Textbooks

Here is a list of the textbooks to be used in the Math Department's core undergraduate courses.

If you are scheduled to teach one of these courses, please refer to the corresponding text when planning for the upcoming semester unless you have personally discussed an alternate selection with the textbook coordinator Guillerma Romero in RLM 8.128. Book orders from the Math Department are sent to the University Co-op and Austin TXbooks stores, both on Guadalupe Street next to the University. See Guillerma Romero if you need a desk copy for the course you are teaching.

Faculty-Authored Texts

Each year the department will approve the list of faculty authored texts as required by law. If you are the author of a text or other material that could be sold to students please let Tan Thai know so your name can be added to the list. The current list may be downloaded here. In addition there is a form titled "Authorization to use Textbooks Written by a Member of the Staff at UT Austin" on the Provost's website.

Class Rosters, Grade Submission, etc.

Most class-related paperwork is handled through UT Direct (the online paperwork system accessed via your UT EID). You just log on to UT direct, and there's a menu entry for Blackboard, where you will find your classes.  UT direct URL: https://utdirect.utexas.edu/utdirect/. A very useful feature there is the class photo roster, available under Links/CLIPS on the Blackboard entry page.

First-day Handout

The first-day handout, which is mandated by state requirements and University rules, must spell out in fairly explicit terms how the various activities in a course (tests, homework, final exam, class participation, etc.) contribute to the determination of a final course grade. This applies to Graduate as well as Undergraduate courses. Do not make the mistake, however, of being too specific in this regard. You are, to a great extent, bound by the grading policy you announce in the handout, so you want to afford yourself some leeway for dealing with exceptional cases in an ad hoc fashion. It is strongly recommended that you include in this document a statement outlining your policy concerning make-up tests.  As per the 8/2/11 email from the Vice Provost's office, the syllabus must contain the following items:

• The course number and title
• The instructor’s name, office location, and office hours
• If there are teaching assistants for the class, their names, office locations, and office hours
• An overview of the class, including prerequisites, the subject matter of each lecture or discussion, as well as the academic/learning goals for the course and how they will be assessed
• Grading policy, including whether attendance is used in determining the course grade (please note that all undergraduate courses are now graded on a plus/minus letter grade basis)
• A brief descriptive overview of all major course requirements and assignments, along with the dates of exams and assignments that count for 20 percent or more of the class grade
• A list of required and recommended materials, such as textbooks, image collections, audio and audiovisual materials, supplies, articles, chapters, and excerpts as appropriate, identified by author, title and publisher.
• Final exam date and time (can be found here)
• The class web site, if any
  • A notice that students with disabilities may request appropriate academic accommodations from the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement. Resources for students with disabilities can be found here and students can call (512) 471-6259.
    
    
• In addition, we recommend that faculty include the following information on their course syllabi:
  • A notice regarding academic dishonesty. UT Honor Code (or statement of ethics) and an explanation or example of what constitutes plagiarism (The University Student Honor Code is here.)
  • A notice regarding accommodations for religious holidays. (Sample statement—“By UT Austin policy, you must notify me of your pending absence at least fourteen days prior to the date of observance of a religious holy day. If you must miss a class, an examination, a work assignment, or a project in order to observe a religious holy day, you will be given an opportunity to complete the missed work within a reasonable time after the absence.”)

For additional suggested templates and guidance on writing an effective syllabus, please refer instructors to materials available on the Faculty Innovation webite.

 The Department and CNS requires the handout to (also) contain:

• If your course uses the Quest homework system, you must include information about the mandatory cost for using the system. The following paragraph (as of August, 2011) was suggested:

• Information about drop dates: for example:

DEADLINES FOR DROPPING A COURSE:  If you drop a class on or before February 1, the class will not show up on your transcript.  If you drop a class after that date, the course will show up on the transcript with a “Q” grade.  After April 2, it is not possible to drop a course except for extenuating (usually non-academic) circumstances.

Submitting syllabi and vitae:

Please email a copy of your first-day handout for each course you teach and a short vita to syllabus@math.utexas.edu by the first class day.  Talk to Tan Thai if you have questions (ugradcoord@math).  According to state legislation, the short vita should contain:

a list of significant professional publications relevant to the academic positions held including full citations (in whatever format/style is appropriate for the instructor’s discipline) for significant professional publications such as books, chapters, refereed articles, juried performances, works of art, and other scholarly work the faculty judge relevant to the academic positions they held (note: “citation” refers to the publication source of each entry, not a citation index).

