On this episode, Dixie and Jen speak with Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs at UT Tasha Beretvas. Dr. Beretvas has had an illustrious, winding career which has taken her from programming at IBM to being an all-star teacher at The University of Texas at Austin. This was a great and open discussion about how the faculty community is evolving (and has evolved), and also a very personal conversation on how Tasha balances being a professor and an administrator and how she has grown in this constantly challenging role. Thanks for joining us on The Other Side of Campus!
ABOUT THE GUEST
Tasha Beretvas is a professor in the Quantitative Methods program in the Department of Educational Psychology. She joined UT's faculty in 2000. Beretvas has served as the Quantitative Methods program chair and the College of Education's Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies. She is currently the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs. She is also a member of the board of directors for the college's Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk and a faculty associate of UT's Population Research Center. Beretvas has served on UT's Faculty Council and as co-chair of the Employment Issues sub-committee of UT's Gender Equity Council.
Beretvas teaches undergraduate and graduate statistics courses in the College of Education and has been a recipient of several teaching awards. Beretvas received her bachelor's degree in mathematics and psychology from Duke University. She then worked at IBM before attending the University of Washington in Seattle where she earned a Masters and a doctoral degree in 2000 from the Educational Psychology department specializing in measurement, statistics and research design.
PRODUCER'S NOTE: This episode was recorded on January 6th, 2021 via Zoom.
CREDITS
Assistant Producers/Hosts: Dixie Stanforth, Jen Moon
(Intro theme features additional PTF fellows Patrick Davis, Keith Brown, David Vanden Bout
Edited by Liberal Arts Development Studio audio crew (special thanks to Jacob Weiss and Morgan Honaker)
Main Theme and original background music by Charlie Harper (www.charlieharpermusic.com) (Some additional background music used on this episode by Ketsa, Scott Holmes, and Blue Dot Sessions)
Produced by Michelle S. Daniel
Creator & Executive Producer: Mary C. Neuburger
Connect with us!
Facebook: /texasptf
Twitter: @TexasPTF
Website: https://texasptf.org
Podcast Notes plus Time Codes (prepared by Morgan Honaker):
2021-02-08 - Tasha Beretvas
00:00:00:00 - Introductions
00:01:53:10 - What makes Tasha passionate about teaching?
00:03:12:25 - Jen and Tasha discussing how they have a leg up teaching “boring” subjects, because they can show their students how those subjects are interesting.
00:04:07:11 - Tasha talking about her experience becoming the Senior Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
00:07:45:25 - Tasha thanking Jen for her support when she was offered the position
00:08:23:08 - What’s been Tasha’s biggest area of growth in her new role?
00:09:26:29 - Tasha, Jen, and Dixie discussing how difficult it can be to have power as an administrator, when they have to be the ones to make tough choices.
00:11:14:06 - How was Tasha seen the role of non-tenure track faculty change at UT?
00:15:21:19 - What does Tasha think we should be calling professional faculty who are non-tenured and not on the tenure track?
00:18:01:13 - Jen and Dixie discuss how the role and perception of non-tenured and tenure-track faculty has shifted over time.
00:20:31:06 - Does Tasha think that UT will move toward having more non-tenured professors in administrative positions, like with Jen Moon?
00:24:15:03 - How does Tasha handle the balance (or lack thereof) between her role as an administrator and her role as a teacher?
00:25:52:05 - Dixie and Tasha discuss why she still tries to prioritize her teaching, even as an administrator.
00:30:49:10 - Jen discusses her own experiences balancing her administrative role and teaching.
00:32:05:01 - What is Tasha learning about right now?
00:34:46:25 - Were there any exciting outcomes or good lessons that Tasha learned over the course of the past year, due to COVID and the changes in teaching?
00:36:47:18 - Final remarks