UGA’s Office of the Registrar has announced that a new emergency contact card will be available on students’ Athena homepages starting Thursday, March 5. The card will be used to clear an emergency contact hold that will be placed on each student’s academic record.
Benefits of using this new card for clearing the hold include:
- Easy to use and quick process to update information and clear hold
- Availability on each student’s Athena homepage
- Ensures accurate emergency contact information is recorded for each student
Students will clear the hold by following the steps below:
- On the emergency contact card, choose to edit an existing contact, add a new contact, or confirm that no contact changes are needed
- Once necessary updates are made and the information is confirmed, the hold will be cleared
Please note: The hold should be cleared as soon as possible if students are planning to withdraw from spring 2026 classes and/or register for summer and fall 2026 classes.
Important IT Security Change for Faculty, Staff, and Graduate Assistants
Effective Wednesday, April 1, 2026, the Office of Information Technology is implementing a plan to secure account access to all University-owned computers.
What’s changing
- All College-provided computers will move from administrative accounts to standard user accounts
- You will log in as a standard user going forward
Why this is happening
- To better protect student, faculty, staff, donor, and research data
- To reduce risks from ransomware and malicious software
- To comply with UGA, USG, and granting agency security requirements
- Similar changes are already in place in other UGA colleges
What this means for your work
- No impact on daily tasks: You can continue using Office 365, Zoom, browsers, and accessing your files as usual
- Software installs and updates:
- OIT will assist you with installing software and updates—in some cases, allowing just-in-time updates remotely
- All changes will be logged (by policy requirements)
Need permanent admin access?
- Persistent administrative access will be rare and by exception only
- Requires:
- A completed IT Policy Exception Request Form
- Confirmation that required security tools are installed
- Dean/department head/director approval
- Exceptions are logged, audited, and reviewed annually
Timeline and support
- OIT will contact departments with specific transition timelines ahead of April 1
- For questions or exception requests, contact the OIT Help Desk
In May 2025, the Board of Regents approved a request from the Board’s Committee on Academic Affairs for all institutions in the University System of Georgia to post course syllabi on their public websites. This action aims to ensure that all students have access to the critical information necessary for informed course selection and successful academic planning.
The due dates for upcoming terms are:
- Fall 2026: Friday, April 3
- Summer 2026: Tuesday, May 5 (for all summer course sessions)
At a minimum, the posted syllabus must include the following information:
- Course prefix, number, and name
- Semester and academic year
- Course description
- Course learning outcomes (these are the approved outcomes for the course)
- Required course materials (list of textbooks with ISBN, articles, lab supplies, equipment, course packs, etc. that students are expected to read or reference as part of the course)
- Grading policy (specify how final grades will be determined, including weighting scales or points assigned to various course requirements)
- Attendance policy
- Academic honesty/integrity statement
Instructor CVs must include:
- Instructor and TA information
- Statement of teaching and research interests
- Recent publications or scholarship
Please view the sample syllabus template and sample CV template. In future academic years, summer syllabi and CVs will likely be due in early November at the point of registration for those courses. Please provide your syllabus and CV for fall 2026 to your department’s course sectioning officer, so they can record your submission in the College’s summary for syllabi.
Please welcome Laura da Cunha to the Department of Kinesiology. Laura joins the Department of Kinesiology as an administrative support professional and will support day-to-day administrative and clerical operations, including front desk support, coordination with faculty, staff, and students, and operational support for departmental activities and programs.
Laura comes to us from the University of Georgia’s Carl Vinson Institute of Government, where she has served as an administrative assistant since October 2021.
Welcome, Laura. We are excited to have you in the Department of Kinesiology and the College.
Held in March, promotion and tenure procedures/dossier workshops provide instructions on the assembly of tenure-track and clinical promotion and tenure dossiers. These workshops provide tips for navigating appointment, promotion, and tenure guidelines and include an overview of essential time points before and during the application process. Edward Delgado-Romero, associate dean for faculty and staff services, will lead all faculty workshops.
- Register now
- Questions? Contact Ed Delgado-Romero
- In-person sessions will be held in Aderhold Hall Room G23
- Zoom and 1:1 sessions will receive Zoom links separately
Associate Professors: Road to Full Professor
- Tuesday, March 24, 10-11 a.m., Zoom
Assistant Professors: Road to Promotion and Tenure
- Thursday, March 19, 10-11 a.m., Zoom
Career Track Faculty: Road to Promotion
- Tuesday, March 17, 1-2 p.m., Zoom
Opportunities to meet directly with Ed are available. Please indicate your preference on the survey.
- Date: Tuesday, April 28
- Time: 8:30 a.m.-3:45 p.m.
- Location: Aderhold Hall
All faculty and students are invited to join the Office of Research and Graduate Education for the 2026 Research Conference. Researchers from across the College will find a variety of ways to learn, engage, and interact with colleagues and meet potential collaborators during sessions designed to highlight the range of studies and interests across the College.
Faculty and students are encouraged to submit a poster to present their research and/or attend the sessions. Graduate students are eligible for the poster competition. Take part in learning about research across the College and hear from graduate students presenting at the 3MT™ Selling Our Scholarship session. Faculty are invited to serve as poster judges—please view the registration form.
- Graduate Student Poster Competition: Prizes will be awarded to the top poster in each category. Submissions are welcome from all disciplines across the College. More information about poster presentations can be found on the Research Conference webpage.
Register to attend, find details on the poster competition, and view the activity agenda on the Research Conference webpage. Please email coe-research@uga.edu with questions.
This year marks 25 years of the Interdisciplinary Qualitative Studies Certificate at the University of Georgia. We will gather to celebrate program accomplishments, the alumni, and faculty who helped build and make this program, as well as the current and future work of our students.
On the morning of Friday, March 20, inquiry workshops will be held at River’s Crossing from 9 a.m.-noon, which will cost $50 (includes parking and lunch). The rest of the celebration is free and will occur at the Founder’s Memorial Garden.
Please view the program for more details.
A new study by a team of researchers from the UGA Mary Frances Early College of Education was mentioned in Medical Xpress.
Led by Ashley Harrison, a professor in the Department of Educational Psychology, the study found that while Georgia’s safety net program Babies Can’t Wait was more likely to screen Black and Hispanic children for autism, further examination of the data suggests that may be a result of their white peers being screened for the condition before referral to the program.
Read the full story in Medical Xpress.