Absence/Failure Report

You can file an absence/failing report on any student in your class at any time. Go to the CLIPS menu and access your class. Click on "absence/failing report" and you will be presented with a list of your students and you can list any of ten reasons for the report using the drop down menu.

How does the Absence/Failure report work?

For each student selected, you may choose up to three standard messages from a list of ten and include comments or suggestions for improving his/her performance or attendance. Once submitted, a secure email message detailing this information is sent to the student, the student's advisor and a report is sent to the dean's office.

Behavior Concerns Advice Hotline (BCAL)

If you are worried about the behavior of a student or co-worker, you can find advice by calling the number below.  In a crisis where there is immediate danger, call 911.

www.utexas.edu/safety/bcal or call 512-232-5050.

Final Examinations

The permission of the Chair is necessary if you wish NOT to give a final examination in an undergraduate course. The department is obliged to report any dispensation from the requirement of having a final exam in such a course to the Dean, who insists that we present a compelling reason to justify the omission of the final, especially when the course in question is a large service course with a heavy enrollment of freshmen and sophomores. Final exams need not, however, be comprehensive exams.

In no course where a final exam is given should there be any deviation from the officially scheduled date, time and place for the exam. Final exam dates and times can be found here. The locations of final exams are set by Official Publications. When set, they will be listed on UT Direct and will also be posted outside RLM 8.100 sometime late in the term. In particular, no "last" midterm that has the semblance and de facto impact of a final exam is permitted. A student is guaranteed that the final exam for any course, which has one, will be administered at the scheduled time and in the appointed place. By the same token, in registering for a class a student commits himself or herself to being present for an exam at that time. Naturally, allowances can be made for individual exceptions, circumstances warranting, at an instructor's discretion. Nevertheless, a generally reluctant attitude is advised towards students seeking privileged final exam times, particularly early ones.

The two class days prior to finals are official pre-final no-class days, on which all classroom activity, including review sessions, is prohibited.  However, you may hold office hours on the dead days.

Miscellaneous Tips

With regard to tests or other organized class activities (e.g., review sessions) arranged by you or by your TA at irregular (= non-class) times: be extremely accommodating towards individuals unable to participate in such activities because of academic, work or family obligations. Students are only required to be available for officially designated class functions, as indicated in the Course Schedule. Unless extra provisions are made to extend to them all the benefits that derive from the special activity, students excluded by prior commitments from partaking in the occasion may raise the objection -- and might well find sympathy for their protest with the Dean -- that those who are able take part in the activity enjoy an unfair advantage in the course. In the case of a test administered outside the regular class period, the opportunity for a make-up must be provided.

Class length: MWF -- 50 minutes, starting on the hour; TTh -- 75 minutes, starting as scheduled. Please refrain from beginning lectures early. If you find yourself slipping unavoidably into what soccer enthusiasts call "stoppage time," please allow students who are headed for other classes the next hour to leave on time, lest your rambling on causes them to disrupt said classes by arriving late or, heaven protect us from such extremes of long-windedness, to miss the class entirely.

To request a classroom change, see Tan Thai (tanthai@math) RLM 8.140. To reserve a more spacious room in which to give tests, see Eva Hernandez (ehernandez@math) in RLM 8.100.

Do your utmost to cover the syllabi, especially in courses upon which follow-up courses hinge in a critical way. This directive applies in particular to the courses M408C,D,K,L,M,N,S. Syllabi may be found here.

Submit tests and other duplication projects with a 48-hour lead-time if you expect to have them when you need them. The department's copying budget is not flush enough to absorb the expense of reproducing excessive amounts of material, whether it be for diagnostic or review or enrichment purposes, beyond the ordinary needs of a course (e.g., first-day handouts, tests). These can be posted on Canvas. 

Administrative Items

1. 1. Adds and drops

      Don't get involved in the departmental add/drop process at the beginning of the term. JUST SAY NO to students who entreat you to write special notes requesting that they be allowed to add your class, although you are free to sign an official, Advising Center-issued "Permission to Add Form" if one is presented to you by a student.

