Spring 2023 Welcome
Dear FAS colleagues,
I want to wish you all a happy new year and welcome you back to the start of the spring 2023 semester. I hope you had a restful and enjoyable time with family and friends this holiday season.
First, I want to thank everyone in FAS for all your contributions in 2022. While campus reopened fully and students and faculty returned to in-person classes, 2022 was still an unprecedented year with its own challenges to learn from and achievements to celebrate. As you can see in the 2022 Year in Review video, FAS units and teams completed projects, achieved milestones, and moved the needle on operational and administrative goals. Congratulations to you all for a job well done in 2022!
As we start another dynamic semester at the university, we will all be thinking about how we can continue supporting our campus colleagues, students, and faculty in their educational and research missions. To better prepare our FAS leadership to lead our portfolio through organizational changes, our leaders will also be engaging in change management training with monthly meetings to discuss changes and work through questions and concerns being raised to ensure leadership is effectively communicating at all levels within FAS.
Many people use the beginning of a new year as the time to start or renew their commitment to well-being and self-care. Don’t forget to take advantage of our new wellness time off program launched in the fall, as well as the many resources offered by our Employee Assistance Program.
Part of focusing on self-care includes continuing education and investing in learning. FAS equity, diversity, and inclusion efforts went into high gear in fall 2022 with a series of learning events and workshops. The FAS EDI Committee issued a survey to FAS employees in December to collect feedback to shape the next round of events and resources for spring 2023.
With the 88th Texas Legislative Session starting this week, many of our FAS colleagues will also be supporting the university throughout the session reviewing bills, providing subject matter expertise, or providing reports and data. Many thanks to all of you who will be called upon to provide support for this important work.
Throughout the spring semester, we will continue to look to our FAS Core Values of diversity, innovation, integrity, service, stewardship, and teamwork to guide our work. We will continue to develop and strengthen our relationships with our campus partners to ensure business continuity regardless of organizational boundaries. Strategic planning initiatives in the areas of talent management, information technology, data, security, and procurement will continue to develop in the coming months, impacting and involving many of our teams within FAS.
Spring 2023 is shaping up to be another lively semester, and I look forward to all the work we will accomplish together. Thank you for all your contributions in both the day-to-day work and in addressing the unexpected challenges that pop up in serving our large and diverse university community.
Regards,
Darrell Bazzell (he/him/his)
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
The University of Texas at Austin
