Early Start Date

In some cases, there may be a business reason for a faculty member to have official affiliation with the University prior to the start date of their employment. A common reason for an early start date request is to allow sufficient time for a faculty member’s sponsored research/grants to be transferred from their prior institution to UT Austin. In the past, an early start date was often accomplished by offering the faculty member a 0% FTE appointment prior to their employment start date, but this is no longer needed.

Once the Provost’s Office has received the new faculty member’s signed offer letter and accepted their PAR in *DEFINE, a “future faculty” appointment is pushed to Workday. The future faculty appointment makes the faculty member eligible to gain access to UT systems and platforms, and is sufficient for the purposes of PI status. First, however, the faculty member will need to “upgrade” their EID, which can be done either in person or online. The EID upgrade process involves verifying their identity with a government-issued ID and signing a form giving their UT EID legal signature authority. See ITS ServiceNow: Upgrading a UT EID for more information and instructions.

For access to Canvas, UT’s learning management system for administering course materials, both an upgraded EID and completion of FERPA training are required. See more at COE: Canvas.

Please send suggested additions to this page and notifications about broken links to COE-FacultyAffairs@austin.utexas.edu