      The College policies on adding and dropping classes can be found here.

      In short, students do their own adds/drops until the 5th class day.

      From Days 5-12 they add classes in the Advising Center, RLM 4.101, but can still drop via ROSE.

      You will receive an email detailing add/drop information at the beginning of the semester.
      
      
   2. Beware the pitfalls of the insidious "X"' ("Incomplete") grade

      Barring a few exceptional cases that arise too seldom to warrant commentary here, the only circumstances under which an "X" grade may properly be assigned are the following:

      In the last case the symbol "X" is thus used to convey the message "contact me ASAP". Be adamant in refusing to hand out "bleeding-heart incompletes", which struggling students frequently seek as a means to gain a temporary reprieve from a looming bad grade, hoping thereby to avert some academic unpleasantry that receiving such a grade would entail (e.g., scholastic probation, loss of a scholarship). Above all, do not fall for that deceptively seductive line: "If you give me an "X", I'll attend Dr. Gehirntod's section of this course next term. He can just let you know the grade I earn, and then you can use that grade to clear the incomplete." Such a practice is explicitly forbidden by the General Information Catalog. Moreover, it is seldom the case that an incomplete is really the solution to the problem confronting the student.  A student who, for whatever reason (e.g., extended health problems), has missed a significant portion of a course -- in some -- -- mathematics courses absence for as little as a week can be -- -- devastating -- is not a candidate for an "X". An individual in this situation should seek relief from his or her Dean, not from the instructor of the course. The Dean has access to much more information about the student and has the authority to make an exception.

      A maximum of one semester, if it is merited, is allotted for removal of an "X", after which it automatically changes to an "F". An instructor is always free to impose a shorter, more specific deadline. Students don't understand this and often simply assume they can wait a whole semester before dealing with the "X". To help the department avoid certain administrative hassles associated with incompletes, we plead with you to take the following steps whenever you assign an "X": fill out an "incomplete agreement form", stating precisely both the method whereby and the time frame within which the incomplete is to be removed; have the form signed by the student involved; leave a copy of the form on file with Eva at the front desk; adhere strictly to the terms spelled out in this agreement. The removal of an incomplete -- or any change of grade, for that matter -- is effected by filling out and submitting a change of grade form.

      • (a) with all other coursework complete, a student is absent from the final exam for a valid, well documented reason or
      • (b) a student has taken and passed the final exam, but left some part (in principle, a small part) of coursework unfinished or
      • (c) something is amiss with a student's final exam -- say, -- there is a reason to suspect the student of cheating on the exam -- creating a hesitancy on the part of an instructor to assign a course grade before further consultation with the student.
      • (d) a student who has a grade of C- or better but fails a course due to the final, may request a retake of the final. If the professor agrees, they should assign an X until the retake is graded.
        
        
   3. Teaching evaluations

      Teaching evaluations are mandatory in all organized courses, undergraduate or graduate. They are extremely important in considerations related to reappointment, continuation and promotion. Participation instructions will be sent to the faculty via email when the forms are available for students. (If you wish to conduct the survey earlier than the last two weeks of the semester, you can talk to Tan Thai, Undergraduate Coordinator (ugradcoord@math.)   The deparmental default is for the surveys to be administered electronically; please see Tan Thai (ugradcoord@math) if you have questions.  The results of the survey are reported automatically to the department and are available online for public view as some point after the semester ends.  You may view your own (and others') results via https://utdirect.utexas.edu/ctl/ecis/results/index.WBX).

   4. Grievance protocol

      In processing complaints and resolving disputes, the sequence of individual involvement, as needed to settle the matter, goes as follows:

If there is no question of academic dishonesty, the proper line of appeal is

1.  Faculty member in charge of the course

2.  Departmental ombudsperson

3.  Associate Chair for Undergraduate Studies

4.  CNS Dean

If there is a question of academic dishonesty, the proper line of appeal is

            1.  Faculty member in charge of the course

            2.  Dean of Students Office

               There is more information about academic integrity here.            

Please note that academic matters are never referred to the University Ombudsperson offices.

If there is a problem with your TA, please contact the TA/AI Coordinator or Graduate Advisor.

If there is a problem involving graders, please see Tan Thai (RLM 8.140).

