest of the world, waiting for this wave of infections to pass through. My heart goes out to each of you who had to give up on some great plans.
You may have heard, last week I was one of the earliest to test positive for COVID-19 in the Austin area. My wife tested positive as well. I had not been traveling out of state and I have no idea where we were exposed. Fortunately, out of an abundance of caution, we were already in a proactive self-isolation prior to two days before symptoms appeared, so we are hopeful that we did not spread it any further. We have been in our house ever since and will remain here until we get the all-clear. We are both doing fine, although this has not been a fun time. I am glad the world is taking this seriously, our human immune systems have never seen this thing before, so it will hit many people very hard. We need to do all we can to avoid spreading it to people at risk because of age or underlying conditions. Trust me, you do not want to join the COVID-19 positive club! Many of you know that my wife and I work hard to stay healthy and fit, and I am convinced that is why we are faring pretty well through this.
On March 30th, the semester will resume as “Spring 2020, the Online Edition.” Many of us are working right now to change academic policies at UT to help students cope with this new situation. You will be hearing about those changes in the coming days. But we still have a week before classes begin again. I know that many of you are worried about how you will be able to learn exclusively online, are confused about how to best avoid illness, are anxious about the unexpected loss of your jobs or the jobs of family members, are simply bored right now, or all of those things and more. Who wouldn’t be? No one could have seen this coming and there was no way to truly prepare. Here is my recommendation for the next few days: Find a way to help someone around you in an unexpected way. If you are at home, that just might be your parents or neighbors. Are there projects that they have been putting off until they had the time and/or help? Now is the time to offer your help! You could even help with home-schooling of little brothers and sisters or neighborhood kids. You can help make sure that all of your fellow students keep a positive attitude by checking in on them. With all there is to worry about right now, I find that pitching in to help others is a great way to cope with your own concerns.
I am especially worried about those of you who will have difficulties going online or learning online from home, or are dealing with the unexpected loss of jobs and/or income in your family. If you need help yourself for these or any other reasons, PLEASE reach out to your Vick Center or DSP advising team member, or the wonderful people at the Office of the Dean of Students. There are many people who can help you in a variety of ways, even in these unreal times. And, if you think I can help, I would love to hear from you. Email me at iversonb@austin.utexas.edu.
Your college experience will no doubt be remembered in terms of the coronavirus pandemic of 2020, but we cannot let it define us in a negative way. We will all get through the coming weeks working together to slow the spread of the infection. Until then, please stay healthy and strong. In UGS we are going to do all we can so that each of you, and everyone in your families, will make it safely and productively through this 2020 version of “The Twilight Zone.”
Brent Iverson