• Grade distributions

  The department has no preordained standards for grade distribution (i.e., we set no quotas for the percentage of any specific letter grade in any course).

• TA and grader workloads

  TAs and graders are students first, employees second. The duties for the TA assigned to your course can be found here. The assignment of TAs and graders to courses is a complicated and time-consuming business. Please do not make it more complicated by pressuring staff to assign a particular individual as your TA or grader.

• Teaching schedules

  Tentative teaching schedules can be found on the bulletin board outside of RLM 8.140. These may change as circumstances warrant, so please check them regularly.  Request forms for Fall and Spring teaching assignments for the next year will be circulated to continuing faculty in October.

• Conference courses

  "Conference course" is the local name for an individual instruction or reading course (as opposed to an "organized course," which means a class taught in lecture or seminar mode with an officially scheduled time and location for class meetings). If you agree to supervise a student in such a course, it is recommended that you clarify in writing what work you expect the student to do in order to get credit or to receive a specific letter grade. Graduate conference courses are given exclusively on a credit/no credit basis, despite what a student might tell you to the contrary. Lecturers are forbidden by Graduate School rules to supervise graduate-level conference courses.  Please see Tan Thai (ugradcoord@math) if you have undergraduate conference course questions, or Jenny Kondo (jenny.kondo@austin.utexas.edu)) for graduate conference course questions.

• Open Records Policy and Posting of Course Grades

  Under existing University policy, the final grade a student receives in a course is part of the confidential record of that student. Both the State and the Federal Open Records laws prohibit the release of any personally identifiable confidential record unless such release has been authorized in writing by each individual involved. Furthermore, the Federal Law states:

  "Personally identifiable" means that the data or information includes (a) the name of a student, the student's parent, or other family member, (b) the address of the student, (c) a personal identifier, such as the student's social security number or student number, (d) a list of personal characteristics which would make it possible to identify the student with reasonable certainty, or (e) other information which would make it possible to identify the student with reasonable certainty.

  In summary, the Provost's Office policy prohibits the disclosure of any confidential student information in a personally identifiable manner, which now include name, student identification number, social security number or a portion thereof, without the student's written consent.

  Faculty may continue to use student-specific password-protected systems (such as UT Direct and its applications) to communicate academic work grades or other confidential information to individual students. Students may also access their final course grades using UT Direct services called CLIPS, or QUEST. Information about CLIPS and e-grade book can be found at the following site. http://registrar.utexas.edu/staff/

Instructional Services available to Undergraduate Students

1. 1. Sanger Learning and Career Center, https://ugs.utexas.edu/slc.
   2. Counseling and Mental Health Center (e.g., for test anxiety, depression), http://cmhc.utexas.edu.
   3. Departmental computer labs are in RLM 8.118 and RLM 7.122. (See Eva Hernandez in RLM 8.100 for details.)

Instructional Services available to Faculty

• Faculty Innovation Center: https://facultyinnovate.utexas.edu/
• Dean of Students Office (e.g., for dealing with academic dishonesty issues, for services available to students with learning disabilities), http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/.
• If you have a case of academic dishonest that requires any form of punishment, you must fill out and submit the appropriate form, http://deanofstudents.utexas.edu/sjs/documents.php
• The department has a camcorder and a monitor available for instructional purposes. See Eva Hernandez in RLM 8.100.
• Microphones are available by completing a sign-up sheet. Please see Eva for these needs. Since we must pick up microphones elsewhere on campus, please let us know at least two days in advance.

Undergraduate Graders

Graders are hired for varying numbers of hours per week to assist faculty with grading homework papers; see the Undergraduate Grader Policy. They will begin work normally one week after class starts. Your grader will be contacting you before this date.  Please post your office hours on your door ASAP, so that the grader may contact you. Colleen is the grader supervisor. Please see her immediately if you have any difficulties during the session: i.e., not turning in papers on time, misgrading, etc.

NOTE: University regulations prohibit undergraduate graders from grading test papers.

GRADERS ARE NOT TO USE DEPARTMENT EQUIPMENT (i.e., COPY MACHINES).

Odds and Ends

• It is a department tradition to erase the blackboard at the end of a lecture.
• Please check your mailbox and email on a regular basis.